My personal theory is that we play as Dr. Randolph, who fulfilled his oath of nobody dying at Heilwald by discovering the Loophole through his unethical experiments. When someone dies at Heilwald, the Loophole will loop them back to an earlier point in time. The Loophole warps the clinic turning most of its staff to monsters, making it a living purgatory where everyone inside suffers, unable to find death. Dr. Randolph at the end of the game has his face crushed by Nurse Sabine, destroying his teeth and rendering him mute and unrecognizable to anyone else, seeming to be just another patient. He falls through the floor and is taken by the Loophole back in time meeting himself. He goes through all the events over and over again, and the final “boss” was what Dr. Randolph looks like after being brought back by the Loophole countless times. This Dr. Randolph’s mouth is a bloody and toothless mess, perhaps what one would expect after having their jaw crushed by a machine.
@@Jelatin-ug1knthey usually treat mental people as psychopaths who are out of control and ruthless but in reality they just need help they are still normal people
@@MeepMacArthurin most of the things I've seen they aren't evil but pushed too far by uncaring doctors and unethical treatment/experiments, malpracticeb and misdiagnoses. They may pose a threat but often the real bad guys are the doctors or failed healthcare systems. But that's just what I've seen in certain movies and games.
This honestly reminds me of the current state of healthcare. Big companies forcing their products at excruciatingly high prices, understaffed hospitals with medics and nurses being run ragged due to too many patients, private hospitals bearing down on public ones - providing better service but at a higher cost -, and older people being neglected and mistreated in lower-quality nursing homes. Nurses being overworked and undervalued, while doctors get massive pays and get bonuses for the smallest of things. And that's what's happening here in Canada.
And this rampant medical malpractice is what gives rise to "alternative" medicine, quack doctors, faith-based healing and all sorts of harmful pseudoscience. "Why don't people trust experts? Are they stupid?" says the naive.
Yup welcome to the club. All that shit talking y'all did about having free healthcare is catch up to y'all. Your country is getting just as greedy and corrupt as mine america
Here in Sweden too, and lets not even talk about animal healthcare where a slight cough is reason for doctors to kill your pet. Had to save our kitten from such a fate because he had an eye irritation which went away on its own, and he's a big happy ball today. :)
I like the fact that the horror doesn't come from mental illness or disability but from how some people treat those with mental illness or disability, the patients are victims, not actually enemies, unlike in many other horror games. While most horror games touch on malpractice, they tend to focus more on the patients than the staff. I think this is the first game I've seen talk about the Hippocratic oath and to focus on the horrors of malpractice in such a clear manner. The kindness of the nurses like Helen and Astrid really show how horrible the other doctors and nurses are, that they choose to be this way. And that's the real horror of this game. That evil is chosen, that evil is not a place.
I'm kind of surprised you didn't bring up the implications that the person we play as IS Randall. 1. We suffer the same fall as Randall at the end in the beginning, and whenever we do the loop. 2. Monster Randal has the same mouth damage as the protagonist received in the dental office. 3. The staff is shown in human and monster forms, their human statues being their 'real' forms and their current forms interpretations of their inner demons. 4. Randall's fall at the end seems to be a suicide attempt. That the guilt caught up with him enough to 'stop the monster', and then shows him falling from a great height and bleeding out. The assumption being that he jumped off of the dental building. Basically, the idea is that we're in purgatory. We see all the staff as the monsters they are instead of the humans they would really be. We see Randall, ourselves, not as us but as the monster we became. The ominous voice isn't nearly clear cut, and while it could be an entity, it could also be Randall's conscious that was bottled up for so long.
@@dead_girl777 I watched it until the last ten minutes. I must've missed it. Edit: Double-checked and yeah, I stopped watching like two seconds before he said it. XD At that point there was only thirty seconds left so I guess I assumed we were wrapping up.
I saw an interesting theory that the ominous voice is not only a manifestation of the Hippocratic oath but of all the staff's self awareness and common sense that what they're doing is harmful/wrong
Maybe he at the dental place exposing himself to his own machine was to prove a point to all the people claiming his methods were evil and painful, considering the how the guy was very proud of his achievements and possibly brushing off his patient's suffering as mere casualties or no big deal because of all the "good" its making, going so far as to silence people disrupting his flawed vision if what he was actually doing, only to find out that they were very right, and his procedures are nothing but sheer long lasting torture, prompting him to see himself as a hulking inhuman monster, because while he can blame everyone else for whatever he endured at the hospital, the dental clinic is his personal domain, where everything goes under his name and is recognized as such, there really isn't anyone else to blame there than himself
The part that stuck with me the most was when you find the statues and the one judging them says: "Each to their own, but what good is a broken oath?" and you start to see that these people aren't simply evil, they on purpose broke their oaths just to feel better about themselves and mistreated the patients, which is even worse...
The Heilwald Klinikum was a real place in Germany. I can't really say much about it, but I do think there was sometgibg going on similar to the game which caused the clinic to close down. At least as far as I'm aware
@@germxiii9779 the name itself is fake, but in Germany there was a clinic for the mentally ill that had similar things happen there. I may not be the most reliable source, as I am no historian, but I do know that something like that existed as I am German myself. I know, it's a 'jist trust me, bro' thing
This is scarily reminiscent of my time in the psych ward, down to the anesthetic syringes. I remember the nurse just playing on her phone as I cried and cried for ~2-3 hours, confused and scared (I assume, there were no clocks). There were people there who had been passed around hospitals, and it seems I was lucky. There was one that I hear was essentially a bit better than a prison. That comes from people who have actually been to jail. It was scary. I didn’t want to participate in group activities as I knew for a fact there were people who had tried to kiII others. I met a school sh00ter in there, ironically one of the nicest patients I met. They took my lack of participation as an act of resistance to treatment, using it as an excuse to keep me there longer. You got two five minute calls a day. There was one nice nurse with blue hair. There were some people there who had been abandoned by all family and friends. They were too far gone to understand what was going on though.
I was forced on treatment just because I just wanted to be left alone and because I saw myself having self worth, I am now probably dying from gut issues, I can't eat without getting issues because I guess seeing myself as a being of worth is an illness, also I am someone on the spectrum
I doubt that you're the conscious of Randolph as it seems he and wolfram were twisted individuals from the start it was never about being ethical or good. But I do like that you the player start off falling down a hole, and in the end Randolph is defeated and his fate mirrors your arrival and first encounter with him. So it's possible you the player and the voice represents 2 things: the Hippocratic oath and the legacy of the hospital. Once Randolph arrives he silences 1 and disregards the other so that he came built his own legacy. And in turn that spreads like an infection to others.
It's crazy to think about those kinda things, the things that happened in the past with those kinda power/fame hungry medical professionals that did horrible experiments on innocent people but also thinking where our progress would be in the medical field if it wasn't for those monsters
Since the subject of ECT came up, former assistant here. The memory loss happens on short term memory, which sounds worse than it is. I often had to just make sure my patients woke up and catching them up that the procedure is already done, because they have forgotten about everything ever since waking up for that day. Which is why patients agree on ECT on a longer time frame. Latest techiques help to alleviate memory loss. The idea isn't to cook your brain, but to increase bloodflow. From what I saw as an assistant in one year, the treatment had tangible positive effects about 80%, and improvements started with second to third treatment. But I must say there was a good amount of information collected, usually people somehow create a fantasy about shock lobotomy, which was never a thing. Even electric chairs killed the persons heart. Main difference between then and now is mostly anesthesia.
As a shrink ive always wanted to make a game like this but in the vein of theme hospital. Where the more 'treatments' you provide the more money you make and unlock more expensive treatment centers but over the course of the game you realize youre not actually improving any patients life and are just trapping them in a cycle of being better at working and therefore capable of affording your expanding treatments. You balance your income with the health of the patients and realize your very first treatment center, just an office with a couch was your best option all along. Or you can just become fabulously wealthy and get your name in the history books.
ECT is less about stimulating the brain, but more to work in a similar way as defibrilators on the heart. It's supposed to momentarily interrupt the communication between the nerves, so they stop blocking or overwriting each other. So that, once they start sending signals again a moment later, it all flows normally again. It's basically a 'force refresh' action. Electroshock is similar, but way more of a punch and sledge hammer method. ECT intends to be more of a scalpel and pincers method. This is why, unlike a defibrillator, ECT puts the patient through a minute of repeated sparks of electric pulses, to minimize potential damages or interference, and functions more as a conductor or metronome for the brain chemistry and electric signals to arrange themselves. Problem is, unlike the heart and defibrillator, there's no central nerve bundle that WILL pick up working again. Add to that, that a lot about the brain is still unknown, and a lot of it's function is in it's activity being continuous and uninterrupted. So, even interrupting it to help it, is guaranteed to cause side effects. Memory loss being a big one, as memories aren't stored like data on a harddisk or flashdrive, but are constant recreations of the last time you remembered that memory. Never the less, giving the brain the chance to smoothen it's signals can be very beneficial. ECT, and all of brain research, is still a constantly growing subject in medicine. The difference between ECT and old electroshock or lobotomy, is simply that we by now know how to not actually interfere with the brain harshly but approach and handle it like the delicate system it is.
My personal fave part of the game is thats its still very silly intentionally at points. Weirdly enough it makes it easier to take the serious moments seriously.
I have to admit that I love how the game portrays how people with mental health issues are affected by science driven people who don’t care about the consequences of their decisions. Plus I love how it shows that despite that there are those who don’t care about anyone but achieving scientific advancement, there will always be those who do care about their patients.
In the end, the game is based around a hospital and stuff in Frankfort, change my mind. You honestly can't. There's no winning against a German pointing out to other germans.
The visuals are a very strange middle ground between ps1 and ps2, I think it would look really good in 4:3 aspect ratio with the 640x512 resolution that the ps2 had
My personal theory is that we play as Dr. Randolph, who fulfilled his oath of nobody dying at Heilwald by discovering the Loophole through his unethical experiments. When someone dies at Heilwald, the Loophole will loop them back to an earlier point in time. The Loophole warps the clinic turning most of its staff to monsters, making it a living purgatory where everyone inside suffers, unable to find death. Dr. Randolph at the end of the game has his face crushed by Nurse Sabine, destroying his teeth and rendering him mute and unrecognizable to anyone else, seeming to be just another patient. He falls through the floor and is taken by the Loophole back in time meeting himself. He goes through all the events over and over again, and the final “boss” was what Dr. Randolph looks like after being brought back by the Loophole countless times. This Dr. Randolph’s mouth is a bloody and toothless mess, perhaps what one would expect after having their jaw crushed by a machine.
A very good interpretation!
Yap sesh
what i love about this game is that the patients aren’t evil like how they are portrayed in most horror media.
Wdym patients are portrayed as evil?
@@Jelatin-ug1kn patients turned into monster and tried to kill you that what he meant
@@Jelatin-ug1knthey usually treat mental people as psychopaths who are out of control and ruthless but in reality they just need help they are still normal people
@@MeepMacArthurin most of the things I've seen they aren't evil but pushed too far by uncaring doctors and unethical treatment/experiments, malpracticeb and misdiagnoses.
They may pose a threat but often the real bad guys are the doctors or failed healthcare systems.
But that's just what I've seen in certain movies and games.
@@MeepMacArthurthey are hurt people looking for guidance and just wanting to get somewhere just like everyone else.
This honestly reminds me of the current state of healthcare. Big companies forcing their products at excruciatingly high prices, understaffed hospitals with medics and nurses being run ragged due to too many patients, private hospitals bearing down on public ones - providing better service but at a higher cost -, and older people being neglected and mistreated in lower-quality nursing homes. Nurses being overworked and undervalued, while doctors get massive pays and get bonuses for the smallest of things.
And that's what's happening here in Canada.
And this rampant medical malpractice is what gives rise to "alternative" medicine, quack doctors, faith-based healing and all sorts of harmful pseudoscience.
"Why don't people trust experts? Are they stupid?" says the naive.
Oof.
Yup welcome to the club. All that shit talking y'all did about having free healthcare is catch up to y'all. Your country is getting just as greedy and corrupt as mine america
Here in Sweden too, and lets not even talk about animal healthcare where a slight cough is reason for doctors to kill your pet.
Had to save our kitten from such a fate because he had an eye irritation which went away on its own, and he's a big happy ball today. :)
*laughs in american* then cries
I like the fact that the horror doesn't come from mental illness or disability but from how some people treat those with mental illness or disability, the patients are victims, not actually enemies, unlike in many other horror games. While most horror games touch on malpractice, they tend to focus more on the patients than the staff. I think this is the first game I've seen talk about the Hippocratic oath and to focus on the horrors of malpractice in such a clear manner. The kindness of the nurses like Helen and Astrid really show how horrible the other doctors and nurses are, that they choose to be this way. And that's the real horror of this game. That evil is chosen, that evil is not a place.
I'm kind of surprised you didn't bring up the implications that the person we play as IS Randall.
1. We suffer the same fall as Randall at the end in the beginning, and whenever we do the loop.
2. Monster Randal has the same mouth damage as the protagonist received in the dental office.
3. The staff is shown in human and monster forms, their human statues being their 'real' forms and their current forms interpretations of their inner demons.
4. Randall's fall at the end seems to be a suicide attempt. That the guilt caught up with him enough to 'stop the monster', and then shows him falling from a great height and bleeding out. The assumption being that he jumped off of the dental building.
Basically, the idea is that we're in purgatory. We see all the staff as the monsters they are instead of the humans they would really be. We see Randall, ourselves, not as us but as the monster we became. The ominous voice isn't nearly clear cut, and while it could be an entity, it could also be Randall's conscious that was bottled up for so long.
He did say that we were playing a randolph in the end of the vid. Did u watch it all the way through?
@@dead_girl777 I watched it until the last ten minutes. I must've missed it.
Edit: Double-checked and yeah, I stopped watching like two seconds before he said it. XD At that point there was only thirty seconds left so I guess I assumed we were wrapping up.
I saw an interesting theory that the ominous voice is not only a manifestation of the Hippocratic oath but of all the staff's self awareness and common sense that what they're doing is harmful/wrong
27:38
Maybe he at the dental place exposing himself to his own machine was to prove a point to all the people claiming his methods were evil and painful, considering the how the guy was very proud of his achievements and possibly brushing off his patient's suffering as mere casualties or no big deal because of all the "good" its making, going so far as to silence people disrupting his flawed vision if what he was actually doing, only to find out that they were very right, and his procedures are nothing but sheer long lasting torture, prompting him to see himself as a hulking inhuman monster, because while he can blame everyone else for whatever he endured at the hospital, the dental clinic is his personal domain, where everything goes under his name and is recognized as such, there really isn't anyone else to blame there than himself
The part that stuck with me the most was when you find the statues and the one judging them says: "Each to their own, but what good is a broken oath?" and you start to see that these people aren't simply evil, they on purpose broke their oaths just to feel better about themselves and mistreated the patients, which is even worse...
The Heilwald Klinikum was a real place in Germany. I can't really say much about it, but I do think there was sometgibg going on similar to the game which caused the clinic to close down. At least as far as I'm aware
didn’t exist, at least that’s what i got from looking it up. You got a source?
@@germxiii9779someone else mentioned Westpfalzklinikum
@@germxiii9779 the name itself is fake, but in Germany there was a clinic for the mentally ill that had similar things happen there. I may not be the most reliable source, as I am no historian, but I do know that something like that existed as I am German myself. I know, it's a 'jist trust me, bro' thing
Interesting… I trust you cause a few other comments mention this as well
For sure back then, they didn't treat their patients even half way decent
Love how something as innocuous as dentistry is the final setting of the game. I heard that it’s something full of malpractice, so it checks out.
Thank heavens the game is slowly getting recognition
there’s so little videos on it, this one is great
oh fucking perfect timing and great one to do a video on! loved cju's playthrough but was confused af so thanks GS!!
This is scarily reminiscent of my time in the psych ward, down to the anesthetic syringes. I remember the nurse just playing on her phone as I cried and cried for ~2-3 hours, confused and scared (I assume, there were no clocks). There were people there who had been passed around hospitals, and it seems I was lucky. There was one that I hear was essentially a bit better than a prison. That comes from people who have actually been to jail. It was scary. I didn’t want to participate in group activities as I knew for a fact there were people who had tried to kiII others. I met a school sh00ter in there, ironically one of the nicest patients I met. They took my lack of participation as an act of resistance to treatment, using it as an excuse to keep me there longer. You got two five minute calls a day. There was one nice nurse with blue hair. There were some people there who had been abandoned by all family and friends. They were too far gone to understand what was going on though.
I was forced on treatment just because I just wanted to be left alone and because I saw myself having self worth, I am now probably dying from gut issues, I can't eat without getting issues because I guess seeing myself as a being of worth is an illness, also I am someone on the spectrum
This game was actually inspired by the conditions of the Westpfalzklinikum in germany
Some human discoveries used to heal come were achieved through unethical means.
Lobotomy
Open heart surgery.
This is true gynecology. They use to experiment on live women without pain-relief
We literally infected people with syphallis here. Experiment are insane half the time
Cringe
I doubt that you're the conscious of Randolph as it seems he and wolfram were twisted individuals from the start it was never about being ethical or good.
But I do like that you the player start off falling down a hole, and in the end Randolph is defeated and his fate mirrors your arrival and first encounter with him.
So it's possible you the player and the voice represents 2 things: the Hippocratic oath and the legacy of the hospital. Once Randolph arrives he silences 1 and disregards the other so that he came built his own legacy. And in turn that spreads like an infection to others.
Would love to see a Tartarus key explanation video. Great video as always, thanks.
Nurses Helen and Astrid are just a really nice juxtaposition from everything else
"Anyway, that's how I lost my medical licence!" - TF2 Medic, Meet the Medic.
finally someone covers this game! i was just thinking about it yesterday. this was suchhhh a great game!!!!
Just watched 8-BitRyan's playthrough a couple weeks ago and this added further context, tysm!
It's crazy to think about those kinda things, the things that happened in the past with those kinda power/fame hungry medical professionals that did horrible experiments on innocent people but also thinking where our progress would be in the medical field if it wasn't for those monsters
Since the subject of ECT came up, former assistant here.
The memory loss happens on short term memory, which sounds worse than it is. I often had to just make sure my patients woke up and catching them up that the procedure is already done, because they have forgotten about everything ever since waking up for that day. Which is why patients agree on ECT on a longer time frame. Latest techiques help to alleviate memory loss.
The idea isn't to cook your brain, but to increase bloodflow. From what I saw as an assistant in one year, the treatment had tangible positive effects about 80%, and improvements started with second to third treatment.
But I must say there was a good amount of information collected, usually people somehow create a fantasy about shock lobotomy, which was never a thing. Even electric chairs killed the persons heart. Main difference between then and now is mostly anesthesia.
Finally ♡ I'm so happy you covered this R!
As a shrink ive always wanted to make a game like this but in the vein of theme hospital. Where the more 'treatments' you provide the more money you make and unlock more expensive treatment centers but over the course of the game you realize youre not actually improving any patients life and are just trapping them in a cycle of being better at working and therefore capable of affording your expanding treatments.
You balance your income with the health of the patients and realize your very first treatment center, just an office with a couch was your best option all along.
Or you can just become fabulously wealthy and get your name in the history books.
ECT is less about stimulating the brain, but more to work in a similar way as defibrilators on the heart.
It's supposed to momentarily interrupt the communication between the nerves, so they stop blocking or overwriting each other. So that, once they start sending signals again a moment later, it all flows normally again.
It's basically a 'force refresh' action.
Electroshock is similar, but way more of a punch and sledge hammer method. ECT intends to be more of a scalpel and pincers method.
This is why, unlike a defibrillator, ECT puts the patient through a minute of repeated sparks of electric pulses, to minimize potential damages or interference, and functions more as a conductor or metronome for the brain chemistry and electric signals to arrange themselves.
Problem is, unlike the heart and defibrillator, there's no central nerve bundle that WILL pick up working again.
Add to that, that a lot about the brain is still unknown, and a lot of it's function is in it's activity being continuous and uninterrupted. So, even interrupting it to help it, is guaranteed to cause side effects. Memory loss being a big one, as memories aren't stored like data on a harddisk or flashdrive, but are constant recreations of the last time you remembered that memory.
Never the less, giving the brain the chance to smoothen it's signals can be very beneficial.
ECT, and all of brain research, is still a constantly growing subject in medicine.
The difference between ECT and old electroshock or lobotomy, is simply that we by now know how to not actually interfere with the brain harshly but approach and handle it like the delicate system it is.
My personal fave part of the game is thats its still very silly intentionally at points. Weirdly enough it makes it easier to take the serious moments seriously.
I have to admit that I love how the game portrays how people with mental health issues are affected by science driven people who don’t care about the consequences of their decisions. Plus I love how it shows that despite that there are those who don’t care about anyone but achieving scientific advancement, there will always be those who do care about their patients.
I’ve been waiting for this one fr 😂, thank you keep up the AMAZING work ❤
i was waiting for this one for so looong, thanks for this
I love this video so much, everything about the game and the health care is SOOO TRUEE
This game was on that silent hill aura
We love that aura
I don’t why but this game is kinda giving me some like research hall feelings from bloodborne
What happens when an investor is in charge of the hospital than a Doctor.
TL:DR, TF2 Medic was placed in charge as Chief MO in a german hospital and proceeds to show us how he lost his medical license
I like the janitor. He's funny :]
The problem is his name, Dohku means "giving b*tthole" in brazilian portuguese...
In the end, the game is based around a hospital and stuff in Frankfort, change my mind. You honestly can't. There's no winning against a German pointing out to other germans.
FrankfUrt* 🤓
@@scpmtf164 crackheads am Main, now go.
I just rewatched this video and I couldn't help but notice how similar he is to Tanner from Scrutinized
You have a great narrative voice
great videos just love it
Missed the chance to make this an achievement called your own medicine 4:45
Man I haven't seen gamer Sault in a hot minute
Is it me or dr. Randolf look like tanner from scrutinized
Amazing! 🤩
Suggest Video Postal (1997) STORY & ENDING EXPLAINED Pls GamerSault.
Oh *yes*
That would actually be great
OMG! Thank you, R!😄
HE DID MY REQUEST, AFTER ALL MOST A YEAR I AM COMPLETED!
The fact its a german hospital gives me ww2 vibes
First and good work my friend
Wolfram looks like Andrew tate
Personally, I thought he looked like the Old Spice Guy lol
Please make a video on Ad Infinitum, great game!
Can you do manhunt 1 story explained
I watched a playthrough on the german channel Corrupted. A horror game channel.
someone ate taco bell with chili sauce
Yeah, the player seems to be the evil doctor.
Awesome and cool! ^_^
basically hospitals back then
Lore of The Heilwald Loophole STORY EXPLAINED (ENDING) momentum 100
Can you do sonic.exe one last round explained
This isn't an explained video. This is just a retelling.
Welcome to gamersault's entire channel
Ngl that doctor reminds me of the guy from scrutinized
Hello
I won’t comment first but I will comment this
If y’all see a gibberish comment by me thas my bad. I’m not illiterate or retarded. I fell asleep watching UA-cam on my phone
The visuals are a very strange middle ground between ps1 and ps2, I think it would look really good in 4:3 aspect ratio with the 640x512 resolution that the ps2 had
7mins later
Holy crap its vault tec 🤣
I thought that was a soyjak on the thumbnail
god i want wolfram to ram me
HUH😭
@@Brawr-f1j i dont even remember this comment holy shit
I COOKED 💅🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥
@@roxas5071 IM GONNA BE HONEST THATS ME WITH DR.RANDOLPH🥰🥰
do not
@@black7594 6 months later
still cooked...
HOLY SHIT I DREAMT ABOUT THIS GAME EXACTLY AS IT IS LIKE HALFWAY THE GAME TILL I WAKE UP.. FEVER DREAM DAMN
this isnt an explanation
Yes it is. You just didn't get it.
sorry man, your 4 years late
Average day in a canadian walk in clinic
Haha soyjack
Love from a Vaush and ManlyBadassHero fan!
So basic emotional bs, nothing really scary as I first thought
Ooooh, the keyboard badass is here...
@@johnaustin209 they are categorizing drama as horror nowadays -_-
Man I haven't seen gamer Sault in a hot minute