So, what's the story? What happened?

[6lancmange]

Story, lore, whatever you call it. What happened, what led to the outcome in each map that we have to clean up? Is there some sort of canon? Have people been able to figure out the possible gruesome events? I was looking and couldn't find anything, only like, transcripts of the notes found in the levels. But they don't explain everything, some maps have less obvious details – and perhaps some of us are worse at connecting the dots than others.

As a side note, but kinda related – what's the point of investigating what happened to someone if some particulars are literally impossible to tell, for example apparently there's no way to tell someone's been bitten unless you look at the game files? That's very meta-gaming, isn't it? Also I'd use "other" a lot, like for the skinned people in Penumbra (that could be a specific particular all on its own!), but apparently they're just "ritualized". What suggests that? I thought they were killed by some mysterious entity/entities that's just really violent.
Or in Caduceus, that has mystified me the most. I didn't see any aliens, so I left in 0, but I guess you're supposed to count all the splatter. But they're not ON SITE? Anyway, *what happened there?*

[SeansShow]

IMO Uprinsing is probably one of the better levels for explaining events (I also feel its a level which should be played later on in a playthrough), theres a story linked within numerous levels and throughout the game with a secret ending of sorts but to tell you about it and my own theories on the lore would just be ruining something very special for you.

[6lancmange]

I know, there's the backstory of Bob, also pretty low on details as to what exacty happened, at least so far. I'm playing in the order the levels are listed, do you think that will be fine, regarding Uprinsing? I'm at Core Sample currently.

[SeansShow]

Yeah Bob is the part of the story I was referring to. Uprinsing I'd say explains more about Bob.

I dont think theres an intended way to play through the levels, I just felt personally if you spent say the majority of the game playing as a space janitor then went into one level late in the game and were instead cleaning up REDACTED, (again I dont want to spoil why the REDACTED are there) its much more effective in making you appreciate the themes of the level and maybe attach some emotion to it.

My way was just to start on the smallest levels and work my way through to the largest, Uprinsing is one of the bigger levels I think. You'll have to replay levels no doubt for the secret and would probably have to view a guide unless youre some sort of super sleuth.

Everyone probably has their own take on how they played it, some probably dont even know theres a story and just think its levels connected by heavy references to movies, tv and games but the story is one of the genius things about the game.

I mean if they ever did a remaster maybe narrative is something they'd push more in terms of recommending levels in an order but then again the subtlety of how the story almost has to be found is pretty much perfect.

[6lancmange]

But that's a general story probably, right? Like, they were doing research in some facility and chaos ensued, everyone died. But I'm wondering about the chaos. Like right now in Core Sample, I'm trying to figure out causes of death for the punchout – so I'm guessing the guys rich in crystals found close to the lightning scars were killed by the guy who claims he's gonna kill all of them with the special gun? But the crystals apparently kill you anyway, so those without the lightning scars would perhaps just die due to the crystals. Then those who actually were totally clear are more mysterious, but I suppose maybe they were killed by the crystallized "zombies" that apparently came back to life and became aggressive. So far the most mysterious is the guy impaled with a crystal (also put together from body parts – ritualized?). Now that looks PERSONAL. I thought the crystal zombies would just be bloodthirsty, but that's weirdly precise.

[BlackEagle]

Most of the story is meant to be vague and sparing on details to keep you guessing and wondering what happened.

As for the bodies and their death specifics. This is a system with lots of flaws, and especially in earlier levels we didn't institute enough clarity in the exact causes.

While in general, it's not meant to be an exact science, since the whole nature of the paperwork is intended to be a kind of vague futility on the part of the Janitor to accurately describe what happened, the fact that there is a percentage score at the end undermines this, and makes one think it's supposed to be clear. Thus, the system seems unfair.

If we were to do the system over, it would be quite different.


The story of level in general was always in our minds when making a level. In fact it's often one of the very first things we worked out, as it informs everything else.
So we have our own view on what happened in the level, and some of the character relations. However, we intentionally trim down the bits of story we show to players, relying on paper scraps and PDAs for the major revelations, and the bodies for the individual events / scenes, which cannot be described in text, as no one is alive at this point to say what happened.

Which ones do you want to know about?

[6lancmange]

Thanks for the response! I guess the unfairness and absurdity of the punchout do add in a way, since there's clearly a company that demands a lot from their employees, but doesn't give much in return (for example, a ♥♥♥♥ about their lives). I suppose the vagueness has its merit, although it would be great to learn what the original story was.

Yeah, obviously it makes sense that you'd first figure out what happened and then designed the outcome to fit that! Do you think you could add the backstory as a post, or to the Wiki? Maybe as some anniversary content or something? I'd love to read about all the levels after doing them and seeing how close I was to figuring out the "actual" events, or have any confusion cleared. But as I mentioned earlier, so far I'm especially curious about Caduceus, since there were only two datalogs and one of them is kind of post-the main events.

So far my guesses are that the military came in to kill aliens, which they did so effectively that there were no bodies left (I thought the green splatter was from people turning into sponge and then exploding, lol). But why were there any aliens? Were they concerned that someone was working on an anti- to their virus, or just, you know, generic invasion that coincided with the research? I'm assuming the soldiers did take the anti-virus. What the hell is up with that guy in the theatre, assembled from pieces into that operating chair-thing – is he supposed to be like that, backed by the story, or does he just fall into pieces because he was there for uhh, some time? But I'm basically wondering about everyone. For example, the guy just in front of the locked door to the waste disposal sector which employees were supposed to proceed away from (and where Bob was trying to get in! – but when? was he there while everything was going smoothly, just doing regular cleaning?). Did that guy just leave and close the door, only to be massacred? Or was he trying to get in, running away from something? Why was that particular sector of importance?

[BlackEagle]

The facility was working on various bio-tech projects. However, the main one in question, the virus, resulted in a semi-sentient virus that would break down organic matter and recombine it into a new lifeform of sorts. It(or they) ran amok, triggering a lock-down and slaughtering all of the employees. Many tried to get through the doors and failed, like at the Waste Disposal Sector door.
This is the thing(or things) that then get shot at by the military hero as they made their way in from the Waste Disposal Sector, and then through to the Exit on the other side.
Along the way, the hero grabbed the antidote and shot up the place real good.

The aliens(likely formless blobs of destruction), after being shot and killed, likely melted into nothingness. In truth they should probably have devoured some of the dead employees, but we never really gave it much thought.

Bob was there before things went bad. However, he was not employed, he was trying to sneak through, to escape the authorities. He was disgusted by the research and experiments being conducted there. He did manage to sneak through some time before the incident.
He wanted to go through the Waste Disposal sector as it would be less monitored, and lead him closer to an eventual escape from the station.

As for the guy in the Theater. He was just an unfortunate test subject being dissected.
Either as part of the virus research, or more likely some other foul project.
The main reason he falls into pieces is, well, really just because we had to make him from pieces to pose him right. Sadly many bodies are like this, assembled from pieces, not necessarily indicating that they were cut into pieces by anything relevant.

The green vials that remain, are virus vials. If you break them on bodies, they change colour.

[A JANITOR]

Many bodies like that n what's really cool about those bits is the wake on RB spawn flag n then they really looking like it's been chopped to bits either by weapons or aliens even if half eaten:)
Vcd has a really cool story n it takes time to notice every tiny detail but still if go back. N do it again you'll find something else as Easter egg is this games middle name and the workshop stuff is just the beginning of the never ending story!
Awesome game
Never mind me carry on and continue the story here as it's fascinating:)
Reminds me of the fun the trivia was

[BlackEagle]

Hah, yeah.
Kind of ran out of ideas for the trivia thing.

I should try that again, t'was fun.

[6lancmange]

Thanks for the elaborate answer, it's great to read!

[Fungi]

Each map kind of has it's own Story to tell.
The Evil Science Map is one of the easier ones to figure out.

For the most part, we know that we work for a company that gives a actual rats ass about our wellbeing, we simply go in there and clean up after something terrible happened, usually after a couple of hours of the actual occurrence.
This means that OUR worksites were completely overrun with dangerous alien lifeforms that we don't even know about merely hours earlier.

Part of the reason why we see nothing alive aside from our fellow co-workers if you play Co-op is because the Security Detachment or Military came in and killed everything.
These guys are so good at their jobs that we never see a body left behind by them, because none of them die.

Similar to that of SCP, there's different Detachments of them which specialized in different Lifeforms or Aliens.

Going off of the Evil Science Level, They were experimenting on man-made Aliens. In which one of them broke out and began slaughtering the Scientist detachment assigned to the facility. It's evident that the Facility is much larger than the actual playable space so there's a open debate whether or not the incident was contained to just one sector or the entire facility was massacred.

By the time we get there as the Cleanup Crew there's no one left alive and we're there to see the gruesome remains of the people that were there when it happened. I.e. a Guy got ripped in half and thrown against a wall.

[Alcodile]

Very interesting read. Maybe someone could add the background story BlackEagle shared about Caduceus to VCD wiki? (https://viscera-cleanup-detail.fandom.com/wiki/Caduceus). In that way it will be not lost and up for anyone interested to read and enjoy.
It would be really nice to slowly go through all official maps like this at BlackEagle's leisure, in this sort of relaxed backstory interview mode!
If Waste Disposal was mentioned already, maybe it could be the next map to shed light upon?
Thank you.