Darkwood : The Most Disturbing Game You've Never Played

[Music] [Music] e most horror games rely on two elements to scare the player jump scares and a creepy monster in the earlier days of YouTube and the internet titles like Slender Amnesia and Five Nights at Freddy's were considered to be so horrifying that most people were quite literally too scared to play play them but as time went on and the formula was sucked dry by countless ripoffs and wannabes the terror these games produced became more and more dull this can probably be attributed to the slow yet steady desensitization this a pretty good game actually most of us have experienced after years of seeing thousands of Let's Plays and once these games lost their Edge they became memes and other things so after becoming completely numb to jump scares is there anything scary left out [Music] there dark wood is a game that at first glance seems rather benign the unassuming top down pixelated art style is very rare in the horror genre but surprisingly this game gives a sense of immersion unlike any other the moment you click play you are greeted with texts saying you are playing a challenging and unforgiving game you will not be led by the hand respect the woods be patient Focus after this loading screen you were thrown into the prologue I see hatred and fear in their [Music] eyes as if I was responsible for spreading the [Music] disease as if I would the sword wor of all the misery liking this [Music] land I have nowhere to hide from them nowhere to run the woods have closed us off from the outside [Music] world we are all do [Music] starting the game we are placed in an extremely disheveled and dilapidated house we see what appears to be a fleshy organism growing out of the floors in some of the rooms in the main room are large humanized cages surrounded by chains for now we can only assume that the words spoken in the opening cut scene were from the character we are playing as which appears to be a balding possibly alcoholic Man based off the homemade moonshine device in his room the very first thing our character says is how the generator is almost out of fuel and that we need to get more this is a very important aspect of the game which will come up later as we continue to search around the house we find various medical documents a medicine bag and a bundle of medical tools which our character states are his tools and that the local patients can't be helped so there is no need to sterilize them based on this we can only assume our character is an ethically questionable doctor of some sorts we find another room in the house which when clicked on reads I would rather not open it I spent too much time to lock him in there in a drawer there is a photograph with the date December 6th 1985 giving us some clue as the period this all takes place in after combing through the house some more we collect some loose supplies like alcohol Rags wooden planks and matches exiting the front door of the house leads us to a badly Injured Dog which our character suggests that we put out of its misery with seemingly no way to immediately do so we carry on after pushing further into the woods we find an axe laying in the field at this point we have two options go back and take the dog out of its misery or let it die in suff uing continuing deeper into the woods in search of gasoline we see just how dense the forest is any attempt to push through the trees is futile as they have created a dense and impenetrable wall as the woods become darker our characters suggests making a torch for light using some of the materials we collected earlier this introduces us to the game's crafting system further down the only available path left unscathed by the rapidly growing foliage there is a completely burned down house being reclaimed by the ground it once stood on on a tree outside the house there is what appears to be a person being absorbed into the tree and alongside the house two dead animals appear to be slaughtered in almost sacrificial manner leaving the house we find an injured unconscious man laying in a field searching him we discover a key tagged with the number 21 after collecting the key we see a cut scene where we take the strange man into a room and then inject him with something this is perhaps in an attempt to get information out of him because this strange man is an outsider we assume that if he knows a way into the forest he must know a way out I need to get out of this ours of the forest you hear me [Music] rat show me how and I will let you go [Music] I sometimes hear her voice she's calling me calling me to return [Music] home where is the [Music] exit [Music] where show me where [Music] I'll kill you like a dog if I have [Music] [Music] to as our character leaves the room we see that the camera does not follow him but rather stays with the strange man the strange man struggles his way out of the ropes binding him to the chair and stands up saying that stole my key it is at this point that we realize we are playing as the strange man this man is the protagonist like yes literally in the game files his name is protagonist exploring the house this time things seem different most likely because we were playing as a new person with a different perspective now we craft bandages to heal us and a lockpick to open the small Cellar Doors using some of the items We Gather from a pile of loose clothing inside the cellar we find a shovel and a flashlight using the shovel we smash down the door breaking the shovel in the process walking around the house we see that the power has gone out likely because the doctor never refueled the generator in one of the rooms there is a radio covered in blood but it is silent using a a canister of gasoline that we find in a chest we are able to refuel the generator and restore power walking back into the room we just came from there is what the game calls a corpse spazzing around on the floor in place of where the bloody radio was its eyes are replaced by dials its mouth is wide open and a distorted staticky voice emanates from it repeating the numbers 1 using that code we open the padlock door we use a table leg to force the door open wide enough for us to fit through from the darkness a voice calls out for help as we turn the corner the man asking for help lunges out and attacks us forcing us to fight back striking the man several times causes him to fall over and die we know he is dead because when we search him the text reads dead man we find a plastic toy Chicken on his body and as we walk away we hear the dead man laughing he mocks our attempts of Escape as he asks if we can hear it the power suddenly goes out something begins breaking down all the doors and windows and in an instant we're attacked by shadowy [Music] creatures [Music] sh if you're enjoying the video so far subscribe this took me a ridiculously long time to make and maybe that'll give me a reason to invest in a better microphone and with that out of the way back to the video from this point on the game no longer gives us any hints The Mechanics for the game are simple gather enough supplies each day to survive and and get out on the first day we are given enough fuel to survive for one night after that it's up to us to find enough in the first chapter of the game there are three major areas dry Meadow Silent Forest and Old Woods we begin in dry Meadow the easiest area resources are limited so we cannot stay in each area for too long however if we rush into the next area too quickly we will find ourselves completely overwhelmed and underleveled within this new and unfamiliar house there are a few essential objects a workbench where we can store items and the only place to craft more advanced ones a wood cutter for turning logs into planks a generator for power a destroyed well some large pulsating mushrooms a few pieces of furniture with loose materials including a photo of the road home and the oven the oven presents us with some text stating a pleasant warmth is emanating from the oven I can sense a strange yet familiar scent it's the smell of the protective substance which gives me relative safety after dark the vapors rising from the huge cauldron are distributed all over the house via long pipes as long as I remain inside my Hideout I have a chance of surviving the night strangely we seem to be familiar with this substance this message also lets us know that staying out after dark is a bad idea on top of the oven there is a bottle with a label that reads staying out of reach of the protective substance after Nightfall results in immediate death in 99 out of 100 cases it is advised to spread the gas evenly inside the sleeping area even a properly prepared substance does not guarantee 100 % safety remain Vigilant it is recommended to stay in well-lit indoor areas in order to minimize the risk this label gives us three interesting pieces of information one is that our Assumption of nighttime being dangerous is confirmed two being that even when inside the protection of the gas we are still in danger and three stay near the light after examining the oven our character States when I arrived here a couple of days ago the oven was basically prepared I just needed to light it up to ensure my safety at night this Cottage must have been one of our hideouts the inhabitants of these Woods don't need to inhale this revolting gas now this makes us wonder about the timeline of events if the protagonist arrived here a few days ago when was he captured by the doctor and how did he make it back here we will have to revisit this when we have more pieces of information to start to put things together another Curious Thing is how our character knows that the inhabitants do not have a need for such gas and how he speaks using the phrase our hideouts once we get a sense of our surroundings and gather the courage to leave our Hideout it is likely that we will get lost only our Hideout and the location of an underground bunker are marked unlike many other games our map does not actually show where we are on it just the major landmarks that we have discovered one of the most important gameplay mechanics in Darkwood is the vision system similar to games like project zomboid we are only able to see enemies and certain objects when they are in our direct field of view this mechanic is one of many that gives us an incredible sense of paranoia our first day in dry Meadow is very important we need to collect as many resources as possible and secure our Hideout out for the night [Music] [Music] we have a little under 9 minutes per day to get as much done as possible before nighttime the risk versus reward is something we will always be balancing going further from our hideout can reward us with more and better materials but we will have less time to prepare for night as it takes us longer to return with our Hideout being located fairly centrally as we use up the resources directly surrounding our base we will continue to have to go further and further after each day passes one of the first weapons we will get our hands on is the plank with nails each weapon in dark wood has a limited durability after each strike it's dur durability decreases and when it reaches zero it breaks and we are left unarmed this is why we craft a backup before the first night we are able to collect enough mushrooms and other rotting fleshy materials to extract enough Essence in order to create our first dose this unusual system allows us to select from four special abilities Eagle ey letting us see further moth allowing us to heal at any light source once per day Navigator giving us the ability to Mark our current location on the map once per day and mushroom healing well that one is pretty self-explanatory picking one of these requires that we choose one negative perk with the only one available being Shadows this makes being in complete darkness very dangerous to us thankfully during our first night we don't encounter any unexpected visitors [Music] after Sunrise we find a mysterious figure Breathing heavily in our Hideout this individual also known as wolf man claims to know about the key that we need to escape even from afar I can smell your putrid stench be glad I don't have an appetite for carcass is I know what you're after I can help you reclaim what you've lost if you help me attend to a certain matter what do you say comrade before we make a deal you need to prove that you can do the job I've got no time for weaklings you follow Show Me What You're Made Of get through to the Silent [Music] Forest Wolfman claims to know about the key that we need in order to escape however he will only assist us if we prove ourselves by making it to Silent Forest a significantly more challenging area we can also engage in item trading with Wolfman using rep a basic currency system where giving him items adds to our total rep and taking items subtracts from it while exploring dry Meadow we come across several important locations the first being the bunker hidden beneath a ruined house inside there is a large armored door marked with the numbers 21 this serves as our exit route however without the key we remain trapped further south lies a demolished building containing various mushroom patches a red seesaw and a few wild dogs inside a safe hidden behind a sofa there is a child's ragged white dress one of many lore items that we will find at the northernmost point of dry Meadow we encounter a locked cabin surrounded by trees overhearing a heated conversation from inside we realize it's inaccessible for now these landmarks are the most notable in dry Meadow with other locations offering minor items but nothing significant to the story after surviving the second night and having a strange encounter we meet the traitor a mysterious man with an unsettling appearance who apparently saved us from the doctor's house the traitor only communicates through writing on his arms his first words to us are we need to stick together brother he offers various items for barter though many are beyond our current means additionally surviving each night earns is a small amount of rep with the Traer after gathering enough resources in dry Meadow we are ready to begin our journey to Silent [Music] Forest the entrance to Silent Forest is on the westmost point of dry Meadow behind a dense patch of trees lies another ruined Building inside the building is a toxic sludge blocking our path [Music] after crafting a Molotov cocktail we easily burn the sludge and make our way through finding a note on a corpse with a code we open the metal door and take our first step in Silent Forest near the entrance we also find a sleeper who says hey there friend in the last hideout look for an exit beneath the floor The Hideout in Silent Forest is significantly more difficult to protect with more doors and entry points for enemies and the layout Corners us into the building inside the workbench we find a bike bell with a note attached reading liquor tasting and transport services fast and efficient when wrong this bike Bell summoned the bike man the bikem man will transport items between our hideouts in exchange for a bottle of moonshine a fair trade if you ask me heading deeper into Silent Forest we now meet The Wolf Man at his new camp he then instructs us to follow a road that leads to a village and to find the lady who reeks of chickens apparently she is hiding something within a locked room in her house and wolf wants that key after returning to our Hideout and surviving yet another grueling night we are able to create our second dose of the essence giving ourselves the eagley trait this time the injection doesn't go so smoothly we are sent into some sort of nightmare we appear to be back in the bunker where the door leading to the exit is walking through the corridor we hear voices beckoning us to come [Music] closer as we approach the door and press our ear against the keyhole we hear a familiar voice coming from the other side calling us Looking Through the Keyhole we see another ear pressed against it on the other side with someone saying come come to me suddenly the door [Music] opens walking into the Misty Forest we still hear that voice we follow a trail of shiny rocks leading us to a lone lamp on a carpet turning on the lamp we see that we are surrounded by thousands of bodies some moving some not as we walk away from the lamp it begins to Glow [Music] brighter and walking back to it reveals that in its place is now a large glowing baby turning the light off this time we follow another trail of [Music] rocks this one leads us to a comfy looking [Music] bed lying down in it awakens us from our Dream following the road that wolf instructed us to we discovered the entrance to the Village note that entering the village pauses time for us very useful as we will spend a considerable amount of time here the village is a horribly rundown and desperate group of locals Sheltering in their forgotten and struggling town with food scarce and disease rampant many inhabitants have turned their last hopes towards the South an overgrown monstrous pig that provides them with food in some of the houses we find villagers who are suffering from the later stages of the disease their floors are covered in markings clawed out with their fingernails and they lay naked in their dark rooms mumbling to themselves in a state of Madness their appearance is eerily similar to the bodies that we have seen in the dream Nestle between some of the houses in the village and next to a ruined well we find several holes dug into the ground notably they appear to be dug out by hand in one of the small holes we locate the person responsible for them entering the large hole we are instantly taken back to our Hideout this tunnel acts as a fast travel between these two locations at the end of the path in the village we find the chicken lady in her home speaking to her we see that she is also suffering from the plague her skin is dry gray and leathery almost corpse-like the very first thing we do is show her the plastic chicken we took off the dead man from the doctor's house surprised she says that it was a gift to her brother and that he has went missing a few days ago as he went off with this fella as she hands us a photo of the doctor presumably we killed her brother in The Doctor's house or was it a hallucination she speaks of the sa and how it is their primary food source while in conversation with her a viol Ln can be heard in the [Music] background the chicken lady curses at the musician insisting that he leaves walking outside we can see the musician who runs under a nearby tractor when we spot [Music] him it's not my fault I know it doesn't sound too too great my violin it it it's a bit broken I won't play anymore sorry um sir H have you been in that Hut the chicken L's Hut you're you're not afraid of her you're you're brave hey and have you seen her the pretty lady she's the most beautiful lady in the world I watched her through the cracks in the windows she changes when I watch her gets more beautiful I I play for her I I want her to be happy because she she doesn't seem to be the the chicken lady locked her in that room she she keeps her in there she envies her she won't allow anyone to see her e even me she she knows very well that during the last Koopa night I I fished the pretty lady's wreath from the river yes yes sir the chicken lady knows what it means oh yeah yes I I will become the pretty lady's husband we we will walk hand in hand sir I will play for her Mister sir I I tried to release her but but the chicken lady she She chased me off she always does I I also looked for the second key at at Mr jams but now he's disappeared I I I don't know how to get into his house so kind so so very kind yeah you were just like him my daddy but my papa has changed Mister just like my mom they will not listen to me they they won't hear how sad I am sir oh but am I not but Bing you sir please don't go please chear me out don't go perhaps you could help me please please find the key good sir to to the pretty lady's room the the chicken lady has it well well Mi Mr Jan also has it I I saw him recently near the well the the well is here in the village maybe you will find him there he he used to hang around it often he he stared into the we well a as if looking for something or or someone I I must hide now hide from the chicken lady I I will go to that place where they used to keep all the Grain in the Southeastern part of Silent Forest will would you bring me the key if you find it I promise to repay you somehow me and the pretty lady the musician wants the key so that he can save the pretty lady this is the same key that wolf is after we are left with a very important decision we know that wolf offers to help us find our key in exchange for this one but we are not sure he can be trusted the young boy also draws a lot of sympathy and is honestly more trustworthy than wolf so we are in a bit of a dilemma we now know that wolf wants the pretty lady in the room but what are his intentions the young boy also speaks of Mr Jan the person who also has the key to the room he says that we may be able to find Mr Jan near the well in the village after speaking to the boy we head to another building further south here we discover a woman laying in her bed mumbling to herself inside the next room there is a charred body wrapped in Chains in front of an oven using the chain we find on the charred man's body we descend into the well that the musician said Mr Jan hung around traveling through the tunnels inside the well we arrive in a building that is inaccessible otherwise this is Mr Jan's house inside we find the key to the chicken lady's house throughout the rest of the village we find notes from the doctor Within instructions for how to treat some of the symptoms of the disease we also find a man burning the same medicine bag we saw on the prologue in a campfire this must mean that the doctor has been here trying to help these villagers although the cages and chains from the prologue are questionable the villagers speak of how he left most likely speaking of the doctor we can assume that he has fled recently perhaps because of us leaving the horrifying Village and returning to our Hideout we prepare our third [Music] injection we have yet another dream this time we are at a church that has collapsed a man instructs us to get in line walking towards the podium people begin to appear behind us saying that we are cutting the line at the end of the church there's a trap door in a crate containing a lockpick on the south side of the church a completely ordinary corpse with a smile on his face is in the graveyard saying you have no voice nor free will but do not fret you are in good hands I see it in his eyes when he looks down down upon [Music] me opening the door on the North side with a lockpick we grab an Axe and a strange box from a [Music] closet behind the door we see a generator and while examining it a creature enters the room saying a red seaa a white dress a box oh my go on the corpse of this creature we find a locket with a disturbing photo of two twin girls could this be the father of whatever girls lived in the burned house from dry Meadow he did mention a white dress and a red seesaw the code 5103 is inscribed in the locket and using that code we open the trap door waking from the dream we discover wolf man standing over us in our Hideout at this point we decide to give the key to Wolfman as it seems to be our most certain chance of Escape after producing the key for him we see that he gives us the location for the doctor he also hands us a chicken head telling us to give it to the chicken lady when we first met wolf here he said that if we kill the S there there will be a treasure waiting for us so we're off to kill the S on our way there we stumble across a house inside we find a photo of a soldier with the caption 1961 the sky is dark and the earth is blue trying to enter one of the rooms we encounter a locked door and a voice saying I'm not coming out until that Beast lurking in my garage is gone so going to the garage we killed the dog nearby we find a crate containing blueprints which are just childlike drawings of a rocket and a list of items some of which we have [Music] found outside the garage we find a strange collection of junk almost like a sculpture returning to the room the door is now unlocked and here we meet beot trick the antenna on his head matched the ones we saw on the blueprint showing him a car battery he calls it a hybrid rocket engine and he asked us to find the other parts for his rocket he hints that they can be found inside of tractors trading with P Tri we see that he sells one unique item a cable which will be useful very soon after Gathering all the items that he needs for his rocket and returning them to him he says yay finally I have everything I need go on your way now go now please I need to install these parts in my beautiful rocket and then we off I go I will wave to you when I'm on my way to where no man has been before leaving porri we head towards the pig farm hanging around the pig farm are some villagers who become hostile with our presence they are disposed of entering the barn we find the [Music] sa who is so overgrown that she is stuck on her side squealing and kicking wedged into the corner of the barn around the other side of the barn there is a shed with a lever inside in the back of the shed we encounter a villager guarding a generator after killing him we turn on the generator in this same room there is a mirror and when interacted with we finally get to see our protagonist face the lever attached to the strange device is what the villagers use to shock and subdue the S while they harvested meat from her there is a lock on the lever that says do not remove so of course we remove it and pull the lever all the way down but nothing happens we walk outside and see that the wires are cut using the cable from Perri we repair it and try again returning to the S we can see that she is indeed dead however the treasure that wolf spoke of is rather underwhelming [Music] returning to the Village after killing the sa we can see just how much worse things have gotten people surround the dead sa weeping they have become so desperate that they have begun attempting to cut through the trees this villager in particular has something we we need an axe head which when crafted into a proper axe is the most formidable weapon in the game visiting the chicken lady again we can see that she too is distraught by the death of the sa but her main concern is that the other villagers will try to eat her hens walking towards the west side of the village someone tells us that the village leader is waiting for us in the basement of a house [Music] walking through the Cellar Doors they shut and are locked behind [Music] [Music] us in a poor attempt at an ambush the villagers lease antech who is quickly disposed of with a single shotgun blast after clearing the rest of the room and finding the Sellar key on a body we [Music] leave before leaving for Old Woods we discover a grain silo with music coming from it inside is the gramophone that is responsible for the music and further into The Silo we find the musician playing his broken violin to the best of his ability speaking with him we see how horribly affected this boy is from the disease he speaks of how he wishes to see the sa but he is always chased off he also tells us how the doctor made his mask for him to heal him of his afflictions this boy is the only person in the woods who is able to stay so positive his soul is strong but his body is weakened and destroyed by the disease after making our Mark in Silent Forest We Begin our journey to Old Woods crossing the bridge we are immediately greeted with a creature that will be more common in these parts a chomper after locating our new Hideout which unfortunately has an open doorway on the North side that cannot be repaired we find a note left by its previous inhabitants who the hell are they assigning to us mati [ __ ] off from the shack the whole night he was rambling about some marck I think it's his younger brother or son I don't know if it was the boredom or the stress that got to him but it Wasing unbearable it was the third night in the row we tried to silence him but it's [ __ ] M better not risk it I slid inside my sleeping bag and zipped it shut I preferred to suffocate in my own stench than listen to that K go on and on about it after a while I realized MSC is not not there anymore he left around morning he took all his equipment 3 L of water a sleeping bag radio gun gasoline flamethrower his beloved spitter and his lucky stone he only left the hazard suit we're debating on whether to report this no one's crazy about running around the woods looking for a psycho with a flamethrower hope he doesn't come back at night we reported it they're sending seven men to search for him we're coming back through the tunnel after settling in with some help from the bikeman we prepare another injection this time our Dream Begins in a clearing in the [Music] woods walking down the clearing we encounter the same Smiling Corpse from the last dream this time he lays next to an open grave beckoning us to lie with him and feel the soil again just like many others he asks if we can hear it next to the Grave lies a shovel which as we equip we are attacked by another black Chomper just like the corpse it asks can you hear it can you hear their song after killing the chomper we wake up now we begin exploring Old Woods we first find a creepy house marked with a violin on the map this is most likely the house of the [Music] musician south of this house is the same church from our Dream although this time it's it's completely vacant in the small room we find the same locket except this time the girl's appearances are not as unsettling entering the basement we are presented with a series of hallways filled with large dogs and choppers after clearing out creatures we find a dog with a twisted key on it probably the one that wolf was speaking of searching the rest of Old Woods leads us to a few other locations containing loot like the Hunter's cabin an old war tank and a few ruins hugging the northmost wall of Old Woods we discover a derailed train car just past this there is a large ruined barn with dozens of dogs r roing most of the dogs are injured and [Music] sick after dealing with the dogs we enter Wolf's Hideout strung with colorful lights and stuffed human corpses greeting wolf we can see that he is covered in blood with a bloated belly he is is grateful for the gift we have given him he leans in and begins licking our face Thanking us he apparently smells of rot he gives us a rifle while telling us how he got his girl walking into the other room we find the half eaten remains of the pretty lady he then offers to take us to the doctor's house which we accept [Music] walking through the clearing leading to the doctor's house we find a small cabin with a locked bathroom door and further up a makeshift Hospital traveling through the hospital we see yet another madman begging for the doctor they seem to be in [Applause] [Music] agony [Music] walking up to the doctor's house there is a cooler full of body parts and an open window climbing through the window we uncover the body of the man who we killed in the prologue it was certainly not a hallucination we are now responsible for the death of both of the chicken lady siblings inside we see that the house is even more torn apart than before with the rug in the central room pulled away to reveal a safe on the floor looking around we collect another haunting photo again from December 6th 1985 the talking corpse is gone and in a crate lies an odd Stone moving around some of the furniture we able to uncover a code inscribed into the [Music] floor [Music] using that code we open the safe which contains a toy rocket a note with a code to a door and a map marked with the location of a wreck train car returning to the hospital we put the dying and Disturbed man out of his misery [Music] on him we find a rusty key using that key we open the bathroom door in the cabin and find an axe the most powerful melee weapon in the game we leave the Doctor's house and head towards the wreckage walking up to the train car we feel a great sense of [Music] unease opening it we find the doctor who immediately scurries away from [Music] us do not come close you rotten dog I won't give you the key can't you understand I saved your life you'd rot away in that clearing if it wasn't for me you owe me for [ __ ] sake you think think I don't know who you are rat I've managed to get a good look at you your kind visits us whenever you please you hide behind the trees watch us from a distance and then disappear you have no idea how it is to live here this place these Woods everything is fed up here I won't take it anymore do you understand stand I won't bear the look of those deformed wreaking bodies anymore nor the cries of those wretched villagers first They begged for help now I need to hide from them I'm just an ordinary doctor how the [ __ ] was I supposed to help them how can you hear it it's in the walls they speak to me my little girl is calling me I know she's waiting for me I must come back to her she's so close I want to go back home he asked for us to show him the location of the exit on the map which we do he then says that he will meet us at the bunker [Music] door we decide to spare the doctor and to meet him at the door as he has technically saved us in the train car there is also a photo of what appears to be the doctor's wife and child after returning to our Hideout it is time for another [Music] [Music] injection our Dream Begins in a normal looking apartment we appear to be an an unfamiliar man although possibly the protagonist we awake next to a woman perhaps our wife or girlfriend and we look around the apartment things seem pretty mundane pleasantly mundane until we hear a knock at the door answering it reveals the protagonist in his signature hat and trench coat [Music] after surviving our final night in the Old Woods Hideout the Traer greets us for a final time he opens his jacket revealing mushrooms growing out of his torso and up into his neck our only true friend writes do not open the door let's stick together unfortunately with no other means of Escape we must leave him behind grabbing our most valuable belongings we head towards the small cabin that connects Old Woods and dry Meadow making our way through the cabin and down into the bunker we meet the doctor at the armored door opening the door we enter a dark utilitarian bunker somehow the lights are still working following the doctor through the bunker we can see that this to has been completely devoured by The trees's Roots entangled in The Roots the doctor finds someone still alive I stumble across something amongst the rebel the tunnel has collapsed recently the reinforced steel protruding from the debris has not been covered with rust yet when i gaze into the tunnel I noticed the silhouette of a man on the ground suddenly The Man snaps to life as if woken up from a deep Slumber who goes to there I hear a faint unnaturally distorted male voice are you are you one of them the man attempts to get up but fails I can see him desperately flailing his limbs around it's as if his back has been glued to the ground no please as I approach him he shuffles his legs nervously as if trying to retreat into the collapse tunnel I didn't do anything I beg you I just wanted to pass to get back to my family the tree has blocked the only way out the only path home a huge [ __ ] tree I begged it to let me pass but it wouldn't listen I could not understand what it was saying to me so we came here the man props himself up on his elbows with a huge effort he tries to straighten his body but something is firmly holding him by the back in the neck I can't I can't get up the man drops onto the rubble and go silent he clenches his fist my head hurts the man places his hand on his forehead and feels a strange Dent above his left brow he freezes what what is this he carefully inserts his index finger into the hole his eyelid Twitches my I hear a sound as if an eggshell cracking the forehead bends under his hand The Stranger pushes another finger into the hole a thick goo spews from the wound I can hear his skull cracking my little Stone the man slowly removes his fingers from the hole in his head a colorless ooze dripping from them he's holding something a round object that's why he swings his left hand and throws the object at me a small irregular ball bounc is off my arm and lands at my feet this this is what put me to sleep his head lifelessly drops to the concrete floor of the destroyed tunnel and goes still suddenly I hear the bang of the metal door followed by the sound of fading footsteps it's the doctor we continue to push through the tunnel and after running into some horrendous creature we reach a path blocked and an eyeball growing out of the floor on the other side looking at the eyeball removes the blockage From the Path and allows us to cross walking up a flight of stairs we escape the [Music] tunnel as we climb through the hatch entering the swamp there is now no way back the this is our final destination outside of our new Hideout there is a broken compressor this will be of much use to us later this Hideout is even more difficult to defend than the last with the oven workbench and Generator all being in different locations after settling in we decide to explore around the swamp we locate several ruins containing many valuable loot items used for upgrading our workbench and materials like medicine and ammunition in the North of the swamp lies a lumber yard but it is locked off heading west there is a large mushroom blade and inside are two buildings one containing various loot items and outside of the second the doctor however his appearance is deteriorating he's starting to look more like the villagers infected by the disease he has several wounds on his chest and face which appear to be packed with mud we can now trade with him he offers us three valuable items for free walking past the doctor and into the building we meet the mushroom granny the building is soft and mushy and covered with mushrooms a white colorless goo seeps from the ceilings and walls interacting with the granny we can see that she is asleep we have the option to pick a mushroom from her head which we do this does not wake her we can continue to do this but if we do there may be unforeseen consequences we decide to awake her wait you're not I didn't expect any guests I suppose you won't tell me what you want and you want something since you're standing here in front of me right we uh uh have the option to eat her yeah we're not going to do that we're just going to point at the door it's the door to my chamber there's nothing that would interest you there come back when you remember what it is you want from me after barely making it to The Hideout time before nightfall we notice a locked door that we do not have the key for interesting the knights here are even more breuing than before wave after wave of chompers leaves us low on ammo and that'ss after surviving our first night in the swamp we meet the three our new traitors well they are just three ominous figures that's it not really much context surrounding them in our next venture we enter the swamp village where we encounter the doctor again in an even worse condition we can now begin to see that he is transforming into a Savage like the ones from dry Meadow and Silent Forest covering his head in mud and attaching sticks the mud almost seems to fuse to his skin his mental condition is also worsening with his speech becoming more and more incoherent after speaking with the doctor and dispatching some creatures in the village we stumble across a crippled blind [Music] man wait bloody hell you're alive you're not from a around here eh you can't be all them Lads are dead it's only me me and I don't have anything mate only this chair bloody hell what what are you saying tree ain't noing tree that it looks like a tree but those faces I know I'm buggers every single one of them so close and so fake they're not real they're not from time to time I thank God I went blind I don't have to look at him it disgusts me it [ __ ] disgusts me this buery this fing scum all the time I have to listen to its pathetic blabber complain compling all the time as if I were supposed to believe it's human that it's Moka yeah right you lad you've got your hands and legs strong arms I beg you get rid of that filth for my Village I can't bear another day of that Abomination wailing and sobbing I want to die in peace in hell I want to die in peace listen to me I've thought about it for a long time I've had a lot of time to think for sake you need to find the basement Jay seeks basement I remember it it's right next to the tree the tree is too large so if you can't reach it from the top it's got to try from the bottom find the basement and there surely you'll find the trees Roots the bloody thing must have Roots that's where they are are destroy them pull them drag them twist the out of them you'll find a way eh I know you will thank you thank [Music] you going into the basement that the [ __ ] instructed us to we discover a deep water [Music] hole which could not be accessed without the use of an oxygen tank we now see where the compressor comes into play the basement is flooded eh am I right dogs bollocks everything ising flooded hey what ah yes yes elephants can plers ever seen elephants maybe yeah we have these elephants here you see they live here in the swamp their heart is in a Thicket in the flooded Forest since the woods trapped us here they keep to themselves they don't fancy us bloody elephants they have these oxygen tanks lots of them tanks and if the basement is flooded you can use an oxygen tank eh after returning to our Hideout we discover a long gooey Trail leading to the locked door opening it we find the musician tucked away in a corner inside the room although he has grown considerably I I I I'm sorry sorry very sorry I I I didn't know you were living here I didn't want to disturb you mister I I just wanted to to hide I I don't know this part of the woods everything year is different in this wee Hut seems so cozy and safe please let me stay please don't chase me off I've got nowhere to go and villagers don't allow me to live in the camp I promise I won't play anymore I I'll be quiet we can cover me with something if you don't want to look at me please just let me stay after surviving the night we walk towards the compressor and find the body of a familiar figure just outside the hatch leading towards the bunker it is the traitor the one who begged for us to stay with him on him we find his severed head with the word liar etched into his helmet we also find the 21 key that we were previously searching for and a notebook all of these items including his head are being transformed and mutated into mushrooms just as we saw on the Trader's chest before we left Old Woods he followed us here even though he wanted to stay on the other side of that door he followed us because we were his only friend his brother while tragic we have no time to grieve we head further west all the way to a cottage on the edge of the swamp on the path leading down to the cottage we find several snails saying who are you I'm here I'm trapped cut me loose on another path off the main trail we run into the doctor although it is very easy to mistake him for a Savage and attack him we do not we see that he is nearly completely transformed into a Savage speaking with him we realize that he has completely lost his mind as he only says One Word War which is followed by him eating mud and tree bark with great satisfaction as we approach the cabin we can see that it is barely recognizable a large snail has nearly consumed it in a wardrobe near the cottage is is a map of the junkyard marked on the map is the location of an old compressor using this map we immediately head to the junkyard and dig up the pile of trash marked F and find the compressor parts that we need in the center of the junkyard lies a very familiar structure biotrix space shuttle and inside his charred corks looks like he made it to space after all walking to the back of the cabin and smashing open the shell we enter it and find a snail with a human hand sticking out of it there is a key growing out of the palm of the hand after taking the key apparently the only way to enter the cabin is to cut through the snail's flesh as we do this the snail says leave me why are you doing this once we have cut through the snail we enter the basement of the cabin we find a radio some notes and a body that is symbiotic with the snail with vessels or cables growing out of it and into the cabin it seems possible that the mind of this person has become one with the snail inside a wardrobe is a map with the radio towers location as we are about to leave the cabin a strange voice can be heard over the radio on our way back to The Hideout we become stranded in the Woods past 10: p.m. officially night time we are outside the safety of the protective substance which if the bottle from the first Hideout was correct means we have a 99% chance of death as a brightly glowing mysterious red gas begins to chase us and drain our health we just barely make it back to The Hideout opening the door to where the musician resides we see that the floors have been covered in a toxic sludge similar to the type that we have had to burn in many other areas so sorry I I didn't want to this thing is coming out of my my body I I tried to stop it but I don't think I can after fighting off a few centipedes we conclude the night with the end in sight we prepare to travel to the elephants deep in the swamp thankfully the [ __ ] has given us their approximate location finally arriving at their secluded Hideout we disarm a series of bear traps and repair the broken generator using the scrap metal collected from the traps by fixing the generator the elephants let us Us in making contact with them we can see that they are just a mother and her children wearing Soviet era gas masks that do in fact resemble an elephant speaking with the mother she says how one of her boys has run away and she asks that we find him and return him to gain her trust she gives us the key to his room and hopes that we may find some Clues underneath the doormat that the child used as a bed are drawings of what appear to be the mushroom granny and her home we decide to head that way revisiting the grandma she tells us how she fears that the villagers living in the Quarry want to devour her and ask that we get rid of them in exchange she offers to give us the child with seemingly no other option we head to the Quarry and do a bit of [Applause] trolling [Music] no after completing our task we return to Granny with the news she hands us a key to the room and tells us to return the boy to his family you're a good man sunny here take the boy to his family he will probably be safer there and come back tomorrow I'll give you a beautiful gift for the trouble finding the boy in the room we see that he seems relatively unaffected by the plague and also very terrified of us as we take him into our arms to return him to his mother he begins reciting a rhyme one little bear ate AOW of soup then another bear came in there was two four little bears made a [Music] s Along Came the F and took the little weet turning the boy to his mother and we can see that she is extremely grateful and she gives us the oxygen tank that we need while talking to her children she speaks of another one of the boy's Brothers saying the gas tank from your gracious brother and his love protects us this is how you thank [Music] him this kind of language may suggest that their other brother has died now I only figured this out because of the wiki but the shed to the north of the elephant's house is unlocked using the numbers from the boy's rhyme entering the shed the room is filled with flowers but overwhelmed with a smell of rot at the end of the room the body of a boy in a bath holding an oxygen tank I don't think I need to explain this one on the next day with the end in sight we make a final trip to the radio tower surrounding the tower are several huge nests of banshees and their babies which are not very docile for being babies as we try to sneak through we apparently make too much noise and have to go full Doom mode with the pump [Music] action after clearing them all out we find a locked door to which the protagonist says he remembers the code without wanting to risk anything we begin to return to The Hideout to prepare for our final visit to the Village don't worry we'll come back to this on our way back we discover a strange hole in a pond entering it we find a helicopter crash site on the other side nearby a body of a scientist wearing a hazmat suit and he holds an assault [Music] rifle we also stopped by the mushroom granny house we see that the villagers have in fact consumed her entire home and her it seems everything we touch dies our attempts to stop the villagers were in vain after filling our oxygen tanks we go back into the village and return to the basement now we can swim through the deep [Music] hole as we dive into the water we have another dream but this time it's more like a vision as I doubt we were unconscious while swimming we enter a storage room with dozens of crates and a huge gas tank apparently full continuing down the hallway we enter another RI oh never mind they're ping us okay so while continuing through the PT Loop we see a tunnel progressively being dug out as we pass through each room eventually a large Pig like a smaller version of the S shows up as well eventually the loop stops and a villager appears behind us saying what do you think you're doing you'll kill us all stop it as he says that he transforms into a black Chomper and attacks us with a broken torch and no way to fight back we run down the tunnel we see that the tunnel is scattered with corpses and after walking down this tunnel for a considerable amount of time we notice that it seems to be repeating so we turn back only to be met with the wall and we turn back again to be met with a wall eventually it becomes darker and darker until we finally wake up we have successfully passed through the flooded hole and are now in the same room from the vision except this time down the tunnel to the side we see the base of the tree we turn the nozzle on the gas tank dumping its contents onto the floor which flow down towards the [Music] tree using a torch we set it a blaze After exiting the basement and observing The Burning Tree the protagonist notes that we will need to come back the next day as it will continue to burn for some time on our Trek back towards The Hideout we try to speak with the [ __ ] once more he is completely hypnotized by The Burning Tree as if he could see again during the night a part of our Hideout is set a blaz and dozens of burning humanoid creatures attack us for the duration of the night it seems to be the trees doing it's Revenge as we begin the next day we prepare for our final Journey speaking to the musician one last time he says please get back soon in the town the [ __ ] is gone [Music] walking past the ashes of the tree that once blocked our way we arrive at the road home alongside the road is a sign that reads Darkwood scattered up and down the road are hundreds of bodies the others who have failed to escape we find the [ __ ] crawling down the road he pays no attention to [Music] [Applause] us continuing down the road is a field with power lines following these bring us to a city our city our home [Music] [Applause] walking around for a bit we see our neighbors a bum and an out a woman there are no trees no plague no fear we enter our apartment building and walk up the staircase to our floor down the hall our room the same one from the dream we hang our hat and coat and greet our dog giving him a pat on the head there is soup in a pot that we heat up and eat the first real food we've had in 3 weeks we walk into our bedroom take our boots off and lie down but we are unable to [Music] sleep [Music] [Music] [Music] but what if I told you this is all a lie everything that happened after this point was not real sure the game ends the protagonist lives happily ever after but the protagonist is not home he is not in his bed he did not take the road home see this this is something we forgot to explore walking down here we see a series of locked doors and a poisonous mushroom H at the end of the hallway a room with potatoes a jar of jam and a radio strangely the radio tells us to go to sleep heading back upstairs and visiting the vagrant again the woman yells at us through the door and as we peer inside we see this walking upstairs to our floor this time we Peak through the cracks in the wall and see whatever this [Music] is continuing down the seemingly endless hallway we begin to see Roots entering our apartment we see more Roots growing out from beneath the floorboards remember this guy well we did not take the road home but rather the road to the center of the forest Ground [Music] Zero [Music] we are surrounded by hundreds no thousands of sleepers seem familiar all of them under the same spell that we were [Music] as we approach the being we discover the doctor he is gone putting our hand on the being we are overcome with feelings of warmth and comfort as we try to ask it questions it does not answer but rather replaces the warmth with coldness we struggle and fight to remove our hand from [Music] it after removing our hand we walk deeper into the roots finding a man clutching something we recognize this man as mic a fellow researcher in his hands are his precious spitter as we try to wake him he refuses to hand us the weapon so we take matters into our own hands taking the flamethrower we burn them [Music] all I oh a this is the true ending so how does all of this piece together if we were to go back to the radio tower this time we enter [Music] it entering the bunker we discover a lever that is covered with mushrooms using an axe to remove the mushrooms they explode on impact and we are sent into yet another dream here as we walk through the corridors we hear many voices saying come to me continuing to follow the path it appears that we walk through the same 21 door that we have walked through so many times before except this time we are walking out of the door we end up back in the same room in which we started in the Doctor's house we must repeat the the same actions lockpick Cellar shovel door leaving the house and walking back through the door we see that we are in the same Cavern that we were before except now there seem to be white pulsating Roots growing within at the end of the path we see a woman praying to a wall which transforms into a giant mouth running through the mouth we continue upwards into the tunnel and find ourselves back in the bunker walking through the door we wake up after coming back to our senses and exiting the tunnel we find ourselves in a wasteland here here we find several very important pieces of lore a notebook a scarecrow wearing a hazmat suit two bodies hung up on a tree except one of the trees is missing a body and at the foot of the tree is a ragged rope with pieces of hazmat suit stuck to it there's a rubber boot and at the end of this path is a military site with the body of a researcher in a hazard suit beside him a broken radio and a sample of white ooze in a jar labeled 21 as well as two scientific documents detailing the phenomena of the forest surrounding the camp are also several dig sites where the weaves of roots were uncovered and appeared to be hooked up to some sort of electrode roads walking down through the house on the southern side we are brought back to the road [Music] home so let me break it down to the best of my ability from what we can gather the protagonist was a researcher sent with the group to investigate the strange events happening in these woods they were most likely transported by helicopter and suggested by the crash site in the swamp we were stationed at this site and were attacked by either villagers or Savages and as we know they have a proclivity for tying things to trees so we and the other researchers were tied to these trees from the ropes found at the base we most likely were able to untie ourselves the Hazmat suit on the Scarecrow was once ours we traded clothing with the Scarecrow as the coat and hat we wear are very scarecrow like after being injured by the attack we stumbled our way into Old Woods where the doctor found us we had the 21 key because we were using those tunnels as part of the military after the doctor takes us in he injects us with Essence the same injection that we have been taking throughout the game escaping his locked room we begin to hallucinate seeing the radio corpse and hearing the dead man speak the black Chompers that attacked us were also likely hallucinations some point after this event the traitor found us and brought us to a safe place in dry Meadow The Hideout that is most likely why our character says at the beginning of the game this Cottage must have been one of our hideouts suggesting that he and his colleagues were using these sites from here we progress through the game trying to find the road home however this road is actually the road to the center of the forest where the being resides the cause of all this chaos the bodies we saw on that road were not people trying to escape but rather people trying to get to the being in the Bliss ending we find ourselves back at home exhausted and eventually going to sleep this being makes us see all of that all of the sleepers surrounding the being are in their own dream worlds or personal Heavens in an endless Slumber but in reality if they were to open their eyes they would see that they are actually in hell in the true ending we notice the cracks in our fake world the mushroom The Roots like a lucid dream this allows us to wake up and see reality in the nest of the being we encounter MC a fellow researcher he is is even mentioned in the journal found in The oldwoods Hideout about how he disappeared the writer says how he was mumbling about his son or brother and how he had a special stone the mumbling was most likely the beginnings of him falling under the influence of the beinging the being causes us to have visions of Heaven and the lucky stone is similar to those being found throughout the game perhaps the stones are a product of the being that create the visions and draw victims into the nest or they are just objects who infect those who come into contact with them with the plague in our dreams there were sleepers like the first one where we were surrounded by thousands in another dream we found The Smiling Corpse inviting us to sleep in the grave and the same one at the church saying you have no voice no free will but do not fret you are in good hands I see it in his eyes when he looks down upon me this is him speaking of the being we even dreamt of being in our apartment which was likely the beginning of the being taking over our mind another interesting note is that of the fluid that runs through the roots it has a shape-shifting ability it is even noted that only 15 % of the trees in the forest are actually real trees suggesting the other 85% are actually created through this strange shape-shifting ability a theory with a lot of supporting evidence is that The Wolf Man Mushroom granny and Traer are all replicas created by this fluid shape-shifting ability if the fluid in the forest can turn into trees why not other living organisms all of these clones appear to be one thing mixed with another the mushroom granny is a clone of the real granny combined with well mushrooms The Wolf Man is perhaps a hunter who lived in the hunting cabin in Old Woods combined with a wolf that may explain his desire to stuff corpses and the traitor is you the protagonist mixed with your old hazmat suit and and maybe some mushrooms explaining the strange mushroom growths we saw on him at the end of chapter 1 our character even stated at the beginning how the traitor was a man about the same height as me with disturbingly familiar features the journal and key we found on his body were the exact same as hours except musher me [Music] well I guess that's it I'll leave a link in the description to a steam Community post by someone named owl cowl they do a great job of explaining the lore and theories of the game and there's a lot on there that I left out so go check them out if you made it all the way to the end well then just subscribe already I mean you already spent an hour watching this so why not one second clicking this button huh [Music] hey

Channel: BeamBuddy

Views: 589,564

Keywords:

Id: Z0a946gSNJk

Length: 100min 32sec (6032 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 24 2024