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There is a world burning underneath our dreams where wicked assassins carve grooves into enlightenment. Let’s go there together. written by Karin Malady, some editing by DEEP-HELL.COM

It feels so good stringing all those combos into perfect kill chains. When you connect with a game, there’s a point where the game feels effortless. You’re in the zone, you enter the flow state. At that moment, you’re just a vessel for the game. Roguelites especially encourage this. You have timers telling you to keep moving. There’s no distraction in the form of story or cutscenes –  just keep going. It’s easy to restart and continue the loop. The format is pretty simple: kill everyone you come across and take everything you find. When I play Risk of Rain 2, it’s easy to go with the flow. Enemies constantly spawn around me as I glide across the cool alien landscapes ready to kill. It’s a solipsistic glee. There is a story about the horrors of colonialism as you violate the soil of a foreign god with the blood of its creatures. I don’t have time to think about that. There’s more treasure to loot, and the enemies never stop coming. 

Travis Touchdown understands this too. In Travis Strikes Again he tells us “When I fight assassins, my mind just goes blank. It’s like a form of etiquette between two people fighting to the death.” He gets into his flow as well. A zen meditation for the Buddha of killing. Every ranking match in No More Heroes is a koan, where he is the student learning about murder. He  constantly asks himself where Paradise is as he seeks meaning in his own life. A poignant question for any killer or gamer. His reward is found in pure, thoughtless moments of struggle. There’s an art to it – when you learn the moves, it becomes automatic. It’s a Paradise you can reach too. Just hit the start button. 

Suda51 wants to take you there. In this interview, he tells us about the origin of the Death Drive Mk. 2 as a console he wanted to design for a MoMA exhibit. The design is a Gigeresque cross between a horse, a scorpion, a prostate sex toy, and a sacrificial slab. It was intended to connect to every console and then take you inside the world of gaming. In Travis Strikes Again, this is what you do each new level. Connect to the Death Drive and fall into the flow. Any gamer can relate to that. Maybe when you hit that combat flow, Thanatos is kicking in and you really enter the game. Even K, the mysterious figure sending the player faxes throughout TSA, tells us the Death Drive is “fully connected to the real world.” In a way, we are presented with the idea that playing video games connects you to a spiritual plane of pure violence. Travis even confesses this when talking about his childhood, “The light emanating from the creepily alluring vector graphics seemed to pull me into another dimension.” He would know, he’s a killer and a gamer.

Life is Destroy is a video game introduced in TSA as something based on the life of the serial killer, Doppelganger, whose “digitalization has increased his “purity” as a killer.” Being a video game character has made him closer to the platonic ideal. We’re shown that Doppleganger is a role you take on: someone who can appear anywhere and be anyone, all for the purpose of murder. Travis says the difference between being a serial killer and an assassin is the same between IT and video games: substance and human emotion. Doppelganger only knows joy and happiness, but not sorrow nor pain. Anytime you get that dopamine rush from a new game, you’re taking on a new face and showing up in a new world. You can be anyone and go anywhere. Maybe you’re a Doppelganger too?

“Video games cause violence.” We’ve all heard it, are you more violent? Has a video game made you kill someone? The world of No More Heroes lives in the tension between reality and fantasy. In reality, FPS games receive huge funding from the military-entertainment complex. It’s a common form of recruitment and propaganda. With the advent of UAVs, killing is more like video games than ever. Suda51 shows us as much as well when we learn the true history of the Death Drive MK II and how its development is linked to the CIA. K’s faxes tell us of a Death Drive Triple-A, a device whose name illustrates the link to big budget games. After the console steals your genetic data, this master computer prints remotely controlled clone soldiers. They are equipped with cameras that filter enemy combatants as “bugs” – the goofy Power Rangers Putty style creatures Travis fights throughout the game. These foes have an eerie resembles to the Heaven Smile suicide bombers from Killer7 as well. And with the constant online connectivity of games these days, who knows what you’re controlling?

There is a difference between physical violence and spiritual violence. Religion can justify targets of violence, but Spirituality is a quality of violence itself. In the States, it has its grasp on everything. Marvel movies have military funding, video games have it too. Everything is yelling at you, “go out there and kill!” You don’t have to listen to that voice, but it’s always reminding you the option is on the table. It penetrates your very dreams. The psychologist Jayne Gackenbach says “The major parallel between gaming and dreaming is that, in both instances, you’re in an alternate reality, whether a biological construct or a technological one.” Even in the farming sim Stardew Valley, you can take a break from tending your garden to murder creatures in the JRPG style dungeon. Everything has the quality of violence, and non-violence won’t prepare you for the violence that is waiting for you right around the corner. 

I have to find a way out. I have to find Paradise. I can’t stop and think about this. I’m a great white shark. You are too. If we stop moving, we die. Like Dr. Juvenile, I’m burning sadness as fuel just to keep living. There’s always another level, always more enemies, always more weapons, always more loot, always more numbers to increase. There’s that squeal in the back of my head telling me to keep going. There is no exit or off-ramp, just more paths forward. Notable lighting fixtures and yellow environmental markers chart the way – it’s good level design. If I keep going, I can hit that flow. I don’t have to be around the violence if I can join it. Blend myself into its final form and cease to fucking exist.

What are you waiting for? Now, pickup the controller and head for the Garden of Madness!