Blood spatter is the left overs of violence. And blood spatter occurs more often than one thinks during violent crimes. Sometimes you would think (I know I have) that if you stab someone not much blood will be present other than on the knife, or that if you smack someone across the head with something hard the blood will not go far. But you would be surprised as to where the places blood goes, and with the weapons of 40k, there will be a lot of blood. A lot. So much spatter it would not even be funny. I am taking a Forensic Science II course, and in this course we are currently learning about blood spatter analysis. I think this is an underappreciated/underrepresented aspect of violent games. Blood spatter is usually represented as a quick splat that just materializes on the ground or a burst of red mist that disintegrates away into the wind. There is little representation of the art of blood spatter, and what the leftovers of violence look like, and the curse of taking this Forensic Science course is that I can never look at a game like Half-Life 2/Gmod and Chivalry again, with the patches of blood that appears once you do damage, that makes no sense and holds no regard to the weapon, entry point and exit points, dripping blood off of weapons, from wounds, and making different spatters depending on the situation. For those who are not familiar, allow me to explain: Blood spatter in crime is an important aspect, especially if the crime involved a lot of blood. There are many different pattern types, but some types involve situations such as if a person is bludgeoning someone with an object and they pull it back for another swing, the blood from that object will stop clinging onto it and be thrown onto walls. There are high velocity impact spatters, low velocity spatters, different spatters depending on weapon, spatter from blood that drips from wounds and used weapons… So much potential for a truly bloody game, rather than the generic red substance that materializes then disappears before it even hits the ground. It is a sad representation of blood. Imagine one of the executions; standard bolter execution. Accounting for the armor and the weapon type used, the amount of spatter on the Space Marine himself would be astronomical, and with that final headshot, a big splat similar to a bullet flying into a balloon full of blood should occur behind the Chaos Space Marine’s head. Chainsword: for decent representation of it, just dip a chainsaw in some blood- erm, I mean, red paint, cover one side if it’s a Space Marine chainsword, and start her up to see how the blood would spatter. Other weapons should also be taken into account. I think it is time that blood is given an accurate representation, and I think this representation would benefit a game (especially a game like Warhammer 40K) greatly. Do NOT make it like Space Marine, because every Ork seems to have an explosive lodged in his head after every slash or execution. Knife to the head: SLOMO HEAD EXPLOSION!!!!! Axe to the head: SLOWMO BOOM! Pulling out a chainsword from the head: SLOMO HEAD EXPLOSION!!!!! Ripping out a jaw: SLOMO HEAD BOOM! Kicked: SLOMO HEAD EXPLOSION!!!!! Putting a shield down on an Ork’s neck: SLOMO HEAD BOOM!!!! It’s so over the top it’s not even funny. So if they can avoid making the executions explosive like they have been, then I think this is possible.
The special effects and blood splatter seem extremely mild. I'm hoping to see a LOT more in the near future. While Mount and Blade Warband: Napoleonic isnt extremely gory, one mechanic I really like is how your weapon arm, uniform sleeve and saber become covered in blood when playing Cavalry as you rack up saber kills. I'd love to see something similar in EC. As far as gore some of my favorite execution/finishing moves are from my days of playing Age of Conan. FYI all of these fatalities functioned in both PVE and PVP. Bear Shaman(Melee based healer) from AOC is my all time favorite class from any game I've ever played. That's the one you'll see using his bare hands to rip off the head of his opponent.
I think that it would benefit if our weapons had blood dripping off of them (and they showed on the ground! Not just disappear!). Seems like a minor detail but makes all the difference in the world:
Another thing: impacts from bolters and guns should leave varying degrees of spatter. And if weapons had "cast off" like presented here:
I think if there is too much gore into the game it'll get a higher level of maturity rating. I believe they are trying to keep it at PEGI 16+. Too much gore might force it to be PEGI 18+ or whatever it is when it gets our version of M.
This is Warhammer 40K. If it doesn't get an M/17+ rating, they're doing it wrong. EDIT: Accidentally said 18+
IIRC some regions and countries not allow the sale of games if they are over a certain rating. Sales is always the most important thing for any game.
That sucks for them. But I think the Movie Deadpool shows that something can be extremely inappropriate and still be successful. Idk how much that can be applied to the game sense, but if they remain true to the grim and horrifying atmosphere of the hopeless far future, then the game will do well, regardless of regulations.
I had no idea the AOC combat animations were that good. Particularly the 2h mace. Why couldn't Funcom keep the same standard of quality for The Secret World's weapon animations?
