Line #22 VideoGame/DesertNightmare


1	''Desert Nightmare'' is a free-ware horror-puzzle game created by Kelven, the same person who created the horror game ''VideoGame/{{Schuld}}''. A teenage girl named Sandra Richmont is on a trip with her parents but, after mouthing off to them too much, they leave her at a desolate gas station in the middle of the desert. Unable to call her parents and too far from home to go back, she continues on to the next city, an eerie place called Dusty Creek.
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3	The game was translated from German into English by [[http://rpgmaker.net/users/AznChipmunk/ Azn Chipmunk]], who also translated ''Schuld''.
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7	!!''Desert Nightmare'' contains examples of:
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9	* AHouseDivided: Jake and Alan don't care much for each other, and both keep letting Sandra know as much.
10	* AbandonedMine: Connected to [[spoiler:the original Dusty Creek]].
11	* AbusiveParents: Sandra’s parents abandon their teenage daughter at a gas station in the middle of nowhere just for talking back to them.
12	* ActionSurvivor: All of the main characters.
13	* AccidentalMurder: While Jake was defending himself from the Sheriff, the Sheriff accidentally falls onto some glass and possibly cutting his neck, which kills him, Jake doesn't feel too badly about it though.
14	* AgentScully: Alan, who insists there's no such thing as the supernatural [[spoiler:even after seeing the monsters himself]].
15	* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:The dog that harasses Sandra early in the game meets a horribly gruesome death shortly afterwards]].
16	* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Jake, Alan, and all the residents of Dusty Creek.]] In the beginning, Sandra counts as well.
17	* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler:Jake to Sandra. Alan steps in.]]
18	* BigBadEnsemble: [[spoiler:The {{Vengeful Ghost}}s of the murdered Indians]] are behind the curse and monsters afflicting Dusty Gulch and trapping Sandra, Jake, and Alan inside, but the townspeople are equally big threats who kill anyone that wanders inside to protect themselves and [[spoiler:started it by massacring the Indians for their gold]].
19	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Sandra escapes the town and reunites with her parents, but Jake and Alan are dead and she's traumatized by the whole ordeal.]]
20	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Sandra starts off as this, as she talks back to her parents in the very beginning of the game.
21	* CharacterPortrait: Only important characters have them.
22	* CopKiller: Jake kills the Sheriff, he was about to inflict some PoliceBrutality on Sandra if he hadn't come along however.
23	* ClothingSwitch: Sandra spends the majority of the game in a green tank top and shorts, until she is captured, then she is put into a white dress, then after escaping with Alan and Jake, she switches to a red tank top and black jeans.
24	* CrazyJealousGuy[=/=]DomesticAbuse: [[spoiler:Jake to Sandra, seemingly out of nowhere. A nightmare Sandra has [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] this.]]
25	* DisproportionateRetribution: When Sandra steals batteries and a flashlight from the shop, the shop owner tries to kill you for it the next time you go in to the shop.
26	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Every living being in the town wants Sandra's head for seemingly no reason. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that the entire town has been afflicted by a supernatural HatePlague.]]
27	* FlashbackNightmare: In the epilogue, Sandra says that many years after this incident, she still has nightmares about it even years afterward.
28	* FanDisservice: A lot easier to accomplish, being an RPG Maker game, but [[spoiler: Jake's fantasy of killing Alan and having sex with/possibly raping Sandra]] definitely stands out.
29	* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Sandra first meets Jake, he tells her that he's been in Dusty Creek since the day prior. [[spoiler:Then, we find out that the town was cursed to have anyone who lives or stays there for too long become aggressive and cruel. This explains Jake's sudden aggression and possessiveness toward Sandra and Alan suddenly calling her an 'uneducated bitch'.]]
30	* GhostTown: Dusty Creek has many of the hallmarks of a standard one in horror media, except for the fact that it's actually populated. It's just that the populace don't really maintain it on account of having become insanely violent.
31	* HatePlague: [[spoiler:Dusty Creek is under the effects of a curse that slowly drives everyone within its vicinity into a murderous frenzy, which is why all of the townspeople and eventually Jake really want to kill Sandra.]]
32	* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: [[spoiler:The Police Chief]] asks Sandra if anyone knows she's in Dusty Creek. She claims that her parents know, and [[spoiler:he acts like her lying is a BerserkButton]].
33	* HearingVoices: [[spoiler:When she stumbles upon the Indians' mass grave, Sandra starts hearing their whispers to 'kill everyone'.]]
34	* HellHotel: The motel Sandra stays at in Dusty Creek.
35	* HumanoidAbomination: Sandra states that she isn't sure whether the monsters are 'human' or not. [[spoiler:Judging from the description of the curse, they are.]]
36	* IWasJustJoking: When Sandra first meets Alan he tells her his car broke down when he was headed for a physics fair and she said he thought he might be one of "those". When he asks if that's what he really thinks of her she says yes. While she doesn't directly say this, the smile on her face suggests she was only teasing him.
37	* JustifiedSavePoint: Glowing red symbols are used as save points, with Sandra always commenting that "Somehow, it gives me a strange feeling..."
38	** OminousSavePrompt: Sometimes, the player will suddenly find themselves on the Saving screen. This usually occurs right before or right after a major event.
39	* JustifiedTitle: Sandra suffers nightmares whenever she tries to sleep in Dusty Creek, [[spoiler:as well as years after she escapes]].
40	* JudoChop: After Sandra discovers the body of a woman chained to the wall with her lips and eyes sown shut, a man behind her does this on the back of her neck, knocking her out.
41	* KickTheDog: After walking in on [[spoiler:Jake trying to assault Sandra]], [[spoiler:Alan]] abruptly calls her an "uneducated bitch."
42	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:It's revealed at the end that Sandra's parents got into a serious car accident after abandoning her.]]
43	* LetsSplitUpGang: Despite stating that he will protect Sandra, Jake never protests when she goes off on her own, and even goes wandering about alone as well. [[spoiler:Their separation leads to both Alan and Sandra getting captured by the townspeople.]]
44	* MagicalNativeAmerican: The Old Man.
45	* MinorLivingAlone: Not only were all of the traumas Sandra experienced brought on by her parents abandoning her, but [[spoiler: they themselves get into an accident later on and are severely injured, without ever finding out if Sandra was alright.]]
46	* MurderTheHypotenuse: [[spoiler: Jake fantasizes about doing this to Alan, and succeeds later on.]]
47	* MyCarHatesMe: Cars always seem to malfunction around Dusty Creek. [[spoiler:Even after the trio gets Alan's car, it doesn't take them far.]]
48	* NiceGirl: Sandra is pretty bratty at the start, but getting unceremoniously abandoned by her parents causes her to shape up really quickly. This is proven when she [[NoOneGetsLeftBehind refuses to leave without Alan,]] despite the fact that the location she's in is covered in blood.
49	* NiceGuy: Jake seems to be at first, until his true colors are revealed. Alan is nicer than Jake [[spoiler:but then calls her an "uneducated bitch" out of nowhere while she's in the process of being assaulted by Jake. In both instances, it's implied that their darker sides are a product of the town's curse]].
50	* NoItemUseForYou: At one point, Sandra loses her backpack and has to find it again before she can use any items.
51	* NoOntologicalInertia: In the ending, after [[spoiler:breaking the curse]], [[spoiler:the Indian zombie]] crumbles to dust before Sandra's eyes. She later learns that [[spoiler:all of the surviving townsfolk of Dusty Creek ended up as burnt corpses]].
52	* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: When Sandra is looking for Alan and enters the torture chamber, she is freaked out by the blood everywhere, but points out that she can't just leave if Alan is there.
53	* OnlySmartPeopleMayPass: Lots of locked chests and some doors require some decoding. There's always a note or two around that holds the key.
54	* PointOfNoReturn: After [[spoiler:leaving Dusty Creek and ending up at the original settlement]].
55	* PoliceBrutality: Inside the station, Sandra finds evidence of this in the interrogation room: blood stains, scattered teeth, and a tape recording of an 'interview'. [[spoiler:Later, she nearly becomes the victim of this.]]
56	* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: Sandra's dreams of [[spoiler: Jake abusing her, killing Alan, and attempting to rape her]] are a premonition of what's to come, down to the letter.
57	* PuzzleBoss: Any encounters tend to play out like this, with Sandra having to figure out how to evade her pursuers before they get their hands... or claws... on her.
58	** BossArenaIdiocy: In most cases, this involves luring the enemy into a hazard, like knocking over a barrel and getting them to slip on the contents. Often you can get them to try and cross this several times.
59	* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler:The longer you stay in Dusty Creek, the more unstable and aggressive you become. Jake arrived the day before Sandra and Alan...]]
60	* SavePoint: The flashing symbols scattered throughout the game. Sandra always states that they give her a strange feeling.
61	* [[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: After getting caught eavesdropping, Sandra gets chased by the people she was spying on. [[spoiler:Of course, they were planning to kill her ''anyway''...]]
62	* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:Alan abruptly insulting Sandra may have been a gambit to draw Jake's ire and distract him long enough for her to escape. If so, it worked too well...]]
63	* ShopliftAndDie: At one point you [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption have]] to steal from the store. The next day, the shopkeeper threatens to kill you if you return. If you don't heed his warning, he starts walking towards you...
64	* ShoutOut: The save symbols are reminiscent of ''VideoGame/SilentHill3'', and a large majority of the music was ripped from ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''.
65	* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:The Old Man]] is heavily implied to be the only survivor of [[spoiler:the massacre that led to Dusty Creek's curse]]. [[spoiler:Sandra ends up the only survivor of the trio.]]
66	* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: [[spoiler:While some of the cursed villagers were born deformed, others look perfectly healthy, but are unnaturally aggressive and cruel.]]
67	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: The different ways Sandra can die are shown in a small FMV sequence, then we hear her scream and "Game Over" appears on the screen.
68	* TearsOfFear: Sandra sheds these the first time she encounters a mutant, and several other times.
69	* TownWithADarkSecret: Dusty Creek. [[spoiler:In the past, the miners massacred some Indians who were protesting their digging gold out of their sacred mountains. As a result, they were cursed: children born in Dusty Creek were either born in warped, monsterous forms or looking normal, but with dark and twisted natures.]]
70	* UntrustingCommunity: All the citizens of Dusty Creek are this, as [[spoiler: the curse placed on them]] makes them naturally paranoid and quick to hostility.
71	* WildTeenParty: Sandra was planning to attend one at the start of the game before being dragged along on her parents's trip. Becomes the catalyst for why her parents abandoned her in Dusty Creek, as the argument between her and her parents start when she complains about missing "the best party of the summer," and her mother tells her that life isn't all about parties.
72	* {{Yandere}}: [[spoiler:Jake becomes progressively more obsessed with Sandra over the course of the game until he outright tries to assault her.]]
73	* YourMindMakesItReal: If you don't remember to use [[spoiler:the dreamcatcher]] after obtaining it, Sandra's nightmares turn deadly.
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Context VideoGame / DesertNightmare