H.P. Lovecraft Lives Inside Your Computer

[@ArchitectofGames]

MADNESS AND DOOM COMES FOR US ALL! SOCIETY WILL CRUMBLE, THE WORLD WILL COLLAPSE! QUICK! SPEND YOUR EARTHLY WEALTH WHILST YOU CAN! www.patreon.com/ArchitectofGames In his house at X, dead Elon waits dreaming, dreaming of twisting reality itself into ever more unknowably lame nerd humor from 15 years ago: twitter.com/Thefearalcarrot

[@RoverStorm]

Lobotomy Corporation did an interesting version of this. For most of the game you are watching heavily stylised cartoon chibi characters handle equally cartoonish monsters that look horrible and do nasty things, even in a cartoonish artstyle. Then relatively early, the artstyle suddenly breaks and while still anime-esque, it becomes vastly more "realistic" and the cute cyber-door in the background is replaced by a blood stained realistic door. One of the characters then explains that your "sanity preservation filter" broke down and they fix it before "you see any of the monster's without it turned on". I have never had a stylised artstyle be CANON before, and then I wondered what the monsters looked liked...

[@NotaWalrus1]

I found this especially effective for the monster that is just a bunch of censored bars. Even the filter had to give up on that one and just hide the entire thing because it's so horrible there's no way to render it safely.

[@mateuszkaczkowski3025]

That is, conceptually, one of the best things about Project Moon games - every mechanic is canon. Saving and loading - corporate deal with Time Track that basically enables the whole plot to happen. Customizing employees - time travel based cloning thingy with a whole department dedicated to it. YOU IN FRONT OF A SCREEN DIRECTING THINGS - indeed, that is the position of the corporations manager with duties exactly matching the gameplay. Don't get me started on Ruina's combat pages and Limbus' identities and mirror dungeons.

[@lisatroiani6119]

ultrakill does something similar to this, where the low-poly art style is meant to represent low-quality video captured by V1 (basically a gopro with a body) and can have you question what the baddies of that game look like in full res as well.

[@Xenomorthian]

@@lisatroiani6119 the Low Poly art style was explained as most combat machines render the world as simplistic as possible to devote less processing power since they don't need 4K HD graphics to fight

[@lisatroiani6119]

@@Xenomorthian exactly. that’s what i was trying to say

[@Emily-su1te]

HP Lovecraft was literally such a chronically afraid person that he created an entire genre of horror. His stories reflect the fear of so many things that are normal and understandable, especially compared to the horrifying complexity of modern sciences. The Colour Out of Space was written not long after the discovery of ultraviolet and infrared light, and is about how colours we don't understand will destroy our lives and turn us into colour zombies. Imagine if he saw Google

[@elk3407]

I have to disagree. Ever read The King In Yellow? Lovecraft copied most of the hallmarks of his writing style from other horror authors. That's not to discredit his work, BUT he wasn't nearly as innovative as people make him out to be

[@SpoopySquid]

​@@elk3407what we know now as 'Lovecraftian' was originally known as 'weird fiction', named after the pulp magazine a lot of the original stories were published in

[@elk3407]

@@SpoopySquid Exactly. And I'm going to be blunt, even though Lovecraft was a decent writer.... there were far better weird fiction authors both before and after him. He's just the one in the public conscience the most.

[@SpoopySquid]

@@elk3407 I have a Complete Fiction compilation and yeah, hard agree. There are a few stories that are genuinely good (if you ignore all the racism) but most of it is just meh, and a few are absolute trash (e.g _Cold Air).

[@alecchristiaen4856]

Unlike any bigoted creator, he didn't make works to feel safe, but to channel his fears.

[@The_Industry]

I love the boss battle in Inscryption where you have to bet on one of your files. I don't even know if the file *actually* gets deleted if you lose, but the tension of that fight was just insane.

[@polocatfan]

SPOILER: it doesn't, P03 tries, but isn't able to. you get extra dialogue and an achievement if you move the file out of the folder or delete it though.

[@nemtudom5074]

Oh yeah, that dev likes to design like that Go play Pony island, they made that one too and its similarly strange and interesting!

[@hugofontes5708]

Playing on Linux using Proton really killed that vibe for me. All the game could ever see was a bunch of cookie cutter fresh out of the oven virtual driver stuff. Finding 1-b files and useless log files was a breeze

[@GameDevYal]

One thing that really blew me away was the reveal that the MyHouse map is based off a real house. Seeing this thing existing in real life was a deeply uncanny experience.

[@ArchitectofGames]

Woah I didn't know that! That's a great detail!

[@HipsHyde]

@@ArchitectofGames If I remember right it was also inspired by Caretaker's Everywhere at the end of time albums which are quite horrific experience about progression of Alzheimer's disease. Kind of like in the game the (memory of the) house turns gradually into something that doesn't resemble it anymore. And I think it's the reason why myhouse is unsettling too

[@devforfun5618]

you mean the normal house at the start, or do you mean the non euclidian house exist ? because a normal house existing is entirely normal

[@woodsytheowlscharedcorpse4761]

@@devforfun5618 It's not revealed how they're connected but there are photos of the kitchen/ living area, the basement (including a visible door hidden behind the book case) and the interior of the first non-euclidean room with the big window and pepsi.

[@alecchristiaen4856]

I do think there's more to Lovecraft's horror than just the uncanny, although it did play a large part. Loss of, or altogether lack of, control is also a strong theme. Most narrators of Lovecraft's stories are learning of the plot after the fact, beyond a point where they might have exercised agency. They're unable to stop the most fundamental of horrors in their respective tales (like how Olmstead may snitch on Insmouth's Shape of Water-reenactments, but can never undo his own heritage) and are confronted by a world they couldn't change no matter what they'd try. Times when the game rips away your control are honestly terrifying. Generally, giving the player agency is good game design, because a game is always driven by the audience. But when a designer actively denies us one of the most basic assumptions of games, not only is this uncanny (as you've said), but it also ties into the despair of powerlessness that is central to cosmic horror. It unsettles and disheartens in one fell swoop. A personal favourite is being killed by a snatcher for the first time in Bloodborne. While the scare wears off quickly, respawning in a strange new place with no clue where to go is good for a moment of genuine anxiety as you struggle to find a lamp while avoiding the lanky bastards that put you there.

[@agustinsmania5270]

i think a good example of this is what i once did with my buddies when playing DnD in roll20 for those who dont know(like my friends did at the moment) the site allows you to load gifs, play music, edit the looks of the layout, and even force move the camera of the other players if you are the dm. i had never used these tools previously and as such, my friends didnt know about them so when i faced them against an eldritch enemy, i used these tools to confuse and scare the mas much as possible like having the same static image of a character token have the character inside break out of the token and reach out towards the screen by activating a paused gif, playing small sound effects in the background, overlapping the music track, moving the screen by force. the would have never expected such a thing from a simple board game night, and as such, it left a big impact

[@smergthedargon8974]

Oh man, that sounds fantastic. Absolutely stealing it for my game.

[@valdonchev7296]

The uncanny and unknown makes for very effective horror, but I would love to know if this could be turned the other way - to curiosity, not fear. Part of whether the unknown inspires fear or curiosity comes down to aesthetics and mechanics - do the things remind us of threats, and are they a threat. However, if we feel safe, the unknown can be a joy to pick apart and understand. I have now played two games in which a central mechanic was using context clues to decipher alien languages. In fact, my favorite moments was when I went from figuring out words with the help of the game, to figuring out grammar or how certain parts of words had a special meaning, such as signifying that the word was a verb. The understanding of the system, and the mastery that came with it, was incredibly satisfying. My point is, something being unknown magnifies our reaction to it, whether it is a reaction of fear to a threat, or a reaction of wonder to something... wonderful.

[@BrewerM23]

You should look into Antichamber. It's a puzzle game where space and genre conventions are broken.... but nothing is ever actively scary. The game might be brainbusting and, if you find warped space creepy, then you might get disturbed....but you're never under threat and, generally, if you can't solve the puzzle in front of you, you can warp back to the main menu and go to a different area for a new puzzle. It also has very clean graphics with nothing spooky to them. So, it's a good way of exploring warped space from a position of safety.

[@tuftyindigo]

Interesting thought. I'm a formalist so I really enjoyed Antichamber and I like anything that plays with and subverts the medium - though a lot of games that attempt it end up cheesy as a result - but I'm not into horror games, so I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of experiences that would fit right in my wheelhouse if not for the horror aspects.

[@pieterfaes6263]

I'd say curiosity is probably the starting point/prerequisite for horror of the unknown, not the other way around. The unknown plays into our innate curiosity about it, probably due to an evolutionary drive of ours to understand our surroundings. When unraveling the unknown (a little) grants us helpful or indifferent insights, it can be satisfactory, wonderful...like figuring out a new puzzle in Portal. But horror of the unknown subverts that drive. Rather than build, it intends to shatter. Lacking curiosity would make such horror moot. You can't get scared of the unknown if you never seek it. It's probably what underpins the term 'ignorance is bliss'.

[@oldvlognewtricks]

Did you not just describe classic Star Trek?

[@valdonchev7296]

@@oldvlognewtricks Probably. Really, any sci-fi or fantasy setting has the potential to create wonder of the unknown.

[@Hammerheadcruiser]

The first time I played Outer Wilds, the quantum stuff spooked me something fierce. It was deeply uncomfortable to close your eyes and then everything to be different. The beautiful ending actually had my heart going at how everything kept changing.

[@Przemko27Z]

13:12 I feel like there's a distinction to be made there between games being "lovecraftian" as in depicting lovecraftian horror themes through its story and "lovecraftian" as in embodying that lovecraftian horror of the unknowable through their gameplay. Most games directly inspired by lovecraftian horror tend to be the former, since that is generally easier and arguably has wider appeal.

[@danielhale1]

While Control wasn't necessarily "scary", it was deeply intriguing. I really loved its presentation and the way the main character responds to events (because of her past, the Oldest House feels to her like coming home instead of being lost). It makes it very clear again and again that we don't always understand how these other entities operate, and can't be sure our interests align even when we seem to be on the same side. The "astronaut", the cabal of mysterious benefactors (and holy crap -- how they talk), all sorts of paranormal objects and the intelligences driving them, the Oldest House itself... These never filled me with horror, but the unsettling and unknown properties did a fantastic job of keeping me deeply interested and invested. Horror isn't always the goal!

[@skuliakmaniak288]

I remember hearing Lovecraft for the first time on a radio station in my cottage, alone. I was sitting in this old kitchen, staring at the wall...it was monumental

[@THExRISER]

I listened to Call Of Cthulhu when I was deep in a depressive episode, alone, in my college room, it was quite the experience.

[@davyhotch]

I had a lot of fun with Inscryption with the playing cards in the woods pulling out teeth as a powerup. Felt pretty Lovecrafty.

[@Ashtarte3D]

It also gets the uncanny right as it constantly throws you into weird side scenarios and then changes the game around repeatedly. Which is kind of a signature of Daniel Mullins at this point: expect the unexpected.

[@tuftyindigo]

I think this video is one of your best yet. You really tackle the subject in depth and bring intresting new ideas to the discussion. Often I feel like you spend so much time discussing the basics of a game design question that the new thought is reduced to a rushed thought at the end, but the balance worked much better this time, and the result is a higher tier of video essay. Thanks so much for this!

[@ArchitectofGames]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@liamr6761]

I think Barotrauma also has some of these elements, with the fact that your submarine is your confine of safeness but the outside is dark and unknown and your ability to see outside your submarine is extremely limited. It's one of the facts that makes it so much fun. That and the ABSOLUTE CHAOS !!!

[@fiascothe63rd]

I love the example of the archangels from Cassette Beasts. You have no idea how quickly I sat up in my seat upon seeing sharp edges and non-voxel 3D in that game.

[@justinsinke2088]

This touches on something I like to bring up when talking about horror games in general. "Horror" can be a theme or an aesthetic. Take Dead Space, for example, as you show in the video. The first game felt like it was trying to be a genuine horror game. The following sequels really didn't, and more used the aesthetic of horror elements. If you only use the aesthetics of Lovecraft, you're kind of missing the point, and without that point, it's not particularly scary. Outside of jump scares, unless you have an appropriate phobia, pure aesthetics generally isn't all that scary.

[@Ashtarte3D]

It's the same way with films. Friday the 13th films are ostensibly horror the same way Rosemary's Baby or The Babadook are horror films, but they are nothing alike in aesthetic.

[@fieldrequired283]

I always like to say that Dead Space 1 is a great horror game with action survival elements, and Dead Space 2 is a fantastic action survival shooter with horror theming. Dead Space 3 is the third one.

[@jdubluffy1959]

As someone who is diagnosed with a panic disorder the fear of the unknown is absolutely terrifying on a day to day scale. The feeling that someone is following you or someone is trying to take your arms or your eyes is very debilitating. But the fear of insanity is worse for me. I’ve had bad derealization episodes where I believed everyone else was fake and everything was a dream was horrifying. I didn’t know what was what and couldn’t trust my own judgment. Not being able to trust your own logic is the worst feeling ever

[@blastburnz]

Glad you had Irisu Syndrome on screen 16:05. That was my first game that absolutely smashed the 4th wall. Scared the shit out of me in a way I never thought possible. It was as eye-opening, in terms of what video games could do, as it was terrifying!

[@onlysmiles4949]

This video puts into words why I thought the most deeply discomforting part of Soma that I wanted to leave as soon as I possibly could was one of the few areas that had zero tangible threats but where the map screens and terminals started talking to me. Like it got to the point where I viscerally avoided looking at screens because the whole idea of the game communicating in this way put me deeply on edge

[@hichewtim8439]

the description of "My House" sounds like its inspired by the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and not so much HP lovecraft. Sounds super cool ill have to check it out

[@pelicano1987]

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was the first game that scared the hell outta me with its sanity mechanics. Sorry to spoiler such an old game, but the HIDEO black screen, the shoot himself while trying to reload, the goddamn erasing of the memory card that I was sure I pressed save not erase, and many more

[@artur1075]

I rememer this game. This was a true horror game.

[@bimmelhex3025]

In case of myhouse it really plays into the whole uncanny/lovecraftian theme that it was posted as a 10-15 minute game on a forum. Like someone leaving an old haunted item behind so another one can be its victim.

[@Draconicrose]

I hope Chao never unsubscribes because the "and Chao" has become embedded into my brain as the end of the video.

[@LimeyLassen]

Thanks for helping me notice this!

[@masonburton6467]

Love the touch of the after-credits music being "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet."

[@alaricsnellpym]

Sorry to hear you've been having a bad time. I really appreciate your videos!

[@PTFVBVB]

begging and pleading on my knees for a video mentioning Antichamber

[@happy-kh4uk]

Despite is being my new favorite game since playing it, I do have to agree with what you said about Dredge. Despite adoring my experience, I really didn’t find it very scary. (Spoilers below) The one time the game truly scared me was when I was traveling to Devil’s Spine to complete the secret ending when I first encountered the leviathan. This is the one monster event that can show up at any time in the game as far as I know, and while it didn’t attack me, I didn’t stick around to find out. It’s the kind of thing I wish the game did more, and I hope they do more of in the DLCs. The games incredible though. I love the time management aspects, concise open world without any fluff, and weird fish text, and the free updates over the past few months have only enhanced it for me.

[@AnotherDuck]

It's a very cozy horror game.

[@dantelokesten]

You referencing Slay the princess and Lily wells makes me so happy, those games are amazing. Edit: The song at the end got me so hard, wp sir

[@AnotherDuck]

Resident Evil does play with it a lot. Zombies aren't uncanny because we expect them to be there and become used to them. Toss one of them into a game where they don't belong, and they're uncanny. You have things like the Crimson Heads, since those are enemies that come back after you've killed them, which when they were new broke the convention that dead enemies are dead. The Ganados appear like normal zombie-substitutes, but then they start spawning things after you shoot off their heads, which has up until that point been a good way to kill enemies quickly. In the Rose add-on for RE8 you have less combat but more of these uncanny events.

[@kingturboturtlednoc5722]

15:00 I think this aspect of being trapped in a tiny cramped room with a first person POV that we're used to using to navigate big open spaces is what makes Presentable Liberty's presentation so intentionally off-kilter. You are playing through a medium designed for freedom and exploration, and you are using it to sit in a tiny prison cell

[@ramencafe1]

bloody excellent work mate, you go above and beyond! much love

[@franconunez925]

4:05 Why is Sonic classified as ra- *remembers Sonic 06 and "Disgusting black creatures"* ... Yeah, it checks out.

[@radkovicbe]

Great video! Hope you don’t mind my thoughts on it: The appeal of lovecraftian horror seems to be towards people who have no experience of paranoia or psychosis. They’ve never had to deal with a friend or family member who cannot stop questioning reality. It’s someone who’s lived in safety and security all their life and is bored, so enjoys having their mind messed with. I don’t get the appeal of these stories - I am so grateful that I can be certain of what is real, having had someone I love lose that certainty. However, I’m not having a go at people who do enjoy these stories; the world would be boring if everyone was the same, and it is actually a wonderful thing that some people never have to deal with such horrible things outside of fiction. I’m not going to play these games, but would never begrudge anyone for enjoying them, and indeed enjoy videos like this that let me share in that enjoyment without experiencing them myself.

[@MartinPurathur]

I appreciate you bringing up how Humans do adapt to certain examples of horror, but that there's always more depth to be plumbed there. It's reassuring to hear, weird as that may sound

[@midori_the_eldritch]

I love games like manifold garden with nonlinear space, and was disappointed how little control used the shifting of the oldest house for noncosmetic changes that were basically walls. Looping spaces are easy to understand and box for me, and usually inspire wonder, but thats also because i have been exposed to it enough for it to be a simple box for me.

[@JA-in3hw]

The house map morphing like that reminds me of the game “Employee of the Month”. Its a trip.

[@deemaske9143]

i just finished dredge before seeing this video and i absolutely agree with you, i just wish it was more horrifying because there's a lot of potential with thalassophobia and other fear like this one

[@J0ezah]

Don't know what to expect from this video but am excited to see it, Lovecraftian Horror is one of my favorite things, tried making my profile picture look Lovecraftian and everything ^^

[@basteagui]

your pfp doesn't look lovecraftian.

[@bricknfleeks]

Everything he’s mentioned about the wonder flowers doing have been done in previous Mario games😂

[@iluvboothill]

PEOPLE NEED TO KEEP TALKING ABOUT WORLD OF HORROR! This game is fantastic and it shocks me at how under-the-radar it is.

[@harmoen]

This being posted after Halloween is him subverting our expectations to prove a point

[@MuteMusicalMorgan]

I've been binge-ing most of your videos and I have to say, this might be one of my favorites from you. Your examples were spot on, and I followed the concept the whole way through.

[@pauloricardo-wn6ps]

i wouldn't say system shock 2 is a very lovecraftian game but it pulls off the slightly off, uncanny details really well, and it's still a very accessible game to modern audiences, i slept on it hard as a horror game and suspect a lot of younger people now does too

[@manytinyboxes]

this video was absolutely amazing!!! it expanded the way i look at art which is completely invaluable, thank you so much :) ALSO if anyone has any music that utilizes this lovecraftian style of horror please let me know!!!! im really interested in pushing music in this direction

[@meibome]

This reminded me of a game I played in 2015. It features a shadowy, silhouetted main character and takes place in a dark and mysterious world filled with eerie environments and strange creatures. Each creature speaks strange sounds. There isn't much to do other than talk to the aliens. Uncanny horror 2d pixel game, side scrolling only, very adult and VERY indie from what I remember. The art was a mix of pixels, and collage like photos. It looks like a few of these clips and I'm hating I still can't remember. If anyone has thoughts, I would appreciate it>.,

[@Boreece]

At first I was thinking: sounds a lot like LIMBO, but that's not pixely/photo-y enough. Then I thought of Lone Survivor, but that doesn't fit with the shadowy main character bit... A third one I thought about was Going Home, but that hadn't been released in 2015 yet... Do you remember anything about story or other characters? (If there ismore of either of those, that is 😅)

[@joshuakirkham9593]

A video essay about my two favourites: H.P. Lovecraft and Video Games. 😊

[@grfrjiglstan]

For more instances of the uncanny, you should play basically any game Pyrocynical has ever talked about.

[@kargakral]

Excellent choice on the outro song

[@bgs7529]

I learned so much from this video!! Great one - thanks!

[@Ch4pp13]

When a game claims to try something new, it's usually just a twist on something you've seen before. The one game where they do something I haven't seen before, anywhere, is one of Rhythm Doctor's boss levels where they have the game window itself and move around to highlight the journey of the song currently playing, and when I couldn't help but just smile at how amazingly done it was... It was only something that was possible because it only has 1 button effectively, but I wish more games could utilize stuff like that. A puzzle game could have you use the game window as a magnifying glass, a platformer could toy with the window itself being a platform... Just stuff like that.

[@daxtron2]

Every time I watch one of your videos I get more ideas for game projects I'm working on. Thanks Adam 😊

[@zacharymacleod1146]

hearing Adam pronounce the letter H as HAYTCH caught me off guard more than anything in the entirety of My House

[@Mossenfresh]

great content Adam! thanks for making great videos, you are appreciated. ❤

[@sacredfish362]

This reminds me why Midwhich from silent hill one is so great. It takes a universal place and adds some horror elements. Not only that but once we familiarize ourselves with the layout and gain some expectations we are thrown into a new perverse twist to the school.

[@mattd5240]

Eternal darkness is a game that gets Lovecraftian pretty right.

[@vesperlord4342]

The End of the Road update for Monster Roadtrip was my most recent hit of a game hitting this weird, uncanny zone for me. I'd been wondering why a few locations I'd been to in early playthroughs hadn't shown up for a while, only for me to hit week 9 and for them to start showing up, but with one of the options crossed off. I was immediately unsettled, because it was the first time this game had taken choice away from me. From there, it flipped a lot of stuff that the game had previously played for laughs- the repititive structure of the game, jokes about metafiction and the characters realising they're in a game, and made it all feel so wrong... Before ultimately showing all this horror and existential dread to be in service of a conversation about the nature of fiction and fictional characters that was one of the most profound experiences I've had with a piece of art in a while.

[@Skaatje]

I still don't understand why you don't have atleast a million subscribers by now. Your content is amazing everytime!

[@Crotaro]

Thank you for the consistently pretty good content! I know it's probably easier said than done, but don't beat yourself up too much, especially when you do have a relatively constant income stream. Personally, I don't mind getting a new quality video every few weeks or months instead of getting it sooner but with either lower quality or more burnout for you. I believe full time Let's Players are more guilty of this, but you don't have to turn every game you play or interesting mechanic into content for the channel. It's okay to enjoy something for yourself and not start writing a script in your head while you're still playing it.

[@insaincaldo]

Congratulations, you made me think about "The PC Gamer Experience - Door Monster" with how you described my computer as a cosmic horror.

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

thanks for sharing about house wad. I had no idea such a map existed. also, excellent video.

[@abigfavor]

I spent a lot of time in college building simulated computers with transistors, learning about the physics of electrons, and programming in assembly/C/etc. to not understand what's in a computer :D

[@smergthedargon8974]

Elden Ring sneaking in a PT-esque dungeon that seems to loop back on itself made me feel far more insane than most Lovecraft-inspired games.

[@tiagotiagot]

Visual media, even more so when interactive, is a very challenging format for communicating extreme insanity, illogical realities etc; the need to actually show in a fixed form, pre-specify a limited set of rules etc, tend to force you to either show and establish too much to convey what is meant to be unknowable, or not enough to provide sufficient immersion to communicate the intended experience. It's not 100% impossible; but there are significant limitations, and what is doable can require more way effort than you would expect if you didn't think it thru already.

[@draghettis6524]

It's not a video game, but the Lancer ttrpg, benefitting from being quite of possibly the second most uncanny medium of all, has some nice cosmic horror in it, related to paracausal tech and everything RA ( an eldritch god accidentally created by 5 hyper-advanced simulation AIs, and who has taken complete control of Deimos, including its position ) spawned, such as NHPs ( Non Human Persons, because nothing about them is man-made, so they aren't called AI ), essentially informatic demigods that, if left unchecked or, as the lore puts it, if they cascade to the point they escape their shackling, can do all sorts of weird shit like altering what we perceive as reality, or fuck with pretty much anything. And NHPs are used everywhere because turns out a severely limited demigod who lost their seemingly infinite processing capabilities when forced to think through a human-compatible worldview, aka shackling, remains far faster and far more capable than any artificial AI. Their use goes from data processing for bureaucratic purposes to spaceship piloting, with the one players are the most interested in being when you put them in a mech, and they allow you things like better hacking ( Osiris-class NHP, associated with the Goblin license ), probability bending ( see DnD's Portent ? Well, one NHP, the Sysiphus-class, linked to the Pegasus license, allows you to do it. Twice. And you can refresh it with an action ), doing things faster ( Asura-class NHP, linked with the Sherman license ) or just splitting someone into two chronological possibilities for manoeuvering or rescue ( Didymos-class NHP, associated with the Lich license ), or just go berserk ( Sekhmet-class NHP, from the Blackbeard license ) And I won't go into Metavaults, mostly because I don't know enough about them, but just read this, the lore text accompanying the DHIYED Articulation, the core system of the Dusk Wing mech ( a very small but mobile flyer, essentially a fast and armored EVA suit powered by cold fusion, and that was upgraded using tech and knowledge obtained thanks to the expedition in the DHIYED Metavault ) : “Belief in what we could see, what we could touch - in what our COMP/CONs assured us was there, in our own subjectivity and memory. Belief in reality became a weapon. We approached the metavault knowing that we would face an unknown enemy, but we approached with the advantage of numbers and machine strength. “DHIYED taught us as it killed us: through garbled comms chatter, through the screams of the dying, through the cackling of our mirror-selves as they killed us. Every spoofed signature, every temporal skip, every memetic, every non-Euclid - these were lessons. “Do you understand? “DHIYED the Teacher. DHIYED the Monster. As we killed it, DHIYED taught us what to fear, and how to face it. “What do I fear now? That's a good question. What does the pilot fear who cracked open DHIYED’s casket? “I don’t think we killed it. I think it wants us to believe we killed it - and I cannot imagine what it has done while we think ourselves safe.”

[@luska5522]

“- funny thing. See, right now, this weapon technically doesn’t even exist. You’re shooting them with a gun that isn’t real, and yet it is! Don’t worry about it. RA’s like that. Just, here, know that because it exists at some point, we’ve made it. That’s causality, and causality is a--"

[@stonetimekeeper]

Shadows over Innsmouth also plays on his fear of the ocean... as does much of his work.

[@Coffeepanda294]

Excellent point about games essentially being unknowable in their own unique way.

[@pierrethehandsome2518]

Lovecraft was a great writer.

[@RBrito-fd4lc]

Nothing will quite make feel so helpless and scared as the end of rain world's ascension

[@zacharywong483]

Absolutely fantastic writing, as always!

[@MantasticHams]

im sure some games done it before but alan wake 2s dark place enemies are a really interesting one thats been keeping me off-kilter the whole game. Theres is a ton of nearly identical black silhouetted characters, and the majority are harmless and disappear but only if you stare at them for a moment or walk right through them. I still can't fully label how i figure out one is a real enemy vs fake, and i also still get it wrong often enough to keep me on edge. Theres been just enough times where something odd happens and i cant tell if i misunderstood what was going on and made something up in my head, or if the game broke its own internal logic, and thats happened just few enough times to be unnerving, but also not irritating.

[@JonathanMeyer-o4m]

Undertale is full of this stuff, between Photoshop Flowey, Sans' judgement scene, and characters remembering actions you took in in past playthroughs, the game is full of uncanny horror and tearing down you perception of reality without even being a scary game

[@Zuginator]

The best game that really made me feel "crazy" and full of horrors was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. If you played as a Malkavian, play WITH headphones. When you talk to NPCs you hear whispers, lies, and truths about the game. They did a great job with the visual alterations!

[@C0C0L0QUIN]

Malkavians are amazing for a second playthrough, when you can actually see glimpses of truth in the madness.

[@SpoopySquid]

19:57 _Shadows Over Innsmouth_ is way more wild than that. The entire story was inspired by Lovecraft's discovery that a great-grandparent might have been ... drum roll ... Welsh

[@kharijordan6426]

I feel like I just watched a tail foundry video. This video is great.

[@kacperdrabikowski5074]

To be frank, I have not considered Lovacraft's writing to be an uncanny valley applied to societies and worldviews. To me, the horror there was either the realization that the universe is not only greater and stranger than one knows, but greater and stranger than one CAN know (and accidentally creating possibly least unrealistic vision of aliens) or a related fear of one's perception of reality being false ("Polaris" is such a great take on Lao Tze's parable about the dreamer and the butterfly). But now that you mentioned it, it makes sense. That said, I don't think that non-uncanny games can't 'get' Lovecraft right. Cosmic horror is not just about the uncanny, it's also about indifference. The universe that Lovecraft fears is vast, incomprehensible, alien and indifferent. The Great Old Ones are not dangerous because they are malevolent, they are just so mighty and so strange that they cause devastation just by being and moving around. "Annihilation" is not terrifying just because of the twisted life, but also because the being that causes it seems to be utterly mindless force of nature that does things just because it is (I'm referring to the movie here). Games have a hard time pulling it off due to interactive nature, but it can be done. For example the first Mass Effect and the moment when you first meet the Sovereign - the realization that there is this unfathomably ancient and powerful thing that can brainwash people just by them coming close to its hull and that doesn't even register you as danger, just a bug on the windshield. I have to agree that messing with fourth wall and 'fundamental rules' of the fiction are goldmine of horror material, though. It is so good, regardless of the medium: WandaVision, for example, gets a lot of mileage out of messing with sitcom tropes and even the very nature of itself as TV series, making sort-of show within a show with very fluid borders with reality.

[@Ag3nt0fCha0s]

Liquorice all sorts for disgust? The Discworls? I think I may love you.

[@tluets]

The ultimate madness in World of Horror comes from losing your save data when you SAVE AND EXIT the game

[@dulcineaquinn]

It looks like one of the strong points of My House is that it gives you the Doom arsenal to fight (or make you believe that you can fight) lovecraftian horrors. It's like how the main character of the Evil Dead series uses a shotgun and a chainsaw to fight demons who can possess and corrupt anything and anyone, even himself

[@aaronbennett3966]

Game call E.Y.E. your character can actually Hallucinate and can see enemies that aren't visable to the other players.

[@josef4692]

I would like to take this up and talk about the theater. Because everything is possible in the theater, EVERYTHING. You think theater is just a movie happening live then you've never been in a play where the person sitting next to you - watching the play suddenly fakes a heart attack - and that's part of the play which then becomes a detective story where people from the audience are interrogated even those who really paid for the tickets. This is some 4th wall breaking.

[@erylaria398]

All it took was seeing a few frames of the Nier Automata credits towards thr end of the video to instantly make me cry. That game fundamentally damaged me. I love video games ♡

[@timothyhansen4648]

Thanks for the dozen or so ideas for the DnD campaign I'm running!

[@juapatral]

Commenting all new AG videos until he talks about RTS Comment # 2

[@kingturboturtlednoc5722]

Wasn't expecting a Man Carrying Thing Shout-out but I'm not complaining

[@lazilexi]

I known it doesn't come off directly as a lovecraftian game (or even as a "true" horror game), but the way that Katana Zero handles its backstory and the drug Chronos really taps into the unnerving and uncanny in a way I haven't seen many games do.

[@Beowolf-jy5rc]

spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't played katana zero, have a look at it i was actually looking for a reason to mention it, after reading a comment i thought of the game (while you may have been implying this), the reason why is it doesn't let the player understand, the glitched way that certain event's happen that are hallucinatory and yet the most reliable source of knowledge and yet the most messy, as in, why dose the explanation of the war take place in a church, i don't think we know, we don't even remotely understand why anyone want's to bring chronos back, it keep's soldiers strong and yet easy to control, but it basicly break's it's user's making them reliant on the substance and is so blatantly inefficient for long mission's, unless the soldiers have it while in enemy territory, as in who would even think using it for more than 1 war is both a good idea and a moral one. the game is just incomprehensible and a replay doesn't help, it just make's it worse, you play the murdower hotel, beat the game, and then replay, and you look at the man reading the newspaper, and upon scrutiny, you realize that it's a man in a lab coat, with a silver mask, you now realize that the line between what's real and what's not is established earlier than you thought, and everything become's unclear, was the homeless man real, was it a figment of a twisted memory like during the appointment after v is killed where "he" explain's the actual horror of chronos, did zero kill an innocent homeless person, is the girl real because everything involving her can't not be real to some extent, we see the room cleaned, she makes tea (to my memory), but that all is questionable, it's not like we see her or the apartment at the end of the game, so maybe it's as messy as it was at the beginning of the game.

[@timpize8733]

Very interesting, and a lot of weird games I didn't know. I want to go check them all. Thanks for the video. 😁

[@chancecomic1595]

One of my favourite bits about cosmic/eldritch horror is that, before ramping up, it can be really subtle with how wrong something is, so only the observant and/or knowledgable will notice it Here's an example from MyHouse.WAD (Which I learned from Power Pak): The house has two floors. A main floor, and a basement floor. While that might not sound weird to you or me, people who know a bit about Doom and its engine will know that that shouldn't be possible. Doom's engine takes a 2D map, and projects it to make a 3D space _You can't have a room on top of another room. The engine is incapable of doing that_ It's such a small and subtle detail that really means nothing in the grand scheme of the whole map. But, if you've played a lot of Doom, it throws you off. Makes you uneasy. You know something's wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on what. And that's why it's so good. It's that little detail that says "That's not right", that fucks with you for the rest of the experience. I love it so

[@grahamwalker2168]

This is the feeling I get whenever entering the void in a videogame and I hate the feeling

[@matthewshiers9038]

Axiom Verge 1 had a brilliant scripted scenario about halfway through the game that was pretty spooky. It culminated in a battle where you were no longer controlling the humanoid character with the gun. I actually didn't know how I was supposed to handle that fight, and still don't know if the outcome would be the same if I'd won instead!

[@willhart2188]

I recommend you try Void Stranger. That game has some cool uncanny stuff hidden in the mechanics and the story.

[@emanuelalmroth6683]

Haha, this week was the first time I've listened to The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, Like The Wind. What a coincidence.

[@jlee479]

"Conceptual security". I love that term.

[@knpark2025]

As someone who's subscribed to both this channel and Jacob Geller a video about unfamiliarity is rather familiar, and it's uncanny for me in a 4-D mind games sense😅

[@maidsama4633]

TELL HIM TO GET THE HELL OUT THEN!!!

[@alexandreleao6689]

how is this video not about alan wake 2, it feels like plaing 2 horror games at the same tipe after droping two tabs, truly making you ask what is real

[@SideQuestStories]

Just straight up calling Freud "discredited" is a ridiculous oversimplification and disservice to his contribution to the field. You could say the same thing about Isaac Newton.

[@marenjones6665]

I'm so glad you mentioned Anatomy.

[@destinyhntr]

I think Bioshock 2's little sister level was a great way to be both familiar and uncanny. For a few minutes, you play as a little sister, a child who is insane and views the world as beautiful and mansion-like. You literally can't see any of the threats or danger around you until it meets you head on, breaking the illusion and reminding you that you are still in a grimy, horrifying sinking city full of monsters. It's unsettling knowing the pretty world you see isn't real and is actively preventing you from defending yourself. (There never end up being any real threats but if there were, it would make for a cool level.)

[@archaeologistify]

Hey I just wanted to let you know that going through my subscriptions, I realised your videos haven't been recommended to me for a couple months now and I must admit I forgot about your channel till I stumbled upon it clearing my subscription list. Yes, bell was on.