J.D. Salinger's masterpiece novel The Catcher In The Rye has inspired several themes in Dontnod's brilliant games of the Life Is Strange series and their universe. The book is narrated in first person by Holden Caulfield, a 17-year-old boy who is currently in an institution in California. A few days before, he had been expelled from his prestigious college in Pennsylvania due to bad performance and got back to New York where his home was, intending to spend a few days wandering here and there until his return for the Christmas holidays, as he did not want his parents to find out about the expulsion. He talks about himself, his family, his college, his schoolmates, his friends, in a form of consecutive abrupt confessions, while he several times refers to his three siblings - his older brother, D.B. a careless, successful author with whom he intends to live from now on, his younger sister Phoebe, a smart and intuitive girl, and his little brother, Allie, with whom he obviously had a strong connection and who died sometime ago. During his wanderings, he encounters several people, recalls memories and visits bars and hotels, while regularly going back in his mind to things that cannot leave him in peace. The novel is a unique piece of literature, written in a very distinct style, and is one of those stories that require very careful reading in order to become fully clear.

Max, the lead character from Life Is Strange 1, shares the same surname with Holden - they are both called Caulfield. Another notable reference is of course the boarding high school where Max is studying, nodding to the similar albeit much more elite school that Holden attends. There is also a direct easter egg, paying homage to the book and his hero. At some point, Max spots a red hunting hat, similar to the one that Holden is wearing for most part of his story, hanging from a rack in a corridor, and makes a comment referencing him.

Holden is notorious for his seemingly misanthropic attitude; and you got to love him for calling everyone and everything phony in any given instance. So there you have it, Holden; Max thinks your red hunting hat is phony. I bet that if he knew about this, he would definitely called her phony for calling him phony. There is also another major easter egg, spotted in Max's room in the school - there is a poster on a wall, probably of a movie called The Winger and the Cow. Both the title and the style of the poster resemble the cover of the original edition of The Catcher In the Rye.

But it is not only with tangible stuff that Life Is Strange 1 is conversing with The Catcher In The Rye. Major themes in the game's story, as well as character traits of its heroes, bring Salinger's iconic novel to mind.

In one alternate reality, Chloe, Max's friend, is severely injured in a car accident and later Max pulls her plug, helping her to rest in peace. Assuming that this alternate reality is what actually happened and that what we see in the game as taking place in present time is in fact an alternate reality, we are able to see Max under a different light: arriving back to her hometown, Max is overwhelmed by memories of her friend and her passing away, facts which she obviously, and naturally, cannot get over. Unable to come to terms with reality and move on somehow, she resorts to what possibly every single human being on earth has said or thought of at least once in their lives. She wishes that she could turn back time so as to change Chloe's fate. She probably wished this so many times that one day all of a sudden she made it happen. Because it would be impossible for her to go on with her life having experienced such a tragic loss, in which she also had a share, the only way to deal with it was to manipulate time and change the events. So it's a dream come true for Max, who is able to rewind time, keep whatever she wants from her peculiar flashbacks and then prepare a present and a future of her liking. But can it be that simple? Of course not. Since Max is not living alone on this planet, and since her actions affect not only herself and Chloe but also several other people, things are destined to escalate sooner or later.

In a similar way, Holden is trying to cover up his real anxieties and fears by dressing them up as contempt for people and society and constantly pretending to be something that he is not. He wants to pass as a bad student but in fact he is very smart and educated. He is supposed to be a misanthropist, but he constantly seeks the human presence around him. Holden's story is generally viewed as one of teenage rebellion, but in fact it is something completely different; reading between the lines, this becomes rather obvious to the trained reader, and it is intensified by the knowledge that Salinger was very protective of his hero and did not allow any adaptation of his novel, probably fearing there would be lots of misinterpretations - which indeed was and still is the case with this genuinely unique story.

Holden narrates his story from a bizarre point of view. We do not know from the start where he is or what he is doing, as he starts revealing fragments of his life that sometimes do not seem coherent. But there is a constant in his story: recurring phrases that appear regularly in several variations, but always in the same spirit: People always think something's all true, people never notice anything, people never believe you, people never give your message to anybody. Not only these phrases are spoken like a mantra, but they also sound as though Holden is trying, through them, to say something about himself using hints, because he may be too scared to talk about it directly. His recurring nightmare about trying to catch the children that are running in the rye field and are about to fall off a cliff symbolizes his inability to get over his little brother's death and his secret wish to be able to turn back time and save him somehow - which again brings us back to Max and her super power. It also hints at his desire to protect innocence, since he couldn't do it with his own.

In a most revealing scene, which is full of hints and innuendos that are mistakenly taken literally, Holden visits a professor of his, Mr Antolini, and, having nowhere else to go since it is very late, decides to stay the night in his apartment. Mr Antolini is an intelligent and educated man, but obviously leads a somewhat strange lifestyle: he is married to a much older and rather unattractive woman, with whom he seems to have no real emotional connection. Still the couple throws parties regularly, as if trying to convince society of their marital happiness. The lady offers Holden some coffee and disappears in another room, leaving him alone with her husband. Moments later, Holden begins to feel dizzy, as Mr Antolini starts a bizarre lecture about intellectuality and how Holden should not resist it and embrace it. His words are carefully chosen so as to hint at his real subject matter which, of course, is far from being educational. Still feeling inexplicably dizzy, the young boy falls asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night to see that Mr Antolini is sitting right next to him, admiring his long legs and stroking his hair. Holden leaves the apartment in panic and, once out on the street, he realizes that his vision is blurred and that he cannot walk straight. Obviously that coffee was not that innocent after all. He manages to collect himself somehow by sort of summoning his dead brother in his thoughts. 

Mr Antolini brings to mind the perverted Mr Jefferson from Life Is Strange 1, the charismatic but twisted professor of photography who was obsessed with capturing the loss of innocence with his camera. Mr Antolini looks and sounds like a toned-down version of Mr Jefferson - toned-down only because back in the times when he lived, he could not freely express his secret desires. But just like Mr Antolini attempts to seduce Holden, Mr Jefferson leads Max to his lair and ties her down, planning to turn her into one of his themes and, subsequently, victims. Unlike Max, however, Holden cannot rewind time so as to change reality. Max manages to effectively have Mr Jefferson arrested by using her super power to plan her moves, while Holden ends up in a mental institute, trying to come to terms with himself and all the secrets that he feels forced to keep.

Life Is Strange 2 moves in a different path story-wise, but again focuses on themes that were explored in the first game. This time the lead characters are two young brothers, Sean and Daniel Diaz, who are forced to abandon their normal life after their father is shot dead and the two of them are accused of murder. They embark on a journey from Seattle to Mexico in a race against time, while having to deal with Daniel's telekinesis, a new-found power which can potentially destroy them or save their lives. Brotherhood, trust, friendship and loyalty are among the cornerstones of the story, but the motifs of the loss of innocence, unavoidable change and maturity, both physical and emotional, play a major role in the game.

So it is no surprise that Holden Caulfield is present in this game too, albeit in a more elaborate and complex way. You may not be able to automatically connect Sean with him, as the overall setting of the story, Sean's background and the odyssey he has to go through with his brother look like they have no common ground with Holden's story or his character, but there is a key chapter in the game, the third one which is titled Wastelands, that is, in reality, a story inside the story: an epic tale of struggling with adolescence, adulthood, love and sexuality, centered around a tumultulous but powerful brotherly bond, which marks Sean and Daniel's coming of age in the form of a painful rite of passage. This chapter has a very special atmosphere and development that is pretty similar to Salinger's novel, although again this may not be that obvious on first look or if you play the game in a haste or read the book superficially. The Life Is Strange games are very much alike with Salinger's stories: they have so many layers that each scene, each phrase, each word even, may mean many different things.

Like in Life Is Strange 1, here too there are references to the Catcher In The Rye that are more or less direct. For example, Sean can be seen very early in the game wearing a red beanie and smoking a cigarette, reminding the most common depiction of Salinger's hero, that shows him with his red hunting hat and a cigarette in his mouth.

There is also a mural outside the garage at the basement of Sean's home, made by him, that depicts a kraken. The overall drawing style and colours again look similar to the original cover of The Catcher in the Rye, just like Max's poster did.

In the first pages of Sean's sketchbook, there is a drawing that he made depicting a baseball glove with a ball. This too nods to Holden, who used to carry with him a baseball glove that belonged to his deceased brother, Allie.

 

 

Another easter egg referencing Salinger's novel that may pass unnoticed because it is somehow hidden can be found in the house of Sean and Daniel's grandparents. In there, Sean watches the aquarium and comments that he has not seen any fish yet. He asks Daniel to lift a log that is blocking the bed of the tank and reveal the goldfish that had been hiding behind it.

D. B., Holden's brother, is a writer who became successful with a book that he wrote, titled The Secret Goldfish.

But the references that are contextual and have to do with the essence of the story are the most important. There is a recurring theme that shows up in the second chapter, Rules. In a segment in The Catcher In The Rye, Holden is sitting on the backseat of a taxi that drives through New York on a cold winter day. He keeps wondering what happens in winter to the ducks that swim in the Central Park lagoon in the spring; where do the ducks go when the lake freezes. Of course it is a question that no one can answer, because no one cares about the ducks; but for Holden, it is essential that he knows about them, as they stand for several things in his mind. The cycle that the ducks follow, appearing in spring then somehow disappearing in winter, is like the circle of life and the inevitable changes that come as time passes. As Holden sees the lake frozen with no ducks, he fears that maybe a spring will arrive one year, when they will not appear again. In other words, he has lost his innocence already, and he is afraid to grow up and accept himself for what he is, come to terms with his bad experiences and proceed to adult life and maturity. Another parameter has to do with his grief for the death of Allie, his little brother, which he obviously has never gotten over. There are also the incidents from the past years that never stop haunting him: the murder or forced suicide of a fellow student who was obviously gay, the confession of a close friend who was probably sexually abused by her stepfather; and of course Allie's death.

In Life Is Strange 2, in the second chapter, Rules, Sean and Daniel find shelter in an abandoned house in a forest in Oregon. It is December, the heart of winter, and there is snow everywhere. There are several interesting things in the house, but the most intriguing one is the picture of a duck hanging on the wall above the makeshift bed where the two brothers sleep. Not so coincidentally, there are flying ducks depicted on Daniel's sweater in this section.

Later on, in their grandparents' house, where Sean and Daniel find refuge for a while, in one of the rooms there is a wooden box with a duck painted on it, and on the box sits a red cap.

And there are three sculpted flying ducks decorating the wall near the glass door which leads to the backyard of the house.

Of course the duck images are not randomly placed there. The second one is much more direct, as it is accompanied by the red cap which nods to Holden's hunting hat. But both of them are there as a reference to Salinger's novel and as a symbol in the game, in connection to their original symbolism in the book. And maybe it is also an inside joke that answers Holden's question: the ducks that disappear from Central Park in winter, are kept in Oregon.

Just like Holden, Sean and Daniel are in the process of moving extremely fast from childhood/adolescence to adulthood. Like Holden, they too have lost their innocence, and acceptance of themselves and maturity await for them around the corner. The first duck, the one in the abandoned house, has pale colors, while the second one is bright red; they may very well stand for the "winter" ducks and the "spring" ducks respectively, in Holden's ramblings, while Sean and Daniel get closer to breaking free and moving on. The cabin in the woods and the grandparents' house in Rules, the two places where the ducks can be seen, are like passages, leading to the next major step that Sean and Daniel will eventually make when they hop on a train headed to California. Which brings us to Wastelands, the aforementioned chapter, where essential changes begin to happen, affecting both themselves and those around them.

Like Holden grieves over his brother's death, Sean has a constant fear of losing Daniel: at first, he is afraid that they will get separated, then he is worried all the time about him maybe not being able to control his power, therefore putting himself in danger. This fear inevitably becomes reality in episode 4, Faith, when Sean loses Daniel after a dramatic incident, and subsequently risks everything, including his life, until they are reunited.

This development is foreshadowed in an ominous dream that Sean has at the start of the fourth episode, where he sees himself sitting with Daniel at the top of a cliff, and suddenly Daniel tells him that he is alone and falls off, in a sequence that is one more vivid reference to The Catcher In The Rye, as it is connected to Holden's dream about being in a rye field, trying to catch the little children as they are about to fall off the cliff so as to keep them safe, and hence the innocence that he lost, and his inability to deal with Allie's death.

In this specific context, Sean identifies with Holden, as he himself becomes the "Catcher" who is desperately trying to save little Daniel from falling off the cliff. In the same context, Daniel has his literal identity as Sean's brother, symbolizing the blood link that connects them and that Sean fears of losing, but he also represents the lost innocence for both himself and Sean, identifying with the allegory of the children in Holden's dream.

Vintage Elements in Video Games: The Banker's Lamp

If you have played enough video games of all genres, you must have noticed in many of them the presence of a special kind of lamp that can be seen standing on desks, tables or benches. It is that characteristic old-style lamp with the green shade, that usually has a metallic body and a chain on the side with which it can be turned on and off, and it is called the banker's lamp.

The banker's lamp is an actual item that was first designed in 1909 by Harrison McFaddin and subsequently produced in large numbers to fill the needs of offices, companies but also civilian homes. As its green light was both bright and soothing, it became particularly popular in financial institutions, such as banks - which is where its name came from eventually. Its initial name, however, was a direct reference to its color and its function. It was called Emeralite - a blend of "emerald" and "light". Most banker's lamps are made with the same green shade that the original ones used to feature, but there are also blue, orange, even white ones.

Like most vintage objects that appear in video games, the banker's lamp is usually just a part of the decoration, adding to the overall atmosphere with its bright green light, if it is lit, or simply its stylish design, if it is turned off. The list of games that feature banker's lamps could go forever, as they can be seen in all kinds or genres. I have compiled just a few notable examples from action games that I have played, and afterdarkmysweet contributed with four samples from adventure games.

In Bioshock: Infinite, we can see several banker's lamps in their "natural" environment: in the Bank of the Prophet:

But we can also spot some others in various places, like in Elizabeth's tower, where the banker's lamp has a more elaborate shade design:

Random ones can be spotted on desks in other places:

In Murdered: Soul Suspect, there are banker's lamps in the back rooms of the church:

In Rise of the Tomb Raider, there is one sitting on Lord Croft's desk in the Manor:

There is one more on his study desk in the Library:

As well as on a side table in the same room, where he used to keep several items, papers and books:

In Resident Evil 6, there is one banker's lamp on the dean's desk in the Campus building:

There is one more in the same room, on a small table next to the entrance:

In the remake of Resident Evil 2, many banker's lamps can be seen in the RPD Library:

There is also a lone one on the desk of Chief Irons' private office:

In Devil May Cry 5, there are several ones in the Red Grave Library:

In Inmates, there is a banker's lamp on a bench in the Prison:

And one more on another bench in the same place:

In True Fear: Forsaken Souls 2, there is one in the doctor's office in the Asylum:

In What Never Was there is one in the grandfather's house:

As contemporary culture digs more and more into the past for inspiration and ideas, it is only natural that the game developing teams do the same. Digital art can recreate literally everything and breathe new life into elements that come from the past, more so since items like the banker's lamps are still perfectly usable today, although it's been over a century since their original creation.

Resident Evil 2 Remake

The recent remake of the Capcom classic Resident Evil 2 is a perfect mix of material coming from its vintage version and all the technical and visual advantages of contemporary gaming development technology. Matching this with a smart and flowing gameplay system and its legendary character cast, the game might be one of the finest Resident Evil titles, while at the same time being already a cult masterpiece although it was released only a few months ago, as it incorporates characteristic elements of classic cinematography and literature.

Environment and atmosphere wise, the remake is magnificent, starting with the lush vintage feast that is the revamped Racoon Police Department. From the original already, the main setting of the game that was the interior of the police station was depicted as a labyrinthine network of rooms and corridors set within a huge building with a complex architecture of past times, that used to be a museum. Now we see the huge, imposing building in all its glory; with vast halls, antique items, exquisite decorations and paintings; with complex puzzles, mysterious locked doors that open with iconic keys, secret rooms, spooky corridors and dusty storage areas. Zombies lurk behind every corner, burst through windows, wake up from their dead state ready to devour any living creature. Hideous monsters hang from the ceiling, crawl on the walls, jump out from the ducts. The sole ally that shows up is already bitten, and becomes a zombie soon after.

The RPD is imposing and ominous

This environment itself sets the mood right from the start, giving off a vague feeling that once inside, the protagonists are lost in time. The notion of a character being trapped in a huge, hostile building was introduced in the Resident Evil world with the first installment of the series (back then it was the Spencer mansion - another classic setting), and is a situation that we can trace, with variationσ, both in folk fairy tales and in thriller movies.

The ever-present in zombie stories gas station appears in the remake right at the beginning; it is where Leon and Claire first meet and are attacked by a horde of zombies. Set in the darkness of the small hours, the scene depicts the gas station as a dark and ominous place, lit only by the headlights of a parked police car which looks like it was abandoned there in a hurry as its doors were left open. There are traces of blood on the ground, but the interior of the building is silent, although the door signs reads "open" on the outside.

The gas station looks sparsely lit and gloomy

That scene, a reminiscent of and tribute to a memorable sequence from The Night Of The Living Dead, offers only a very small taste of what will follow, being a prelude to a progressive zombie nightmare.

A major feature in the remake is the way it integrates the development of its characters in the plot in a most effective and realistic way. This goes for both the good and the evil heroes, as both sides push the plot forward with their actions and decisions. Claire arrives at Raccoon City to find her disappeared brother, but when she comes across Sherry who is obviously in need of help, she doesn't lose time and is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the little girl is safe and sound. Leon shows up as a rookie police officer, determined to stay faithful to his oath to serve and protect the citizens, but he finds himself entangled in a much more complicated case where the immediate threats are anything but human. Regardless, he turns out to be more than capable to deal with all this, proving that both he and Claire are true survivors. Ada, on the other hand, being constantly on the margin between good and evil, finds out that she is not the cold spy that she thought she was, since her unexpected feelings for Leon messed with her judgement, leaving her vulnerable in the most unfortunate turn of her mission. 

Claire has always been one of the most popular characters in the Resident Evil universe, and rightly so. A combination of bravery, smartness and capability, Claire seems to be the fair counterpart of her brother, Chris. Being introduced in the series right after him, she fortifies her place in the saga by being part of the iconic game that was the original Resident Evil 2 and now that her character has returned via its remake with such dynamics, all those elements that made her stand out in the first place are intensified.

Claire is Sherry's guardian angel

Leon has been redesigned with features that combine both his Resident Evil 4 younger version and his Resident Evil 6 more mature self. Several traits of his character and physique have been emphasized or altered to match the literary prototype of the young, innocent hero with the big heart, like Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, Henry Fielding's Tom Jones and Herman Melville's Billy Budd. Just like those characters, Leon is an extraordinarily beautiful, blooming young man who has no malice in his heart and is always ready to offer his help to whomever needs it. Unlike the three of them, however, who were noted for their charming naivety, Leon is highly intelligent and capable of consciously using whatever means to battle injustice.

Leon shares many elements with the brave young heroes of classic literature

Like Billy, Nicholas and Tom, Leon trusts people thanks to his guileless heart, but he also has a strong instinct that holds him from giving too much. Which is why he goes all the trouble to help Ada, but he is never fully convinced of her sincerity. There is one scene close to the end where Ada is threatening to kill him, yet Leon seems pretty confident that she is unable to do it. Ada then lowers her gun, proving him right. This hints (or maybe even shows directly) that Leon was totally aware of Ada's feelings towards him, and he somehow managed to take advantage of it and trap her into giving up. Remember, in Ada's own words, Leon is a genious.

Nicholas Nickleby (Charlie Hunnam), Tom Jones (Albert Finney), Billy Budd (Terence Stamp)

Leon's backstory has also been changed, completely leaving out the detail about him breaking up with his girlfriend then getting drunk at a motel therefore arriving late in Raccoon City the day of the outbreak, which was the scenario in the original game. In this new version of the story, Leon simply receives a call telling him to get to his post later than the predetermined date, which is why he was not present at the time of the outbreak. This, combined with the fact that, when Ada kisses him in the cable car, he does not look particularly thrilled, not only hints that he never lets his heart mess with his duty, but also implies that the respective Krauser-related fandom may be marginally canon.

Ada is mysterious as always

Although Ada's character goes along the lines of her original version, in the remake she is shaped with much more detail, referencing the femme fatale stereotype from the classic film noir universe. Even so, Ada does not remain the typical femme fatale until the end of the story. She makes her first impressive appearance as a mysterious spy, with her high heels, her trench coat and dark glasses, but after befriending Leon, she gradually exposes herself more and more, both literally and metaphorically, a development that symbolizes her inner urge to open up to him and show more of her true self.
 
Ada seems to allude to several characters of the femme fatale genre, both classic and contemporary. She is wrapped in mystery and ambiguity, like the intimidating yet charming ladies that Lauren Bacal used to portray, but she also finds herself in a quite perplexed situation when she falls in love with the man whom she tries to take advantage of, resulting in her putting her own life at stake, like Asia Argento's Beatrice in B. Monkey.

Lauren Bacal in The Big Sleep and Asia Argento in B Monkey

Sherry's part is pure cult material in the remake, for a variety of reasons. It takes place in a dark, spooky orphanage, the atmosphere of which is loaded with the memory of the children who once lived there and were used in experiments. There are toys, drawings and children's furniture everywhere, yet there seems to be nothing cozy nor welcoming about this place. The rooms are gloomy and dimly lit, creating a chilling atmosphere of terrifying seclusion and nausea.

View of the orphanage's main hall

There are vintage photographs and paintings on the walls, while a gramophone can be heard playing an aria from Valkyrie by Wagner as Sherry gets closer and closer to the Chief's twisted secret: the private lab where he exercises his hobby of embalming all kinds of creatures, including the ill-fated daughter of the city's Mayor. This section features many elements of classic novels and films: the mysterious building that is lost in time, the crazy scientist with the extravagant lab, the beautiful innocent girl who becomes the victim of a psycho, the little child who is trapped by a maniac and attempts to escape; but most prominently, the orphanage with the sick administration, a theme that is present in quite a few novels, the most memorable of them being in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.

Vintage illustration depicting the orphanage from Nicholas Nickleby

Unlike Leon's story, which has pretty much the same layout as the original, Claire's story sees a few very important and notable modifications. First of all, the meeting with Chief Irons is transformed into one dramatic, epic scene. In the original, Claire meets Chief Irons for the first time in his secret office while looking for Sherry. In the remake, she bumps onto him in the parking lot, moments after she crosses paths with the little girl. Tension builds up slowly as the Chief emerges from the shadows just before he points a gun at the girls and forces Sherry to tie Claire's hands behind her back. After being attacked twice by Irons, Claire manages to free herself but not before the Chief runs away with Sherry.

Claire and Sherry meet the evil Chief Irons

This scene is very crucial for the story, but it is even more important for Claire: first of all, we realize that the Chief must have sensed that she is a considerable enemy (otherwise why would he want to neutralize her?), which further establishes Claire as a fearless, badass heroine. Secondly, by the end of the scene Claire is back on her feet yelling at the Chief, showing him that she is not afraid and at the same time showing us that she will not rest until she finds Sherry, sealing her role as a protector and an avenger.

While the game itself is not very long - you can even complete it in under two hours, or even less when you get to know it well enough and are willing to take shortcuts - it has a very distinct replay value. You find yourself wanting to play it again so as to get that same immersive feeling which was there during your very first playthrough and which will never go away no matter how many your replays may be. This alone says something about the quality of the remake, both as an impeccable game and a work of art with timeless value.

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.

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» The Symbolisms of The Evil Within
» The Evil Within Hearts and Minds 

Miasmata and Lord of The Flies

As an iconic, futuristic novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954) can be considered a major example of symbolism and allegory in literature. Set during an undefined war period, the story follows a group of boys who find themselves stranded on a tropical island after their airplane crashes somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Two of the boys, Piggy and Ralph, form an unlikely friendship despite them having absolutely nothing in common, while Ralph seems to be respected by the majority of the other boys, who establish him as some sort of leader. At first, the boys seem to enjoy their freedom, but soon their primitive survival instincts come forward, resulting in unavoidable tragedy just before salvation arrives. In the meantime, they develop a weird obsession about a monster that lives in the deep forest, which in fact represents their own fears and manias.

James Aubrey as Ralph in Peter Brook's adaptation of Lord of the Flies (1963)

Although the story of Miasmata (2012), the beautiful game by IonFX, is quite different from Lord of the Flies, we can identify several themes that are either prominent or implied in the book. Miasmata takes place in a tropical island, where the protagonist arrives in a boat. The island is a haven where several scientists, now deceased, had been working on a cure that could defeat a deadly plague that had infested the so-called civilized world. The protagonist has to search the whole place and find the ingredients (flowers and plants) that, when mixed together, will produce the cure. While at it, he is being stalked by a strange and vicious creature that chases him relentlessly while he is practically unable to defeat it.

The first theme that is common in both stories is the setting: the tropical island which looks like Paradise on Earth. In relation to this, comes the second theme, that of the representatives of the civilized world who are unexpectedly forced to live in primitive conditions, devoid of all the luxuries and benefits of their past lives.

Here the two stories deviate, as in Lord of the Flies this theme becomes highlighted from the moment that it establishes itself in the plot, while in Miasmata its role is secondary, since the protagonist is alone on the island, therefore his survival is easier and he has no one to compete with about a potential leadership.

The most prominent theme that is common in both the book and the game, is that of the "monster", the unidentified threat, the vague hostile force that is there around somewhere and becomes a recurring element that indirectly pushes the plot forward while every time it marks a notable progression in the characters' plunge to insanity.

The "creature" that stalks the protagonist in Miasmata

In Lord of the Flies, the "monster" is finally revealed to be the disfigured corpse of a pilot who got killed in an attempt to jump on the island with his parachute. In Miasmata, it is a strange creature that looks like a combination of a bull and a cat, which may appear several times during the hero's quest and depictions of which can be seen in one of the cabins of the deceased scientists. As the story of the game reaches its conclusion and the protagonist finds the cure and uses it to heal himself from the plague, the monster disappears, implying that it was a figment of his imagination, as well as a figment of the imagination of all the other scientists who had been on the island before him.

In both stories, the unknown enemy gradually becomes some sort of reverse driving force: its existence, mostly in the minds of the characters and less as a tangible threat, intensifies their darker instincts (in Lord of the Flies) and their agonizing uncertainty about what comes next (in Miasmata). This results in inevitable dramatic consequences as the characters get trapped in their own perception of that threat, which blinds them, preventing them from seeing and facing reality.

In Lord of the Flies, the climax of the drama occurs when the boys, under the influence of Jack, Ralph's rival awe who at some point, in a coup-like move, becomes the leader, kill Piggy, just before a ship arrives that will lead them back to civilization. In Miasmata, the protagonist, after healing himself with the cure, manages to swim to the boat that will lead him to salvation, only to commit suicide just there.

In a most moving twist of fate, we realize that the cure will never reach the civilized world, seeing that several injections containing the healing mixture, including the one of the protagonist, are lying on the bottom of the boat; which implies that all the other scientists before our hero managed to arrive to the boat but never left the island. In a parallel allusion, the boys in Lord of the Flies do go back to their home, but after what they had to go through on the island, they will never be the same again. In Miasmata, the shot, which is literal, heals the protagonist but leads him to realize that some secrets need to be preserved at any cost. In Lord of the Flies, the shot is metaphorical: the ominous atmosphere of the island injects itself in the minds of the boys and shows them what monstrosities they are capable of.