Mitch on his way to a completely normal library.
Lost Cartridge - Cold Read is a horror game by Pure Ice Blue, creator of Lily's Well, made in the RPG Maker MV engine.
The game follows Mitchell Hayes, a young college student with a troubled past. On his way back from the pharmacy, a car accident forces him to take a detour through his local library's parking lot. However, with an ongoing snow storm proving to be too much for him, Mitch goes inside to use a payphone. He soon finds himself trapped and is nearly attacked by a mysterious Static Man, only to be saved by the Deer Man who tends to the library. Mitch learns that if he wants to escape, he will have to find all the library cards hidden within the library, but there are many dangers lurking within, and possibly even a connection to his past...
The game is available both through Itch.io
and Steam.
Not to be confused with Sonic Limited Edition: The Lost Cartridge.
Lost Cartridge - Cold Read contains examples of:
- Alien Geometries: While the building itself appears normal, taking the book requested by Caroline will turn the normal childrens' section into a large maze of shelves with the floor breaking off into a void in some places.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ending 2 has Mitch discover that the one who locked him inside the library is his dead childhood friend, Jackie. After she shows no remorse for her actions and tries to kill Mitch, he tackles her and keeps punching her in the face until she can't move. Mitch expresses some sympathy for her before he leaves, but it's made clear that he does not forgive her.
- Body Horror: With this being a horror game made by Ice, it can be found everywhere.
- Abigail is a monster that appears to be a naked humanoid running on all fours with spiked limbs. Growing out of her back are multiple fleshy tendons that connect to a large eyeball within a skin sack lined with teeth on top and a tongue coming out below the eye.
- Jackie appears as a naked rotting corpse with the skin and muscle on her chest pinned open. Her arms are replaced with spiked metal sheets and with her legs being also made of scrap metal.
- One room contains a non-hostile monster with the upper half of a nun. The lower half however, is not nearly as nice to look at, being a giant mass of flesh with a strange Vagina Dentata.
- Bloody Horror: The majority of Mitch's deaths have him reduced to a bloody pile.
- Character Portrait: Mitch's face can be seen in the pause menu.
- Creepy Doll: The stage within the childrens' section is filled with them.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Mitch can experience quite a lot of these:
- By putting too many soda cans inside a hole in the wall, a full can will eventually be launched back out, hitting Mitch in the head and killing him instantly.
- If Mitch tries to take the handle from one of the dolls, it will hold onto Mitch as all of the dolls close in on him. The scene then cuts to Mitch's innards being replaced with stuffing and his eyes stitched closed.
- Using the bathroom without washing his hands after will alert the librarian and shoot Mitch in the stomach for not following the bathroom's rules.
- Cruelty Is the Only Option: Although it's probably not alive, Mitch has to cut open the stomach of a clown doll in order to get an item. The puppets within the theater also need to be mutilated in order to progress.
- Dying Dream: Mitch is actually not physically inside the library and is really dying out in the snow.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Mitch can be killed by vending machines, dolls, a grandfather clock, and the countless monsters populating the library.
- Eye Scream: One of Mitch's potential deaths involves falling off a ladder, then getting impaled in the eye with an icicle.
- Facial Horror: See above.
- Flashback: Mitch can find old chat logs between him and Jackie from high school. These lead to flashbacks of Mitch's forced admittance to a psych ward and the news report of Jackie's death.
- Foreshadowing: Outside the library is a roadside memorial. Mitch will not comment on it if it is examined, but will turn away from it instead. It is a memorial for Jackie.
- Gotta Catch Them All: The only method of escape is to collect all of the library cards hidden throughout the building.
- Homage: All of the achievement names are taken from episodes of Baywatch.
- Jump Scare: Many of the random chases start with one.
- The Many Deaths of You: While not required like in Lily's Well, Mitch has even more ways to die.
- Multiple Endings: There are two main endings and one secret ending only available after getting the first two.
- Ending 1 - The library warps to show Mitch his own suicide attempt from high school. While looking at his own body, the Static Man appears and reveals that Mitch had died for a short time during that incident. Believing that he should stay dead this time, the Static Man chases down Mitch one last time before Mitch is able to escape. Mitch realizes that he is slowly dying in the real world and walks away from the library, carrying his own body. He wakes up inside an ambulance.
- Ending 2 - Mitch realizes that the one trying to keep him in the library is his dead childhood friend, Jackie. She gives chase to him, but Mitch snaps after realizing his body is dying in the real world. He beats Jackie until she can't move and leaves with his body. He wakes up inside an ambulance.
- Ending 3 - Mitch plays a VHS tape on a television inside a hidden room. The contents of the tape aren't shown, but they cause Mitch to violently vomit on the floor. The camera slowly zooms into the television screen as Mitch is surrounded by puppets and screams. It is then revealed that someone else was playing everything as a game and got a copy of the tape Mitch found.
- Oh, Crap!: Mitch's horrified expression is shown right before bleeding out from all the glass that impaled him.
- One-Hit Kill: Being touched by any of the chasing monsters will instantly kill Mitch.
- Point of No Return: There's no getting back in the library after climbing out of the garden.
- Too Dumb to Live: Some of the deaths can only be obtained by purposefully putting Mitch in danger.
