He's faster than he looks.
- The island as a whole. You're a young socialite, who enjoys excitement, but have done nothing to deserve being kidnapped and stranded on an island filled with crazed violent junkies, murderous militia, feral animals, and at least 2 roided up hulks of men carrying enormous weapons. And they all want to kill you.
- Getting killed by the Executioner or Lumberjack results in a special mini cinematic where you are knocked down and have your leg chopped off with their massive weapon. Given how by the time you've encountered either of them you will have done plenty of running and climbing, the lingering shot of your severed leg just pounds in the hopelessness of the situation.
- The Executioner and Lumberjack in general. Up until you meet one of them the only other enemies are rats, dogs, junkies, warthogs, and baton militiamen. Junkies are fairly trivial, as are dogs. Militiamen are tougher and fight back with a weapon, and warthogs are very durable... None of them compare to either the Executioner or Lumberjack. Both of these guys are tall beefy hulks of men, who are faster than their size would suggest, and both wield massive bladed weapons. They have a massive health pool note , can kill you in as few as 2 strikes (depending on difficulty settings), and knocks you down with every hit. And even if you try to get to high ground, they will chuck stones at you that hit like a truck, taking off a large chunk of health and knocking you on your ass.
- The Executioner hangs out in a field of tall sunflowers, encouraging you to stealth your way through. But if he gets a whiff and starts chasing you, not only is he deceptively fast for his size, he also tramples the flowers with every step, making stealth less effective if you manage to escape and come back.
- The Lumberjack gets extra points by wearing an armored helmet, making those ultra powerful crossbow headshots completely worthless.
- The Beekeeper is similar, only he lacks a weapon and will pummel you bare handed!
- As beautiful as the scenery is, there's an awful lot of climbing, especially at the mysterious tower. Acrophobics may want to avoid enjoying the view.
- Cujo, the first true boss fight that appears before climbing the High Tower. He's a massive bulldog, far too large by realistic standards, who has been bred to be so strong that normal weapon attacks are completely useless against him. Upon entering his arena, you get to see him feasting on human bodies, and get a look at the severed limbs and corpses littered around the place.
- Nehir's fate in Prologue. Up till then she was a tough badass, who may have failed her mission to assassinate the cult leader, but nevertheless had steely determination to escape the island, despite the threats impeding her along the way. Then she finds herself tied to a chair in a tiny shack, at the mercy of the Lumberjack. He gets a call and leaves, giving her a chance to undo her bindings and escape. Sadly he comes back before any progress is made, and carries out his latest order to kill her, taking his massive ax and lopping off her head in a single strike. All in 1st person perspective. The last things you see and hear are her short desperate pleas for mercy as he raises his weapon, then following her tumbling head to the floor as it finally lingers on her decapitated corpse.
- One of the early trailers made this even worse by playing it out in 3rd person, then giving the viewer a drawn out shot of Nehir's decapitated head roll on the floor with her horrified face slowly goes limp and corpse-like.
- One of the early trailers made this even worse by playing it out in 3rd person, then giving the viewer a drawn out shot of Nehir's decapitated head roll on the floor with her horrified face slowly goes limp and corpse-like.
- The Last Trial. After Daphne has gone through so much trouble to climb the tower and receive a message from Brother No. 1, his instructions lead her to a nearby beach. After getting through a sugar cane field teeming with Junkies, venomous snakes, and the Beekeeper, she finds herself at the aptly named Pyre Beach, where her friend Dave is cuffed to a stake with kindling all around him. Brother No. 1 orders her to light him on fire to complete her Trials. Next to him is the already burnt body of Rachid's drug pusher who helped them get to the island. If you choose to kill him... well it's as visceral as you'd expect burning someone alive would be. The really horrifying part is not the act, but rather the stage; There are benches circling the main stage, suggesting that the Community is sometimes present to watch these horrible proceedings.
- The Island's ulterior function: Based on documents found in both the main game and Prologue, the deal the Community has with the Turkish government involves trading drugs for equipment. Drugs that are manufactured on the island, but also used on members of the populace to gauge their effects. All those ranting junkies? They were once Community workers and prisoners who were subjected to god knows what chemical substances that ended up driving them violently insane. And the Community has been around for decades...
- The Island's true origins and purpose: Dialogue with Ibrahim reveals that the island doesn't just work with the government; it was created by the government as a dumping ground for all their "trash", meaning it's their way of sweeping larger problems like disagreeable political figures and other inconveniences under the rug.
- The Bad Ending: Daphne succeeds in calling in a rescue chopper, but if you arrive at the rendezvous too late, she'll find the pilot riddled with arrows, and a group of archers surround her, knock her out, and she wakes up in a large prison, never to be heard from again.
