Bonus Round!
There exists another state of human existence that some also consider to be a Deadly Sin. It is not considered to be one of the 7 that we already know, so it is considered in some cultures to be the unofficial “8th” Deadly Sin… and as it turns out, both Hitman 3 and Dead Rising 3 have an unofficial representative of this unofficial sin. So to cap off and conclude this comparative list, I will now examine the honorary Deadly Sin of each game. Say hello to…
- DESPAIR VS
Despair (sometimes referred to as hopelessness, or more clinically as defeatism or nihilism), is considered by some to be a sin implying that the sinner has stopped trying. This is not due to laziness like with Sloth, but due to lack of belief that their actions and efforts yield any kind of tangible reward or benefit, for themselves or others, that makes their struggles worth pursuing. In essence, the sinner is giving up and giving in to what is, or what comes easy, rather than trying to achieve aims beyond themselves. For Dead Rising 3, the sinner is Ronald “Red” Jackson.
For Hitman 3, we have the Mills Reverie escalation, the Halloween event based around the nightmare of Orson Mills, an NPC who is a non-target in Hawkes Bay. Orson is having a nightmare on Halloween wherein a pumpkin-headed figure is pursuing him, and he is unable to escape or defend himself, even with the aid of bodyguards. The figure in question is Agent 47 dressed in a terrifying Halloween costume, and since it is happening in Orson’s nightmare, it is very possible that 47 does posses magical powers of darkness as he goes about the hunt for Mr. Mills. Orson is, in his nightmare, experiencing despair because of his inability to escape or stop the killer hot on his trail, evidenced by Orson simply standing around, waiting for his horrifying end.
For Dead Rising 3, Red spends most of the game as an ally of Nick. Red is the leader of the “illegals;” a group of people infected with the zombie virus and who take regular medicine to suppress the change, but have not complied with the law to have chips implanted into their bodies that dispense the medicine at regular intervals into their blood, because the chips also have GPS tracking meant to locate them quickly if they should turn into zombies, and they don’t want the government tracking them while they’re alive. Red seems helpful, if skeptical of Nick’s abilities throughout the game, but near the end, he reveals that he has lost faith in the ideals of the illegals, is tired of living like a pariah, and wants to collect the $5 million bounty on Nick’s head so that he can actually have some kind of happiness, rather than continue helping the other illegals. After turning on Nick and his ex-girlfriend, whom he’s implied to still have feelings for and was competing with Nick for the attention of, Red tries to turn him over to the military. A fight commences, and after Nick wins, the ex-girlfriend drops a shipping container onto Red from an overhead crane, crushing him from the knees up, like the Wicked Witch of the East. The irony being that, even if the military had no intention of betraying Red, he never could have collected the money anyway, because as an “illegal,” he was not eligible for the reward.
Who did it better? Hitman 3.
Despite Red’s feeling sorry for himself and believing he devoted so much time to a lost cause, it just doesn’t add up to the depressing atmosphere found in Hitman 3’s Halloween escalation. You feel sorry for Orson, at times, amid the hopelessness of his situation, and the spooky quality of the mission really hammers it home in a way that Nick and Red’s little scuffle just doesn’t do.
For a clearer taste of the unofficial 8th Deadly Sin of
Despair, stick to Hitman 3.