Depictions of violence against children are illegal in many countries, and would guarantee an AO rating. Having them in the crowd would move it from provocative to offensive.

Watched it on YouTube, the game's got some very impressive graphics. I noticed several times that people who had been shot were being dragged away from danger by others. Does that happen in the regular missions against soldiers? There were lots of other little touches that added authenticity to the NPCs. If those features were only included for non-combatants, then it's a sad waste of development time to put such detail into just the one level, which appears to be a significant departure from the main part of the game.

In terms of content, I didn't find it any more reprehensible than the killing sprees that are possible in other games, maybe even less so if the story and context made it important to the narrative. Players have done far worse for no good reason, and nastier plot points have been used through cutscenes, etc. Adding in the fact that you can apparently complete the mission (at least on some difficulty settings) without firing a shot yourself, there's nothing particularly horrific here. I can remember playing as an Alien in AvP, and having to bite the heads off of cowering, whimpering colonists to get my health back, or massacring entire towns in Fable to earn enough evil points to unlock achievements or game features.

I know CoD games include a "score" mode, where you get points for each shot, based on accuracy, range, and other "challenge" factors. Is there an option to replay this mission again and again to try to get as many headshots on elderly civilians as you possibly can? That direct reward system might be a little more distasteful to me.

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage In terms of content, I didn't find it any more reprehensible than the killing sprees that are possible in other games, maybe even less so if the story and context made it important to the narrative.

It's rather funny to me how people find killing fun until it becomes killing as a 'terrorist'. It says to me that the whole taboo of labelling certain types of violence as terrorism to make it seem worse than the other varieties is working a little too well. Many civilians are killed by 'legitimate' military forces, yet that seems more acceptable. Even when shooting enemy soldiers, those soldiers are often conscripts, or those who joined the army due to lack of any other job, but you kill them just the same. I find the selective morality is rather bizarre.

I will be more interested in a game that lets you see and appreciate the humanitarian cost of an otherwise legitimate military operation, or one where you are rewarded more for taking prisoners than for killing.