Apocalyptic Log: Difference between revisions

Line 182:

* ''[[Buck Rogers in The 25th Century]]'', episode "Space Vampire". The title creature (called a "Vorvon") is being tracked by a man named Helson (possibly from "Dr. Van Helsing", as a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Dracula]]''). Helson's drone makes a recording of him confronting the Vorvon: it ends with him being killed. Buck discovers the monster exists by watching the tape.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'': in the episode "Silence in the Library", the Doctor and his companion listen to a recorded message (censored "for tone and content") on a data-terminal in an abandoned library. "Message follows: Run. For God's sake, run. Nowhere is safe... We can't--Oh, they're here. Argh. Slargh. Snick. Message ends."

** "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26 E3 The Curse of Fenric]]" featured the runic inscriptions of a Viking who made the mistake of stealing a flask [[Sealed Evil in a Can|containing Fenric, Evil Incarnate.]]

** "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S26/E03 The Curse of Fenric]]" featured the runic inscriptions of a Viking who made the mistake of stealing a flask [[Sealed Evil in a Can|containing Fenric, Evil Incarnate.]]

{{quote|"I am the only one left now. I raise these stones to my wife, Astrid. May she forgive my sin. The day grows dark, and I sense the evil curse rising from the sea. I know now what the curse of Fenric seeks: the treasures from the Silk Lands in the east. I have heard the treasures whisper in my dreams. I have heard the magic words that will release great powers. I shall bury the treasure for ever. Tonight, I shall die, and the words die with me."}}

** "The God Complex": The episode opens with a young policewoman writing an account of her final moments as she succumbs to brainwashing that seems to befall everyone who arrives in the 'hotel'. The Doctor and the others later discover this.

Line 306:

** [[Dragonlance]] module DL12 ''Dragons of Faith''. A page from a ship's log tells of the destruction of the ship and the fate of its crew.

** Module DA1 ''Adventures in Blackmoor''. In the Comeback Inn the [[PC|PCs]] find a parchment scroll written by Hepath Nun. It tells the story of how his adventuring party searched for, found and entered the Inn. It further tells of how they were trapped inside, couldn't find any way out and eventually went through the Gate in the cellar. Only Hepath Nun decided not to go, because he was too scared. The [[PC|PCs]] find his body hanging from a chandelier near the scroll.

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]''

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]''

** Adventure "The Warren". When the [[Player Character|Player Characters]] enter a room sealed by rubble, they find a skeleton and a piece of paper with the last words of the victim. It describes how he heard cult members chanting, a bolt of lighting striking the house and finding the door blocked. His last words were that he'd been waiting for rescue for several hours.

** Also, in the adventure "Horror on the Orient Express," the ''player characters'' keep [[Apocalyptic Log|Apocalyptic Logs]] to allow replacement investigators to join a very long, detailed investigation fully up to speed.

Line 330:

* A staple in the ''[[System Shock]]'' series; logs from personnel can be found scattered everywhere and frequently out of order. ''[[System Shock]] 2'' in particular, contains an audio log which follows this trope word-for-word, where a scientist tries to focus on conveying useful information about [[Big Bad|The Many]], even as he is being devoured.

** In ''[[System Shock]] 2'', the logs each come with a little icon of the speaker's head and face, not moving, probably just there to show players what they looked like. One, Anatoli Korenchkin, is infected by the Many early on, as the logs show. At one point he leaves a log full of him speaking in a warped voice about the glory of the Many; the icon, rather than his face, shows a mass of unfacelike tissue, vaguely like a jellyfish. At a later date he sends the player character an e-mail which contains the same icon; it can be seen a few minutes into [http://www.viddler.com/explore/Raar/videos/19/ this] [[Let's Play]].

* You find quite a few of these through the course of ''[[System Shock]]'''s [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[~~Bioshock~~]]''. For example, Dr. Steinman's logs detail how, thanks to [[Psycho Serum|ADAM]] abuse, he went from an ambitious plastic surgeon to a deranged, self-proclaimed "[[Mad Artist|Surgery's Picasso]]" whose motto was "Aesthetics are a moral imperative."

* You find quite a few of these through the course of ''[[System Shock]]'''s [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[BioShock (series)]]''. For example, Dr. Steinman's logs detail how, thanks to [[Psycho Serum|ADAM]] abuse, he went from an ambitious plastic surgeon to a deranged, self-proclaimed "[[Mad Artist|Surgery's Picasso]]" whose motto was "Aesthetics are a moral imperative."

** And it gets the bonus points too. In one log, Dr. Suchong is reporting that the plasmid he designed intended to force the Big Daddies to bond with Little Sisters and protect them, violently for preference, is more or less a failure. At the same time, a Little Sister can be heard in the background, trying to get his attention. Fed up with her bugging him, Suchong slaps her, and then a Big Daddy's whalecry can be heard. Guess what happens next.

*** What's even better? {{spoiler|You find it on a body stuck to a desk by a [[Lightning Bruiser|Bouncer's]] [[This Is a Drill|drill]]. [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain|Gee, how could that have happened?]]}}

** Both ''[[System Shock]]'' games relied on this trope thematically. The times that the player is able to make human contact are so rare as to be notable; the only communication the character typically gets is through voice logs and emails left by the dead...or those who will be dead by the time he reaches them.

*** ''[[~~Bioshock~~]]'' maintained this trend for the most part; the few people the player makes direct face-to-face contact with don't live long after the meeting, with the exception of the eerie Little Sisters and Dr. Tenenbaum.

*** ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' maintained this trend for the most part; the few people the player makes direct face-to-face contact with don't live long after the meeting, with the exception of the eerie Little Sisters and Dr. Tenenbaum.

*** Due to Adam absorbing and containing memories of it's previous users, you can sometimes see Ghosts throughout Rapture. The Apocalyptic part comes in because, well, obviously ''something'' had to have happened to them.

* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'' - {{spoiler|Arakune}} actually becomes oddly sympathetic {{spoiler|for a cannibalistic swarm of insects held together by a mind hanging off the brink of insanity}} thanks to this. His arcade ending starts with an audio log on tape, detaling his undisclosed job and how he hates meetings regarding turning a local phlebotonium into weapons because of the "hard chairs and harder people" involved. Eventually, the logs become slightly more detailed as he begins to find out things about the power source that "everyone uses, but no one quite understands". He thinks he's cracked it when it fast forwards forward again... {{spoiler|and we slowly hear his descent from coherent, normal speech into the scattered, stuttering voice he speaks with in game, slowly detailing the process of his becoming Arakune.}}

Line 383:

* In ''[[The Guardian Legend]]'', the [[Sole Survivor]] of NAJU's native population left a ton of helpful notes, including the introduction to the premise of the plot. The full text can be read in the quotes page.

* The ''[[Half-Life]]'' mod ''[[They Hunger]]'' has a series of audio logs left by a doctor experimenting on the... [[Not Using the Zed Word|creatures]]. His final recording (which describes his own infection) plays {{spoiler|right before he attacks you}}.

* ''[[~~Killer 7~~]]'' has as its second-to-last level a high school in Seattle dotted with old style tape-recordings containing the details of a detective's investigation of the murderer and assassin Emir Parkreiner. The tapes become increasingly disturbing, as the facts presented seem bizarre and contradictory (much to the exasperation of the detective). The final tape ends with him mentioning in shock that Emir is standing ''right in front of him'', with his final words cut off by a gunshot.

* ''[[Killer7]]'' has as its second-to-last level a high school in Seattle dotted with old style tape-recordings containing the details of a detective's investigation of the murderer and assassin Emir Parkreiner. The tapes become increasingly disturbing, as the facts presented seem bizarre and contradictory (much to the exasperation of the detective). The final tape ends with him mentioning in shock that Emir is standing ''right in front of him'', with his final words cut off by a gunshot.

* Ansem's Reports in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''. Especially subtle in the first game, where you only have the odd-numbered logs to begin with, showing Ansem under steadily increasing threat from the Heartless... then you're handed the even-numbered logs in the second-to-last area, {{spoiler|and learn that he ''created'' the things.}}

* ''[[Metroid]] Prime 2'' includes several logs from the doomed Marine crew. The corpses of certain Luminoth warriors (which mark the locations of [[Plot Coupons]] in the Dark World) can also be scanned to get accounts of their deaths (generally concluding with a [[Bolivian Army Ending]]).