***SPOILERS*** Comparing Weirdness

[ArcaBunny]

So after a couple of replays of the demo, I've noticed how different each run can be, want to compare notes?

contains spoilers, please do not preview or read past this point if you want to go into the game with no ideas of whats to come... Like poor Garrett

1) On the night the bird is screaming outside and your to-do list says to investigate there was a ghoulish woman with glowing eyes was crouched by the big tree to the right of the back door. She disappeared as I approached

2) A similar looking man was lurking in the bathroom with the door slightly open, as I approached he slammed the door. When I opened it there was no-one there

3) Going to bed late there was a banging sound and a huge pile of books or notepads between the stairs and the bed

4) After buying a scarecrow it went missing, I assumed I'd bought it in a different play save file but nope, it was standing by my bed at night!!! It moved it's head whenever I moved the flashlight away from it

5) Low stakes creepy stuff like the TV turning itself on or the wardrobe doors opening on their own with a creak you can hear throughout the house

6) No wolves! I had a play through with absolutely no wolf attack, I searched the whole area for them and there was no sign but I was on edge the entire time!

I've no idea what the criteria is for triggering these events or if it's random, but do you have any that I've missed?

[Walkin Tornado]

Absolutely a simple spook is when Garrett first enters the bathroom and closes the window. You can see the shadow of something running behind the fence. The shadow doesnt spawn when you close the window from outside but Garett still mentions it.

My favourite is the giant womans head in the sky at night. Might need to turn up the gamma for this one cuz its easy to confuse it with the mountains. Its EXTREMELY visible from the back porch when you look at the horizon. I got it by beeing a very lazy farmer who neglects his duties multiple days in a row and goes to bed very late, or faints for a few nights. The painting had a woman on the floor in darkness or multiple armed woman in the doorway

Another spook are the many floating women above the house at night. I got this by neglecting farming and my duties for one day, they spawn when its dark right above the house, the painting had a naked woman standing in the doorway

A very early scare is in the opening cutscene, when Garrett turns on his blinker, you can see the ghoul in the rearview mirror for a split second.

I got the notes on two playthroughs
once in the bedroom and once in the kitchen. Seems to trigger when i do the tasks for multiple days in one.

I got the scarecrow in the bedroom once, but i hadnt crafted a scarecrow at that point. I had been very diligent in my farmer duties and i assumed it was there to protect me from the non agricultural spooks. Painting was a tree.

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by Walkin Tornado:

Absolutely

I didn't notice any of these!!!

I'm going to have to play through again now

[Mercutio]

The head in the sky was my favorite!!!! You definitely want to replay to get that one! Although they said you might miss it, I have NO idea how you possibly could miss that freaky thing, plus the music lets you know ♥♥♥♥ aint okay haha

[H0b0t]

Always running around while keeping my mind busy ( how to go faster with daily task in order to have more time to explore, where to put torch light, building mental map, etc.) I have missed everything !
My brain : dude there is loud weird music and a shadow on your right
Me: Yeah whatever ! took too muwh time exploring, I need to hurry back to my tomato plants >_<

1st run : Got stuck because I tried to shoot 5 cans with one bullet ! No reset
2nd run: Wolves appeared on 1st day in the barn ! died then game crashed
Time for a third run !
Definitely need to play at slower pace

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by H0b0t:

Always running around while keeping my mind busy ( how to go faster with daily task in order to have more time to explore, where to put torch light, building mental map, etc.) I have missed everything !
My brain : dude there is loud weird music and a shadow on your right
Me: Yeah whatever ! took too muwh time exploring, I need to hurry back to my tomato plants >_<

1st run : Got stuck because I tried to shoot 5 cans with one bullet ! No reset
2nd run: Wolves appeared on 1st day in the barn ! died then game crashed
Time for a third run !
Definitely need to play at slower pace

I think I've had a similar experience, I'm too much of a Stardew Valley player and trying to optimise my farm so I either miss stuff in the periphery or I'm only getting minor creepiness because I'm a goody two shoes lol!

I just tried a new save doing nothing, not even tidying my room just got the to-do list and went for a walk and I've already noticed how much creepier the house is on my return just before sunset. There are a lot more ambient sounds, the painting is showing stuff I've not seen in my previous games and the ghoul in the bathroom has already made an appearance on day 1! Interestingly, the bathroom window wasn't open at all on this play through so I already missed one of the things mentioned above... I'm really enjoying how different all my saves are!

For the wolves in the barn, I got past them by climbing to the top floor and if you look out of the window directly in front of the ladders there's a roof you can jump onto and then down to the ground, I did that and took off towards the house without any issues.

Good luck!

[Mercutio]

I had the wolf/barn experience and they got me the first time! All the way back to my house! Those dang wolves are not normal wolves...they are supernatural. Normal wolves would not be that aggressive or attack you when you had an axe and fought back....actually you know what, I don't know. I'm not a wolf expert. It just seems to me that that isn't normal wolf behavior.

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

Originally posted by Mercutio:

I had the wolf/barn experience and they got me the first time! All the way back to my house! Those dang wolves are not normal wolves...they are supernatural. Normal wolves would not be that aggressive or attack you when you had an axe and fought back....actually you know what, I don't know. I'm not a wolf expert. It just seems to me that that isn't normal wolf behavior.

The introduction to the game paints a much bleaker picture than most realize upfront. It's only a little ambiguous. "Bought the farm" has always been an old school way of saying, cryptically, "died tragically." Well... our protagonist's life fell apart, he became completely broken because of it, and... well... he bought a farm. He really reinforces that he bailed on everything in his life, that he could have taken the turn he was supposed to, and just didn't. Just kept driving, and now he's stuck where he chose to be. Pair that with all the supernatural occurrences, and it seems that's our protagonist is in a form of self-inflicted purgatory.

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by Mercutio:

I had the wolf/barn experience and they got me the first time! All the way back to my house! Those dang wolves are not normal wolves...they are supernatural. Normal wolves would not be that aggressive or attack you when you had an axe and fought back....actually you know what, I don't know. I'm not a wolf expert. It just seems to me that that isn't normal wolf behavior.

Yeah, I'm having similar thoughts in the game where standard "video game logic" seems more sinister. This goes for wolfie aggression, their bodies disappearing after a while if you kill them etc

I did like the way The Long Dark handled their wolves, with a splash screen each time you load the game saying something to the effect of

"IRL wolves are pretty chill, we needed something to make your life more difficult in game and wolves fit the bill. This is a work of fiction, wolves don't really come from 100s of miles away to wreck your day. Please do not harass or harm actual wolves because they were mean to you in a game"

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

I never got wolf attacks either.
Television broke entirely after the second night, though.

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

I never got wolf attacks either.
Television broke entirely after the second night, though.

Did the TV break after switching on in the middle of the night to show a silhouette standing outside the front of the house or is that something that doesn't happen in every play though too?

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

Originally posted by ArcaBunny:

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

I never got wolf attacks either.
Television broke entirely after the second night, though.

Did the TV break after switching on in the middle of the night to show a silhouette standing outside the front of the house or is that something that doesn't happen in every play though too?

Actually, it was a little different. The feed was of my front porch. Lights were on in the living room, and someone was walking around inside of it it. After the inhabitant of the house goes back upstairs, presumably Garret, a head of a woman slowly spins to face the camera from the lower right hand side of the screen, as if buried neck deep in the ground. Once this happened, the television cut out to static, and I immediately needed to go to bed. I did not see a silhouette outside of the house, but I might have simply missed it. The next day, the television did not work anymore. Garret simply said "Huh..." when all it did was click and stay powered off.

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by Yggdrasil Burnes:

Originally posted by ArcaBunny:

Did the TV break after switching on in the middle of the night to show a silhouette standing outside the front of the house or is that something that doesn't happen in every play though too?

Actually, it was a little different. The feed was of my front porch. Lights were on in the living room, and someone was walking around inside of it it. After the inhabitant of the house goes back upstairs, presumably Garret, a head of a woman slowly spins to face the camera from the lower right hand side of the screen. Once this happened, the television cut out to static, and I immediately needed to go to bed. I did not see a silhouette outside of the house, but I might have simply missed it. The next day, the television did not work anymore. Garret simply said "Huh..." when all it did was click and stay powered off.

Oooof, I do not like that at all!

I think the house details may be the same, the silhouette is quite subtle so I was pretty focused on figuring out if it was a person or shrub but I'm sure I would have noticed the woman's head if it was in my game...

The TV showed the same thing in 2 of my saves, the 2nd time I ran out with an axe because I was feeling stupid/brave. There was no-one there but as soon as I turned back to face the house I got attacked from behind, the axe didn't do anything to repel it and I died a few steps from the front porch

[Absinthia]

Talking about the Wolves: in my playthrough one of the barn wolves changed, it got long legs and a taller body more similar to an very thin horse. Don´t know if it was a bug or intentional. But it was hella creepy nevertheless

[ArcaBunny]

Originally posted by Absinthia:

Talking about the Wolves: in my playthrough one of the barn wolves changed, it got long legs and a taller body more similar to an very thin horse. Don´t know if it was a bug or intentional. But it was hella creepy nevertheless

I would legitimately cry!

[GreenMinstrel]

Having played the ToDos thourgh, this is a highly interesting thread, thank you. However, on the announcing page I was able to fully read your text, including the spoiler marked one. I feel knowing these things beforehand would hurt the game quite heavily. Maybe put a verbal spoiler alert in the title, too, please?