History Main / TheJoysOfTorturingMooks

* Oddly enough, the standard side-scrolling platformer ''[[VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan2005 Ultimate Spider-Man]]'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. You can:

** And then there's ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2'' on the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2. 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.

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

* Okay, so you don't kill people, but ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' has the Caped Crusader getting vicious on henchmen once he's leveled up enough. Throwing henchmen into their buddies, assorted takedowns, and all the ways you can use the gadgets to attack or screw with the henchmen. It gets really obvious in the challenge mode where you can use the upgrades from story mode, and you also have railings over bottomless pits in the beat-em up rooms.

** And for those whose tastes run to psychological cruelty as opposed to just physical violence, hours of fun can be had by very slowly picking off a gang of heavily armed psychotic thugs [[DwindlingParty one by one]], and [[MookHorrorShow listening to them very gradually be reduced to sniveling little cowards practically wetting themselves in terror over every little noise]] (bonus points go to the ones who fire off panicked bursts of machine gun fire at targets well away from you) and whimpering about how Batman's out there somewhere and that it's ''really'' not fair that that he's planning to beat the living crap out of them. ''It is so much fun being Batman''.

** 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]].

* ''VideoGame/AliensVsPredator'', a game based around [[Franchise/{{Alien}} two of the greatest]] [[Franchise/{{Predator}} sci-fi movie monsters]] of all time, is high on VideoGameCrueltyPotential of the mook torturing variety. Playing as both the Alien and as the Predator involves large amounts of stalking usually terrified humans and mutilating them in a variety of [[{{Gorn}} gornographic]] and invariably fatal ways, several of which [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong deliberately evoke images of rape]]. Some of these include:

*** 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.

* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'', it's really fun to kill common infected in numerous methods, Like watching them run heedlessly to a pipe bomb then get blown up with their intestines flying like streamers, burning them with fire and watch them run around in agony, or watch them beat each other up when you slime them with boomer bile.

** After the player finds a Berserk Pack and gains SuperStrength, it can perform 3rd person executions in a ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' {{F|inishingMove}}atality style. In most of these executions, the Marine makes use of unnecessary ways to kill the enemy, to make it die in the most painful way as possible. One of the most notable examples is the Chaingun Commando execution. In this one, the Marine throws the enemy at the ground, stomps in his back to break his spine, and rip his arms off. This execution actually leaves the enemy still alive, but unable to move anything but his head due his broken spine, and with his arms ripped off, bleeding so much as it screams in anguish and extreme pain. The player can still choose to execute the enemy by shooting its head and put him out of its misery, or just watch as he bleeds to death.

** After executing any enemy with said [=Fatalities=], the player will regenerate some lost health. This indicates that the Marine enjoyed the act, became entertained, and got a stress relief.

** 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...

** Even the first Dark Forces was not without this. There wasn't flailing animation for falls like some of the sequels have, but the repeater rifle pushes the enemy back a great distance - perfect for sending them over cliffs and such where death comes from the sudden stop at the bottom. If you've got enough health and are up against a weak enough enemy to make it safe to do, you can even crouch down, look up, and use its secondary mode - three blasts at once. The result is stormtroopers flying as if fired out of a cannon. Thermal detonators are also good for this: they're at their most effective in this game so you'll be using them a lot. And you'll probably be trying to hit the ground right ''next'' to an enemy to practice {{Mook}} aviation. ''Especially'' when cliffs or other hazards can make a bigger enemy require fewer of them, or simply make them more fun to dispose of. Not to mention the possibilities of ExplodingBarrels: those small white power generating units will send enemies straight to the stratosphere! Or at least the far side of a very, veeeery large room.

* Hilariously [[InvertedTrope inverted]] in ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'', which openly encourages you to torment and slaughter the civilian {{Red Shirt}}s 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.

** Alternatively, it's possible to shoot out the guards' walkie-talkies and their limbs. Take out the walkie-talkie, then shoot out both hands and one leg, then just casually walk by and watch as they're too wounded to try and stop you, and unable to call for help, or walk fast enough to get help besides a slow moving limp.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' had a higher cruelty potential than ''2''. You could hold a soldier hostage and slit his throat while he begs for mercy, for example. Other ways to mess with them include but are not limited to: throw snakes and scorpions on them, feed them rotting/poisonous food, play ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', and shoot their arms and legs and watch them try to hobble away. Also, knocking Eva unconscious actually makes the last area easier to get across. The games get more cruel every time a new one comes out.
*** In addition, any indirect method of killing guards (such as throwing a poisonous animals on them, electrocution, drowning, food poisoning, setting off the soldiers' own traps, or dropping unconscious enemies off cliffs) ''does not count'' towards your final "kill" total [[spoiler:though enemies killed with these methods still show up while walking through The Sorrow's river.]]

** Try dragging Emma through the bugs in front of the Shell 2 elevator instead of clearing them away for her. Or planting C4 on the ground, putting a magazine over it and detonating the explosive when a guard stops to look at the magazine (even better if they lean down to look at it rather than sit on the ground).
*** The tranq provided some serious cruelty potential. It was generally the best way to take out guards, because if you missed a headshot with a handgun, the enemies would be alerted to your presence, but if you missed a headshot with the tranq, they'd just take a moment longer to fall asleep. And if you shoot and kill a guy, and another guard finds him before you can hide the body, alert mode again. If you tranqed him? Just wakes him up. So it's just much safer to use the tranq than any other gun. However, there is still one problem: the guy isn't actually DEAD, so he will wake up eventually and start causing problems for you, and who wants that, right? So you're gonna want to murder him in his sleep. Often the most efficient way of dealing with this in ''Metal Gear Solid 3'' was, after tranqing a guard and dragging him off to some secluded spot, maybe in some tall grass, to take out the hunting knife. Crouch over the guard and go into first person view and carve that poor bastard up until the Z's indicating sleep stop coming off his head -- the tranquilizers are thankfully strong enough that he won't wake up screaming as you're stabbing him, because it does take multiple swipes to kill. Particularly disturbing in the heavily fortified areas with few hiding places that appear later in the game, so you end up piling five or more corpses in the same spot.
** The fourth game gives you the option of frisking enemies. This plays out as a quick time minigame, with icons popping up. Hit the button at the right time, and an item pops out. The last button press is always as Snake's searching the crotch, and pressing the button here makes Snake grab and twist. It's an instant knock out on any male enemies. Of course, it causes Snake to get slapped if he does it to a female enemy.

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', upon obtaining the Raikov disguise, you are actually ''encouraged'' by the other characters in the game to run around punching people in the face, or stalking scientists, or whatever. Because of the kind of person Raikov is, Snake can get away with it. It's one of the most memorable, satisfying portions of the game.

** ''Metal Gear Solid'' has one of the worst: in one area, it's infested with wolves. You can shoot them to make it easier to get through. But if you call Otacon first, he'll tell you that those are Sniper Wolf's pets, and that he and she would feed them. [[YouBastard Then he begs you not to kill them]]. Snake's response: "Gimme a break."

** One of the levels requires the player to perform different executions levels with different weapons in order to proceed.

* ''VideoGame/DarkSector''. Glaive-Cam view of limb-detachment, decapitation, incineration, and electrocution -- and of course, the always-impressive 'Finishers'. One of the most frequently-seen of those involves grabbing a guy by the hand that holds his weapon, then cutting off his arm at the elbow, and finally beating his skull in with his own weapon.

** Mind control also let you force them to commit suicide, and not just by jumping off tall structures, but by "eating" their gun. Or get them to shoot their [[SquishyWizard squishy scientist]] friends, who will shout things like [[EnemyChatter "Why are you doing this? I even made you lunch!"]]

* You'd be surprised how cruel, violent, or just plain ''mean'' some of the takedown kills in ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'' can be. Cliffjumper will jump on a Decepticon's back and pull his head off his shoulders, or trips them and crushes their chest with an elbow strike. Starscream is more of a jerk, and will do things like stick explosive bombs on enemies and then give them a boot in the ass. Even if you don't stealth kill, you can do things like shooting enemies in their legs to watch them hobble, or bashing them with melee attacks. Most impressive, perhaps, is Grimlock, who can do things like [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale]] Decepticons on his {{BFS}}, [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe bite them in half]] as a giant robot tyrannosaur, scorch them with his [[BreathWeapon flame breath]], or simply [[GrievousHarmWithABody hit one Decepticon with another Decepticon.]] Grimlock's levels are basically ''playing as'' the MookHorrorShow.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' usually asks you slaughter your way through ranks of fascist clones, religious hypercapitalists, or corrupted space zombies, but players of a more sadistic bent can choose to play as Vauban, the game's resident TrapMaster. His devices of choice include electro-shock roller drones, acceleration pads, tether snares, nail grenades, anti-gravity fields, and miniature supergravity devices. Playing as Vauban requires a few moments of trap-setting followed by what can only be described as a RubeGoldbergDevice for [[RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts the wantonly malicious]]. For example, a Grineer clone might try to rush a Vauban... only to stumble onto an accelerator pad and get flung bodily into a hallway. On the way, they trip over a shock drone which latches onto their face and sends ten thousand volts coursing through their body. Flying through the air, they land in an antigravity field, lifting them off the ground... causing them to trigger a motion-activated tether snare hidden on the ceiling. The snare grabs the Grineer and bounces them like a pinata, slapping them face first gainst the ceiling a few times. At this point, the anti-gravity field becomes a super-gravity field, sending the hapless Grineer slewing around, still tethered, like a dead rat tied to a ceiling fan. Despite having set off five traps in rapid succession, it is possible for this Grineer to still have most of their health and be forced to suffer this crippling humiliation for 20 seconds or more. Better yet, Vauban's traps aren't single-target, which means he can force entire hordes of enemies to partake in his shenanigans as long as he has the energy to spare.

* This is a level up spamming method in ''VideoGame/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.

** The brain extraction. Just jump on some house's roof, wait for it to be surrounded with policemen, [=MIB=]s, and Soldiers, then begin the head popping.

* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. Good ''Lord'', Prototype. One of your standard moves, unlocked from the very start of the game, is a one-hit kill which involves pulverising any one soldier you've got your hands on into tiny bits of flesh, which you then absorb in order to regain health. If that doesn't take your fancy, you can just run up to the top of any skyscraper in the city, gripping the poor unfortunate soul you've just grabbed by the face, dangle him over the edge for a while, then hurl him full pelt into the skyscraper opposite, all for the pleasure of watching his corpse ragdoll down to the streets below. Or if that sounds too convoluted, you can slice him in half with the Claw ability, or mulch them with burning helicopter, or drive a tank over him and everyone else behind them on the street, or ''use them as a skateboard''. Well, there's a lot to do, and it isn't necessarily limited to enemies.

** You can do even better in the sequel. You can grab a mook, run him up the Empire State Building, listen to him beg, then jump off the building with him, hit absorb mid air, and fall all the way to ground dozens of stories down where he will be pulped and absorbed. Hell, one of the game challenges involves throwing a mook 150 yards or so. To do this, you have to climb to the top of a building, throw him, and follow the flailing mook so he doesn't disappear off the game's radar. You can also take a mook in the Red Zone and leave him in a place he can't escape from (a destroyed building) or in the middle of a horde of infected. One mutation allows you to be immune to bullets. The bullets can bounce off you and hurt the mook. Corner the mook, force him to shoot you, and he'll continue to try to save himself until the bullets kill him instead. This is a VERY slow process.
* If you ever get bored in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', all you have to do is ride around a bit. You're bound to run into somebody to torture. If you see those two random guys out in the middle of nowhere with what looks like a pile of TNT, just shoot in their general direction and watch the ragdolls fly. There's of course the general "shoot them in the limbs until they die" way of torturing, but then again, you could always lasso them and THEN shoot at their feet until they don't HAVE feet anymore! Or equip the Evans Repeater, go into Deadeye, and paint all 22 marks on their bodies and watch them jerk around as you pump lead into them so fast they do backflips. Lasso twenty men and put them on the traintracks! Lasso a guy (or gal) and drag them around behind you until they snap their necks! Or drag them into wolf or cougar-infested territory, and feed them to the animals! Lasso them, then set them on fire! Blow them up! Trample them with your horse! The possibilities are endless!

** The most common type of "mob farm" consists of a simple stone box high in the air, closed off to ensure darkness and thus mob spawns, with some channels of flowing water leading to a hole in the middle that opens to a high chimney leading to the ground, the bottom closed off with hoppers to move eventual drops into chests for your retrieval. The mobs spawn, wander around and eventually stumble into the water and are swept into the chimney and a long fall to their deaths. The useful drops you get out of it are nice, yes, but standing near the bottom and listening to the normally terrifying groans, hisses and rattles of helplessly falling mobs and their ''thunk''s as they impact is a reward all by itself.
** Creative mode and a Fishing Rod can let you send mobs flying high into the sky to 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, 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 before leaving it to fall back down to the ground. Won't work on mobs that float, like Chickens and Ghasts, and Slimes/Magma Cubes 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.

** Players have exploited a quirk in how [[CityGuards PIDF]] soldiers spawn to farm them for ammunition, money and Pal Spheres. This entailed committing a crime, climbing up to a elevated spot where you occupy the only spot of land and then smacking the PIDF soldiers as they [[HammerspacePoliceForce teleported in]] and then watching as they fell to their deaths.
* ''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/{{Palworld}}:

* Typically in most ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'' games enemies are much bigger than you but killing them is [[CatharsisFactor almost]] [[RumpRoast always]] [[BlackComedy hilarious]].

* ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini'' allows you to collect the severed heads of your foes (and the people you're [[TheScrappy supposed to be]] trying to rescue), and gives you rewards for every hundred heads collected. Bug soldiers typically flinch and squeal in pain when shot, so you can slowly shoot them until they die while they are helpless to defend themselves. Also, the Flamethrower and Shocker weapons seem tailor-made for this: neither is very powerful, but setting things on fire or slowly electrocuting them is just ''so much fun!''

* ''VideoGame/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 and then lying on top of them, 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 [=NPCs=].

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' had a higher cruelty potential than ''2''. You could hold a soldier hostage and slit his throat while he begs for mercy, for example. Other ways to mess with them include but are not limited to: throw snakes and scorpions on them, feed them rotting/poisonous food, play ''Franchise/{{Predator}}'', and shoot their arms and legs and watch them try to hobble away. Also, knocking Eva unconscious actually makes the last area easier to get across. The games get more cruel every time a new one comes out.

** In one of the very first areas in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'', you get your first chance to try out the thermal vision and end up in a room full to bursting with unconscious wounded friendly units. They had just introduced you to the tactic of knifing unconscious enemies and no one makes a point of telling you not to kill all the helpless people in the room.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'', upon obtaining the Raikov disguise, you are actually ''encouraged'' by the other characters in the game to run around punching people in the face, or stalking scientists, or whatever. Because of the kind of person Raikov is, Snake can get away with it. It's one of the most memorable, satisfying portions of the game.

** The End in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3''. You can snipe him while he's in his wheelchair so that you never end up having to face him. If you do choose to face him, you can either shoot or capture and eat his parrot, or save and wait an entire week before playing again to find that he dies of old age.

* Typically in most ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' games enemies are much bigger than you but killing them is [[CatharsisFactor almost]] [[RumpRoast always]] [[BlackComedy hilarious]].

* ''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!".
** Followed by Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, in which force powers are great for sending baddies straight off of roofs/cliffs or into lava, poison, electrified machinery, or machinery that will ''disintegrate'' whoever touches it. There's also a room where you can open a hangar door on a spaceship and deactivate the force field. The result is screaming stormtroopers being sucked to their doom! Also, when your force jump and force pull are at their maximum, jumping over an enemy and pulling them into the air becomes an option. They fly into the air and fall screaming and flailing until they meet their deaths with satisfying thuds. Hey, this is war!

* Oddly enough, the standard side-scrolling platformer ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance. You can:

* The Ultrahand ability in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom'' lets Link assemble a variety of contraptions with bits of the environment and various Zonai devices. If they're not making transportation devices or [[PowerPerversityPotential phallic imagery]], they're making weapons of destruction against their enemies or various torture devices... and of the latter, it's either [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Korok torture]] or this. Case in point: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RH_dLplM6pY the Bokoblin Torture Chamber 6900]].

** For those unfamiliar, their perceived humor is mostly derived from the fact that they are quite short and stubby (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 the series's original lead writer, Joseph Staten, voiced the Grunts in the original trilogy ''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). The games even have a special Skull which, when activated, makes the Grunts' heads explode into colorful confetti whenever you headshot them, accompanied by a short audio clip of children cheering "Yay!"

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' naturally takes mook torture UpToEleven: since you can cut up enemies however you like, you can cut off their toes to make them hop around in pain, slash off their arm right when they're about to take a swing at you, cut their limbs off one by one and combo the hell out of their bleeding torso while they're lying on the ground helpless, just to give some examples.

** With some luck, you can get Jean, a 5-star [[BlowYouAway Anemo]] character obtainable from the default gacha banner or rarely from one of the limited-time banners. Despite being a strait-laced, no-nonsense character in the story, she can be used to torture enemies with her basic ChargedAttack, which suspends them in the air and slows their descent, and her Elemental Skill, which lets her pick up enemies and send them flying. This can be used to launch them into the distance, [[GrievousHarmWithABody into another enemy]], or into a body of water, which will kill them as terrestrial enemies in this game generally [[SuperDrowningSkills can't swim]] (the one exception being Cryo Abyss Mages, who will generate a patch of ice underneath themselves whenever they're above water).

* 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.

* ''[[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.

See also SetAMookToKillAMook, if your brand of sadism tends towards "divide and conquer".

* The above is a very common level grinding method also seen in ''Franchise/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.)

** With some luck, you can get Jean, a 5-star [[BlowYouAway Anemo]] character obtainable from the default gacha banner or rarely from one of the limited-time banners. Despite being a strait-laced, no-nonsense character in the story, she can be used to torture enemies with her basic ChargedAttack, which suspends them in the air and slows their descent, and her Elemental Skill, which lets her pick up enemies and send them flying. This can be used to launch them into the distance, [[GrievousHarmWithABody into another enemy]], or into a body of water, which will kill them as enemies in this game generally [[SuperDrowningSkills can't swim]].

* ''VideoGame/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.
** And then of course, there's the classic move of [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=48 delivering anal "surprise sex" to unconscious guards]]...