Messin’ with my head…
I had to pause Grand Theft Auto IV to write about this right now. As is the usual in GTA, I was running around jacking cars, doing missions, and tooling around by beating the crap out of harmless civilians. I was punching randoms in hopes of getting my “Finish Him” Achievement (10 counter attacks in four minutes) which I eventually did nab.
Afterwards, for whatever reason, I stabbed a guy. I don’t know why, but I did. I had this though about GTA leading up to its release that it would be more difficult for me to kill innocents because they looked and acted real, but up until this point I didn’t ever think about it. I’d seen people hold papers over their head when it rains, and I’ve seen women carrying groceries — very normal stuff. This wasn’t “human” though, so when I accidentally ran them over when in hot pursuit I didn’t really care.
Back to the guy I stabbed, he was on his phone, minding his own business. I ran up to him, and stuck my knife in his back, and something unexpected happened. He didn’t turn around and try to punch me while yelling “Fuck you, man!” or something else that the idiotic AI pedestrians would have in previous iterations. He didn’t whip out a gun. He didn’t even try to fight back.
He fell to the ground and began to sob.
It took a minute for that to sink in. I stabbed him. He fell, started to sob, and tried to run away. He started to yell for help as he did, and I felt bad. I stabbed him a few times before that sank in, and I had this feeling of pity and regret. I didn’t know whether to let him go, or put him out of his misery.
I wanted to help this poor guy that I had no reason to stab, but I did.
Well played, Rockstar.
