So what's the monster and where did it come from

[Froze]

(disclaimer: I do not own the game, however i've watched a streamer play it from beginning to end, feels a bit like pirating but legal(?))

So is the monster just...meat? or does it have a form? how did other crewmates get infected AND transform but not the mc? and what was Trots fightinf against in the room? was he fighting against tentacles or was there a more concrete form of the monster that latched on to him?

Also did Rennick get infected but got a delayed transformation? and some characters said the "oil" transformed the crewmates but the mc literally swims in the contaminated waters and only got hallucinations?

Also fearing if the monsters reach mainland? didnt people have rockets and explosives in the 70s?

[manwhat]

The monster is behind a weird layer of something in the ocean at the start of the game - Rennick gets a call about it and says 'drill through it anyway'.

The MC is never in contact with the monstermeat long enough to get absorbed or transformed like the other characters are (unless you die in which case that's what happens). Getting just touched isn't instant death, it seems like it needs prolonged contact. That screwdriver helps save Caz a few times - other characters don't have an improvised weapon on hand.

The 'oil' that sprayed Gibbo is probably monster-blood, not actually oil. Regular oil is just regular oil.

Finlay is afraid that more people will die if they don't kill it here. Yeah, the military could probably deal with the situation but not without losing more civilians first.

Finlay also seems to believe that she and Caz are both 'infected' it by it somehow for being around it too long, and it's just a matter of time before they start transforming too.

[Iggy Wolf]

My guess it's a mostly likely an ancient creature or living substance that came through the drill pump when they drilled through the ocean floor. It's "tendrils" seem to act more like veins, having a sort of "heartbeat" that you can hear when you get close, and you can even see it pulsating to each beat. In fact, what we most likely see throughout the game is merely its appendages, and never the actual creature's main body or even face.

Hell, if it is some kind of living substance, then it doesn't necessarily seem to be "malevolent" so much as acting on instinct. It taking over the crew is simply how it assimilates new organic matter into itself. The resulting explosion of body parts and matter and twisting the crews' bodies and organs is simply due to it being chaotic and violent in its spread.

What is notable however is that it seems to alter reality and bend the laws of physics once it gets big enough. By the end of the game, the derrick has parts of the rig basically floating up into the sky, while other parts seem to "levitate" near the creature's veins sticking out. At one point, you see a "hall of mirrors" effect of the cabin windows multiplying and moving around out through said windows.

Whether it's Caz hallucinating at that point or the creature actually bending reality is ambiguous. But it's definitely capable of changing the geometry in the immediate vicinity. Especially when you enter the derrick and yet somehow end up in what looks like rig below it, with the drill hanging in the middle of an abyss, seeping oil. If I had to guess, it's a type of "Leviathan" as usually depicted in mythological stories.

[Froze]

Originally posted by manwhat:

The monster is behind a weird layer of something in the ocean at the start of the game - Rennick gets a call about it and says 'drill through it anyway'.

The MC is never in contact with the monstermeat long enough to get absorbed or transformed like the other characters are (unless you die in which case that's what happens). Getting just touched isn't instant death, it seems like it needs prolonged contact. That screwdriver helps save Caz a few times - other characters don't have an improvised weapon on hand.

The 'oil' that sprayed Gibbo is probably monster-blood, not actually oil. Regular oil is just regular oil.

Finlay is afraid that more people will die if they don't kill it here. Yeah, the military could probably deal with the situation but not without losing more civilians first.

Finlay also seems to believe that she and Caz are both 'infected' it by it somehow for being around it too long, and it's just a matter of time before they start transforming too.

hm yea Rennick had a delayed transformation in the heli, so mc and Finlay could've had the same thing happen to them.

would be cool if there was a gun in the game or maybe a spec ops session late game (somewhat like in re village) where the military raids what's left of the oil rig after the explosion...

the unexplained mystery of the monster kind of helps with the horror vibes but it really leaves a lot unanswered...

[JohnnyMangoes]

It's an underwater Dead Space artifact. The principle of it is identical to Dead Space.

[Magick Masquerade]

My best guess is the creature is a great old one that was sleeping in the depths of the ocean until the drill pierced it and woke it up. Typically you cannot properly perceive great old ones without going insane by their true form, so I assume it was either warping reality enough to be perceived in such a way that it didn’t immediately drive people insane, but enough to transform them. Probably to torment them and make them despair, since it may feed off of that.

At some point it seems like Finlay is aware that she’s hearing somebody she shouldn’t be hearing and asked Caz who he hears. We know Caz hear’s his wife who obviously isn’t there, so it seems like the more auditory and visual hallucinations you get, the closer you are to going insane and transforming into something else. Finlay seemed to understand they were slowly changing because of general exposure to whatever the drill hit and that it was probably too late for them to be saved.

As far as the mainland goes, Finlay probably didn’t realize what the creature actually was and thought that they could kill it then and there to protect everyone else. The reality of the situation is that once it’s awake, it’s likely too late. If it really is a great old one that’s woken up, it’ll get to the mainland all the same and doom the planet, because there’s no stopping it at that point. Finlay and Caz maybe delayed the inevitable at best if it’s basically an eldritch god.

[Froze]

Originally posted by English Breakfast:

My best guess is the creature is a great old one that was sleeping in the depths of the ocean until the drill pierced it and woke it up. Typically you cannot properly perceive great old ones without going insane by their true form, so I assume it was either warping reality enough to be perceived in such a way that it didn’t immediately drive people insane, but enough to transform them. Probably to torment them and make them despair, since it may feed off of that.

At some point it seems like Finlay is aware that she’s hearing somebody she shouldn’t be hearing and asked Caz who he hears. We know Caz hear’s his wife who obviously isn’t there, so it seems like the more auditory and visual hallucinations you get, the closer you are to going insane and transforming into something else. Finlay seemed to understand they were slowly changing because of general exposure to whatever the drill hit and that it was probably too late for them to be saved.

As far as the mainland goes, Finlay probably didn’t realize what the creature actually was and thought that they could kill it then and there to protect everyone else. The reality of the situation is that once it’s awake, it’s likely too late. If it really is a great old one that’s woken up, it’ll get to the mainland all the same and doom the planet, because there’s no stopping it at that point. Finlay and Caz maybe delayed the inevitable at best if it’s basically an eldritch god.

Love this kind of theory crafting, and i feel like the game tries to focus on the drama with Caz too much meanwhile there's an exceedingly mysterious and interesting entity that the game doesn't bother to expand upon lmao

It's like ok Caz has legal and family issues BUT THERE'S AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE UNDERWATER ENTITY THAT HAS SUPERNATURAL PROWESS haha

[JohnnyMangoes]

It's just a short, water based dead space

[Magick Masquerade]

Originally posted by Froze:

Originally posted by English Breakfast:

My best guess is the creature is a great old one that was sleeping in the depths of the ocean until the drill pierced it and woke it up. Typically you cannot properly perceive great old ones without going insane by their true form, so I assume it was either warping reality enough to be perceived in such a way that it didn’t immediately drive people insane, but enough to transform them. Probably to torment them and make them despair, since it may feed off of that.

At some point it seems like Finlay is aware that she’s hearing somebody she shouldn’t be hearing and asked Caz who he hears. We know Caz hear’s his wife who obviously isn’t there, so it seems like the more auditory and visual hallucinations you get, the closer you are to going insane and transforming into something else. Finlay seemed to understand they were slowly changing because of general exposure to whatever the drill hit and that it was probably too late for them to be saved.

As far as the mainland goes, Finlay probably didn’t realize what the creature actually was and thought that they could kill it then and there to protect everyone else. The reality of the situation is that once it’s awake, it’s likely too late. If it really is a great old one that’s woken up, it’ll get to the mainland all the same and doom the planet, because there’s no stopping it at that point. Finlay and Caz maybe delayed the inevitable at best if it’s basically an eldritch god.

Love this kind of theory crafting, and i feel like the game tries to focus on the drama with Caz too much meanwhile there's an exceedingly mysterious and interesting entity that the game doesn't bother to expand upon lmao

It's like ok Caz has legal and family issues BUT THERE'S AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE UNDERWATER ENTITY THAT HAS SUPERNATURAL PROWESS haha

Thats the beauty of it though. Caz is someone who’s average and incredibly relatable. The entire cast (minus a few) are all very average, likable people with very relatable problems and circumstances. Their stories are all fairly normal with nothing especially noteworthy, but they still interest you because of how ordinary they are in such an extraordinary situation.

And if the game focused too heavily on what the creature is, where it came from and why it’s doing what it’s doing, it would detract from the unsettling fact that it’s a creature of unknown origin with reality warping abilities. It’s a creature that none of the characters could possibly even begin to fathom and it would probably do a poor job of trying to explain it anyway.

If it is in fact a great old one, humanity as a whole would never be able to properly perceive it, let alone understand it. The reason why it’s so compelling is because we don’t know what or why it is, we just know that it’s horrifying and instinctively that we need to look away from it, while also simultaneously being drawn into wanting to know more about it because of our fear and fascination of the unknown. Deep down it’s probably better to not know, but we can’t help but want to know regardless of the consequences because of our nature.

Although to be fair, Caz and the crew probably aren’t concerned about any of that, they just don’t want to die and are holding out hope they’ll be saved. They don’t have the time to question much during the events of the game.

[Froze]

Originally posted by English Breakfast:

Originally posted by Froze:

Love this kind of theory crafting, and i feel like the game tries to focus on the drama with Caz too much meanwhile there's an exceedingly mysterious and interesting entity that the game doesn't bother to expand upon lmao

It's like ok Caz has legal and family issues BUT THERE'S AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE UNDERWATER ENTITY THAT HAS SUPERNATURAL PROWESS haha

Thats the beauty of it though. Caz is someone who’s average and incredibly relatable. The entire cast (minus a few) are all very average, likable people with very relatable problems and circumstances. Their stories are all fairly normal with nothing especially noteworthy, but they still interest you because of how ordinary they are in such an extraordinary situation.

And if the game focused too heavily on what the creature is, where it came from and why it’s doing what it’s doing, it would detract from the unsettling fact that it’s a creature of unknown origin with reality warping abilities. It’s a creature that none of the characters could possibly even begin to fathom and it would probably do a poor job of trying to explain it anyway.

If it is in fact a great old one, humanity as a whole would never be able to properly perceive it, let alone understand it. The reason why it’s so compelling is because we don’t know what or why it is, we just know that it’s horrifying and instinctively that we need to look away from it, while also simultaneously being drawn into wanting to know more about it because of our fear and fascination of the unknown. Deep down it’s probably better to not know, but we can’t help but want to know regardless of the consequences because of our nature.

Although to be fair, Caz and the crew probably aren’t concerned about any of that, they just don’t want to die and are holding out hope they’ll be saved. They don’t have the time to question much during the events of the game.

understandable

[Ara7]

Originally posted by English Breakfast:

Originally posted by Froze:

Love this kind of theory crafting, and i feel like the game tries to focus on the drama with Caz too much meanwhile there's an exceedingly mysterious and interesting entity that the game doesn't bother to expand upon lmao

It's like ok Caz has legal and family issues BUT THERE'S AN UNKNOWN HOSTILE UNDERWATER ENTITY THAT HAS SUPERNATURAL PROWESS haha

Thats the beauty of it though. Caz is someone who’s average and incredibly relatable. The entire cast (minus a few) are all very average, likable people with very relatable problems and circumstances. Their stories are all fairly normal with nothing especially noteworthy, but they still interest you because of how ordinary they are in such an extraordinary situation.

And if the game focused too heavily on what the creature is, where it came from and why it’s doing what it’s doing, it would detract from the unsettling fact that it’s a creature of unknown origin with reality warping abilities. It’s a creature that none of the characters could possibly even begin to fathom and it would probably do a poor job of trying to explain it anyway.

If it is in fact a great old one, humanity as a whole would never be able to properly perceive it, let alone understand it. The reason why it’s so compelling is because we don’t know what or why it is, we just know that it’s horrifying and instinctively that we need to look away from it, while also simultaneously being drawn into wanting to know more about it because of our fear and fascination of the unknown. Deep down it’s probably better to not know, but we can’t help but want to know regardless of the consequences because of our nature.

Although to be fair, Caz and the crew probably aren’t concerned about any of that, they just don’t want to die and are holding out hope they’ll be saved. They don’t have the time to question much during the events of the game.

100% this. The game works so well BECAUSE we don’t know what it is. That’s part of the horror. It’s captivating and arresting and beautiful and horrifying and we have no info about it. We’re just trying to survive with Caz and get home and nothing else matters in the moment because, to him, that’s what’s important.

[VDRSK]

Originally posted by Froze:

there's an exceedingly mysterious and interesting entity that the game doesn't bother to expand upon lmao

This is why it succeeds, it's lovecraftian horror, the game doesn't try you explain what it is, why it does what it does, all you know is that it's dangerous. It's beautiful.

So many horror games with creepy monsters plumet into the trap of feeling the need to explain why it exists and it almost always is: science experiment or tortured soul of someone murdered. This is when you get people who are more experienced in certains areas question your logic and finding logical gaps like "actually its physically impossible for a creature to survive this long," "How come the creature didn't do this" "if that is true then the creature should have done this"...

Things are better off not explained.

This is well done.

[Badkarma]

It may be the colour palette of the monster but got Color from Space vibes - contact alters everything it contacted. As for not explaining the entity, these are your average people and not scientists, think it helps show the horror of the situation

[Urban Samurai]

It's pretty much this, but whatever was down on the ocean floor was something... big, they wanted to leave it ambiguous a mystery to what it is but overall it seems to be Dead Space underwater.

And just like Dead Space with the markers it seems it was also sealed away.

https://deadspace.fandom.com/wiki/The_Corruption

[Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel]

It could be some kind of landmass or skinmass that is covering the ocean floor and its intelligenable like a life form, if it was genetically created or bio-enginered its something of a mass that can take a form of anything and when you look at it it doesn't look like anything.

[Supreme Emperor Lord As Asriel]

Its definitely one of the sea monsters that nobody has ever saw before.