Hey everyone, I hope this kind of discussion is okay here. I was just thinking about this while going through the games again and thought it would be interesting to hear from others.
There are definitely some pretty intense moments scattered throughout these games that catch you off guard, especially if you first played them as a kid. Some scenes really hit different when you replay them as an adult and you suddenly get why they put those content advisories there in the first place.
For me personally, pretty much everything in the second game was pretty heavy, plus there was this one particular area in the fifth game involving a boat that was just wild. Anyone else have moments like that where you were like “oh wow, this got dark fast”?
The prison camp section in the third game hit different as an adult. When I was younger, I just saw it as another action sequence. Now I realize how realistic they made the captivity experience. That hopeless feeling they built up over several chapters really messes with you.
That airport level in the fourth game totally blindsided me. The civilian situation was way more intense than anything I’d seen from the series up to that point.
That psychological breakdown in the sixth game hit hard. The way it makes you question reality through those hallucination bits really messed with me. As a kid, I thought it was just weird gameplay, but now I see how spot-on it was about mental health issues. Heavy stuff wrapped up in an action game.
That torture scene in the third game destroyed me. Wasn’t ready for how brutal and real it felt when I was a kid. Playing it again now, I see why it shocked everyone. It’s not the violence that gets you - it’s feeling completely helpless watching it all happen. The series proves it’s way more than just flashy action sequences.