History VideoGame / ThePark

''The Park'' is a first-person psychological horror EnvironmentalNarrativeGame game created by Funcom. It serves as spin-off (and stand-alone prequel) to ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld''. It was released on October 27, 2015 for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], then ported to UsefulNotes/Playstation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne on May 3rd, 2016, and to UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on October 22nd, 2019. The premise involves a young single mother named Lorraine Maillard, who suddenly loses her son Callum at the Atlantic Island Park. But upon going to retrieve him, she discovers that the park has become abandoned, and is filled with dreaded creatures intent on preying on anyone who dares wander through.

* AnAesop: Possibly. This particular mission is one of a small few to not portray forced immortality and superhuman powers as fun and games, but rather explores the darker side of removing one's free will, and exploiting someone's tragedy for one's selfish purposes, and expecting a broken individual to simply let go off their past and devote themselves to serving you.

!! This page contains spoilers for ''{{VideoGame/The Secret World}}''

* AloneWithThePsycho: Lorraine wanders through an abandoned, decaying park with no one but the Bogeyman for company. He isn't very friendly.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Lorraine's diminishing ability to function properly likely stems from a mental illness, but it's never specified exactly what it is. Based on her behaviour throughout the game, she could have anything, whether it be depression (long-term or post-partum), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, etc. Or even a combination. A doctor's report found in the haunted house states that she has clinical depression, but due to the time period she's in where mental illness was frowned upon, it's possible the doctors failed to put better effort into diagnosing her. [[spoiler: However, notes encountered throughout the game indicate that she's also being warped by exposure to Atlantic Island Park's emotion-siphoning machines.]]

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: Players who have completed ''The Park'' receive a free Chad the Chipmunk costume and talisman for their player character in ''Videogame/{{The Secret World}}''.

* BookEnds: The game starts and ends with Lorraine repeating the above page quote.
-->'''Lorraine''': In my heart and mind, I always return to Atlantic Island Park.

-->'''Park security''': Hey, Lorraine. ''Lorraine''. Don't blame yourself Lorraine. People lose things all the time. Take a deep breath and think about the last place you saw your son''''s teddy bear'''.
-->[[spoiler:'''Venetian''']]: Hey, Lorraine. ''Lorraine''. Don't blame yourself Lorraine. People lose things all the time. Take a deep breath and think about the last place you saw your '''son'''.

* CallForward: A news clipping that Lorraine finds at the Ferrie wheel mentions the family of three that got killed on the roller coaster derailment, and the 10-year-old boy who was found dismembered behind the cotton candy candy stand. Both of these incidents would be mentioned by Nicholas Winter in "Theme Park Tycoon".

* DissonantSerenity: Lorraine speaks this almost for the game's entirety, minus when she goes on her child-hating rant. {{Justified}} as she's all but stated to have depression, which would partially explain her monotone.

* EnvironmentalNarrativeGame: ''The Park'' in a nutshell. All Lorraine has to do is walk around the park looking for Callum, while picking up notes and reports along the way that hint to the park's backstory. The only villains present here are Chad the Chipmunk and the Bogeyman, who only try to scare Lorraine. [[spoiler: {{Justified}}, as the Bogeyman had other plans for Lorraine, and so didn't want to waste a good negative energy by killing her]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: Even though Nathaniel Winter had bribed the mayor and other officials to turn a blind eye to the numerous deaths at the park, even ''they'' decided that it was too dangerous to keep it running, so they had it shut down just two years later.

-->'''Nathaniel Winter''': It's a shame what happened to Steve. I really liked him.
* FauxAffablyEvil: The Bogeyman props himself in the backseat of the roller-coaster car behind Lorraine and casually starts conversing with her. His tone of voice is polite, but his words, and the rest of him aren't.

* FriendlessBackground: There's little to indicate that Lorraine had any friends to speak of at any point in her life. Though a photograph we pick up in Lorraine's [[spoiler: illusionary apartment in the House of Horrors]] shows that she had at least one friend named Laura.

* ImmortalitySeeker: [[spoiler: Nathaniel Winter might not have set out to make himself immortal when he arranged his plan to imbue himself with supernatural power, but it certainly makes him all the more determined to succeed in his task when he learns that immortality could be one of the possible benefits.]]

*** The lawyer who represented Lorraine in this case enclosed a hefty bill to Lorraine for his failed services, an amount he knew she couldn't pay.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Might as well call this game ''[[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane]] [[AmusementParkOfDoom Amusement Park of Doom]]: The Game''. Whether you've played ''The Secret World'' or not, it's hard to determine just which of Lorraine's experiences were real, or which were just in her head. In fact if you are unaware of the game's connection to ''The Secret World'' it's easy to believe everything that happened was imaginary, especially since the notes hinting at Atlantic Park's backstory rely heavily on the player being aware that the game takes place in a setting in which magic is real.

* PeekABooCorpse: At an arcade game stand near the Octotron's exit contains a note, after which Lorraine is immediately jumpscared by the sitting corpse of a young woman behind a window. The note in question was written by a park employee named Laura, who worked at that very game stand. She complained about Steve (Chad the Chipmunk) always going up to her and just...staring at her. This unnerved her to the point that she decided to quit her job. [[spoiler: The corpse perched at the window suggests that Chad didn't let her leave.]]

* YouDontLookLikeYou: Atlantic Island Park's design appears radically different from the version seen in ''The Secret World".

* AllForNothing: If the player piecing together the dismembered Bee did, in fact, revive Lorraine, then her entire seventeen year journey would've been this.

* AmbiguousEnding: After the Player reassembles Lorraine's torn Bee, we see what looks like an outline of her standing up from the slab, but then we're taken back to the beginning. We're given absolutely no indication as to whether Lorraine was revived, or if she stayed dead. The fact that she's never mentioned again doesn't help matters.

* AnAesop: Possibly. This particular mission is one of a small few to not portray forced immortality and superhuman powers as fun and games, but rather explores the darker side of removing one's free will, and exploiting someone's tragedy for one's selfish purposes, and expecting a broken individual to simply let go off their past and devote themselves to serving you.

-->Lorraine: The ceiling was coming down on me. My sentience did not expire, even when I converted to paste.

-->'''Lorraine''': ''You'''. I sent you away. Nothing to see here! I remember telling you that. This was the only dream I really wanted. They offered me Gaia and I took her because I didn't have a choice. But she chips, she chips away at us. Can't you feel it? Don't you feel what she is taking from you? You can't feel it, can you? You don't even know. And now you're going to bring me back. I don't want to go. I don't want to be back there! This was the only way.

-->'''Lorraine''': I'm coming home Callum. See you soon little duck.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Lorraine found the idea of artifically-induced immortality nothing short of hellish, and subsequently spent the next thirty years trying to undo this.

** A note in the House of Horrors mentions a child being kidnapped and tickled [[spoiler: in order to power Nathaniel Winter's machines]]. The problem came when the boy laughed to hard, ''his lungs exploded'' under pressure.

** And to a smaller extent, the male customers at Susie's Diner, who would frequently harass Lorraine sexually by making explicit comments or going even as far as trying to touch her.

* NoOshaCompliance: Enough to make an amateur cry. The units on the Ferris wheel ''have no doors''. Had only a few units been missing their doors one could have attributed it to the ride's rusty state of disrepair resulting from the park's abandonment. But ''all of them'' are missing their doors, implying that the ride was purposely designed without them. It was this [[WhatAnIdiot fly-in-the face detail]] that facilitated the many accidents and suicides that have occurred on the ride. [[spoiler: Though considering the true, hidden purpose behind the park's existence, it's likely that they were going for this.]]

* AdultFear: Imagine losing your child at a theme park. Doesn't sound so bad? Try losing him at an abandoned, ''demon-infested'' park, with a menacing bogeyman threatening to hurt him.

* InfantImmortality: So horribly averted.

* SanitySlippage: Lorraine already had questionable sanity even during her normal life. Her life after Don'd death and Callum's birth only worsened her condition. And after the events of the game, her sanity is completely gone.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Laura, an arcade games associate at the park. She was continously stalked by Chad the Chipmunk, so much that she resigned in frustration. [[spoiler: Considering you're jumpscared by the corpse of a young woman in that very game stand, it's safe to say that Chad had no intention of letting Laura leave the park alive.]]

* OneSteveLimit: There are some briefly mentioned characters that may or may not be related to major [=NPCs=] in ''TSW''.
** Frances Dufresne, a park engineer who was crushed to death while loading the bumper cars onto the truck. The GaiaWiki states that he's a relative of Danny Dufresne, the sole-surviving member of the League of Monster Slayers and Carter's boyfriend. However, there is little evidence in-game that they are related.
** The sheriff of Kingsmouth during the 80's who ordered Lorraine to be interned at the psychiatric ward. He's Helen Bannerman's father, and deceased as of the events of the ''TSW'' mission, "Supply Run".
** Steve Gardener AKA Chad the Chipmunk, a major antagonist in the game. He shares the same last name with Deputy Andy Gardener, though "Gardener" is a common family name, so any relation between the two is unlikely. Though considering what kind of messed-up family Andy grew up in, there still exists the possibility.

* TheCameo: [[spoiler: Lorraine makes a mostly unseen one in ''The Secret World's'' 2015 Halloween mission, "The Seven Silences", of which she is the main concern.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: Lorraine's diminishing ability to function properly likely stems from a mental illness, but it's never specified exactly what it is. Based on her behaviour throughout the game, she could have anything, whether it be depression (long-term or post-partum), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, etc. Or even a combination. But because mental illness was frowned upon in the 70's, the doctors made little effort to look harder. [[spoiler: However, notes encountered throughout the game indicate that she's also being warped by exposure to Atlantic Island Park's emotion-siphoning machines.]]

** Pretty much the idea of being a clinically depressed individual who views death as the only way out, only for ''that'' option to be stripped away from you by an immortal insect that will bring you back every time. And now you're forced to live an unwanted life under forced servitude, and with the knowledge and guilt of having killed her child.
** In Lorraine's dream in the Cairo where you're getting crushed, we're treated to this journal bit from her:

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: As it turns out out, the Council of Venice at one point had no qualms about exploiting a depressed woman's tragic backstory to experiment on her. This is in stark contrast to the group of incompetent, bumbling idiots running the United Nations-like organization that we see in the main game.

** If all the other torn journal pages, voiceovers, and dream locations didn't initially tip you off that the suicided Bee was [[spoiler: Lorraine]], then her final journal entry will put it to you plain and simple.

* HorribleHousing: Lorraine's house is a dingy, filthy, dilapidated-looking wreck with only only three rooms and a decidedly uninviting decor. Lorraine can barely afford to keep the lights on at the best of times, and recalls spending a lot of time reading to Callum whenever the power got shut off; for good measure, it's not uncommon for the kitchen to be littered with [[DrowningMySorrows empty liquor bottles]]. [[spoiler: It's also Lorraine's BlackBugRoom: [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight the Bogeyman]] traps her here as part of her ongoing MindRape, decorating the place with blood, mocking letters, burning dolls, and hanged corpses.]] Of course, [[VideoGame/TheSecretWorld following the events of the game]], Lorraine's housing situation becomes even more depressing: [[spoiler: she most commonly sleeps in war zones, [[GhostCity ghost cities]] and ruins; the one time she's seen renting a nice hotel room, [[DrivenToSucide it's to commit suicide]].]]