Rumble in the Hometown doesn't have a banner, apparently.
Putrefaction is a 2015 (the first game) and 2017 (the second game) Russian indie horror-themed First-Person Shooter developed by Kazakov Oleg, where you're battling against hordes and hordes of zombies in a manner inspired by (in the developer's own words) Call of Duty: Zombies and Killing Floor.
In 2079, a terrible diesease of unknown origins attacks the world, spreading beyond control and causing humans and animals to mutate into feral, mindless, zombie-like beings, called "putrids". With the source of the outbreak unknown and no possible cure, the diesease makes short work infecting most of humanity.
This apocalyptic event is called the Putrefaction. An organization called the "Brotherhood of Purity" was created, whose members are somehow immune to the putrefaction, and trained to combat the monsters spawned from it, besides seeking a cure. You're naturally one of their best.
An Immediate Sequel, Putrefaction 2: Void Walker, was released in 2017 (which ends on a cliffhanger). After battling the putrids, you discover a portal leading to another dimension which appears to be the putrefaction's source; you enter to investigate, and find yourself in another dimension that resembles the wilderness. There are more putrids in the woods, as well as demons, giant insects, and Nazi personnel... wait, what?
There's an Expansion Pack for the sequel, Putrefaction 2: Rumble in the Hometown, a standalone game which ditches the horror elements this time. You've stopped the Putrefaction and restored the putrids back to normal, but now there are gangsters fighting to control the city in the aftermath of the apocalypse.
Putrefaction (and its sequels) contain examples of:
- Always Night: The first game takes place entirely at dusk, so good luck getting a tiny silver of sunlight anywhere. Averted in the sequel, which is set at dawn.
- Ancient Tomb: The last stage of the original game is set within an ancient crypt, where you start fighting ghost-based enemies manifested by the Void (some which are immune to your bullets, necessitating you to find an alternative). Said stage ends with you defeating the most powerful spirit of all, and uncovering a portal leading to another dimension which could be the source of the putrefaction...
- Blackout Basement: All over the place in the first game, where it's night and the interiors of tunnels, basements, and laboratories have their lights out. Your flashlight is your only source of illumination, with putrids leaping into the screen constantly to chew you up.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Several putrids and mutant Nazi soldiers (in the sequel) have organic blades in place for arms.
- Deus Ax Machina: The first game begins with you finding a fire ax. Which serves as your first and only melee weapon. It's surprisingly effective in cracking putrid skulls.
- Dimensional Traveler: Or Void Walker, as the game calls you in the second part.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Given how the sequel has you uncovering a hidden Nazi plot pulling the putrefaction, you assume you'll need to eliminate its leader. After you kill Hitler halfway through, the Hermit informs you that you still need to find the source of the putrefaction, sending you to the putrid world for the real final boss battle.
- Excuse Plot: Only in the first game, which have you spending every stage killing putrids and finding an exit to the next level, with the viral outbreak in the backstory as a flimsy reasoning to why "putrids exist". The second game on the other hand has a better, more fleshed-out plot. Then comes Rumble in the Hometown, which is another loose plot with you killing gangsters.
- Freeze Ray: The freeze ray is one of the first game's last, and better weapons. It also happens to be the only weapon capable of hurting the putrid spirits, high-level enemies otherwise immune to bullets.
- Gatling Good:
- You're free to use the minigun in both games to saw through hordes and hordes of undead.
- The hunchbacked, giant putrid boss from the original game has a gatling gun built in it's back hump, Backpack Cannon-style.
- Ghostapo: 2 has you realizing a Nazi cult, headed by none other than Adolf Hitler himself (!!!) is the source of the zombie outbreak; having escaped into the void during the 1940s, making a pact with a demon lord for immortality, they use the void's resources to develop their technology and engineered the putrefaction virus — which took them over a century and a half — before releasing it in 2079 to wipe out humanity.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The Putrid "spirits" are manifested when a cluster of the void's energy begins assimilating into a humanoid form, appearing as ghostly entities that attacks you. The lowest-level varieties of these enemies can be dispersed by shooting at them, but the stronger types needs to be frozen by your ice gun to gain a physical form — before you switch to another weapon and blow them to bits.
- Giant Mook: The sequel introduces putrid brutes, large enemies who takes far more damage, and gigantic demon beasts — the latter sometimes used as steeds by Nazi soldiers.
- Giant Spider: Oversized arachnids appears in the tunnels of the original game, being one of the few insect-based putrids.
- Horse of a Different Color: 2 contains Nazi soldiers, and giant eyeless demons. There are also Nazi soldiers riding on shoulders of giant demons ordering to charge at you while the riders takes potshots via rifles.
- Immediate Sequel: Putrefaction ends with you stepping into a portal which could lead to the diesease's source. Putrefaction 2 begins with you emerging from said portal.
- Jet Pack: The sequel has jetpack-wearing Nazi mooks trying to attack you from an elevated position, though you can shoot them down before they take off.
- Lighter and Softer: Void Walker is far more light-hearted than the previous game, eschewing the horror elements and setting the game almost entirely outdoors, set mostly at dawn in a brighter and more colorful game world. The atmosphere is far less gloomy (unlike the original game where death and decay is everywhere), the dreary music is gone, the monsters and mutants looks goofier than the zombie-like putrids and you even get to shoot Hitler in the face!
- Ludicrous Gibs: Putrids, especially larger ones, tends to fall apart into chunks of bloodied flesh after a close-range blast (especially if the shotgun is involved). You can paint an area red with the amount of zombies slain. The sequel downplays this where you could spill loads of blood by killing mooks, some of the demon enemies have multi-coloured blood toning down the violence factor.
- Meat Moss: The first game have red, organic growth in the tunnel walls to ramp up the creepiness factor.
- Mirror Boss:
- In the sequel, Adolf Hitler is the one human-sized boss. Unfortunately, the pact he made with the void grants him superhuman durability and Playing with Fire powers.
- Also from the same game, the Hermit's last phase as the Final Boss. After depleting his gigantic demon form, he turns into a humanoid form resembling an armored knight roughly the same size as you to continue fighting.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: The zombie-like undead monsters are not zombies, they're putrids.
- Obviously Evil: The fact that the Hermit, a sinister, glowing skull shrouded in flames, turns out to be evil is hardly a surprise, not to the player, or the Void Walker. You even lampshade it:You: Yeah, I figured shit like this will happen right from the start.
The Hermit: But how?
You: Hey idiot, you are a burning green skull in my head, Of course you are evil. Now I will kick your ass and go home.
[cue Final Boss battle] - One-Winged Angel: When the Hermit reveals his true intentions of taking over the Void, and turns into a gigantic green demon with a Skull for a Head. He's a Stationary Boss however, confined to a pit in the middle while summoning attacks on you, until you weaken him enough causing him to pull a Bishōnen Line into an armored, sword-wielding warrior.
- Playing with Fire: Some of the higher-grade putrids can hurl fireballs from their hands. As does one of the strongest putrid monsters, Hitler.
- Rock Monster: The sequel's first boss is a gigantic, hovering, humanoid pile of rocks, animated by putrid energy and emanating a green glow. It falls apart upon defeat.
- Scary Scorpions: Huge scorpions appear in the sequel's Putrid World, capable of spitting acid streams at you from a distance. Get too close and they'll swing their stinging barbs instead.
- Scenery Gorn: The first game, where corpses are strewn all over the place with bloody smears on every wall. Not the sequel though, where the carnage has been toned down.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: In the sequel, there are both humanoid putrids wielding crude-looking shields and Nazi brutes armed with riot shields.
- Spider People: Putrid monsters with humanoid upper bodies and spider-legs appears in the sequel's last area, Putrid World.
- Stationary Enemy: Wall putrids from the first game are tumor-like growths embedded in walls, who can't move but can spit toxic blood at you. Killing them (usually by generous doses of shotgun shells) will also collapse the part of the wall they're growing from, revealing an entrance to the next area you'll need to access.
- Stupid Jetpack Hitler: One which involves the real Hitler and his followers making a pact with a demon to wipe out humanity. Some who even have actual jetpacks!
- Suddenly Voiced: You're a Silent Protagonist for the first game, right until you enter the void. In the second game, upon emerging, you're suddenly making quips like no tomorrow.
- Those Wacky Nazis: You encounter Nazi soldiers one-third through the sequel, after spending the past few levels fighting the undead putrids, seemingly at random. And then you found out the putrefaction is caused by a Nazi cult who escaped to another dimension and made a pact with evil forces. Their hideout even have flags bearing swastikas and the Nazi Eagle, and you get to fight Hitler as a boss!
- Treacherous Quest Giver: 2 begins with you emerging from the void and greeted by the Hermit, a talking, flaming, skull-like demon, who grants you superpowers, directs you to the source of the putrefaction, offering you clues to put an end to it. Right in the final cutscene, the Hermit reveals he wants the void's powers for himself, and is using you to get it, and your Final Boss is the Hermit's One-Winged Angel form.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The sequel's ending, after you destroyed all the Putrid Lords and seemingly put an end to the putrefaction. And then, The Hermit reveals he's using you as a pawn to gain control of the Putrid World; now that you've completed your task, he doesn't need you anymore.The Hermit: You were useful to me, Void Walker, but not anymore. You see, I was one of them a long time ago, but I was betrayed and thrown away... now I have all their powers at my disposal, and I won't tolerate your stupidity anymore. You served your purpose and now you will die.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The backstory of each game, with the first being your investigations to what caused it. You find out the answer in the sequel: Hitler!
- And here ends journey of the Void Walker. He returned to Earth, in his own time, and continued to live his life, knowing that he saved a universe, defeated ultimate evil, and kicked all sort of ass.
