Video games have already been the topic of many pressing debates on real-life violence. And with the recent gunfires happening in America, more and more people are concerning that shooting games might be the main factors that leading to those events. They believe that those games have badly influenced the behaviors of players, making them aggressive and more likely to commit crimes.
Not everyone thinks that way, but at least, Donald Trump is the one believing in that concept! The President and many legislators are planning on some methods to get rid of those games to prevent the influences. If this scenario somehow becomes real, it's certainly not fair for normal players all over the world.
That's why today, Gurugamer will present five shooting games that are not going to take the 'bloody violence' concept. Hopefully, the world will give shooting games a fair look, and promote healthy gaming instead of getting rid of video games!
1. Splatoon 1 and 2
Splatoon is a famous third-person shooting game from Nintendo - the product that Nintendo made only for its consoles. It has gained a lot of high-rewards from the gaming community since its release in 2015. Specifically, at that year, it was nominated for the award of the Best Shooting Game at the Game of the Year Awards.
If you haven't seen anything about the game yet, here's the trailer for you:
Both the first and the second installment in the series features a quite similar kind of gameplay. In Splatoon, you'll have an extraordinary shooting experience that you can't find anywhere else. Instead of giving players with an arsenal of heavy guns, the game will give you the ink-shooting guns instead.
In fact, the main characters in Splatoon are the Inklings - the human-looking squid that can transform between its human form and tentacle form. Teaming up with three other players, you'll dive in the colorful arena in a 4v4 match.
This a quirky and very entertaining idea has made the game very appealing to players from every group of ages. It's rated E (for Everyone) according to ESRB, so it's really friendly and go against any violent elements!
2. Portal 1 and 2
The Portal series is the notorious products from Valve. This self-published title was considered as the one of the best game ever for its unique mechanics, its challenging puzzles and a rich story. Now, Valve has introduced two titles in this series, and fans have been desperately waiting for the third installment.
Here's the trailer of Portal 2, and we highly recommend you give a look on this unique gameplay:
It's not totally correct to call this game a shooting title, but it still features real-time shooting mechanics. To be more precise, it's a puzzle-solving title, in which you'll have to use your Portal Gun to control the object and the environment. It's the titular gun in this series, where you don't use this to kill anything, but to solve puzzles.
Furthermore, Portal also features a great story, which you will reveal gradually through your progress. That's where the Portal Gun strikes again. It might not kill anyone, but it will open a gateway that will save your life! For example, you can open a portal when falling to land safely, as you can see from the trailer!
If you really hate physics in schools, be sure the screw them up in Portal!
3. Star Fox
It seems that Nintendo Switch is the good land for non-violent shooting games. Star Fox is another series from Nintendo making for its own devices. Starting with its first title in 1993, the series now has totally 8 games now.
One of the most remarkable games in those 8 titles is Star Fox Zero, coming out in 2016 and start to soar in popularity with its console - Wii U. Here's the 4-minute-long trailer of the game, and you can enjoy it yourself:
Basically, it's a spaceship shooter where you control the titular crew - Star Fox. Head by the charismatic leader - Fox McCloud. Your crew consists of many members from different species: a toad, a hare, and a falcon. Together, you'll fly in the Lylat planetary system to prevent many evils lurking.
The gameplay in Star Fox Zero marks a milestone to its evolution. To be more specific, allowing the players to freely control their spaceship in many directions. With the Wii U GamePad's gyroscope feature, Star Fox Zero has brought many more fascinating actions to both in-game and real life!
Although it's a game about fighting with evil forces, Star Fox still maintain lightsome gameplay. The fact that there's no violence scene throughout the whole series has resulted in 10+ rating according to ESRB.
4. Duck Hunt
Yes, speaking about epic shooting games, we can't afford to miss this title. All of us have our golden 90s' time with the revolutionary consoles, especially the zapper gun.
And the time that we had the most fun firing that gun on our screen was when we play Duck Hunt - one of the first titles that can interact with the zapper gun.
There's nothing much to tell about this gameplay. Simply telling, it's just you testing your firing skill by shooting the ducks popping up on the screen as fast as possible. You and your friend will compete with each other, and the one with the most duck shot is going to be the winner.
Although many people might think that Duck Hunt might encourage gun usage. However, it doesn't contain any violent shooting scenes. Instead, when you shot a duck, it will give you a painful yet funny ducky sound! To cut the long story short, Duck Hunt is merely about entertainment!
5. theHunter: Call of the Wild
This game's name might look like a typo error, but its gameplay is decently well-done. theHunter: Call of the Wild is a game about hunting wild animals for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
So far, it's the newest title on this list, and you can expect the beautiful modern graphics from this game. Let's watch this trailer for more detail:
theHunter: Call of the Wild is an open-world shooting game. According to the developer, it will give you "the most immersive hunting experience". You'll step on the role of a hunter, trying to hunt more animals for your collection.
However, your hunting journey is not going to be intense. The game follows a much more enjoyable approach with some beautiful environment and soothing soundtracks. Furthermore, the developer also wants to minimize the violent factors in this game by omitting the bloody scenes when a target gets hit.
It even encourages players to play as a 'responsible' hunter, obeying the hunting rules even when they're playing with virtual animals.
Conclusion
The political world is having an unfair look toward video games. Even though I agree that some griefing incidents in real life were caused by some video games maniacs, they are still the decisions of their own, not the video games' decisions.
To sum up, if people are careful with what they're playing, gaming will be an entertaining and healthy habit. If you find any shooter fans that are struggling to find a new title, please introduce them this list so they can enjoy their non-violent gaming experience!