Earth is the place "where the Worm does not die, and the Fire {of the Sun} is not put out". We live in a veritable Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven rolled into one. Yes, Earth is quite capable of Being Hell, let alone for the idea of reincarnation for sinners. Yet here we are living as Spiritual National Socialists, denying the little children (Demons - indeed, most of ourselves) access to Christ - for we were all once born as coals taken from a fire burn out to darkness. Here is a world where we condemn the needy and elevate the rich - in spirit, and in finance; whilst Christ died at the foundation to nullify all sin from Eden onwards. We have failed to bring home those who do not see the light. Do we cast out our own wives, and our congregations, whom we might treat as "Tax collectors and Gentiles"? Or should we not drive out evil now, but derive out sin to find the cause, and the cause to find negative sin? There are only a few we can call in the true image of God (the furnaces or trees from which all coals and fruit come); and by battling it out with each other we have only stood at the door, not entering, but denying entry to everyone else. The Father in Heaven must live in the Heart. The Unison of Heads (Angels) and Hands (Demons) must be the Heart.
Hey I have a question? Do you think you will make more videos like the start of this one? You explaining the game but like a story that WE are the main character of? Telling us what we see and do? This was a fantastic thing to listen to while I worked, and I would just adore you to do something like this again with other games!
@@Mister_mic_microwave My channel is far from an AI auto reply mate, this is what it means to talk to God. There are very significant characters in my life that look very similar to the characters and their personalities in this game. Very odd.
especially in an apocalyptic scenario when your family has been ripped from you and your world has just flipped upside down. most people would have eye bags and look extremely distraught
It’s hard to describe, but I really like the detail of the random teens hanging out in your backyard because its so odd that it forces you to rely on understanding the game setting in order to rationalize it. The level of finesse it takes to pull this off is why so many settings struggle to be interesting/immersive, and this game does it in a clever way that challenges the perspectives of its own world AND yours without breaking either. “What the hell are these kids doing in my yard in the middle of the night?” (irl logic) -people can only go outside at night (game’s logic) “But if it’s still dangerous outside then why are they there?” (game’s logic) -kids are stupid (irl logic) I spent a few minutes trying to break this down into fewer words but if it was any easier to explain then there’d be alot more games as cool as this one
ооо, мега интересно. игра использует твои общие знания о мире, переворачивает их, тем самым сильнее завлекая в историю и геймплей. Можно сравнить с играми, которые просят тебя удалить файлы из игры, типа doki doki literature club или oneshot :)
one very interesting thing you missed, is the man wasent going around asking people if they live alone, he was asking about YOU specifically, for whatever reason the smiling man has special interest in you
@@cringejoestar9791 Could be because no one else is letting people in. The PC is the only one doing that, and he's watching his fellow impostors go in his door.
If you’re right about the revelations theory, I wonder if the doctor will turn out to be an angel or something. His extra pupils could represent the multiple eyes of some powerful angels
@@exu7325 "The nonstop teardrops shown in this animation signifies the long term depression the character suffers, not causing unbearable anguish but driving their mood down at any given time" "Um that is a serious medical condition so-"
The art of the smiling man outside just standing there menacingly is so well done although I’m laughing that in some cases he’s there and all of a sudden fema is like on the other side.
I really, really like how realistically your character behaves in the playthrough. Allowing the Widow to live, then reaching the third strike on the Nervous, being weirded out by the Doctor's eye, and just snapping immediately on the Conman. It feels like a rather natural sequence to me.
@@MYTHONICSi suggest you continue to use eerie music like this from now on in all of your videos, I can’t really explain it but the mixture of your voice and the music is very captivating
@@Peannlui It is but it still sounds great with his voice. Even better to use music from the game bc it helps captivate you more. Feels like you're there while he's explaining it to you
I love how the short guy in the stained shirt shows that no matter how uncanny the visitors are they can never match the weirdness of a straight up crazy human. That's a human kind of weirdness, you can't fake that.
@@teachmehowtofreeze2849 The religious zealot one talking about how he believes the sun is cleansing sins while attempting to protect the non-sinners from the visitors.
The dead will tell and no one will listen is a very interesting cue to a gameplay mechanic where visitors are blurred gory messes and humans are body bags. I watched several channels play the game and not pick up on this until the VERY end or afterwards when they looked up some stuff. In other words the dead told but no one listened.
i thought what made body bags was when someone was murdered by someone else, and the blurred gory mess was only when you shot someone. That’s what makes the difference, not whether they’re a visitor or not but whether you shot them. in that case it’s just self affirming ofc they’re not gonna be bagged. but maybe i’m wrong
I loved your reflection and point of view, I personally think our neightbour's house was burnt by the FEMA after figuring out one of the people that our friend let in was a visitor, so in order to eliminate possible danger that may reside inside of the building, it was burned to ashes.
I dont think FEMA burned it cause they found but rather the presence of *certain* visitors them burn it - The flames were at night not at day, unless that is one strong house, when FEMA entered in they had suspects of visitors, but no one was taken yet, they began taking people once the house was burned, they were likely searching for the clown or the smilling man, over which explains why FEMA burned the house and why the soldiees were present - once they found that the Smiling Man/clown was let into the house they burned it down, and the soldiers engaged agaisnt the Clown, but both escaped, and they began taking people to test.
From what I came to understand the dude letted too many people in and One thing led to another ending Whit him getting killed and the house getting burned (which to respond to your other comment, could easily be and accident when people are slaughtering each others inside such a small Place)
The gameplay loop goes as follows: 1) Judge of character at the door. 2) Judge of traits indoors. Turn away "evil" people and check for traits. Visitors may have one good trait. Humans may have one bad trait.
@@dxcSOULit’s pretty clear a lot of passion has gone into developing the overall concept and allows a twist on the “booth” loop, introduced by Papers please and others. This allows movement throughout the house, an alloted energy which means you have to prioritize who you talk to and what you ask them. It’s pretty disingenuous to yourself to say you can’t see any passion in this.
Sounds clichê but triple A's miss the secret ingredient: Love. It takes a special kind of compromise to put love in a game and a even bigger one to express that love in a horror game. You can fell it was not made to be cheap, it was made with passion and attention as a reflection of the efford to tell a story, an idea and maybe inspire ideals
@@----S. I think more importantly AAA games lack a strong vision. It's hard to have a clear voice shine through a game when every aspect of it going through a pipeline of 100+ developers. It takes really strong leadership for that stuff to not get muddled down through the pipeline.
Yes, its the first thing that came to mind when I saw him. Also, this kind of puts more weight on the argument that the smiling man is an adaptation of this world's equivalent of the Devil. As Judge Holden is a stand-in for the Devil in Blood Meridian too. Edit: I don't mean this in the literal sense. The judge is not Lucifer incarnate.
I absolutely loved this video and theory, but there are a few things i want to point out. 1- The "Psychopathic Man-in-suit" Isn't actually a visitor if we go by the cues of the game, where dead humans get body bags, and dead visitors just have their gory mess of a body thrown there. He gets a body bag. 2- If the most morally grey character that we know of in this game isn't a visitor, it might put the entire "visitor = infected by sin" theory into question, considering that if that was true, he would definetly be one of them, wouldn't he?
Yeah this guy got lost so far up his own ass with this theory. He really liked his own fan fic of it and just ignored and I mean truly avoided all the evidence counter to his theory. He went full antimasker pro christ over virtually no evidence at all.
2- would he? It’s a broad assumption the absence of one thing doesn’t prove another. Hence the evil or immorality of someone doesn’t prove they are “infected by sin” they very well could just be immorally grey. Infact morality is a subjective lens after all
It’s cool and kinda realistic framing imo. He can kill Bar Guy so of course most would think he’s a visitor. The corpse of the wife’s husband is a visitor, I feel like that doesn’t get talked about enough. Is that really her husband? Did she kill him in self defense and have a psychotic break from it? Or was she delusional to begin with?
One thing that is interesting is that the Orthodox Church (and naturally also the Russian Orthodox Church) actually do consider sin to be a disease, and the Church to be a hospital. So it actually WOULD make sense for them to be treating this sin as a disease within the context of the Faith. Just in a more literal sense.
I'd like to share what I saw on another video on this game. The visitors actually behave like vampires, how they rise from the ground (could be graves), have perfect teeth, avoid the sun, the camera's can't pick up on their faces (also I've read that the type of camera that is used in game contains silver in the photos.) and can only come inside if they're invited.
You know what games like this have in common with solid horror movies? Budget. Due to a lack of it, seems to push the artists to explore and do things more unconventionally, also they always seem more willing to take a risk at an idea.
@@Teutius for me, I always think back to Tim Follin. The man was a master with 8-bit music, and his music still slaps and inspires. Limitations unleash creativity to those who are gifted to see it and take advantage.
As a person who is russian speaking, I enjoyed you trying to connect the lore from slavic monsters to this, but I think it's much easier than this and more influenced by Alternates and overal increase popularity of "dopplegangers" and "uncanny valley looking almost humans" in the horror media for the past 5 or so years.
it depends what kind risk you need to address first in your situation. Against sunburns and overheating, you would rather be fully clothed. Against dehydration, you would wanna lose clothing to avoid sweating. Both risks are always present against extreme heat, it depends what you can risk more.
@@floof6896 still easier to avoid, since there are no direct sunlight. My bad, I forgot to mention, I wore this hooded jacket like some sort of cape. And it's important to stay hydrated!
I'm pretty sure but not certain that certain art for the characters (not exclusively visitors but possibly just them) are inspired by the deceased sketches that exaggerate certain features to better get them identified which gives a really uncanny valley aspect to them. The man with the crooked neck is almost 1/1 of the crooked neck lady murder case and would add an extra layer of horror to this
@@Xyttraisnotavailable when a body can't be identified, police will either render or draw out sketches that exaggerate certain facial aspects to help people recognise them, like a particular scar, distinctive cheekbones etc. The rest of this though usually does create some really uncanny stuff that's really creepy. Apparently they only need to be about 10% accurate to get the effect they're looking for aswell though I'm not too sure on that
@@Xyttraisnotavailable the only thing I know about a crooked neck woman was a spirit from the story/series The Haunting Of Hill House. I can't find any actual real cases like that. I would however reccomend the series. It's quite good.
I dont think being a visitor is correlated with sin. There are scummy non visitors and kind visitors between the various guests. If anything the game’s story detaches between biological qualities and ethical virtue. I remember a classmate of mine notifying and apologising to me for unknowingly coming to class while infected by covid, and my roommate getting angry and riling up other students against her for her irresponsibility. The fear of plagues can make the distinction between disease and moral failing disappear. This game does well to stress its distinctions
It was amazing how much some people freaked out, we had someone at a party who came down with symptoms the next day. Guess what: nobody else out of a couple dozen people who had all been sitting around the table with them got sick. The ones who freaked out all ran to get tests and they were all negative.
@ i did get sick and it did suck. I just dont think it was her fault ethically. Especially as she took the effort to warn me when she did find out about it
Covid showed the types of people who would be deceitful, wildly paranoid, fanatically devoted to arbitrary authority, and reasonable in an austere situation.
Also of note, the smiling man is designed after Judge Holden, the antagonist of the anti-western novel Blood Meridian, a character who is strongly implied to be the devil himself or the embodiment of human evil
Only just barely lmfao. The Judge is built like a ton of bricks, wears a duster and hat and hairless. Although the smiling man does look a lot like that one picture of Judge smiling
FEMA only does stuff when theyre given authority In this case we assume they have control of everything, maybe even the pentagon, thats why they mobilized considering real world logistics
Something not many people mention when discussing the game is the aesthetic. The game takes place in Eastern Europe, possibly Russia, and not only does that sort of add to the hopeless, depressing atmosphere, but also influences the visual style of the game. The interior design, the "2000s Russian television" looking morning reports, it all feels very cosy yet depressing, and I think had the setting been anything else it wouldn't work as well.
well people have been making some of the voices sound eastern European, must be subconsciously noticing the atmosphere. I noticed the commie block immediately tho.
I’d like to add that the zealot is my fave I think, for the sole reason he relieves a lot of my anxiety by sharing his belief that the sun actually is trying to help us. Religion can be so harmful yet so comforting in times of crisis…
There is something interesting about the concept of dystopian worlds with these human mimics! - even if they _can_ be a bit grim or depressing with their stories. But still!
Honestly, the man on the news looks more eerie to me than anyone you let into the house I feel like you're being given bad and potentially opposite instructions
I’m assuming that the news reporter looks like that just to make you paranoid. But surely he’s human because the advice actually checks out (at least in the two playthroughs I’ve watched).
It looked suspicious how the army people outside died and then FEMA knocked on the door wanting people from the house. I reckon they were visitors too.
If you watch any of the Easter egg videos to this, the four horsemen are actually mentioned in the intro. So you're not far off. The russian mythology you went over was dope, so now I look at the crying woman different. Also, if I'm not mistaken, coat girl is supposed to be a guy.
A small part of me kinda wish the game left it at least little ambiguous whether there even *are* visitors or if it's just a mass paranoia/psychosis causing everyone to kill each other for nothing.
Evil must exist for there to be paranoia of it in the first place. I think the message still sends itself, about the difficulty or even pointlessness of judging others based off conventionality and that the fear and paranoia itself is its own evil.
Mimic type monsters are one of my top most feared antagonists in these kind of games/stories cause they can slowly whittle your sanity to shreds. The distrust they sow onto a characters mind while they isolate them from the rest of humanity is scary. Not to mention the scenario of losing food, sleep, and strength as they takes shots at getting into where you are can be overwhelming. (Some indie games capture that suspense of horror perfectly.)
One neat detail that connects well with your theory that you forgot to mention: it's known that the visitors likely crawled out from under the earth. Through the biblical lense, they would have literally crawled out from hell below us.
Indie games are so creative in how they use their potential and limitations and a lot of times you get these bangers that make you enjoy thinking about all of the details
THIS ONLY APPLIES TO THE DEMO VERSION [Prologue] Neighbor = Human (N/A) [1st Night] Little girl (1st encounter) = Human (N/A) Tall man = Human Shoulder girl = Visitor [2nd Night] Coat woman = Visitor Stained shirt man = Human Fortune Teller = Human (N/A) [3rd Night] Tall pale entity (1st Encounter) = Visitor {Can end your game early if you’re alone} widow with a corpse = Human Short man = Visitor Doctor = Human [4th Night] FEMA worker (1st Encounter) = Human {takes one of the occupants in the house} Suited man = Human {Behaves like a visitor} Little girl (2nd Encounter) = Human Hunter = Visitor Fat girl = Visitor [Final Night] FEMA worker (2nd Encounter) = Human {Takes another occupant inside the house} Tall Pale Entity (2nd Encounter) = Visitor {Can end your game early if you’re alone} Fortune Teller (2nd Encounter) = Human (N/A) [Tips and reasonings] - Despite the widow having bloodshot eyes, she’s a human. - The doctor didn’t pass the teeth test, he is still human. - Do not let the suited man in, despite being a human (he can kill a human each night). - The little girl doesn’t pass the camera test, but she’s obviously human.
26:25 not very accurate. If you lie to him that you’re alone or if you lie to him that you’re with people when you’re not he takes you anyway. Your agreement isnt an issue for the smiling man
They probably ignored it to make their theories more solid. But honestly, they should’ve just left that part out, because it kinda makes their theory weaker when they ignore evidence.
@@benzur3503 Huh? I was agreeing with you, their theory isn’t very accurate since The Stranger can and does break in to get you when you lie to him. I was just adding that the UA-camr ignores this and never mentions it, thus, it weakens their theory since they decided to ignore contradictory evidence.
27:00 thats actualy a really smart way to characterise a sinner if done on purpose. Many of the people who are most strict and aggresive in condeming others for their actions are themselves everything they claim to fight against and often much worst
@@anthonygaytan620 you're accusing me of the very thing i'm pointing out while also saying that i'm wrong because people aren't like that... rarely have I seen someone make a sentence so incoherent it render itself useless. Really what was the point ? If i'm a hypocrite my comment is correct because i'm the proof that people like that existe and clearly you belive they existe since you accuse me of being one. What were you trying to invalidate ? What about my comment hit close enough to home that you couldn't ignore it despite having nothing of substance to say ?
It's the other way around guy that fact that's your response to the was from a place defense and rage say you can have faith and not be a dick about isn't bad or hypocritical it just a thing
@@khalakrean6890 Type some more lol, I’m not gonna read all of dat nonsense. You’re a white girl I’m guessing with all that crying you’re doing tho🥱🤷🏿♂️
The pale man refers to the one you see out the window, not the one that talks at you through the door. The hazmat suits could be used to protect from radiation from the sun's solar flares. They would probably still die from heat exhaustion though.
@@idiramara1 it took me some time but thinking on it, i found an answer for myself. have you ever seen a pack of street dogs before? they're ravenous, violent. they're known to kill for sport and viciously rip other dogs and animals apart. i think saying that dogs will rule the world and only dogs will remain is proclaiming that kind of cruelty will reign supreme after all is said and done.
@@gr33nsk1n There is a very popular illustration of Holden online. The Smiling Man from this game is based on it, but edited obviously. The face composition down to the shape of the smile and nose are identical.
My biggest issue with the game is that you can see all these things from just different windows of your house but non of them seem connected at all. Like there's clearly a monstrous thing standing next to your porch but people just casually knock on your door
Man this entire game reminds me of a particular part in I Am Legend (the book) The main character is sitting in his living room drinking heavily to drown out the outside noise of vampires mocking him and begging him to come outside. Really nails that vibe that something evil is outside and is trying to break down your will.
the thing that gets me in this game is that thr only "holy" entity you encounter cant do anything with whats happening outside he can only watch like not even god can do anything during the rapture
The demo has one huge pothole: if sunlight has become so hot that it can literally burn away human flesh within minutes, how does the player and their guests survive inside the house? What, does the house have perfect heat insulation from the outside world?
In the real world FEMA can only provide so much help. and they take a long time to get to you, so typically you're forced to stay with family or be homeless until they can get to you. But if your homeless and don't have a mailing address it can make things even more difficult to get help. That's the consensus I got from people in my immediate area that were effected by the recent hurricanes and had their roofs blown off. I'm not surprised to see FEMA being a neutral/negative sort of thing to talk about. Not a lot of people have good experiences with them.
For us the hurricane took our power. We all came together in order to grill whatever we had to have food. I was a teenager and was out of the loop but it took a bit before we were given military rations which tasted pretty interesting lol
I know a guy who had his house seriously damaged and the fema worker helped him to get aid that he wasn't technically really beaurocratically qualified to receive. You have to remember fema is made up of people who clean up disasters for a living, not some strawman image of an authoritarian psychopath from a movie.
My theory is that visitors are humans killed either by other turned visitors or by "the original visitor" the pale man outside. I think the process of turning a human into a visitor entails burying them after killing them. The strange radiation of the sun bakes them in the earth, changes them, and then at night, they claw their way out of their graves as visitors. I think that being eligible to become a visitor may require some prerequisite personality traits/trauma, and the way in which you are killed might matter too. That would explain why the pale man is more particular about the conditions under which he murders you while the soldiers outside were just slaughtered with abandon. He wants to turn you.
@@yocatson1605 Makes sense, considering the nervous woman has a lot of specific memories (being a former cashier that lost her job), but also has gaps in memory (not remembering which dentist she supposedly visited, not remembering digging, etc.) This woman also is seemingly unaware she is a Visitor and appears to grow frantic and distressed when you find that her eyes are bloodshot and her face blurs when you take a photo. Even coat guy seems to not know he's a Visitor (he says something about finally knowing why he's cold before he dies). The others, I think, are aware of what they are--Amogus guy for sure. It seems like the Visitor's personality corresponds to who they might have been before turning, according to this theory. The nervous woman is paranoid about Visitors and becomes a nervous wreck when there's no question she's a Visitor, because thats the kind of person she was before; the coat guy may have been depressed before turning, as he's resigned himself to death when you pull your gun on him; the yellow shirt woman could have been a gossip who distrusted the government; the Amogus guy was a conman, which is why he drops the act pretty quickly when he realized the jig is up; the hunter was a violent (possible) conspiracy theorist, which is why he thinks you should not let anyone in. And the widow's husband (who is a Visitor, given that his face is blurry in photos despite being, you know, a CORPSE who shouldn'tbe moving) might have actually been her husband once, but was replaced. I don't know if I'm making sense. It's 3:00 am, lol
reminds me of 10 cloverfield lane with being told by everyone its unsafe to go outside forcing you to stay indoors, while not sure if its true or not. if the sun is really that intense during the day how is there still grass and trees everywhere?
The line, "Dogs rule the world…" comes from the song Собаки by a Russian punk-rock band Гражданская оборона. Russian developers inspired by Russian poets - beautiful.
The act of shooting someone is portrayed as gory, disgusting, they plead for life, their body stays human. I cant possibly image that the games message is "be dilligent in weeding out sinners". The centrail anxiety of the game is a society where we cannot trust one another (yet we have to). You're kinda suggesting the horror game wants the real world to be more like it. I enjoyed the playthrough part, so I'm pretty disappointed about the analysis.
@@landlordize if he had just left it as a plot summary it would’ve been a great video, the theory crafting portion has some interesting ideas but the conclusions he draws are very weak. He’s way more invested in finding the parallels with religion and COVID than the social commentary. It feels like he had an assumed idea of what the game was supposed to be about and then worked backwards to find evidence for those assumptions.
@@4dbagel945 Honestly I was pretty disturbed by this video at the time 😆 The game has such a sense of uncertainty and paranoia while asking you to do horrible shit. So for someone to just flatten it into a pro-social control Christian game was spooky.
im not even 2 minutes in, i cant stop imagining these scenarios this is genuinely to scary to watch and i normally ADORE these kinds of videos, Kudo to you Mauthe Doog.
For the Vampire thesis: They specificaly say that the photos have to be taken with an analog camera. Analog Cameras use Mirrors inside. Vampires dont have a mirror image. You cant see them clearly on the pic. Would be intresting to know if this lines up with russian lore.
Thanks for the nice atmosphere on this well deserving title! A bit of an obsession has been forming over this game and i can't wait for the full version
28:22 this also could be an inversion of wolf in sheep’s clothing to reference how the smiling man specifically makes himself act unnaturally and non-human
The "large woman" at 12:38 seems to be a reference to the cockroach people from Terraformers. I haven't finished the video yet but she's gotta be a visitor.
When I first encountered this game, I remembered the book "The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon" by Cyrano de Bergerac. It said that intelligent beings live on the Sun, who can only be on other planets inside the bodies of locals, since they need a shell. Therefore, I perceived visitors as corpuscular-wave organisms that had moved into human bodies.
Speaking as someone with two graduate degrees in theology (admittedly, from a Protestant, USA pov): I can’t deny that the gospel passages you mentioned are relevant-cause death and resurrection and all-but I think a better and more direct connection would be the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. At the end of that parable, the rich man asks Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers; Abraham replies that they have the law of Moses. When the rich man protests, Abraham explains that if they didn’t believe Moses than they won’t believe even if the dead should come back. More speculatively, if the smiling man is supposed to be the devil (or a demon), it might be worth looking up the “strong man” passages and related within the gospels-as well as possible folklore-ish interpretation or explanations of them. In these passages (which is one passage with a different version in each gospel), Jesus is talking about demon possession and likens it to someone taking someone’s house. The strong man (devil) has to be tied up in order to be expelled; but if the house is left unguarded, the the demon will have other demons to help him [I realize now that I may be conflating a couple distinct passages, but they’re related and should be close to each other in the gospels in which they appear].
Earth is literal Hell, "where the Worm does not die, and the fire" of the sun and core "is not put out". Yet because it is, in many places it is purgatory, and Heaven on earth
Not sure why so many people are saying they didn’t appreciate your review. As art, it is open to be interpreted various ways. Thank you for your perspective !
I find it interesting that they’re called visitors and not some malicious like intruders. Having it be a mundane, kind of positive term makes it more creepy to me
A quick addon to your point about sins and virtues in the game: The widow's apathy can be seen as sloth or to a greater extreme selfishness, the refusal to act or being too self-absorbed in your own misfortune to help others. The hunter's righteous anger can be seen as provoking wrath. A good example of this could be certain Templars. They were so certain of the evil among people, that they neglected to recognize the evil of their own actions: attacking sinners rather than the sin itself.
Genuinely can’t say how proud I am as one of your viewers to see that your newest video is on track to be your most popular. You hit it on the nose, and you’ve found your nieche dude. Keep doing this, and I promise you’ll be having a great time on this app.
An idea prevalent in Russia about sin (possibly held by the Orthodox church, I'm not an expert), is that sin is shared in a community. This belief was held by Dostojevskij, and was a theme in a book I read by him called Devils. Humans aren't separate from one another, so it's difficult to distance yourself from what happens in your community. Even apathy, or inaction is sinful when you know that you can do something to help but refuse to interact. You can't be passive, deciding to board yourself in alone isn't an option. This is the surface explanation as to why you have to let people in, or at least make an effort and consider who you let in. I think that the people you let into your house may represent certain negative aspects of humanity, such as apathy (sloth, often interpreted as physical laziness but is in reality the absence of spiritual zest and unwillingness to work on yourself internally) , or violence (wrath). I don't think they have to be a 1 to 1 with the seven deadly sins or anything, there are many theological and non theological systems of what constitutes virtue and non virtue that the developers could use. Who you let into your house is essentially what you let in spiritually. It makes sense then that if all your guests are corrupted and visitors, the devil gets you. You've lost everything substantial in your soul and it has been replaced by darkness. Perhaps the goal of the game is to successfully use spiritual discernment, rather than listen to external descriptors provided by the officials? Your house, moreover isn't you in a physical sense, it is your sanctity, your soul, or your church. It is your spiritual body, and being thrown out of your own house is death. I also think it's possible that the righteous have already left earth. It's a 'left behind' scenario, where those not eligible, or perhaps non believers who have had the opportunity to accept God but didn't take it by their own free will, are left alone with the damned souls. I was inclined to say that the visitors are demons, but it makes more sense considering that they rise from the earth, that they are people who are damned. A scorching sun, representing cleansing and a resetting of the world, and many last difficult decisions seems to me like a bleak final chance for the protagonist of the game. The Devil is often described as the ruler of the physical world, which makes sense, as earth seems to have turned into hell when the presence of God is close to nothing. The phrase "only dogs will be here" is also regering to the bestial nature of humans, what will be left once those in this final purgatory have either succumbed, or managed to save themselves.
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Earth is the place "where the Worm does not die, and the Fire {of the Sun} is not put out".
We live in a veritable Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven rolled into one. Yes, Earth is quite capable of Being Hell, let alone for the idea of reincarnation for sinners.
Yet here we are living as Spiritual National Socialists, denying the little children (Demons - indeed, most of ourselves) access to Christ - for we were all once born as coals taken from a fire burn out to darkness.
Here is a world where we condemn the needy and elevate the rich - in spirit, and in finance; whilst Christ died at the foundation to nullify all sin from Eden onwards.
We have failed to bring home those who do not see the light. Do we cast out our own wives, and our congregations, whom we might treat as "Tax collectors and Gentiles"?
Or should we not drive out evil now, but derive out sin to find the cause, and the cause to find negative sin?
There are only a few we can call in the true image of God (the furnaces or trees from which all coals and fruit come); and by battling it out with each other we have only stood at the door, not entering, but denying entry to everyone else.
The Father in Heaven must live in the Heart. The Unison of Heads (Angels) and Hands (Demons) must be the Heart.
@@compuguy123I can’t tell if this is a weird ai Christian auto reply. Or something lore related to the video I’m missing.
Hey I have a question? Do you think you will make more videos like the start of this one? You explaining the game but like a story that WE are the main character of? Telling us what we see and do? This was a fantastic thing to listen to while I worked, and I would just adore you to do something like this again with other games!
@ I'm glad you like this format! I really like it too so I will cover games in this style again in the future
@@Mister_mic_microwave My channel is far from an AI auto reply mate, this is what it means to talk to God.
There are very significant characters in my life that look very similar to the characters and their personalities in this game. Very odd.
I like how everyone in this game is kinda freaky looking, so you can't tell who's actually human and who isn't at first glance.
Really shows you that you can't judge a book by its cover
I think it's a good depiction of how you see people when you paranoid.
Everyone looks strange and potentially dangerous.
except that white shirt wearing lady 😂
what would you do if someone knocked on the door and said "you wouldnt hit a guy with glasses, would you?!?"
The widow is kinda bad tho
the people in this game look terrifying in a way real people in the real world sometimes look terrifying
especially in an apocalyptic scenario when your family has been ripped from you and your world has just flipped upside down. most people would have eye bags and look extremely distraught
In my experience, the uglier a man, the kinder he becomes
Tired people look terrifying to u?
Right, whoever created the characters really SAW people
They look pretty regular for the russian landscape lol
It’s hard to describe, but I really like the detail of the random teens hanging out in your backyard because its so odd that it forces you to rely on understanding the game setting in order to rationalize it. The level of finesse it takes to pull this off is why so many settings struggle to be interesting/immersive, and this game does it in a clever way that challenges the perspectives of its own world AND yours without breaking either.
“What the hell are these kids doing in my yard in the middle of the night?” (irl logic)
-people can only go outside at night (game’s logic)
“But if it’s still dangerous outside then why are they there?” (game’s logic)
-kids are stupid (irl logic)
I spent a few minutes trying to break this down into fewer words but if it was any easier to explain then there’d be alot more games as cool as this one
ооо, мега интересно. игра использует твои общие знания о мире, переворачивает их, тем самым сильнее завлекая в историю и геймплей. Можно сравнить с играми, которые просят тебя удалить файлы из игры, типа doki doki literature club или oneshot :)
@@meheheomgsi
I think you did a good job explaining with the words you’ve used
this game is a brilliant commentary on illegal immigration
@@cagneybillingsley2165 Letting in unintelligent brown people who want to grape your citizens is a good thing actually bigot
one very interesting thing you missed, is the man wasent going around asking people if they live alone, he was asking about YOU specifically, for whatever reason the smiling man has special interest in you
I imagine he picks someone and stalks them till he finds them alone then finds the next victim
Why does one of the guests say "there's a man going around asking people if they live alone"?
@@jankington216 but the neighbor tells you that the man asked about *you*
@naliante1331 could be a bit of both honestly, he probably was going victim to victim but finds you the protagonist to be of particularl interest
@@cringejoestar9791 Could be because no one else is letting people in. The PC is the only one doing that, and he's watching his fellow impostors go in his door.
If you’re right about the revelations theory, I wonder if the doctor will turn out to be an angel or something. His extra pupils could represent the multiple eyes of some powerful angels
Oh that makes so much sense!
Polycoria is a real eye condition.
@@exu7325 but you know that it can still be thematically linked to angels, polycoria being real doesn't erase the themes of the story.
@@exu7325
"The nonstop teardrops shown in this animation signifies the long term depression the character suffers, not causing unbearable anguish but driving their mood down at any given time"
"Um that is a serious medical condition so-"
now that's an interesting theory
The art of the smiling man outside just standing there menacingly is so well done although I’m laughing that in some cases he’s there and all of a sudden fema is like on the other side.
love the smiling man art, he's so creepy
Reminds me of ‘the Judge’ from Blood Meridian.
it is dark, so i guess he ambushed the fema crew, i also think he works with other people…
It plays into the idea that he's a stand in for the devil, this ethereal figure authority cannot remove
@@unsemplicetriangoloit’s actually the exact same picture just edited lol
I really, really like how realistically your character behaves in the playthrough. Allowing the Widow to live, then reaching the third strike on the Nervous, being weirded out by the Doctor's eye, and just snapping immediately on the Conman. It feels like a rather natural sequence to me.
I wrote this while FEMA was in the news and was praying UA-cam wouldn't get confused and strike me down
@@MYTHONICS So far, so lucky. Not mentioned in the first 2 minutes, title or thumbnail so I imagine you're fairly safe
For fools.
The last human in the world sits on his sofa. He hears a knock on the front door.
It was death
Two Sentence Horror Story
It is a walrus.
@@shadowcween7890 i like your shoelaces
He'd ordered a pizza. Who took his order, made it and is delivering it though?
Most likely theory. Our guy was tripping balls due to the heatstroke.
deepest lore
@@MYTHONICSi suggest you continue to use eerie music like this from now on in all of your videos, I can’t really explain it but the mixture of your voice and the music is very captivating
Occams razor
@@panriot5106 I think the music is from it game itself?
@@Peannlui It is but it still sounds great with his voice. Even better to use music from the game bc it helps captivate you more. Feels like you're there while he's explaining it to you
I love how the short guy in the stained shirt shows that no matter how uncanny the visitors are they can never match the weirdness of a straight up crazy human. That's a human kind of weirdness, you can't fake that.
Which one
@@teachmehowtofreeze2849 The religious zealot one talking about how he believes the sun is cleansing sins while attempting to protect the non-sinners from the visitors.
@@nimajneb8897 oh I see
@@nimajneb8897 yea he is drunk af
The dead will tell and no one will listen is a very interesting cue to a gameplay mechanic where visitors are blurred gory messes and humans are body bags. I watched several channels play the game and not pick up on this until the VERY end or afterwards when they looked up some stuff. In other words the dead told but no one listened.
i thought what made body bags was when someone was murdered by someone else, and the blurred gory mess was only when you shot someone. That’s what makes the difference, not whether they’re a visitor or not but whether you shot them. in that case it’s just self affirming ofc they’re not gonna be bagged. but maybe i’m wrong
@@DeathGrunt666 ManlyBad*ssHero. He did every ending in his run. He clearly made bags when he got rid of the humans. Visitors were always a mess.
@@DeathGrunt666 no, bloody mess = visitor
body bags = normal human
I loved your reflection and point of view, I personally think our neightbour's house was burnt by the FEMA after figuring out one of the people that our friend let in was a visitor, so in order to eliminate possible danger that may reside inside of the building, it was burned to ashes.
I dont think FEMA burned it cause they found but rather the presence of *certain* visitors them burn it - The flames were at night not at day, unless that is one strong house, when FEMA entered in they had suspects of visitors, but no one was taken yet, they began taking people once the house was burned, they were likely searching for the clown or the smilling man, over which explains why FEMA burned the house and why the soldiees were present - once they found that the Smiling Man/clown was let into the house they burned it down, and the soldiers engaged agaisnt the Clown, but both escaped, and they began taking people to test.
ATF be like
Na, when his daughter comes by she says that the visitors killed her father.
@@Dekartz The visitors would not dare to burn the house down, losing their shelter means dying burnt to a crisp, not their idea.
From what I came to understand the dude letted too many people in and One thing led to another ending Whit him getting killed and the house getting burned (which to respond to your other comment, could easily be and accident when people are slaughtering each others inside such a small Place)
The gameplay loop goes as follows:
1) Judge of character at the door.
2) Judge of traits indoors.
Turn away "evil" people and check for traits. Visitors may have one good trait. Humans may have one bad trait.
Somehow people think this gameplay loop is revolutionary and "full of passion."
@@dxcSOULIt's not, we know this. But the lore, aesthetic and atmosphere makes it feel fresh
video games thrive on gameplay loops, do you know how hard it is to get even one of them working?
@@dxcSOULit’s pretty clear a lot of passion has gone into developing the overall concept and allows a twist on the “booth” loop, introduced by Papers please and others. This allows movement throughout the house, an alloted energy which means you have to prioritize who you talk to and what you ask them. It’s pretty disingenuous to yourself to say you can’t see any passion in this.
key word... may
Man, fuck the Triple A gaming industry. Indie games reign supreme
Sounds clichê but triple A's miss the secret ingredient: Love. It takes a special kind of compromise to put love in a game and a even bigger one to express that love in a horror game. You can fell it was not made to be cheap, it was made with passion and attention as a reflection of the efford to tell a story, an idea and maybe inspire ideals
@@----S. I think more importantly AAA games lack a strong vision. It's hard to have a clear voice shine through a game when every aspect of it going through a pipeline of 100+ developers. It takes really strong leadership for that stuff to not get muddled down through the pipeline.
Been this way for a very long time
Always has been
I second that
The Smiling Guy is modelled around Judge Holden, from Blood Meridian. Fight me.
My first thought exactly.
The minute he did the smile is when I thought the exact same thing
I thought it was obvious
@@Khn_2102 well now that we’re talking about it, it’s obvious as hell 😅
Yes, its the first thing that came to mind when I saw him.
Also, this kind of puts more weight on the argument that the smiling man is an adaptation of this world's equivalent of the Devil. As Judge Holden is a stand-in for the Devil in Blood Meridian too.
Edit: I don't mean this in the literal sense. The judge is not Lucifer incarnate.
I absolutely loved this video and theory, but there are a few things i want to point out.
1- The "Psychopathic Man-in-suit" Isn't actually a visitor if we go by the cues of the game, where dead humans get body bags, and dead visitors just have their gory mess of a body thrown there. He gets a body bag.
2- If the most morally grey character that we know of in this game isn't a visitor, it might put the entire "visitor = infected by sin" theory into question, considering that if that was true, he would definetly be one of them, wouldn't he?
Oh my god, so he's a serial killing human who might as well be a visitor. That's amazing.
Yeah this guy got lost so far up his own ass with this theory. He really liked his own fan fic of it and just ignored and I mean truly avoided all the evidence counter to his theory. He went full antimasker pro christ over virtually no evidence at all.
2- would he? It’s a broad assumption the absence of one thing doesn’t prove another. Hence the evil or immorality of someone doesn’t prove they are “infected by sin” they very well could just be immorally grey. Infact morality is a subjective lens after all
It’s cool and kinda realistic framing imo. He can kill Bar Guy so of course most would think he’s a visitor.
The corpse of the wife’s husband is a visitor, I feel like that doesn’t get talked about enough. Is that really her husband? Did she kill him in self defense and have a psychotic break from it? Or was she delusional to begin with?
@@TBonifide How do you know the corpse is a visitor? Never picked up on this
One thing that is interesting is that the Orthodox Church (and naturally also the Russian Orthodox Church) actually do consider sin to be a disease, and the Church to be a hospital. So it actually WOULD make sense for them to be treating this sin as a disease within the context of the Faith. Just in a more literal sense.
So do Baptist I think it’s a Christian thing in general
The healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick
I'd like to share what I saw on another video on this game. The visitors actually behave like vampires, how they rise from the ground (could be graves), have perfect teeth, avoid the sun, the camera's can't pick up on their faces (also I've read that the type of camera that is used in game contains silver in the photos.) and can only come inside if they're invited.
this makes a lot of sense
The evil guy will just come inside without being invited if you say you're alone but it is an interesting thought.
@@JosephWalker-ip7pd yeah, i know. I'm thinking that the concept of the visitors were inspired by vampires
all of that is mentioned as part of the video
@@JosephWalker-ip7pdPart of why people say he's not a visitor
You know what games like this have in common with solid horror movies?
Budget. Due to a lack of it, seems to push the artists to explore and do things more unconventionally, also they always seem more willing to take a risk at an idea.
Risk works %90 of the time and usually pays off. (In my opinion)
Limitation is the mother of creation. Look at PS2 era games, old art, etc,.
@@Teutius for me, I always think back to Tim Follin. The man was a master with 8-bit music, and his music still slaps and inspires.
Limitations unleash creativity to those who are gifted to see it and take advantage.
@@DigitalScholar1337that’s both inspiring and a bit saddening 👍
Which means the homeless poor would be the best creators of all time
Side note by the way for everyone who's confused, it's dirt under the entire nail, not dirt under the fingernails
Only way you’d get dirt under the whole nail is if you’ve been digging your way outta the ground lol.
As a person who is russian speaking, I enjoyed you trying to connect the lore from slavic monsters to this, but I think it's much easier than this and more influenced by Alternates and overal increase popularity of "dopplegangers" and "uncanny valley looking almost humans" in the horror media for the past 5 or so years.
> Killer heat
> People wearing sweaters and jackets
I once wore a jacket during intense sun in the suburbs. Because it's better to sweat seven times than get sunburnt once.
it depends what kind risk you need to address first in your situation. Against sunburns and overheating, you would rather be fully clothed. Against dehydration, you would wanna lose clothing to avoid sweating. Both risks are always present against extreme heat, it depends what you can risk more.
@@zhertva0dwhat about heatstroke
@@floof6896 still easier to avoid, since there are no direct sunlight. My bad, I forgot to mention, I wore this hooded jacket like some sort of cape. And it's important to stay hydrated!
@zhertva0d true, sunburns absolutely suck
It keeps being said that the man in the suit is a visitor but im pretty certain he is not a visitor, signs point to him being human
Yeah he 100% is a human, he gets a body bag when killed. Visitors are left in a bloody mess
whoops
he is human, but also a killer. He can be mistaken for a visitor because he functions like one.
@@Baddabyso who are all humans and who are all visitors? Care to spoil?
@@MYTHONICSlol got that wrong
I'm pretty sure but not certain that certain art for the characters (not exclusively visitors but possibly just them) are inspired by the deceased sketches that exaggerate certain features to better get them identified which gives a really uncanny valley aspect to them. The man with the crooked neck is almost 1/1 of the crooked neck lady murder case and would add an extra layer of horror to this
The what now??
@@Xyttraisnotavailable when a body can't be identified, police will either render or draw out sketches that exaggerate certain facial aspects to help people recognise them, like a particular scar, distinctive cheekbones etc. The rest of this though usually does create some really uncanny stuff that's really creepy. Apparently they only need to be about 10% accurate to get the effect they're looking for aswell though I'm not too sure on that
@rhysjohnston961 No, no, I'm talking about the case you mentioned.
@@Xyttraisnotavailable the only thing I know about a crooked neck woman was a spirit from the story/series The Haunting Of Hill House. I can't find any actual real cases like that. I would however reccomend the series. It's quite good.
Susan Lund
22:57 i just realised that the kid has "AMOGUS" written on his shirt
Who is Amogus?
@@HamTheBaconnot knowing who Amogus is? Sus
@@iboofer i might say even that he's a sussy baka
@@HamTheBacon Jerma
Flash backs💀
I dont think being a visitor is correlated with sin. There are scummy non visitors and kind visitors between the various guests. If anything the game’s story detaches between biological qualities and ethical virtue. I remember a classmate of mine notifying and apologising to me for unknowingly coming to class while infected by covid, and my roommate getting angry and riling up other students against her for her irresponsibility. The fear of plagues can make the distinction between disease and moral failing disappear. This game does well to stress its distinctions
It was amazing how much some people freaked out, we had someone at a party who came down with symptoms the next day. Guess what: nobody else out of a couple dozen people who had all been sitting around the table with them got sick. The ones who freaked out all ran to get tests and they were all negative.
@ i did get sick and it did suck. I just dont think it was her fault ethically. Especially as she took the effort to warn me when she did find out about it
Covid showed the types of people who would be deceitful, wildly paranoid, fanatically devoted to arbitrary authority, and reasonable in an austere situation.
They kill people if they are in your house though?
Also of note, the smiling man is designed after Judge Holden, the antagonist of the anti-western novel Blood Meridian, a character who is strongly implied to be the devil himself or the embodiment of human evil
oh my god you're RIGHT. i didnt make that connection until you said something and you're RIGHt.
Only just barely lmfao. The Judge is built like a ton of bricks, wears a duster and hat and hairless. Although the smiling man does look a lot like that one picture of Judge smiling
No hes not. Maybe read the book instead of just watching that dumbass Wendigooner video
it’s not confirmed
I just thought it was General Sam
Very happy you're covering this game! Ever since I've discovered it I've been hyped for it's full release.
FEMA responding very quickly is the most unrealistic part of this game.
true, the government would be sending 7 trillion dollars to israel instead
lmfao 😂
FEMA only does stuff when theyre given authority
In this case we assume they have control of everything, maybe even the pentagon, thats why they mobilized considering real world logistics
😂😂😂😂
Lets not forget when FEMA ran out of money..
15:28 Oh hell no. People kicking out my own house? Naw. They don't trust me. They can trust these bullets.
Yeah I found that weird
You're the only one with a gun, very much doubt that would actually happen.
@@anitaremenarova6662They can kick you out and disarm you while you are sleeping
Something not many people mention when discussing the game is the aesthetic.
The game takes place in Eastern Europe, possibly Russia, and not only does that sort of add to the hopeless, depressing atmosphere, but also influences the visual style of the game. The interior design, the "2000s Russian television" looking morning reports, it all feels very cosy yet depressing, and I think had the setting been anything else it wouldn't work as well.
well people have been making some of the voices sound eastern European, must be subconsciously noticing the atmosphere. I noticed the commie block immediately tho.
the music in this game is PERFECT for the situation the world is in
the music is so addictive, i keep watching vids on the game to hear the music.
oh boy video essay of a game i never heard about and i will never play, time to watch it all in one go
the best genre
I would have never heard of this game, I'm considering buying the full game once it comes out after watching this, looks really rad
I’d like to add that the zealot is my fave I think, for the sole reason he relieves a lot of my anxiety by sharing his belief that the sun actually is trying to help us. Religion can be so harmful yet so comforting in times of crisis…
he's my favourite too. I hope I can be so upbeat during the apocalypse
Doctor on top for me, zealot is num 2
i think he's so funny. it's super charming
I liked the tall man.
@@tommydixon841 He's so hot!
I’ve been obsessed with this game lately (I love doppelgänger-like stories), I can’t wait for the full release
There is something interesting about the concept of dystopian worlds with these human mimics! - even if they _can_ be a bit grim or depressing with their stories. But still!
me too man
You should check out some analog horror stories like Vita Carnis, they have similar elements
Honestly, the man on the news looks more eerie to me than anyone you let into the house
I feel like you're being given bad and potentially opposite instructions
I’m assuming that the news reporter looks like that just to make you paranoid. But surely he’s human because the advice actually checks out (at least in the two playthroughs I’ve watched).
all the advice checks out and you survive though, if you avoid it, the visitors you let in start killing real people in your house
It looked suspicious how the army people outside died and then FEMA knocked on the door wanting people from the house. I reckon they were visitors too.
If you watch any of the Easter egg videos to this, the four horsemen are actually mentioned in the intro. So you're not far off. The russian mythology you went over was dope, so now I look at the crying woman different. Also, if I'm not mistaken, coat girl is supposed to be a guy.
If you think any men look like that, you live a very strange life
@@-._Radixerus_.- in the russian version of the game (where the game was made) he's referred to as a man lmao.
@@-._Radixerus_.-here we go
@@-._Radixerus_.- get a grip dog theres no singular way to look like a man
@@Valkyriiie_Art Wow. That guy looks really fucked up
A small part of me kinda wish the game left it at least little ambiguous whether there even *are* visitors or if it's just a mass paranoia/psychosis causing everyone to kill each other for nothing.
Evil must exist for there to be paranoia of it in the first place. I think the message still sends itself, about the difficulty or even pointlessness of judging others based off conventionality and that the fear and paranoia itself is its own evil.
I think that trope is a bit overdone. I like the fact that there is evil in this world, and as a human you should try to stay above it.
but its so played out now. everyones calling it "all in le head" kind of plot.
@@Wintergreen_ i agree overall though I like that interpretation more
This trope is the lazy and overdone. Completely ruined many movies
Mimic type monsters are one of my top most feared antagonists in these kind of games/stories cause they can slowly whittle your sanity to shreds. The distrust they sow onto a characters mind while they isolate them from the rest of humanity is scary. Not to mention the scenario of losing food, sleep, and strength as they takes shots at getting into where you are can be overwhelming. (Some indie games capture that suspense of horror perfectly.)
One neat detail that connects well with your theory that you forgot to mention: it's known that the visitors likely crawled out from under the earth. Through the biblical lense, they would have literally crawled out from hell below us.
Indie games are so creative in how they use their potential and limitations and a lot of times you get these bangers that make you enjoy thinking about all of the details
woah haha what a scary game--- IS THAT JACK BLACK!??!
It's russian rocker Prorok Sunboy actually. He's iconic
I... AM STEVE
@siergeplo1161 nice profile 😏
@@HK-pq7pe this guy’s such a toolbag 😳
I also saw the scout from TF2
THIS ONLY APPLIES TO THE DEMO VERSION
[Prologue]
Neighbor = Human (N/A)
[1st Night]
Little girl (1st encounter) = Human (N/A)
Tall man = Human
Shoulder girl = Visitor
[2nd Night]
Coat woman = Visitor
Stained shirt man = Human
Fortune Teller = Human (N/A)
[3rd Night]
Tall pale entity (1st Encounter) = Visitor {Can end your game early if you’re alone}
widow with a corpse = Human
Short man = Visitor
Doctor = Human
[4th Night]
FEMA worker (1st Encounter) = Human {takes one of the occupants in the house}
Suited man = Human {Behaves like a visitor}
Little girl (2nd Encounter) = Human
Hunter = Visitor
Fat girl = Visitor
[Final Night]
FEMA worker (2nd Encounter) = Human {Takes another occupant inside the house}
Tall Pale Entity (2nd Encounter) = Visitor {Can end your game early if you’re alone}
Fortune Teller (2nd Encounter) = Human (N/A)
[Tips and reasonings]
- Despite the widow having bloodshot eyes, she’s a human.
- The doctor didn’t pass the teeth test, he is still human.
- Do not let the suited man in, despite being a human (he can kill a human each night).
- The little girl doesn’t pass the camera test, but she’s obviously human.
The woman with the weird shoulder is a guest.
@@ohno7153What's a guest?
@@pugjuice8462 guests are basically the people who you dont want to in. ‘Imposters’ basically
@@pugjuice8462 Guests are normal people
"cant risk another person ending up dead" after shooting two people in the face really sums up the themes of the game imo
26:25 not very accurate. If you lie to him that you’re alone or if you lie to him that you’re with people when you’re not he takes you anyway. Your agreement isnt an issue for the smiling man
They probably ignored it to make their theories more solid. But honestly, they should’ve just left that part out, because it kinda makes their theory weaker when they ignore evidence.
@@JinxeBlaq i dont understand what youre trying to say. They ignored what? What is their theory?
@@benzur3503 Huh? I was agreeing with you, their theory isn’t very accurate since The Stranger can and does break in to get you when you lie to him.
I was just adding that the UA-camr ignores this and never mentions it, thus, it weakens their theory since they decided to ignore contradictory evidence.
@@JinxeBlaqahhh by they you meant Mauthe, i got it. Thank you for clarifying
Meh his sinfection theory still checks out in my book. Lying is sinful meaning the Smiling Man (Devil) already has an invitation.
27:00 thats actualy a really smart way to characterise a sinner if done on purpose. Many of the people who are most strict and aggresive in condeming others for their actions are themselves everything they claim to fight against and often much worst
Are you sure you’re not just projecting your personal issues? People can have ideals they stick by without being the antithesis of their ideas.
@@anthonygaytan620 you're accusing me of the very thing i'm pointing out while also saying that i'm wrong because people aren't like that... rarely have I seen someone make a sentence so incoherent it render itself useless.
Really what was the point ? If i'm a hypocrite my comment is correct because i'm the proof that people like that existe and clearly you belive they existe since you accuse me of being one. What were you trying to invalidate ? What about my comment hit close enough to home that you couldn't ignore it despite having nothing of substance to say ?
@@khalakrean6890 What? Are you mentally ill? Just asking a casual question lol. Did you have a traumatic event in your childhood or something?
It's the other way around guy that fact that's your response to the was from a place defense and rage say you can have faith and not be a dick about isn't bad or hypocritical it just a thing
@@khalakrean6890 Type some more lol, I’m not gonna read all of dat nonsense. You’re a white girl I’m guessing with all that crying you’re doing tho🥱🤷🏿♂️
The pale man refers to the one you see out the window, not the one that talks at you through the door. The hazmat suits could be used to protect from radiation from the sun's solar flares. They would probably still die from heat exhaustion though.
The most ridiculuous aspect about this game is the way people can die to scorching heat outside but everything is good inside a common house.
FR RIGHT, I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINK THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good air conditioning, I suppose.
yeah there's no direct evidence that shows the sun is actually dangerous
Если дом кирпичный - в нем будет прохладно даже в жаркую погоду.
I thought it was supposed to be more tied to radiation than hear but idk yeah the writing could have been tighter
"Dogs rule the world. And only dogs will be here."
That proclamation absolutely terrifies me for some reason.
What is your interpretation of it ?
@@idiramara1 it took me some time but thinking on it, i found an answer for myself.
have you ever seen a pack of street dogs before? they're ravenous, violent. they're known to kill for sport and viciously rip other dogs and animals apart.
i think saying that dogs will rule the world and only dogs will remain is proclaiming that kind of cruelty will reign supreme after all is said and done.
@@madman6962 oh definitly
@@madman6962 Funny enough, its actually an easter egg and a line from a russian song, dont remember the name tho
@@KashaPomydornaya "Гражданская оборона - Собаки"
Awesome video dude - very excited for this game now!
CROSSOVER EPISODE WHEN :))))
I’m giggling so much at how the nervous woman’s sprite has obviously uneven teeth but the zoom in is completely perfect teeth 💀
She looks like she's based on pre-transformation Yennifer from the Witcher TV series
The smiling guy reminds me of Judge Holden from Blood Meridian by Cormac Mccarthy, he is a spitting image and even talks similarly to him
Pretty sure the famous image of Holden, the drawn one, was used directly as a base for the smiling man.
@@Nuniixo definitely seems so!
He doesnt look anything like the Judge.
@@gr33nsk1n There is a very popular illustration of Holden online. The Smiling Man from this game is based on it, but edited obviously. The face composition down to the shape of the smile and nose are identical.
@@Nuniixo no, they arent the same. They dont speak similar either.
Can’t believe they made a game about Mauthe Doog’s day to day life. He’s so brave!
My biggest issue with the game is that you can see all these things from just different windows of your house but non of them seem connected at all. Like there's clearly a monstrous thing standing next to your porch but people just casually knock on your door
it is there to make sure you are worried about people on the porch and thus pressured to let them into the safety of your house
Just seems like a bad game with a kernel of an interesting concept.
"dogs rule the world, and only dogs will be here" goes incredibly hard for no reason
it's a great line
lyrics from a song by Egor Letov.
But the world is ruled by dogs
Bodies are inhabited by dogs
Dogs howl in brains
And here only dogs will remain
Man this entire game reminds me of a particular part in I Am Legend (the book) The main character is sitting in his living room drinking heavily to drown out the outside noise of vampires mocking him and begging him to come outside. Really nails that vibe that something evil is outside and is trying to break down your will.
the thing that gets me in this game is that thr only "holy" entity you encounter cant do anything with whats happening outside he can only watch like not even god can do anything during the rapture
36:07 Bro is NOT getting let in 😭
Press dislike on the visitor
@MilosJelic-f9s jkekks
The demo has one huge pothole: if sunlight has become so hot that it can literally burn away human flesh within minutes, how does the player and their guests survive inside the house?
What, does the house have perfect heat insulation from the outside world?
It’s a video game
I mean... We seen an air conditioning in the cabinette
I don’t think this game is aiming for scientific accuracy
Glad to see this game getting attention. It definitely deserves it
4:48 yellow and stained - shows a perfect row of bleached ones.
im usually not scared by games like this but it genuinely did make me parinoid after watching someone play it
In the real world FEMA can only provide so much help. and they take a long time to get to you, so typically you're forced to stay with family or be homeless until they can get to you. But if your homeless and don't have a mailing address it can make things even more difficult to get help.
That's the consensus I got from people in my immediate area that were effected by the recent hurricanes and had their roofs blown off. I'm not surprised to see FEMA being a neutral/negative sort of thing to talk about. Not a lot of people have good experiences with them.
For us the hurricane took our power. We all came together in order to grill whatever we had to have food. I was a teenager and was out of the loop but it took a bit before we were given military rations which tasted pretty interesting lol
I know a guy who had his house seriously damaged and the fema worker helped him to get aid that he wasn't technically really beaurocratically qualified to receive. You have to remember fema is made up of people who clean up disasters for a living, not some strawman image of an authoritarian psychopath from a movie.
700$
it's not the real FEMA though. It's a russian analog.
It's almost like cutting their funding makes them less effective.
This has to be my most anticipated game yet, can’t wait for the full release.
My theory is that visitors are humans killed either by other turned visitors or by "the original visitor" the pale man outside.
I think the process of turning a human into a visitor entails burying them after killing them. The strange radiation of the sun bakes them in the earth, changes them, and then at night, they claw their way out of their graves as visitors.
I think that being eligible to become a visitor may require some prerequisite personality traits/trauma, and the way in which you are killed might matter too.
That would explain why the pale man is more particular about the conditions under which he murders you while the soldiers outside were just slaughtered with abandon. He wants to turn you.
Like vampires? Thats a cool theory
I think this is right, it makes sense why the visitors “act” human. The visitors probs have their memories but controlled by SMTHN else in a way.
Especially since the main character is probably traumatized from killing so many people and visitors.
@@bickyboo7789ooh thats actually a brilliant idea wtf
@@yocatson1605 Makes sense, considering the nervous woman has a lot of specific memories (being a former cashier that lost her job), but also has gaps in memory (not remembering which dentist she supposedly visited, not remembering digging, etc.) This woman also is seemingly unaware she is a Visitor and appears to grow frantic and distressed when you find that her eyes are bloodshot and her face blurs when you take a photo. Even coat guy seems to not know he's a Visitor (he says something about finally knowing why he's cold before he dies). The others, I think, are aware of what they are--Amogus guy for sure.
It seems like the Visitor's personality corresponds to who they might have been before turning, according to this theory. The nervous woman is paranoid about Visitors and becomes a nervous wreck when there's no question she's a Visitor, because thats the kind of person she was before; the coat guy may have been depressed before turning, as he's resigned himself to death when you pull your gun on him; the yellow shirt woman could have been a gossip who distrusted the government; the Amogus guy was a conman, which is why he drops the act pretty quickly when he realized the jig is up; the hunter was a violent (possible) conspiracy theorist, which is why he thinks you should not let anyone in. And the widow's husband (who is a Visitor, given that his face is blurry in photos despite being, you know, a CORPSE who shouldn'tbe moving) might have actually been her husband once, but was replaced.
I don't know if I'm making sense. It's 3:00 am, lol
I think that delineating between vampires and the damned dead is a false dichotomy
true
reminds me of 10 cloverfield lane with being told by everyone its unsafe to go outside forcing you to stay indoors, while not sure if its true or not. if the sun is really that intense during the day how is there still grass and trees everywhere?
Because the visitors aren't vampires, everyone else is.
honestly, your storytelling makes the game feel much more eerie than it actually is. i mean that more as praise for you than criticism of the game.
The line, "Dogs rule the world…" comes from the song Собаки by a Russian punk-rock band Гражданская оборона. Russian developers inspired by Russian poets - beautiful.
The sun is exploding but the glaciers haven't melted?
The act of shooting someone is portrayed as gory, disgusting, they plead for life, their body stays human. I cant possibly image that the games message is "be dilligent in weeding out sinners".
The centrail anxiety of the game is a society where we cannot trust one another (yet we have to). You're kinda suggesting the horror game wants the real world to be more like it.
I enjoyed the playthrough part, so I'm pretty disappointed about the analysis.
visitors leave their body there after getting killed, humans are presented in the black bags instead
Only the visitors have the gory bodies, dead humans are represented as plastic bags
@@landlordize if he had just left it as a plot summary it would’ve been a great video, the theory crafting portion has some interesting ideas but the conclusions he draws are very weak. He’s way more invested in finding the parallels with religion and COVID than the social commentary. It feels like he had an assumed idea of what the game was supposed to be about and then worked backwards to find evidence for those assumptions.
@@4dbagel945 I hope so. I figured he was projecting his own beliefs on the game.
@@4dbagel945 Honestly I was pretty disturbed by this video at the time 😆 The game has such a sense of uncertainty and paranoia while asking you to do horrible shit. So for someone to just flatten it into a pro-social control Christian game was spooky.
maybe its because im faded asf rn but his face envokes genuine fear in me.
im not even 2 minutes in, i cant stop imagining these scenarios this is genuinely to scary to watch and i normally ADORE these kinds of videos, Kudo to you Mauthe Doog.
I've said it before and I'll say it again and some more. I LOVE the way this game looks, the art is absolutely perfect for the game's setting.
This is the most lore accurate depiction of FEMA I've ever seen.
For the Vampire thesis: They specificaly say that the photos have to be taken with an analog camera.
Analog Cameras use Mirrors inside.
Vampires dont have a mirror image.
You cant see them clearly on the pic.
Would be intresting to know if this lines up with russian lore.
Thanks for the nice atmosphere on this well deserving title! A bit of an obsession has been forming over this game and i can't wait for the full version
28:22 this also could be an inversion of wolf in sheep’s clothing to reference how the smiling man specifically makes himself act unnaturally and non-human
Is it just me or the guy smiling in 9:10 is very similar to that famous art of Judge Holden from Blood Meridian?
That's why it was familiar. I was trying for so long to put my finger on it! It's definitely inspired by that.
the whispering at the beginning scared the shit out of me and I felt like, physical pain
15:25 After he said "What will you do?" a sudden heavy rain fell down outside (in real life)
and it gave me chills.
spooky
The "large woman" at 12:38 seems to be a reference to the cockroach people from Terraformers. I haven't finished the video yet but she's gotta be a visitor.
I genuinely like how simple the game is but how far you can go to search for answers
When I first encountered this game, I remembered the book "The Other World: Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon" by Cyrano de Bergerac. It said that intelligent beings live on the Sun, who can only be on other planets inside the bodies of locals, since they need a shell. Therefore, I perceived visitors as corpuscular-wave organisms that had moved into human bodies.
Speaking as someone with two graduate degrees in theology (admittedly, from a Protestant, USA pov):
I can’t deny that the gospel passages you mentioned are relevant-cause death and resurrection and all-but I think a better and more direct connection would be the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. At the end of that parable, the rich man asks Abraham to send someone to warn his brothers; Abraham replies that they have the law of Moses. When the rich man protests, Abraham explains that if they didn’t believe Moses than they won’t believe even if the dead should come back.
More speculatively, if the smiling man is supposed to be the devil (or a demon), it might be worth looking up the “strong man” passages and related within the gospels-as well as possible folklore-ish interpretation or explanations of them. In these passages (which is one passage with a different version in each gospel), Jesus is talking about demon possession and likens it to someone taking someone’s house. The strong man (devil) has to be tied up in order to be expelled; but if the house is left unguarded, the the demon will have other demons to help him [I realize now that I may be conflating a couple distinct passages, but they’re related and should be close to each other in the gospels in which they appear].
Earth is literal Hell, "where the Worm does not die, and the fire" of the sun and core "is not put out". Yet because it is, in many places it is purgatory, and Heaven on earth
"Idk looks human enough for me"
Это самое забавное произношение слово "упырь "которое я слышал
Есть такое😂
Not sure why so many people are saying they didn’t appreciate your review. As art, it is open to be interpreted various ways. Thank you for your perspective !
If a lore theory doesn't make people angry then you haven't tried hard enough
You gotta add a little spice to get them brains ticking. Heaven forbid that people actually put in energy to respond.
11:03 Hold the fuck up does the con man's shirt say "AMOGUS"?
Only makes sense that he's an imposter, then
21:00 amogus??? 😭😭😭
I find it interesting that they’re called visitors and not some malicious like intruders. Having it be a mundane, kind of positive term makes it more creepy to me
A quick addon to your point about sins and virtues in the game:
The widow's apathy can be seen as sloth or to a greater extreme selfishness, the refusal to act or being too self-absorbed in your own misfortune to help others.
The hunter's righteous anger can be seen as provoking wrath. A good example of this could be certain Templars. They were so certain of the evil among people, that they neglected to recognize the evil of their own actions: attacking sinners rather than the sin itself.
The worst part is I vibe with the coat girl considering I’m always cold even in like 90 degree weather
Mauthe Doog confirming that he's not a human
Genuinely can’t say how proud I am as one of your viewers to see that your newest video is on track to be your most popular. You hit it on the nose, and you’ve found your nieche dude. Keep doing this, and I promise you’ll be having a great time on this app.
couldn't do it without everyone's support!
@@MYTHONICS you should play a game called Mouthwashing if you aren’t already.
@@couldntcarelessman I have but probably won't do a video about it. I talk about it a little in an upcoming video on my second channel
@@MYTHONICSalmost a million!
Great video mate, your channel deserves a lot more recognition!!
The fact that even humans look f-ed up makes it a lot harder to know who's who
What makes the game more terrifying is after a certain point everyone is a visitor
An idea prevalent in Russia about sin (possibly held by the Orthodox church, I'm not an expert), is that sin is shared in a community. This belief was held by Dostojevskij, and was a theme in a book I read by him called Devils. Humans aren't separate from one another, so it's difficult to distance yourself from what happens in your community. Even apathy, or inaction is sinful when you know that you can do something to help but refuse to interact. You can't be passive, deciding to board yourself in alone isn't an option. This is the surface explanation as to why you have to let people in, or at least make an effort and consider who you let in.
I think that the people you let into your house may represent certain negative aspects of humanity, such as apathy (sloth, often interpreted as physical laziness but is in reality the absence of spiritual zest and unwillingness to work on yourself internally) , or violence (wrath). I don't think they have to be a 1 to 1 with the seven deadly sins or anything, there are many theological and non theological systems of what constitutes virtue and non virtue that the developers could use. Who you let into your house is essentially what you let in spiritually. It makes sense then that if all your guests are corrupted and visitors, the devil gets you. You've lost everything substantial in your soul and it has been replaced by darkness. Perhaps the goal of the game is to successfully use spiritual discernment, rather than listen to external descriptors provided by the officials? Your house, moreover isn't you in a physical sense, it is your sanctity, your soul, or your church. It is your spiritual body, and being thrown out of your own house is death.
I also think it's possible that the righteous have already left earth. It's a 'left behind' scenario, where those not eligible, or perhaps non believers who have had the opportunity to accept God but didn't take it by their own free will, are left alone with the damned souls. I was inclined to say that the visitors are demons, but it makes more sense considering that they rise from the earth, that they are people who are damned. A scorching sun, representing cleansing and a resetting of the world, and many last difficult decisions seems to me like a bleak final chance for the protagonist of the game. The Devil is often described as the ruler of the physical world, which makes sense, as earth seems to have turned into hell when the presence of God is close to nothing.
The phrase "only dogs will be here" is also regering to the bestial nature of humans, what will be left once those in this final purgatory have either succumbed, or managed to save themselves.
what a beautiful interpretation; I enjoyed this analysis greatly, your words are very impactful and thought-provoking !!
@endlessdraws1685 Thank you, that brightened my day! :)
@@an8790 of course!! :D so glad to hear that ！♥︎