History VideoGame / Stela

''Stela'' is a puzzle adventure video game developed by the Canadian developer SkyBox Labs. It was released on 17 October 2019 for iOS and Xbox One and on 13 March for Microsoft Windows.

You play as a young woman teleported from a stone stela (possibly explaining the name of the game) into a dangerous and hostile world. No word is ever said or written in the whole game (except in the extras) but you quickly gather that you must traverse this world rightward until you reach an unknown destination. Much of the story is left open to interpretation. In these regards, Stela is quite similar to other games like ''VideoGame/{{Limbo}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{INSIDE}}''.

* AmbiguousEnding: After a long journey, you ascend to a higher plane of existence and, possibly, destroy the whole word. The stinger may indicate however that it might not be the end of all.
* AmbiguousSituation: As there is no spoken of written narrative, much of the game is left to interpretation.

* CrapsackWorld: Monsters everywhere, raging war, no human left… Little left seems to be saved from this world. [[spoiler:Reading the extra, it can be understood that this world is coming to an end after enduring many atrocities. The main character is a divine creature meant to witness the end of this world and to deliver the mercy kill to it.]]
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: You won’t encounter any other character nor creature that isn’t after your blood. [[spoiler:Only exception being hooded figures who seems to be worshiping you as the harbinger of the apocalypse.]]
* TheFaceless: The main character, somewhat. As the camera is always quite away from the action, it is hard to distinguished the main character face details.
* GainaxEnding: [[spoiler:The earth might have exploded, result of the mercy kill you delivered to it. It might got better after a while according to the stinger though.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: The Shadows you see in the forest are black, humanoid ''things''.
* KillTheCutie: You can help but to feel bad when the main character goes ragdoll after a fatal fall or after being attacked by one of the game monsters.
* LightIsNotGood: The main character is a young woman dressed in white. But she is still the harbinger of the apocalypse.

* MindScrew: The last stage with the “stela universe” is one. [[spoiler:According to the extra section, it might be the universe were the history of the planet and its civilization is written.]]

* RainOfArrows: One of the early stage has you crossing a battlefield dodging volleys of flaming arrows.
* RunOrDie: Courtesy of some gruesome deathtraps. Most enemies in the game also require this as you usually have no way to attack them.
* SetAMookToKillAMook: At one point, you need to release a caged snow lizard to get it to eat a Shadow on the snow. Mind you, the lizard will then try to attack you as you cross the area the Shadow was.
* TheStinger: After the credit roll [[spoiler:there is a short sequence showing a medieval castle and a nearby village while a stela emerge from the ground. Could mean the world did survive the apocalypse or that we are witnessing another world which is about to know the same fate....]]
* {{Wormsign}}: The burrowing snow lizard monsters give off one when they travel under the snow. Touching the front of said snow trail gets you eaten by them, of course.

* {{Wormsign}}: The burrowing snow lizard monsters give off one when they travel under the snow. Touching the front of said snow trail gets you eate by them, of course.

* HumanoidAbomination: The...''things'' you see in the forest.

* RunOrDie: Courtesy of some gruesome deathtraps.

* CrapsackWorld: Monsters everywhere, raging war, no human left… Little seems to be saved from this world. [[spoiler:Reading the extra, it can be understood that this world is coming to an end after enduring many atrocities. The main character is a divine creature meant to witness the end of this world and to deliver the mercy kill to it.]]

You play as a young woman teleported from a stone stela (possibly explaining the name of the game) into a dangerous and hostile world. No word is ever said or written in the whole game (except in the extras) but you quickly gather that you must traverse this world rightward until you reach an unknown destination. Much of the story is left open to interpretation. In these regards, Stela is quite similar to other games like Limbo and INSIDE.

[[SimilarlyNamedWorks Shouldn't be confused with]] the video game "Stella glow".

* TheStinger: After the credit roll [[spoiler:the is a short sequence showing a medieval castle and a nearby village while a stela emerge from the ground. Could mean the world did survive the apocalypse or that we are witnessing another world which is about to know the same fate....]]

* LostInTheMaize: While on the run, the player walks through an ominous cornfield where their view is almost entirely obscured. There are small things running around your feet, [[CatScare but they just turn out to be chicks]]. [[spoiler:The secret ending requires finding a bunker hidden under the cornfield.]]

* MindScrew: The last stage with the “stela universe” is one. [[spoiler:According to the extra section, it might be the universe were the history of the planet and its civilization are written.]]

* RainOfArrows: One of the early stage has you crossing a battlefield dodging volley of flaming arrows.

* MalevolentMaskedMen: Possibly the cultist the kraken-like creature.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Most of the story and world-building in ''INSIDE'' is all showcased in the background, thanks to the game's singular perspective.
* MickeyMousing: Music pulses to match the march of Brainwashed humans. It becomes a gameplay element, in which the boy must pretend to be one of them, marching and jumping with them on cue.
* MindControl: The game seems to take place in a world where some sort of Mind Control technology is being tested on humans. The humans are seemingly dead bodies that you can use as [[RemoteBody remote bodies]]. [[spoiler:The technology is based off of the parasitic worms found by the boy in the farm. Both endings reveal that the MindControl might be more extensive than the helmets you find controlling the worker bodies:]]
** [[spoiler:In the standard ending, inactive mind control helmets are connected to the Huddle, the fleshmass in the giant sphere. We don't see them power on, but their purpose could be inferred in...]]
** [[spoiler:...the hidden ending, in which the boy disconnects the power to a mind control helmet connected to a computer rig and immediately slumps over like the rest of the zombies. This ending is only unlocked by deactivating all of the Orbs in the game, which glow the same yellow as the mind control helmets. It's possible that the Huddle was to be a HiveMind that controlled all of the working slaves and that the Orbs are signal boosters, it's just that the technology wasn't perfected yet, which is why the Huddle's inputs are not turned on. If the boy ''is'' actually another zombie, it's still unclear whether his escape with the Huddle in the standard ending is to be considered a success for himself or another "free will" variable that the company will edge out with more testing.]]
* MindScrew: There's enough going on in this game that it will take a replay or two to fully grasp what is being said by the game and its story. Playdead is staying silent on what it all means.
* {{Minimalism}}: Just like ''{{VideoGame/Limbo}}'', there's no dialogue, exposition, the controls are uncomplicated and gameplay straightforward, which all serves to bolster the game's sense of atmosphere and mystery. There are slight differences in implementation -- in addition to there being slightly more color, where ''Limbo'' focuses extensively on [[MindScrew symbolism and abstract metaphor]], ''INSIDE'' leans more towards [[AmbiguousSituation the literal mysteries]] of the {{dystopia}} the boy finds himself exploring. In addition, the characters, in particular the player character, do not even appear to have faces.
* MoodWhiplash: In reviews, players noted the tonal clustercuss that ensued once they found [[spoiler:The Huddle inside the sphere. At first repulsed by the giant fleshy mass, they then found the roaring rampage that followed to be cathartic and ActuallyPrettyFunny on top of still being terrified by the BodyHorror involved.]]
* MultipleEndings: There is a second ending for those who locate and destroy all the disco ball-like "collectibles" in the game, [[GuideDangIt find a very well-hidden secret location, and enter the right combination on a door]].
* MusclesAreMeaningless: For a scrawny looking kid, the protagonist manages to go through a course of obstacles non-stop even the most athletic of people would be hard-pressed to finish even half of.
* MysteriousPast: We never find out where the boy came from or why he's out in the woods. [[spoiler:Both endings imply that he's trying to dismantle whatever thing is keeping people mind-controlled, as well as showing that he's a remote body in the secret ending... or at least reacts to the mind control shutting off.]]
* NestedOwnership: Mind-controlled bodies can be used to control other bodies by putting them in another helmet.
* NothingIsScarier: Following in ''Limbo's'' footsteps.
** As you approach the final areas in the game, you notice more and more people in the background, running in the same direction you're going. Eventually, they start running right past you, ignoring you completely. You find them all pressed up against a giant glass window looking into a massive spherical tank, but even if you press up against the glass yourself, [[BehindTheBlack you don't see what they're looking at]]. Up until this point, every other human being you've encountered has been both engaging in monstrous human experimentation, and willing to drop everything to try and kill you on sight. For whatever is in the tank to be interesting enough to garner their undivided attention, it must be something ''awful''. [[spoiler:You don't find out what's in the tank until you go inside it yourself.]]
** There's an enormous room containing something continuously emitting shockwaves powerful enough to shatter concrete and turn the boy into a red mist. You never find out what's causing this.
* OlympicSwimmer: Your character may not have SuperNotDrowningSkills ([[spoiler:not at first, at least]]), but he's got superb swimming skills for a kid. This is in contrast to your character in ''Limbo'', who had SuperDrowningSkills.
* TheOner: The whole game is played in the style of this, although it can be interrupted.
* PeopleFarms: While most of the controlled humans appear to be regular people who've been converted en masse into PeoplePuppets, [[spoiler:you later see that the organization behind the project seems to be experimenting with bodies grown from scratch, apparently incubating in huge pools of water. These bodies--unlike the ones you've been using previously--are obviously deformed and misshapen, but obey you just the same.]] There are also [[spoiler:the capsule-like objects in the forest at the start. Since the masked men seem to "harvest" people and transport them via trucks to the city as well as the boy starting from there, it might be an actual People Farm.]]
* PressurePlate: A game mechanic carried over from ''Limbo''.
* PretendToBeBrainwashed: An entire puzzle section depends on you successfully blending in with the controlled humans as they proceed through an inspection line.
* RasputinianDeath: While the remote bodies are about as durable as a regular human form and can break bones and lose limbs, nothing short of complete dismemberment seems to outright stop them. At several points in the game you'll see a limb or a torso try to crawl after you if you're wearing one of the mind control hats, and a couple of remote bodies will follow after you even with clearly broken necks. [[spoiler:The BodyOfBodies BlobMonster you get consumed by and control in the last portion of the game can barrel through cement, wood, and glass like tissue paper and can leave impact craters from high falls with no repercussions, but it is still a fleshy mass of bodies that can lose limbs or get burned.]]
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: [[spoiler:The normal ending sequence features you tearing up the facility you were just sneaking through.]]
* RunOrDie: Like ''Limbo'', the boy you control can occasionally fight back using his wits. But in a bit of RealityEnsues, and because the game takes place in a tightly controlled dystopian city instead of an anarchistic forest, he's given far fewer opportunities to do so. All it takes is one adult to catch him, and it's all over. Oh, and you have ''no'' time to hesitate; if something is chasing you, chances are you will make it to the obstacle to stop them just before they grab you.
* ShoutOut: A possible one lies at the entrance to the city: the boy will pass a sign on top of a building big enough for three letters. The R is laying down beside the sign, the C is still attached in the far right position, and the E is hidden below, beside an Orb. This spells out {{Film/REC}}.
* SoftWater: Any time you have to fall a long distance, there will turn out to be a convenient body of water below. It's at least realistic enough to show you ending up quite deep in it before regaining control.
* SpiritualSuccessor: To {{Videogame/Limbo}}. It's ''possibly'' more than that, though, given certain shared elements in both games.
** Both feature burrowing white worm parasites that control minds, in this game infesting pigs and forcing one to be hostile to you. Humans parasitized by the worms of ''Limbo'' have a lurching gait not unlike the limping march of remote bodies.
** The weather machine in ''Limbo'' activates with a distant flash and a powerful rumble, not unlike the shockwaves generated by the wave room in this game.
** The bizarre "ceiling water" segments in ''Inside'' evoke the antigravity technology in ''Limbo.''
* StringyHairedGhostGirl: You confront a version of this in a flooded section that flees from your light, though she's more a zombie than a ghost. She may or may not be based on the myth of the Lorelei or Sirens. The violent "drown you to death" kind.
* SuperNotDrowningSkills: Your character gains these after [[spoiler:getting something pumped into him by a StringyHairedGhostGirl]].
* TestedOnHumans: The above-mentioned MindControl technology. The whole game also appears to be this--[[spoiler:all of the lab equipment in the office building/science hall at the end of the game appears to be for human experimentation, and there are some pretty disturbing visuals of multiple people being mutilated for science]].
** Several points in the game, right from the beginning until the end, [[spoiler:hint that the MindControl might be more extensive than the remote bodies show. Depending on your point of view, the game could be anything from scientists enslaving people to perform tests on them to putting them into mind control, with the blob near the end supposedly being the one keeping them controlled.]]
* TheManyDeathsOfYou: Of course. However, it is implied that [[spoiler: the CEO]] wants the boy captured alive, as the armed guards use tranquilizer darts rather than bullets. Also, if an adult catches the boy, they subdue him with what looks like chloroform rather than outright strangling him.
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:After becoming the Blob monster, you swim over to the looking glass and begin to break it. For some reason, one of the onlookers thinks he can prevent your escape by pushing on the glass. It doesn't end well for him.]]
* TurnTheOtherCheek: Near the very end of the game, you're given an opportunity for {{revenge}}... but if you're careful, you don't ''have'' to take it. [[spoiler:When, as the blob, you reach the man who [[AmbiguousSituation might be]] the CorruptCorporateExecutive responsible for ''everything'' you've suffered, he's standing in your way, and the obvious route is to just keep going, [[DestinationDefenestration sending him through his window and to his doom]]. But if you stop charging when he's got his back against the window and just stare him down, he'll eventually [[WhyIsntItAttacking take the hint]] and get out of your way, allowing you to spare him.]]
** During your [[spoiler:rampage as the blob monster, it's also possible to crush random office workers who get in your way if you're moving fast enough]]. But if you go slow, they'll have enough time to get out of the way.
* TwistEnding: More like a ''wild veer off the road'' ending. You will '''NOT''' see it coming. [[spoiler:Suffice it to say it appears that the main character's goal was to disable the giant blob by pulling off mind-control helmets plugged on to it, but he gets absorbed into it, and through it, goes on a rampage, destroying the facility-and a man who looks suspiciously like a CorruptCorporateExecutive, the only intentional death in the game. The game also shifts from a tonally bleak cinematic platformer into a [[BlackHumor comedic]], almost Creator/BennyHill -esque rampage.]]
* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: As the game progresses, the environments just get larger and larger until the player can see for literal miles in the distance. An early environment shows sequoia and redwood trees (on average 220-300 feet tall) growing inside of a testing area. The vast, unused submerged chasms were nonchalantly built on top of with similarly large structures.
* TheUnreveal: [[spoiler:The player never learns many things about the world of the game, making it that much more frightening. What happened to all of the farm animals? Why are the adults showing their children the zombie mindslaves? Are they citizens paying for them? Why are the citizens wearing masks but the office workers aren't? Who or what is controlling the spotlights? What is that cabled spinal dart they shoot out for? Do we really ever get outside?]] There's more to ponder on the [=YMMV=] tab under AlternateCharacterInterpretation.
* VoodooZombie: The undead automatons appear to be technological versions of this.
* TheVoiceless: Everyone, though they do grunt.
* WhamShot: Upon entering the office building and maneuvering your way into the tank that all of the office workers and others are looking into, you find what they're all staring at: [[spoiler:a gigantic BodyOfBodies, floating in a tank of water]].
* WhooshInFrontOfTheCamera: This is used to foreshadow the appearance of a creepy aquatic foe. We see it dash through our field of vision a few scenes before it shows up.
* WouldHurtAChild: The Adults have no problem with loosing attack dogs or firing guns at a young boy.

but rather than the supernatural horror of ''Limbo'', this one is one of mechanical and [[HumansAreBastards technological advancement gained through human experimentation and cruelty]]. The boy finds himself traversing this almost ruined world, drawn to the center of a dark project. Much of the story is left open to interpretation this time as well.

Trailers and gameplay can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op4G1--kb-g here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k17aVeY2rI here.]]

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: Given the depths you are required to dive, you could be forgiven for assuming the facility you're swimming around was built into the Mariana Trench.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[http://schedule.gdconf.com/session/huddle-up-making-the-spoiler-of-inside Playdead calls]] the [[spoiler:mass of bodies at the end the "Huddle"]].
* AmbiguousEnding: After a long, terrifying and painful journey attempting to escape to safety, you ultimately end up [[spoiler:as a fleshy husk motionless on a beach just outside the facility. It's unclear whether you survived, or whether it was the correct way to deal with the MindControl.]]
* AmbiguousSituation: A whole lot worse to figure out this time too- unlike ''Limbo'', which was almost entirely symbolic, it appears that ''INSIDE'' does hold some answers to its most confusing questions. [[spoiler:It's widely accepted that the bonus ending basically tells the player that the boy is a remote body, but this creates a lot more questions- if he is a remote body, why can he emote so effectively and pass for a real human perfectly? And who is controlling him? [[MetaFiction Is it you]]?]]
** There's also a lot of ambiguity on whether or not you were ever "outside" to begin with. Certain things like spotlights that seem a tad too convenient, the insistence of a lot of your human stalkers to at least try and take you alive, the omnipresence of certain things [[spoiler: like the Orbs required for the secret ending]], and the sheer EldritchLocation level use of geometry and space would all seem to point to the entire game taking place in some sort of massive facility. [[spoiler: One thing that further cements this is during your rampage as the Blob, you fall into a small diorama that is an exact scale replica of the place you find yourself in after "escaping" the facility, making the whole rampage sequence seem like a huge experiment.]]
** If the boy really was [[spoiler: a remote body the entire time, like the ones the scientists were controlling, does that mean the part where you take control of the horrible Blob thing and supposedly escape the facility is actually just [[AllPartOfThePlan another part of the experimental process?]]]]
* AngryGuardDog: If you see or hear a dog, prepare to ''run like hell''. They are fast, fierce, persistent, and they want you dead.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The player character is required at times to swim surprisingly deep underwater, at depths that have tremendous water pressure. Doing so in real life would rupture the eardrums or even crack the skull open, but the only indication that anything is amiss is when he starts to drown. [[spoiler:This is possibly justified when he gains his SuperNotDrowningSkills]].
* BarbieDollAnatomy: The underwater StringyHairedGhostGirl doesn't seem to have genitalia.[[spoiler:..and apparently neither does your character.]]
* BewareOfViciousDog: Angry dogs are among the obstacles you must run away from. If you see or hear one, ''run the hell away'', because they are fast, persistent, and want you dead. And since the player character is a defenseless little boy, you have no choice but to run away and avoid them.
* BittersweetEnding: A common interpretation of the secret ending is that [[spoiler:the boy finally disabled the thing causing potential MindControl, but in the process, disabled himself.]]
* BodyOfBodies: [[spoiler:You merge with one at the end and essentially transform into a rampaging {{kaiju}}.]]
* BodyHorror: The remote bodies you see later in the game are not in good shape: some are missing a few or all their limbs, and a few more can be seen without heads. [[spoiler:That's not even getting into the total abomination, the Huddle, that you see later.]]
* ChekhovsBoomerang: The puzzle in the city where you [[NestedOwnership control a body that controls a body]]. [[spoiler:It gets used again later, making you think that that was it. And then you find the secret ending where you come to realize that YOU had been controlled like that the entire time.]]
* ChekhovsGun: If some interactive object is simple enough to feel like pointless busywork (for example, flipping an obvious switch before you can proceed), it's either because you haven't figured out why it's really there yet or it's teaching you something you need to remember later.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The mind control helmets all emit a stale shade of yellow. [[spoiler: The parasitic worms that are found burrowed into the pigs (and control one into attacking you) are the same colour. The mysterious Orbs hidden throughout the game emit a light of the same colour, and the cabling that hints at an Orb's nearby location is also that same yellow.]]
* CrateExpectations: Just like ''Limbo'', if you see a crate, don't even bother skipping over it because it's part of a puzzle.
* CreepyCornfield: There's one on the farm.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Averted. Unlike its predecessor, the game utilizes a color palette, which is easiest to see when objects and characters are standing in light (or simply are light sources). However, the colors are very unsaturated to help maintain the game's oppressive atmosphere.
* {{Determinator}}: As long as the boy lives, he just ''won't give up.''
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The StringyHairedGhostGirl's attacks are... very physical, and she is apparently naked.
* DownTheDrain: Unlike the boy in ''Limbo'', your character can swim, and many of the puzzle sections involve going surprisingly deep underwater, including in a submarine, through a maze of flooded rooms.
* {{Dystopia}}: The whole game takes place inside a massive city/series of factories and mines/townships/office buildings/whatever that appears to be building on layers of the older, decimated city. People are enslaved en masse, and used as either fodder for MindControl experiments for weird, otherworldly technology or slave labor using helmets that command them telepathically. Parts of the city have no clear purpose and are unnecessarily huge, and seem to go on forever. People in white masks appear to be in control of herding the captured slaves, and these notably include children. At the end of the game, you enter what appears to be the newest part of the city, and get in on the conspiracy mentioned above. [[spoiler: You highjack a massive fusion of several people together into something that looks straight out of Franchise/SilentHill before going on a rampage. Whatever the ball of flesh was made for is never completely explained, but considering the plugs you pull off of it look identical to mind control helmets, it's possible it was controlling all the "active" slaves you saw towards the beginning of the game.]]
* EasterEgg: There are enough in the game that one of the speedrun categories is All Easter Eggs. One of them figures right into the progression of the game: [[spoiler:Wait long enough in the CEO's office and he will move out of your way so that you may spare him instead of kill him.]]
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Virtually the entire game is about traveling deeper and deeper [[MeaningfulName inside]] one. It's mind-bogglingly huge; most of it serves no clear purpose (like the "wave room" mentioned below, which appears to be ''[[UnnecessarilyLargeInterior several miles long]]''), and a lot of it has been abandoned and/or flooded.
* EldritchLocation: The lab, or office building, or whatever it is that you are running/jumping/swimming through ''makes no logical sense''. You can descend what appears to be hundreds of feet underwater, only travel straight along and emerge on dry land. The facility is utterly massive and also completely nonsensical in its application as well. What appear to be working train stations sit above a completely destroyed factory. [[spoiler:And then, after descending what feels like thousands of feet underground, when The Blob you become a part of breaks through the final wall, where do you end up? ''Outside. Tumbling '''down''' a mountain no less.'' There is some evidence that your final location may still be, well, inside the base- particularly a diorama glimpsed during your final rampage that matches your final position.]]
* EleventhHourSuperpower: The game fakes you out twice by suddenly introducing what seems to be an endgame power, but it's actually only [[RuleOfThree the third one]] that you end the game with:
** Firstly, you hang from another mind control helmet, except this one [[spoiler:snaps off, letting you lead around a crew of bodies to lift you higher and move heavy objects]]. However, you lose this suddenly when [[spoiler:the helmet is blown off]].
** In the underwater facilities, [[spoiler: the boy is dragged underwater and drowned by TheOphelia. As he goes down, he is latched to a cable that "upgrades" him so he can stay underwater indefinitely, and can control humans without the helmet.]] You keep this for the rest of the game.
** The game's final sequence [[spoiler:is as (the controller of) a lumbering mass of flesh that's strong enough to barge through walls and can't be killed by anything in-game.]]
* EscapedFromTheLab: Your character appears to be doing the inverse of this. [[spoiler:Played straight once you join with the Blob.]]
* EternalEngine: One level appears to take place in a factory. At one point your character confronts some form of generator rhythmically emitting shock waves powerful enough to ''blow you off the screen''.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Assuming the people we see are evil, quite a few of them are seen with, presumably, their children.
* EverythingTryingToKillYou: To the point where you're nervous around a flock of chicks. Luckily they're harmless. [[spoiler: You still have to blow the poor buggers through a grain vac to solve a puzzle, however. They do, at least, survive going through that.]]
* TheFaceless: Every human character in the game is portrayed without a face. This contributes to both the minimalist art style and the deeper meaning of the loss of individuality amongst all those subject to the {{Dystopia}}'s experiments.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the game, you'll go to a barn where several chicks will instinctively flock to you like orphans desperately looking for a new mother. [[spoiler:Later, you gain the ability to lead groups of humans into following you and helping you traverse obstacles.]]
* FriendlyEnemy: The StringyHairedGhostGirl tries to kill you most of the time, but in your last encounter she [[spoiler:gives you SuperNotDrowningSkills.]]
* FullBoarAction: One early confrontation is with a very, ''very'' irritable pig. It's big, it's ugly, and it ''shrieks''.
* FullFrontalAssault: Many of the remote bodies you find later in the game are stripped naked, and this serves to highlight just how inhuman they are. The StringyHairedGhostGirl found in the underwater sections is also apparently naked, and she is still quite the threat. [[spoiler:Upon reaching the Normal Playthrough endgame the player character is stripped naked and then gawked at by onlookers, [[{{Revenge}} then he gets to enact a little vengeance.]]]]
* FurnitureBlockade: The player barely escapes from a pack of rabid dogs by slipping through a hole in a building wall and knocking over a large filing cabinet to block them from getting in.
* GainaxEnding: Following in ''Limbo'' tradition, ''both'' endings are very confusing:
** [[spoiler:The 'normal' ending: the massive blob of flesh you've become breaks out of the facility and tumbles all the way down a mountain slope, coming to rest in a shaft of light on a beach - which may or may not be a real place. Cue credits.]]
** [[spoiler:The 'secret' ending: you enter the vault in the cornfield and discover a room with a mind control helmet in the background, hooked up to nothing but wires. You pry a wall panel loose and disconnect a cable, and the room falls dark... and [[TomatoInTheMirror you assume the crouched, unresponsive pose of a dormant remote body]]. Cue fade to black.]]
* GuideDangIt: Accessing the hidden ending. [[spoiler:Once all the Orbs are deactivated, the light on the billboard denoting the 2nd Orb stays on. If you remember that Orb's below the cornfield underneath a trap door that blends into the Earth, congratulations on making it that far. However, there's a 3-point lever control to open the door in that bunker. The solution to the 14-lever push combination is a musical melody, and it's played by the reel-to-reel cassette beside the 5th Orb, the one that unlocks the Obscure Foundations achievement.]]
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: If the man sitting alone in the big office near the end is indeed the [[spoiler: director/CEO of the lab conducting horrific human experiments and/or generating a race of humanoid slaves, then seeing him splattered by the Blob Monster (his possible own creation), gives one a strangely satisfying feeling.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:You climb up a chain out of a flooded area, heading for a catwalk bathed in the first rays of ''sunlight'' you've seen all game . . . and then the chain slips, and you fall back down into the water, where the StringyHairedGhostGirl seizes you to give you the "upgrade" that will eventually lead you to the Blob. You won't see the sun again until the very end, and then you have been subsumed by a mass of flesh.]]
* HumanoidAbomination: The...''things'' you see in glass cubicles near the end of the game.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: There are segments where the bad guys are in the background and you have to avoid their line of sight. Those guys will shoot you in one or two shots from a pretty good distance and sometimes from a moving truck.
* InMediasRes: Implied at the beginning in a way more prominent than ''Limbo'', where rather than [[GoodMorningCrono a boy slowly waking up in a forest]], this boy runs onto the screen from the side, starting gameplay almost immediately after the game boots up. Like everything else in the game, any immediate questions about what he's doing there and where he came from [[AmbiguousSituation are never made fully obvious]].
* KillTheCutie: Your character isn't quite as cute as the avatar in ''Limbo'', but he's still gonna die.
* LightIsNotGood: At several points in the game the objective is to avoid light sources, whether they're the flashlights of your pursuers or the spotlights cast by some sort of automated security system.

* LudicrousGibs: Unlike ''Limbo'', this game is rated M for Mature. It doesn't take long to see why.
** Gruesome deaths may be borderline non-existent in the first half (the worst being attack dogs ripping your throat out), but the {{Cruel And Unusual Death}}s in the latter half often have the player character blown into chunks of flesh, blood, and entrails.
** You're very likely to cause the death of the person [[spoiler:who may be the director of the lab during your rampage. After tackling him out a window, you then land on top of him]], causing him to explode into red paste and you getting a large red smear on you.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: The people in the beginning are all wearing masks.