8. Tools of the Trade

Administering classic Electric Shock Therapy.

Just killing your opponents isn't nearly enough. What kind of game would The Culling be if it didn't supply you with an orgy of weapons to poke, slice, hack, and bludgeon your enemies with? A bad one, that's what.

Weapons are ranked by Tiers, with each Tier having a slight advantage in damage and speed or wound intensity over previous Tiers. Tier Ones can be crafted or found easily, Tier Twos can only be found or airdropped and are a bit more fearsome, Tier Threes are scary as hell and are quite rare to find and tough to airdrop, while Tier Fours are essentially the God Tier.

Each weapon type inflicts a different effect. Blades cause bleeding, which will keep doing damage until it expires, or until the enemy is at one health. Bludgeons cause Cripple, which decreases movement speed. Spears pierce enemy armor as though it wasn't there. There's no name for this beyond “annoying.” And finally, Axes cause Expose, which causes the target to take more and more damage.

Of course, you can't be inspired by the Hunger Games without offering bows and arrows as a means of murder. Bows and firearms cause large damage at a distance and bleed the target.

You heard me right. Firearms. Doesn't the thought of Katniss Everdeen mowing down contestants with an SMG bring a fanfic-birthing tear to your eye?

Speaking of SMG's, that's one of the three firearms contestants can airdrop, or if they're very lucky, find. Each gun comes with one “round” of its respective ammo: twenty bullets for the SMG, four for the Sniper Rifle, and six for the Magnum. After growing a god complex and wasting all your ammunition, more can be crafted at explosive barrels for a sizable chunk of this game's version of currency, F.U.N.C.

And of course, explosives.

Stabbing an enemy to death doesn't hold the same appeal as setting C4 on a lone airdrop and blowing it up as some poor curious man approaches it. Crafting your own dynamite is a simple process in The Culling, while the more sophisticated explosives like Remote Detonators and Impact Grenades need to be found or airdropped in.