Last week, a masked gunman killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. Thompson’s wife said he had received threats possibly related to ‘a lack of coverage’. UnitedHealthcare reportedly uses “a faulty artificial intelligence algorithm to deny coverage to elderly patients” according to CBS News, denying coverage for chronically ill patients, per ProPublicaDespite billions in profit. When UnitedHealth Group issued a statement on Facebook about the CEO’s murder, the majority of emoji reactions – more than 57,000 out of approximately 62,000, were according to CNN – were the laughing emoji. Many others online have turned to uncomfortable and dark humor in response to the shooting. One of those responses was a custom map for Consumer Softproducts’ 2021 first-person shooter Cruelty squada game where you play as an assassin in a capitalist nightmare world.
In the base game you start by taking out corporate enemies. It is an aggressive, surreal and deeply strange experience. Cruelty squad players can create custom cards that live on an equally aesthetically aggressive website. This new fan-made map is called ‘Hilton Hitjob’, an apparent reference to Thompson’s murder.
Here is the description of the card; this mimics the writing style Cruelty squadset in a dystopian cyberpunk world:
UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson has recently failed to provide sufficient spare bodies to executives by denying claims and then reaping a paltry 22.7% denial rate. This is already beyond the possible tolerances of our clients, but with the holiday drug rush, we can no longer forgive him for not meeting the demands of the market. Once he’s removed from the equation, we can expect to finally get back to partying. We have given you a rented bicycle to intercept the target.
Video of the mod shows a first-person perspective of someone picking up a gun and approaching a man in a suit from behind – once again recreated in the surreal aesthetic of Cruelty squad – before shooting and fleeing to the bike. It’s creepy, essentially a first-person recreation of the security footage distributed by police of the actual shooting.
Polygon has asked for comment from the creator of the mod and from Valve, owner of Steam, the online store where Cruelty squad is sold. We will update this story when they respond.