Acquitted, a twin-stick shooter game ‘loosely’ based on Kyle Rittenhouse has released on Steam, and it’s just as horrible as you’d imagine.
The game’s main character is based on Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen acquitted of murder after fatally shooting two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shooting took place in August of 2020 and Rittenhouse was found innocent in November of 2021.
Fast forward to 2022, and apparently his story warrants a video game. Why? It’s not about what happened, mind you, the game is just a gun-wielding Rittenhouse look-alike mowing down… zombies. Charming.
The low-effort shooter made by Nordic Empire Games (no alarm bells there!) apparently took six months to make. It’s a wonder it took more than six minutes.
With poor gameplay, lazy animations, repugnant subject matter, and a shameful attempt to ride the waves of the culture war, it’s hard to find any redeeming qualities in Acquitted.
The full title is Acquitted: Self-Defense vs The Braindead with the second A in braindead stylised to look like the anarchist symbol. How clever, how insightful!
Unlike Rittenhouse, in the game you shoot zombies instead of people. No surprise, those zombies are designed to look like protesters or people audacious enough to have different coloured hair.
One wonders if anyone genuinely enjoys this game as a game in its own right, or if it’s entirely political posturing. Acquitted‘s Steam page follows a predictable pattern of political games, where every review is either glowing or scathing with little middle-ground.
Nordic Empire Games claim that they comprise of: “Three young men, fully dedicated to the development of games that are fun and engaging, while at the same time staying committed to what is right and true.”
“We, as so many others, have noticed the narratives that are repeatedly forced into modern entertainment,” their website continues.
“These narratives more often than not run contrary to healthy living and many of the foundational values of Western Civilisation.”
If you had any uncertainty as to what the goal with this game was, or what message it hopes to convey, don’t worry about coming up with your own interpretation; they’ve already told you what to think.
