Nightmare Fuel / Dark Deception

"But if you want a new life, you're going to have to suffer quite a bit to get it."

Dark Deception could probably be best described as "What if Bandai Namco hired the creators of Evil Dead to direct a Pac-Man spin-off that mixes the gameplay of the original game with the horrors of the survival horror genre?" That comparison should let you know what you're in for...

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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General

• Let's start with Malak, the one in charge of the nightmares you're running through, and he's not shy about what he wants to do to you. And don't get too ahead of yourself thinking he sits back and watches. From Level 2 onwards, he'll start hunting you down once you've got all the shards.
  • If you're not put off by his "Demon in a suit" or "Giant eye peeking through the door" looks, don't worry. He's got a special form just for chasing you, one of a bright-eyed, hooded phantom, with a Slasher Smile you get a good look at should he catch you.
• The game functions a lot like Pac-Man, with some obvious differences. One of these differences is the first-person aspect. Yeah, you've got a map of each area, allowing you to see where the shards are, but unless you find a power-up or unlock telepathy, you don't quite know where your enemy is until they're either in front of or behind you. Not that knowing where they are is that comforting either...
• The main collectibles of game, Soul Shards are described as "Remnants of those who have met their end here". Keep that in mind when you find loads of them in each area.
  Bierce: "Can't find any soul shards? Listen for the screams. Tiny, tiny screams."
• A notable detail is when you find a secret area in any map, your screen starts glitching out, as if our protagonist is going mad from what he's seeing. Considering what we learn about him in these rooms, it makes sense...
• Doug, when his backstory is finally revealed, becomes this. He has been hinted to be a terrible person up until "Mascot Mayhem", but it finally gets revealed exactly why he's here at all: He was an incredibly verbally abusive husband and father to his wife (who has bipolar disorder) and daughter Tammy (who is autistic), and also cheated on his wife with his secretary. That's already bad enough, but then he decides, rather than get a divorce and lose custody of Tammy, that it'd be better to kill his wife so he can run off with his secretary. Doug ends up also killing Tammy in the accident too, but whether that part was accidental or not is never cleared up, and the end result is the same regardless.
  • We learn this by getting a scene of Doug screaming at his wife about how her and their daughter are sucking the joy out of his life and how Tammy got her "problems" from her. All the while, poor Tammy is sitting on the stairs within earshot of her dad insulting her and crying. Plenty of autistic players could, unfortunately, relate to this.
  • Doug's story is perhaps so unsettling because of its realism compared to the rest of the game: unlike the other parts of the game, with demonic clowns, haunted schools and killer robots, something like this very easily could happen.

Monkey Business

• These are your first enemies, Murder Monkeys. Their design involves blades in the place of hands, a huge mouth of mangled, gnashing teeth, and dead eyes to boot. If that look alone doesn't unsettle you, you'll learn to fear it when a whole bunch of them are rushing down the hallways after you like a mad horde of zombies.
  • The thing's kill animations are a pretty good indicator of what you're in for if you're too slow. If you're lucky enough to get caught by one of these things, you get a close-up of its face, screeching like a crazed monkey, before killing you with its blades or apparently eating you. One animation even has the thing summon a bunch of its buddies to gang up on you. Lovely.
  • Before you break those boards down and, in Bierce's words, "Get this party started", you get a run-down of the Soul Shards, what they are, and what you need to do. Then Bierce warns you that you aren't alone in there. That's troubling enough, but as she says it, you can hear one of those damn monkeys knocking on doors. They already know you're there...
    • This last part is actually an intricate smart move. The Murder Monkeys are among the very few enemies who will always know where Doug is and they will always chase after him. Did that make things more terrifying? Good.
  • The noises the Murder Monkeys make can be pretty terrifying. You can hear their heavy footsteps moving fast as you run, meaning they're near you and getting close. You can't turn around for fear that they may be in front of you in the twisting halls. And the horrible high-pitched squeal they make when they're really close (or killing you) is just chilling.
• Bierce mentioned the previous "guest" at the start of the game. She met her end due to not being a fast runner. For those who are aware that they are slow at running, this can really frighten you. What's worse? She pretty much implies that the people she summoned before you are among the Soul Shards you find scattered throughout the place. And if you fail, you'll be one of them.
  • Actually, the Enhanced Edition leaves notes in each level detailing this guest named E, and honestly, the alternative she found to becoming a Soul Shard isn't much better.
• The first level takes place in a Hell Hotel, starting off with Nothing Is Scarier in full play. The Hotel seems quiet, and aside from some questionable decor and a Cat Scare, it seems normal...then you see the silhouette of a giant monkey with a big, bulging head in the elevator. Getting close to it causes it to freak out and close the door. When it opens, the monkey is gone.
• When you finally get all the shards and get the ring, you're treated to the lovely sounds of the Murder Monkeys going, for lack of a better term, ape-shit, and then you reach the elevator. Before it closes, you see a Murder Monkey, now with red eyes, rushing right for you. The elevator door shuts before it can reach you, but once you reach the lobby, you better start running, because the other elevators open to show hordes of frenzied Murder Monkeys rushing out after you! Your only hope is to run for the portal to finish the level...
  • The Enhanced Version brings in a chef-monkey from the spin-off, who chases you down once you got all the shards, trading blades for pizza-cutters and blaring a demented take on the Spider-Man Pizza Theme.
• Once the chase starts, the music changes to fit it. The music in question sounds like something out of "Halloween" or "The Shining". Fitting? Yes. Chilling? So very much.

Elementary Evil

• Agatha, the only enemy in this level, and the page image here, for good reason. As you can see, she has blackened eyes, a Glasgow Grin, bleached skin, and what the image doesn't show you, lengthy burned claws where her hands should be. Oh, and she can teleport. Have fun.
• While the Monkeys before simply started out vicious and swarming (and them getting even worse came as a very late and unpleasant surprise), Agatha is teasing you from the very start with the awareness that so far she's just playing a game with you rather than doing her worst. She's not really sneaking and is happy to make as much noise with doors as you do. Worse, if you spend enough time early on studying how she operates you can figure out how much she's holding back well before it comes up - both her ability to teleport and that she could know exactly where you are if she really wanted to enough. Forcing you to spend over half your stay here anticipating that...
• You ever feel uneased by something like an empty school, just the ominous feeling it gives you? Welp, you're gonna bounce between feeling that exact fear here, and wishing the school was empty once Agatha or Malak rear their heads.
• Agatha's killscreens are even more chilling than the monkeys, with her getting up close to roar, slash, or eat you! What's worse is that when she gets up close, she gets some snuff-film like shading that makes her look like the offspring of Samara and the Joker, as the image on this page shows.
• The music here isn't just instrumental, no, we're treated to tracks of children singing in a way that feels designed to keep you on edge.
• Once you've cleared out the shards in the first part of the school, Agatha decides to show you what she can really do. What you're treated to next is entire hallways of windows displaying the shadows of children laughing insanely and slamming on the glass. Bierce says they're Agatha's victims, and there's a lot of them...
  • Right before all that, if you look up in the gym, you'll see an unfamiliar, devilish figure above you, staring at you as he walks, laughing evilly. It later turns out that this figure is Malak, and he plans on chasing you himself very soon...
• One of the "exit gates" you find as you run is a trick left by Agatha, complete with a childishly drawn picture of her face and the word "portol". If you activate it, she immediately knows where to find you... and the first time one appears as you are being chased by Malak.
• The secrets in this level are... unnerving to say the least, and don't paint a pretty picture of our protagonist. One room hides a well with drawings on the walls obviously left by Agatha describing it as her home. Another room has a drawing of a girl and her mom in a car spiraling off a cliff towards the ocean below, with the girl's father watching with a smile... This drawing isn't about Agatha though.
• Once you've managed to outrun both Agatha and Malak to the auditorium, the doors shut as Agatha appears, slowly advancing towards you and cornering you at the closed doors. Bierce manages to open the doors in time, allowing you to escape, as Agatha goes ballistic.
  Agatha: "Bierce! STAY OUT OF MY ROOM!"
  • The enhanced version is even worse. You're no longer cornered, but rather locked in a room with Agatha, and you have to tough out a demented game of chase with her until Bierce can get the door open. All while this hauntingly melancholic music titled "Share Your Pain" plays out.
• And given the amount of hints to Agatha and Doug's past here, you'd probably think Agatha is his daughter, right? Nope. As some audio files from Bierce hint, and a later run-in with Agatha confirms, this girl isn't Doug's daughter, and doesn't really have a connection to him. Bierce on the other hand...

Deadly Decadence

• Ever wondered what the Weeping Angels would be like if they laughed more... and had axes? Say hello to the Gold Watchers, enemies that move only when you aren't facing them. What's worse? You can hear them...
  Bierce: "In case you're wondering, yes, those footsteps are getting louder!"
  • Your introduction to them is just as creepy. You walk into the empty courtyard, with a statue of a creepy looking prospector... that's laughing. As you walk around it, you might look away, then hear it laughing, and turn back to face it on instinct, only to see it facing you. Then you reach the gate and if you turn back, you'll see the statue is gone!
  • Then there's the face they make when they catch you. Dear mercy, that face...
• The music here? A demented harpsichord, with tracks that feel like ballroom music for psychos. It pretty much gives off the feeling that this is a mansion of crazy rich people hunting peasants for sport.
• While certainly not the most horrifying thing in the game, in this level, you can hear a wolf howling in the distance. It's really just to add atmosphere, but everything we come across in these nightmares is either a hellish monster or a trapped soul writhing in agony (Bierce comments on tiny screams coming from the Soul Shards), so that begs the question, which category does the wolf fit into?
• Like the last level, you get a glimpse of Malak watching you from a higher floor in the mansion. It's not as noticeable as his first cameo, so you may miss him the first time, which makes that laugh he lets out pretty creepy if you don't know where it's coming from...
  • Speaking of which, while Agatha at least announced that Malak was mad at you, but here, there's no fanfare when he shows up, making it all the more frightening when you turn a corner on the way to the ring alter, only to be met with his smiling face attacking you...
    Malak: There's no escape for you, mortal!
• The secrets here feature a Room Full of Crazy, with things like "You didn't need her then, you don't need her now" and "You deserve better". What the hell did this guy do!?
• A notable detail in the manor is the roundabout rooms, featuring giant statues of Gold Watchers looming down at you. Thankfully, they don't move, but we wouldn't blame you for thinking they will...
  • Unfortunately, the spin-off "Monsters and Mortals" says otherwise...and so does the Enhanced edition.
• Then at the end, when you've escaped the manor, Bierce urges you to make your way back to the portal, because the nightmare is collapsing. You then have to make your way through the open courtyard to the portal... and the courtyard is full of Gold Watchers... and Malak is there... Have fun.
  • You think that's bad? In the enhanced version, it's even worse. Just as you reach the courtyard, the aforementioned Titan Watcher rears its giant ugly head and starts chucking axes the size of cars at you. Also, the gate to the portal is now locked, requiring you to lure the Titan Watcher into throwing its axes into it. And don't forget, you're still being chased by Malak AND regular Gold Watchers. So you'll need to keep track of a horde of enemies that don't move while being watched, a hyper-competent demon from hell who will chase you no matter what, and a Titan Watcher that chucks car-sized axes at you. Manage to beat this, and you've earned that damn ring piece!

Stranger Sewers

• The Dread Duckies are a lot more menacing than rubber duckies have any right to be, with human legs that pop out from below, and huge black, empty eyes. They've also got Nested Mouths that reach out and stun you, and if you're not quick enough to snap out of it, they'll catch you, and you get a good long look at their handsome mugs, complete with rows of teeth in their beaks.
• The new power you start this level with is telepathy, and how do you first use it? To see past the barrier Malak set up, which then treats you to a sudden scream from the Murder Monkey on the other side. Yeah, it runs off, but you'd be forgiven for jumping at the sight of that thing's silhouette suddenly appearing and screaming.
• While your introduction to the Dread Duckies is pretty tame, as you just see some inanimate duckies floating in the light nearby, you get one hell of a scare from a surprise attack soon after, with something with red eyes glaring at you from a dark hole in the wall! This is the introduction to the duck's stun mechanic, and the Doom Ducky.
  • This comes complete with a long arm reaching out of the hole and grabbing you. It's a simple button mash to get free, but if you're not expecting it, it's sure to scare the hell out of you.
  • Said red eyes can be seen throughout the level, gazing at you through sewer grates. You might wonder what the hell it is, considering the Dread Duckies don't have those eyes. Then you see what those eyes are attached to and wish you didn't.
• The main gimmick of the Dread Duckies is that they don't run after you like the others, not until you get close to them. The issue is that there are tons of Dread Duckies floating around this dinky sewer, and not all of them are real. This is why you have telepathy in this chapter, but don't let that get your hopes up, you need to get closer to some of those menaces to get all the shards...
  • There's also the fact that when they stun you, they proceed to dance before running to you. This is funny and helpful in getting away, but the fact that they do it, and the fact that they block the exits and dance instead of chasing you at the end of the level gives the impression that these aren't mindless animals, they're hunting you for fun.
• While the rest of the Sewer looks pretty much like an abandoned sewer, Doom Ducky's lair is a great exception to this. When getting close to the door leading to it, a faint red light emanates from it. Entering the room reveals a room illuminated almost entirely by the red lights, with large pipes and a giant door surveying the room. Most disturbing, however, is the copious amount of fake duckies lining many parts of the room in piles, looking almost as if they're watching you. The entire room looks almost like a sewer version of hell.
  • Not helping is the fact that a massive roar is heard once we pass by the ring altar in the room, shaking the room for a few seconds. Bierce jokingly dismisses this as nothing to worry about, yet it also gives us a very bad implication of just how big and angry the Big One (A.K.A Doom Ducky) is.
• The secrets in the level give us notes painting a picture of our protagonist. The picture isn't necessarily a pretty one...
  The pills aren't helping her at all. Her behavior keeps getting more extreme and irrational. It's a neverending nightmare. I can hope for the best, but I know that she'll probably never be normal. She's going to be a mental mess just like her mother. It feels like my world is going dark. A man can only take so much. I really don't care what people think of me. Those two don't know how to be happy and they're sucking the joy out of my life. Whatever her mother and I had is dead. I need to break free while I still can. I've got plenty of money and a great career. I can start over. I can do it right this time. I still need to do something about them though. No way I'm letting her take me for half. She'll use that defective kid to bleed money out of me forever. I want to be free of them and I want to forget they exist as soon as possible. Thankfully, she's not very bright. There might be a way.
• Relating to the above, we find a medical note in the level too. It has some... interesting details.
  The patient, Tammy Houser, is a 12-year-old caucasian female, living with parents, with a mental history that dates back to 1988. Patient was admitted by her father. The father says the daughter is prone to random severe mood swings & panic attacks. He also states that she acts impulsively, exhibiting risky and dangerous behavior in order to gain his attention. He fears that she will continue to harm herself or, eventually, others. There is a history of mental illness on the mother's side as well. Patient's self-esteem appears low, anhedonia, sleep disturbance, does not appear to be eating well, loss in body weight, does not report change in energy, no reported changes in concentration or memory. Patient does exhibit signs of depression & anxiety when asked about her father. She is convinced that he is ignoring her and is obsessed with his legal career. She believes that he wishes she didn't exist. Patient bears marks of past Self-Harm, with scars on her left arm. Sending recommendation that she is potentially suffering from early bipolar disorder. Advising further tests and observations. Medication will be prescribed for depression and anxiety. I'll start with Oxcarbazepine.

  -Dr. Angela Simons

  Tammy.....I wish I'd listened to you more, but you were nothing to me. I only saw your flaws. If you can hear me, believe in me this one time. I will change your fate.
• Right after you collect all the soul shards and grab the ring piece, Malak will stop you in your tracks. After a moment of commending you for surviving this long, he decides to introduce us to his pet, the Doom Ducky, by slowly opening the door behind him, revealing a dozen arms protruding through the darkness. Malak then leaves us at the creature's mercy, thus beginning the game's first boss fight (or at least for the non-enhanced version).
• Doom Ducky itself. To put it simply, it looks utterly nothing like the Dread Duckies, instead resembling an obese, plastic mass with a head, a pair of wings, and multiple arms sticking out of holes in its back. The arms themselves, despite having cartoonish gloves, are nonetheless long and shriveled up. As for the head itself, it has an extremely large bill full of human teeth, three nails sticking into its forehead, and red, bloodshot eyes staring at you. To make it worse, this head is also attached to an extremely long arm, allowing it to attack from afar if it really has to.
  • Speaking of the eyes, they appear to be so bloodshot that the Doom Ducky has to regularly blink and keep its eyes closed just to keep them moist (something no other enemy does outside of cutscenes). Oh, and during its charge attack, said eyes will briefly pop out of its sockets if it misses you.
  • You might think that being a boss, the Doom Ducky wouldn't show up again after being defeated, but you're not as much fighting it as you are shutting the door on it (and pissing it the heck off if the roar afterwards is anything to go by). As you make your way through the sewers to the portal, the alarms blare and Dread Duckies block off all other exits near your path, while the Doom Ducky chases you down through the waters, and even when you manage to escape its range, it breaks through the wall near the portal for a last-ditch effort to kill you.

Crazy Carnevil

• The Clown Gremlins, like your usual Monster Clown, walk a fine line between creepily hilarious and just creepy. Unlike Agatha, their proportions don't resemble a human at all, and they've got huge rows of teeth curled into a permanent grin. They've also got rather small yellow pupils surrounded by black sclera, making them look even more demented. There's quite a lot of them running around the place, and only one of you. Better start running.
  • Their behaviour changes in each area. When you first start collecting shards, they pursue you in clown cars, popping out of them if you get too close to them. Then when you reach the Ring Altar, a single Clown Gremlin shows up and waves at you, slowly moving around the tent, as if it's playing a demented game of tag with you. Then you make your way through the lower parts of the funhouse, while the Gremlins lurk the halls waiting for you, and if they see you, they'll alert the others in the area. Have fun...
• The carnival you traverse in this level has an outside section, but unlike the manor's courtyard from earlier, this one is under a hellish red sky, looking more outwardly nightmarish. Then you go into the funhouse...
• The leadup to the funhouse is...unnatural to say the least. Getting there requires riding a roller coaster through what can only be described as a dimension of flashing colors, and you're forced to pass slowly through huge rooms of colors while demented circus music plays. Yet oddly, nothing particularly bad happens, and as the bottom-most sentence suggests, this is likely at the Clown Gremlins' own behest.
• The funhouse itself isn't any better, as you're now forced to go through surreal hallways much tighter then the obstacle course, and filled to the brim with dim lightings and unused attractions in unusual places. You also have to face the Clown Gremlins again, only this time they're searching without the clown cars, they're very mad, and there's a whole horde of them swarming the whole area.
  • Anybody think that the outskirts of the funhouse are safer than the rest of it? Nope, because expect to hear the sound of something rolling after you on the tracks...
  • Here, the Grem Clowns' swarm mechanic comes into full play. Since they always spawn in separate groups of five, its hard to find a single clown without its group. One wrong move, and they surround you on all sides like the Murder Monkeys. Even if you stun them, there's still a chance for another one to catch you by the nearest corner. And then another one by the side. Or perhaps another one following just behind you.
  • Most areas of the map also have glowing graffiti on the walls. Some of them depict the Clown Gremlins in cartoonish fashions, and others depict clownish beings that certainly aren't cartoonish. One graffiti even depicts a Goliath Clown burning everything to the ground while standing in the midst of it... and staring at you in an unpleasant manner.
    • Even worse, if Monsters and Mortals says anything, then the beings depicted exist. Which ones? The ones that resemble spiders. If their movements aren't enough to make you shudder, than the sounds they make when they are moving will. Not even moving to the upper level will put you in a safe position from them. It isn't a stretch to assume people with arachnophobia aren't going to sleep well for the next few nights.
• Like the last level, Malak set up a Murder Monkey to guard the portal, so you need to use the "Primal Fear" to stun them, and then move right past the thing to get to the portal. Considering what happens when you go near those things in their own level, you'd be forgiven for feeling a bit hesitant to walk right past one in a small hallway.
• Like the last level, the secrets here consist of notes, one of them giving us a good look into our protagonist's current mindset.
  I see them more often now. More clearly and more often than before. They dominate my dreams now in a way that never happened previously. Sometimes, when I am out doing my walk, I feel them watching me and I almost convince myself that I see them, their faces, hidden in a crowd of people. For a moment, I find myself wishing so much for it to be true. I doubt they'd be as happy to see me though. I spent another Friday night with the group. It went as well as it usually does. They are good people, all of them, but I don't think they will ever be able to help me. Faith and the power of the holy spirit have a profound impact on some, but for me, they are just words that ring hollow. I've taken the pills to forget. I've prayed to forget. I've to group meetings and therapy. I've done countless amounts of charity & community work, but it never feels like enough. I still feel so.....empty. Maybe I'm just wasting my time or maybe I'm slowly going mad? I just wish there was a way to see them one more time. I'm not a terribly religious man, but if there is an afterlife, I know what's waiting for me when my time is up. I accept it and I deserve it. Just give me one chance to right my biggest wrong before I go. I'm not sure that's even possible, but I'd pay any price to find out.
• The other secret? A newspaper giving us our protagonist's name, profession, and crimes...
  Doug Houser turned himself in to the police in New York City this morning to face sexual misconduct charges, before being released with a $100,000 cash bail. The disgraced defense attorney was carrying an 8000X and a newspaper as he got out of a luxury black SUV and walked past a swarm of TV cameras and reporters and through the front of the New York Police Department's 1st Precinct in Manhattan this morning. He was subsequently arrested, processed, and charged with criminal sex act, sex abuse, and sexual miscondcut for alleged incidents involving five separate women, police said.
  
  I thought I was so smart....so untouchable....but I was an easy target for them. It was my own fault. A result of my ego & desire. Just a fool playing the big shot. They loved what they could take from me, but they never loved me. Not like you both did.
• Then, after you've gotten the Ring Piece, and make your way back to the fairgrounds, you're stopped by Malak again, who summons four giant, neon-painted clowns to come and kill you. Say hello to the Goliath Clowns, who happily try to crush you and vomit Clown Gremlins in hordes to chase you around. Your only hope is to make use of a mallet to stop them.
  Malak: "Keep them laughing while you die, won't you?"
  • Said Goliath Clowns can be seen earlier in the level, while you ride the rollercoaster through the funhouse, where you're treated to a dark room with all four of them waving at you. They could easily just grab you right there or break the tracks apart, but they don't. Like the smaller clowns, they're toying with you.

Torment Therapy

• The Reaper Nurses. They're perhaps the most humanoid of all the monsters shown, resembling cute nurses that, outside their somewhat revealing clothes and the bags on their heads, otherwise look like normal humans, This is in stark contrast to their behavior, being insane psychos that utterly dislike any man they meet that isn't Malak, the latter of whom they treat like a personal god. This bleeds right into they're hospitality methods, which they treat like actual methods of healing when in reality they're nothing but excuses to torture and kill men and anyone else they view as a threat.
  • It's heavily implied that the nurses are also something else entirely. Aside from the fact that they can somehow "see" out of their bags, they also have the ability to turn invisible, something no human can do without powers. Even then, the nurses are also capable of moving much faster than vehicles moving at top speed through sheer will alone, and they're capable of conjuring different weapons very quickly to dispatch enemies despite the lack of space for them anyway.
• Then there's their boss, the Matron. She was actually shown in the teaser for Chapter 4 back then. Something neither the teaser, nor the development logs indicate is that she's massive, towering over an ambulance, and if you don't believe that comparison, don't worry, you'll see for yourself late into the level.
  • The room she resides in has both the ring altar and the main entrances to the Therapy Center, which is already a red flag. The room itself appears to be a massive security office, with cameras overlaying the walls behind the Matron while she oversees the room, giving us a good look at her sheer size. In front of her counter is an absolute maze of hospital supplies and equipment, all of which crudely protect the ring altar while acting as guard outposts for the Reaper Nurses. The entire scene forces you to go on a stealth mission of sorts, with one wrong move spelling death if you don't do something.
• At the start of the level, you treated to a lobby filled with Reaper Nurses either dancing seductively or looking at you in a non-threatening manner, together with a group of Gold Watchers drinking tea and funky music playing. Outside of the sheer question of why such a thing would be prevalent here, everything seems too good to be true until you enter the next set of rooms, most of which cut out the music and switch to an eerie atmosphere. You just know something bad will happen, yet everything doesn't seem too out of the ordinary... until you get the hospital tests.
  • In comparison to the first and third hospital tests, the second test starts you off with the room becoming silent, save for a timer audibly increasing in countdown like a bomb. The moment you do escape a loud click is heard behind you, and turning around reveals an absolute crap ton of needles jutting out the walls into the spot you were just in.
• The first zone, despite looking very much like a normal hospital, seems very desolate and bleak compared to a normal hospital, which are normally bustling with activity. The only things here are you and the Reaper Nurses, the latter of which are invisible and could be anywhere.
• In stark contrast, the second zone - A.K.A the Therapy Center - is a decrepit prison filled to the brim with saws and consisting of dirty brick walls, again filled with nurses. Lining the sides are heavily-guarded torture rooms, all of which are used to brutally torture anyone at the nurses' "mercy." We only get to experience one torture room filled with needles, so we can only guess what's on the other side of each room.
  • This also brings to mind both the Reaper Nurses' sole jumpscare (which involves stabbing Doug) and a comment made by one of them about bringing Doug there anyway. While the former does show him dropping on the floor afterward, it's likely that he just passes out from the wound, which is very much possible considering that humans can survive getting stabbed (or at least for a few minutes depending on the wound). If this were the case, then it's also possible that the nurses would have inevitably brought him to the Therapy Center and torture him to death at their leisure.

Mascot Mayhem

• The enemies in this level are the Joy Joy Gang, a team of demented animatronic mascots that take great joy in chasing you down and brutalizing you if they catch you. And they're not just soulless machines, they're very clearly lucid and they'll let you know it. Give Freddy Fazbear and his band some credit, when they talked, they at least sounded more stable than this (Funtime/Molten Freddy and Monty Gator not withstanding), but Lucky, Penny, and Hangry are not only alive, they're not only strong, they're bloodthirsty.
  • E's notes up until this point have done a good job detailing what these monsters Doug fights are supposed to be, murderers, liars, heretics, etc. But the Joy Joy Gang? She doesn't recognize them as human, they're feral and animalistic.
• The tone of this level is unlike every level before it, for just how dreary it is, despite being an amusement park. Yes, there's plenty of humor, mostly from the Joy Joy Gang, but the drained colors, foggy atmosphere, and desolate landscape differ from the macabre areas you visited before. At least levels like Agatha's and the Reaper Nurses' had some lively elements or traps, but this park is so lifeless that it's almost a (admittedly very small) relief when the cackling, blood-thirsty animatronics show up. And even then, the area where you're first introduced to Lucky and Penny looks more like a room where they do Police Lineups than anything that should be in an amusement park. The lower levels, while more colorful, look more like a mesh of an shut down office building and a deep-space horror film than anything else. The whole place just looks unwelcoming and designed to make you feel like something horrible is going to happen. And lo and behold, something very horrible does.
  • The effect above is highlighted when you're being chased to the second zone. You're being chased down the foggy road by a whole horde of Lucky's and Penny's, while more Lucky's block off the other roads, staring and smirking at you, all while Lucky's inane laughter peppers the background noise. Then when you finally reach the gate, they suddenly run up to it when you're back is turned - just staring at you - and it's enough to unsettle Bierce.
  • Anytime the Joy Joy Gang start singing their Joy Joy Ditty, which pretty much involves them gaining faces that scream, "I'm dead inside" and usually dancing in very scripted movement pattern. It certainly doesn't help that their eyes always track your location while their heads hardly move at all, the first clear sign that there's something off about them.
• Hangry is the most physically capable of the Joy Joy Gang, and he'll use that strength to break down obstacles. The problem? He prefers to hide in the walls first rather than always chase you outright. The walls he also hides in are random, so you can never be too sure on which walls he's hiding in or what time he chooses to strike.
• The part where you electrocute the Joy Joy Gang ends up exposing their metallic parts underneath, and the results are not pretty. Lucky's eyes have popped off to reveal red, mechanical, glowing lights and his buckteeth have been altered to more humanoid chompers. Hangry lost only one eye with a similar effect, but what stands out is his mouth, which now has a huge exposed maw of eerily organic teeth on a robotic jaw. Penny loses both her eyes too, but one still stays attached by a few wires, dangling out of her eye-socket, and she has a huge gash in her head, with an exposed metal skull beneath. After zapping the three to hell and back, they just freeze there, and you're forced to walk around them. They don't wake back up and attack you thankfully, but you can't be blamed for thinking they would, especially since their eyes still follow you. And when they do start moving again, they catch up to you, and they are royally pissed off.
  • Despite the obvious possibility of the Joy Joy Gang coming back to attack you, the lead up to it is rather off-putting. As you enter the Production Line Factory, Jocelyn (the facility AI) notifies you that she's dispatching the Joy Joy Gang to stop you... and nothing really happens. Even when you enter an area filled with soul shards, they are nowhere to be found, starkly contrasting other levels where the enemies pursue you the moment you enter. Just when you might've forgotten about them and open a door to go forward though, you hear Lucky call you out and turn back, only to be face-to-face with the entire Joy Joy Gang in a frenzied state.
  • While the rest of their endoskeletons aren't fully shown in the level, their concept art◊ depicts them to the fullest extant, revealing them to look like gray skeletons fused to demonic monsters.
• As if the entire level wasn’t bad enough, we get to the boss of the stage, Joy Kill. A horrific amalgamation created from the crushed up remnants of the Joy Joy Gang that’s easily the freakiest boss in the game, and unlike said bosses, Joy Kill cannot be stopped or escaped. Threw it in lava? Nope! Survived the lockdown and reached the elevator? It’s still not done with you! Escaped the clone horde and are about to reach the portal? SURPRISE! Combine the fact that it has Penny’s stunning ability, Hangry's brutal strength, Lucky's quick reflexes, and Frickin' Laser Beams, it easily makes for the most horrifying boss monster in the game.
• The music? Aside from the cheery Joy Joy Gang theme, we get an Ominous Music Box Tune version of it, and it pretty much captures the feeling of being in an Amusement Park of Doom with depraved animatronic mascots for company. The chase themes do little to help this, — yes, that's right, there's two — especially not the ever-stressful and industrial track "Luck Runs Out". Then there's the song "Closing Time" played at the end section, and it doesn't mean anything good.
  "Self-destruct sequence has been initiated. Repeat. Self-destruct sequence has been initiated."
• The ending. With Doug cornered by the Joy Joy horde, he’s about to escape through the portal when Joy Kill suddenly leaps in, blocking the path. Cue our protagonist being brutally beaten by the entire Joy Joy Gang (to the cheery Joy Joy Ditty, no less), even throwing in a fake death screen for good measure! Thankfully, the beating stops... when Malak shows up and demands Doug be kept alive. Malak then forcibly enters his mind, bringing forth all his worst memories, including the reveal that he drove his wife and daughter off a bridge to their deaths, and implanting himself into Doug, which allows him to enter Bierce's ballroom.
  • One of the many teasers for this chapter was a grainy shot of a bridge blocked off by police cars. Given what the game revealed about Doug before this chapter, it didn't take a genius to guess what this was supposed to mean. Many people guessed it would be part of the intro to the hospital level or something, but no, it's at the end of this level, but it's not a part of Joy Joy Land, it's in Doug's head. And we get to see what fell off that bridge, or rather, who fell off... Tammy Houser. And she is ticked, so ticked that she is now glowing red with fury.
• You Escaped?

Bearly Buried

• Malak invading the ballroom. At first, it looks like Bierce makes short work of the demon, throwing him around the room like a rag doll before skewering him on soul shards. But when one Malak is killed, another enters the room. And another, and another... Only then most of them turn into the various horrors from the different levels.
• The whole entirety of Bearly Buried is pretty much a huge dosage of Nightmare Fuel and a reminder of what kind of situation you're in: trapped in a nightmare filled with horrid things. Only this time with a lack of powers at your disposal for the second time around.
  • This is highlighted by the first segment, where you're forced to sneak around the cabin, powerless and surrounded by sleeping and wandering Trigger Teddies. You need to stay out of their sight. The ones sleeping aren't just for decoration. They can be woken up. Get caught by one of the little menaces and...well, bear go boom boom.
• Everything about Mama Bear and her "babies", the Trigger Teddies, are absolute nightmare fuel, the former especially so:
  • Appearance-wise, Mama Bear is a towering teddy bear covered in blood and stitches running down her body, not to mention that said stitches lead into a large tear exposing her "guts" so to speak. Meanwhile, the Trigger Teddies are small teddy bears with oversized heads and are extremely dirty and torn, especially due to their mouths having human-like teeth and possessing sharp claws on their paws.
    • Definitely not helping in the latter's case is the fact that those aren't even their real heads. As you find out later, they're actually baby dolls; really disgusting baby dolls that look more like zombies than teddy bears.
  • Mama Bear's voice is similar to that of a loving mother, usually saying things very placidly and heartfully. Unlike the other enemies, however, she almost always talks that way, even when she's very clearly threatening you or wants to eat you, giving off a feeling that she's some sort of doll. From the way she speaks at times, she is either incapable of speaking any other way or she chooses to talk this way to unnerve her prey.
  • The way both Mama Bear and the Trigger Teddies move like limp dolls a lot of the time, making them not seem very fast for the most part. Let them see you at certain points, however, and they will run you down and end your life in mere seconds.
  • The whole gimmick of Mama Bear making the Trigger Teddies involves pulling them out of the tear in her stomach. And she can do this under at least 6 seconds each.
  • Then there's the whole situation of them always knowing your location. In Mama Bear's case, her eyes always track Doug's location, never blinking once.
• The fact that Doug does not even get a breather before being tossed into the next level! Unlike the previous levels which start with you being somewhat eased into things, you start with Malak leaving you at the mercy of Mama Bear and her Trigger Teddies right off the bat. If not for the mysterious ball of light frying the surrounding teddies, Doug would’ve been on the menu.
• A moment before we enter the first zone, we enter Mama Bear's room, which has a set of suits uncannily similar to Mama Bear's normal appearance. The only thing missing are the retractable claws, suggesting that they belong to...something underneath, and yet we never find out what's exactly under there.

  • And mind you, the eyes are a part of the suit, likely meaning that they aren't even Mama Bear's real eyes (that is, if she even has any), and the thing underneath is just controlling them somehow.

• Listening to the soundtrack for this level, especially the boss battle and incredibly fast-paced chase themes, it's little wonder that you can hear Doug's rapid heartbeat and labored breathing, as if directly stating how dangerous and exhausting this level is going to be. Which, mind you, is joined by whispers of voices repeatedly saying things like "Keep it moving."
  • These voices suddenly make more sense when you finally get to the third zone, which is pretty much a ginormous cavern with thousands of souls making up its walls, likely all screaming in agony. One has to wonder if perhaps all the souls are actually doing the moaning voices in the level's music.
• When you get the first of the ring fragments back, you get the literal mother of jumpscares when coming back to Mama Bear's bedroom. Open the door— oh hi, Mama!
• Running from Mama and her babies is quite an ordeal! First off, Mama makes the screen start to glitch out with her mere presence and it's stated in-game it comes from her sheer bloodlust! As for the Trigger Teddies? Well, the reason they're called "Trigger Teddies" is that they're packing explosives, and will detonate if they catch Doug! If these little walking kamikaze attacks are so much as stunned with primal fear, they go off and can take Doug with them.
• Zone 3's appearance is... something to behold. To put it simply, it turns out that the foundation of the cave is a vast mass of souls clumped together to form the caves and walls. It's so big that the maze you walk through, which is already larger than it needs to be, is simply a small platform in the sky if one were to look at it from the outside. The only lighting you get is a reddish glow emitted by the souls, and the maze itself looks to be even older and more broken compared to the rest of the cave. It doesn't help that this is the first time you see the Trigger Teddies' true faces, which often comes as a shock for unwary players.
  • This also brings to mind Mama Bear's status as Malak's executioner, and going by the sheer amount of souls on the walls, she and her babies have been eating people for a really long time.
  • Certainly not helping is that the only ambiance present is the music, which consists of the souls breathing, groaning, and sometimes screaming in agony. Notably, it doesn't cease until you completely leave the area, even after you collected everything and the enemies disappear.
• Mama Bear's transformation! In the first boss battle, Doug comes to an arena riddled with pools of acid and out pops Mama's stretched-out claw while her oversized head pops out of another! And then comes the third act boss where we see her transformation in all its glory. Oh happy day... Imagine her main torso bloating up to giant size, her arms stretching into segments out with one claw getting bigger, her left hand becoming a fleshy mouth full of fangs, and her exposed innards are now a mass of Trigger Teddies! And on top of all that? She can transform into a giant ball of spikes to steamroll over her prey!
• The escape sequence. Thought you managed to finally kill Mama Bear? Nope! She pops her arm out of a wall with little warning and chases you down a bone-filled tunnel in fury. The whole ordeal, you're treated to the lovely sounds of her hand snapping and roaring at you while a chorus of voices start urging you to get the hell out of there.
• Once you get to the cabin, you get the first-hand experience of the level collapsing without the ring piece, and everything starts breaking down the closer you are to escaping. This escalates to the point where some of the Trigger Teddies, instead of attacking like usual, end up trying to escape up the walls for their lives.

Holiday Horror

• The monsters here were, unlike many before them, mostly unseen up until Chapter 4's teaser, the Mannequins, eerily twitching around with huge, pointed cones in the place of heads, hands, and feet. It makes for a disturbing image if you aren't familiar with how mannequins sometimes look.
  • To clarify, some mannequins actually look like that. Namely to because it's pointless to make a head-mold for something that just shows off a dress. One can't help but wonder what exactly the ones here will use those points for.
    • Later, we found out that the Mannequins showed were just one variations of the enemies that could appear there, that being the Female variation. The Male variant? While it doesn't have a spike for a head (just simply a stud), the fact that the second set of arms bellow and muscular built could make up to him as a threat.
• The music we got here is that of a Twisted Christmas, including a corrupted take on "Carol of the Bells", which includes what sounds like a chorus chanting "Run for your life!"

Prison Panic

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