History Main / TheJoysOfTorturingMooks

* ''Franchise/MetalGear'' as a series had several of these, but the worst was ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2''. It allowed you to do plenty of awful stuff, from shooting harmless animals to knocking over then lying on top of to feeling up the TheWoobie's sister you're supposed to be rescuing. Although doing those things does piss off your VoiceWithAnInternetConnection along with several other {{NPC}}s.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', a popular method of gathering resources is to find or make a region where enemies will spawn in great numbers, then direct them, usually by way of water flows, [[DeathTrap to their death]] by [[DrowningPit drowning]], lava, or gravity. [[http://i.imgur.com/k9h7r.png Illustrated]].

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps2'' introduces some unique, level-specific melee weapons in the single-player campaign that allow the player to mete out some cruel and unusual forms of punishment upon enemies. The machete and pulwar sword (!) obviously allow for close-range mutilation and decapitation (with enemy's severed heads visibly flying off in a shower of blood), but the electrified Combatant Suppression Knuckles are arguably even more entertaining; a hit from them will either send the mook into convulsions or actually cause them to ''vomit all over themselves'' before falling over dead.

** A standard move for taking down a thug involves Batman kneeling over the thug and punching his face very hard. Occasionally, Batman gets flipped around during this animation, and ends up punching the thug very hard in a [[GroinAttack different, rather more]] [[ShareTheMalePain wince inducing area]].

* A milder, cartoonier form of the above can arguably be found in ''[[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame LEGO Batman]]'' - there are several spots where you can pick off Mooks with your super-precise Batarangs without them being able to do a damn thing to stop you.

** Or show a case of ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman''-style sparing where no mook is killed, but all of them are left in rather cruel torture traps, left at the mercy of whatever DeathTrap you placed them in. AFateWorseThanDeath if there is one.
* Every mook in ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta}}'' has at least one Torture Attack (specific brutal attack that you can inflict to increase your combo). The game further encourages you by having you mash a button or turn the control stick in conjunction with the action on screen. The attacks can range from pushing a foe into an iron maiden to the over the top premise of [[spoiler:punching the final boss into the sun from Pluto.]] Seeing a platinum medal at the end of a bloodbath really gives incentive to do better, with style.

** On one mission, you have an old and blinded man with you. You are supposed to protect him, but nothing keeps you from lifting him up and throwing in the endless pits of the city in the clouds... Additionally, you can attack him and use him like stormtroopers, but with his unusually huge health, he is in for some more fun.

* This is the entire premise of obscure [=PS1=] action game ''{{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/{{Half-Life 2}}'': setting zombies on fire. Some people find it frightening, others find it hilarious. Other fun things involve letting zombies (or Combine, if they're stupid enough) walk into barnacles, or having a barnacle attempt to eat an explosive barrel after you've set it on fire. There's also a part where you can use a crane to drop shipping containers on hapless Combine troops...

** You can kill a man, let a vulture eat him to fatten the vulture up, then ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill kill the vulture and eat it]].'' Doing this results in [[spoiler:''the men you ate'' with vultures on their shoulders [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything appearing in the Sorrow's river of people you killed]]. And they will groan ''"You ate me!"'' as they pass you.]]

* ''[[Creator/ChoiceOfGames Choice of the Dragon]]'': after defeating your rival Axilmeus, one of the choices for "dealing" with him amounts to injuring him repeatedly until he can no longer run away, then letting him bleed to death. Even the narrator will call you out on your level of bastardness.

* ''[[VideoGame/ChoiceOfGames Choice of the Dragon]]'': after defeating your rival Axilmeus, one of the choices for "dealing" with him amounts to injuring him repeatedly until he can no longer run away, then letting him bleed to death. Even the narrator will call you out on your level of bastardness.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', a popular [[strike:recreation]] method of gathering resources is to [[MookMaker find]] or [[DarknessEqualsDeath make]] a region where enemies will spawn in great numbers, then direct them by way of water flows and/or standing nearby [[DeathTrap to their death]] by [[DrowningPit drowning]], lava, or gravity. [[http://i.imgur.com/k9h7r.png Illustrated.]]
** Creative mode and a Fishing Rod can let you send mobs flying high into the sky and plummet back down with a bone crunching sound effect on impact. Since Creative mode can let you fly at will, you can use the Fishing Rod to hook a mob to, fly high enough in the air (too much distance will break the line), and then reel the mob towards you. This will launch the mob upwards and fall back down to the ground. Won't work on mobs that float, like Chickens and Ghasts, and Slimes/Magma Cubs are immune to fall damage. You can still abuse gravity on mobs with the Fishing Rod in Survival mode, but you need to be on a cliff while the mob is below you.
* ''VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours''. Killing a drug dealer? Much badness. Blowing out his knee and having your driver finish him off? You get his cash and drugs and no punishment. Also, in many cut scenes, Tony agrees to scare a mook but not kill him. However, severe beatings will be handed out. Finally, shooting an enemy is all well and good but wounding and taunting before killing? Provides much needed bonuses. Bonus finally; sometimes the enemies will be so focused on getting Tony they will not notice the oncoming truck...or trigger-happy police officer.

''[[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens]]'' lets you stick thermal detonators on your enemies and watch as they helplessly run around in panic.

'''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 [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill he put some lightning]] '''''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill on]]''''' [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill the saber]]...\\

'''Stormtrooper #2:''' Oh, didn't you hear? Bob's dead. Jedi got 'im. You know those big crates we have downstairs?\\
'''Stormtrooper #1:''' Those are so heavy.\\

* This is a level up spamming method in ''FinalFantasyTactics''. You can corner an enemy and spam attacks on it to near death, let it heal itself or you heal it, and then repeat the process. Poor yellow chocobo usually falls a victim to this due to its Choco Cure, which cures itself and anyone surrounding it.

* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. The grunts are portrayed as comical, cowardly goofballs, making the act of gunning them down seem, at times, quite sadistic. With the melee attack, you can splatter an unlimited amount of purple alien blood onto the floor. A number of opportunities are presented for the character to kill entire roomfuls of aliens in their sleep. Grunts occasionally cry out, "You killed my friend!" during combat. If you stick a plasma grenade to a grunt, it goes running back to the other grunts just in time for the pretty blue fireworks. Extra points for their anguished, terrified wails.
** For those unfamiliar, their perceived humor is mostly derived from the fact that they are quite short, stubby character models (about 5'2" on average), and that, being methane breathers, have exceptionally high-pitched, squeaky voices (compared to all the other BadassBaritone[=/=]EvilSoundsDeep characters in the series[[note]]Note that lead writer Joseph Staten voices the grunts ''with little to no digital processing''[[/note]]). They're really just an alien species ''made'' to be messed with, rather than fought seriously (except on harder modes).
*** Also due to being methane breathers, they carry around tanks of methane on their backs which explode when damaged, sometimes even propelling the grunt into the air like a rocket.

** 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.

* This is the entire premise of obscure PS1 action game ''{{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.

* In {{VideoGame/Bloodrayne2}}, 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.

* 'VideoGame/BioShock'': 2k Games once held a contest for most inventive kill, advertising kills such as shooting someone with a rocket spear and having the spear light someone else on fire then explode. It seems pretty logical that the people working on ''Bulletstorm'' were inspired by it.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'': One standard and effective melee attack in [[VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird the third game]] is a thoroughly animated GroinAttack, and that's just for the uninventive. They dedicated a button just for punching someone in the groin, and it's easy to kill with it. Then comes [[VideoGame/SaintsRowIV the fourth game]] where you can [[LiterallyShatteredLives freeze enemies and shatter them]] and throw them with telekinesis, to name a few.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'': One standard and effective melee attack in [[VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird the third game]] is a thoroughly animated GroinAttack, and that's just for the uninventive. Then comes [[VideoGame/SaintsRowIV the fourth game]] where you can [[LiterallyShatteredLives freeze enemies and shatter them]] and throw them with telekinesis, to name a few.