Howdy Gamers
Yesterday I started playing a game called The Shore which is a mystery game with some horror elements set on a mysterious Island inspired by HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
This video is part 1 of the story...
The game is set in the 1920's , we are playing as a fisherman who has shipwrecked on a strange Island.He is looking for his daughter who I guess was on the ship with him...
I love the visual style of this game,the over cast sky ,the desolate coastline with it's eerie haunting beauty.
The sounds of the waves rolling onto the shore and the main characters rough melancholy seadog vocals add to this creating the perfect atmosphere for a mystery game.
The first thing to catch our attention is this message in a bottle...
"I have been arguing with John about how many actual days have passed since we ended up here.It seems that all of our hopes are drifing away,like these bottles should do but they always return to this island as if something is leading them back here.If your reading this we need your help!"
Wandering a little more along the shore we find this locket...
"A shred of hope,all what a man needs to keep moving before he lose his sanity and his will ,walking along the shore reminded me of walk's I used to have with my wife."
Examining the locket in our inventory lets us know it belonged to the fisherman's daughter...
"My wife gave this pendant to Ellie before she left us.Glad to have found this,its very important to her.I refuse to believe my daughter was swallowed by the vicious sea.Im sure she washed up on the shore somewhere around here.I will find her and give this back"
The inscription on the back of the locket reads..."For when I will walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil and walk through the dark with my eyes open."
I'm guessing this is what is left of his boat...looks like the shark from Jaws attacked it but I have a feeling it was something much worse than a great white shark...
A little further along the coast we find another message in a bottle...
"We armed ourselves and walked along the shore.To our surprise,we came across other ships that had wrecked without any trace of survivors.It was like a graveyard for ships.Our compass goes mad anytime we try to set a course of the island.Our Captain says it's because of the volcanic dust.We think he's gone mad.
Sounds like the captain was right"
I guess we should head over to that lighthouse in the distance.Along the way I realise how incredibly photogenic this game is...taking these screenshots has been a joy,they almost look like photographs...
"They speak of a fisherman who was lost in a stranded sea,he never came back.Now I know where he lies,what misfortune could have drove him here"
Looking to the left of in the distance we see a mysterious obelisk...
"As we sinked our feet into the sand for the last time she asked me tell her one of my stories,about the wild sea.I could hear each of her breaths being shorter and shorter and by the time I finished my story pneumonia took her life..."
On the steps of the lighthouse we find a photograph of the fisherman and his daughter
Time to head into the abandoned lighthouse...
On the first floor we mostly just see a bunch of random junk...
Heading up to the second floor things get a little more interesting...
On the desk we find a couple of interesting paper's...
"This artifact we found...
This statue,it looks ancient.Our captain says we should take it back with us and that it could make us rich.David,on the other hand,believes that a foul stench of evil dwell's within it.What utter rubbish.From the moment we wrecked here,he hasn't stopped talking about bad luck and otherworldly omens.
I heard him talking to himself about throwing it back to the sea.
I am almost certain he's mad.He's obsessed with these disgusting leeches he found.
He can't stop talking about how these worms have at least nine stomachs and more than thirty brains and at least eighteen testicles.He says that quality matters rather than quantity.We couldn't stop making jokes about it last night.After some time,he took it personally,thinking we were mocking him.
He moved to the third floor of the lighthouse to continue his little experiment's"
"Body structure seems very strong...
no eyelids...
a short blue tongue...
shark eye's...
I tried to speak to them but in return they hissed and growl and made all kinds of weird noises,no trace of language
I have never seen such creatures before something is wrong here like the god's have forsaken this place and its creations..
The fishlike people are no humans at all they are hostile they seem to be very aggressive.There is no trace of civilized behavior on them.
Yet they seem to understand our movements as they have in humans before, the fishlike deformities on them are present they have tried several times to ambush us
The only solution for us is to stay near the lighthouse I'll study more these abomination's of the deep"
On the chair we find a key....this key opens the basement storage area outside of the lighthouse...
Heading up to the third floor we find a telescope...
Lets take a look ...
Through the telescope we see a boat of in the distance that looks alot like the boat from Jaws...
Later in the game we will find that this is an exact replica of the Orca, the boat that belongs to Quint ,the shark hunter from the movie Jaws.I thought this was a cool little easter egg.On seeing the boat for the first time through the telescope I thought hhmmm that looks alot like the Orca...when we get up close we find out that it is the Orca!
Can you spot the difference between these 2 screenshots?
As we look through the telescope we see one of the fishlike monsters duck out of sight as if he has sensed we are watching him...
Before heading back into the lighthouse we take a moment to enjoy the view from up here...
Again we see that ominous looking obelisk of in the distance,from here the shoreline really does look like a ship graveyard...
Heading up to the top floor of the lighthouse we find the light is out.We find a strange looking coin on this creepy rocking chair...
"Looks old and reminds me of the occult my father was a member of "
There is a chess set up here but there is a piece missing...
We also find a scary but beautiful painting of a sea monster rising out of the ocean...
Next to the painting we find this Gigeresque statue....
I'm not sure what these statues are for ,we can't pick them up ,perhaps they are just for decoration?"
"This doesn't seem to be just an ordinary statue,every part of it is very detailed,my guess is the artist behind this painting was startled by it"
At the top of the painting there is a note...
"I swear I saw something towards the horizon behind the mist.It wasn't a whale or a great white shark.Its many legs stretched a hundred feet.Submerging it's body into the sea,it crawled as if it was infected by a thousand parasites.From its tentacled mouth ,it spit out black,disgusting ,and disfigured blobbin figures,the moment they fell into the sea,they swam away faster than a dolphin.As the mist kept rising I could barely see the creature.That ast a good sign.
I should start placing those talismans I found at the bottom of the lighthouse around the pathways we made"
Reading this note we trigger the sea smonter to rise from the ocean.I didn't catch this the first time round when recording the footage above and I had to go back and play the start of the game again once I had finished the full game to get these screenshots of the sea monster.These images were to good not to include them here...
Heading back out of the lighthouse we find a few items that make me think someone was here very recently...
I find it strange that these candles are still lit...
We need to find an item that fits in this statue to progress further down this path...
Heading down the other path we find another statue that needs unlocked...
I decided to head down this candle lit path towards this strange cave...
I take a brief moment to admire the beautiful water effects...
Just before we head into the cave we see a creepy translucent figure,it disappears as we move closer and the music becomes more ominous...
I guess its time to see exactly whats in this cave....
Examining the strange runes causes a flash of strange dark visions...
A strange malevolent voice speaks into our mind...
"Andrew proceed into the pit there is something I would like to show you..."
"Urghh...What is that voice?GET OUT OF MY HEAD "
Moving forward we find this pretty horrific sight....A pit with a dark portal in the middle littered with skeletons...
I guess we have no choice but to go through the portal...
On the other side we find ourselves near the mysterious obelisk
Again the malevolent voice speaks in our mind "This monolith is the key of this island,break it free"
These strange disks are the key to unlocking the obelisk,we need to set them all spinning...
Activating the last disk we see the obelisk come to life!
"To see the world through the eyes of a god,like a dream in a flash of light.Beware the existence of mine and grasp time in your conscious mind"
The obelisk takes of wandering across the ocean,what exactly have we done here?
I guess we head back through the portal into the pit...
Aside from the skeletons we also find these strange looking mummies that appear to have had their souls sucked out of them...
Let's get out of this creepy place and head back to the lighthouse...
In the distance we can still see the obelisk wandering across the ocean,I wonder where its going?
Heading back to the lighthouse I take a moment to again appreciate the detail and reflections of the water...
Investigating along the shoreline we find this macabre sight...
"I have offered my right arm and spoke the correct words in his absence only pain accompanies me towards my demise.I was forced to leave the lighthouse,there's something wrong in all of us only the slumbering god can save us now"
Heading back to the lighthouse it's time to investigate the basement area...
In the basement we find one of the plates we need to get past the statues blocking other areas of the shoreline...
"How did they manage to let him die in here,what made them forsake their civil ways"
Next to the mummified body we find the missing chessboard piece...
There is also a note next to the body...
"I had to hide I had to.I ran I climbed the rocks and tried to hide.That's when I fell into a pit full of dead bodies.
Their flesh looked rotten but petrified...
as if their soul sucked dry out of them...
The horror in their faces touched the very void of my soul...
Expression's as something horrific happened to them.
That's when the rest of the crew caught me'
They stripped me naked and they locked me down here.
They accused me that I was the one that brought the bad luck onto them by placing those talismans for them and blocking the pathways.All I wanted was to keep them safe despite their uncivilised behaviors"
With nothing else to find here we head back out of the basement...
Heading back to the top of the lighthouse I activate the light,I'm not sure what this does perhaps it's just an aesthetic thing...
Placing the missing chess piece on the board starts a game of chess with an unseen opponent...perhaps Cthulhu?
The game ends with our character seemingly winning,did we just beat Cthulu at chess?Im unsure what this has achieved...
Heading down to the beach we open the pathway previously blocked by the statue...
"As a young boy I remember my father talking about this island,he described it in a way that would scare the listener...he spoke of black butterflies,corpse candles and broken compasses"
Another message in a bottle lies at the seas edge..
.
"Day 5 .There was a man aboard named Allan who went missing after we shipwrecked.One night we found him walking alone across the beach.
As we approached him,to our surprise we saw that he had this fixed expression on is face as if he had seen something horrifying.
His hands...his hands and arms were paralyzed in a position like if he was protecting himself from something.We tried to ask him questions but he didnt reply.Now he's sitting by the shore singing songs to the rocks about reflections in the sea"
Looking along the coast we see a dead great white shark among the wreckage...
"This island feels like its maintained ,untouched by time.The wind and the wave's pause for a minute to rest,the calm before the storm"
Another bottle lies at the seas edge...
"Im sending this message as a cry for help.May the waves of the sea be kind.Apollon and I are castaways trying to find where this island is on the map.This doesnt make any sense.The sun is setting in the east and the fog wont allow us to see through the scope far.The odds are agianst us.There is something strange about Apollon.He keeps going on about how he's reliving this moment.I noticed how much he scratches the back of his head.It's gotten to the point where if you are reading this we need your help."
Just up from the dead shark we find a path leading towards the lighthouse,it leads us to this strange glowing meteor..
Getting close to the meteor floods our mind with weird alien visions...
Heading back down to the shore we find a sharks tooth...
Walking along the shore we find another bottle near this wreckage...
Inside this wrecked ship we find the plate we need to open the pathway blocked by the second statue...
"The "Small Whale" I recognise this boat it was made by an artist to represent our greatest catch.How did it end up here?This was meant to be completed by the end of december,its still september..."
Now that we have the plate lets head back and open the second pathway...
Along the way I stop to take some more photogenic screenshots
Before going down the second pathway I spot a strange obelisk in the distance...as we get closer we hear a strange humming sound and what sounds like the voices of many people whispering...
Behind the obelisk we find another strange alien artifact...as we get closer to this one the lead character hears his daughter's voice in his head...
Lets see where this pathway leads...
"This place feels like it was always a part of me,as if it has taken hold of me and won't let go.Another foot in the sand but this time sinked deeper beneath the shore"
This place really does feel like a ships graveyard...
Among the debris we find another document...
Another epic screenshot then it's time to head further up the shore...
Looking up the shore we see the Orca boat where we spied the fishman earlier...I guess that's out next destination...
Along the way we find more lit candles...
Another photograph...
And a toy boat belonging to Ellie...
"Looking upon my daughter's toy gave me some sort of happiness,yet I cannot take my mind of the idea she has been taken by one those creatures."
Another bottle on the seas edge...
"It's not my fault A person has already died here."Je" spoke about a shadow whispering between the rock's.We can't stay on this island anymore.We have to leave now!"
We are getting closer to the Orca...standing in the sea and looking at this boat all I can hear in my mind is the music from Jaws....duh duh....duh duh...
Wandering up the shore a little more we find another mysterious cave...
Inside we find a statue with a piece missing...
Lets head back and investigate the Orca...
More skeletons...so much death on this little stretch of coastline...
"Solitude and peace is what a soul seeks after being free,did they die in vain?It appears they were murdered what a horrible way to find solitude"
Investigating the camera we find out what happened here...
They were attacked by fishmen...
It seems they also got the cameraman...
Before we head on board the Orca I check to make sure there are no fishmen hiding around the side...
It looks like its safe to go aboard...
As I've mentioned before this is an exact replica of the boat from Jaws that belonged to the shark hunter Quint played by Robert Shaw...
I sang "Show me they way to go home" and quoted as much of Robert Shaw's SS Indianapolis speech as I could remember,check the last 20 mins of the video above to hear my performance :)"...
On the table we find another photograph...
And the missing piece of the statue...
I guess we should head back to the cave...
Let's put the missing piece back in...
Placing the missing part in the statue unlocks this strange black orb...As I go to leave the cave the translucent demon from before appears...
"You seek your daughter back.I can help you but you will have to do something for me first"
"I'll do anything...anything to see her face again"
As we leave the cave I get a closer look at this Lovecraftian shadow demon...
As we exit the cave we find ourselves on another part of the shore...
On the shore lies a dead whale...of in the distance I see what looks like a 1000 foot tall space locust wandering across the ocean....
Looks like Ahab got Moby Dick...
As we examine the whale our mind is flooded with more strange alien visions...
Oh no....that looks like a fishman eating the whale carcass...
The fish man snarls and starts to chase me....
RUN!...RUN!...into the cave!....
As we were running through the cave some rocks fell and killed the fishman...thank god for that!...We emerge from the cave to find ourselves on a new stretch of the shipwrecked shore...
Among the debris we find an old world style diving suit...
It turns out the game wants us to put on the diving suit...
And head into the ocean in search of a Lovecraftian Atlantis!
I will finish this Forbidden Island Lovecraftian Mystery in Part 2
