If we examine video games as a contemporary and unique form of artistic expression - which they actually are - we could classify them as modern fairy tales. While many of them carry a good amount of realism in their plots, their stories are usually based in elements of fantasy, science fiction or post-apocalyptic theories. In the Devil May Cry universe, we may have a modern-day environment as a setting, but there are demons hiding in every corner. Or take, for example, Lara Croft's adventures: although rich with historical facts, the games of the Tomb Raider series feature a good deal of fantastic elements that are in perfect balance with their realistic aspect.

The main characters in Action games are brave heroes who fight their way through hordes of enemies and obstacles, while they must also solve several tricky puzzles. Puzzles and riddles in video games are among the strongest references to fairy tales, especially those which result in opening doors. Just like in fairy tales, doors several times open with magic means or keys - either literal keys or objects used as keys - that need to be obtained by going through generally difficult trials. Similarly, in video games doors are passages: they lead the heroes one step further, to another part of the world, where, usually, a revelation or a fight awaits.

Resident Evil HD Remaster takes place in a huge villa, the Spencer Mansion. The main characters, Chris and Jill, together with their team, seek refuge inside the house at the start of the game and it is impossible for them to get back out, as there are ominous threats awaiting. Early on, they discover an imposing metal gate at the back of the main hall, which seems to be their only way out of there. The gate is locked and requires two key items in order to open. The biggest part of the game consists in exploring the mansion, which is full of zombies, monsters and traps, so as to find said items. The door needs two identical objects made of stone and metal which can be placed on two receptacles on the metal bars, serving as keys. The first object is found in a crypt in the back yard of the mansion, but actually opening the crypt and being able to unlock the coffin that contains the object requires a lot of searching and solving more riddles. Interestingly enough, they are only able to look for the second object once they have found the first, as they have to unlock another door with it, gaining access to another huge area at the back of the mansion, which has to be explored. The second object is made of two separate components: the metal object, which is found in a locked office of the mansion, and the stone ring, which is hidden in the secret cabin of Lisa Trevor, a girl who is now roaming the grounds of the mansion in the form of a hideous monster. Once both stone and metal objects are found, they can be placed on the metal gate and now Chris and Jill are able to proceed to the eerie undergrounds of the mansion.

Opening this gate and stepping out marks the transition to a world where all the horrors that they have already met in the mansion, are now intensified. The fact alone that the keys to open this door are so hard to find is a strong indication that what lies beyond it is extremely dangerous. The powers that dominate those grounds are inconceivable, and Chris and Jill have to use both their physical and mental strength in order to survive.

In Resident Evil 2 Remake, the main characters, Leon and Claire, are trapped in a similar situation. They find themselves in the imposing and mazey Police Department of Raccoon City and, as they cannot get out on the streets that are filled with zombies, they have to look for another way. Following the notes of a deceased police officer, they find out about the existence of a secret passage that is located just beneath the huge goddess statue that decorates the main hall of the station. They need to find three medallions and place them on the pedestal of the statue so as to reveal the passage. The three medallions are locked in their receptacles on three statues that are found in equal areas of the station. The Lion statue, which holds the Lion Medallion, is on the balcony overlooking the main hall, the Unicorn statue, which holds the Unicorn Medallion, is on a lone gallery outside the Library, and the Maiden statue, which holds the Maiden Medallion, is in a secluded section of a storeroom, also next to the Library.

Finding the medallions is not a very hard task per se, but it becomes quite tough due to the several zombies and monsters that wander in the corridors of the station. Every time that a medallion is placed on the pedestal, one part of the secret opening is revealed. Once all three medallions take their place, Leon and Claire discover a small metal gate that leads to a secret round room, just beneath the statue.

What is ironic is that although this passage is supposed to lead to a way out, there are more riddles lying ahead, the danger becomes even bigger and our heroes will have to struggle a lot more before they are able to leave the station. The underground however becomes the place where both Leon ad Claire meet their allies, Ada and Sherry respectively, and from that point and on they will not be completely alone in their quest.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, there are several doors that need a special key or item in order to open, however it is two of them that are particularly interesting. The first is the elaborately decorated door in the Secretary's room that leads to an isolated area of the Ashford mansion. Its upper section is a huge receptacle where two identical guns, the Gold Lugers, need to be placed for it to unlock. The quest for these guns is rather complicated, and it will be a long time before Claire, the main protagonist, is able to use them on the door after she finds them. Even from their first appearance, the Gold Lugers are connected to trouble. They are found in the back room of the Armory in the mansion, and as soon as Claire takes them down, a trap activates and the room fills with poison. Being forced to place them back, she seems to have no way of retrieving them so as to open that door. A bit later, Steve, her partner for this story, finds himself in the Armory and, being attracted by the shiney pistols, takes them off the wall. The room again fills with poison but Steve panics and does not consider placing them back. Claire arrives just in time to unlock the trap from the outside, and so Steve runs out safely with the guns, which he refuses to give over to Claire. It will not be very long however before Claire offers him a pair of loaded Submachine guns in exchange with his Gold Lugers. Steve gladly makes the trade and so Claire is able to finally place the Lugers on the door and get it to open.

This door stands for a major passage in the story, as it opens to a secret office which, in turn, leads to a hidden palace where Alfred, the game's minor villain, lives a life of paranoia and illusion, playing the roles of both himself and his deceased twin sister, whom he adored. Thus it is not random that Claire needs a pair of twin guns to open the door. The world beyond the Luger door is that of a sadistic madman who impersonates his dead sister and finds extreme pleasure in making innocent people suffer. In connection to this comes the second door that stands out, which is located in the Morgue. Technically not a door, but a secret passage that is revealed beyond a raised wall, it opens by placing a glass eye on a life-size anatomy model. Claire has to kill a doctor who has become a zombie, take his glass eye and place it on the model, thus gaining access to the basement of the Morgue, where she comes across a horrifying room with torture machines.

In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Claire finds herself before yet one more puzzle that involves a locked door and an eyeball. This time, things are more complex and the door in question has a retinal scanner which needs a specific artificial eye in order to unlock. Claire finds the eye in a trapped room inside a factory but she first needs to replace it with a glass eye so as to be able to take it without activating the trap. She must then use the eye on the retinal scanner outside the locked door so as to gain access to the nearby slaughterhouse.

What is interesting about this puzzle is that it opens the way and is connected to another puzzle that also has to do with a locked door that requires a special kind of key item. The same artificial eye has to be used on another retinal scanner outside an office, where Claire finds a liver replica. Later, in the slaughterhouse, she has to find another liver replica and use them both to open another door. While the first liver replica is in plain sight inside a corpse in the factory, the second is stuck in a bucket of blood in the gory slaughterhouse. Some kind of mincing machine above it has to be operated a few times, so that enough quantity of blood fills the bucket, allowing the liver replica to be released. The two liver replicas have to be placed then on a statue of Prometheus that blocks a door in the yard of the factory and the slaughterhouse. Doing so, causes the statue to explode, thus revealing the door that leads to another part of the factory where a tense timed event takes place.

Apart from being a passage leading closer to Alex, the story's villain, the Prometheus door has yet one more major significance. Alex uses both Prometheus and the livers as symbols, to hint at the fate of a man who turned out to be a traitor, both to her and Claire. Neil, Claire's boss and friend, secretly worked with Alex, aiding her in her evil plans, but at some point attempted to betray her, so she punished him, injecting him with a virus that turned him into a monster. In the myth, Prometheus was punished for stealing divine power, by being bound to a rock while an eagle would come every day and feed on his liver, which would grow back overnight and this torment would go on eternally. Alex identifies herself as a God and Neil as Prometheus; and the liver parts being replicas signify Neil's false faith to both Claire and Alex. Given that, soon after going through that door, Claire finally faces Neil in his monster form and has to fight with him, the passage revealed by it gains a very important symbolism, at the same time serving as a foreshadowing of what is about to happen.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a door opening with a retinal scanner reveals a hidden elevator which leads straight to the lab where Burke, a very dangerous and twisted man, uses prisoners as lab rats. Adam, the protagonist, watches Burke using his augmented artificial eye on the scanner and then, following instructions, he steals a new replacement eye from Burke's office, all the while hiding from the guards who are looking for him. He then visits a technician who fits the eye on him, so that he is then able to use the retinal scanner himself and subsequently open the door.

While the passage that the door reveals brings forward a terrifying truth about the man involved, at the same time it becomes a means of salvation, as Adam then has the option to save the prisoners and the doctor who was forced by Burke to carry out the experiments on his behalf. In that sense, opening that door affects positively the lives of several people, including Adam, as he was himself a prisoner of Burke and possibly one of his potential victims.

In Resident Evil 4, Leon, the main protagonist, uses the false eye of Bitores Mendez, a minor villain, to open the gate that leads to Salazar's castle. He first must fight with Mendez in a barn and defeat him, so as to be able to take his eye and unlock the door with it. Although there are several doors in the game that open with impressive puzzles, this specific one is of a very high importance because it marks a passage from on world to another. Up to that point, Leon was wandering in the country, and the enemies he had to face were ignorant victims that had been turned into puppets in the hands of the evil Lord Saddler. By opening the castle gate and getting inside, he finds himself in a place where time seems to have stopped and from where there seems to be no obvious way out. Everything inside the castle looks like it belongs to past times, and even Salazar himself is dressed in a style that goes quite a few centuries back. Additionally the enemies, although of the same kind as the villagers, seem to have a certain level of intelligence and they are much more dangerous and bloodthirsty. The castle is full of traps and monsters and the trials become tougher in every new area.

In Resident Evil 7, Ethan, the protagonist, finds himself trapped in the house of Jack Baker's family whose members became deranged, following their infection by a degenerative virus. The exit door, which will temporarily offer him some freedom, is of course locked and needs three special items in order to open: three dog heads that are hidden in certain areas of the house. The blue head is hidden inside a book and it is the easiest to find. The white head is hidden in a grandfather clock and requires another brief puzzle to get it. The red head involves a long and dangerous exploration of several areas of the house, resulting in a terrifying boss fight with Jack Baker himself. Once all three dog heads are placed on the door, it is unlocked and Ethan can get out, although he has a long way to go before he is finally free.

The creature with the three dog heads that is depicted on the door is Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gate of Hades in ancient Greek mythology. While the Baker house is no less than Hades itself, the real nightmare begins once Ethan steps outside. Cerberus in this case is not guarding the entrance, but the exit; and in that sense, the passage that is offered to Ethan after he unlocks the exit door is one that is set up in such a way so as to lead him to his death.

In The Evil Within, Sebastian, the lead character, gets trapped inside the mind of Ruvik, a genious madman with a painful past, and finds himself wandering in places connected to his memories. The most prominent one is Ruvik's family home, where the dark secrets of his past are gradually revealed. There is a huge door in the main hall, that Sebastian has to open so as to proceed deeper inside Ruvik's mind, and to do so he has to carry out three simple Phrenology tasks. There are three Phrenology tables in the house and on each one there is a human head with the brain exposed. Sebastian has to hit a specific part of the brain with each probe, and if done correctly, blood flows away from a tube above each table, filling a similar tube on the locked gate. Once all three tubes fill with blood, the door opens.

As the story of the game has to do with mind games, it is not random that this specific gate is like a simulation of the brain: during the Phrenology tasks, Sebastian hits the sections of fear, hope and consent, which send the blood flowing in the tubes on the door. The gears on the door then start moving all together, unlocking it, just like the human emotions keep the brain's gears working. It is a concept that is as complicated as it is ingenious. The passage that is revealed beyond the door is literal: it is a long passage, a hallway, where Ruvik awaits to lure Sebastian even deeper in his memories, leading him to the root of his life's tragedy.

In The Evil Within 2, the gate that dominates as a major point of transition is not an actual door but more like an artificial barrier, made up of barbed wire and two framed photos depicting two girls in a macabre setting, that seem to be surrounded by an aura of black magic: they have flaming blood around them and they are impossible to touch. This peculiar installation is the morbid work of Stefano, a twisted photographer who is able to control Union, a virtual environment made especially for the people taking part in STEM, a nightmarish experiment aiming at controlling minds. Sebastian has to find a way to destroy the gate, in order to enter the Theater, where Stefano is hiding, and fight with him.

Stefano is like a magician; and as such, he creates illusions. Sebastian has to apply reverse magic in order to make the illusions disappear. In reality, or at least in the twisted reality of STEM, there is no tangible barrier in front of the theater. The two framed photos that block the way forming a makeshift gate are not really there. The first one is in the back room of a bar and the second is at the end of the upper corridor of a hotel. Sebastian has to locate them, literally get in their interior and destroy them from the inside. By doing this, their illusions in front of the theater shatter and disappear. The "magic" that Sebastian performs so as to fight Stefano's evil tricks is basically the opposite of what Stefano did. Simply put, Stefano made the photo artworks and Sebastian destroys them. What Sebastian does is like a voodoo process: he "kills" the essence of the photos, stabbing the frozen corpses that form them, just like a voodoo magician sticks pins on his dolls, resulting in hurting the person that those represent.

Action and Intellectuality: Libraries and Bookstores in Video Games

If you have played even a few video games of the Action / Adventure kind (and not only), you will most definitely have noticed that there are certain environments that are encountered more frequently than others. Libraries and bookstores are among the most popular of those, and what is even more interesting about them is that many times they are not only just a tasteful way to decorate a map but moreover are an important part of the plot.

Something that we should always keep in mind is that many of the heroes in video games are extemely intelligent - which makes the presence of libraries or bookstores in their stories even more fitting: Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) is an educated archaeologist, Sebastian Castellanos (The Evil Within) has a Bachelor degree, Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil) is a genious, Malachi Rector (Moebius: Empire Rising) has knowledge on almost everything, Elizabeth (Bioshock Infinite) is a human encyclopedia. 

Although most of the aforementioned heroes and heroines are men and women of action, with the majority of them being professionally trained for combat of all kinds, they never neglected their education. This is something that we get to know about them by consulting their backgrounds, but it also becomes evident from their eloquence, the way they express their thoughts and feelings, their social skills and sometimes also from random comments that they make at given times.

The appearance of environments such as libraries and bookstores in Action video games in particular is an element of great interest. An epic battle taking place in the streets or in the open field is something common - but just imagine an epic battle taking place in a library or a bookstore. The contrast is so striking that it inevitably leads you to become aware of the setting around you. In purely Adventure games, the libraries and bookstores have a more practical use most of the times, but this does not make their presence less important.

The setup, the decoration, even the choice of colors in these sceneries are always notable. But most of all, the space that they cover in a game's map. Definitely one of the biggest libraries that can be seen in a video game is the one in Skool Daze from American McGee's Alice. Occupying several floors, with bookshelves even in the most impossible places and books floating in the air, it is almost literally immersive, albeit inhabited by evil playing cards.

The several library rooms of Tall Oaks University create a creepy atmosphere with their vintage bookcases and their hundeds of old books in Resident Evil 6. They are located in a section of the campus beyond the yard, and when Leon and Helena arrive there, naturally they are not alone.

The zombies, which are still dead on their way in, miraculously wake up as soon as Leon and Helena grab the exit key card from the very last room. On their way out of the library rooms, they have to face a number of zombies, although most of them (if not all) can be avoided by just dashing past them and running to the exit - assuming your partner will follow you soon enough for both of you to make it safe outside.

Dr Vaclav Koller's bookstore in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, aptly named "The Time Machine", is a tall building with huge rooms, dominated by brown colours and filled with old books literally from top to bottom. It is hard to believe that a man like Koller, who is so devoted to his science, actually has the time to go through all these books and catalogue them. In fact he is using the bookstore as a front for his secret workshop in the basement. Nonetheless, he seems rather annoyed when Botkoveli's men trash the place while looking for him.

A three-storey vintage house with more than one entrances, with a couple of them being secret, Koller's bookstore is an essential environment in the game. Located in a somehow isolated part of Prague, which is heavily guarded by an angry mob, can only be accessed safely if Adam passes unnoticed from the nasty goons. The hidden elevator leading down to Koller's secret workshop is on the upper floor, and it is revealed once Adam pulls a red book from a shelf. It is very tricky however to slip under the noses of the gang and reach the doctor completely unharmed.

This is not the only case where a bookstore or library becomes the field of a violent battle. In Resident Evil 6, after Jake and Sherry manage to escape from their 6-month captivity in a chinese lab, they find themselves in a super luxurious mansion that, among its other rooms, has a very stylish library which, except for the books, also hosts a horde of bloodthirsty and relenstless goons.

What is worth noting about this library is that it is almost entirely red: its walls are red, the main motif of the carpet is also red. Obviously the living quarters of the research facility offered all kinds of recreation to their staff - in another room there is a piano and pool tables, somewhere else there is an idyllic pool with pink water - but the goons Jake and Sherry have to fight do not seem to be exactly book lovers. That said, the whole setup of the library offers some really good chances for an effective fight.

Same goes for the vintage Venetian library in the Bartoli's Hideout section of Tomb Raider 2. It is a well-guarded room, that Lara can only access at first after locating a gate in the sewers, which can be opened with a special key. Albeit not very big, the library has its share of goons who, just like their colleagues in Resident Evil 6, never thought about opening a book to sharpen their minds a bit.

The tall bookshelves of the library give Lara the advantage that she needs so as to climb up and she is also able to jump out through a window on the upper section so as to reach a different part of Venice.

Of course Lara Croft came across several libraries in her adventures, the most iconic being, naturally, the Lost Library of Alexandria in Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. Lara disovered the secret path leading to the legendary ancient construction, and we can only imagine how a passionate archaelogist like her felt when she arrived at the main hall.

The Lost Library looks different from the others because it comes from centuries ago. Instead of bookshelves with books, it hosts pedestals with papyruses, as well as a magical-looking Planetarium, the complicated puzzle of which is something that Tomb Raider gamers can never forget. Unfortunately, Lara has no time to study all the knowledge that is hidden in those old documents; she can only use one of them to trigger a door open. Moreover, there are random uninvited guests (namely: skeletons and ghost warriors), more than willing to destroy this one-of-a-kind experience in her renowned career. Let's hope she remembered to take some photos before leaving.

A few years before that, she found herself in a different kind of library, when she visited a mysterious Cathedral in Tomb Raider 3. The interior of the church, complete with impressive vitraux, imposing chandeliers and the necessary traps and hidden passages, also hosted a quite big library which, just like the Venetian library in Tomb Raider 2, was fully climbable.

This place, belonging to the secret level All Hallows, is available at the end of the game, if certain conditions have been met. It is a brief but particularly interesting chapter, in the atmosphere and feel of Lara's London adventure.

That said, Lara's library in the Croft Manor is also worth mentioning. Always present in the Lara's Home training levels in almost all the classic Tomb Raider games and gaining a reasonable boost in Legend and Anniversary, it reaches a well-deserved degree of prominence in Rise of The Tomb Raider. There, in the extra level Blood Ties, not only we are able to admire Lara's library in all its intellectual glory, but moreover we have the chance to explore every nook and cranny of this exceptional room, which is packed with riddles for us to solve, and memories to ponder for both us and Lara.

Similar with Lara's library in Blood Ties, is Ruben Victoriano's library in The Evil Within. Ruben, being the genious that he was, devoted many hours in studying, so it comes as no surprise that his library is so impressive. The Victoriano library, which we visit in the chapter The Cruelest Intentions, constists of one main room which is very big and filled with books, and an upper balcony with more books all around its wall perimeter. One important item, needed for a puzzle, can be found in the library, as well as several Haunted which roam about, ready for trouble.

Although there are several individual bookcases found in various rooms in Resident Evil 4, we only come across a full library room while playing with Ashley in Chapter 3-4. After Leon frees her from the wall trap, she has to go through a series of rooms in the basement so as to be able to meet with him again. One of the first rooms that she enters is a library.

What is interesting in this case is that the library is actually buried in the dungeons. Given that there is no other room in the whole castle that hosts books apart from a few random copies here and there, we could assume that Ramon Salazar paid little to no attention to the cultivation of his spirit. It is very possible that he inherited the books from his predecessors and had them transported down in the basement, where he barely ever went - in a room closeby, he also has a portrait depicting himself from before he became infected with the Plagas, so we can safely say that he only cared to send down there all those items that were of no interest to him. If we take into consideration as well that he was so absurdly and ridiculusly obsessed with power, it becomes more than clear that mental cultivation and intellectuality meant nothing to him. Which automatically makes him the exact opposite of Leon, who not only has a brilliant mind, but also loves reading.

A man equally brilliant as Leon and similarly keen on taking action despite coming from a different professional field, Malachi Rector in Moebius: Empire Rising has the chance to visit libraries twice. The first time is in Paris, where he goes to the public Library accompanied by his bodyguard and assistant, David Walker. That library plays a clearly practical role in the game, as Malachi wants to search its computer archives for some important info. There is a rather enjoying and saucy activity that you have to carry on here, as Malachi urges his gorgeous blond assistant to flirt with the sour secretary, so that they are able to obtain a passcode for the archives.

The library in Paris is a huge setting with impressive decoration, imposing with its numerous books and computers. There is a lot of detail in the room, although unfortunately you can only explore a small part of the visible scenery.

Later on, while investigating the case of Helene Bernadotte, a distinguished socialite, in her family's mansion in Zurich, Malachi has to solve a complex astronomy puzzle which involves some studying. For that reason, he must go down to the mansion's library and locate a specific book.

Helene's library is very stylish, located in a small living room which is tastefully decorated with paintings, statuettes and other interesting items. The books on the built-in shelves are as colourful as the rest of the room. Although it is obvious that the library is not very big, it is clear that it has books on several uncommon subjects, as Helene is a smart lady with lots of intellectual interests, in spite of her very young age.

Another smart young lady who is also prone to trouble is Samantha Everett in Gray Matter. Samantha has a mildly goth look, an inventive mind, a talent for magical tricks and a huge heart. Once she gets almost accidentally hired as the assistant to Dr David Styles, she will do anything to help him out, even if that means snaffling a student card from another girl so as to be able to get inside the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Just like the Paris Library in Moebius: Empire Rising, here too the Bodleian Library serves a practical purpose, with Samantha accessing its archives to learn stuff about David Styles. This Library is a huge room where the yellow and orange colours dominate. It is imposing in its space and presented in impressive detail, although there is not much interaction with the objects, except for an instance when you have to set up a magic trick so as to distract someone away from the entrance.

Gabriel Knight, the protagonist of the homonymous game series, is the owner of a bookstore specializing in old books. In the remake of Sins of the Fathers, we have the chance to marvel at his revamped bookstore, which is located in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

"St George's Books", as it is called, is a vintage-looking shop with limited space, but has a quite big collection of old and rare books. There is also an upper section with a balcony, but we have no access there - we can assume that it maybe hosts a storage attic, where Gabriel puts his unsorted books. Gabriel is an intelligent young writer and amateur detective with a metaphysical past and present. Running a bookstore seems to be his ideal job, however he somehow manages to be penniless most of the time because he gets bored quickly and spends too much time flirting. The setup of the bookstore reflects his laid back and joyful personality, with its bright colors and fancy retro decoration.

A different style characterizes his uncle's private library in Germany, which Gabriel visits during an investigation. This library is in the family castle-like mansion, but its whereabouts are covered with mystery. Gabriel must go through a specific ritual so as to be able to locate and unlock it.

The stone walls, decorated with hanging flags, the imposing arcs and the flickering lights of the chandelier create a spooky atmosphere in the library, although the colourful books on the shelves do bring Gabriel's bookstore to mind.

When Booker arrives at the Monument Tower looking for Elizabeth in Bioshock: Infinite, he follows her around in a series or rooms and finally catches up with her in the library. It is a long-shaped room with numerous books on its shelves that cover all the walls around.

Elizabeth lives secluded in the tower, and reading books is almost her only recreation. By the time that Booker finds her and helps her escape, she has already studied almost every subject and has gathered knowledge on almost every science and activity. When Booker first has eye contact with her, she is seen holding a copy of "Odyssey". Seconds later, aware of Booker's presence but still ignorant about his intentions, she attempts to hit him with a book called "The Principles of Quantum Mechanics". Of course, the choice of both titles is not random. "Odyssey" symbolizes Booker's adventurous journey, during which he comes across all sorts of literal and metaphorical monsters before he is able to return back to his "home" - which is the reunion with his own self, and the other book is the imaginary research written by Rosalind Lutece, the scientist who worked on the quantum mechanics to create Columbia, the floating city.

Libraries and bookstores hold their own secrets, and several times revealing them is not that easy. When Booker and Elizabeth arrive in Emporia, the wealthy suburb of Columbia, they visit "Founder's Books", a luxurious bookstore which also sells vintage toys.

It is a cozy-looking store, set on two floors. Its colours are generally warm and friendly, although the windows and lower shelves somehow look a bit creepy with all the giant toys sitting on them. Its fancy basement has a more bookshelves and a small sitting room space, as well as a pile of books near the stairs. The basement is the setting of yet one more battle among books, as Booker and Elizabeth get unexpectedly attacked by a few guards when they arrive downstairs. Once the battle is over, however, they can explore the place and locate certain items which open the path to otherwise inaccessible areas.

A library with much trickier secrets that require finding is the one of the Raccoon Police Department in Resident Evil 2. It is a large room with one main section and an upper balcony, and it also has a back room where a bizzare painting hints at the solution of a puzzle which involves four bookcases in the main room.

Like the rest of the building, the library looks vintage and has a vague aristocratic air of the past. It always struck me as rather weird that a place like Raccoon - a relatively small city located in a mountainous area - should have such a large and labyrinthal police station. If you examine the rooms more closely, it becomes evident that this building must have been much older than the modern city - given its complex architecture and certain decorative details like statues and engravings, as well as its several locked rooms. Moreover, it is full of symbols and paintings depicting scenes that many times have a meaning connected to the story.

In a similar tradition, the library in the Umbrella facility in Resident Evil Zero looks like it comes from ages ago. It also has a side room, which is locked at first and where more secrets await. The library itself, with its vintage tapestry, the lit lamp and its undoubtedly interesting collection of old books, could have been a warm, welcoming room if it weren't for all the zombies roaming outside.

The big and messy library rooms in the monster-inhabited ships of Resident Evil: Revelations do not feel any more friendly. The destroyed grandfather clock at the end of one corridor - a sad reminiscent of the one in the Spencer mansion's dining room - only adds more to the atmosphere of decadence and decay.

What is interesting here is the very existence of these library rooms. The ships may be large and luxurious, but even so it is rather unusual to have two big rooms full of old books on board. We can only guess that whoever equipped those ships was one hell of a bookworm.

Vast, spooky and eery, the isolated library of the Spencer Mansion in Resident Evil 1 is a very special room which can be accessed only after Chris and Jill have done specific things. Located in an uppermost section of the mansion, beyond a lethal trapped corridor and unlocked with a very unique key that can be obtained after lots of trials, the library holds yet one more surprise for our heroes.

It is the last hiding place of Yawn, the giant snake, one of the most dreaded B.O.W.s that Umbrella had created. Although Yawn's size is anything but insignificant, the strategically placed bookcase at the back of the room offers a great advantage for Chris and Jill as they can lure it around and shoot it as it attempts to take a turn. We could interpret this as some kind of allegory, which implies that the human mind - represented by the library and the books - and, subsequently, intellectuality and spirituality, can outsmart any kind of danger, as immense as it may seem.

Books are not simple objects; they carry whole worlds in their pages. Libraries and bookstores have that very special atmosphere that makes them unique places in real life; and it is not random that this feature is depicted so successfully in video games. Obviously some developers are book lovers, and same goes for their game characters. As incombatible as action and intellectuality may seem in theory, sometimes they do go hand in hand.

True Detective and The Evil Within

Seeing how many things the Evil Within has in common with the first season of True Detective is not much of a surprise. A video game and a TV series, respectively, that are both masterful works, of the kind that cannot be imitated in any way and will always remain unique and unforgettable. Although their subject matters are different, they are similar in many ways that may not always be that obvious. True Detective's Season 1 is a grim and gloomy tale about love, friendship, loyalty, betrayal and the extremes that the human mind can reach. The Evil Within is a dark and nightmarish adventure that is centered around the grey matter and all the evil that it can cause when used the wrong way, while placing a strong friendship in the whirlpool of uncotrollable events.

Even from these short descriptions, it is easy to sense the similarities that the game shares with the series and vice versa. It is always fascinating to find references to other forms of artistic expression in video games; and in most cases such references are anything but random. If you take a quick tour in the realms of various fandoms, you will surely notice that the fans of certain games tend to like more or less the same movies, books, music or series. Many fans of the Resident Evil game series, for example, are also avid watchers of Hannibal (the HBO TV series) and love heavy metal music. While this is not something that can be taken as a general rule, still the percentage is way too big to be seen as a simple coincidence. In a similar fashion, the developers of video games, while putting their stories together and giving shape and substance to their heroes, are naturally inspired and influenced, albeit sometimes subconsciously, by things that they themselves are fans of. If you think about it, most of them are not much older than most of us, the generation who saw video games blooming and evolving into what they are today.

Starting from the lead characters, in both cases we have a pair of detectives who are as different as day and night. Rusty and Marty in True Detective are such strikingly opposite characters that their ends inevitably meet and they get attached to each other in a dramatic, star-crossed way (something which becomes almost literal if you contemplate a bit on the rather ambiguous finale of their story).

Sebastian and Joseph of The Evil Within are completely different characters as well; one could never imagine that a man like Sebastian would be such close friends with someone like Joseph. Both pairs simply prove the physics rule that opposites attract, as well as the fact that some things are meant to be - whether it is destiny, fate or karma.

Both heroes of The Evil Within have elements of Rusty, who is quite possibly one of the most charming characters ever conceived. Sebastian is wrecked and desperate like him, a man who has lost his family and is closed off to himself, yet someone extremely strong, decisive, brilliant and efficient. In a similar way, his reserved manner can be seen in Joseph's attitude, as well as his hidden passions and his tendency to note everything down during investigation.

It is more than implied that the tumultuous bromance that goes on between the members of each pair is way more complex than it generally shows - although their reactions betray far too many things.

The differences between Rusty and Marty are exactly those that bring them together; it is as if the one complements the other. If you consider the general social stereotypes, it would be impossible for a man like Marty to befriend a guy like Rusty. Marty, being a smart but more or less conventional detective, buried in a dazed family life which could have been lovely if he wasn't so ardent to prove his masculinity by constantly cheating on his wife, a man who likes to pose as the typical dominant male yet deep inside is shockingly insecure about hismself, would "normally" feel contempt for the hermit-like, deeply intellectual and solitary Rusty. Yet he finds himself somehow trapped in Rusty's natural mental charms and he becomes his close friend without even realizing it.

Sebastian and Joseph are equally, albeit not so strikingly, different. Even so, they are also like two sides of the same coin and they need each other so as to feel balanced. Sebastian's passionate and firey temperament can only be toned down thanks to Joseph's mild and controlled attitude. But it goes the other way round too: Joseph's timid and somewhat confused character finds major sentimental support in Sebastian's strong and confident company.

The story of The Evil Within may not be exactly centered around Sebastian and Joseph, however it is full of dark undertones concerning the two guys. It is not random that they are reunited in a pivotal point of the plot, in Chapter 6, promptly entitled "Losing Grip On Ourselves", and they remain together until its end. This chapter is the hardest of the whole game, and it is as if it follows Ruvik's messed up memories, as well as Joseph's and Sebastian's who are both in a sedated state inside STEM, although at that point they do not know it. Interestingly enough, another thing that dominates in this chapter is the church, mainly as a literal place but also as a symbol.

The church is prominent in True Detective, and there are several depictions of it and themes connected to it throughout the story. From the simple crosses that can be seen in the opening credits and Rusty's apartment, to the ruined church with the disturbing drawings, to Theriot's revival, to Tuttle's luxurious but cold organization.

In The Evil Within, the church is a recurring theme and symbol; there is a ruined church in Chapter 6, a cathedral of sorts in Chapter 7 which leads underground, and there are also Juli Kidman's childhood memories that are connected to religion and the church both as a place and as an institution. In Chapter 6, we can also see priests and nuns that have become Haunted and are extremely vicious in their attacks. Although there is no specific reference in Ruvik's story concerning the role of the church in his life, there are hints that he might have been related to a local cult. Joseph finds some symbols at some point that are relevant and he and Sebastian later locate some sort of sacrificial room hidden below a secret entrance at the cemetery.

Stand-alone objects related to the church, the female statuettes that are spotted in the adandoned school in True Detective, also have their counterparts in The Evil Within. In the series, Rusty sees them when he goes to investigate the place on his own at the end of the captivating Episode 5 (The Secret Fate Of All Life). There are a few of them scattered around, usually standing on higher spots, somehow guiding him to find a valuable clue.

In the game, Sebastian finds several statuettes, called 'goddess statues' in the story. Those can be seen anywhere - among rocks, hidden behind rubble, on rafters, hanging from the ceiling. Sebastian can break them or shoot them and they reveal keys that were hidden in them, with which he can open lockers with bonus items back in the safe room. In that light, the staues in The Evil Within act in a more or less similar manner as the ones in True Detective: they are some kind of guides, leading the characters towards a right path.

The statuettes are not the only items that are found in both the series and the game. While not main plot points, the masks seem to play their role in both True Detective and The Evil Within. A most disturbing evidence concerning the activity of the murderous group in True Detective is a photo showing a blindfolded girl being watched by a man with a creepy mask covering his face. This mask is connected to the Voodoo worship in the area of New Orleans, where the story takes place.

In The Evil Within, some of the enemies that Sebastian encounters are wearing masks too; those masks look like a twisted blend between the Comedy mask and that of a circus clown. Said enemies are sometimes stronger than their standard counterparts and most of the times are carrying guns or other lethal weapons. Moreover, the mask automatically renders their face invulnerable to hit, nullifying the possibilities of a successful headshot when Sebastian is standing face to face against them.

The mask is of course a universal symbol that represents a series of things, notions and ideas; mostly and above all, it symbolizes everything that is concealed and ususally hides something negative. In both the series and the game, it is exactly this and as far as True Detective is concerned, in particular, it stands for the human hypocricy that uses a shiney and seemingly impeccable facade (Tuttle's Church) so as to open the way for all the twisted and gruesome activities that the mind can conceive. There is human hypocricy in The Evil Within as well, only it is expressed in a different way. Its victim is, surprisignly enough, not the good hero (Sebastian) but the antagonist (Ruvik). The game's arch-villain became a physical and emotional wreck because, as a child, he was the victim of hyporcicy and deceit, coming first from his own father (whom he eventually murdered) and later the doctor whom he trusted, and who had him killed.

This brings us to yet one more theme of the series that can be traced in the game. That of the victimized child who became a serial killer in his adult life. Both Billy from True Detective and Ruvik from The Evil Within were marginalized as kids, which made them develop an antisocial and solitary attitude that later led them to extremes.

Billy, the deranged serial killer in True Detective who was also Tuttle's illegitimate son, expressed his ruined childhood through a series of disturbing drawings on the walls. Near the conclusion of the story, Rusty and Marty locate his hideout in the woods, where there is a cabin "decorated" with such drawings, depicting the "Yellow King" and / or his own victims.

Similar drawings can be found in Ruvik's family mansion in The Evil Within, when you play as the Executioner in the episode with the same name. There are gory murals on the walls of the house illustrating the state or the fate of several characters involved. There is a depiction of Joseph, another one of Sebastian, as well as others of Zehn and Neun, the Amalgam Alpha, even the very same Executioner. Who is behind those drawings, it is not clear; but it could very well be Ruvik himself (because they all have the same style) in a morbid attempt to mock his victims by imitating a child's drawings while producing themes that are not appropriate for a child at all.

The countryside as a background setting with its gloomy, dusty colours is an essential protagonist in both the series and the game. In True Detective, the initial murder scene is in the field, while the resolution of the story takes place out in the open. The compelling shots of the vast and swampy plains of Louisiana only increase the atmosphere of anxiety and terror; you can almost smell the disturbance in the air. It is as if the heroes are constantly being watched, as if there are eyes following them from everywhere - even from below the ground.

The equally strong imagery of The Evil Within stresses the feeling of nausea and mislocation, which are more than literal as the characters are in a sleeping state, unable to control themselves while wandering inside Ruvik's memories. Two major plot sequences take place in the country: the first is in Chapter 6, where Sebastian reunites with Joseph and the two of them move through the numb countryside encountering all sorts of nightmarish monsters, and the second is in Chapter 9, where Sebastian reaches the root of Ruvik's traumatic memories, which is his family's sunflower field.

In both the series and the game, the notion of the open air signifies insecurity and uncertainty, but also the inevitable revelation; things cannot stay hidden out in the open - once exposed, they will become known sooner or later. The killers in True Detective are revealed in the fields; and Ruvik's deeper motives in The Evil Within are made clear when Sebastian exits to the sunflower field.

Similarly, during Sebastian's and Joseph's quest in the countryside in Chapter 6, several things come to the surface, and it is while there that Joseph says to Sebastian that he wishes to kill himself so as to not suffer from his developing change. As a continuation to this, at the beginning of the following chapter in yet one more church, he confesses that some part of himself wants to become a Haunted, resulting in him being in a state of constant battle that is mental, emotional and, above all, physical, and which remains open to several other interpretations as well.