History JackBauerInterrogationTechnique / VideoGames

* In the 2005 video game ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' developed by Voltion which is based on the AntiHero comic book character. When holding an enemy as a BulletproofHumanShield, one of the things that you can do is to interrogate him in four basic ways which are Punch (with one punch aimed at the testicle), Choke, Face Smash (Frank grabs the enemy head and proceeds to smash it into the ground) and Gun Point (where he simply pulls ouy his sidearm and puts it at the enemy's forehead), complete with a small minigame. The main purpose of a successful interrogation is to replenish health and gain useful information such as a hidden weapon stash. To put this trope even further, in every levels you will find Special Interrogations which allows you to use the environment to interrogate them instead. Highlights include:

** Captain Bailey of [[SpacePolice Citadel Security]] advocates this to make criminals talk. If Shepard calls him on this, he responds that the Citadel Wards are dangerous places and he has to use these methods to get the information he needs.

** The Cerberus organization from ''{{VideoGame/Mass Effect|1}}'' enjoy this, and in fact it is treated as a valid, if somewhat immoral, technique. Same with Saren, so it's not just for humans. Saren, being a Spectre, has the authority to ignore laws in order to accomplish his mission. In ''Literature/MassEffectRevelation'', the prequel novel,, he brutally interrogates a batarian by breaking an appendage for every wrong answer. After finally getting all he can from the guy, Saren simply [[NeckSnap snaps his neck]], considering himself merciful.

** Interrogating Riddler's various informants yields a variety of colorful threats, but these never go beyond threats. Presumably, [[TheDreaded his reputation]] is all that's needed.

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'', this is the method Sam uses a lot to get information out of people. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge He's very, ''VERY'' angry]] having learned that his missing daughter, presumed dead, may still be alive and is being kept away from him.

* ''By The Book'', the controversial and infamous mission in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV involves Trevor Philips torturing a man named Ferdinard Kerimov for information on a target for the FIB to kill. The Gold medal requires doing all the torture method (pulling his teeth with a pair of pliers, bludgeoning with a large wrench, waterboarding, shocking with a car battery) and making sure he doesn't have a heart attack. The same man was also a victim of this while in the custody of the IAA. The dark side of this trope is also shown in that the man is very willing to talk from the very beginning, however his interrogators only ask vague questions, if any, and seemingly use his "uncooperativeness" to justify their torture of him.

----> '''Garrus:''' "You don't even get good information that way. After a point, victims admit to anything to make the pain stop."

** The final game of the series has one example where this is cranked up to eleven, when Batman - running on [[PapaWolf pure fury after Barbara is kidnapped]] - pins a Mook to the pavement and remotely has the Batmobile roll up and start slowly ''crushing the man's skull with the front tire'' until he cracks and tells Batman everything. You actually do it ''twice'' just to be sure you do in fact have everything

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'' understandably has this many, many times.
** Interrogating Riddler's various informants yields a variety of colorful threats ("You want teeth! I want answers!"), but these never go beyond threats. Presumably, [[TheDreaded his reputation]] is all that's needed.

* ''VideoGame/PilgrimRPGMaker'': After the Giant Cat (jokingly, [[JustJokingJustification or so he says]]) threatens to eat Akemi, she grabs his paw and starts crushing it, threatening him for information on the Other World, [[BigBad Master Alice]], and [[DamselInDistress Inago]]'s whereabouts. When he initially refuses, she crushes it some more, and again some more, until he coughs it all up.

** "You want teeth! I want answers!"
** "If you're lying, I'll break the other one." "What do you mean oth-OOOOOOOOW!"
** The final game of the series has one example where this is cranked up to eleven, when Batman - running on [[PapaWolf pure fury after Barbara is kidnapped]] - pins a Mook to the pavement and remotely has the Batmobile roll up and start slowly ''crushing the man's skull with the front tire'' until he cracks and tells Batman everything.

** And you can subvert it as well: At the very beginning of the interrogation, there's an option to explain to the perp exactly who you are and what you do. He'll blab immediately if you choose it, and Thane will note it as quite possibly the shortest interrogation ever.

* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', Hudson does this every damn second in the game, you interrogate a scientist by breaking a window, putting the shards of glass in his mouth, and punching him in the jaw (you have to press the button), and he even shocks protagonist Alex Mason for getting [[spoiler:The Numbers]].
** ''Black Ops 2'' has Woods interrogating a captive [[spoiler:Kravchenko]] by first slicing him across the cheek with a knife, then jamming the same knife through his whole hand after he starts getting belligerent.
* Done several times in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''. In the first one, where Price is beating the crap out of Al-Asad for info. [[spoiler:Though this is the only time in the series the technique doesn't yield information; but Price learns what he needs to know when Zakhaev calls anyway, so he just executes Al-Asad.]]

** In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'', Price really likes to get creative: when cornering a Somali warlord, he, [=MacTavish=] and Yuri don gas masks, while Price pops a toxin canister. If the warlord talks, he gets a mask. If his trap stays shut, he'll die by the gas. [[BoomHeadshot He'd die anyway.]]
** Sandman beats up Volk at the end of "Bag and Drag", and he is presumably interrogated after "Iron Lady". They following exchange happens in the next mission.
-->'''Price:''' Did our man talk?
-->'''Sandman:''' [[TortureAlwaysWorks They always talk.]]

* A rather infamous mission in VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV involves Trevor torturing a man for information on a target for the FIB to kill. The Gold medal requires doing all the tortures(pulling teeth, bludgeoning with a large wrench, waterboarding, shocking with a car battery.) and making sure he doesn't have a heart attack. The same man was also a victim of this while in the custody of the IAA. The dark side of this trope is also shown in that the man is very willing to talk from the very beginning, however his interrogators only ask vague questions, if any, and seemingly use his "uncooperativeness" to justify their torture of him.

* In ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' video game from 2005 you can torture almost any enemy, complete with a small minigame. Very few of the enemies have useful information, but a successful interrogation will restore health to the Punisher.

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCellConviction'', this is the method Sam uses a lot to get information out of people. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge He's very, ''VERY'' angry]] having learned that his missing daughter, presumed dead, may still be alive and is being kept away from him.

* ''VideoGame/GodOfWar 2'' had Kratos brutally forcing a number of scholars to translate tablets. This involved him literally bashing their heads on the tablet itself to get them to read the whole damn thing. Then, after that, Kratos ends their misery by ''crushing their heads on the tablet and using their blood as a sacrifice.''

* The player actually ends up on the receiving end of this in ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight''; after being captured by [[DirtyCommunists the Reds]], Artyom is dragged before General Korbut and Secretary Moskvin, who each take turns with their own methods of interrogation. When Korbut fails to simply talk Artyom into spilling what he knows about the Baby Dark One, Moskvin cuts in with his own "traditional Red Army method"-- aka, repeatedly punching Artyom in the face while shouting increasingly violent and colourful threats at him ([[CutYourHeartOutWithASpoon "I'll fry your balls in pig fat!"]]). Korbut intervenes before any of them can be acted on, choosing instead to go with "science", in the form of a MindRape-inducing truth serum that forces Artyom to cough up the relevant intel after a traumatic flashback.

* In ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', Carter Blake likes to interrogate suspects in this manner, when you play as Jayden you get the chance to intervene whenever Blake starts beating up suspects (And even innocents) to get answers. If Ethan is arrested, Jayden can intervene when Blake starts torturing him and [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome punch Blake into a wall]].

** "If you're lying, I'll break the other one.

* In ''PAYDAYTheHeist'', you have to interrogate an NPC for access codes so that you can hack the account of the IRS out of millions of dollars. Since the crew is under constant threat from the cops, they have no time to play nice; you can keep shouting at the NPC until he spills the beans or you can even pistol whip him to make him crack, but doing it too much knocks him out for a while.

** In Purgatory, you can have your teammates comment on this trope. Garrus will point out the flaws in the method, noting that the interrogated will say anything, likely false, in order to make the punishment stop.

* In ''XCOMEnemyUnknown'', while the actual techniques themselves are not shown, it is very strongly implied that interrogated aliens are not treated...humanely. The fact that they don't survive the process would give anyone pause if the threat the invaders posed wasn't so overwhelmingly disastrous. There's no time to be nice. There's only time for drilling into the skull and putting in neural implants.