History VideoGame / UnforgivingANorthernHymn

''Unforgiving: A northern Hymn'' is a Swedish [[UnbrokenFirstPersonPerspective first-person perspective]] horror game based on Scandinavian folklore and mythology. It was created Angry Demon Studio and released on [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]] through UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} in 2017. The gameplay lacks combat, and is largely based around avoiding enemies by [[StealthBasedGame stealth]]. The dialogue is entirely in Swedish, with subtitles available in multiple languages.

!! ''Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn'' includes the following tropes:

* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Multiple times, beginning with the fact that you have to kick your brother Lucas to start the game, even if that might seem justified at the time. [[spoiler: Later on, you have to cut the tongue and eye from his dead body. Then you have to burn the tree-mother and her infant while listening to their desperate pleas to spare them. The very last thing you have to do is to kick your brother once again, re-starting the nightmare.]]
* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler: Horribly subverted when you burn the tree-mother and her baby.]]

* NatureSpirit: The Skogsrå is a sinister version of this. [[spoiler: She is the one responsible for infecting you and the people of the village with the tree-curse.]]

* SelfInflictedHell: [[spoiler: The game seems to be this to Linn, even if Näcken (and possibly the Norns) also seem hell-bent on making her suffering last for as long as possible.]]

* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler:The notes of the former inhabitants of the village and the caves.]]

* DontGoInTheWoods: And don't go underground either while you're at it.
* GrimUpNorth: It is indeed.

* ImplacableMan: The troll.
* MagicMusic: The harp of Freya.
* TheMorlocks: The Punished.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler:The tree-people.]]

* InfantImmortality: [[spoiler: Horribly subverted when you burn the tree-mother and her baby.]]

Shares the same universe as VideoGame/ApsulovEndOfGods

''Unforgiving: A northern Hymn'' is a Swedish [[UnbrokenFirstPersonPerspective first-person perspective]] horror game based on Scandinavian folklore and mythology created by Creator/{{Angry Demon Studio}}. The gameplay lacks combat, and is largely based around avoiding enemies by [[StealthBasedGame stealth]]. The dialogue is entirely in Swedish, with subtitles available in multiple languages.

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!! ''Unforgiving: A northern Hymn'' includes the following tropes:

* [[spoiler: GroundhogDayLoop: After finishing her quest, Linn wakes up again in the back of her brother's moving car while the giggling voice of Näcken informs her that he has made sure she is doomed to relive her nightmare over and over again, unable to escape him.]]

''The choices that we make \\

relentless and endlessly unforgiving.''\\

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler: Näcken. Not only is he responsible for trapping Linn in an eternal nightmare, but he also claims to find great pleasure in "the game" he's playing with her.]]

* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Multiple times, beginning with the fact that you have to kick your brother Lucas to start the game, even if that might seem justified at the time. [[spoiler: Later on, you have to cut the tounge and eye from his dead body. Then you have to burn the tree-mother and her infant while listening to their desperate pleas to spare them. The very last thing you have to do is to kick your brother once again, re-starting the nightmare.]]

* SelfInflictedHell: [[spoiler: The game seems to be this to Linn, even if Näcken (and possible the Norns) also seem hell-bent on making her suffering last for as long as possible.]]

The game proper starts when the protagonist, a young woman named Linn, wakes up with her hands bound in the backseat of her brother Lucas' car. When she realizes she is being kidnapped by Lucas, Linn kicks her brother in the back, making him loose control and crashing the car in the middle of a dark, sinister forest. After explaining that the kidnapping was part of Lucas' attempted intervention to stop Linn's drug-addiction by taking her to the family cabin, the siblings decide they have to find their way through the woods. However, it soon becomes clear that they are not alone in the dark, northern wilderness were ancient evils lurk both without and within.

* NorseMythology: Odin, Freya, the Norns and the Diser are all mentioned, seemingly playing a major part behind the scenes.

''The choises that we make \\

''"Not only are the old stories true, but the things that crawl in the shadows are more wretched than you could have ever imagined."''\\

* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Multiple times, beginning with the fact that you have to kick your brother Lucas to begin the game, even if that might seem justified at the time. [[spoiler: Later on, you have to cut the lounge and eye from his dead body. Then you have to burn the tree-mother and her infant while listening to their desperate pleas to spare them. The very last thing you have to do is to kick your brother once again, re-starting the nightmare.]]