A new video game, purporting to use the situation of Kyle Rittenhouse’s killing of two protesters as a scenario, has gotten some attention from across the aisle on both sides.
Acquitted, a top-down, action shooter from Nordic Empire Games has the player
take control of Kyle Rittenhouse against a zombie hoard of the “Braindead”.
The whole thing seems downright strange.
Kyle Rittenhouse faced charges of murder after he shot and killed two protesters during the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020. His case was watched closely, and his eventual acquittal was viewed different by those on different sides of the political aisle.
While conservatives saw it as a win for their arguments about self-defense, and attacks on people who protest police brutality, people on the left saw it as another case in a long line of racist policies being upheld by the system.
Whether you see it as self-defense or something worse, it doesn’t change that the main crux of the issue is that Rittenhouse killed two people. You’d think a situation like that, even in self-defense, would be above a certain level of parody.
Not the case when there’s an entire game about it.
Acquitted sees the player control Rittenhouse and try to fire through hoards of zombies, some of whom carry communist or antifa flags, going back to a self-defense trial between levels.
While many conservatives are talking about the game like it “owned” or “triggered” liberals, the honest truth is that the game is more bad than enraging. The developers boast that the game took them “more than six months” to develop, but it looks like it was done by a bored teenager on a Friday night.
Bad controls and art aside, the game was also developed by known far-right extremist. William Hahne, one of the developers working for Nordic Empire Games, was previously involved with the political party 'Alternative for Sweden', an ethnonationalist group that wants Sweden to leave the European Union and repatriate any and all immigrants.
So, it’s a poorly developed game, built on a shaky premise, by far-right figure.
Honestly, we’re not surprised.
Despite the good reviews from right-wing commenters, and a whole lot of shoulder shrugging from anyone remotely left of center, the game may not be the success Nordic Empire Games is hoping for.
As it’s pointed out, the game doesn’t take its premise far enough, and shies away at true controversy. Gameplay is noted to be stale, even by reviewer who purport to love the game, and the quality makes it look like a bad flash game from the mid-2000s.
Maybe next time the far-right finds a game to rally around, it’ll be good.
