Sad Satan
Sad Satan | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Nolan Polla |
Publisher(s) | Nolan Sus |
Platform(s) | Windows |
Release | 2015 |
Genre(s) | Horror, alternate reality |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Sad Satan is a supposed horror-themed video game released for Microsoft Windows in 2015. The player walks down dimly lit corridors in a first-person view while clips of unlicensed audio play and is periodically interrupted by flashes of full-screen images. There are no goals or win conditions. Sad Satan was promoted via a creepypasta backstory about being found on the dark web. The developer is listed as "ZK".
It was first reported on the YouTube channel Ikenna Comics on June 25, 2015.[1] The channel's video of the game was picked up by a number of English-language publications[2][3][4] and later internationally.[5][6][7] It has been largely assumed that the game was created to bolster the YouTube channel. The game shown in the Obscure Horror Corner video was never released, but a cloned version was distributed by others with different content.
Gameplay
The original game in the Obscure Horror Corner video has blurred graphics from a first-person view. The player walks down monochromatic corridors while various audio samples are played and looped over each other. Audio in the game leans heavily on recordings of interviews with various murderers, such as Charles Manson, as well as on distorted or reversed audio of such interviews or musical clips, such as the song "I love Beijing Tiananmen", played in the beginning; reversed clips from the Swedish Rhapsody numbers station can also be heard. Adding to the game's theme of child abuse, The Doors' rendition of "Alabama Song" can also be heard, starting with the verse "Show me the way to the next little girl."
While the player controls their character through the hallways, images may intermittently display, taking up the entire screen and preventing the player from progressing any further until the image automatically closes a few seconds later. Most of the images seem to reference child abuse, especially people indicted in Operation Yewtree, such as images of Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris surrounded by children. Other images revolve around crime, and include people convicted or accused of murder such as Japanese child murderer, cannibal, rapist and necrophile Tsutomu Miyazaki. Included also are photographs of Lady Justice statues, Colombian footballer Andrés Escobar and political figures such as former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and assassinated US President John F. Kennedy. Works of Roger Ballen and Walter Sanders were also included. The only other "characters" in the game are children who simply stand in one place and do not move or interact with the player at all. In the final video posted by Obscure Horror Corner, one of these children does begin to follow the player, causing "contact damage". Since the player has no means of self-defense or any ability to heal damage, the player will inevitably die at this point in the game.[8]
History
In an interview with Kotaku, the channel's owner, identified as “Jamie”, claimed to have downloaded the game from a Tor hidden service after receiving a tip from an anonymous subscriber. The subscriber in turn claims to have found the link via a dark web internet forum, from a user only known as "ZK".[9] Initially, some followers were skeptical of the game, fearing it may have contained gore or child pornography. However, the owner of Obscure Horror Corner shared that the game had not contained any such material.[10]
Following the Kotaku interview, the subreddit "/r/sadsatan" was formed on Reddit to discuss the game and quickly realized the .onion address provided by Obscure Horror Corner contained invalid characters. Three days later, another interview with the Obscure Horror Corner owner appeared on Kotaku claiming that the link was purposefully given in error, since the game itself did, in fact, contain such graphic material, and the Obscure Horror Corner channel owner did not want to be held responsible for disseminating such material. In an update to the Kotaku article, original interviewer Patricia Hernandez stated:
I should have presented the tale of its discovery with more skepticism. I apologize for that. While the original article admits that the game exists in a more mythical state than a tangible one, it could have gone farther to make clear what was concrete about Jamie's tale and what wasn't.[9]
Legacy
Sad Satan was the last game covered by Obscure Horror Corner, and since then, the YouTube channel has been abandoned. There has been speculation that the game was in fact created by the owner of Obscure Horror Corner in an effort to increase viewer subscription count.[11]
References
- ^ "There's A Game That's Surfaced From The Deep Web And It's Scary As Hell". BuzzFeed. 7 October 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ "Is Sad Satan the scariest video game ever? Or is it even more disturbing than that?". 7 July 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-11-24. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ Holger, Harold (14 July 2015). "'Sad Satan' Is A Bizarre And Creepy Game On The Deep Web And It Has Players Totally Freaking Out". Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ Gonzales, Dave (2 July 2015). "Mysterious deep web horror game Sad Satan has terrified and confused the internet". Archived from the original on 2015-11-18. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ Berger, Jonas (2015-10-29). "Das rätselhafteste Spiel aus dem Darknet" [The most enigmatic game from the Darknet]. WELT (in German). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ^ Aguila, Nicolas (2015-11-27). "Sad Satan, le jeu qui fait peur au Deep Web" [Sad Satan, the game that scares the Deep Web]. Tom's Guide (in French). Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ^ Kleina, Nilton (2015-07-23). "Sad Satan, o jogo aterrorizante e perturbador das profundezas da Deep Web" [Sad Satan, the terrifying and disturbing game from the depths of the Deep Web]. TecMundo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-12-26.
- ^ "A Horror Game That May Be Hidden In The Darkest Corners Of The Internet [UPDATE]". Kotaku. 2015-07-01. Retrieved 2023-07-19.
- ^ a b Hernandez, Patricia (1 July 2015). "A Horror Game That May Be Hidden In The Darkest Corners Of The Internet [UPDATE]". Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
- ^ "Owner of Obscure Horror Corner claims Sad Satan game does not have gore or child porn in it..." 7 July 2015. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
- ^ Barton, Hannah (23 July 2015). "The spooky, twisted saga of the Deep Web horror game 'Sad Satan'". Archived from the original on 2015-11-23. Retrieved 22 November 2015.