Sad Satan

Sad Satan
Developer(s) Unknown (suspected by Obscure Horror Corner)
Platform(s) PC
Genre(s) Horror/ARG

Sad Satan is a PC game built with the Terror Engine,[1] first reported on YouTube channel Obscure Horror Corner on June 25, 2015.[2] Following initial reviews, the channel's video of the game was picked by a number of English publications[3][4][5] and later internationally.[6][7] The title is a reference to the speculated backmasked hidden message in Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" during the "hedgerow" bit.[8]

History

In an interview with Kotaku, the channel's owner claims 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 deep web internet forum, from a user only known as "ZK".[9] Initially, some followers were skeptical of the game, fearing it may contain gore or child pornography. However, the owner of Obscure Horror Corner shared that, so far in his playthroughs, the game had not contained any such material.[10]

Following the Kotaku interview, a subreddit /r/sadsatan/ formed to discuss the game, quickly realising the .onion address provided by Obscure Horror Corner contained invalid characters. 3 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 responsible for disseminating such material. Minutes before the update, a new version of the game was posted to 4chan by someone claiming to be ZK, claiming that Obscure Horror Corner had not been showing their viewers the "true" Sad Satan.[11] Members of the 4chan community downloaded this version of the game and attempted to play it. Some users complained that their computers began running sluggishly, and a few even reported that their computers became completely unresponsive while trying to run the game. A few users even reported that their computer would not turn on anymore after running this version of the game.[11] One Reddit user, attempted to play the game from a Live USB instead of their computer's main hard drive. Later, when they tried to boot into their computer as normal, the computer failed to load.[12] This version, dubbed the "clone" by most of the /r/sadsatan community, contained images of violent gore and some child pornography, some of which was accessible right from the Title Screen of the game. A version of the game with the pornography removed, often called the "clean" version was created by Redditors and subsequently redistributed in hopes that people who went out to download the game would download it instead of the "clone", which contained the graphic imagery.

Speculation

There has been speculation that the game was in fact created by the owner of the Obscure Horror Corner YouTube channel owner in an effort to increase viewer subscription count, and that the Deep Web story was a complete fabrication to give the whole account more intrigue.[1] Some believe that Obscure Horror Corner created the clone as well in an attempt to lend credibility to the claim that there was actually gore and child pornography in the game.[13]

Content

The original game posted by Obscure Horror Corner features walking 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. The game also depends heavily on distorted or reversed audio of such interviews or musical clips. 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, such as images of Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris. Other images include people convicted or accused of murder, such as Japanese murderer Tsutomu Miyazaki. 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" to the player. 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.

References

  1. 1 2 Barton, Hannah (23 July 2015). "The spooky, twisted saga of the Deep Web horror game 'Sad Satan'". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  2. ↑ "There's A Game That's Surfaced From The Deep Web And It's Scary As Hell". BuzzFeed. 7 October 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  3. ↑ "Is Sad Satan the scariest video game ever? Or is it even more disturbing than that?". 7 July 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Holger, Harold (14 July 2015). "'Sad Satan' Is A Bizarre And Creepy Game On The Deep Web And It Has Players Totally Freaking Out". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  5. ↑ Gonzales, Dave (2 July 2015). "Mysterious deep web horror game Sad Satan has terrified and confused the internet". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  6. ↑ Berger, Jonas (29 October 2015). "Das rätselhafteste Spiel aus dem Darknet".
  7. ↑ Aguila, Nicolas (27 October 2015). "Sad Satan, le jeu qui fait peur au Deep Web". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  8. ↑ http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-10-wildest-led-zeppelin-legends-fact-checked-20121121/if-you-play-stairway-to-heaven-in-reverse-you-hear-satanic-messages-19691231
  9. ↑ Hernandez, Patricia (1 July 2015). "A Horror Game That May Be Hidden In The Darkest Corners Of The Internet [UPDATE]". Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  10. ↑ "Owner of Obscure Horror Corner claims Sad Satan game does not have gore or child porn in it...". 7 July 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Archive of 4chan's /x/ post". 7 July 2015. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  12. ↑ "Took down the sad satan DL link...". 9 July 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  13. ↑ "Speculation over who created which versions". 7 July 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
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