• News
  • Film and TV
  • Music
  • Tech
  • Features
  • Celebrity
  • Politics
  • Weird
  • Community
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
TikTok
YouTube
Submit Your Content
Grand Theft Auto came under fire for graphic torture mission that was deemed 'entirely unnecessary'

Home> News

Updated 16:15 10 Jun 2023 GMT+1Published 16:12 10 Jun 2023 GMT+1

Grand Theft Auto came under fire for graphic torture mission that was deemed 'entirely unnecessary'

Grand Theft Auto 5 is a game about criminals, but many thought that they took it too far here

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Featured Image Credit: Rockstar

Topics: Grand Theft Auto, Gaming, Weird

Tom Wood
Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

X

@TPWagwim

Advert

Advert

Advert

Grand Theft Auto 5 came in for some serious criticism when it was released because of a graphic torture scene that many thought was unnecessary and too far even for the extreme video game series.

Obviously, it’s well accepted that Grand Theft Auto is pretty violent and features a load of crime.

The name should be a dead giveaway, really.

Anyway, when players aren’t on sprees of destruction and violence, they’re stealing things and committing all manner of driving offences.

Advert

However, one particular element of the game came in for some real flak from charities, non-profit organisations, and beyond.

It’s a scene in which the main character, Trevor Phillips, tortures an alleged terrorist for information at the behest of the FBI.

You can already see the kind of mission it was.
Rockstar

Called ‘By The Book’, the scene sees Phillips - played by Steven Ogg - using hammers and electric shocks to get information out of the suspect.

Advert

There’s even the added fact that if he dies there’s a shot of adrenaline to restart his heart.

Honestly, even by GTA standards, it’s dark.

What’s more, if you want to finish the game, you have to complete this bit.

That means that if you want to get to the end, you’ll need to pull some teeth.

Advert

Back in 2013, it was too much for some people.

It was condemned by organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom from Torture, teachers unions, and UK politicians.

Former UK MP Keith Vaz even expressed his shock at the scene.

At the time, Freedom from Torture CEO Keith Best said: “Rockstar North has crossed a line by effectively forcing people to take on the role of a torturer and perform a series of unspeakable acts if they want to achieve success in the game.

Advert

"Torture is a reality, not a game and glamourising it in popular culture undoes the work of organizations like Freedom from Torture and survivor activists to campaign against it.

"This adds insult to injury for survivors who are left physically and mentally scarred by torture in the real world.

"If Rockstar North’s message is a satirical critique of the practice of torture, it’s lost on us.”

Vaz said he was ‘astonished at the level of violence depicted’.

Advert

It's a pretty unpleasant mission, but must be completed to finish the game.
Rockstar

Furthermore, others said that the scene really isn’t in keeping with the rest of the game, which tends to take a more satirical and humorous approach to the crime depicted.

Well, sometimes.

It was described by one gaming journalist as ‘expected and unadventurous, hardly the biting satire that it felt like in past outings’.

Advert

Obviously, there are also ongoing issues with some of the misogyny involved in the game, with Gamespot journalist Carolyn Petit arguing that there’s no real defence of satire possible.

“Yes, these are exaggerations of misogynistic undercurrents in our own society, but not satirical ones,” she said.

“With nothing in the narrative to underscore how insane and wrong this is, all the game does is reinforce and celebrate sexism.”

  • Netflix in talks to release a new Grand Theft Auto game from Rockstar
  • Rockstar 'plans to announce Grand Theft Auto 6 this week'
  • Grand Theft Auto 6 videos confirmed to be real in one of the ‘biggest leaks in video game history’
  • History of Grand Theft Auto's previous game could be bad news for fans expecting GTA 6

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
3 hours ago
4 hours ago
  • 2 hours ago

    America’s ‘harshest’ death row prison gives shocking new privileges to killer inmates

    One death row inmate has said the new scheme has given him hope

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    Andy Byron's company speaks out after married CEO was caught with employee on Coldplay kiss cam

    The viral video has got people all over the internet talking

    News
  • 3 hours ago

    Woman diagnosed with brain tumor after dismissing symptoms as a cold that wouldn’t go away

    Amanda Hyne, from Connecticut, initially thought her symptoms were down to 'mom stress'

    News
  • 4 hours ago

    Harvard professor reveals the most important thing marriages need to survive

    Arthur Brooks, American academic and author, made his opinion known on a podcast last year

    News