21 Deeply Disturbing Indie Video Games

tonight's presentation although edited for YouTube contains imagery and subject matter some may find disturbing while our program is educational we still feel that viewer discretion is advised now it's true that one of the Columbine shooters did say that his crime would resemble two he also said in the same sentence and it would resemble the atrocities of the Vietnam War the Columbine tragedy was not caused by the exposure of teenagers to video games it was caused by the exposure of two mentally unstable individuals to a society that they hated to take their actions as representative of all teenagers is no more justified than to take the actions of the 9/11 hijackers as representative of all Muslims both of these are rational fallacies and both of them that's a clip from a probe video game rally in 2010 around the same time when everyone's favorite terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to put limitations on what a video game can and can't say little did he know that video games are one of the best mediums to convey everything from a political message to a heartfelt emotional tale because of games most defining trait interactivity it makes them the perfect choice to deliver some of the most disturbing and unnerving content around indie titles more so than mainstream games are not limited to focus groups or publisher compromises making them some of the best vectors for singular pointed visions which ultimately leads to some of the most gritty disturbing uncompromising creepy stories in the entire industry with a few mixed results so with that being said sit back relax and turn down the lights and prepare to be scared as I present 21 of the most disturbing indie games around [Music] the last time this channel discussed the Lisa games we took a look at the most well-known entry in the series Lisa the painful however did you know is actually the second game in the series the first game came out in 2012 and was titled Lisa the first the two games despite being from the same series differ in many ways instead it takes on a more humane Nikki inspired gameplay experience with no combat and a silent protagonist it is also considerably shorter than the others in the series you play as Lisa Armstrong the titular young girl in a time before her spoiler alert' eventual suicide that would soon be depicted in the following game you're able to explore her mind as she copes with her sexually and physically abusive father Marty oh this game doesn't let you forget Lisa's constant abuse deformed monsters taking on the look of her father a nauseating world textures and not so subtle phallic imagery await you at every turn what makes this game so tragic is the constant reminder of how hopeless Lisa feels and her father's hurtful hands and this was how she felt before she took her own life freedom is nowhere in sight and since her brother is not anywhere in the picture she's completely alone in the world to deal with Marty her home is littered with trash mold and broken glass yet her father doesn't care he's not physically or sexually abusing her he's a neglectful of her physical health all he cares about is his alcohol and his TV it's no wonder lisa has to resort to these psychedelic breakdowns to escape reality but even then her father still seeks into her pores rotting her mind away with each painful last she experiences even without the story the game still makes up one of the most uncomfortable gaming experiences you can find the soundtrack can only be described as nauseating consisting of catchy tunes such as several TV audio records being blurred at once and ominous several note loops that just feel claustrophobic this coupled with the grotesque backgrounds makes you not too surprised that this is how Lisa's mind has been deformed from her abuse even at the end of the game when you're still hoping praying that Lisa can escape this life of abuse you're reminded that there is no escape no happy ending this is her life and it will be until the day she dies Marty will never let her go because life is cruel and as the following games dive into very painful for Lisa Armstrong the story of Misawa involves a girl who mysteriously goes missing and three months later several of her classmates talk about how she was bullied by everyone around her and at the same time strange and deadly incidents have been jokingly blamed on her ghost known as the massage curse this game was created using the RPG maker program and it was created by sin with similar gameplay elements to AO Oni Misawa is a horror RPG title with many story elements pointing towards a theme of the effects of bullying and depression and even sexual abuse with a very and it may take on it we don't need to go much further than that this story this game tells the supernatural horror that features very screwed up events that most people won't be able to relate to but the disturbing thing is outside of the ghosts and spirits the underlying tale about sexual abuse and trauma is still very possible and it's something that is very hard to watch considering it's only $3.00 on Steam if you're mature enough to handle it give it a look [Music] notes of obsession is a freeware game developed by 17 Swedish gaming development students all made in the span of ten weeks it places the player in the role of a woman in her upper middle-class Swedish home where all seems normal enough she is lured from her cushy living room up to a child room a mysterious vintage music box sitting on the dresser which is I considering how much it clashes with the rest of the houses decor once the music box is found the woman begins to hallucinate strange symbols appearing on the walls when the music plays you must locate simple scattered around the environment in order to progress through each room however with each room you go through the house becomes more decrepit and you begin to get a feel that you're not really alone it feels like something is following you creeping from behind and occasionally slamming doors or pounding on the walls to talk about the gameplay any further goes into spoiler territory and the ending is a powerful one for such a short game without any dialogue it carries a chilling atmosphere of building horror leading up to the final climax of the story the puzzle mechanic of the music box is also interesting and who doesn't love a good old-fashioned creepy music box in the children's room for a horror game it's hard for someone like me to talk about a game like this you see I used to love telltale games and I had a policy of buying one after another the moment they got an out - walking dead the wolf among us and even Borderlands I love them all until they release Minecraft story mode and the less I say about that the better I just hated what the games were starting to become Walking Dead two and three were enjoyable but then the company shut down right before it got back into my favorite series the wolf among us these kinds of games suck you in through story and minor decision-making and in the early days if you made a mistake people would die others to become outright hostile and it was all about the kind of story you wanted to craft telltale kind of lost that when they employed the new policy of illusion of choice as opposed to actual choice in the early days when you offended people they would be mad at you and it would affect about how the story played out well in the end Lee is going to die and Clementine is going to be left alone or with some other survivors how you got there was significantly different the tension was entirely up to you and the decisions you made and that's what brings me the oxen-free oxen-free is a game that's taken the tell-tale concept to the next logical step you can interrupt people mid conversations remaining silent and letting them talk is also much more of a valid option than it was in the old telltale games and your choices have a lot more weight upon how people look at you in this iteration all the while you're enjoying this fun story full of teen angst drama and neuroses they also introduce a supernatural subplot that threatens kill you and your party of misfit friends however by the end of the game the thing that's gonna disturb you the most is not the ghosts or depictions of suicide or any of the other creepy happenings on the island but rather it's a horror of realizing that sometimes people drift apart and trauma cannot only just build bridges but also can burn some down sometimes you go through an ordeal with a friend it strengthens that bond however sometimes it just makes it so that they can't relate to you anymore by the end of the game I somehow made my step-brother want nothing to do with me my a pot-smoking best friend date another girl who also wanted nothing to do with me and then also another person who was hanging out with us on the island that I tried to make friends with ended up wanting nothing to do with me even after I tried to make every decision that would save everyone in our group they all drifted apart yes the ghosts that infect time like a parasite and possesses your friends that make them do horrible things like jumping off of a building or killing themselves in various horrifying ways is kind of creepy but the real neat kicker here was the fact that after the game was done my player character was left alone when after such a horrifying existential experience all because I the player had to make tough choices that did it and out well this game no lying at all at the end brought me to tears some people like to say that traumatic experiences can bring people together but like me and many other people know and like this game states trauma can oftentimes tear people apart through the game's narrative the subjects of divorce death suicide and trauma are explored in great detail throughout the entire game really there is two plot lines that run through the center of the narrative the personal story between Alex Jonas and her family which grounds the player into the world and also includes her great ensemble of well acted friends then there's a supernatural story which talks about the history of the Adler Sandesh sunken submarine that was blown up and killed 83 naval officers through that this friendly fire this lingering feeling of regret anger and injustice leaves them tied to this island and well these possess you and your friends in order to escape this hell of constantly reliving those final moments over and over again this game can be stressful and it can be deeply disturbing watching your friends die over and over again through drowning jumping off of buildings and many other horrific methods of suicide leaving you questioning your own sanity from time to time and in the end depending on the choices you make you can find yourself all alone by the end of the narrative it preys upon fears of anxiety depression and the fear of losing everything due to factors that sometimes are quite literally outside of your control and I don't know about you but saying goodbye and wallowing in those lingering feelings for a prolonged period of time is deeply disturbing to me the gaming world was devastated when Konami decided to drop their critically acclaimed demo of Silent Hill PT in addition to letting go of the series's lead director Hideo Kojima however in 2016 a demo for a new horror game that had taken heavy inspiration from PT was released for steam greenlight being named re 77 since it is still in demo not much can be said about the actual plot of the game beyond pure speculation you play as a silent protagonist as they wander down a hallway of a house littered with children's drawings however when you reach the door at the end of the hallway you're right back where you started thus you continue to wander aimlessly through this one hall as subtle changes begin to take place throughout the confined space objects are moved or replaced ominous writing appears on the wall and the hallway gets progressively darker it almost makes one question their own sense of reality if things were like this the last time you walk down the corridor as you continue to progress through this becomes much more distorted as the line between reality and nightmarish horror blurs near the end you begin to hear radio broadcasts that set up future plot points in the game along with the vague imagery scattered throughout the house the best way to experience what this demo truly has to offer is to play it for yourself it perfectly captures what the stillborn project of Silent Hill PT could have been like and its sense of atmospheric horror without any jump scares is a rare commodity in the horror game industry [Music] cry of fear this one's a real throwback if you're watching YouTube or more specifically let's place in 2012 you'd remember this game so allow me to take you through this particularly the nostalgic horror trip cry of fear is a critically acclaimed horror game often said to be one of the best horror games of the early 2010's starting as a mod for the game half-life 2 that would evolve into its own project the game allows you to take control of Simon a young Swedish man left wounded and scarred after a car accident on waking up you begin to see extremely deformed ravenous human-like creatures that one nothing more than to crack your neck open and drink it like a can of Pepsi through the game you meet insane medical professionals horrific creatures and childhood friends an ever evolving story that takes up many chapters the way you play effects the ending you may receive the dreary shadow obsessed gameplay often coupled with the game's world atmosphere as the Silent Hill inspirations are worn very clearly on its sleeve today I'm not saying it's a bad thing Silent Hill is a goddamn classic after all hallucinations memories and of course depression are all underlying fears assignments flashbacks towards doctors and therapy due to the availability of the title is highly recommended as mere words cannot describe the horrific and heart-pounding tension this game provides best played in a dark room really late at night [Music] [Music] little nightmares is a puzzle platformer horror title developed by tarsier studios as with layers of fear is a consistent state of public availability being available for PlayStation 4 Nintendo switch an Xbox one the game that since received extremely positive reviews with critics praising the brilliantly disturbing but somehow alluring atmosphere graphics and story speaking of the story you play a six a hungry little girl she's forcibly carried out to sea by a dark mysterious vessel called the ma the ma has filled to the brim with obese creatures often referred to as guests most of which seem hostile to the player after she finally escapes the harsh confines of the ship she soon becomes stalked by the long armed a blind janitor who was test with capturing runaway children while exploring the dark and dreary world of the MA you must always stay aware of your surroundings since avoiding certain death at the hands of the various monsters blocking your path to freedom isn't exactly as easy as tying your shoes you'll be forced to use her instincts if you ever want to escape your sea-bound prison using your trusty lighter to light the path of salvation you must use everything to your benefit to escape the many guests on board of ma though you meet many horrifying and distorted creatures on your adventure one stands out and she's simply known as the lady a slender female character wearing a Japanese style outfit and mask she's often subtitled as the watchful eyes as she's been watching six progressed through the ship before I continue to give the ending of little nightmares away here's a spoiler warning split spoiler warning the lady can be penned us the main antagonist of the game as she's the last opponent six must face on her journey of the lady who appears to be egotistical and vain in nature seems to avoid mirrors at all costs six finds this out and eventually uses one to weaken the lady in the final stretch of the game defeated she collapses to the floor motionless and six devours her whole I told you she was one hungry little girl after doing so six takes on the lady's powers and the game comes to a close the lady seems to be the main topic of discussion for theorists trying to piece together a coherent story many people theorize that the lady maybe six is mother or that she's the god of the twisted world six lives it what do you think if you haven't played Little nightmares yet go out and do so it's an amazing experience I think any horror lover should play [Music] this is another game made in Wolfe RPG editor by URI the story of The Crooked Man is a story of David Hoover a troubled man who just bought an apartment when the whole world goes the crap and his darkest fears come to the forefront much like other games made with the RPG maker engine the gameplay is mostly puzzle solving and item gathering as you progress through the story the game manages to really make you feel the pressure and hardship of David situation by doing so with a compelling story that gets through through the abundance of gameplay hiccups and admittedly overuse of jump scares the overall disturbing atmosphere though is still impact and is enough to get least for me get me through the story at a breakneck pace so I can overlook some of the admittedly obvious scares awaiting in summary The Crooked Man is about how David the protagonist and the crooked man are very much similar characters of one another except one of them actually committed suicide and had come back from the dead David and his friends have become victims of this Crooked Man in that they all remind the antagonist of his own life and The Crooked Man just wants to forget the pass not by moving on or growing emotionally but by taking out these lingering emotions on the cast of characters much like a Japanese horror film he wants to kill them and they attempt to get rid of anything similar in his afterlife he's a vengeful spirit after all your job in the game is to discover to pass and find a way to bring peace of his vengeful spirit so the deeper and underlying meaning of The Crooked Man is that David is dealing with this horrible bout of depression anyone who's been through thoughts of suicide can certainly relate and it's the kind of horror that really sticks with you if you're the right person David's life has kind of grounded him into the dirt starting with his mother being hospitalized into Alzheimer's and his girlfriend leaving him at just the wrong moment I mean his friends are there that try to help him out as they get him an apartment so it can sort through his life and try to move on the problem is that sometimes in life there are more terrifying things in the world than just emotional demons to overcome sometimes they're one in the same haha looks like you've made it this far into the video and I still haven't mentioned night in the woods look if you saw my last video on night in the woods you know why I find this game disturbing night in the woods is an example of how horror can be used not only just to entertain yourself but also help you work out your own issues by putting a mirror to your own reality and help you understand just a bit more about yourself so that you can be better by the end of the experience for a quick summary for those who haven't seen my last video on it 9 the woods is about coming home in order to escape the harsh reality of college life only to find a domestic horror hiding right under your own floorboards in your own neighborhood instead of finding comfort our main protagonist may only finds that everything has changed people have moved on without her and by extend or leaving her alone her own anxiety and feelings to work through not in the woods touches upon everything from cosmic horrors and more existential fears and furthermore I saved my life if you want to learn more about that story you can always pick it up on Steam or switch for $20 watch my last video on it where I discuss how it honest-to-god may be one of the best most enriching pieces of media I've ever consumed in my life [Music] life after us the system drops the player off in an abandoned mental asylum with the task of finding an old woman named mrs. Hemington s granddaughter the girls described as having the mind of a child due to severe mental illness and recently has escaped back to the asylum where she was once held while mental asylums are meant to help the mentally sick unfortunately they can be riding inside and mistreat their patients as this girl learned the hard way the player finds several of her notes scattered around the asylum that talks about her mistreatment from the asylum staff the most horrifying part about these notes is uncovering this rather disgusting sexual abuse the girl suffered from a man named dr. Tarr as you continue to progress to the game and find more notes the girls story becomes more and more heart-wrenching just the thought of someone being so sick and twisted that they would take advantage of a mentally ill girl for their own sexual pleasure it's just revolting on so many levels and it's not like you're able to do anything about it either all you can do is keep reading notes about events that already happened and wonder when this depressing life of the poor girl will end or at least when you can escape the asylum chances are you've most likely heard of this game it's critically acclaimed and constantly releases haven't sure to consistent state of public availability so whether you're on position for Xbox one Steam or Nintendo switch you can play a layer of fear now I'm here to tell you why you should go ahead and do that layers of fear has one of the best atmospheres of any horror game creating a surrealist mind-bending experience only possible with today's technology you play as a wounded painter as he walks around his home and begins to slowly lose his mind doors appear and vanish on a whim stuff moves on his own and well let's just say the main distort and unnerving portraits that follow you along the walls don't help your situation very much I mean look at these things they're [ __ ] terrifying the game's uses of shadows and very slight extremely subtle changes to the environment consider you deep into a maze of paranoia you'll be freaking out the sound of your own footsteps by the end of the game finding each note left by the NPC's of which you can't help but feel some inner fear of inclusions the overarching story is a sheer delight and will awaken the inner voice of any completionist the multiple endings each with their own monsters and gut crunching scares Willy just about any horror aficionado to bite their nails the warped and unstable painter searches to finish his masterpiece each winding stairway of madness makes you wonder if even should the story paints thanks a picture of obsession going above and beyond what a normal person should do pushing and even punishing those who we love and who love us in the pursuit of artistic integrity it's a story that has been passed around through the ages but will always be relevant as even the most common of us can find ourselves rocking back and forth and sanity can be contagious that way as madness will transmit from the on-screen character to the player you may need to leave your lights on after playing this [Music] the graveyard is not your standard horrid em there are no jump scares no real demons zombies vampires or spooky scary skeletons blocking your path to sum it up this game really doesn't have much it does fall into the controversial subgenre of games often called even in mocking walking simulators a game whether isn't much of an objective it plays out as more of an interactive art piece and for that reason alone the game has gathered controversy so I'm calling it an unnerving and somewhat beautiful experience while others may refer to it as simply being pretentious enough talk though what is this game well you play as an unnamed old woman who's taking a lonely somber walk through a graveyard almost everything is in black and white almost in a noir style as a soundtrack of mostly silence plays I say mostly because the occasional bird chirp or dogs ought to be heard not a single bird or dog can be spotted however what you do see is a bench right about here you have two choices both extremely thrilling sit or not to sit if you sit a song slowly devours the silence a pulsing lo-fi track detailing the life of a woman people she knew the people in her life who had since passed this is a game about lamenting it's slow pace is deliberate while listening to the somber tone which is sung entirely in Dutch by the way your character may suddenly die no bells or whistles no grandiose ending just uh it's monotonous yes but it can lead you feeling a strange sense of dread in distress it seemingly accomplishes more and a simple premise than most other games can with elaborate million-dollar budgets sometimes a real way of striking fear is to simply leave it all up to the player afternoon make of them what they will [Music] papers please as a single-player dystopian document thriller in which the player steps into the role of a immigration inspector in the fictional country of astral sky which is very reminiscent of the Soviet Union if I'm not mistaken it also doesn't help that this game is sent in the year in 1982 the game is grounded in realism so much in fact that it actually might seem mundane to those who are watching gameplay and those who first hear about it however because of the role you play a unique perspective on this mundane task is given not only that but it allows her to game to tell a story in a very unique and unorthodox way it being grounded in such a way it's how it grips you let me explain you're located on the border between two very different countries as you assign whether or not people can immigrate to your native country of origin with each mistake you make a few dollars gets wiped off your paycheck you can't exactly allow everyone to enter the country and how the day's pay wiped can you it's a game of balance and feels uniquely human as it creates a juxtaposition that is both new and interesting based on what I'm showing and what I've said it may seem that this game has a very much a lack of story but that's where you'd be wrong the previously mentioned unique perspective is exploited in a way where it feels like the game is literally emotionally manipulating the player I know that sounds crazy but please allow me to explain now please forgive any mispronunciations going forward as I cannot find good pronunciations on a lot of the words I'm about to say rip you'll pass kana wants to enter asteroid ska the country are tasked with protecting everything looks up to date date of birth entrance deadline passport expiration his explanation for entering matches up exactly if it's work permit which seems to be completely legit as you flip through your guidebook to verify two passports issuing city and as you're looking at over yeah that seems a good check out too so everything checks out his weight seems to be in order and he doesn't appear to be a smuggler so you click the green approve stamp over to the passport push the documents back over to desk two weeks later you're having yourself a good look at today's wanted criminals list a spot that rip Yul is on the top of that list oh [ __ ] that's five fewer dollars that you'll have to pay rent and feed your kids you somehow feel the implications of your wrongdoing and this game likes to test you on your own morality like there's this person who clearly can't make their way in but has been disconnected from their family due to recent changes in border disputes so do you let them in and sacrifice a couple of bucks off of your own table or do you deny them condemning them there's a lot of moral questions that you must ask yourself all wrapped in the veneer of not nearly making enough money to even make sure your own are okay which leads you to maybe taking background deals or accepting money under the table which shows how corrupt the system actually can be I could go on and on about how the game lays you down in a emotional pressure but this segments long enough and if you haven't already bought the game I recommend you pick this little indie title up I don't think it's that much unseen [Music] this is yet another game created by sin and the wolf RPG editor that father is about a young girl named aya and eventually finds out the truth behind her father's profession the gameplay mainly involves puzzle solving and item gathering just like the many other RPG Maker games on this list however mad father works hard within its extremely limited gameplay to create a dark atmosphere that allows for satisfying jump scares and some extremely disturbing death scenes most of which are performed on little aya children dying and any contact will always be a touchy disturbing topic to discuss in any community let alone a video game way to take control of said child the story of mad father is about this little girl's dad who is a scientist that specializes in human experimentation his wife dies under mysterious circumstances and with it a horrible curse the Falls the mansion this ultimately concludes into an ending that leaves you with a sense of loss but mostly it just leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth for the more empathetic it might even make you cry so what could really be scary about an RPG game with the graphical death of a 2009 Newgrounds cartoon atmosphere and panic using its admittedly low amount of resources mad father uses its extreme shock factor and pacing to put the player in a tense constant state of suspense and tension the sound design uses sickening noises to create a real sense of discomfort this combined with its story and the disturbing subtext behind it really creates an unnerving experience I mean you're playing a young girl with an angry dad it capitalizes on some primal fears of powerlessness against a terrifying unstoppable enemy through the lens of what's known as domestic horror hello hell Oh may have a horde unreadable title but don't allow that to deter you from one of the most creative and honestly captivating RPG Maker games out there yes this is indeed a game made with RPG Maker however unlike plenty of other games that use that software as a virtual playground this one uses its retro inspired graphics to its advantage but the game's real strong suit is its play style and its collection of endings yes I said collection of endings this game has a total of 31 of them making an expansive and overall replayable experience you'll return to even just to see how different each outcome can be some will last a couple seconds leaving you puzzled - what just happened some will leave you on the edge waiting for the next event to blow you away in surprise however some well and some won't it's a mixed bag like that bag of snack mix sitting in your cupboard you might need to eat a few tasteless pretzels before you can get to one of those M&M like candies this game is truly an underrated gem with many twists and turns that weave a twisted tale of loss spirits and the phones yes phones play a large role somehow and as much as I would love to go into deep detail about the multiple paths your playthrough may take say more will be a spoiler it would simply kill any and all playability most of the fun is how the game doesn't directly tell you what's happening as the game keeps the underlying story hidden throughout the story can only be weaved through Clues left out for the player to explore in their own way which for some games may be a hindrance but here adds to the appeal check it out for yourself I mean you can't get any cheaper than free [Applause] [Music] [Applause] developed by mortis ghost as one of the rare French games to become popular in a freeware indie horror game community off is an oddball out of the pool of RPG Maker games swimming around on the web to put it simply if you're to play any RPG Maker game on this list I'd probably recommend this one to go first this game is really weird and because of that it's actually grown decently in size and fanbase the monochromatic color setting is strange the characters from talking cats to laughing men in frog masks are just unsettling and the plot is so vague and confusing right for picking apart for any sort of theorist out there the battle system is nothing to scoff at either it's a traditional RPG turn-based system as with most RPG maker games and you level up through experience and use items to make the protagonist and his allies stronger the game follows an enigmatic humanoid named only the batter and his quest to quote-unquote purify the four zones of the world the zones represent a different part of society such as civilian areas factories and mines that all revolve around interesting elements in this world the four elements unlike in reality are meat plastic smoke and metal because that makes sense each zone is crawling with specters for the batter to defeat to save people living there as well as a guardian to serve as the big boss of each zone so alright creepy let's get this out what what's so creepy about this game again well the game doesn't sound too ominous outside of the visuals it begins to get creepy once you really think about the plot and gameplay the game starts off as the plot says the batter is tasked with eliminating the monsters that are attacking the workers named the Elson though soon the Elson begin to beg for their lives pleading for the batter just to leave them alone and let them do their work the batter doesn't seem to care he's willing to cut down anyone and everyone who stands in his way to purify the land and let me say I do feel little Hitler II saying the word purify so much and between the game's actual narrative and art style that's the kind of imagery that keeps getting invoked at least for me and it doesn't matter if they're actually attacking you if there are a attacking specter or a innocent Elson the batter will just kill them and there's nothing that will stop them the player as a character is actually thrusted into the role of a omniscient God who controls the batter who in turn controls the fate of land it and other characters are aware of you as the players presence as the one whose puppeteering all these events and they have no qualms of making you feel guilty about all of it all the choices the batter makes are your choices you're choosing to brutally murder innocent workers and their Guardians all for your own moral conquests to make the world pure you've always had the option to turn off the game yet you choose to complete the batter's quest which at least to me upon first playing through this game and experiencing its narrative for the very first time which is honestly one of the first times I've really seen it done well before games like undertale decided to make you feel bad for playing the game all I have to say is that when I first played through this game it left a visceral impact on me and for all that is said and done it was pretty damn disturbing hello neighbor is the debut title of Russian developers dynamic pixels the game despite having an art style akin to a crappy Pixar knockoff touches on some very dark subjects ranging from how childhood trauma can linger into adulthood to the effects that death can have on one's psyche this game though critically panned should be praised for its genius and inventive storytelling the gameplay may be uninspired boring downright unfair at times but as with most horror games nowadays it's an afterthought the appetizer leading up to the main meal let me explain as best I can the game is separated by three acts Act one starts with our young protagonist as he chases the ball down a steep hill missing persons flyers litters the streets as they pass by or shadowing what's to come for our young protagonist he's bald and lands on the yard of a strange mustache man the official novels because that means to exist gives him the name mr. Peterson so for simplicity's sake I'll refer to him as such our protagonist looks through a window to find mr. Peterson aggressively shoving what can be presumed to be a person down the stairs of his basement before locking and boarding the basement door the player filled with courage curiosity and the will to help sneaks in and tries to find a way into the basement it doesn't take long until he's thrown into the basement himself doesn't seem you're the first to be trapped there as empty food and drink containers and an old dirty pallet letter the basement floor our protagonist lays on the palette if ting off to sleep is asked one comes to a close Act two is primarily made up of dream sequences one that paint mr. Peterson is a more tragic than despicable character these dream sequences act as more of a back story told by confusing symbolism to explain why mr. Peterson is the way he is the first of these sequences show mr. Peterson and whom we can only assume to be mrs. Peterson getting into their car and driving off it has then shown that the couple hit a speeding pizza truck as their car becomes total importantly however it seems mrs. Peterson got hurt in the accident as her husband lay next to her sobbing the next dream sequence shows mr. Peterson pacing back and forth in the waiting room of a hospital a doctor can be seen talking to Peterson but no dialogue can be heard judging by his actions it seems she's passed away the next few dream sequences are very hard to explain with words I know the last two were pretty straightforward but that just isn't the case for the rest to avoid getting into theories I'll leave you here if you're intrigued you'll play it yourself or better yet watch Marc play or something tells me this ain't gonna be too friendly a visit the gameplay is just unenjoyable and confusing very unfortunate since the storytelling is stupendous we happy few as a few disturbing aspects about it due to the game's poor launch I think it was actually overlooked and we really didn't get a chance to explore the seams in greater detail we happy few has a very unique story structure basically you play through the main events of the game three times through the perspective of three different distinct characters the ending of each of these chapters don't interact with one another however everything leading up to it of course does the story takes place in a world where two Germans won world war two and now everyone in the town of Wellington wells is on a pill called joy it makes you hallucinate and damages your long-term memory and also makes you forget pretty much everything while you're on it in Chapter one and for most of the game you will be playing as a character known as Arthur Hastings who is a sensor trying to remove everything that references the lost souls and the children that were taken by train Arthur was going to be one of those kids however throughout the story we learn what actually happens and why he actually would want to forget typically in action games they want a route main protagonist but by the end of this guy's chapter it's kind of hard to give a flying [ __ ] for the man basically Arthur has an autistic older brother whom he convinced a sneak out to to train with him despite the fact that his older brother would have been far too old to even go instead out of fear Arthur took his ID and ultimately sent them to his death Arthur's ending involves him remembering what happened in great detail and getting advice from the officer who ultimately let it happen basically he's struggling with it and he's gonna have to live with it for rest of his life and that's the note that chapter ends on in Chapter three we return to a mentally damaged old fat diabetic old soldier named Allie he hallucinates that he's seeing this little girl at the end of the game Allie learns that the little girl he was hallucinating this whole time wasn't his own daughter but rather a TV personality known as Uncle Tom someone who he hated for being a coward and a traitor Allie turned a poor girl in and she went on to Train feeling so guilty about it he took joy and alcohol in order to forget his past sins his story ends with him exposing the truth and escaping on a hot-air balloon but not before saying goodbye to his past and learning how to truly move on just seeing Allie try to hold on to everything only to be forced to say goodbye to this little girl that he shared so much of his adult life with and much of our game with was heartbreaking what do we do now you say goodbye to him I'm not really your daughter I know and I'm not really here that I'm a lie too we've been together so many years you don't think having an invisible friend it's a wee bit babyish for a man who's been to war we can hide in the train station till it all blows over I'll let you put all that on the telly I think it's time you put away childish things you're right you're always right goodbye okay sing goodbye and the weight of that word is truly one of the most terrifying things a person can do saying goodbye to your brother who you know you won't see again your past so that you can have a great future and your friend who you eventually will grow out of in the end goodbye means letting go of the weight on your shoulders and it's terrifying it's a change and no one can possibly know what comes next but that's a part of the human experience it's braving those changes and we happy few shows us that this is why we happy few is very very flawed but it's still an amazing game it understands this much and crafts a truly disturbing story about the human condition [Music] the tension is a Taiwanese survival horror video game created and developed by red candle Studios it's a 2d atmosphere core side scroller set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law the game incorporates religious elements based on Taiwanese culture and mythology usually involving that of dark and creepy cults and the plot goes on as follows during the white terror period in Taiwan which if you don't know was a period of time where martial law was inducted due to civil unrest and many other factors that I do not have the time to go into we Chongqing starts to nod off in class due to an incoming typhoon everyone quickly deserts the campus I guess we is one hard sleeper because he wakes up to find himself deserted confused he starts wandering to campus and hopes to find someone rather anyone who can explain what's going on he then encounters another sleeping senior student named Fang raishin while running through the auditorium they soon find out about the typhoon and realised that it's already hit leaving the bridge exit flooded by the river they then decide to wait out the storm in Wiese classroom we decides to look for a phone before the game violently shifts to Rey waking up in the auditorium again this time it's in a Silent Hill s nightmares version of the school with Wiis corpse hanging upside down from the stage ceiling now Rey wanders arrested to school avoiding different kinds of ghosts solving puzzles finding clues as Rey's story is slowly pieced together Rey was initially a talented academic achiever but her grades begun to slip as her parents fighting grew worse which is already getting into disturbing territories we're talking about divorce and domestic abuse and Ray's father would commonly come home drunk and throwing an overall [ __ ] fit while also physically abusing her mother grape Ray's failing grades soon earned her a visit to the school counselor's office she soon fell in love with mr. Hugh the school counselor please note senior students in Taiwan are usually 12 to 13 years old awkward well mr. Hugh's wife a Michigan Hugh found out and wasn't too happy about the situation she soon confronted Chang as he agreed to stop seeing ray not knowing that she was eavesdropping and listening to every word the very next day he claimed that her grades have greatly improved and his services were no longer needed this sent ray into a spiral of depression and anger and overall desperation believing the world wasn't letting her be herself and to devil to her hell being Michigan after finding out about an illegal book club ran by Michigan which we was a member of she decided to steal one of the books and brought it to Bao go Fung a loyal veteran of China for context attention is set in the 1960s at this time Taiwan was under martial law by China the government was eager to find and eliminate any support of communist ideas for people who didn't support China rule now here's the generally [ __ ] up thing about this game many books are material that can be deemed as communist would be outlawed and transporting smuggling viewing or even touching some of these illegal goods could be punishable by death many families just accused of such a thing could be put to death which put a lot of people into a constant state of fear hence the name the white terror to make a long story short mission escaped the country and mr. hue ended up being executed in her stead only leaving ray to fall further into despair and depression because she inadvertently caused her true love to die by her hand because of a stupid mistake that a twelve-year-old made in a state of genuine confusion we and the other students involved in a book club ended up getting 15 years behind bars ray felt an extreme amount of guilt for her actions she then decided to take her own life leaping off to school building the disturbing factor about this game is Ray's fight against her overwhelming feelings of grief and guilt and inadequacy that's starting to cause anxiety depression and suicidal thoughts each monster she encounters is yet another hardship she must overcome another emotional demon and have greater symbolic representation in the deeper narrative her insanity taking the wheel as it tries to drive her subconscious off of a steep cliff is the true horror behind the tension and I know this channel has said it before but I'm going to say it again if you or know anyone who's dealing with depression and/or suicidal thoughts please use the numbers on screen now suicide is nothing more but a permanent solution to a temporary problem if you're willing to look there is help nobody should have to deal with this alone and let me tell you no matter how alone you feel you can never be alone in anything you're dealing with [Music] made by one person jasper byron lone survivor is a very interesting and creepy survival horror game that takes after the gamecube classic eternal darkness not only do you have to be careful around the monsters that rest in the game's over world but also the trippy events that happen due to the deteriorating states of the main character's mind not only that but the 2d art style only serves to enhance the psychological horror I play because everything is so abstract it's hard to tell what anything is locations change depending on the character's mental state which affects everything from the monsters you encounter to the ending you end up getting if you played an old santa hill type game then you will be at home here as well the whole time it's very tense due to the many monsters that reside in the dark apartments and eventually the city outside in this game due to poor controls dispatching of the entities is something that's very difficult the puzzles are not that good collect item why find or key X get past obstacle Z the typical trappings of the genre what makes this game different is the fact that now you need food and sleep if you feed him unhealthy food and keep him on drugs to stay awake then yeah he's gonna be less mentally sound however if you take care of him he does a bit better killing the monsters or stunning them also tends to have an effect on your mental health meter in fact quite a bit of stuff as an effect on this meter in the end this is a game about mental health abuse sent pure horror it uses these elements well and through the use of good sound design creepy visuals it kept players unnerved [Music] I've already talked about one of red candles other games detention however this one is recent in fact I'm writing this right now as I'm also editing the rest of the video I'm also physically unable to get gameplay footage that is my own because as far as I know I don't know what this game will ever come back to the marketplace reviewing this deeply disturbing came the be pointless as it's been lost due to political problems the Chinese censorship basically a placeholder asset was left within the game and it was politically controversial as it mocked the Chinese president and as a result had to be taken down with no certain future for this game for those of you who want the spoiler free version of this game devotion is a commentary and the rampant infestation of cults that lurk within Taiwan due to lacks laws not really limiting their activities on top of that it's a disturbing tale about what happens to a father who loses everything and turns to a crazy religion for a attempt to pull it back together only problem is that in the end doesn't really work out for him and he ends up losing what he has left red candle games are deeply disturbing as you can see by the gameplay footage I'm showing now it's deeply rooted within the culture Taiwan as a whole and knowing more about these disturbing cults and furthermore the bloody history of the country will only serve to make their games even more visceral for the rest of you I don't want to say much more about devotion because I hope it comes back that you guys will be able to give it a good long look along with myself you it looks like you made it to the end of the video I hate to say this but during the production of this project I got laid off from my office job so I just wanted to let you guys know that patreon is more important now than it has ever been before right now YouTube is certainly paying enough to at least afford me to live from check the check but right now I'm in a incredibly scary situation regardless your guys's support so far has been absolutely amazing and if you made it this far all I would like you to do is leave a comment letting me know you made it here and the Kombi a dufus or something mainly because I loved it when I read comments for people to like oh look I saw the whole video it's it's it's really encouraging and all that stuff right now I'm incredibly nervous about the future but I'm gonna try to get on to a two video a month schedule and it's gonna be like one short video one long video so that way you guys are always getting the type of content you want and by the way a short video on this channel is like you know 20 minutes so it's not really that short but you know sure for me anyway thank you for watching and thank you for the support you guys have been amazing for getting me through this I mean even now it's all because of you guys that I'm not actually homeless right now so thank you you you

Channel: That Creepy Reading

Views: 1,486,641

Rating: 4.8974252 out of 5

Keywords: That, Creepy, Reading, 20 Disturbing Indie Games, 21 Deeply Distuurbing Indie Games, Disturbing Indie Games, 20 Shockingly Disturbing Video Games, Blameitonjorge, Detention, Devotion, Super Eye Patch Wolf, WatchMojo, Oxenfree, Night In The Woods, Off, Markiplyer, Hello Neighbor, Papers Please, Little Nightmares, Layers Of Fear, The Graveyard, We Happy Few, Notes Of Obcession, Lisa: The First, Lisa The Painful, Lisa The Joyful, Cry of Fear, Misao, The Crooked Man, top 10, video games

Id: 3xm2pQxtwi8

Length: 59min 31sec (3571 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019