Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome (Collector’s Edition)

Playing on the concept of Oscar Wilde’s characterization and background of the becoming and downfall of Dorian Gray, the game surrounded itself on a murder mystery plot. Actually, it was more like a psycho-maniac’s trap. The main character of the story, Sam Wilde, was a reporter who just happened to get caught up in a madman’s web of craziness. After having written a successful article surrounding the mass murders of various youths around town, Sam’s girlfriend, Anna Reid, was kidnapped by none other than the aforementioned murderer. Sam had to meet the madman at his house and tried to rescue Anna. Upon arrival, Sam took the backdoor, thinking he could have a little leverage over the madman. However, a voice recorder rolled into the room as Sam entered the house and he realized the madman had predicted his every move. From there on, Sam was forced to play the old-fashioned game of ‘hide-and-seek’ with the man, in an attempt to locate his beloved girlfriend and rescue her. During his quest and many trips around the house, trying to unearth the clues and solve different puzzles, he discovered the madman had killed and embalmed many people within the house. Even at one time, he overheard a group of people being murdered and that he helplessly listened next door because he was locked inside. Along the way, he also learned the madman’s name was Oscar and Oscar had a traumatizing childhood hence influencing his perspectives later in life. Yet Sam reminded himself it wasn’t a good excuse for Oscar to take it out on the rest of the world. However, by the end of the story, Oscar had revealed that those ripped pages from his diary were just planted by him to deceive Sam as part of the game. As Oscar laughed and wanted to celebrate of his coming victory because of his next supposedly ‘perfect’ project of being able to embalm two people at the same time (Sam and Anna), he was struck down and the couple managed to escape from the nightmare place. What happened next was the local news covering the incident and the discovery of the bodies in the house as Sam and Anna were watching the news safely in their home. The story was far from a happy ending because soon the scene zoomed to Oscar waking up from the fall, hurt but not dead.

The bonus chapter continued several months later with Sam receiving a phone call from his boss, telling him to follow a certain lead. The lead led Sam to an amusement park. It wasn’t until he was inside that he realized it was a trap from Oscar. Oscar was indeed back, building another “fun house.” Yet he didn’t want to complicate matters or waste time like their last meeting. There were no more bodies to discover and there was no Anna to make Sam worry tenfold more. It was a final showdown between the men. Sam’s goal this time was getting out alive because Oscar had electrified the fences so getting out the normal way was impossible. The only way Sam could get out was to shut down the main circuit. Yet that was the least of his worries by the time he achieved his goal. Because the final trap for Sam wasn’t his own death, but Oscar’s. Oscar had embalmed himself and committed suicide. Before Sam shut off the main circuit, Oscar had called the police, so when the police finally arrived, they had concluded that Sam was responsible and was also pinned for murdering and embalming the past victims in that one house – just like how Oscar had predicted before his death. Oscar’s ultimate revenge on Sam was making Sam suffer through a crime he didn’t commit. The bonus chapter ended with the newspaper reporting of Sam’s doing.

Thoughts? Awesome game. Not for the weak mind if you’re easily creep out by bodies suddenly popping into your vision line. But it is not too graphic like some other games out there with all the gore, just disturbing because of the psycho-maniac that Oscar was. The game included hidden objects and puzzles, along with combining different items to get the machines to work, etc. The graphic was really nice and real. The map helps a lot! So use it when you’re stuck. Sometimes click on the “hint” so it tells you if you need to do something at a location or not. There’s a sequel. SO, don’t be too frustrated with it. Well, I haven’t played it yet, but I will update once I get a chance to see if the story continues or not.

Regarding the story setup though, the character Oscar was as crazy as the Dorian Gray dude with the whole mask and fear of aging, blaming the world for what happened to him and not wanting to take responsibilities. The funniest thing was after you learned the guy’s name was Oscar, you thought right away of Sam’s last name and you get the author’s name for “The Picture of Dorian Gray“, lol. Aside from that, not bad at all with the story. It just gives you chills at times if you think of someone like that Oscar character.

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