This page will be full of SPOILERS. You Have Been Warned.
"What the fuck are you looking at?"
For the sequel, see here.
Game:
- Really, the entire game. Yes, it's fun. Yes, it's challenging. But what Jacket is doing is violently, relentlessly and ruthlessly killing hundreds of people. He may be completely crazy, he may be a psychopath, or he may be forced into it against his will... but he's still an extremely violent mass murderer killing at the behest of a mysterious voice on his answering machine.
- The really disturbing part comes when you realize he's not responsible for the mayhem. You are.
- Adding to the description of the game's extreme graphic violence, you're blazing through a level, smashing skulls, blowing people away with shotgun blasts, eviscerating the foes, chainsawing mooks as they visibly writhe and scream silently in agony, and slashing throats... and then finally as soon as the last body drops, the music stops abruptly, leaving you standing alone in an ocean of dead bodies, all with a low humming noise filling your ears. It hits hard because when you play the game, you have little time to be thoughtful and tactical, and by the time it wears off you realize the chaos and horror you've committed. Does that remind you of anything?
- Dead bodies still twitching, still bleeding, still talking (pictured above), asking you "What the fuck are you looking at?" Made worse by the fact that this is one possible symptom of real PTSD - seeing dead bodies that aren't really there. This is lucky (if you can call it that), since the past events leading up to Jacket waking up in the hospital have been him dreaming the actual past events he had experienced. Although not all of it was a dream.
- The finishing moves for the bosses are no slouches, either.
- The first boss has you gouging his eyes out.
- The second one consists of you hitting his head so hard with a golf club that only a quarter of his head is left.
- The third boss has you beating him up horribly and then setting him on fire.
- While you're finishing the third boss (despite his desperate pleas to be spared), the cutscene keeps "skipping" forward as the screen keeps flashing to static (which is similar to what happens in one of the intermission shop visits, where you get the first creepy vision, foreshadowing a sign of Sanity Slippage). Combined with you losing control of your protagonist, it feels like at this point Jacket is literally unable to stop himself from brutally killing people and isn't even fully aware of what he is doing.
- It's not always easy to tell if an enemy is simply stunned when they're surrounded by a whole lot of actually-dead bodies due to how chaotic the carnage gets. It can be very startling to think you've killed everyone in your vicinity, only to have a stunned enemy get back up and quickly blow your brains out right when you're expecting to be "safe", which actually heightens the tension to ridiculously insane proportions.
- Speaking of jumpscares, in one level opening a door to a certain room gets you blown up without warning. And then there's the level where a SWAT team comes in while you're in the building, and you have to make your way out. The SWAT members are difficult (if not impossible) to kill as well, heightening the tension.
- The song "Crush
" by El Huervo, which plays after you clear out a building. Walking out of it while seeing all the carnage you've caused is really quite... uncomfortable. - Imagine a similar predicament as Jacket. You're minding your business at home, the phone rings. Someone wants you to go somewhere and kill everyone. You refuse, the someone threatens your life; someone that already knows your phone number, and may know where you live. What the hell do you do?
- Unless your number is unlisted, it would be very possible that they have your address already, as well as your name. All they would have to do is find your phone number in a phonebook.
- Imagine being a Mook in this scenario. You've just heard that a masked man is storming the building, and you think, "Okay, no problem. We've got guns, he's just a guy in a chicken mask." You're wrong. The man in the mask is unstoppable, grabbing whatever weapons he can find, dodging shots like he's been here before, and violently, bloodily massacring your coworkers. Then he comes for you. You fire frantically at the madman, but it doesn't work. He slams you to the ground, and the last thing you see before he beats your brains out is a silent killer looming over you.
- The Girlfriend's situation in her first appearance. She was abducted by The Producer and forced into participating in snuff films, where she's repeatedly drugged and raped by The Producer or by his soldiers. In the mission, Jacket breaks into her prison, slaughters her captors and gouges out the eyes of The Producer. Rather than rejoice or beg for freedom, she expects Jacket to kill her too because she's lost the will to live.
- All the animal masks are slightly creepy, with their empty eyeholes. Aubrey (the pig mask) is particularly menacing and almost appears to be angry.
- Any of the segments in the dilapidated apartment featuring Don Juan, Richard and Rasmus. The player finds themselves in a small, dimly lit bathroom before going into a main room with three strangers who know who you are, and make pointed, accusing remarks or are outright hostile to you. Combine this with a filter of crawling insects that gets thicker with each subsequent visit for a truly unsettling scene. The music that plays here ("Silver Lights" by Coconuts) doesn't help either, with low, droning bass, discordant guitars and unintelligible vocals that will make your hair stand on end.
Other:
- In light of the newest PAYDAY 2 DLC, the mere thought of Jacket hanging with the crew. Have a rephrasing: a band of heisters (who includes John Wick) are recruiting someone whose modus operandi is killing everyone in the vicinity (which is how you progress in the stages). No need to say that hostages won't last...
