Summary

• Rockstar Games isn't afraid to tackle serious topics, even in wacky games like GTA or Bully.
• From the PTSD themes in Red Dead Redemption 2 to the torture scene in GTA V, Rockstar pushes boundaries.
• Characters like Max Payne and Arthur Morgan face dark, tragic fates in Rockstar's games.

Rockstar Games is known for including social commentary in many of its games which can sometimes lead to some pretty dark moments. With many of its games being third-person shooters like the Max Payne series or Red Dead Redemption, violence is an inevitable part of both the gameplay and the story. Even in games with a wackier tone like Grand Theft Auto or Bully, Rockstar still touches on darker subjects that can make players uncomfortable.

The following article deals with sensitive themes.

Rockstar proved with Red Dead Redemption 2's story and narrative that it isn’t afraid to delve into more serious topics. The studio has even courted controversy with releases like Manhunt, which was banned in several countries. It will be interesting to see if Rockstar manages to top any of its darkest moments with Grand Theft Auto 6 or if they will be playing it safe after their past controversies.

10 Bully Forces The Player To Spread Inappropriate Pictures Around The School

A Mission Tasks Players With Taking Naked Photos Of A Classmate

Bully puts the player in the shoes of Jimmy Hopkins, a high school troublemaker who has been sent to a boarding school after being expelled from several previous schools. The game pits Jimmy against the school’s various cliques, forcing the player to beat them in some way before winning them over. Though Jimmy’s stated mission is to make the school a better place, his methods can be troublesome. Things take an especially dark turn when it comes time to take on the school’s Jocks.

Players are sent by the head of the Nerds clique to take pictures of the school’s head cheerleader while she’s in the shower. Players sneak into the locker room and then spread these pictures across the school to humiliate her. Forcing players to commit this crime against a high school student is one of the darker moments in Rockstar Games’ catalog, even if the game doesn’t treat it that way.

9 LA Noire's White Shoe Slaying Illuminates The Scars Left By World War II

The Case Shows The After-Effects War Has On The Psyche

In general, LA Noire tackles some dark subject matter. The game includes several killings similar to the famous Black Dahlia case. While murder investigations are already a grim topic, the game doesn’t stay away from delving even deeper into dark themes. One of its cases, the White Shoe Slaying, paints a bleak picture of how World War II affected the people who fought in it, and its role in violent crimes.

The case revolves around the murder of a woman named Theresa Taraldsen. During the case, players confront the victim's family, including her two young daughters. It’s bad enough that players are faced with the reality that these young kids are going to grow up without a mother, but the case only gets darker when the player catches the culprit.

The killer is a man named Stuart Ackerman, who was badly burned by a flamethrower in World War II. The man shows little remorse for his crime and seems apathetic toward his punishment, stating the police can’t do anything worse than what happened to him during the war. It’s a grim look at the way war warps those who fight in it and the consequences it has for others when those issues go unaddressed.

8 Kate Or Roman Are Killed In GTA 4

Players Are Forced To Lose One Of Their Closest Companions

Grand Theft Auto IV is the story of Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant who has just arrived in Liberty City. One of the first characters players meet besides Niko is his cousin Roman. Roman has his faults, but he’s very affable and quickly becomes the player’s closest relationship in the game. After some time, Niko will also start dating a woman named Kate, who becomes another of Niko’s closest relationships. Unfortunately, depending on what players do, one of the two is doomed to die, and there is no way to save both.

Earlier in the game, players will have made enemies with a gangster named Dimitri. Near the end of the game, they are given a choice: put their grudge aside and work with Dimitri, or get revenge. If players choose to work with Dimitri, he betrays them, and Dimitri’s assassin kills Roman at his wedding. If players choose revenge, Dimitri’s boss tries to shoot Niko, killing Kate by accident. Either way, players are forced to lose someone they care about because they got too deep in with Liberty City’s criminal element.

7 Leo Takes Over Daniel's Mind

The Player Character Morphs Into A Cold Killer

In Manhunt 2, players take on the role of Daniel, an amnesia patient who escapes a psychiatric hospital along with fellow patient Leo. As the mystery of Daniel’s past begins to unravel, the game drops a Fight-Club-style plot twist, revealing Leo is an alternate personality. Daniel has a brain implant that can turn him into a deadly assassin, which manifests itself as Leo. Players ultimately have to battle Leo within Daniel’s mind to free Daniel of his control.

Though this original ending gives Daniel a relatively positive ending, playing the game on hard mode could cause players to experience a much darker ending. As YouTuber ACMANISH shows, if players kill too many innocent people during the game, the ending will put them in Leo’s place, and they will be forced to kill Daniel. Leo then assumes Daniel’s identity and goes back to work as an assassin. This grim ending is a good way to punish players for being too reckless during their playthrough and one that fits the narrative.

6 John Marston Is Betrayed & Killed By Edgar Ross

John Dies Just As It Seems He Was Going To Get A Happy Ending

The events of Red Dead Redemption kick off when John Marston’s family is taken by the FBI. Agent Edgar Ross offers John a deal: John hunts down his former gang, and his family goes free. Despite being warned by some of his former allies that he shouldn’t trust Ross, John carries out his mission, and for a moment it seems like Ross really is going to keep his end of the bargain. However, after John returns home and finds his family waiting for him, he is betrayed by Ross.

Ross and a squad of soldiers attack John’s home. Though John’s family manages to escape, John himself is killed trying to hold off the attackers. Watching John be betrayed and killed is already a downer of an ending, but things only get more grim after that. Three years after John’s death, his wife Abigail dies, and his son Jack tracks down Ross, killing the federal agent in a duel. The ending is a sad look at how the cycle of violence perpetuates, turning Jack into a killer and one who is likely now an outlaw like his father was.

5 The GTA V Torture Scene Took Things Too Far

The Game Turns Torture Into A Quick-Time Event

Players work a variety of different jobs in Grand Theft Auto V. During a mission for the FIB — GTA’s equivalent of the FBI — players are tasked with capturing Ferdinand Kerimov, a suspected terrorist. It is quickly revealed that the suspect has no ties to any extremist movement and simply helps set up a home theater system for the FIB’s real target. Still wanting more information out of him, the FIB agents force the player, in the role of Trevor, to torture Kerimov.

This torture doesn’t just take place in a cutscene but is a fully interactive sequence in which players have no choice but to waterboard, beat, and shock Kerimov before eventually pulling his teeth out one by one. The scene is a very dark reflection of the inhumane treatment suspects were subjected to at places like Guantanamo Bay. However, GTA V faced criticism for its gamification of the sequence, which some critics say detracted from the overall message.

4 Vlad Kills Mona After She Nearly Betrays Max

Max Payne 2’s Ending Is An Emotional Rollercoaster

Max Payne 2 pairs Max up with a contract killer by the name of Mona, who helps him fight against the mobsters trying to kill both of them. The player even controls Mona for several sections of the game, giving both Max and the player a strong connection to her character. That makes it much more painful when, in a series of late-game plot twists, it turns out Mona is working for a senator who was also partially responsible for the death of Max’s family in the first game.

When Mona’s deception is revealed, she attempts to kill Max but can’t follow through with it. Players are just about to breathe a sigh of relief, when the game’s antagonist, Vlad, shoots Mona. The relief that Mona wasn’t going to go through with her betrayal makes it that much worse when she is killed. Although there is an alternate ending where Mona survives, Max Payne 3 made her death the canon ending.

3 Max Payne's Wife And Infant Daughter Are Killed

The Game Shows The Murder Scene In Graphic Detail

Rockstar’s neo-noir series Max Payne — originally written by Alan Wake’s Sam Lake — has a seriously dark backstory for its main protagonist. Players take the role of the titular Max Payne as he tries to investigate the death of his wife Michelle and their infant daughter Rose. Michelle and Rose were killed by a group of people who were high on a new experimental drug known as Valkyr, one of the game’s many Norse Mythology references. The gruesome opening scene can be seen on YouTuber DehMartyr's playthrough.

Having the main character’s family murdered at the start of the game would already be pretty dark if it happened off-screen, but Max Payne takes things further by actually having players walk through Max’s home to find his dead loved ones. The walls are spattered with blood, setting up just how gruesome the murders must have been. Even with the dated graphics, seeing a dead infant in a bloodstained crib is a seriously dark moment, and one player likely won’t forget for a while after playing the game.

2 Manhunt's The Director Kills Cash's Family

The Player Was Led To Believe They Could Save Cash And His Family

Manhunt follows a death row inmate named James Earl Cash whose death is faked during his injection so that he can be the star of a snuff film by a mysterious figure called The Director. The Director has enlisted several gangs to hunt down Cash and uses the city’s CCTV to record the sick game. As Cash, players are tasked with fighting off a variety of disturbing gangs to try and survive.

Initially, The Director promises Cash can go free if he manages to survive and kill the gangs who are hunting him. However, in the game’s darkest moment, it is revealed The Director has no intention of letting Cash go. Instead, The Director orders Cash’s family killed, and tries to kill Cash as well. It’s a real low moment in an already dark and violent game, as players realize they never had any hope of winning Cash’s freedom, and Cash no longer has much to live for besides simply surviving to get revenge.

1 Arthur Morgan Dies Just As He Is Turning His Life Around In RDR2

Arthur Succumbs To Tuberculosis Near The Game’s Ending

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to the first game, which puts players in the role of Arthur Morgan, a member of Dutch Van Der Linde’s gang alongside John Marston. Arthur starts the game off with a strong sense of loyalty to Dutch. Arthur is almost frustratingly loyal at times, following Dutch’s orders long past the point where the player knows it’s a terrible decision. However, things begin to change when Arthur is diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Faced with his own mortality, Arthur begins to question the decisions he has made so far. Near the end of the game, Arthur becomes far more concerned with helping his friends — like John, Abigail, and Jack Marston — find a way to be free of outlaw life. Arthur finally starts doing the right thing and standing up to Dutch, only to succumb to his illness. Arthur dies just as he is about to fully redeem himself, and as players of the first game know, less honorable characters like Dutch and Bill Williamson go on to continue lives of crime.

Sources: ACMANISH/YouTube, DehMartyr/YouTube