Top 10 Most Savage Non-Lethal Takedowns

Top 10 Most Savage "Non-Lethal" Takedowns Yeah...they’re not getting back up after that. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our top ten most savage “non-lethal” takedowns. For this list, we’re looking at the times videogames told you that the insane hurt you just laid down on someone didn’t put them in the morgue. We’re not so sure.

#10: Heroic Brutalities

“Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe” (2008) The heroes of the DC universe mostly have very strict rules about murder. This seemingly puts them at a disadvantage when they’re up against the Mortal Kombat cast, who have no qualms whatsoever about punching someone’s head off or ripping out their spines. The solution to this problem is “heroic brutalities”, punishing finishers which DC heroes use in place of MK’s fatalities. The game’s story mode tries to explain why these over-the-top moves don’t turn human characters like Batman into red paste, but something just doesn’t add up. Maybe that sidewalk that Batman just got pounded into was just really, really soft.

#9: Choke/Non-lethal Boss Options

“Dishonored” series (2012-16) This game series is all about subverting supposedly clear-cut moral choices. For starters, we’re not sure that series hero Corvo Attano isn’t leaving behind a trail of guards with severe brain damage after being choked into unconsciousness. The non-lethal options for your various targets aren’t exactly kind either. Your very first target, High Overseer Campbell, can be facially branded with a hot iron, causing him to be expelled from his order and left in the streets to go mad with plague. Later, the Pendleton Twins get their tongues removed and are sent to labor in their own mines. By comparison, a crossbow bolt to the face is honestly a kindness.

#8: Brass Knuckles

“Metro: Last Light” (2013) Given that the post-apocalyptic, subterranean world of this game is home to mutants, bandits and other enemies that have zero problem with murdering you, we wouldn’t blame you for not turning the other cheek in the name of survival. But if you’re really determined to survive without any bloodshed, you can knock out enemies with your trusty brass knuckles. But given that getting whallopped in the face by a set of knuckle dusters would invariably leave you with a concussion, facial lacerations and probably a fractured skull, it might be the case that a bullet to the head is the more more merciful option.

#7: Subdue

“Infamous: Second Son” (2014) If you’re more of th heroic type when playing this game, which allows you to use your newfound superpowers for good or evil, you have options for keeping your hands clean. Rather than putting enemies six feet under, protagonist Delsin can use this ability to take them out of the fight without killing them. It comes in several varieties, and we can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the “video” variant, which causes glowing swords to pin your opponents to the ground. Yeah, we’re gonna take a hard pass on going through that if we have any choice in the matter. Those guys don’t look like they’re having much fun.

#6: Explosives

“Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle” (2017) Unsurprisingly, for a game that mixes two family-friendly franchises, it’s pretty short on murder. In their quest to subdue the rampaging Rabbids, Mario and company deploy a variety of safe and humane methods to subdue their foes. But we’re not so sure that the Rabbids are happy to have full-on explosives deployed against them. From exploding rubber duckies to the target-seeking Sentries, there are certain weapons which throw the whole “humane approach” into question. If the explosion itself isn’t leaving the Rabbids with some serious burns and broken bones, then smashing them with Mario’s iconic sledgehammer will definitely bring the pain.

#5 “Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain” (2015)

The game literally has the word pain in it, but the “Metal Gear” franchise has always encouraged stealth and non-lethal takedowns. However, one such non-lethal takedown that looks really painful is the Fulton extraction method. The standard variant shoots enemies into the sky at speeds we can only describe as “whiplash-tastic”, while the more advanced variety pulls them into a tiny wormhole. Given that wormholes are entirely theoretical, we can’t say for sure what going through one feels like, but we can imagine it might be like being stretched apart atom by atom and then reassembled.

#4: X-Ray Combos

“Mortal Kombat & Mortal Kombat X” (2011,15) First introduced in the 2011 reboot of this fighting game franchise, these killer moves are meant to be used midway through a fight to cause massive damage to your opponent, as opposed to fatalities, which end the fight immediately. This addition takes the brutal violence the series is known for to new levels by zooming in and giving us an x-ray view of our opponents bones and organs rupturing under our mighty blows. But it’s hard to take this kind of damage seriously when the opponent then shakes it off and gets back up. Apparently having your skull broken into tiny bits is no big deal!

#3: Super Moves

“Injustice” series (2013-17) Apparently the heroes and villains of the DCU had so much fun with their Mortal Kombat crossover that they decided to star in their very own series of fighting games. While the aforementioned crossover gave the heroes supposedly non-lethal finishing moves, this series stretches the non-lethality even further. The idea that Superman’s finishing move, which involves him throwing his opponent into the lower atmosphere before pummeling him back down to Earth, doesn’t violate his rule against killing is a bit hard to swallow. Superhuman characters like Brainiac might be able to walk away from that, but humans like Batman are another story entirely.

#2: Stealth Takedowns

“Batman: Arkham” series” (2009-15) When he saw his parents gunned down before his very eyes, the young Bruce Wayne swore an oath over his parents’ bodies to rid Gotham City of crime, and to do it without taking a human life. Apparently that oath left some grey area when it came to concussions, broken bones, electrical shocks, lacerations, loss of brain function due to oxygen deprivation, and whatever the long term side effects of being suspended by your ankles from a stone buttress are. Look, we get that everyone in this series is built like a pro-wrestler and can take more damage than a tank, but this is getting ridiculous.

#1: Takedowns

“Deus Ex: Human Revolution & Mankind Divided” (2011,16) This series lets you reap the benefits of being a fully augmented cyborg soldier equipped with cutting-edge combat technology, and allows you to choose which augmentations best suit your playstyle. If you want the stealthy approach, you can dispatch your foes in either lethal or nonlethal ways, that’s if you can resist turning them into mincemeat with your razor-sharp arm blades. But we find it dubious that getting punched in the face with a cyborg fist that can break through solid concrete doesn’t put you in the future-morgue. Protagonist Adam Jensen clearly isn’t holding back his punches, and the sound effects are painful just to listen to!