History VideoGame / ManOfMedan

-->--'''Fliss'''
''The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'', also known simply as ''Man of Medan'', is an AdventureGame slash SurvivalHorror developed by Creator/SupermassiveGames and published by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment. It is the first game in ''VideoGame/TheDarkPicturesAnthology'', a series of horror games that share a framing device but which are otherwise standalone. It was released on August 30th, 2019 for PC, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/Playstation4.

* ConvenientlyTimedDistraction: When the protagonists are kept hostage by the pirates during a stormy night, the boys can decide to escape by breaking a window, timing the act with the sound of thunder so that the pirates won't notice a thing.

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: Olsen and his fellow pirates ambush the Duke of Milan in the night, making the protagonists their hostage while demanding the location of the Manchurian Gold, which Olsen thinks is [[LiteralMetaphor actual gold]].

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: The pair who finds the rebreathers may initially end up debating whether to take them or not, as these can potentially be used to save themselves or just slow them down for being too heavy to carry. When they step out of the room, [[spoiler:Olsen will come chasing at them, and the protagonists are indeed burdened by the weight of the rebreathers, evident in some QuickTimeEvent prompts. A hallucinating Junior then meets the two in the next room, threatening to kill them. The rebreathers will [[ChekhovsGun come in handy]] at this point, so that you could convince Junior to remove "the mist" inside of him.]]

** [[spoiler: Another one happens if Conrad failed to escape on the speedboat, the military was never called, and the distributor cap was destroyed. With the Duke of Milan unable to run, and having no other lifelines through Conrad or the military, the surviving group is left stranded on the Ourang Medan. Alex (if alive) volunteers to go back inside of the ship, in the hopes of finding canned food. Fliss, on the other hand, thinks there is a better chance of survival by hopping back aboard the Duke and rowing out to sea, hoping to catch a current to land. Depending on Alex's and Fliss's respective relationship with the remaining survivors, the group will split up and pray for each other's safety. However, both plans end up failing. The group that left with Fliss will be shown on the Duke, tired, sick and sunburnt as the camera pans out to show the boat drifting on a seemingly endless ocean. The group that stayed with Alex will be shown inside the Ourang Medan screaming as they slowly become delirious from the effects of the Manchurian Gold.]]

* EarAche / EarNotch: [[spoiler:When the pirates take him above deck on the Duke to beat the hell out of him, continuing to antagonize Olson sees him inflicting this on Conrad.]]

* InformedAttribute: When the protagonists are introduced before boarding the Duke of Milan, their names are accompanied by an adjective describing their general personalities.

* TwoRightsMakeAWrong: One possible ending. [[spoiler: If Conrad escapes and the distributor cap is retrieved (either of which will prevent [[DownerEnding the military from finding the group]]), Conrad will return with the Coast Guard with no one on the Ourang Medan to find, and no knowledge of the gas. The last cutscene is of Conrad hallucinating, with his fate left unclear.]]

* ButThouMust: A minor one in the prologue. At the fortune teller, no matter whether the player chooses the dragon tile or the bamboo tile, the final fortune will be the same.

* IdiotBall: A twofer with the JerkassBall. Given that certain paths allow Conrad to prove fairly resourceful and intelligent, his insulting behavior in front of the fishermen seems to serve no purpose besides needlessly aggravating them. Note that his decision in this scene is ''automatic behavor'' beyond the player's control. [[spoiler:The three men whom Conrad throws money at are, in fact, pirates who later return to ambush them in the night.]]

* DialogueTree: The game shows a stylized, pared-back take on the idea, with the player choosing between a colder, more sensible response associated with the "head", or a warmer, more emotional one associated with the heart. There's literally a brain pictogram on one side and a heart one on the other, with a naval compass flitting between the two until you make your decision. Taking a cue from Telltale, you can opt to say nothing.

* HorrorHost: ''Series/TheCrown2016''[='=]s Pip Torrens plays the sardonic yet helpful Curator, who can provide you hints if you accept them to the plot of the game. He will also provide commentary between acts, which can change depending on the choices you make and who lived or died at any point. If ''every'' single character is killed, [[ItsAWonderfulFailure the Curator suddenly loses his usual stoic demeanor and begins openly cackling at you for how badly you failed]], even asking if you did it on purpose.

* OnlyAFleshWound: [[spoiler:If Conrad fails to escape on the motor boat and pushes his captors too far, it can result in one of the kidnappers shooting Julia in the head, leaving her crumpled and bleeding on the floor of the boat. Unusually for this game, though, it doesn't prove fatal - by the next scene she's regained consciousness and is being bandaged up by Alex, who explains that the bullet merely grazed her. All things considered, she seems remarkably fine.]]

** [[spoiler:The rebreather in the radio room is needed if you want to convince Junior that you can help clean the "mist" inside of him.]]

* BareYourMidriff: Fliss' outfit exposes her stomach through the entire game. Julia's diving gear as well, then through the rest of the game, she has a pink T-shirt that is tied in a knot to show her stomach.

** [[spoiler: Another one happens if Conrad failed to escape on the speedboat, the military was never called, and the distributor cap was destroyed. With the Duke of Milan unable to run, and having no other lifelines through Conrad or the military, the surviving group is left stranded on the Ourang Medan. Alex (if alive) volunteers to go back inside of the ship, in the hopes of finding canned food. Fliss, on the other hand, thinks there is a better chance of survival by hopping back aboard the Duke and rowing out to sea, hoping to catch a current to land. Depending on Alex's and Fliss's respective relationship with the remaining survivors, the group will split up and pray for each other's safety. However, both plans end up failing. The group that left with Fliss will be shown on the Duke, tired, sick and sunburnt.

* MultipleEndings: Like ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', you can ensure that EverybodyLives, [[KillEmAll Everybody Dies]], or anywhere in between. [[spoiler:Unlike ''Until Dawn'', there are multiple ways to achieve the former. Just because you made sure all playable characters survive (and potentially Junior), it doesn't guarantee a happy ending for everybody, should you fail to do certain actions such as retrieving the distributor cap or have Conrad escape, which can lead to some unexpected {{Downer Ending}}s.]]

* ConvenientlyTimedDistraction: When the protagonists are hostaged by the pirates during a stormy night, the boys can decide to escape by breaking a window, timing the act with the sound of thunder so that the pirates won't notice a thing.

** [[spoiler:The rebreather in the radio room is needed if you want to convice Junior that you can help clean the "mist" inside of him.]]
* DeadStarWalking: {{Zigzagged}}. [[spoiler:Shawn Ashmore is easily the most recognisable member of the voice cast, as well as the only 100% InkSuitActor in the bunch. Conrad is the first character who ''can'' die (and due to the ease of screwing up a couple of important [=QTEs=] required to keep him alive, many players do lose him very early on during their first play-through); but due to the format it's also possible for him to live to the end, and he can even be the sole survivor in a couple of endings.]]
* DeadlyGas: [[spoiler:Manchurian Gold is revealed to be a powerful hallucinogen late in the game. Played with in that the gas ''itself'' isn't lethal (mostly; the pirate leader, who was ''much'' more heavily exposed than anyone else, eventually dies from either overdosing or a stress-induced heart attack). The effects of said gas rather are deadly, as it can cause anyone who breathes it in to become delusional and violent.]]

** Many of the dead soldiers and servicemen on the ship have no obvious wounds, and some even look like they were literally scared to death. [[spoiler: This is because of the terrifying hallucinations induced by Manchurian Gold.]]
** [[spoiler: Towards the end of the game, you can find a dead soldier wearing a gas mask and carrying instructions about what to do in the event of a gas leak.]]
** [[spoiler: After Fliss discovers the Manchurian Gold and the "ballroom" turns into the cargo hold, the "spell book" that was there turns into a book on handling biological agents.]]

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: The U.S. military. You are NOT getting a happy ending if they find you on the Medan. They are not your saviors. They have a vested interest in keeping the Medan's contents secret, and will either kill you outright or have you arrested to cover it up.]]

* MultipleEndings: Like ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', you can ensure that EverybodyLives, [[KillEmAll Everybody Dies]], or anywhere in between. [[spoiler: Unlike ''Until Dawn'', there are multiple ways to achieve the former. Just because you made sure all playable characters survive (and potentially Junior), it doesn't guarantee a happy ending for everybody, should you fail to do certain actions such as retrieving the distributor cap or have Conrad escape, which can lead to some unexpected {{Downer Ending}}s.]]

** The face of the ghost woman who chased Conrad becomes progressively hideous before finally becoming a [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/UntilDawn Wendigo]]]]

* OnlyMostlyDead: [[spoiler: Danny, the third pirate, gets stabbed in the gut by the pirate captain after the captain becomes fully crazed from the gas towards the end of the game. He's left for dead, but one ending shows him recovering and stumbling through the ship before attacking some arriving U.S. soldiers in a gas-crazed rage.]]

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The interludes in The Curator's office use snippets from Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart's ''Requiem'' -- and by "snippets" we mean "various chunks stuck together at random." For instance, the second chapter is capped by the second half of mm.46, and the full length of mm.47 & 48, of I. ''Introitus'', before looping round to the front of the piece (instead of moving on to the ''Kyrie'' fugue), and ''then'' jumps at some point to the passage right before it started, ending with the UsefulNotes/HalfCadence that forms the first half of mm.46!

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Manchurian Gold is the codename of a chemical weapon that causes terrifying hallucinations among those who breathe it in, and all of the supernatural elements on the game have been the main characters hallucinating. Maybe.]]

''The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'', also known simply as ''Man of Medan'', is an AdventureGame slash SurvivalHorror developed by Creator/SupermassiveGames and published by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment. It is the first game in an {{Anthology}} of horror games called ''VideoGame/TheDarkPicturesAnthology''. It was released on August 30th, 2019 for PC, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/Playstation4.

''The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan'', also known simply as ''Man of Medan'', is an AdventureGame slash SurvivalHorror developed by Creator/SupermassiveGames and published by Creator/BandaiNamcoEntertainment. It's supposed to be the first game in an {{Anthology}} of horror games called ''VideoGame/TheDarkPicturesAnthology''. It was released on August 30th, 2019 for PC, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/Playstation4.

** The ghost of the blonde white woman, if Conrad didn't escape, initially looks stunning, but at the last second, she reveals her true form of being a ghoulish, disheveled hag. [[spoiler:She is actually Fliss, but Conrad is hallucinating.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The main menu posits the prologue taking place in the South China Sea, but the ship's point of origin is identified as Manchuria (now known today as Heilongjiang), which is bordered by the Yellow Sea, and the ship itself ends up in The South Pacific near French Polynesia.
* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Once you find out in other endings about the US military's priority of keeping the Medan's contents a secret (especially the ones where they just kill the main characters), you won't feel so bad for the soldiers sent in response to the distress call made onboard being mauled to death by the surviving pirate Danny in one stinger.]]
* AStormIsComing: The protagonists spend the day in the Duke of Milan, while several shots can focus on the impending thunderstorm. At one point, Fliss can pick up the binoculars, and the first thing she sees are the dark clouds from a distance. [[spoiler:The storm itself is crucial to the plot since it sent everyone onboard the Duke of Milan to be trapped in the now-risen GhostShip.]]

* MultipleEndings: Like ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', you can ensure that EverybodyLives, [[KillEmAll Everybody Dies]], or anywhere in between. [[spoiler: Unlike ''Until Dawn'', there are multiple ways to achieve the former. Just because you made sure all playable characters survive (and potentially Junior), it doesn't guarantee a happy ending for everybody, should you fail to do certain actions such as retrieving the distributor cap or have Conrad escape, which can lead to some {{Sudden Downer Ending}}s.]]

* SuddenDownerEnding: Downplayed since it ''is'' a horror game, but even if you manage to get everyone off the ship alive with minimal injuries, a good chunk of the endings are this. [[spoiler: Everyone can be stranded at sea with no engine, shot by military rescuers for knowing the location of the Ourang Medan or taken to a military prison. The most overtly depressing ending is having the group manage to get back to the Duke of Milan only for Julia to die of decompression sickness in front of everyone as they sail away.]]

* ExposedToTheElements: Fliss wears only a tank-top all throughout the stormy night. {{Justified}} since nobody was prepared for the accident that transfered them to the old ship.