Pretty much like the banker's lamps, the carousels are among those elements that appear regularly in video games, either as part of the environment or as something functional that may also have some kind of "role" in the scene where it is seen. The carousel, both as an object and a concept, has something about it that is heart-warming and nostalgic, but also mysterious and spooky. Its continuous circular movement, in combination with the joyful colors and the complex design, especially when its decoration features vintage pictures that depict landscapes or portraits, give out a magical fairytale-like feel. But it is exactly these elements that can turn it into an eerie spectacle, most of the times in direct connection with the environment where it is set, the game's scenario and the sequence in which it takes part.

In The Evil Within, there are two unforgettable sequences that involve carousels. The first one is in Chapter 10, The Craftsman's Tools, where a giant carousel in the middle of a dark room full of traps, becomes a lethal construction since it has a huge blade attached to its center, which blade moves unstoppably along with it, as soon as it is set in motion. This carousel features a faded and partly damaged vintage roof, and instead of horses, it has cages with mannequins locked inside them.

A bit later, in Chapter 11, Reunion, Sebastian exits out to the city which is all completely ruined, with rubble and random objects lying here and there along the cut streets, and the only thing that seems to be "alive" is a colorful carousel that is doing its circular movement with all its lamps lit, although its base is flooded.

Both carousel sequences are accompanied by a beautiful, melancholic tune that sounds like it's coming out of an old music box, and they are both connected to Ruvik's ruined childhood and his twisted mind.

In Resident Evil: Code Veronica, a still carousel decorates the middle of a well-hidden room in the Ashford mansion. Alfred's secret "palace" is full of toys and dolls - others in a good state and others broken and dirty - and it is as if the carousel that leads to the attic shelters the disturbed childhood of Alfred's past self, since the room where it is set and the one where it leads hide important items associated to his memories.

Later on, playing with Chris, we arrive at a secluded area of the Antarctica base where there is also a replica of the Spencer Mansion. Just outside, there is a smaller carousel which looks more like a huge toy.

In Game of Oblivion from Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, the Ashford palace carousel becomes the ground of a brief battle where Claire and Steve have to face Alfred disguised as Alexia. The carousel is in motion in this sequence, along with its faint tune, and Alfred uses it as a cover as it moves while attempting to defeat his potential victims.

Another memorable carousel can be seen in the stage Soldiers Field in BioShock Infinite. It does not play a part in the action or the story, but its imposing presence at the far side of the area catches the eye from the start, and its movement is also accompanied by a vintage tune.

Two particularly creepy carousels appear in the Looney Park stage from Painkiller: Battle Out Of Hell. Not only is the appearance of the carousels absolutely ominous with their bright colours illuminating the darkness, but the insane battles that take place there transform them into hellish grounds in an instant.

Similarly, the red and golden carousel in the mission Found from DmC: Devil May Cry is anything but soothing and pleasant to look at, not to mention the numerous demons that show up when you get close to it.

In the classic game Sanitarium, an old-school carousel appears in Chapter 4, The Circus of Fools. Just like the name of the stage implies, the carousel looks and feels like it comes out of a horror movie.

A bright-colored carousel appears in the garden of an abandoned mansion in Frankenstein: Master of Death.

In Riddles of the Past, we can see a carousel in a deserted amusement park, with its colors faded and everything around it destroyed.

When the story concludes and everything is settled, the amusement park is alive again, and the carousel appears restored, with bright colors and people having a good time around it.

A most famous carousel is that which appears in the Silent Hill games. It is the Happy Carousel in Lakeside Amusement Park.

A carousel in full motion appears in Chapter 4 of The Last of Us: Left Behind. Ellie and Riley can ride it for a bit as a bonus.

While carousels can be seen in all genres of video games, their most interesting appearances are in those games that are focused in action and survival, as it is in such cases that the contrast that is created between their bright, usually playful, view and the tension of gameplay, becomes more prominent. But they are always notable elements wherever they appear, as well as points of interest and reference.
 

All screenshot by me, except:
Sanitarium, Frankenstein: Master of Death, Riddles of the Past: afterdarkmysweet
Silent Hill: AlexSheperd (Silent Hill Wiki)
The Last of Us: usgamer.com

 

 

Yukio Mishima and The Evil Within

Some other time in this blog, I mentioned how the backstories of the characters in video games give us a rich insight concerning the research that the developers went through while shaping them. Sometimes, said backstories involve details that may be offered randomly and thus pass unnoticed, until you get a clue to put them together: then it is like puzzle pieces that are placed in the right spots to form an image, thanks to which the character that they concern is set under a new, revealing light.

In The Assignment, one of the extra episodes of The Evil Within, where we get to play as Juli Kidman, we have the chance to view parts of the main game's story through her eyes. While literally floating in a state between reality and nightmare, Juli comes across some particularly nasty surprises in her way. The most revealing of them is having to fight Joseph Oda, who appears before her as a Haunted, determined to kill her. In her attempt to distract him so as to perform her attacks against him, Juli can resort to several diversions, one of them being turning on a film in a small cinema, which depicts Joseph as a Samurai, yielding a katana.

 

It is interesting that, although we are already aware from the main game that Joseph is the descendant of a historical family of Samurais, this is the first and only time that we see him literally paying homage to his heritage, and it is through an indirect means, in the distorted reality created by Ruvik in STEM. As Ruvik is exploiting the memories of his victims, blending them with his own so as to be able to control them, it becomes clear that the appearance of this specific film comes straight from Joseph's memory stash, serving as a way to confuse him at that point (because he is a Haunted, therefore not himself), while offering Juli the chance to stealthily attack him.

Joseph is described as a considerate and composed man, but it is hinted that he is constantly suppressing himself in order to comply to the norms and stereotypes of society. Coming from a strict upbringing, he feels forced - partly by his environment and partly by his own self - to keep his sensitivities and weaknesses hidden. This is something rather typical of the Samurai upbringing, so it is natural that Joseph, due to his family's historical past, had it too, to some degree at least. The film that we have the chance to see in The Assignment shows that he had been through Samurai training as part of his celebrated family's tradition.

Mostly known for his ritualistic suicide via "seppuku" (or harakiri), Yukio Mishima was nonetheless a multi-talented writer, considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. Both as an artist and a personality, he was obsessed with beauty, eroticism and death, as well as their becoming one. Mishima was a homosexual, but growing up in the extremely strict Japanese society of the 1930ties made it particularly tough for him to accept and express himself as far as his sexuality was concerned. In 1949, he wrote his now considered iconic novel "Confessions of a Mask" which, although not entirely autobiographical, narrates episodes and memories of its protagonist that are greatly connected to the author himself. Written in first person, the novel explores a young man's continuous agony as he struggles with his ever-growing and forbidden sexual desires while evolving in a society and a family environment that are not only particularly strict, but moreover guide their members towards very specific, predesignated paths from which it is quite hard - if not impossible - to divert.

The young narrator starts his confessions going back to his childhood and early teens, during which time he had his first sexual awakenings triggered by random visual experiences. Although not the very first, the strongest, most memorable and critical one was an image of Saint Sebastian that he saw in a book, a painting by Guido Reni which depicted the saint during his torture, tied on a tree with his body pierced with arrows. The hero describes with both precision and subtlety all the emotions that rushed through him while looking at that painting, resulting in a rather intense first experience of culmination which defined his subsequent view of people and the world and made him more than conscious of his sexual identity. However, living in a society that condemned such deviations from the accepted norms, he knew that he would be forced to live his life in disguise, always putting on a mask that would hide his true self from the rest of the world.

Joseph of The Evil Within has grown up in a similar environment - probably not so strict, but still the values and beliefs that characterized old-time Japan should have been ever present in the life of his family and surrounding environment. Apparently he took some important education, then trained to become a detective. We can see from his attitude and approach that he likes to dig into things, examine them deeper and he also has a notable combinatorial mind. He has a small notebook where he writes down everything that he sees or thinks that can be related to a crime case. He got married at a relatively young age and made his own family, but he still seems to be quite vulnerbale socially, despite his smartness and the choice that he made to follow a dangerous line of work. But maybe he chose the specific line of work for this reason: so as to give him inner strength and help him overcome his fears and anxieties.

 

Teaming up with Sebastian was a turning point in both his professional and personal/social life, as Sebastian was quite different as a person, and came from an equally different environment and background. Although he was not too open as a character either, he was much more free sentimentally and spiritually and, unlike Joseph, obviously not hunted by strict rules and norms. The two partners formed a close bond and became good friends, always caring for and helping each other. From a symbolic aspect, Sebastian was for Joseph what Saint Sebastian was for Mishima, a new force in his life which brought forward a mental strength that he always had but kept suppressed and maybe woke up in him some darker and forbidden desires (maybe towards Sebastian as well). Sebastian, aptly named after the saint, was in a similar way tortured - not literally like him, but psychologically broken - but he was also a hot-blooded, passionate man who would always show his feelings and never suppress himself. Although he too was positively affected by Joseph's presence in his life - the calmness and love for order that were due to Joseph's upbringing helped Sebastian have better control - the biggest influence was the one that he had on Joseph, something that the latter obviously came to realize while being trapped in STEM, during which time his subconscious took over and brought him face to face with new revelations about himself.

There are several instances in the game, where we can see a progression of this newfound self-awareness, albeit they all occur in the dream-like sequences that STEM creates. What triggers the initiation of this development is his succumbing to Ruvik's power and becoming a Haunted for the first time. This transition could very well symbolize the awakening of his darker side and all those elements that he kept hidden in the real, "civilized" world. During the sequences when Joseph is a Haunted, he seems to possess an insane power which makes him become extremely violent and lethal. Unlike any other random Haunted, however, he is totally aware of this transformation and seems to be able to control it, as he can go back to normal and vice-versa. In a most revealing scene at the start of Chapter 7, after he and Sebastian found refuge in an abandoned church, he acknowledges that he does like it when he turns, since this transforms him into someone that he cannot be in real life. Although it scares him, it also fascinates him, and this is one more reason why, in the previous chapter, he tried to put an end to his life. Embracing his dark side would mean accepting all that would come along, and this is something that can also be applied to his normal, real life. Just like Mishima, Joseph is in a constant struggle between faithfully following the rules with which he grew up and freeing himself from everything that keeps him enslaved

Kidman's Ghosts

As a protagonist of The Evil Within's complementary episodes, Juli Kidman has her fair share of journeying in Ruvik's twisted world. Appearing as a reserved, quiet, rather secretive person in the main game, she offers us a chance to get to know her a bit more in The Assignment and The Consequence. It is in these two extra episodes where we learn for the first time that she is in fact working for Mobius, the secret organization that stole and used Ruvik's experiment and that was responsible for the kidnapping of Lily, Sebastian's daughter.

Juli used to be a rebellious teenager who would often end up in trouble with the law. As a child, she lived in a home where maternal affection was absent. She used to go out at nights and wander in the nearby cemetery where she would regularly steal the memorial statuettes that decorated the graves, to make people believe that they were cursed. Growing up as a delinquent in her adolescence, she was eventually recruited by Mobius agents who took advantage of her desperate state so as to lure her in the organization, offering her a home and protection on first look, but essentially using her as one of their numerous pawns towards the realization of their plans.

When Juli enters STEM in the main game, she is largely unbeknownst to it. Up to that point, she was made to believe that her role would be to simply spy on Sebastian's activities, being a rookie detective under his guidance, to make sure that he would never go anywhere near to discovering and exposing Mobius, and subsequently report to the Administrator, her boss. In reality, however, she was used almost as all the other victims of STEM, getting herself in an even riskier position as soon as Mobius discovered that she was, in fact, hindering their plans both because she wanted to protect Sebastian and, mainly, because she started to realize that the organization's motives for hiring her were not innocent and that their plans were evil.

After she wakes up in STEM, the world around her looks distorted and unreal. The people that she comes across in the corridors have a blurred blotch instead of a face, the pictures on the walls are blank and there is a vicious monster stalking her even before she takes notice. Later on, STEM becomes a huge trap with scarce light, filled with zombies guarding the halls and gradually revealing nightmarish visions of the recent past, first hinting at and then showing directly the real intentions of Mobius. In her journey, Juli has to face ghosts that have a special significance for both her character and the story.

The terrifying Shade (or Light Creature) is the most memorable ghost monster that Juli meets in her path. An unnaturally tall, ominous figure with long legs in black stockings and red high heels, the Shade has a huge spotlight instead of a head and its hideous torso which looks like a combination of a mouth and a vulva, is covered with a bloody sheet. It walks clumsily, making chilling noises as it goes, from time to time scanning the environment with its spotlight head the light from which paralyses whoever happens to be in its radius. The Shade seems to be looking for Leslie, as it can be heard calling his name, but later on we find out that it is searching for Juli as well. The role of this particularly gross monster is dual and contradictory, as it chases Juli so as to literally devour her, but from time to time it clearly acts as her guiding light.

The Shade looks like a monstrous, vile version of a woman. It wears high heels, just like Juli; and like with her, this is the only obviously feminine element about it. Juli never had a real, normal childhood, something that apparently made her grow into a confused adult. She has an attractive figure but her tall, lean legs do not have anything particularly feminine about them. Her short hair and child-like face make her look more like a teenager than a 27-year-old woman. We see this particular detail about her character even better in her 'Missing' poster, where the sketch of her head, closer to the game's concept art, reveals a girl with almost boyish features (check it here). In the same picture, we also notice that her dressing style looks somewhat vintage, matching that of Ruvik and Laura. Juli is still a little child trapped in a female body, unable to handle her sexuality and come to terms with it. The Shade seems to openly mock her, walking clumsily on its own high heels as if it is about to fall in pieces. It is as if the Shade is trying to tell Juli that inside she also is messed up like this and has almost no identity of herself.

A recurring ghost in Juli's story is the Administrator of Mobius who appears before her on several occasions, mostly to threaten her. Although he is a real person, he shows up as a looming dark figure, usually in unexpected places, to remind Juli of her duties and tasks and warn her that she will face severe consequences if she either fails or betrays the organization.

The Administrator looks and sounds like an automated bot; he is a man who obviously has no moral compass, an amoralist who is blindly and obsessively devoted to the cause of the organization that he governs. At some point, he summons what seems to be a huge monster with large claws, which we can only see as an ominous shadow and that chases Juli relentlessly in a sequence where one wrong step means instant death. In the end it is revealed that said monster is yet one more ghostly version of the Administrator, its hands and claws symbolizing the way Mobius controls - or at least wants to control - the world.

When Juli beats that monster, she makes one first step towards taking Mobius down. But this still happens in Ruvik's reality. In the real world, she continues to be a member of the organization, and she has a long way to go to actually achieve this, as shown in The Evil Within 2.

In connection with the Shade and its significance concerning Juli, are the clones that the Administrator summons at some point before the end so as to intimidate her. They are clones of herself, albeit frightening in sight and murderous in attitude, dressed just like her but in red, and they run around like walking dolls whose mechanism has gone berserk. They are chasing Juli around yielding axes, which again is a means to mock her as the axe is her primary defense weapon for most of her story. When the clones appear, it is like the Shade finally takes a more specific shape. 

Ruvik also appears in Juli's path, like he does in Sebastian's. In Juli's story however his role is a bit different. Slightly less threatening, although equally (if not more) creepy, he briefly appears in side rooms or passages and when he faces Juli, it is in order to warn her and actually guide her to realize that, for Mobius, she is just as expendable as their victims. Regardless later on he shows his intentions directly, attempting and at some point achieving in getting Leslie whom Juli is accompanying.

But Ruvik is not alone in STEM; Laura's ghost also roams the halls but can be only spotted by Juli once, through a pair of broken automatic doors. Unlike in the main story, where Sebastian comes across Laura's monstrous form and he has to fight with her, in Juli's adventure Laura appears in her regular, human form when she still had her innocence and good heart. Her appearance however is particularly frightening and intimidating, even more so since she does not speak or move.

Ruvik and Laura haunt Juli as part of the memory sequence that STEM incites and, as far as Laura is concerned at least, not because there is any other sort of connection between them and Juli. Still, as Laura is part of Ruvik's memories, he is the one responsible for her appearance in the zombie-infested STEM. Ruvik himself continues to show up from time to time in Juli's path in several ways, the most memorable being on pictures framed with blood cells in the last part of The Consequence, which are in fact portals revealed only after Juli sets the pictures on fire. In this case, Ruvik is trying to stop Juli from reaching Leslie, whom he wants so as to be able to escape STEM.

Ruvik is also responsible for yet one more ghost of sorts that Juli meets: Sebastian in a Haunted form who attacks her in the mannequin factory. While in the main game we are under the impression at that point that Sebastian indeed turns into a Haunted, when we reach that segment in The Consequence we can see that it is actually Ruvik that creates that illusion, attempting to hit two targets with one shot: on the one hand to scare Juli and on the other to make Sebastian believe that he is more vulnerable than he thinks and that Ruvik can do what he pleases with him. We do know for sure that it is only an illusion because Juli shoots the Haunted Sebastian, but as soon as Sebastian becomes himself again, there is no wound on his body.

Unlike Sebastian, his friend Joseph does turn into a Haunted on quite a few occasions - one of them being while the two of them are wandering together - but it is in Juli's story that we can see this transformation in more detail. Joseph may or may not appear close to the start of Juli's journey, in a dark, spooky corridor which is actually where the normal (so to speak) part of STEM ends and the ghosts start to appear. Juli can spot him in the distance with the help of her torch and hear him laughing evilly. The way he appears and disappears at that point, combined with the fact that his showing up is random, signifies that this specific manifestation is an illusion, one more ghost summoned by Ruvik.

Later on, after they part with Sebastian in the sewers below the asylum, they wander together for a very brief segment during which Joseph suddenly turns into a Haunted and attacks Juli, rattling out cryptic threats that may have more than one interpretations. In this case, he does turn into a Haunted, and it is not an illusion; however part of him is again possessed by Ruvik, which is why his words have a dual meaning: one which is related to himself and one that is connected to Ruvik speaking through him.

Specifically, when he tells Juli "I'm not going to let you take him", on one part he simply spells out Ruvik's threat that he will not let Juli take Leslie away, while on another, speaking for himself, he again threatens her that he, as Joseph now, will not let her kill Sebastian, as were her orders from Mobius.

When Juli meets Joseph again, he is still a Haunted, and this time he is determined to kill her. Juli manages to defeat him leaving him for dead, only to discover a bit later that he is alive and well and has reunited with Sebastian. This revelation confuses her even more, and hints that Ruvik is playing with her mind, as her previous fight with Joseph, which supposedly ended fatally for him, proves to have been yet one more illusion.

Juli comes upon an epiphany when she arrives at the STEM room while chasing Leslie, and bumps onto something unbelievable. She sees herself sedated in one of the tubes, in a sequence that is similar to the one that Sebastian goes through close to the end of the main game when he arrives in the same room and finds himself, along with the others, asleep in a tube, and which resembles the phenomenon of astral projection, but in reverse: she finds out that she is in fact asleep in STEM while up to then she thought that she was wandering in full consciousness around the place. This revelation makes her realize that Mobius was using her just like all the others, proving what Ruvik told her earlier about her being expendable.

It is actually thanks to all these ghosts that Juli starts to see more clearly and take decisions about her attitude towards Mobius and her life in general. Like when we have epiphanies through dreams, in a similar way Juli had her revelations through her nightmarish adventure in STEM. What is particularly interesting about Kidman is that we see her develop gradually in the course of two games. Her character starts as an outline in the main Evil Within, it becomes more solid in the extra episodes, and gets fully colored in The Evil Within 2. In a sense, her journey and the ghosts that haunt her in The Assignment and The Consequence mark the beginning of her sentimental coming-of-age. Her actions in The Evil Within 2 show that she finally put her past behind and found her own place in the world. By taking Mobius down, not only she frees the world of their threat, but also liberates herself from their grip and the constant reminder of the dark years of her life. By facing her ghosts one way or the other, she finally becomes a whole new person.

Related articles:
» The Symbolisms of The Evil Within
» The Evil Within Hearts and Minds 

Interior Spaces In Video Games As Settings And Myth Components

From the moment when the video game technology found the means to create three-dimensional settings for  its environments, the concept of space and its use in gaming moved to a wholly different level. Still, third-person shooters from the early '90ties, like Wolfenstein 3D or Blake Stone and even more evolved games like the very first Tomb Raider, took place almost exclusively in interior areas because back then creating an open-world exterior space was a very difficult and complicated task. Under that light, we could say that the setting played a major role in shaping the essence of the plot. When, in the first Tomb Raider, Lara Croft had to go to Peru, the game's action was limited to a series of caves. Exterior areas, whenever they were present in the game, were in fact interior spaces with a black ceiling indicating the sky. In the gameplay sequences of Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, the most iconic point-and-click game from that time, we see real environments that were photographed and used as some sort of backdrop, in front of which the action could take place. The evolution of gaming technology however was so fast and so impressive that it soon was able to offer all the means for the creation of video games that were almost like movies. Now game developers can create a vast open world and expand it as much as they want as a huge, seemingly limitless exterior that covers several different areas.

A video game is, simply put, a moving picture that develops on a computer or TV screen. The whole surrounding, exterior environment of a game is built from scratch and, in its turn, happens to be a specified space made of pixels and defined by a programming language which gives it the attributes of a virtual exterior world. Within that virtual exterior world, individual interior spaces are formed, again from combinations of pixels, taking their own place and gaining their special major or minor importance in the world that includes them. As soon as the surrounding space becomes the exterior of an interior setting, the interior space gets a specific level of autonomy. This means that, on the technical level, it still depends on the programming of its exterior space but on the levels of fiction, story and plot, it has its own identity and role in the game. So in terms of programming, it is made of a set total of pixels and commands, but in terms of storyline and gameplay, it is what us, as players see: a mansion, a store, a hut, a museum, an asylum, a lighthouse, a castle - whatever the almost endless list of interior settings in video games can feature.

While there is a multitude of interior areas in games that exist in the environments simply for the sake of realism (houses in a village or a town, apartment buildings in a city, abandoned huts in a countryside) or for aesthetic purposes, or both, they often have a prominent role, being places that the lead characters have to explore so as to make important discoveries. Although now we see games that depend much of their action on the exploration of vast exterior environments, like Miasmata, Kholat or the recent zombie-themed Days Gone, interior spaces never ceased to play a major role in the development of the stories. Ramon Salazar's castle in Resident Evil 4 is a good example of how an interior setting shapes the core of the game's adventure. While outside in the Spanish countryside, Leon Kennedy has a moderate liberty considering which way to choose and what strategy to apply so as to escape from the enemies. Once inside the castle, things become tighter, as the place has traps everywhere and vicious monsters guarding its halls. Salazar didn't deliberately lure Leon in his castle, but the way the story unfolded, such a development was inevitable.

The castle is centuries old, but this is not limited to its architecture and history. Everything inside it seems to be lost in time. The owner himself is dressed like a baroque nobleman, the latter being a tragic irony completely, as he is neither a noble nor a man. What makes his castle even more chilling, is that there are whole rooms that are completely deserted, while there are still signs of life around. You go through a garden maze where zombie dogs roam, only to find yourself moments later in a beautifully decorated bedroom where there is only calm and silence. Next up you move to an empty dining room, and just after this, there is a small trap room where several enemies attack unexpectedly. This is a pattern that repeats itself throughout the whole sequence of the castle's exploration, although from a point and on, you rarely have the chance to enter a room that is safe and empty - with the exception of the safe rooms with the typewriter. Although a big part of the game takes place in exterior areas, the action that happens indoors is the most memorable. 

Having a story unfold in an interior space is many times a necessary option to create a haunting, immersive atmosphere. The Asylum in Outlast, the Brookhaven Hospital in the Silent Hill series, the Church in The Lost Crown, are examples of iconic environments that perfectly set up the mood for a chilling horror adventure. Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Code Veronica finds herself in the creepy mansion of Alfred Ashford, an old-fashioned villa that is full of zombies, traps, hidden passages and secret rooms, after escaping from her prison cell following a zombie outbreak. While a house is normally a safe and protected zone, in survival horror games there is more danger creeping inside than outside. You can never know what lies behind a closed door or what will jump out of a dark corner. Claire is involuntarily an intruder, and as such is treated with extreme hostility, more so since the owner of the mansion is a deranged man who lives in his own little world. Alfred threatens to shoot her on sight whenever they cross paths, taking advantage of his knowledge of the grounds so as to outsmart her and subsequently defeat her.

Such interior settings rely a lot on the element of the unexpected; they are unknown grounds and the lead characters have to explore them in detail, most of the times coming across all kinds of nasty surprises. In the original Resident Evil, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine and their teammates are trapped in the Spencer mansion, a rather unfriendly estate where the inhabitants are zombies and monsters. The biggest part of the game takes place inside the mansion and follows the heroes in their quest of keys and other important items with which they are able to open one by one all the doors of the vintage house. An impressive library, art gallery rooms, a tea room with a grand piano, could, in other conditions make any visitor feel at home. Not in this case, though. The interior space here offers a very brief and temporary relief from danger, but it's not long before we realize that there is much less safety inside that it was outside.

The Raccoon Police Department in Resident Evil 2 Remake acts in a similar way. The huge building offers a shelter to Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield as soon as they get inside while the city is crawling with zombies, but soon they find out that the situation is pretty much the same, if not worse, in the station. Surrounded by an imposing aura, mostly due to the fact that it used to be a museum, with several vintage key items lying around and works of art decorating its halls, the RPD is an archetypical environment, given its importance in the progression of the plot. Once inside, Leon and Claire have to reveal a secret passage that leads to the basement and, subsequently, to an alternative setting. Said passage is just a few steps away from the entrance, hidden below a huge statue in the main hall. Opening it, however, is neither easy nor straightforward. There are certain items in specific rooms that need to be found before the secret door is revealed. But even when this is done, there is still work to do before the exit becomes available. In that sense, the story in the first half of the game is centered around the RPD; all the attention and the focus of the characters shifts to it, as their main task is to explore every nook and cranny in the building to find the items in question.

Ethan Winters in Resident Evil 7 finds himself in a similar situation when he gets trapped inside the Baker house, and his quest is the agonizing search for a series of key items that will allow him to leave. Unlike with the pathetic, brainless zombies, Ethan has to face a human enemy, a morbid and bloodthirsty stalker who is far more dangerous because he still retains a level of intelligence. Just like Alfred Ashford, Jack Baker, the patriarch of the house, knows the layout of his grounds, which gives him a great advantage over the unwilling intruder. Regardless the environment becomes an unexpected ally for Ethan, as he can use it to hide from Jack who is frantically turning the place over while looking for him. The Baker house is a fortress of lethal traps where everything that would have a normal, everyday use, has been turned into a weapon against anyone attempting to escape. Once you get inside, you cannot leave. Doors lock behind you and other doors lead to more dangers. You have to go through painful puzzles so as to find a way out. Maybe the most frightening aspect of Ethan's unexpected impisonment in the Baker home is the fact that the farm stands in the middle of a broad, swampy countryside with no other houses in any close distance while Ethan has no way to communicate with the outside world, and his only means of escaping, his car, lies in pieces in the garage.

The eery, dream-like depiction of Salem in Murdered: Soul Suspect offers the ideal exterior environment for its gloomy horror story. There are several interior settings in the game,  however the most memorable and crucial one is the Judgement House where lies the key to the final revelation of the mystery story. From the moment that the gameplay allows Ronan O' Connor to wander around Salem, he can see the exit to the region where the Judgement House is; however he cannot go there until certain things have been done first. This alone intensifies the significance of that house and creates a feeling of uneasiness concerning it. The Judgement House is an old, crumbling, mazey mansion haunted with ghosts of the past, with demons hiding in the walls, and a particularly chilling room that the antagonist of the story, a mysterious serial killer, has transformed into a lair. Ronan can get in the house freely and explore it, but once he discovers that room, the demons are unleashed and roam the corridors and halls and a shocking revelation becomes accessible in the basement.

Set in a vast exterior environment, Resident Evil: Revelations 2 is noted for its intense claustrophobic feel which is evident right from the start but becomes even stronger as soon as we find out, through Claire Redfield's eyes, that we are in fact on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere. Claire Redfield and Moira Burton explore several interior areas in their struggle to survive and eventually escape, but it is not until they reach the Monument Tower that they start to acknowledge the nature of the evil force that brought them there. The Monument Tower is a very tall, steep, intimidating construction that can be seen from a distance long before we are able to reach it. Essentially the lair of the game's arch-villain, Alex Wesker, who affectionately calls it "the scaffold of the Gods", it is a disturbing fusion of high-tech devices and flimsy architecture, and looks like a server lost in a spaceship. Just like in Resident Evil 4, here too the hostile countryside is nothing compared to the nightmarish interior that is the tower. Anxiety and fear build up progressively as Claire and Moira ascend the twisted construction up to the point when they meet with Alex who, not surprisingly, is hiding behind a wall of glass. Just then, Alex commits suicide after revealing her plans, albeit her words are full of riddles. As soon as this happens, a self-destruct sequence begins and the two girls have to run to the emergency exit, a narrow path over a chasm that leads back inside the tower where, in one version of the story, Moira is crushed to death.

Mark Jefferson's Dark Room in Life Is Strange is yet one more unforgettable interior environment which also happens to represent the root of the evil in the story. Located in a well-hidden underground area of an isolated barn, Mr Jefferson's private space is a seemingly clean and all-shiny place with top-notch technological equipment where the professor is supposed to take and work on his artistic and inspired photographs. In reality, it is the lair of a psychopath who is obsessed with capturing the loss of innocence with his camera. Max Caulfield finds herself trapped in Mr Jefferson's Dark Room, in a sequence where the whole essence of the game is being summarized. Max has the ability to rewind time, just like photographs take us back to the past. In her attempt to change the present, she has to use her own photographs, as well as the stuff and equipment in the room around her. Max being trapped in the Dark Room symbolizes the way she is actually trapped in time, in a doubtful reality of consecutive rewinds that fix one thing but mess with everything else.

In The Evil Within, the notion of interior space moves to a completely different level. As the whole adventure develops inside a madman's head, through his shattered memories, there is no actual exterior world anywhere to be found. In this specific universe, however, there are still countryside and city streets which eventually contrast with the most important interior setting, the Victoriano manor. Sebastian Castellanos is literally dragged inside the mansion in Ruben Victoriano's vicious attempt to force him into acknowledging how much he had suffered as a child and how unjust life had been to him. The manor here is a tangible element off Ruben's memories but is also a major symbol, tightly connected to him. When Sebastian gets inside the house, he essentially dives into Ruben's innermost thoughts. Ruben's house is not simply an interior space; it is the field of the story's most important revelation which had to occur in a protected place: it was a secret that had to be shared only with a specific someone. The dimly lit rooms of the manor are chilling; their air is filled with sins of the past and from time to time, Ruben himself appears in his ghoulish form, chasing Sebastian and threatening to kill him.

In the same atmosphere, the interior spaces of The Evil Within 2 are all part of a virtual world, where exterior areas only typically belong to the outside. Although technically houses are still houses, stores are still stores, gas stations are still gas stations, there are several interior environments that are directly connected to the protagonist, Sebastian Castellanos and the game's villains. Sebastian's Safe Room is a safe haven that is abruptly formed by his memories once he is sedated and enters the virtual world STEM, in a desperate search for his little daughter who had been abducted so as to participate in a nightmarish experiment. Sebastian's Room is a reminiscent of his office at the police station and it is the place where he can return through teleporting mirrors. There was a space with a similar role in The Evil Within, but that one was much less familiar and friendly to Sebastian. The Room of The Evil Within 2 is a place that no one can invade (except for one instance); in there, he has the chance to contemplate, remember and come to terms with his conscience by watching slides from his past.

Notably, there are certain interior settings that are particularly popular in video games and quite often are closely connected to their respective stories and their progression. Lighthouses (Alan Wake, Bioshock Infinite), churches (Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry 4, The Evil Within, Resident Evil 6), laboratories (Gray Matter, Resident Evil 2, The Evil Within 2), asylums (Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief 2014, Sanitarium, The Evil Within), museums (Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, The Lost Crown, Murdered: Soul Suspect), universities (Life is Strange, Resident Evil 6) underground train stations (Resident Evil 6, Tomb Raider 3, The Evil Within), are environments that we get to see a lot more than others, not only because they are advantageous by default but also because usually they gain a high symbolic value in the stories where they are featured.

As video game characters become more and more realistic, it is not random that their surrounding world also resembles the real one. Heroes who have jobs, families, backgrounds, who have suffered losses or lived days of happiness, are expected to be active in a world where familiar things exist. Since they are not space soldiers fighting against aliens, but instead are writers, detectives, scientists, professors or artists, their world naturally consists of places where they can live like real people. Even in dream-like realities, like those of The Evil Within series, the virtual world of the stories is comprised of elements borrowed from the real world where the characters live. And this is something that practically has no limits. Since contemporary games are like interactive movies, with their metaphysical, supernatural or fantasy elements going hand-in-hand with their strong realistic aspect, they also place their lead characters in situations where they get to visit and explore real-life settings, the virtual depiction of which is impressive, to say the least.

Art in Video Games: Classic and Modern Art In The Evil Within

Among its many other qualities, The Evil Within has a very interesting aesthetic aspect, with a gloomy, nauseous atmosphere dominating in the exterior settings and old-fashioned decoration and design in most of the interior areas. Sebastian himself, the protagonist, seems to be coming from a different era, and what to say about Ruvik, his arch-enemy, who, in his human version, looks like a Victorian remnant.

The world is unsettled in The Evil Within; things are twisted, both metaphorically and literally. In the places that we go with Sebastian, everything is messed up; there is a mix of space and time that is quite creepy and ominous, maybe even creepier than the monsters that roam the countryside and the city. There is one particular dialogue between Sebastian and his partner Joseph in Chapter 6, which pretty much sums this up. As they arrive at what looks like an abandoned market place, Sebastian asks Joseph whether he has any idea about where they are, but Joseph wisely corrects him commenting "more like when!" adding that the architecture in the place looks like it comes straight out of the middle ages. Sebastian then replies that still there is electricity and elevators, and Joseph comments that it's like "jumbled up memories". Which is in fact exactly what the whole scenery is, as everything plays out inside Ruvik's mind.

The city itself does not look particularly friendly at the beginning of the story, but this is only a prelude. As soon as Sebastian steps into the nightmare, the space around him becomes a twisted reflection in a looking glass. But even such a space needs works of art, no matter if we have to do with humble village houses, imposing mansions or modern hotels.

The first painting that Sebastian encounters is in an isolated house, in the first part of the village in Chapter 2. The house is at the end of a path, it has several Haunted patrolling in and about it, and in a back room it also has a big painting depicting a group of people, possibly judges of the very old times, gathered together. It is hard to tell if this painting is a replica of or inspired by a real one, since it looks shabby and smudged.

In the main village location in Chapter 3, where there is also the Sadist's barn, there is a tall house near the exit gate, where Sebastian finds the Crossbow and the Shotgun. In a lower floor room, there is the painting of a woman, hanging above a bloodcurdling message written on the wall. It is the Portrait of Eva Geelvinck by Joachim von Sandrart (1639).

In the house where Dr Jimenez goes hiding, we can spot another portrait, which is that of Geertje Hagen by Adriaen de Lelie (1791).

There is also the painting of a lake with two people in a boat, which can actually be seen in several other places at the village.

In Chapter 4, Sebastian visits the clinic of Valerio Jimenez, where we can see again the portrait of Eva Geelvinck. Interestingly enough, it once more appears in a crooked position.

In the same building, there is also The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Frederick Ruysch by Jan van Neck (1683). Very appropriate in this setting.

Below it, on the left, we can see the portrait of a woman who is playing the piano or a pipe organ. It could be a depiction of Saint Cecilia, seeing how she is very often portrayed carrying out a similar activity in a similar pose and outfit as the lady in the painting.

In Chapter 5, Sebastian is already back at the Beacon Mental Hospital - or, at least, a distorted version of it. At the end of a long corridor, there is a huge portrait of a man, standing against a wall. It is the Portrait of Carel Joseph Fodor by Jan Willem Pieneman (1848).

It could be random, but Sebastian comes across the portrait of this man who is called Joseph just a few rooms before finding his partner and friend, who happens to have the same name.

At the beginning of Chapter 9, Ruvik occupies Sebastian's safe room for a while, transforming it into his own private space. During that time, several paintings appear on the walls of the safe room, all of which belong to his family's collection and can be seen in his mansion.

We will examine these paintings shortly, as we take a tour in the spooky Victoriano mansion.

Sebastian attempts to leave through the mirror at the end of the corridor but instead is transferred to a black and white forest, walking down a path at the end of which stands an impressive sunflower. As Sebastian approaches, a figure appears behind the sunflower, then blends with it and seconds later it becomes clear that the figure is actually Ruvik, who leads Sebastian to a colored version of the same forest, and now the path leads to the Victoriano estate.

The big house is beautiful but extremely unnerving; the fading lights, creepy sounds and murderous residents not creating an exactly welcoming place. But it is impossible to not marvel at the several paintings that decorate its walls.

In the gallery room, we can see the portrait of Banker Adriaan van der Hoop by Jan Adam Kruseman (mid 19th century).

In the same room, there is the portrait of Mr. S.A. Vening Meinesz by Jan Veth (1902).

Next to it, we find the portrait of Hiob de Wildt by Dirck van Santvoort (1640).

Near that portrait, there is the one of Gretel Pietersdr Codde, Wife of Jacob Bass by Adriaen Thomasz Key (1586).

On another wall in the same room, we can see the portrait of Jan Corneliszoon Geelvinck by Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen (1646).

In the dining room, there is an ominous original painting depicting a skull and a sunflower, which seems to be inspired by paintings like Adriaen van Utrecht's Vanitas, Still Life with Bouquet and Skull (1642),only in this case the bouquet has been replaced with a sunflower to match Ruvik's symbol.

In the room just above the locked exit gate there is the huge painting of the Victoriano family.

The style in which they are all dressed illustrates perfectly the mix of eras that is a strong element of the story. Next to the family portrait, there is a painting with an urban theme. It is The Keizersgracht Between Molenpad and Runstraat With the House of Thomas Hope by Hendrik Keun (1765 - 1785).

On the other side of the family portrait, there is a painting with a rural theme, the Farmhouse by Johannes Warnardus Bilders (c. 1826).

On another wall of the same room, we can see The Haarlemmerdijk With a Pig on a Stepladder by Michiel van Musscher (1668) and An Ox Won by the Militia in Parrot Shooting, attributed to Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (1564).

Next to them, there is another original painting, made in classic art style, that is connected to the story. It shows a vase of sunflowers and a pear standing near a safe with strands of barbed wire before them.

On the right side of this painting, there is The Courtyard of the Old Stock Exchange in Amsterdam by Kaspar Karsen (1836) and another copy of The Haarlemmerdijk with a Pig on a Stepladder.

Still in this room, there is an original painting which is missing its top part. Its bottom part depicts a man just about to be beheaded by the guillotine.

Notably there is an actual guillotine at some point in the game, in Chapter 6. Joseph is trapped by a couple of Haunted who drag him over to a guillotine and are about to cut his head when Sebastian shoots them down just in time.

The top part of the painting can be found in the Library, which is next to this room. The painting is on the bookshelves on the upper balcony. It shows men with their heads covered with sacks, watching the execution, which may or may not happen. These men could be either moribunds or executioners, as both sides may have their faces hidden.

Both these paintings are parts of a puzzle, as they accompany dials that are needed to open the door to one of Ruvik's secret labs, in the piano room. There we can see the painting completed once we have both dials.

In the same room, there is a copy of Carel Joseph Fodor's portrait, this time hanging majestically on the wall in plain sight.

Behind the grand piano, where Sebastian envisions a dialogue between Ruvik and Dr Martinez, there is the Portrait of  Harmen Hendrik van de Poll, Burgomaster of Amsterdam by Hendrik Pothoven (1749).

When Sebastian solves the puzzle in this room, the secret corridor opens. It may not be obvious as everything is splashed with blood, but the panel with the dials puzzle as well as the rest of the panels in the corridor leading to the secret lab, are actually copies of several paintings we have already seen in the mansion.

In the small hall just outside the Library, there is an abstract painting which seems to be in total contrast and disharmony with the rest of the works of art and portraits in the mansion.

It could be one big hint about the confusion in which Ruvik always perceived the world around him.

There is a change of style in Ruvik's bedroom as well: the paintings that decorate his room are surreal and somewhat foreboding. One is depicting what looks like the mansion, in front of a red curtain which is hanging from the sky with a huge eye above it - a direct indication that Ruvik is watching everyone. Next to it, there is another painting showing a creepy figure covered with a dark sheet. This is in fact a familiar image - we had seen such figures at the Hospice in the village.

Above Ruvik's bed hangs a most creepy painting depicting long black hair hanging from the sky. As the long black hair is the trademark of Laura, Ruvik's sister, that painting obviously symbolizes her presence, as she is always protecting Ruvik one way or the other. It also looks like it is inspired by The False Mirror By René Magritte.

In Laura's bedroom, we can see a painting of flowers in a vase, which looks like a variation of Flowers in a Glass Vase on a Marble Table by Rachel Ruysch (1704).

The ominous painting with the skull and the sunflower can be found again in the bedroom of Ruvik's parents.

In the same bedroom, there is also a copy of the Farmhouse by Johannes Warnardus Bilders.

In the corridor just outside the bedroom, there is a painting showing a stormy sea with a city in the background. It actually resembles Krimson City, with the obelisk of Beacon in the middle.

At the end of this corridor, we find another copy of Hiob de Wildt's portrait.

The same portait is seen again in the sequence during which young Ruvik leads Sebastian further into his world, forming a path of platelets. The painting is turned the other way around, serving as a guide for Sebastian.

When Sebastian is transported back at the mansion after completing the sunflower field trial, he finds himself in a new room, a small lounge, where there is a copy of The Courtyard of the Old Stock Exchange in Amsterdam.

On another wall, there is the portrait of Margaretha Trip, Wife of Hendrik van de Poll by Jan Maurits Quinkhard (1754).

When Sebastian finds himself back in the collapsing city in Chapter 11, he passes through a building where pieces of art are of a different style. The main scenery being now the modern city rather than the retro countryside, the works of art gain a surreal, futuristic character and instead of old-time portraits and classic-style landscapes, we see ominous allegorical compositions that are directly related to Ruvik and the nightmarish world of his memories.

First Sebastian sees a painting that, on first look, depicts something like a loudspeaker, but it is in fact a minimalistic version of the Keeper's safe.

He then comes across a psychedelic painting picturing the Keeper's hammer surrounded by the slim phrenology nails.

There is also a painting that looks like it is a negative, and depicts a lone figure resembling the Keeper, standing on a path or a bridge in a forest.

The next place of interest concerning the instances of art pieces is the hotel in Chapter 13, where the paintings are again of the modern style.

First we get to see the creepy painting with the house, the curtain and the eye, that we had seen previously in Ruvik's bedroom at the mansion.

Then there is the painting with the black hair that hang from the sky, that we again saw in Ruvik's room.

Also reappears the painting of the figure that is covered with a dark sheet.

A new addition is a painting that depicts a figure in a long black robe holding an open umbrella while standing in front of the sea, with the huge eye watching from the sky.

The painting of the Keeper's hammer is also present.

As is the painting depicting the safe box.

Same goes for the painting that pictures the Keeper in the forest.

There is another painting that shows an eye among two long nails. The way the elements of this composition are posed, reminds of the Heresy, the monster that shows up in Chapter 12. The nails resemble a lot its long, sharps legs.

All these paintings in the hotel can be seen in numerous places in Chapter 13 and their purpose is not decorative at all. Since Ruvik's role is much clearer in that chapter, the environment becomes more specific as Ruvik exploits it to send his messages to his victims and establish his power over them.

It is also worth noting that the two paintings that depict rural scenes with the eye in the sky (the mansion with the red curtain above it and the figure with the umbrella at the seashore) as well as they one with the big eye and the long nails on each side, seem to be foreshadowing Stefano Valentini's appearance in The Evil Wihin 2: the eye in the sky resembles the Aperture with which the twisted photographer was watching Union, the red curtain was one of his favorite props, and the umbrella looks like those that photographers use in the studio, and that Stefano was seen using or having around on quite a few occasions in his scenes.