That Which Gave Chase is a slow-paced, atmospheric horror game with Retraux Playstation 1-style graphics by Aslak Karlsen Hauglid, released on June 23rd, 2023. Taking place in the cold snowy arctic, players take the role of a sled dog musher recruited by a scientist to take him deep into the arctic to the location of his previous expedition. However, the musher slowly comes to realize that everything is not as it seems in the remote arctic wilderness.
That Which Gave Chase provides examples of:
- 100% Completion: There are achievements for obtain various out-of-the-way collectibles, such as finding all written notes or finding all 3 crosses put up by the expedition.
- Ambiguous Situation: The exact reason why everything is happening is never explicitly explained, only vaguely hinted at, leaving it up to the player to form their own interpretation of what happened after the game ends.
- Anachronic Order: As the story progresses it becomes clear that the scenes are not taking place in linear order (most evidenced by the fact the scientist has frostbite on his nose in some scenes but not in others), which further obscures the already ambiguous plot.
- Animal Stampede: One of the game's more difficult sequences has you escaping from a stampede of deer pursuing you along a mountain cliff.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The scientist mentions that, after his expedition became lost, they captured a deer and gradually deprived it of its senses (by cutting out its eyes and then its ears) while trying to determine how it could navigate in the featureless arctic grey. If you explore around you later learn from the "ghosts" of other expedition members that the scientist did this and they think that while there might have been a scientific reason at first, after a while he was doing it out of mere cruelty.
- Kill and Replace: Some of the notes you can find in the expedition cabins seem to possibly hint that the "scientist" isn't actually the leader of the expedition, but rather one of the less stable expedition members who killed everyone and assumed the expedition leader's identity.
- Mushroom Samba: Hallucinogenic mushrooms play a key role in what's really going on. They may or may not be an extension of some kind of Eldritch Abomination. At one point you can find some growing out of your body.
- Polar Madness: The scientist may have killed the survivors of his previous expedition and definitely tries to kill you at the end, because he "can't escape" unless he offers you up to "take his place".
- Xenophobic Herbivore: At a few points in the game you'll have to traverse an area while being attacked by abnormally aggressive deer. Fortunately you'll have a bolt-action rifle to defend yourself. If you're observant, you might notice that often the deer will only attack you if you're carrying a mushroom.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Attempting to shoot the scientist early in the game just causes him to phase in and out in a hallucinatory manner, as if the game is telling you "that's not canon". You have to let the story play out.
