Press X To Eat Flesh: 10 Examples of Cannibalism in Games

Cannibalism in Games

There are few things that so easily communicate the depths of human depravity quite like cannibalism. Is the situation desperate, food scarce, society abandoning all conventional morays in their desperate struggle to survive? Throw in some cannibalism. It'll get all that across and more. Here's ten examples of cannibalism in video games, from F.E.A.R. to Fallout 3.

Jade Empire

Welcome to the Cannibal Inn, where guests check in but they never check out. In Jade Empire, a group of grotesque, distorted creatures known as Cannibals are former humans who eat their fellow man in order to gain power. They even have a Cannibal Cookbook with a recipe for "Leg of Lam", a poor hunter who lost his way.

Dark Souls

Maneater Mildred is a brief character in Dark Souls, and one mostly meant as a joke. Nonetheless, this firey red entity was likely the woman seeking to consume Laurentius of the Great Swamp which would make her what the French call "totally a freakin' cannibal, dude".

Red Dead Redemption

In the Red Dead Redemption side mission American Appetities, Marston is tasked with tracking down the source of a number of local disappearances, leading him ultimately to a cannibal hidden in the plateaus. Whether Marston leaves him to his meal is entirely up to the player.

Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls series has numerous examples of cannibalism (the Bosmer, for instance, eat their dead and those they've defeated in battle) but Skyrim has at least one stand out example. In the mission The Taste Of Death, the player investigates the defiling of a Nord burial ground, where they find Eola, a priestess of Namira, the Lady of Decay. By completing her quest and feasting on Brother Verulus, the Ring of Namira is earned, granting +50 to life and stamina each time the Dragonborn eats a dead body.

Human Flesh is also an alchemic ingredient, meaning a lot of people had to die so you could have that unending supply of Paralysis potions.

Grand Theft Auto

Donald Love is one guy with a lot of skeletons in his closet, if you will. A common thug from the Grand Theft Auto series, Donald shows his not so common side in the mission Cam-Pain, which reveals he has a fondness for human flesh.

Fallout: New Vegas

Cannibalism plays a huge role in Fallout: Vegas, particularly on The Strip, where the swanky Omertas conceal the secrets of their flesh eating past...and future. Players can either foil a plot by Mortimer to secretly feed human meat to the upper members of Omerta society, or (with the Cannibal perk) help him pull it off and maintain the Omerta's glorious tradition.

The Walking Dead

In Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, it's not just the zombies that are craving the flesh of the living. In the second episode, little Clementine is almost a victim of "oops cannibalism", not realizing the leg she's about to feast on once belonged to a man. A live man locked in a closet by his family members so they can strip him of his flesh as needed. Damn, Walking Dead, dat's grim.

Fallout 3

OK at this point we're just gonna say, Bethesda really loves them some cannibalism. In the Capital Wastelands, the Lone Wanderer passes through the town of Andale, populated by only two remaining families harboring a dark secret. With the Cannibal perk, the player can even earn their trust and return daily for a Strange Meat Pie.

F.E.A.R.

Paxton Fettel, the younger of two brothers born to vengeful super psychic Alma, consumes his victims in order to absorb their strength, a common theme amongst our fictional video game cannibals. Though given that Paxton is the unnatural product of incest, cruel government experimentation, and raw psychic power, this misguided belief is among the least of his problems.

Prototype

The rest of these games use cannibalism as a casual theme, but in the Prototype series, eating human flesh is not just encouraged, it's the entire point. Sure, the real Alex Mercer is dead and his body has merely been reinanimated by a virus, but that seems also a moot point given that you go around hoovering up human innards just for some health points.