Line #5 YMMV/ThePark


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
2	** Due to the countless number of interpretations possible for main characters such as Lorraine and Callum, please check out their character pages.
3	** For Don, not so much in his treatment toward Lorraine but rather his marital status. When examining a photograph in the House of Horrors, we see Don and Lorraine's friend Laura standing just a little too close, and with their arms around each other. While this is usually normal for JustFriends, this has still led to some speculation that Laura was in fact Don's ''wife'', with Lorraine being the "other woman". This night explain why Lorraine couldn't inherit anything from Don after his death even while carrying his child. However, this theory is weak by the fact that Laura's name is never mentioned in Lorraine's lawyer's report.
4	** Also in regards to Don: did his harness really fail, or did he commit suicide by unclipping it and jumping to his death? On the one hand, there were a lot of accidents at the park, both due to sabotage and sheer bad luck... but on the other hand, there were also a number of suicides recorded, and Don's last note mentioned that he was suffering from emotional instability as a result of his work on the park.
5	* AntiClimaxBoss: In the seventh and final dream of the Halloween event, you face off with [[spoiler: the Venetian agent who you had met with earlier on at the Tabula Rasa, who intend to expel you from her coveted eternal sleep at whatever cost.]] However, because she no longer has the power of the Bee in her, she gives off several non-lethal hits, and is easily dispatched by the Player.
6	* ClicheStorm: One criticism of the game is that some of the horror elements have been done many times before, such as a creepy mascot and the goal to find a child. The final interactive scene in particular might come off as creepy to some, but others might find it lackluster due to the use of creepy child drawings, psychiatric patient notes, creepy dolls, a repeating room, and hanging bodies--things that have been done in other games, all together in one scene. Doubly unfortunately, several of these criticisms also seem to be under the impression that the main character is insane as well, unaware of the game's connection to ''The Secret World''.
7	* CompleteMonster: [[YMMV/TheSecretWorld The Bogeyman]]. See that page for details.
8	* ContinuityLockout: ''The Park'' has been played by more than a few people with no knowledge of ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', to whom the story makes next to no sense and is generally misconstrued as far more metaphorical and MaybeMagicMaybeMundane than it actually is. This is inevitable since ''The Park'' is from the perspective of an uninitiated muggle who, aside from a few subtle hints, is completely unaware of the Secret World and its mystical inhabitants. It doesn't help that the marketing ''doesn't actually tell you'' it's a spinoff, instead making it sound like it's one of the usual short, standalone indie horror games.
9	* DelusionConclusion: The game is perceived by several players as a harrowing tale of mental illness in which the supernatural elements, the monster stalking the main character and even Atlantic Island Park are merely symptoms of Lorraine Mailard's escalating madness. The fact that Lorraine has actually been treated for depression only muddies the waters further. However, ''The Park'' is actually a spinoff of ''The Secret World'' and all the magical elements were meant to be taken as real, to the point [[spoiler: that Lorraine turns up in a Halloween event, having been imbued with immortality and magical powers.]] It's just that the casual gaming audience [[ContinuityLockout didn't get the memo]].
10	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: 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.]]
11	* {{Narm}}:
12	** Lorraine's wrists spontaneously slitting themselves.
13	** The bodies hanging from Lorraine's kitchen are supposed to invoke fear, but come off as... hammy.
14	** The burning baby dolls spread throughout the house.
15	** While speaking poetically is normal in journal pages, being poetic on a ''police report'' is a tad bit awkward. It's a wonder that the police even accepted Norma Creed's testimony with a statement like this:
16	--->'''Norma''': "Anyway, the Chipmunk man, he was carving and picking away at the ice. And at first we thought he was making some animal, like a lion or a tiger, but as more and more ice fell away...When you first looked, it was like a human face, smiling out of that block of ice. But the more you looked at it, the more you saw that there was something not quite right about the proportions, something unnatural that made your heart begin to beat just a little bit faster, like you were prey , and that thing in the ice was hunter."\
17	"For a few moments it was chaos, everybody was running away from the guy, who had one of [sic] teenagers on the ground and he was stab stab stabbing with the icepick and blood was spraying and people were screaming and Frank and I had the kids and we were dragging them away as fast as we could..."\
18	"And the last thing I saw, before Frank dragged me away, was that the eyeball of one of those poor kids had landed on the ice sculpture, making the horrible creature look more or less alive."
19	* SoOkItsAverage: The game currently holds a score of 67/100 on Metacritic. Some players praise the game for its EnvironmentalNarrativeGame genre, and its few but genuinely scary jumpscares as opposed to several cheap ones seen in most other games, while others criticize it for a mix of its cliche plot (see ClicheStorm above) and the plot ambiguity. [[note]] A common complaint from those who haven't played ''The Secret World''. [[/note]]
20	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Chad gets a lot of build-up early on in the game with lots of backstory, but without much payoff, if any.
21	* TheWoobie:
22	** Lorraine; she's had to cope with abuse, low-paying jobs, sexual harassment, the death of her lover, unsupported pregnancy, mental illness, 70's era ECT, rejection by her mother and in-laws, mounting debt, poverty, disconnection of electricity to her home, and [[spoiler: possible intrusions by real ghosts]]. And all this happens ''before'' she takes Callum on the fateful visit to the park. [[spoiler: The events of the game's conclusion and those of ''The Secret World'' only make life even more miserable for her.]]

Context YMMV / ThePark