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.

Heroes Of The Afterlife: Why Do Video Games Kill Their Good Guys?

While not exactly rare, the general tendency of modern video game developers to kill their heroes is still very interesting from many aspects. As video games became more and more elaborate in both their gameplay construction and - most importantly - their stories, the lead characters subsequently became more complex and realistic; and if we take into consideration the inclusion of cutscenes which add a high cinematic value to the projects, a notable number of the contemporary video games are almost like movies which, most of the times, are of the dramatic kind.

Although several times there are secondary characters which play a key role in the plots and are extremely important in general, the lead characters are the ones which carry the stories on their shoulders. Juli Kidman's role may be essential in The Evil Within 2, but it is Sebastian Castellanos who goes through all the trials and pushes the storyline forward with his decisions. Chloe Price is surely a character of critical importance in Life Is Strange, but it is Max Caulfield's actions that have consequences on everyone around her. Steve Burnside may affect certain developments with what he does in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, but it is Claire Redfield who will be forced to take the final decisions.

In that sense, the lead characters are the ones who, somehow, form the story as it goes, shining a light on all the potential possibilities and routes. Their personality defines the outcome of each event and everything is viewed through their eyes - which also happens to be literal as the player's experience of the game is through them. That said, when you play as a specific character, it is as if you are called to get inside his/her mind. As a player, you make your heroes interact with people and objects, you lead them to directions that may prove either good or bad decisions, and although you can't always empathize with them, you end up seeing them as some sort of companions.

Although you can always replay a game and thus 'revive' your hero/heroine as many times as you want, seeing them die at the end of the road is like having to part forever with a dear friend. Going through an epic adventure with a hero whose fate is bleak, is very different from playing with one who triumphs and enjoys his/her happy ending. Equally different may be the reasons why a hero's fate grants him with an unfortunate end. To make this analysis more specific, I will use the examples of Miasmata, Bioshock Infinite, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Resident Evil 6 and Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea 2.

In Miasmata, a wonderful independant adventure game by IonFX, you play as Robert Hughes, a guy who wakes up on the shore of a mysterious island overwhelmed with beautiful plants and flowers. His boat is broken so he cannot leave, he seems to have lost part of his memory and his health is in a really bad state. As he starts exploring the place, he discovers several labs where obviously a research was taking place. However all the scientists involved are dead - he finds the corpses as he goes - and all that is left is their notes which reveal many interesting details about the research and all the dark background behind it. As it turns out, said scientists were gifted people working on finding a cure for a lethal plague, and were sent on that island as all its vegetation obviously was hiding vital medical secrets. However, each one of them who was reaching the conclusion of the research, therefore discovering the cure, was eventually killed without being able to transport the medicine to the rest of the world. Robert starts wandering around the island, discovering peculiar plants some of which are particularly useful for boosting up his health, while his main quest is, following the notes left by the scientists, to locate a series of rare flowers which will form the cure for the plague.

Soon he finds out that he is not completely alone on the seemingly abandoned island. There is a strange creature wandering about - something like hybrid between a bull and a cat - which is generally identified as 'the creature' and which will relentlessly chase him in case that it spots him. The creature, although it can be outsmarted, is extremely vicious in its attacks, and moreover it cannot be fought. Robert's alternatives are to run like mad away from it, or carefully hide so as to disappear from it's vision's range. As soon as he forms the cure and drinks it however, the creature magically disappears. Finally cured, Robert has all the strength that he needs to swim to the boat landing that awaits out in the open on a smaller island and leave with an injection containing the cure. But this is when the twist happens. When Robert gets in the boat, he sees a bottle of whiskey and a dagger waiting for him. On the floor of the boat, several other injections containing the cure are lying about. The game ends as Robert drinks the whiskey and we can assume that he used the dagger to commit suicide while watching the beautiful island in the distance.

The boat will probably never leave the island

It is largely hinted - if not clearly pointed out - that the lethal creature is either a figment of Robert's imagination (which is why it disappears when he is cured) or it represents his own dark side. Some of the scientists obviously managed to get to the boat but they never left; others were killed on the island by the creature. So was it Robert who actually killed them? Was the creature a hallucination caused by the illness from which all those people - including Robert - were, apparently, suffering?

The notion of utopia is very prominent in this game, and also the general idea that people are trapped in a vicious circle that prevents them from moving forward. Next to the boat landing, there is a table with a copy of Milton's "Paradise Lost" on it, which serves as some sort of reminder that people are always looking for something more, for their own Paradise, but then all is vain and mundane and there really is no cure - in this sense, metaphorical - for the fate of humanity. All that remains is the beauty of nature, as it is depicted on the island.

If Robert was to depart happily on his boat with the injection, carrying his positive message to the world, the game would have its happy ending but then the whole atmosphere that was being created up to then would have been completely ruined. Moreover, the deep philosophical side of the story would have been extremely limited and superficial. By giving its hero a tragic ending, the game gave boost to its philosophical side, remained faithful to its overall feel and offered several issues for discussion and thought.

The creature's appearance has various interpretations

On a completely different pace, Resident Evil 6 by Capcom is a pure action / adventure game, comprised of four interwined stories, with several interesting heroes in its cast. Its main plot is centered around an evil man, Derek Simmons, an even more evil woman, Carla Radames, and a young mercenary, Jake Muller, who happens to be the host of a rare antibody that could cure or boost the destructive C-virus, depending on the use. Jake Muller, who is the son of the notorious Albert Wesker, teams up with Sherry Birkin, the daughter of the equally infamous scientist, when Sherry, ignorant about her boss's nasty plans, sets on her mission to bring Jake to Simmons. Meanwhile, Leon Kennedy is on a race against time to stop Simmons, aided by agent Helena Harper, whose sister was one of the evil guy's victims. Ada Wong, whose image, name and personality was used by Carla Radames due to a scientific trap set by Simmons, begins her own personal war to finish him. At the same time, Chris Redfield with his second-in-command, Piers Nivans, is determined to stop Carla Radames, who was responsible for the cruel killing of several members of his team some months ago.

All the stories in the game receive a well-deserved happy ending - except for Chris Redfield' story. His desperate mission ends in an incredibly tragical scene where Piers, after being severely injured by Carla's most vicious monster, injects himself with a dose of the C-virus and half his body gets mutated. This is most heart-breaking when you realise that he does this so as to save his captain's life: the monster, having thrown Piers onto a metallic construction, impaling him, grabs Chris and is about to kill him. Just then Piers, knowing that in his current condition he will be unable to help Chris, decides to sacrifice himself for the sake of his captain. In the end, he manages to stay behind, sending Chris off to the escape route alone, obviously dying soon after the story concludes.

Piers's decision to sacrifice his life signifies his devotion to Chris and their cause

The death of Piers in Resident Evil 6 is very much different from Robert's in Miasmata. Here we have the sacrifice of a hero, of a soldier whose priority is his duty and the devotion to his captain. If you play Chris's story as Piers, you have the chance to go through this first-hand, and control Piers as he drags himself towards the injection and subsequently takes the dose. You get to see how he struggles with the mutation rapidly taking control over him, and how his stellar personality gets shattered within minutes. He is unable to talk or even walk properly, while his mutated arm becomes even more powerful and dangerous as the minutes pass.The fact that Piers is so young (27 years of age) makes his demise even more dramatic. Ironically enough, for all these reasons Chris's story - and, in consequence, the whole game - gains its extra touch of realism mixed with cinematic melodrama.

The last glimpse of Piers that we get is as heartbreaking as his tragic end

When it comes to Bioshock Infinite, things become more complex. This amazing steampunk adventure by Irrational Games is set in a world where there are cities floating in the air and others sitting at the bottom of the sea. There is a mix of eras and multiple realites where people exist in various versions of themselves. You play as Booker DeWitt, a war veteran who participated in a series of historical battles in which he committed several atrocities. Later on, overwhelmed by guilt, he sought peace of mind by approaching a man who promised salvation through baptism. In one version of reality, he changed his mind and was never baptised, and lived on with his guilt as Booker DeWitt. In another version, he accepted the baptism and was reborn as a new man, the ruthless Zachary Comstock. As Comstock, he collaborated with an ingenious scientist, Rosalind Lutece, who had invented a technology that could create a floating city. With her help, he founded Columbia, a colourful Paradise in the sky, where he, taking advantage of Rosalind's discovery of the Tears - floating slots that allowed time travel - posed to his people as some sort of prophet. In an attempt to keep this "fairy tale" going, and knowing that he was sterile, Comstock bought a baby girl from a man who owed a huge debt. That man was Booker DeWitt - his original self from another reality.

Rosalind, with the help of Robert, a man who looked like her twin brother but was, in fact, her male version from another reality, having helped Comstock kidnap Booker's baby, wanted to make up for it and ordered Booker to "bring back the girl" in exchange for his debt. The truth was that Rosalind actually brought Booker in Comstock's reality so as to help him get his baby back from his other self. The baby was now the 20-year-old Elizabeth. Initially unaware of their blood connection, Booker and Elizabeth passed through thick and thin until the truth was finally revealed to both of them (although it is hinted at some point that Elizabeth might have understood much earlier that Booker was in fact her father). When Booker came to the realization that he was actually Zachary Comstock, several versions of Elizabeth, including the ones he already met, drowned him in a symbolic act of baptism.

As cruel as Booker's murder may seem, it is the only way to save his daughter's life

Booker's death is not a simple one. Additionally, it is not a definitive death. After the credits roll, we get a bonus scene where Booker comes to his senses in his office and opens the door of the nearby bedroom where the baby's crib is. The scene closes before we are able to see if there is a baby in there or not, but what matters is that, in our version of Bioschock Infinite's reality, as far as its standard story was concerned, our hero died in the end.

People are multi-dimensional, and this is something that the game depicts literally. However Booker, in any of his versions, had strong remorses torturing him from which he was unable to escape. Even when he became a different man he could not find peace, only this time he was in control of the world around him - something that, naturally, led to his destruction. It is characteristic that when Booker confronts Zachary - that is when the two versions of the same man face each other - the former kills the latter and, not randomly, by first smashing his head on the baptism bowl and then drowning him in it. Later, the several versions of his daughter again drown him in the bowl of baptism. This means that no matter how much "cleansing" he goes through, no matter how many times he is reborn, he will always be the same person in the essence and whatever bad things he had done will never be forgiven. In that sense, Booker's dramatic end is a catharsis, and much less a punishment.

In an alternate reality, Booker died as a hero of the revolution

Although Elizabeth seemingly thriumphs at the end of the game by killing Booker, thus making sure that he will not cause her harm, everything changes for her in the extra episode Burial at Sea 2. In this story, you play as a more grown version of Elizabeth who begins her adventure in an idyllic Paris with children playing, young men flirting her, everyone greeting her joyfully and "La vie on rose" playing in the background. Elizabeth's dream has always been to go to Paris, and by the looks of it she managed it in this version of reality. Soon it turns out though that this was just an illusion. In reality, she is found half-dead near Booker's dead body, after both of them had been brutally hit by a Big Daddy in Rapture, the underwater city known from the previous Bioshock games, at the end of Burial at Sea 1. The Big Daddy killed them both, but Elizabeth managed to revive an alternate version of herself, again with the help of the Luteces, so as to end the cycle of violence in Rapture.

Subsequently, she gets captured by Atlas, a cruel man who is planning an attack in Rapture and who forces her to carry out specific quests in exchange for her liberation. During said quests, she is accompanied by an imaginary version of Booker who talks to her and advices her over the radio. Her main concern is to save Sally, a little girl who had been used by Dr Suchong, a dangerous man in charge of brutal experiments in which little girls are genetically altered so as to be able to collect a special substance from corpses and store it in their own body. Although she is quite efficient in giving Atlas what he wants, he ends up killing her after he has all that he needs in his hands.

Elizabeth's end is one of the saddest scenes in video game history

Elizabeth's death in Burial at Sea 2 has a far more symbolic character than Booker's. Being a victim right from the beginning of her life, she always lived in a fake world. When Booker first located her in the main game, she was locked inside the Monument Tower, a huge golden construction shaped like an angel, where she was reading books all day, dreaming about going to Paris and having the Songbird, a huge mechanical bird, as her sole companion. Then at the beginning of Burial at Sea 2, again she is seen living in an imaginary world, in an idealized version of Paris which soon becomes a nightmare.

Elizabeth is, in fact, living in the margins of reality in all of its versions. Even in the reality where she is a vital part, in Columbia, she is far too smart, far too gifted, far too complex for the world around her. People want to take advantage of her powers, but they essentially view her as some kind of freak. In her more mature and femme-fatale version of the extra episodes, she initially seems to be in control but as it turns out, she is much more a victim now, especially in her part of the story, where she is, moreover, derpived of her special powers and she cannot open Tears anymore. In Burial at Sea 2, she is as lost as Booker was in the original game. She is brave but helpless, exactly like him. Close to the end of her story, Booker himself appears and takes her by the hand, leading her to an important revelation, in a scene that is like a reversed version of one of the last scenes of the main game, where Elizabeth took Booker by the hand and guided him towards the truth about his identity. Elizabeth's alternate self in Burial at Sea 2 somehow identifies with Booker's in the main game. We could even go as far as to think that maybe it is not really Elizabeth in Burial at Sea 2, but it is actually Booker who was brought back to life in the form of Elizabeth. Just like Rosalind Lutece was reborn in another reality as Robert. There is a dominant metaphysical element in Elizabeth's death, which also makes her character even more legendary.

Booker is taking Elizabeth by the hand - or is she just one more version of himself?

There is nothing more distinctly metaphysical, however, than a ghost who is wandering among the living. In Murdered: Soul Suspect by Airtight Games and Square Enix, you play as Ronan O'Connor, a young man who gets killed right at the beginning of the story while chasing a serial killer. The story of the game takes place in Salem, a town connected with the Witch Trials centuries ago. This alone is an element that puts you in the right chilling mood from the start. Ronan was a rogue as a young boy, but things changed when he got married and was aided by his brother-in-law, who was the police chief, to become a detective. After his wife's death, Ronan devoted all his time to his work and started investigating the case of a serial killer who was murdering teenage girls. Although Ronan managed to track the killer in the apartment of a potentional victim, the guy attacked him and subsequently killed him.

On his way to the Afterlife, Ronan is greeted by his wife who informs him that he has to go back to the world of the living as he has issues to solve. Back at his murder scene, Ronan is able to watch his body lying in the street and the police team, including his brother-in-law, examining the elements. He begins his own investigation, which leads him to several unexpected revelations. The mastermind behind the murders is proved to be the evil spirit of Abigail Williams, a real-life puritan who was responsible for the executions of several women in Salem, having accused them as witches. After the dramatic period of the Witch Trials was over, Abigail was imprisoned and executed for her actions. Now her spirit floats around Salem, thirsty for blood. She possesses unaware people, preferably men, and makes them track down and brutally murder young girls who happen to be mediums - therefore, in her eyes, witches. What is most riveting however is that, as the story concludes, Abigail reveals to Ronan that she also used him to kill one of those girls.

Ronan watches his own dead body lying in the street

Ronan's death itself is on a clearly realistic basis, but everything connected to it is largely metaphysical. Ronan became a murderer without realizing it and he obviously had no memory of this action even before his death. When he first encounters the ghost of Sophia, his own victim, the girl runs away screaming in pain. There is absolutely no clue about their true connection however, and when Ronan finally manages to approach her and asks her who killed her and Sophia points at him, we are tricked to think - because her finger points to his police badge - that she means her killer was a cop like Ronan, which makes both the player and Ronan suspect a sly colleague of his. I have to say that the revelation about Ronan being the killer of Sophia was one of the most shocking gaming moments I ever had.

Every time Ronan meets Sophia, the scene is extremely tense and compelling

However we cannot view Ronan's death as a punishment for the murder that he committed, as it was something that he did without being really him. Furthermore, it turns out that Abigail had possessed Ronan's brother-in-law as well. It was him who killed Ronan while being possessed, and, just like Ronan, neither he had any memory of this action. All these powerful elements and interconnections intensify Ronan's tragic fate and although we can play as him from start to finish in his faded ghostly form and in the end watch the happy reunion with his deceased wife in the Afterlife, the fact that he is yet one more dead hero remains and it is something that, combined with the general dramatic and spooky tune of the game, adds an extra undertone of melancholy that inevitably follows the protagonist through the whole course of his adventure.

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.