History Main / TheJoysOfTorturingMooks

* The ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' games give you all sorts of means to do nasty things to the mooks you run across. For instance, you could whistle at a guard so much he starts freaking out, to the point where he may run off screaming. Or, once you are done freaking him out, shoot him with a [[StunGun sticky shocker]], watching him convulse before he falls unconscious, then carry him over to a nearby railing and throw him over it, watching him fall thirty stories to his death.

* ''VideoGame/ThePunisher'' video game ''is'' this trope, allowing you to inflict the JackBauerInterrogationTechnique on ''any'' mook in the game to regain health. Such torture methods range from holding a gun to their face or slamming their head repeatedly against the floor to dangling them over a hungry shark or threatening to ''impale them with an about-to-charge rhino''. It's especially satisfying when you grab a random mook and interrogate him; at first, he will try to sound tough and start trash-talking the vigilante, but after some more torture, he'll start whimpering and begging for his life. Once you finally break him, it's time to find a kill spot (perhaps that hungry giant snake over there...)

** In a reference to the above quote, there is actually an achievement in ''The Force Unleashed II'' where you [[spoiler:[[RasputinianDeath Force Grip a stormtrooper, impale him with the lightsaber, use Force Lightning on him,]] [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill and then throw him into an object.]]]]

*** The instruction manual for the [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation PS1]] ''VideoGame/SpiderMan'' game actually encourages you to do this, "Especially in the [[KillItWithFire furnace room.]]"

* In ''{{VideoGame/Bloodrayne 2}}'', most of the puzzles involve tossing mooks into the gears of various machines to destroy them. Most of these areas have infinitely spawning mooks so you don't kill them all and make the game unwinnable.

* In ''{{VideoGame/LeadenSky}}'', you are allowed to agonize enemies with varied methods, like cutting their arms with a knife, dismembering their legs with explosives, [[GuttedLikeAFish gutting their abdomen with a chainsaw]], burning them alive with a flamethrower... Destroying a bandit's arms causes them to flee, so you can shoot the now defenseless enemy from the back. Damaging their legs makes them unable to move, so you can easily [[BoomHeadshot shoot their head]]. Also, you can actually replenish your health by torturing grabbed enemies.

** And now in ''VideoGame/{{Doom2016}}'' Brutal Doom has basically [[AscendedFanFic ascended to canon]]. You can stagger enemies then kill them with a melee attack ("Glory Kill"), which causes them to drop a lot more health than usual. Then there is the chainsaw...

* ''VideoGame/JediKnightDarkForcesII'' offered plenty of opportunities to pummel {{Mooks}} with Force-pulled objects. Or [[BadPowersBadPeople Force Lightning]]. Or snipe at some poor stormtrooper (or [[VideogameCrueltyPotential a civilian]], if you were gunning for [[KarmaMeter Dark Side]] points) with the time-delay mode of the [[GrenadeLauncher railgun]] and watch them run haplessly around with the [[IncrediblyObviousBomb a-flashin', a-bleepin']] charge stuck on them... [[ForTheEvulz Glee!]] Bonus points if they ran right into a group of their buddies before going "BOOM!".

* Hilariously [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', which openly encourages you to torment and slaughter the civilian [[RedShirt Red Shirts]] that are on ''your'' side. The most punishment you'll face is that [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal they'll turn on you if you kill too many]], but they're no better at killing you then they are at killing enemies.

* ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'' has so, so many ways to do this. Using Shouts alone, you can toss enemies like ragdolls, set them on fire, freeze them solid, call every bear and saber cat in the area to attack them, summon dragons to eat them, drain their life, force them to fight for you, and on and on. And that's not even getting into mage spells, or the Werewolf or Vampire Lord forms.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' will gleefully describe the mayhem and injuries you inflict with critical hits, especially those [[GroinAttack below the belt]] and [[EyeScream in the eyes]]. At high levels, you can quite easily cripple every limb on an enemy, leaving them basically helpless as you decide how you're going to finish them off.

* ''{{Manhunt}}'' requires the player to kill his enemies in brutal, bloody, torturous ways. He can hold his attack for a short time, making it even more sadistic.

* The various ''VideoGame/FarCry'' games have lots of interesting ways to torment mooks... especially later games where the complexity increases. Most notably, the introduction of 'bleed out' for enemies means that you can critically wound one mook and bait another mook over to him. Creative (or vindictive) players can use one injured enemy as bait, set up a remote detonation trap that blows up the mook who tries to rescue him, which alerts a ''third'' mook who in turn just happens to run into the proximity bomb set up earlier... the options are complex, colorful, and cathartic.

*** There's also hanging a thug from a lamppost for extended punching, drowning thugs in nearby bodies of water, seeing them run over by cars, using physics-defying combos to elevate a thug so high the zoom map has to flip upside down before letting fall, and (my personal favorite) pile drivers off the Empire State Building.

* This is the entire premise of obscure [=PS1=] action game ''VideoGame/{{Wild9}}''. You're armed with a tractor beam, and you use it to constantly fling enemies into hazards, or each other, or just smash them around on the terrain. Hazards you can use to kill things include: Lasers, bottomless pits, spike pits, fires, giant fans, land mines, electronic highway signs, circular saws, gigantic pistons, and machines that make more mooks.

* ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' has this in spades, primarily because you play as the shark. Chomp on a scuba diver and rocket through the water at blinding speed while he's helplessly stuck and screaming in terror...then tear him to bloody bits. They're using shark cages against you? Smash them open, then brutalize the divers inside. Now they're in boats? Leap out of the water, arcing high above the boat, and bodyslam it into splinters, sending the screaming occupants flying in all directions. Grab hapless swimmers, get up to a good swimming speed, then [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDkqZ9px-Dc launch them through the air to splatter dozens of yards inland]].

** And there is the joy of having some actual mook ('cause they live longer than common townsfolk), stuck in the floor, some glitch that happens in [=DAH2=], you can push them, pull them, and they will remain stuck, in which looks like excruciating pain, for as long as you have them in TK grasp. You just have to drag them all over the floor for a bit until you find the right spot. You can even hit them with cars while stuck, if you're fast enough to do it before they unstuck themselves by getting up.

** The sequel lets you roast them with deadly laser beams.

* In ''{{VideoGame/LeadenSky}}'', you are allowed to agonize enemies with varied method, like cutting their arms with knife, dismembering legs with explosives, gutting their abdomen with chainsaw, burning them alive with flamethrower... Destroying bandit's arms causes them flee, so you can shoot now defenseless enemy from back. Damaging their legs makes them unable to move, so you can easily shoot their head. Also, you can actually replenish your health by torturing grabbed enemies.

*** And a wide variety of other bodily assaults including stabbing through the abdomen with serrated blades, snapping the spine or removing it from the thorax, and impaling through the thorax and anus, resulting in a gameplay which succeeds in bringing out the AxCrazy in players.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' uses this trope liberally, to the point that it almost seems like the game is urging you to do this to enemy (and [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential non-enemy]]) combatants. Aside from killing them, you can injure them enough to have them run around like headless chickens any time they come within eyesight of you, poison them (which accomplishes the same thing -- except it makes them faint afterward), snipe one in the head and watch as his teammate loudly freaks out, hack security bots so that they pump thousands of rounds into everyone in the vicinity, cut them down with sentry guns, blow them to giblets with rocket launchers, blind them with pepper spray, drop heavy objects on them, convince ''other'' unkillable [=NPCs=] to do your work for you by luring the goons into their sights, chuck a couple of grenades into a closed room with an enemy inside (and prevent the door from opening when he tries to run away), etc.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' is entirely about this, forcing you to be creative with your kills each time you see an enemy. Points are required for buying fresh ammo and recharging weapons, and simply shooting enemies to death the standard way will ''not'' get you back the cost. Flinging them into the sky, shooting them with a flare to trigger a "Fireworks" skillshot, however, earns you ''significantly'' more... and that's just ''one'' way to get bonus points. This is also encouraged in multiplayer, where you only progress if your entire team works together to finish off enemies as creatively as possible.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}''. While using corrosive effects on mooks is fun enough, and shocking them to death has its perks, for sheer torture potential, nothing beats good ol' [[KillItWithFire fire.]] Most gun types have models that set enemies on fire -- one character gains the ability to set enemies on fire simply by touching them -- and the poor bandits and enemy soldiers react somewhat predictably -- dropping what they're doing and screaming "AAAH I'M ON FIRE PUT ME OUT HEEEEELP!". Midgets and other non-verbal enemies will simply scream constantly. Inevitably, if they don't recover from the fire, they'll be completely consumed by the flames, burning up into nothing.

** And now in ''VideoGame/{{Doom2016}}'' Brutal Doom is basically ascended canon. You can stagger enemies then kill them with a melee attack ("Glory Kill"), which causes them to drop a lot more health than usual. Then there is the chainsaw...

Or, what happens when WhatMeasureIsAMook makes out with VideoGameCrueltyPotential. Most {{video games}} don't flag character actions on the KarmaMeter as being evil, as long as they're committed against evil characters. Most cool-looking moves look incredibly painful, and may even have {{Mooks}} crying out in agony. Mmm, the sadism.

* ''{{VideoGame/Skyrim}}'' has so, so many ways to do this. Using Shouts alone, you can toss enemies like ragdolls, set them on fire, freeze them solid, call every bear and saber cat in the area to attack them, summon dragons to eat them, drain their life, force them to fight for you, and on and on. And that's not even getting into mage spells, or the Werewolf or Vampire Lord forms.

* ''{{Postal}}'' is all about this trope.

** Interrogation sequences in ''VideoGame/SplinterCellConviction'' give the player a lot of [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique creativity]].

'''Stormtrooper #2:''' [[RasputinianDeath I'm not done.]] Then, this guy pulled a TIE Fighter into the ship '''''from space''''', through the window, and used it to crush Bob. Then he hit him with a lightsaber, and then he put some lightning '''''on''''' the saber...\\
'''Stormtrooper #1:''' Oh, what the '''''[[CruelAndUnusualDeath fuck]]'''''.

'''Stormtrooper #2:''' I'm not done. Then, this guy pulled a TIE Fighter into the ship '''''from space''''', through the window, and used it to crush Bob. Then he hit him with a lightsaber, and then he put some lightning '''''on''''' the saber...\\
'''Stormtrooper #1:''' Oh, what the '''''fuck'''''.

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** You can grievously wound someone and they'll crawl away in an attempt to escape. You can keep kicking them in the face, piss over them, or jump on their back. The victims keep crying and asking Postal Dude to stop while you are doing this. You can also set the victim on fire using fuel and a lighter, making the whole scene even sicker. With the Apocalypse Weekend expansion you can amputate one's legs, and in some rare cases rip their whole torso, and the poor victim will still try to crawl away, leaving their guts behind.

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* Oddly enough, the standard side-scrolling platformer ''Ultimate {{Spiderman}}'' for the GBA. You can:

** And then there's ''SpiderMan 2'' on the [=PS2=]. You have to go out of your way to do it, but it's possible to take a street-level mook, sling him over your shoulder, swing up to the highest building in Manhattan, and just toss him off.

*** Hell, taking advantage of gravity sucking was the easiest way to beat the first SpiderMan movie game's first level. Jump on head, wait until thug runs over to edge, use flip button, laugh maniacally as goon plummets to his death.
*** The Instruction manual for the PS One Spider-man game actually encourages you to do this, "Especially in the [[KillItWithFire furnace room.]]"

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* The ''VideoGame/{{Deception}}'' series gives you several varities of {{Death Trap}}s to subject your hapless victims to, among them lumber saws, wall spikes, electrified waterways, poison gas, and falling rocks. Games from ''Kagero'' on allow you to combo them together. You'd be surprised what the invaders can live through.

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* The above is a very common level grinding method also seen in ''FireEmblem'', but it's done with ''bosses''... the term is referred to as ''[[FanNickname Boss Abuse]]''. The fourth game had a particularly cruel way of doing this, through use of [[CherryTapping Broken Weapons]]. (Notable:... in the fourth game, if you were to trap two Healers and attempt to abuse them? They won't heal each other.)

-->-- ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'', "[[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/08/20 A Life of Service]]", on ''VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed''