PC Gamer - UK (2022-01)

with the lab. I’ve a bioweapon and its creators to destroy,

otherwise I can’t go home.

I complete the original mission in under ten minutes.

I’ve nailed the combat now, and just walk round and

round the mansion killing as I go, silently, like the Grim

Reaper in a white suit. It’s exhilarating, but amongst all

the macho nonsense and comments about my clothes that

the guards bellow in inappropriate accents, I hear, “Ours

is not to reason why!” Do the goons need to work

themselves up? Are they assuming death and having

second thoughts? Surely, some reluctance must be

creeping in now there’s a pile of bodies in the hall so tall

that they have to walk round it? I am overthinking this.

QUALITYOF MERCY

And again, it’s the unarmed employees that make me feel

queasy. So much so, that as I emerge into the sunlight and

walk towards the gates to continue the reign of terror, I

pause at the brink. Behind me is a charnel house. Blood is

trickling past me towards the town square, where people

are resting, drinking coffee, and sunning themselves. It’s

beautiful. Believable. And I can’t do it. There’s no rationale

I can apply to the process that makes sense in-game. The

massacre thus far is a message for bad people. The spree

killing of a whole town would obscure it. Meanwhile,

back in the real-world, I don’t want to do it.

I drop the rifle, holster my ICA chrome and step into

the square. There I find Rocco’s sister, the mansion

employee, still calling up to wake her shiftless brother. He

can’t be bothered to go to his job in the kitchens – and I’m

supposed to steal his chef’s whites – but she wants him to

make something of his life. She’s missed everything. I let

her go, the one and only survivor of the vengeance that

Ether had brought upon her place of work.

On the one hand, A Guilded Cage (or in this form The

Legation Negation) seems to offer some clearer moral

choices. The corrupt army, the scheming general, and

white-collar master-thief Strandberg are all malevolent,

and the Swedes are harbouring a criminal on a

technicality. So, I clear out the consulate and the old

school, but the population have seen me kill a lot of

soldiers by now, and they’re anxious to let everyone know

about it. As I move through the market that becomes

irritating and, flippantly, I turn an assault rifle on the

crowd. What follows is truly distressing. It’s a well-

rendered window onto hell. Too real. I quit out, load up

an autosave, carry out the plan and leave.

I wonder at myself, playing a game and simply

refusing to do what I’d said I would do, again. I tell

myself the next level will be different.

Club 27 in Bangkok offers me some respite. Yes, the

murdering rockstar, his bottom-feeding lawyer, and their

friends are fair game, but how to approach a hotel full of

other guests and staff? Not being as familiar with the

destination as the other levels, I walk around to

reacquaint myself. As I doI listen to the guests talk... and

realise they are all terrible, terrible people. They are

dismissive or patronising about the country, affecting

boredom with it, and rude about the staff. They are bored,

rich and entitled idiots. So, all the guests die. Round and

round I circle the hotel and its corridors and gardens,

wiping out the security. The staff get to go home. The

BODYCOUNTDOWN

Who’s Top of the Popped Off?

Down at # 5 , it’s Sapienza

with ‘Just the Mansion’

Hakkaido are in at # 4 with

‘Everyone in a Small Map’

Holding at # 3 is ‘No

Civilians’By Marrakesh

New at # 2 , it’s Bangkok

with ‘Don’t Be Our Guest’

At # 1 , it’s Paris with ‘Every

Living SoulExtinguished’

Guest Eradication. I am fine with

all that, apparently.

JAPANESE HOSPITALITY

By the time I reach the Japanese

hospital of dubious morals for the

super-rich, I am tired and grumpy.

And armed. I don’t care who the

targets are, but it’s something about

involuntary organ donation. I have

zero sympathy for the medical staff,

guards, or guests, merely wincing a

bit with the cleaners and sushi

chefs. I call it The Sod Everyone, or

Min’na mechakucha. Am I just

desensitised by playing an

interactive version of Alan Clarke’s

Elephant non-stop for days on end?

Or is that process making me more

discerning somehow? It’s easy to

see Bangkok’s waiters as real people,

just getting by, whereas the hospital

PERSONAL ADVENTURES IN GAMES

DIARY

I’m not

ruining their

tranquillity.