Horror can do a lot with subtlety. A quiet groan, the creak of a floorboard, and a shadow passing over a window can do wonders to inspire fear. Subtlety isn't the only way horror can accomplish its objectives, however.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from subtle horror one finds splatterpunk: a genre defined by being as violent, gruesome, and generally grotesque as possible. The goal with splatterpunk isn't simply to depict violence; it's to repulse its audience. From hardcore demon shooters to tales of serial killers, these games are some of the darkest out there, and define the splatterpunk genre in the gaming medium.
8 Doom Eternal
The Doom franchise been infamous since John Romero and John Carmack released the original game in 1993. While the original Doom may have turned heads with its simple and bloody story of one space marine's stand against the forces of hell, it has nothing on the work of the redesigned Doom Slayer in Doom Eternal.
Doom Eternal relishes in shooting, slicing, burning, exploding, and otherwise dispatching of demons in the fastest and most aggressive way possible. What makes Doom Eternal splatterpunk isn't just the level of violence on display, but the way the game celebrates and even rewards the player for it, going so far as to spit out healing items whenever the player finishes an enemy off with a brutal Glory Kill.
7 Postal
Some violent characters are more justified in their actions than others. There are those that seek vengeance, those that kill in pursuit of some greater good, and those that are senselessly violent. The violence of Postal is, for the most part, the senseless sort, which is part of what makes it so brutal.
The goal in Postal is to kill as many enemies as possible using an array of weapons, from shotguns and mines to machine guns and napalm launchers. The game's graphics are dated by today's standards, but that doesn't make the screams of innocent bystanders easy to listen to as the player carves their way through town.
6 Dead Space
Dead Space mixes several horror genres into a single repulsive concoction. Drawing from the best of body horror, sci-fi, atmospheric horror, and splatterpunk, the game pits awesome protagonist Isaac Clarke against aliens that take human bodies and warp them for their own ends.
The necromorphs are gross to begin with, but what's worse is the player's primary method of dispathcing them: a plasma cutter. Using this tool, the player is able to target and sever individual limbs. Carving the enemy up one body part at a time serves a strategic purpose in Dead Space as well, since many enemies are vulnerable to being struck in certain areas. Blood, guts, dismemberment, and a general air of discomfort all help make this game the unsettling masterpiece it is.
5 MadWorld
The Nintendo Wii may be known for its family-friendly games, but MadWorld is proof that wasn't all the console was capable of. With a high-contrast black-and-white art style reminiscent of Frank Miller's Sin City, MadWorld is immediately stands out againts the muddy and at times unrecognizable worlds of many other horror games.
Then everything gets covered in blood. Jack Cayman's right arm has been replaced with a retractable chainsaw, and he'll need to use it if he has any chance of surviving the murderous TV show he's been cast in. MadWorld can be ludicrously violent at times, and the only thing really holding it back from the splatterpunk pinnacle is its aesthetic, which often makes the over-the-top violence comical rather than horriying.
4 Stasis
When one thinks of splatterpunk, the first thought that comes to mind probably isn't an isometric point-and-click adventure game like Stasis. It should be. The game tells the story of John Maracheck, who awakens abord an abandoned spaceship and must search for his missing wife and daughter.
Ravaged bodies, blood, and far too much inexplicable dead flesh cover the ship, making every step through its corridors an exercise is self-control. Even the puzzles are exceptionally violent, requiring the player to smash guts with the butt of a gun or use a piece of class to cut off a hand. For all but the most hard-bitten horror fan, it's all a little much. For splatterpunk fans, that's part of the appeal.
3 Golden Light
What is Golden Light about? Were someone to ask the game, the answer would be meat. Meat makes up the walls, the floors, the furniture. Weapons are made of meat. Enemies are pulsating, screaming globs of meat. Golden Light is arguably the most disturbing roguelike in existence.
The game is ridiculously, needlessly violent, but it's also weird. Items have names like "Siamese Ravens," "Eye With Fetus," and "Meat Mirror," and their effects are randomized. Maybe the Meat Mirror will heal the player if eaten. Maybe it will attract monsters or set the room on fire instead. Golden Light is indescribably surreal, which has always been a staple of the splatterpunk genre. No matter how many times something violent or terrible happens, the player is always caught off guard, because the game is just too weird to anticipate.
2 Hatred
There are some games that certain players can take one look at and write off as something they will never, ever play. Hatred is upsetting at basically every level. Designed as a political statement as much as a game, Hatred is the story of a misanthropic mass murderer on a campaign to exterminate everyone he meets. ​​​​​
It's an isometric action game, but the distance granted by this perspective isn't enough to lessen the impact of the gore on display. Games like Postal may have paved the way for Hatred, but whereas the former franchise is tongue-in-cheek and often played for laughs, Hatred is dead serious. The main character is explicitly genocidal and utterly without empathy, engaging in one violent act after another without a second's hesitation. Hatred is about as dark as games come.
1 Manhunt
Manhunt is not as violent as Hatred, but it is arguably a greater splatterpunk work. Rockstar games established its reputation for controversy with Grand Theft Auto, but Manhunt took that reputation to a whole new level with its story of a convicted murderer forced to kill on behalf of a hidden director. The game is a work of satire with an actual message, but most people won't look past the pile of corpses to see that.
The game's executions, including suffocating enemies with a plastic bag and beating them to death with a hammer, are grotesque, but the violence is only part of what makes Manhunt so horrific. The entire thing is framed like one giant snuff film, captured by security cameras and narrated by the faceless Director. This framing, coupled with sound design that is no less than a work of traumatized genius, makes Manhunt one of the most disturbing games in existence, and was a huge factor in getting it banned.