Part 7: First Phase Findings

Uh, are you playing the same game as we're watching?

Anyways, you asked to make sure that us horror-philes were paying attention for the things you weren't. And this made me notice some of the achievement titles. Which in turn had me just go look them up. Many of them seem to be very blatant references (Please don't tell me I need to explain the "Army of Dead Evil" one.)

It went by too fast, but last time when you first splatted a dude on the wall, you got the achievement "You've got red on you", which is one of the more popular lines quoted from "Shaun of the Dead".

You were asking about the Berserker line, and I'm pretty sure it's a straight-up reference to well, Berserkers. They were nasty fucking characters in history. Nordic barbarians, fueled by bloodlust, known to be unstoppable madmen in battle, and just as likely to kill their buddy standing next to them as the opponents across the way, just so they could kill something. Sounds like the Mask's kinda party.

Really weird, and loosely connected would be the 5% completion achievement, "Call of the Thule". Thule was a mythological place, basically thought to be Iceland, where the Romans and others described guys very much in line with the Beserker look. Think naked wildmen, half painted blue, killing anyone in their way with no regard. Doubly odd is the fact that the weirder of the Nazis, Himmler and his bunch that were all into mystical mumbo jumbo, believed the Aryan people originated in Thule, and even called their upper echelon circle "The Thule Society".

To further fall down the Rabbit Hole, "Blood and Iron" is a well known phrase originating from a speech by Otto Von Bismark in 1862, given before the Prussian government in which he rather cannily declares that the German empire (at the time tumultuously being built and consolidated from the relatively small Prussian nation into the world power it became) will not be built upon legislation, but rather on "Essen und Blut", noting that he as a leader was not afraid to use force to get what he wanted--a policy that would carry the nation through nearly the next hundred violent years.

For some reason, I'm getting the feeling I should be catching what "See you at the Party", when you first kill an enemy with another's arm is in reference to. Which leads me to look for famous "party" monster films, and whatnot. I couldn't tell you why, but "Night of the Creeps" keeps niggling at the back of my brain when I try to think this one over.

A few other things I've found that I think might be callbacks to past games. Would the fleshy room be a reference to the boreworm room from the second game? Also, the NES game (Wanpaku Graffiti) has you at one point fight clock hands, and another point have the Evil Dead reference to laughing animal heads mounted on the wall. Also, the Doll is most definitely a boss in that game as well. (And speaking of the doll boss, am I the only one that sees the clock hand and think it resemble's a certain demon fighter's chainsaw hand? )

Also, while looking up stuff, I found a few things you didn't point out. In the first level, among the other ravings on the blackboard of Dr. West's, someone wrote "REDRUM" here and there. Also, in the room with the creepy animal doll on the bed in this video, you should have also looked down below it on the ground for another delightful children's toy...

That's all I have for now, but I'll keep my eyes and ears open...