The Game has just begun.
The sequel to 2016's Welcome to the Game, developed by Reflect Studios and released in April 3. 2018.The story follows Clint Edwards, an investigative reporter searching for a missing woman. His one and only lead is the Shadow Web, the deepest and darkest depths of The Deep Web, so he pursues it relentlessly. All the while, he's being hunted down by several threats: the police, hackers, a hitman, a serial killer, and the Noir cult, who are the ones responsible for her disappearance.
The game provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: One possible ending, since you've been spending the entire game trying to find Amalea, only for it to end with her being killed in front of you.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Apparently, in the Welcome to the Game universe, everyone on the Deep Web is either a psychopath or an irredeemable monster.
- Artistic Licence – Law: The NYPD or any US law enforcement agency for that matter cannot arrest you for using a proxy network; since doing so is perfectly legal within the USA.
- Author Avatar: Adam returns from the last game, only that he is now the Big Bad.
- Bad Powers, Good People: You play as a hacker, just like the other denizens of the Deep Web, except this character is using his abilities to attempt to rescue a woman.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The Noir Couple use a rather dark version of this. The man shows up someplace to get your attention, and if you approach him, the woman will come up behind you and murder you with a hammer.
- Some of the website names or summaries on the Deep Wiki make you think they're one thing, but they're actually even worse.
- "I Love Cats" just sounds like a website by someone who likes to own cats as a pet, and the wiki description is just "Meow!" so it looks seemingly innocent... then you find out it's about a degenerate who has sex with his cats.
- "My Gut" is described on the wiki as "shit pills". They're not pills that make you shit, they're pills made from shit. note
- "Share your genitals" sounds like a forum for sharing pictures of your genitals, which is squicky enough. But nah, it's actually about a man who gains sexual pleasure from cannibalizing other people's genitals.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: The "I Love Cats" site. And yes, not in a platonic way.
- Big Bad: The Noir cult as a whole is the antagonistic faction. They are a cult on the Deep Web that uses The Prey, a misogynistic Hunting the Most Dangerous Game-fueled community, as a front, and are the ones behind Amalea's abduction. Specifically, the leader turns out to be Adam, the tutorial guy, who set up the whole Deadly Game in the first place all for the sake of his entertainment.
- Big Bad Ensemble: Aside from Noir, the Breather, the NYPD, the Hitman, and (if you visit his website) the Doll Maker are ALL on Clint’s trail.
- The Bad Guy Wins: All Adam wants is entertainment in the form of streaming someone die violently. Whether you choose yourself or Amalea, he gets exactly what he wants in the end.
- Carnival of Killers: A duo of cultists, a serial killer, a hitman, and a psychotic surgeon are all after you at once, and that's not even counting the police!
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In the first WTTG, you only get a brief glimpse at the Shadow Web and The Prey. Now they're the main focus, like how the Red Room was.
- Oh, and remember The Doll Maker — visit his website, and you will encounter him as he forces you to find him another victim.
- Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: The first game 's protagonist was a simple lurker of the Deep Web looking for more ways to get off by watching people die, and their identity wasn't revealed until the secret ending. This time, you play as Clint, who actively participates in Deep Web activities, has his entire motivation and identity revealed up front, and wants to prevent someone else from dying.
- Controllable Helplessness: The intro sequence shows a "Dead or Not" stream of a woman describing her predicament, and a vote tally on the bottom of the page asking the viewer whether or not the woman should either die or live. Regardless of whether the player chooses "Dead or Not", the votes for the former will always dwarf that of the latter. Downplayed, as the outcome of the vote hasn't yet been carried out, and the goal of the game is to rescue this woman.
- The Cracker: This time around, it's the player who hacks people, either as contracts for DOSCoin, or to get their Wi-Fi password. That doesn't stop rival hackers from targeting him, though.
- Dark Action Girl: The Noir girl is just as deadly as her boyfriend.
- Determinator: Clint will save Amalea, even if it means ruining a few lives, defending himself from home invaders and hackers, and becoming an official target on the police's hit list.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Deflecting hacks in this game is much more annoying than in the previous one; but if you figure out each one, you can use cheap Backdoor Hacks and use tricks to intentionally get yourself hacked more frequently to rack up a lot of DOSCoin in the early game.
- Dissonant Serenity: Even with the stream of Amalea playing, Adam is pretty calm about providing the Justified Tutorial, which can come off as Black Comedy at first. Turns out that's not coincidence, as he's pretty comfortable with what's going on, being the Big Bad and all.
- Downer Ending: At the end of the game, you're faced with two choices: live and let Amalea die, or exchange your life for hers.
- Dueling Hackers: There's still plenty of jackasses trying to invade your computer like last time, but this time, you're also one of those jackasses.
- Epic Fail: This universe's equivalent to the Tor Browser doesn't seem to work very well; seeing as literally everyone is capable of tracking you down using your IP address (which is something an onion router is built specifically to prevent).
- Evil Laugh: The skull emblem every time you get hacked.
- Featureless Protagonist: Clint.
- Fictional Currency: You can buy helpful tools with DOSCoin, which you earn by setting up scam sites and carrying out hacking contracts.
- Fission Mailed: Get to the tunnel you've been after all this time and you're kidnapped by the Noir girl. Then it's revealed you weren't killed; Adam just wants a word with you.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: When you're hiding, the enemies' AI is microphone-sensitive.
- Hacked by a Pirate: Just like last time.
- Harassing Phone Call: Unlike in the first game, the player only receives these off-screen, to tease The Breather.
- Hell Is That Noise: Screw the four psychopaths after you, the scariest part of the game is the ambiance and the ambiance alone.
- Hero Antagonist: The player isn't just being hunted by criminals anymore. Now they're a criminal themselves, so the police are on their ass too. They must combat this by constantly changing their Wi-Fi so the police can't track them.
- Hollywood Hacking: Like the first game, the player has to ward off hackers through minigames. In a twist, the player does just as much hacking of their own to break into their neighbors' Wi-Fi.
- I Love the Dead: The Deep Journal site tells the story, in the format of an imageboard, of a guy who falls in love with his neighbor a little too much. Well, a LOT too much, seeing how he eventually killed her to use her corpse as a sex doll.
- Intrepid Reporter: Very few investigative reporters are willing to hack people, scam people, and fend off other hackers, dangerous criminals, and law enforcement just to save one random woman.
- Justified Tutorial: Adam is just an anonymous tip helping Clint's investigation out.
- Karma Houdini: As with the first game, all of this game's villains get away with their horrid acts unhindered as far as the player is aware. As well, assuming the player triggered the dollmaker quest, you've successfully assisted him in kidnapping more girls, whom he will use for "transformation".
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: neglecting to change your network every now and then will cause the police to track you down and send the SWAT team your way. Strangely enough, calling the very same police to fend off the various lunatics that are out to get you is not an option.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Noir/The Prey, a twisted misogynistic cult and the Big Bad. A couple of their followers, the game's mascot, is one of the player's many threats.
- Monster Misogyny: Essentially all of the Deep Web content is men horrendously victimizing women in some way. The one man attempting to combat this misogyny — specifically in his rescue of Amalea — gets hunted by both the males and females of the Deep Web.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Of a sort, with the Noir couple. While the man will certainly get your attention and is incredibly creepy, it's the female who'll do the actual killing in jumpscares and such.
- Multiple Endings: After you somehow managed to find all the codes and meet the true mastermind in person, you're given 2 choices: forget everything that happened and let Amalea die, or take Amalea's place and get killed on the spot. As you can probably tell, neither of the options are good.
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Nintendo Hard: So hard, in fact, that even Markiplier couldn't defeat it. The last part was a 4 hour livestream comprising only three attempts, and ends with him giving up and going onto the balcony to plug his new Drunk Minecraft charity stream.- There's an additional "1337 Mode", where the difficulty is amplified to ludicrous extremes. There are no saves whatsoever, all threats are active from the beginning, there's no tutorial, you don't start off with a free Remote VPN nor any DOS Coin or Back Doors aside from 1 each, all hacks are maxed out in difficulty and the player can't force them.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: If you activate the Doll Maker, you're basically required to use the lolpy disc to find people in your apartment building to sacrifice. If you pay attention to the little clues, though, you can find that one apartment belongs to Lucas Kumiega, the hitman after you. Sending the Doll Maker after Lucas removes both of them as threats for the rest of the run.
- Previous Player-Character Cameo: The Nympho is there in the ending. That said, she's the Villain Protagonist of the previous game.
- Real After All: Remember the Dollmaker? Were you hoping he was just some sick, twisted troll trying to get a laugh out of people? He's real. Oh, is he ever.
- The Reveal: The ending is one big Wham Shot.
- Scare Chord: Whenever you're caught by an enemy. Also, the hacker sound.
- Sex Is Evil: 90% of the depravity you see on the Deep Web is fueled by creepy horny men.
- String Theory: Clint has a cliche conspiracy theorist bulletin board on his wall.
- Ten-Second Flashlight: Pro-tip: make EVERY SECOND of flashlight usage count.
- Unholy Matrimony: The Noir Couple, two lovers who work for a cult as murderous home invaders.
- Walking Spoiler: All enemies (Noir, Lucas, the Police, and the Breather) are all teased at the very start of the game... except one... The Doll Maker. And since The Dog Was the Mastermind, Adam counts too.
- Wham Shot: The ending, which is kicked off when you're jumped out of NOWHERE by Noir. You wake up in Adam's office, where he reveals he's the leader of Noir and the one behind Amalea's kidnapping. Not only that, however. He reveals Amalea isn't the victim being watched by thousands, YOU are. All of those security cameras around Clint's apartment were broadcasting him as he was hunted by the Big Bad Ensemble in his hopeless mission to save Amalea. Also, just for added bonus, The Breather and The Nympho are there too.
