I like the idea of making a game that examines violence in a more serious way. It's touchy because if someone were to make a game trying to get an emotional response out of someone through extreme violence, and they went wrong with it, they could come up with something along the lines of Hostel, and nobody wants that. I'm not talking about a game that makes me just cringe, though that's something that could be neat in some contexts. I guess my desire to be emotionally affected by violence in a game is just a smaller part of my general disappointment with games' ability to draw me in emotionally like other media.

Better voice acting maybe would help? Focus more on the faces of characters without interfering with the ability to play the game due to having the camera in the character's face all the time? I think those factors are part of what makes the Half-life series compelling. That's an interesting thing, that series. It's not like the combat is anything particularly unique or interesting. Hmm.

I just realized that I sound like an emo douchebag talking about wanting to suffer with my characters in a game. Oh well. Even if it's struggling with the goofy protagonist of a teenage soap opera, dealing with conflict and struggles along with a character is totally what makes stories interesting. Or at least what makes them relatable. I really like to make broad generalizations.