2/5 ★ – THRILLSON's review of Super Columbine Massacre RPG!.

I felt queasy while playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. This surprised me, as I doubted I would find a game with early 90's graphics and 16-bit audio to be immersive. However, Danny Ledonne was able to create a game that allows the player to immerse themselves in the role of a mass-shooter. Or, at least, he was able to make a game that I found immersive. I had studied the Columbine High School Massacre in the past; I feel that this allowed me to appreciate the game. I recognized many of the lines that the boys said in the game, along with the references to DOOM, Marilyn Manson, and the speculations that the boys were bullied. For someone who was unaware of the massacre, however, the game may not have the same effect that it would if it was a traditional shooter played in a first, or third person perspective. Also, I feel that if the game was not based on true events, it would not have had the same effect on me.  I do not play this style of RPG, so I cannot speak to its quality in respect to the genre. This game is very hard to play, and when I say this, I do not mean in relation to the mechanics. I honestly felt bad for playing as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. I really did not enjoy killing the faculty and students of Columbine High School, nor did I even want to in the first place. I eventually quit playing after I was killed by a trooper from DOOM, though I did watch the play-through on the games’ website. I gave up playing as my immersion was broken, and the gameplay was not particularly fun to begin with. The second half of the game is supposed to represent the boys’ ultimate fantasy: entering hell as portrayed in DOOM. They fight their way through hell, and Satan congratulates the pair at the end of the game. I think this is supposed to represent how the boys would have felt about their actions on April 20th, 1999. As for violence, the graphics and visuals within the game are relatively tame. There is no blood during combat, and after winning, a pixelated bloody corpse is left on the ground. At one point, images of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s corpses are shown. Even if it is not depicted in a bloody manner, the killing of innocent school children is extremely violent. In theory, SCMRPG! Would be more immersive if it was a more “realistic” game, however, the level of violence required would be too much for the player to sit through. For me, being able to step into the shoes of a school-shooter made me sick, and caused me to regularly question why I was playing the game, which is something that I think the developer intended.