Cruelty Squad Lore

[@thefatherinthecave943]

Honestly for the first 5 minutes I thought this was a clever shitpost expertly manipulating jpegs into creating a whole convoluted story when I realized cruelty squad is actually that convoluted

[@ivanmarquez2218]

This is why I consider Cruelty Squad to be peak story telling. Instead of using conventional methods to tell a bizarre story, the creator made an absolutely insane world, made the game uncomfortable to play, all the "normal" concessions were in some way twisted WHILE taking into account why they exist (meaning, all the changes weren't random) and THEN he used all that to tell the most memorable story about a dystopian world that mocks our own.

[@IAmLeMonke]

@@ivanmarquez2218 This. None of my friends could understand why I was obsessed with this ugly, grating piece of shit until I broke down the story. For ONCE in a dystopian fps game, the visuals and mechanics actually, truly represent the message.

[@ryanbenson8030]

Its dialogue that the targets tell you on House

[@reverbthevocal421]

@@IAmLeMonke “This game is ugly!” “I prefer the term ‘aggressive’.”

[@nathanlevesque7812]

it's barely storytelling @@ivanmarquez2218

[@AnthemofGrimm]

Life is so consumed by sin and corruption in the pursuit of happiness, the realization of which is too much for the world to handle, and it tries to kill itself, however unable. This line speaks to me.

[@yosefyonin6824]

yep, seems that the final messege basically: life is pain and death is the better option... i cannot belive a piece of media exists that conveys this messege without a shred of irony

[@Eedden42]

@@yosefyonin6824 Schopenhauer would be proud

[@mycocodog47]

Something that absolutely needs to be said about Apartment Attrocity that makes the mission funnier is that if Cruelty Squad fat fingered John Cruelty as a target, and the hit team went after him. John going for his landlord is by his own volition, meaning the moment he came under fire he presumably assumed his landlord was evicting him and decided that won't stand.

[@namedidii]

I think landlord called the cops as well and CS and the police are just after the same target. But there's no way MT would know that it literally is his first thought to off his landlord

[@SpringDavid]

​@@namedidii justifiable

[@catpurrito5586]

Yeah the landlord's dialogue directly state that he called the cop on John cause rent is due, so that may alerted CS too. And since the landlord is not given any info on like a usual assassination target, that means John himself literally marks the guy as a target

[@hindenpeter1]

I thought the player was called MT Foxtrot thats what ive always heard this is the first time ive heard someone call him John Cruelty

[@TheGallantDrake]

I just assumed that he’d already decided that upon realizing he wouldn’t be able to make rent he’d just kill his landlord lmao

[@Leko669]

Actual quality content. An absolute CEO mindset lad.

[@doctordirck]

This is the Gorbino's Quest of comments.

[@Omoricying]

​@@doctordirckman i would kill for gorbinos quest

[@anotherdnb]

@@Omoricying Isn't that the world's only videogame?

[@catscrath25alpha83]

This is just like Gorbino’s Quest. This is the Gorbino’s Quest of life.

[@JDydgi]

Oh boy! Manmade horrors that *are* within my comprehension!!

[@Giggleheaven]

but only barely

[@yeetboi69]

And how! Such joy!

[@DIO-vw6me]

This is the Gorbinos Quest of Life of Cruelty Squad lore videos

[@wabumbo]

So true!

[@aegisScale]

This is just like Gorbino's Quest.

[@MitridatedCarbon]

I love how the lore is actually followed through, is not just weird gibberish from a special level. the stomach is called "the origin of death" and in the creationism myth of Cruelty Squad death started with metabolic needs.

[@XCATX25]

So, an important note, when Cruelty Squad talks about Transactions and Transactional Power and Value, he really means energy and potential. It's because their world got so twisted that for the people inside that world they are the same thing, but if you take a look at the obvious inspiration of Bataille for this game, it becomes evident the double meaning of many of the elements of the game in the metaphor

[@imaniiatdemonhead]

esp since one of the blessings is metabolism

[@SecretDiamond64]

The Fleshrats, no matter what, even if John doesn’t enter the room, will still break out into the public.

[@johan-bq9ie]

I’m sad that you skipped out on the deeper meaning behind “hope eradicated,” as that is actually where John gains true knowledge and abandons hope of changing the world- killing his friends in the process, whereas Death is just him giving up his soul. Still great though!

[@gordopendejo944]

I always saw the death of john's friends as him giving them a mercy killing, like, finally letting them rest from the endless meaningless life cycle just like the HE target of pharmacokinetics that looks like the power in misery guy from the flesh door, when you kill him he is thankful and apparently john has the power of permakilling people after reaching HE as seen by this guy's dialogue and the fact that the limit chancellor and the cruelty squad CEO canonically die forever.

[@fallouthirteen]

Man, it feels like there's some kind of meaning to my playthrough even if I don't get it. I ended up getting the cursed torch before I ever ended up going to HQ. So I ended up sacrificing friends before ever meeting them. I suppose that's the CEO mindset.

[@axeltheidiotfish9997]

I don't think they're literally killed they're just erased from his personal viewing of existence

[@aydinmakesthings]

The fact it took 3 years to get a person to actually make a lore explanation is sad lmao! But fr, thank you for making this! Even as a lord nerd for this game, I still have things I don't get!

[@doctordirck]

Thank you, that's extremely nice of you to say haha

[@yaya_is_real]

What about pyros vid?

[@aydinmakesthings]

@@yaya_is_real A short one, his is HELLA deep, and thus its 4 hours.

[@necrotafeio]

pyros vid is a gameplay tierlist @@yaya_is_real

[@koni5883]

hello ultrakill lore guy

[@wolcamophone4783]

Finally, the Dark Souls-esque lore narration stitched together from lore snippets from the game's wiki and some item descriptions.

[@erick5928]

If the average economics professor by some infernal power assessed to godhood, this is about what the earth would look like in a couple of weeks give or take

[@YukoValis]

I mean this is one way to look at it, but it might be missing a few aspects. The most important being that death isn't final. 16:58 this is a very important part to me, because the person you kill has been killed many times over. He is rich enough to revive in a world where revival is dirt cheap. In fact all your targets are rich enough to come back. So are you actually an assassin or are you just entertainment? At least until you push far enough to take control.

[@conelybiscuit4985]

hence why the game is Cruelty Squad instead of just Death Squad. you can't actually kill anyone above a certain net worth, but you can inflict pain for pain's sake, i.e. cruelty. and without death to induce disparity, the value of life is zero and all events in time are functionally coterminous, as they have no beginning or end to be compared against. Georges Bataille, the main inspiration for the game's setting, believed the purpose of life was to waste the excess energy of the sun on unproductive "luxurious" activities that didn't further the organic tendency to reproduce. the events of the game are nominally "productive" insofar as they grow or prune entities both organic and corporate, but these events are without worth and therefore without "luxury" due to taking place in a closed system wherein energy is merely exchanged rather than truly expended. the economic system has become perfectly efficient, and in wasting nothing, it wastes everything, and can therefore not be called life despite not quite being death. M.T. Foxtrot realizes this upon his throne, and so brings death and excess back to the world by peeling it apart.

[@yaya_is_real]

Man i fucking love you. I finished this game numerous times and read the whole wiki , watched every single lore video on KZbin and all them were abstract and unstructured, you're the only one that actually went ahead and explained it all chronologically in a clear fashion, you were able to explain in a couple minutes what pyro explained in hours , subbed

[@doctordirck]

Thank you for the kind words. My goal is definitely to tell everything possible with as much detail as is necessary without diluting the content itself. It's a precarious balancing act but I'm happy to hear you thought it was done successfully here at least.

[@1oneguythat]

Pyro is a spazoid

[@Bobdd0]

​@@doctordirckyou succeed at this with flying colors!

[@annoyannoy]

"Cruelty Squad: The Guided Tour" by Jimmy McGee goes into detail of the philosophical ideas that you can see in the 4th paragraph of the ending.

[@catscrath25alpha83]

This is actually a very interesting philosophical concept, that life in its pursuit to justify its own existence takes away from the value of the world, that life is a parasite that can quickly grow out of control if it is not either directed, controlled, or learns restraint and respect.

[@Yea___]

Me in 7th grade

[@anotherdnb]

This is unironically peak cyberpunk high-fantasy.

[@armintor2826]

I love Cruelty Squad lore. It feels like im listening to someone's manic episode.

[@Anthaneus]

This game is like if all the Hitman games took every drug in existence, and then took every drug in the other universe they transported to in their drug trip

[@BenersantheBread]

I bow before the purity of your CEO mindset. Truly your 10 year plan is beyond the scope of us mere flesh automatons.

[@AdahnFlorence]

Cripes that might be the single most nihilistic ending I've ever heard.

[@gerardochavez1528]

I bought the game because of all the memes and it very quickly became one of my most favorite games of all time. What I expected to be one giant shitpost ended up being a deep philosophical reflection of humanity’s role interspersed with an addictive gameplay loop. And it’s still a giant shitpost but a good one

[@TheGallantDrake]

The best shitposts are the ones that come from the soul.

[@Yea___]

"Deep"

[@Ironwolf-pm7zs]

I love how despite being completely off the wall insane, the lore of this is actually very intriguing

[@keithwhitehead4661]

I came here from maxors vid and its crazy to see how much he kept to the lore with his vid

[@yearofthedogmusic5908]

Adore how this just starts and seemingly never stops

[@gringusgaming]

It may have made more sense for most of the secret missions to take place after or around the same time as the missions you find them in, especially since some of them would explain why he had so much money (both the fact that he did extra missions, and also the bank that can be robbed in Neuron Activator). But it really doesn't matter that much, this was a very nice video

[@doctordirck]

I don't disagree, I think the driving force behind putting the bonus missions well after their accessibility was the fact that telling those stories didn't fit well into the narrative I was painting with Cruelty Squad's (The Organization) power grabs, but I did still want to tell all of the stories in all of the missions. Like you say though it really doesn't matter all that much because none of the bonus missions besides one or two are particularly important to the story. Thank you for the kind words and constructive criticism.

[@HerOwnKnife]

Good stuff, surprised this only has 34 views! The cinematic shots of the game add a lot, the music is well fitting too. Although your voice is a bit monotone, some people would consider this as a plus. Keep it up!

[@doctordirck]

Thank you. You're really too nice

[@luckyhat4]

I really like the way you do lore videos. Compact but still comprehensive, delivery is nicely understated. If you do more videos like this I'll continue to follow.

[@doctordirck]

Thank you for all the compliments, your comment was evidently thought out, kind, and earnest. I have no plans of stopping anytime soon; trying to get into a consistent release schedule to temper my Let's Plays with my Lore videos a little better. Got some good stuff coming soon. Thank you again.

[@friendhaus1858]

I think the main point of Cruelty Squad is that immortality is inherently always going to be a form of decay, and that death is what gives suffering meaning. That, and also fishing.

[@learnt2love]

This has easily become one of my favorite KZbin videos. I keep thinking about it and I wholeheartedly adore it.

[@doctordirck]

Hahaha that's very flattering, thank you.

[@Dodgeball451]

MT Foxtrot or John Cruelty really started from being depressed and unemployed and ended in becomming a God

[@thefoolerofmany]

This is amazing. Truely a being blessed by primoridial luck. I wonder how many Gorbino's Quest copies you own..

[@doctordirck]

I can't afford :< but I did play the free weekend last month. Thank you for the kind words

[@pianoPS3TML]

For someone who loves games but doesn't find time to get into them properly, god bless people like you who play them and make fun content out of it!

[@doctordirck]

I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to make and I'm glad people like you are enjoying it so much!

[@vic3roy]

John killed a poisoned world! Good job John :D

[@CrazyLegs-22]

i love the top-right grunt on the thumbnail, idk why, but i have a big obsession for it, and the word squad next to him... Just beautiful. I have drawn this exact grunt 22 times.

[@CrazyLegs-22]

i have even named him, Theodore Bogdán

[@doctordirck]

Walter White hates Bogdán.

[@CrazyLegs-22]

@@doctordirck breaking bad is not nearly as good as one (1) pixel of theodore's masterpiece.

[@CrazyLegs-22]

As of today the number of times i have drawn him as risen to 35.

[@DazzletheBun]

I don't think MT Foxtrot truely finished to job by finding the craddle of life. The sun still shines with eternal malice.

[@nman551]

You have a really good voice for narrating, I keep coming back just to remember how insane cruelty squad is.

[@doctordirck]

That's very flattering of you, thank you for the compliment!

[@nman551]

@@doctordirck No problem, you may have convinced me to try out the game. It seems fun,

[@A_real_Wizard]

I can feel the profit pulsing through my organs from this video. Time to go fishing in the sewers.

[@wjefoiafjalfkjadfjk7045]

The way I see it, there is no difference between Cruelty Squad and real life.

[@erick5928]

Both our universe and cruelty squad contain atleast one Elon musk

[@vic3roy]

The difference is that we don’t have a Pure Optics to help us get out of this rut.

[@howdoyoudo5949]

Why am I going to die then?

[@flowgangsemaudamartoz7062]

​​@@howdoyoudo5949Will you though? Do you know what happens after you shut off your optic sensors for the last time?

[@llab3903]

@@howdoyoudo5949because you touch yourself at night

[@sengokuglasses]

this shit is so fucked and beautiful and sad and im so happy you made this video so i could experience it

[@Zippsterman]

When the weird manager guy tells you he's dosed you with unknown drugs, the rest of the visuals make a lot more sense

[@allmight9840]

Thanks for the summary bro this was great 👍. Subbed

[@doctordirck]

Thank you All Might. Your anime is pretty good

[@dyist236]

Insane asylum gameplay

[@LiviusMagnus]

They really went and made a parallel world of the reality upon which we currently reside. Fuck.

[@revolt_4588]

no

[@alexbenavidez4500]

Little disappointed you didn't call him "M.T (Empty) Fuck", because that is a great and righteous name, and definitely the more affectionate by fans, but otherwise great video

[@Crueltycretin]

I 100% agree, what I was thinking

[@nateleichner2569]

or alternatively, MT Foxtrot

[@hxyri]

no john “cruel” squad is his official name

[@ironichoneybadger5066]

Quick point, in early Christian mystic Gnosticism, abraxes was actually the name of the Demi-urge, a semi divine creature likened to God from the Old Testament, and creator of the material plane, he’s not an archon, as archons are servants of the Demi-urge, the archon grid is shown in the game to be where all archons move to at the end of the world. The world ends technically as you beat that level, but that’s what makes it’s ending so important, is that it didn’t really change anything

[@bloodrunsclear]

It's still staggering the creator too an AESTHETIC and made a lore for it.

[@m2cks]

Awesome video! I always knew that there was a deeper lore behind the wanton capitalistic violence, but it proved too obtuse for me to parse. This made it so much clearer for me!

[@doctordirck]

Thank you! I appreciate that you enjoyed it and let me know!

[@yeetyateyote5570]

This is the only coherent understanding of this world’s lore, thank you. Genuinely. It’s a great, insane, shitpost, art piece of a game and this actually lays out what the real fuck is happening

[@doctordirck]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the kind words.

[@中二之伤]

This video is so good, it combines everything together.

[@doctordirck]

Thank you I'm very very glad you enjoyed this video.

[@horse_dog]

cruelty squad is such an awesome game

[@kaanefe4266]

Beautifully done bro keep up the good work!!!

[@doctordirck]

Thank you, that's very nice of you to say.

[@kaanefe4266]

@@doctordirck Oh you are welcome my dude, you should consider doing more cruelty squad related content since you clearly have a great comprehension of the game

[@tacobelldriver]

I love this video! And I didn't not want it to end!

[@doctordirck]

That's very sweet of you, thank you for enjoying!

[@KnoxEmDown]

Thanks again for the lore video Dr. Dirck, it saved me a lot of time.

[@doctordirck]

It was really my pleasure, thank you for appreciating it.

[@bbboywaxr]

Man the visuals are like having a playstation 1 fever dream mixed with ms paint laced with deliriants. It's absurdly terrifying, painfully nonsensical. so good. Gotta try this out 🤙

[@doctordirck]

It's a lot of fun, I bet you would like it!

[@aviatedviewssound4798]

This game is psychologically f***ing my brain up lol.

[@mossy3565]

Damn good vid, for anyone else looking for more lore context, would defo recommend Meat_Loaf's lore iceberg vid

[@major_havok7854]

I thought the main characters name was MT Foxtrot. Great video aside from that though

[@gromblereal]

i love that the darkworld target put the bounty on himself and asks to die for his own entertainment solely because he’s bored

[@edward9487]

Cruelty Squad. Convoluted, cryptic... strange in every way. I don't know what I just got read to me, but it's certainly... there.

[@Midwestemoisme]

thank you for piecing this together my tiny brain could never

[@Spacecorefg]

Finally my tiny brian can understand what my favorite shooter is about. Thank ya kindly.

[@doctordirck]

You're welcome man. Thanks for the kind words

[@Dude-vq3oe]

Max0r: You kill 5 gods, including yourself.

[@absoultethings4213]

John cruelty is the one true name, amazing video

[@baitposter]

Thanks to Brigador, we know MT Foxtrot is the closest thing to an official name our protagonist has

[@jensa281]

Thank you for this! A fun and interesting telling of the lore in CS. It always amazes me how deep and good this game actually is!

[@NerveApe1081]

This was the best game I’ve ever played. Can’t wait for psycho patrol in march

[@shuggle8188]

nice summary, made 20 mins feel like 10

[@insertmemorableusernameher6795]

This must be what its like to listen to death grips

[@ninthundertow]

Theres a lot of prominent 40k character names shared with this games characters.

[@mallyxtheunyielding7212]

Wow, fantastic video, suddenly all of it makes so much sense...sort of

[@purplepeak8575]

John Cruelty does have a semi official name as M.T. Foxtrot. in the game Brigador. M.T. sounds like Empty and Foxtrot means F**K.

[@slowerfisher]

this game's lore is held together by divine power and 3 tabs of acid

[@mogboVA]

I like how loud you got when the topic of the transactional rifle arises

[@sillylilstella]

you're an open carry guy? i respect that.

[@megan00b8]

I love that you could make any of this shit up and I'd just accept it as fact then and there.

[@jasonquiver6907]

If I ever obtain the editorial know-how to make a YTP, I wanna make one of this lore video just for the sole purpose of putting in "a great corporate leader, murdered in a meem mine."

[@gromblereal]

theory: the unspecified higher-up(s) that take pleasure from the sacrificial mercury mission is the sun mercury is closest to sun, small detour would cause a mass(?) human sacrifice for the sun, on the sun sun is probably sentient since it helped create the world and all, would probably take pleasure from human sacrifice in some way, especially if he got to see it firsthand

[@doctordirck]

Very good theory!

[@OrevelTheAllay]

6:50 wrong, his name is MT foxtrot

[@stealth7225]

This is the best explanation on youtube. So excellent work, im sure you will eventually get the attention you deserve. Where is your cruelty squad lets play? Ive been searching for less viewed LPs and would love to see yours. This game layed eggs in my brain that hatched allowing me to manifest my CEO sigma male grindest.

[@doctordirck]

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words hard work definitely pays off. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I haven't done a Cruelty Squad Let's Play yet. At the time I made this video there hadn't yet been a 100% Let's Play and I was worried I wouldn't be able to make a good Let's Play about it, and now I wouldn't want to put out sub-par Cruelty Squad content since I made this Lore video and people like it pretty well. I appreciate what you're saying about looking for a good LP on it. This is a really good game, excited for the next one for sure.

[@stealth7225]

@@doctordirck Thank you for your work. I plan to do a LP of this game in the future and your lore explanation serves to be invaluable. And you mentioned the next one... Is this confirmed?

[@doctordirck]

@@stealth7225 It is sort of. There' another game in the works but it's not a continuation of the story of Cruelty Squad. It's got a lot of the same mechanics and a similar look as Cruelty Squad but it's got a focus on a lot of new mechanics like mechs and stuff. I believe you can find it by look up the Consumer Softproducts twitter.

[@stealth7225]

@@doctordirck Alright cool, I'll take a look. Hopefully it is just as fun as Cruelty squad. Thanks for your time and keep up the good work brother.

[@mhtanks]

I still understand this better than Warframe's lore/story

[@user-tn2fv5rx3c]

I thought the main character of cruelty squad was mt foxtrot as he also appears in the game brigador

[@Chosen7uB3]

Great description

[@phyrexiasfinest473]

In the beginning, there was no sun. There was only Gorbino

[@Scirvir24]

Great video, man! Subbed

[@Summerslide0978]

This is some Scientology level insanity for lore.

[@billybbishop]

Describing Cruelty Squad lore somehow sounds exactly like the game itself looks innsome sort of sinesthesic confluence. Like a deeply cooked schizophrenic post on /x/ circa 2014

[@SilentAlcoholic]

Hello. Can you tell me how to view the levels freely like photomode like what you did for this video?

[@doctordirck]

When I did this video there was a plugin for the game called "CruS Mod Base" that had a lot of cool random effects like the freecam you described. Unfortunately after the ballsfish update the program no longer works. Actually as I was shooting footage for this video the update automatically took and I had to download an old version of cruelty squad to finish getting the footage I needed.

[@SilentAlcoholic]

@@doctordirck damn it ville

[@Demonskunk]

Holy fuck. I knew a little bit about this game’s insane lore, but not the origin story.

[@stealth7225]

I have a theory on the apartment atrocity mission. The person you assasinate in the mall mission has followers that placed a price on your head. And hense the fact that not only cruelty squad but the police were hired to take you out, since the world is transaction based, and from what you said, the law is up to the highest bidder... they could have just covered it up as a "fat fingering of the SSN" to midigate retaliation from john. I also love the fact that john just decided to kill his landlord while escaping.

[@SuperZergMan]

DIVINE LIGHT SEVERED I AM A FLESH AUTOMATOR PUPPETED BY NEUROTRANSMITTERS

[@mrsauceman6825]

I have now developed mild to severe schizophrenia from trying to understand the lore of this game thank you

[@catttsshar4y8]

"the sun looked apon the earth with malice" tf was bro mad at?

[@PlantModes]

Amazing video

[@doctordirck]

Thank you!

[@manilovetherogue]

you have the soul of an emperor. thank you

[@megoz]

Nah you wouldnt get the full lore unless you smoke a pound of bathsalts and connect with all the gods

[@eeyuup]

And as always, it all boils down to Chunkopops.

[@slade8748]

Quality content and non schizo post. Subbed.

[@justincholos.balisang6884]

Gorbino is love, Gorbino is life

[@bubbhaha2792]

20 minutes instead of 8 hours eat your heart out pyrocynical