I've always been a huge fan of ragdoll physics, whether it be in the form of poor implementation to comedic effect (Demon's/Dark Souls) or the more modern, realistic manifestations with blended canned and procedural death animations. Killing virtual beings is just all the more dynamic and satsifying when their death is governed by a physics algorithm. But ragdoll physics and the quality of their implementation can vary pretty noticeably from game to game. Sometimes the quality of the rigid-body physics in a game can make the core gameplay much more enjoyable by design, as opposed to just allowing bodies to realistically deform to the environment.
This is a thread in which we'll explore games that benefited greatly from having well-implemented ragdoll physics.
Hitman 2/Contracts/Blood Money (PC/PS2/Xbox/Xbox 360/PS3)
Hitman: Codename 47 was one of the very first games to utilize ragdoll physics, and it actually worked it in as a central gameplay mechanic. Dragging dead or unconscious bodies out of sight and then taking their clothes worked beautifully with ragdoll physics baked in, and it added a nice jolt of realism to that particular action within the game. The physics method that they used to animate ragdolls in the early Hitman games wasn't the most realistic, however. Bullets carried an absurd amount of force behind them, especially from Agent 47's trademark Dual Hardballers. The end result was bodies flying back 10-15 feet from the impact of a shot to the chest and often flailing around wildly in the process. While it wasn't realistic, this effect was oftentimes unintentionally hilarious and added a sort of cinematic gravitas to the killing. In Hitman 2 and 3, cheat codes allowed you to turn off gravity and even slow down time for ragdolls, which opened up situations for juggling ragdolls in the air with your bullets. Good times.
So I'm nominating Hitman 2, Contracts, and Blood Money in particular because I feel that those are the best representations of the Hitman formula. It was an early pioneer, and the fact that ragdoll physics served the gameplay directly makes the early Hitman games a great first example for this thread.
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (PS2/Xbox/PC)
This cult classic was making some very impressive use of the Havok 2.0 physics middleware when it launched to little fanfare on consoles. Being that one of the core mechanics in the game was telekinesis, convincing physics behind both environmental objects and virtual humans made everything so much more dynamic and fun to experiment with. You could lift an enemy up into the air with your mind, riddle their suspended body with bullets, set it on fire, and then toss it into a group of other enemies who would be consequently ignited as well. The game even came with a Training mode in which you were given a room with a wrecking balls, crates, explosive barrels, and other physics objects to play with along with buttons to spawn different types of enemy and civilian units. The psychic powers and impressive physics made this virtual torture chamber an absolute blast to mess around in.
Here again we have an example of ragdoll physics being worked into the actual game design in a meaningful way, which is great.
Grand Theft Auto IV and V (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
Everyone knows how impressive Rockstar's use of the Euphoria procedural animation engine was in GTA4 and 5. It's pretty absurd that they were able to nail such a full-on implementation of what is known to be a very expensive (both licensing costs and computationally) physics engine, especially given the scope of these games. My brain fails to grasp how GTA5 runs as well as it does while using Euphoria to govern physics simulations and featuring the extremely impressive lighting that it uses to illuminate its richly detailed setting of Los Santos. What makes the impementation so great in the GTA games, in particular, is that there are so many ways to mess with it. Vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and speeds give the player tons of opportunities to plow through crowds of people (or animals in GTA5), and the array of weaponry in the game allows for even more opportunities where Euphoria can flex its procedural muscles. Just look at that sucker-punch GIF with Franklin as an example of how Euphoria makes even the simplest actions more enjoyable than they have any right to be.
Max Payne 2 and 3 (PC/PS2/Xbox/PS3/Xbox 360)
Once again, Rockstar implements Euphoria to impressive effect. Max Payne 3 currently holds the crown when it comes to realistically simulating riddling a person with bullets, and the slow-motion killcams let the player take in all the gory details. I'm grouping Max Payne 2 in here as well because it had very satisfying, weighty ragdolls for its time as well. Combined with the bullet-time gameplay, Max Payne 2 and 3's rigid-body physics systems make every kill feel special and significant. This is another example of quality physics enhancing the core gameplay.
Half-Life 2 (PC/Xbox/PS3)
Half-Life 2 was a huge leap forward in physics simulation for gaming, period. The Source engine featured everything from physical properties like weight, density, fragility, and velocity at a time where almost no other game was doing anything close to that. Valve knew that their physics engine was special, so they included the Gravity Gun in the game to really let players mess with the game's environment and characters to their heart's content. You can kill an enemy with the ragdoll body of another whom you just killed using the Gravity Gun. That was mindblowing for its time and still cool to this day. The Gravity Gun made any physical object in the environment a potential weapon, and that kind of dynamic FPS gameplay combined with Source's convincing ragdoll physics for enemies to make shoot-outs play out differently every time. That's quite an achievement, and it's also why I felt it deserved a nomination for this thread.
Minority Report (PS2/Xbox/GC)
Hear me out on this one. While Minority Report was by no means a "good game," it provided physics-based 3D beat-em-up action that I feel has never been matched since. Developed by Treyarch in their pre-CoD days, Minority Report had the player engaging mostly in fisticuffs with only occasional gunplay featuring non-lethal firearms. While the actual hand-to-hand combat was moderately deep (unlocking combos, grabs, sweeps... etc.), it was the ragdoll physics and interactive environments that made it shine. Landing a sweep on an enemy looked impactful and realistic because physics governed their legs being forcefully swept out from under them. You could grab enemies and toss them into a kitchen, their ragdoll bodies causing various pots, pans, plates, and other miscellany to shatter and fly all over the place. You could grab an enemy and toss him into another group of enemies, all thanks to the ragdoll physics being worked into the hand-to-hand combat. Most importantly, physical factors like impact calculated by how hard an enemy collided with the environment determined damage done to them. It's a really gun style of gameplay partially wasted on a mediocre game. I'd kill to see this kind of physical beat-em-up game design applied to a modern take on the genre, but for whatever reason it seems unlikely to happen any time soon.
This is a thread in which we'll explore games that benefited greatly from having well-implemented ragdoll physics.
Hitman 2/Contracts/Blood Money (PC/PS2/Xbox/Xbox 360/PS3)
Hitman: Codename 47 was one of the very first games to utilize ragdoll physics, and it actually worked it in as a central gameplay mechanic. Dragging dead or unconscious bodies out of sight and then taking their clothes worked beautifully with ragdoll physics baked in, and it added a nice jolt of realism to that particular action within the game. The physics method that they used to animate ragdolls in the early Hitman games wasn't the most realistic, however. Bullets carried an absurd amount of force behind them, especially from Agent 47's trademark Dual Hardballers. The end result was bodies flying back 10-15 feet from the impact of a shot to the chest and often flailing around wildly in the process. While it wasn't realistic, this effect was oftentimes unintentionally hilarious and added a sort of cinematic gravitas to the killing. In Hitman 2 and 3, cheat codes allowed you to turn off gravity and even slow down time for ragdolls, which opened up situations for juggling ragdolls in the air with your bullets. Good times.
So I'm nominating Hitman 2, Contracts, and Blood Money in particular because I feel that those are the best representations of the Hitman formula. It was an early pioneer, and the fact that ragdoll physics served the gameplay directly makes the early Hitman games a great first example for this thread.
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy (PS2/Xbox/PC)
This cult classic was making some very impressive use of the Havok 2.0 physics middleware when it launched to little fanfare on consoles. Being that one of the core mechanics in the game was telekinesis, convincing physics behind both environmental objects and virtual humans made everything so much more dynamic and fun to experiment with. You could lift an enemy up into the air with your mind, riddle their suspended body with bullets, set it on fire, and then toss it into a group of other enemies who would be consequently ignited as well. The game even came with a Training mode in which you were given a room with a wrecking balls, crates, explosive barrels, and other physics objects to play with along with buttons to spawn different types of enemy and civilian units. The psychic powers and impressive physics made this virtual torture chamber an absolute blast to mess around in.
Here again we have an example of ragdoll physics being worked into the actual game design in a meaningful way, which is great.
Grand Theft Auto IV and V (Xbox 360/PS3/PC)
Everyone knows how impressive Rockstar's use of the Euphoria procedural animation engine was in GTA4 and 5. It's pretty absurd that they were able to nail such a full-on implementation of what is known to be a very expensive (both licensing costs and computationally) physics engine, especially given the scope of these games. My brain fails to grasp how GTA5 runs as well as it does while using Euphoria to govern physics simulations and featuring the extremely impressive lighting that it uses to illuminate its richly detailed setting of Los Santos. What makes the impementation so great in the GTA games, in particular, is that there are so many ways to mess with it. Vehicles of all shapes, sizes, and speeds give the player tons of opportunities to plow through crowds of people (or animals in GTA5), and the array of weaponry in the game allows for even more opportunities where Euphoria can flex its procedural muscles. Just look at that sucker-punch GIF with Franklin as an example of how Euphoria makes even the simplest actions more enjoyable than they have any right to be.
Max Payne 2 and 3 (PC/PS2/Xbox/PS3/Xbox 360)
Once again, Rockstar implements Euphoria to impressive effect. Max Payne 3 currently holds the crown when it comes to realistically simulating riddling a person with bullets, and the slow-motion killcams let the player take in all the gory details. I'm grouping Max Payne 2 in here as well because it had very satisfying, weighty ragdolls for its time as well. Combined with the bullet-time gameplay, Max Payne 2 and 3's rigid-body physics systems make every kill feel special and significant. This is another example of quality physics enhancing the core gameplay.
Half-Life 2 (PC/Xbox/PS3)
Half-Life 2 was a huge leap forward in physics simulation for gaming, period. The Source engine featured everything from physical properties like weight, density, fragility, and velocity at a time where almost no other game was doing anything close to that. Valve knew that their physics engine was special, so they included the Gravity Gun in the game to really let players mess with the game's environment and characters to their heart's content. You can kill an enemy with the ragdoll body of another whom you just killed using the Gravity Gun. That was mindblowing for its time and still cool to this day. The Gravity Gun made any physical object in the environment a potential weapon, and that kind of dynamic FPS gameplay combined with Source's convincing ragdoll physics for enemies to make shoot-outs play out differently every time. That's quite an achievement, and it's also why I felt it deserved a nomination for this thread.
Minority Report (PS2/Xbox/GC)
Hear me out on this one. While Minority Report was by no means a "good game," it provided physics-based 3D beat-em-up action that I feel has never been matched since. Developed by Treyarch in their pre-CoD days, Minority Report had the player engaging mostly in fisticuffs with only occasional gunplay featuring non-lethal firearms. While the actual hand-to-hand combat was moderately deep (unlocking combos, grabs, sweeps... etc.), it was the ragdoll physics and interactive environments that made it shine. Landing a sweep on an enemy looked impactful and realistic because physics governed their legs being forcefully swept out from under them. You could grab enemies and toss them into a kitchen, their ragdoll bodies causing various pots, pans, plates, and other miscellany to shatter and fly all over the place. You could grab an enemy and toss him into another group of enemies, all thanks to the ragdoll physics being worked into the hand-to-hand combat. Most importantly, physical factors like impact calculated by how hard an enemy collided with the environment determined damage done to them. It's a really gun style of gameplay partially wasted on a mediocre game. I'd kill to see this kind of physical beat-em-up game design applied to a modern take on the genre, but for whatever reason it seems unlikely to happen any time soon.
