Anthology of Fear - story explanation

[?]

I've noticed a lot of people complain that there was "no story", or that the "story didn't make sense".

The story is there. It makes sense. But you need to read all the clues and think about it. A second play-though to fully explore the Medical Center definitely helps.

I didn't play the game, I watched a streamer play it.
Myself and the streamer both love liminal horror games where the atmosphere is the most important thing. Silent Hill 2 is one of our favorite games.
We both enjoyed this game. I loved the Silent Hill inspired elements.
I had one or two dislikes, but the story wasn't one of them.

No-spoiler premise

This game is about Ethan Sorren investigating the disappearance of his brother Nathan Sorren.
You are role playing Ethan. It is up to YOU to find the clues and piece together what happened.
This isn't a movie. The game is not going to hand you the answers on a silver platter.
Ethan comments on a few things, but he doesn't fully connect the dots for you.
The story is scattered in documents that you can completely miss if you do not explore.
Almost all documents are important to understanding the full story, but Ethan's commentary on the situation does not change based on those, so he may not even fully understand what is going on, he expresses disbelief several times.
The story is also revealed in small audio clips played during elevator rides where streamers often decide to read the chat. Unfortunately, this game is not designed for streamers. It is not the game's fault if they read chat instead of paying attention.

To me, the atmosphere is the point of the game. The story is there, but it wasn't that important to me.
To me, it felt like I was walking around Silent Hill, and I loved it.
I'm not a fan of jumpscares in general, but 90% of the jumpscares were great. There was one very cheap scare where things just appeared right in front of your eyes, but most scares are when things already present start moving, and things changing behind you when you aren't looking.
I've also seen streamers completely miss subtle scares because they were reading chat. Again: it is not the game's fault if you look away.
I dislike games with handholding that treat players like children. I don't want the camera to automatically turn to look at everything that happens - it's not a movie, it's up to me to be observant. I also don't like loud noises and flashing things taking up the entire screen to scare you, which is why I disliked that 1 cheap jump scare in the game.
Apart from the end cutscene, there is only 1 time the camera control is taken away from you: Near the end of the game, when you pick up the final item - it is something you're supposed to really think about, because it's important to understand both the ending, and the start of the game. Some people even commented "Why is he picking it up so dramatically?", without actually thinking about it and realising the answer.

This game is 2-3 hours of walking around piecing together what happened, while strange things happen around you. And that is what is great about it.

I recommend you play the game if you like games that are heavy on the atmosphere, vague on the story unless you really put all the pieces together and think about it.

If you think "Walking Simulator" is a good insult, this game is not for you. This is not an action game, and no-one ever said it was.

The spoiler-heavy story

The Morpheus Medical Center has a Matrix-like computer system, called NET (I don't recall if it's an acronym) and they started uploading people's brains in 1977.
Your brother Nathan went there in 1979 for help with a sleep disorder.
Nathan died while being uploaded, because a phone rang while he was being transferred. (See also: Black Mirror - Playtest)
Morpheus covered it up, and they were shut down by the Board of Directors.
The End. That's the mystery in a nutshell.

In 1981, Ethan breaks into Morpheus Medical Center and finds a VHS tape, a recording of Nathan's experiences inside NET.
When Ethan plays the tape, the player takes control of Nathan.
To Ethan, it's pre-recorded. To the player, you're Nathan, living Nathan's simulation.
Ethan has never seen The Matrix or Black Mirror, so he is not as good at putting the pieces together as the player should be.

Optional documents that Ethan reads in the medical center explain that what takes place in the simulation is due to Nathan's subconscious. You can even read what happens to Nathan before you watch the tape, if you explore.
During Nathan's NET simulation, there is a theme of phones ringing, because this is the last thing Nathan heard. Even the music has a phone ringing deep in the mix.
During the simulation, there are various pieces of Nathan's real memories, played on easily-missable cassettes, and in audio clips while you ride the elevator. These outline Nathan's arrival at the facility, and what happened during the procedure. (The cassettes aren't really that important, the contents are played elsewhere anyway - they're there to reward exploration, and to reinforce the story)
All the clocks are set to 3:03 because that's when Nathan died.
At the end of Nathan's simulation, he dies, shot by a gun that rings like a phone.
Following this is a memory of the procedure. This memory was also played backwards in Cassette #2.

After watching Nathan's tape, Ethan keeps looking for more information, about Alice, the nurse whose phone rang.
He finds her tape, and Ethan watches her tape while you play as Alice.
Alice has a completely separate story, and that the end she goes to work on the day of Nathan procedure.
There's a few things in there relevant to what happened to Nathan, but not really anything more than you already know if you already read the documents. I think this is mostly there for people who missed the optional documents, and to connect the 3 stories together.
There's also an optional document that says that being uploaded to NET is in their employee contract, explaining why they uploaded Alice.

After watching both VHS tapes, Ethan is chased by a security guard and shot.
After Ethan is shot, a tape starts playing, from Ethan's POV, then we see the start of the game as if it's on a tape.
Ethan has also been uploaded to NET.

Questions

• "why did X happen"?

The answer to most of those questions is: because it's all in a dreamlike computer simulation.
One of the optional documents specifically says that the person's subconscious creates barriers and puzzles and keys.

• Was the ENTIRE game Ethan in the simulation?

Probably.
The final item that Ethan picks up is exactly the same "Small Key" that was the first item Nathan picked up. The game even takes away camera control and has Ethan pick it up slowly, to give you time to think about it and realise it's the same key from inside the Simulation, and documents have told you that people's subconscious creates keys.
When we see Ethan inserting Nathan and Alices tapes, we see it through a VHS filter, which makes no sense unless you were watching Ethan's tape of him inserting the VHS tape.
Right at the start for the game, when Ethan is in the basement, Emily's rabbit doll is there.
There may have been other small clues I missed. A couple more wouldn't hurt.

Ethan's experience was not as dreamlike as Nathan's and Alice's. So maybe we're playing as Ethan the first time, alive, and he is only put into the Simulation at the end, to relive that day over and over.
But I think the overall story works better with the twist that Ethan was dead the entire time.

• Who was on the computer talking to Nathan?
  
• Who was on the walkie talkie with Ethan?

It's vague and unanswered in both cases, but I personally believe it's Alice, who is breaking through the barriers of the Simulations to talk to Nathan and Ethan.
But it may just be Nathan's and Ethan's subconscious, helping them just like they help by creating keys.
There are only 2 voice actors: 1 male, 1 female. So the person on the walkie talkie also voiced Alice, but it's unknown if it's the same character.

• Who shot Nathan?

The phone. It was Nathan's subconscious manifesting a physical representation of the phone killing him. We couldn't see who was holding the phone gun, but it wasn't important. Just another faceless enemy created by Nathan's dreams.

• What was real then?

Nathan was there for help with sleep. The notes indicate that he was dreaming when he died. The building he is stuck in was the dream he was having. It's unknown whether it was a real place, or entirely made up. Nathan comments on it feeling familiar.
Alice's tape is almost certainly just her remembering her final day. Except for the dreamlike portions, that was her house and what really happened.
Ethan's tape is almost certainly him remembering his final day. He had NO dreamlike portions, except perhaps the chase at the end.
This raises the question of whether there was really someone on a Walkie Talkie helping him in the real world, before he died. Because if there was, it wasn't Alice, as she died 2 years before that. The entire story makes more sense as a whole if Ethan was dead the whole time, and we just accept that we don't know what happened before he died, and what was different in his "repeating the day he died" simulation.

• The game was too short

No it wasn't.
People who calculate price v length are unrealistic children.
People who complain about it are whiny babies.
Do you complain about prices at restaurants not reflecting the time to eat it?
Do you complain that 90 minute movies cost the same as 3 hour movies?
Grow up.

The dev has said that more tapes will be added soon, as well as achievements.
(AAA games are rarely complete when they're released either.)

Conclusion

The story is THERE, but some people are calling it bad because they didn't get a neat cutscene explaining everything to them.
The dev clearly thought it out, but only gave it to you in small pieces.

There are also various themes throughout the game. A Dante's Inferno quote before you ride the elevator down. (I didn't count how many times you ride the elevator) There's the whole Morpheus/Hypnos thing. There's a "Find Jericho" thing that I didn't understand. And there's a bunch of various deaths that are secondary to the main story.

Silent Hill games don't explain everything either. Most people explain all the nonsense in Silent Hill as "Because it's Silent Hill". If you're happy with that, then you should be happy with "because it's a dream simulation" here.

I also enjoyed Scorn, another atmospheric game that didn't sit the player down and explain the story to them - which is also why many people didn't like it.
I understand people wanting to play games as interactive movies that tell them a story, and there are many great games that do that, but not all games are the same, and it's okay to have questions after playing it.

There is one giant plot inconsistency though.
Documents say that Nathan died in 1979 - which explains the computers and other tech.
But Alice's "phone" ringing is the reason Nathan died.
The ringing sounds like a landline, but it is said to be Alice's phone specifically, and that she neglected to "turn it off".
In 1979. Oops.

I suspect that the dev came up with the "phone ringing" theme before they decided to set the game in 1979, and didn't think it through.
It's no big deal, and it's the only real problem the story has.

Oh, and the music is perfect. Some games that have looping music drive me insane, but I could listen to this Silent Hill-inspired music for hours.

[?]

I watched another play-through and noticed a couple of other small clues.

Emily's rabbit is in the basement at the start of the game.

The only time the game takes away camera control is when Ethan picks up the Small Key at the end of the game. It's the only cutscene for something as simple as picking up an item. I believe the intent was to make the player think about the fact it's the same key from inside the Simulation. Ethan doesn't make a comment, but I believe it's indicating that Ethan is thinking about it himself.

I also watched a playthrough of the original Prologue demo, and I think that confirms my suspicion that the phone idea came before they set the game in 1979.

[Scorpios Society]

dame

[CrUeL]

Thanks for explantion it helped me to understand atory and i enjoyed

[SaSha]

Wow dude, what an explanation. And I just wanted to google the ending explanation :D Good job man and you totally right about the price/lenght stuff. (Imagine games when you have to do the same puzzle 30 times across the whole map to make up for playtime) <3