Gore Effects in Jackal
- Valentin The Mad
- Feb 5
- 5 min read
If you saw my impressions video of the game's demo, you know I've really enjoyed it and now that the full game is out let's have a look at the gore. Not too much was changed, but in this article we'll talk about some things I didn't quite go into there.
Body damage
As for dismemberment, you'll have 2 points of amputation for each limb, the head can be removed as well and characters can be cut in half.
I think you have an actual stump only in the case of the head (that gets cut off at about the nose level) in the case of the limbs and characters cut in half I think you just have some simple "filler".
It didn't stick out as a notable issue from the perspective you'll usually play in and they tend to fall on the side anyway, but a decent looking stump would make a difference for sure.
As for the non dismembering response, you might initially get the impression of a generic overlay. In many cases you'll just see the upper torso or huge parts of the body covered in blood, but it's not the regular all-over response.
What we have here is the most basic implementation of a damage painting mechanic, which in this case reveals the bloody overlay on the character at the point of impact. And the big issue here is, it seems that for most weapons it will just reveal a massive part of it which can give that impression of a generic overlay.
When it comes to tigers though it does look better. That could be entirely just to them being larger, so perhaps having a smaller part of the body get bloodied on the hits could help with that. For things like a pistol though the response will be pretty reasonable.
The other limitation of that response is - you'll have it used for absolutely everything. From the blood around the point of amputation, to blunt impacts, cuts, hits from a 9mm pistol to a shotgun blast.
That did make me wish for some multi layer damage too. Having a layer below of bones and organs that you could expose on the impacts with the current blood we have around the hole.
Many games that have this feature tend to expose a whole lot of the bottom layer for a flashier response, but having a difference between small holes when appropriate (like a 9mm pistol, a slice) and something that would tear a big chunk of flesh (like a shotgun blast from up close) would be a refreshing change.
Environment
The environment aspect is where the game shines the most. You will be seeing response stains, usually multiple on the impacts. There will be a bleeding feature - droplets spawning below injured characters (player included) as they move around, some characters will spray blood all over the place on the fatal hit. And on top of that there will be blood pools too.
The stain patterns look really good, whether you're just killing an isolated enemy or decide that to mess up a room with as many enemies as you can, the aftermaths will look really nice.
Speaking of the aftermaths, nearly all of it will remain. Each blood stain, body, severed body part and even debris that is spawned as a texture. Things like meat chunks and physical bits of debris however will be despawning.
As you can see in the before and after below, you'll still get an exceptionally messy aftermath.
With that being said, there are issues:
What you will notice very quickly (as soon as any furniture is pushed) is the way decals are projected. They don't paint the environment props directly, but rather just whatever's in the location. So if a table is kicked you'll see that it wasn't actually stained. Breaks the illusion a bit.
What will also be quite noticeable is the particle effect, particularly when you have a character who's heavily bleeding out. Puffs that are larger than the stains that don't quite correlate with the staining and can go through walls too.
Blood pools will often form in the wrong spot, particularly if a kill sends a character flying. I think they probably just start forming too early and you don't have that feature of a new one forming after a character gets moved.
And something you will notice after some time is repeating stains. You will be seeing the same stain patterns, often very close to each other. In a game with this much focus on the blood spilling, more variety of patterns would very much make a difference.
As you can see though, the issues are far from massive and the spilling and aftermaths will be a very big factor in the messy feel of the game.
Animations
With the game being this fast paced there isn't a huge focus on brutal animations, but still we have some fun features.
The first one is active ragdolls you'll see on some of the kills. I always like seeing those and they've been nicely done here. They'll often come with massive bleeding too.
And you will have finishers. Once again, not Manhunt style brutality but there are several animations on based on weapon types and in some of them the surroundings are being used too (like slamming a head into the wall). For this type of a game - they're great.
Destructibility
And, enemies aren't the only thing you'll be messing up, the interiors will be pretty damn responsive too. From small breakable props, to tables you can topple over and push onto enemies as well as large furniture that can be toppled over too. As I mentioned, much of the debris will be spawned in decal form and that will stick around too.
I can honestly say that the environment here is more responsive than what we have in most games. I'd really like to see more of that in other titles.
Conclusion
The conclusion remains from my impressions playing the demo - I'm a fan. The gameplay flow is really enjoyable, the procedural generation will offer more replayability and from this perspective, the response mechanics will deliver a nice and a bloody experience.
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