A number of video games published over the years provide shock and awe with their mountains of gore. Blood, dirt, and realistic wounds litter the screen and would probably make anyone with a weak stomach go a little green around the gills. Here are the top 10 goriest video games of all time.
Mortal Combat X
To kick things off we have Mortal Kombat X coming out of 2015 to all platforms. Mortal Kombat II was one of the first games to have scenes where characters are ripping spines out of each other. Serveral Acardes around the country even banned the game. The outrage launched protests to ban this game from ever seeing the light of day. This trend never stopped and now in Mortal Kombat X, the levels of gore have been cranked up to 11. You have rib-smashing, face-melting acid, frozen death shatterings with a crude hammer, and more ways to slay your opponent in brutal X-ray vision. The Mortal Kombat series was so gory that the games helped to start the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Last of Us: Part 2
The Last Us: Part 2 isn’t as gory as most of the fighting games in the world. However, this game gives the world a new hyper-realistic version of gore not normally in video games. While most players found this game to be extremely sad and disturbing, the level of blood and gore doesn’t help. Every part of the game is realistic, down to the smallest detail. Without giving spoilers away this game gave us shots of knees blasted with shotgun shells, burnt humans, slit throats, missing limbs and arms, and some of the most brutal death cutscenes anyone has seen in a long time.
Far Cry 3
Far Cry 3 gets a spot on this list from the insane cutscenes of self-healing. Story aside the Far Cry series isn’t really gory on its face or in its gameplay; at least not all of it. It’s just watching, from the first person, what it looks like to see Jason Brody rip bullets out of his arms with his teeth, reset his bones, and rip glass out of his hands that give this game its gory trophy.
Bioshock: Infinite
Bioshock: Infinite is definitely the goriest game in the series of genetic modifications and violence. Blood fills the streets of Columbia as you burn, shoot, smash, and swarm your enemies on a “simple” kidnapping mission. The intro cutscene has the player turn a man’s face to liquid with what is basically a handheld blender. Sending a murder of crows to peck out the eyes of your enemies doesn’t help in the good old rating department either.
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order, much like all the other Wolfenstein games is gory. They always have been and Bethesda made sure that the blood and guts were not left out. The game is pretty straightforward, kill as many nazis as possible by any means necessary. What gives this game its place on this list is a scene where an NPC gets their brain and spine forcibly cut out of them and implanted in a robot. And yes, you watch the whole process from start to finish.
Tomb Raider (2013)
Tomb Raider (2013) took a new twist on the series. After years of remakes, each one more disappointing than the last, Square Enix took on the challenge. The game itself is a fairly normal Tomb Raider game but the death cutscenes is what made this version one of the goriest. Every death is ultra-realistic. Almost to the point of nauesa. If Lara takes an arrow to the gut and dies because of it, she will scream in pain and bleed out in the rain and mud. Same goes for fire, explosions, drowning, melee combat and just about everything else you could think of.
Dead Space 2
For obvious reasons Dead Space 2 makes this list. Everything is gory. Every enemy, every weapon, and every cutscene is covered ceiling to floor in gore. Some of the clues to various area’s are literally written in blood and guts on the walls. Let’s not forget the now infamous eye ‘surgery’ scene this game is well known for.
Sniper Elite 3
Yet another military shooter with a shocking level of gore is Sniper Elite 3. Pretty standard spec-ops sniper story. Sneak here, sneak there, don’t get caught, and get the single shot that will end the war overnight. However, were it differs from most other shooters is that this game you can see what happens to the human body when it’s shot. As the bullet travels to specific targets the camera will follow the shot as it makes mince meat of the target’s head, chest, or legs. Its graphic to say the least.
The Evil Within
The Evil Within set the tone for gore in a horror game. Your first mission is to not kill monsters or demons but simply to survive. Waking up after a massive explosion in a decrepit mental institution, the player is forced to escape a madman with a chainsaw. It probably doesn’t help that their leg is broken and the only way out is through a slaughterhouse and a literal river of blood. The Evil Within doesn’t slow down either. Every level has more and more gore. The player levels up by shocking themselves in a medieval medical chair that would make Jigsaw proud.
Scorn
One game that flew under the radar for years is the horror show called Scorn. It is hands down the goriest game of the modern gaming ecosystem. Published by Serbian developer Ebb Software for Microsoft Windows and Xbox Series X/S in 2022. It will come to Playstation in late 2023 but maybe just one playthrough is enough. The game is based heavily on the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński and this man’s painting is enough to give anyone nightmares. The game focuses on a caputred player in an alien world after a war. The player is soon infected with a parasite that allows them to use their own body as weapons. Everything in this world is made of flesh and yes you will see it all in it’s gory glory.
Instead of explaing how gory this game is, it’s better to just show the trailer.
Honorable mentions
Now obviously this list will be a matter of opinion and some games didn’t make the cut. However, there some honorable mentions of games that will cover screen in blood, guts, and screams.
- Hotline Miami (1989)
- Until Dawn (2015)
- The Last of Us (2013)
- Doom (2016)
- The Quarry (2022)
- Dead Space (2008)
Now please enjoy a picture of a cute puppy giving a human a double high-five to maybe clear your eyes and mind of the shocking levels of gore and violence in any of these games on the list.