Line #34 VideoGame/Which


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Which_Short_Game_by_Mikeinel_179.png]]
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3	''Which'' is a short 2010 horror game for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], produced by the independent game developer and animator [[http://gamejolt.com/profile/mike-inel/1939/ Mike Inel]]. The story is simple: you are trapped inside a shadowy house and you'll have to find a way to open the door that will let you leave. However, escape is not as easy as it seems and you will soon have to make an important decision.
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5	The quiet, eerie atmosphere and setting can be easily compared to the likes of ''VideoGame/SilentHill2''.
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7	The game can be downloaded [[FreewareGames for free]] [[http://gamejolt.com/games/adventure/which/1523/ here]].
8
9	!!This game provides examples of:
10	* ActionSurvivor: You presumably play as one since you're completely helpless and have to rely on another character to help you escape.
11	* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: You'll need to be ''very'' thorough in your searching if you want to find the Heart key.
12	* BeatStillMyHeart: The heart room has a living, beating heart that the woman can attach to her body. It serves as one of the two items you have to choose between giving to her for the final key.
13	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Giving the woman the heart causes her to feel enough compassion towards you to kill herself so that you can escape.]]
14	* BrokenBridge: The unlocked exit leads to a chained-up portcullis.
15	* CameraAbuse: Every time you collide with the woman, she disappears while causing this. [[spoiler:Also present in the "Head" ending.]]
16	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: There are very sharp contrasts between light and dark in this game.
17	* ControllableHelplessness: [[spoiler:In the "Head" ending once you approach the woman in the room where you can leave the house. As she puts two and two together from the images on the wall and then pulls out her knife, you'll find the door to the room is now locked as she moves to attack you.]]
18	* CouldntFindAPen: Turns out, the JustifiedTutorial painted on the wall was this.
19	* CuteAndPsycho: [[spoiler:The woman becomes this]] in the "Head" ending.
20	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Varying shades of black, white and grey make up the game's limited palette.
21	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:On the other hand, giving the woman the head will [[LackOfEmpathy cause her to decide you're better off dead so she can leave.]]]]
22	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:The woman kills herself]] in the "Heart" ending.
23	* EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace: The goal of the game.
24	* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:Not necessarily for the player character, but for at least someone.]]
25	* FeaturelessProtagonist: You know nothing about who you're playing as, nor can you see them. You can only hear their footsteps.
26	* ForebodingArchitecture: A very tight, narrow hallway and starkly empty rooms (except for one) make up most of the house.
27	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Look closely at the images on the wall in Room 1. [[spoiler:They will pretty much tell you how this game will end]].
28	* GhostButler: [[spoiler:The semi-last door in the game will close and lock behind you during the ending.]]
29	* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: If you look closely from the right angle, the woman in the house is holding a knife. [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGun This becomes important later]].]]
30	* GuideDangIt: The "Heart" key is hiding in a very unintuitive location, making it unlikely you'll find it on your first playthrough.[[labelnote:Where is it?]]Check behind the open door in Room 3.[[/labelnote]]
31	* TheHeartless: In a literal example of this, [[spoiler:the woman is missing her heart and will gladly kill you to escape the house if you gave her a head instead.]]
32	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:The woman does this to help you escape]] in the "Heart" ending.
33	* InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath: What the player character and the woman are involved in, without knowing it. [[spoiler: The only unblocked exit to the house cannot be unlocked if there are two people alive inside at the time.]]
34	* LosingYourHead: Our mysterious occupant is somehow able to move around the house and comprehend her situation despite... well, just look at the page image. Her still-breathing head can be found in a toilet inside the head room, though.
35	* MindScrew: The game never explains why you are in the house, why only one of you can escape, and who mutilated the woman.
36	* {{Minimalism}}: The game features a simplified plot and gameplay, no dialogue, background music, or named characters, and a limited, abstract setting. You can't even see your player character either.
37	* MinimalistCast: Just you and the woman.
38	* MortonsFork: Choosing the head or the heart has a bad outcome [[spoiler:for either you or the woman]].
39	* MultipleEndings: Well, actually two. [[spoiler:It depends on [[TitleDrop which]] item you give to the woman in order to have the final key in exchange.]]
40	* NamelessNarrative: Neither character is named.
41	* NightmareFace: The woman's head can be seen this way, especially [[spoiler:as she stabs you to death while staring at you with those cold, soulless eyes.]]
42	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Giving the woman her head back [[spoiler:only makes her stab you many times over so that she can leave the house. On the other hand, giving her the heart makes her do the exact opposite.]]
43	* NoPlotNoProblem: The game is about you trying to escape from the house. It's as simple as that.
44	* NothingIsScarier: The game has no colours except grey and white, no sound except static, footsteps and the occasional sound of the player character interacting with something, and there's nothing ''in'' the house except you, one other occupant, a wrench and some keys.
45	* OffscreenTeleportation: [[spoiler:The house's other occupant, once you find her. She has a habit of doing this when you're not looking.]]
46	* OffWithHisHead: The other item. Disturbingly enough, you can hear it breathing on its own.
47	* OntologicalMystery: How did the player character end up in this house? How did the house's only other occupant come to... that? And since neither seems to understand the writing on the wall in Room 1 at first, who put that there?
48	* PaintingTheMedium: The game uses pictures on the walls to show you how to play it and how to progress.
49	* RuleOfSymbolism: It's a story about human empathy and sadistic choices... which features two people (one of whom lacks a heart and a head) in a house which is empty but has signs of other life.
50	* SadisticChoice: Except [[spoiler: you don't get to make it. You can only decide whether the decision-maker thinks with their head (favouring self-preservation) or with their heart (favouring self-sacrifice).]]
51	* SilenceIsGolden: There is no spoken dialogue or background music at all, only pictures on the walls to visually guide the player.
52	* SnowyScreenOfDeath: [[spoiler:As the woman stabs you over and over in the "Head" ending, static fills up the screen.]]
53	* SomeoneHasToDie: Enforced. [[spoiler:The pictures on the wall indicate that one person plus a key can leave the house, but two people cannot.]]
54	* SoulJar: [[spoiler:The heart room possibly. It contains a living, beating heart that the woman can put to good use since after she attaches it to her body, she apparently becomes mortal as she dies after stabbing herself many times in one ending.]]
55	* StealthHiBye: The other occupant in the house has a very creepy habit of showing up ''right behind you'' when you look away for a second and then turn around to look at her again. Bumping into her causes her to disappear as the screen blurs and gets filled with static.
56	* StealthPun: The head is found in the bathroom...the naval term for such a room is, indeed, the head.
57	* SurrealHorror: The disconnected, dreamlike quality of both the visuals and your objective makes the game feel quite literally like a playable nightmare.
58	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:The woman either stabs you or herself ''repeatedly''. Just count how many times she does it!]]
59	* TitleDrop: [[spoiler:Shows up in the ending with good reason]].
60	* UngratefulBitch: [[spoiler: The woman becomes this if you give her her head]].
61	* WorldOfSymbolism
62	* WorldLimitedToThePlot: [[spoiler: Outside the house, there's nothing but bright white light. If you look back after escaping, you'll see that there ''[[MindScrew isn't even a house]]'', just a doorway.]]
63	* YankTheDogsChain: There's an unlocked exit a few feet away from where the player character starts the game. If you open it, you find a [[BrokenBridge chained-up portcullis]] on the other side.
64	* YouWakeUpInARoom: The game starts out this way.

Context VideoGame / Which