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Apocalyptic Log: Difference between revisions
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*** ''[[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.
* ''[[BlazBlue]]''
{{quote|"Of cour{{spoiler|se i}}f {{spoiler|I}} don'{{spoiler|t}} ha{{spoiler|ve a}} face, I{{spoiler|'ll}} j{{spoiler|u}}st make one."}}
* ''[[Brink]]'', as unlockable Audio Logs.
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* Parodied in ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island]]'' with the plaques of the Plunder Island Naturalist Society.
{{quote|'''Guybrush:''' ''(reading the last plaque, found on the edge of a quicksand pit)'' "[[Quicksand Sucks|Quicksand]] pit. [[Quicksand Sucks|Quicksand]] pits of this type are common throughout Plunder Island's nature trails. Many an unwary traveler has found himself trapped and unable to esca- Someone, anyone, please, please help me, I'm sinking..."}}
* Much of ''[[Dead Space (series)|Dead Space]]''{{'}}s story is told through these. In the first game {{spoiler|the opening recording is ''also'' an Apocalyptic Log, but you don't get to see the apocalyptic part until the end of the game.}}
* In the undersea lab level of ''[[Deus Ex]]'', at least one scientist attempts to send a message for help all the way to the last moment. The message, retained in text format, is notably filled with spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors, as would be expected. In several other points in the game, the last words of the dead are to be found on datacubes left beside their bodies, including in the Hong Kong Canal Road tunnel collapse, X51's underground section and the MJ12 base under {{spoiler|Hell's Kitchen}}.
** Likewise, the Antarctica level of ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Deus Ex Invisible War]]'' is also strewn with Apocalyptic Logs.
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* Though your protagonist is present for the beginning of the Apocalypse in ''[[Doom]] 3'', most of the story of the game, as well as the How and Why of said event, is told through the scattered Apocalyptic Logs of Mars City's scientists, soldiers and workmen.
* Practically every book you can find in ''[[Dungeon Siege]]'' and its expansion. For bonus points, most of them contain variations on "The rest of the pages are covered in what appears to be blood."
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls
** There is also a second example in the dungeon of the tower Tel Vos. A construction crew was working on building the place, and fragments of the foreman's journal are all that is left. They are scattered around to be found by the player.
** What's mildly funny is that the Telvanni who owns the place doesn't actually care that much there's an eldritch abomination under his tower. Or that he sent the construction crew or hired them in the first place.
* Some quests in ''[[The Elder Scrolls
** There is also a miniquest near Kvatch involving a man that believes he must appease "The Sunken One" to prevent the rest of the world from suffering the same fate as Kvatch. You don't meet him while he is still alive, learning of his quest (and its depressing ending, as he died believing that his failure to appease The Sunken One will doom the entire world) through journal entries.
** A [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Trolls_of_Forsaken_Mine Fighter's Guild quest] sends the player to find out why some comrades (including the guildmaster's over-protected son Viranus, who [[I Just Want to Be Special|desperately wants a chance to prove himself in battle]]) haven't come back from clearing out a troll-infested mine. They're all dead, of course. The son's journal, found on his body, explains how it all went wrong, ending with:
{{quote|I hear trolls
I'm sorry Mother}}
*** For bonus sad points, in his diary he writes about another Fighter's Guild member that he had a very, um, [[Ho Yay|special]] relationship with. Four feet away from Viranus is that guy's corpse.
* The Mo'ia Atoll tablets in ''Endless Ocean'', albeit a lot less disturbing than most. Also, the emails you get after discovering parts of the Deity Idol.
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*** Another chilling example is "Terry Kotter's Army", the area behind the Wraithmarsh Demon Door. Cotter was a shy, young [[Momma's Boy]] who befriends an army of silent golems called the Knights. His journal, which lies beside his corpse in a room filled with suits of armour, details his first encounter with the Knights and his ever-more frequent trips to the cave where he found them. His final entry simply repeats over and over the phrase: "They watch. They watch. They watch. They watch."
*** Also, the first cave you enter also has three pieces of paper - a journal entry, a letter and a suicide note - written by three dead treasure hunters who grew to mistrust each other and, amusingly, poisoned each other at the same time.
* ''[[Amnesia: The Dark Descent]]'' is basically built upon this trope. The main character, Daniel, wakes up in a castle with, you guessed it,
* ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'' has Patient Interviews with idealistic doctors trying to cure some of Arkham's worst inmates hidden throughout the game. Each ha-s five segments, and they pretty much all end up getting more and more unnerving as you find them. The worst is definitely Zsasz, whose doctor truly tries to cure him... [[Complete Monster|so he tries to kill her]] halfway through. The last bit has him escape, and his current doctor giving an urgent call to warn her... but she can't talk, there's someone at the door... {{spoiler|but a [[Feelies|preorder bonus comic]] reveals that Batman stopped Zsasz before he was able to go through with it.}}
** Croc's is a close second for most unsettling... his doctor simply can't believe that he's cannibalistic like the rumor's say... well, at the end he escapes... she makes it out unscathed, but the scene she sees... [[An Arm and a Leg|isn't pretty]].
* The ''[[Fallout]]'' series is packed with these, most notably [[Evilutionary Biologist|The Master]]'s.
** Probably the best example in ''[[Fallout 3]]'' is in the [[H.P. Lovecraft|Dunwitch]] [[Shout-Out|Building]]. Something about the building is conducive to turning people into [[Our Ghouls Are Creepier|radiation ghouls]]. In the days after nuclear war, you can read the journals and track the progress of the building's residents as they lose higher brain functions and end up as violent, mindless [[cannibal]]s.
** The Keller Family Tapes one must collect in order to get the Experimental MIRV in ''
*** [http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Diary_of_Candace_Keller There's a cut tape that provides an epilogue] for the Keller family's saga that can be obtained in the PC version through the console. It was originally meant to be found in the shelter that the other tapes are about trying to get to, and indicates that at the very least Dad and Candace survived. However, Candace complains that her father keeps leaving the shelter and going out into the bombed-out DC ruins to scavenge for useless junk and that everytime he does, he lets a little more radiation in...
** There's also the notes and holotapes from the residents of Vault 92, and the scientists performing experiments on them.
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** {{spoiler|There is little left for us. Little time. But much irony. The galactic destroyers that darkened out skies are not invulnerable. The can be stopped, but we have no way to deliver the blow. This, then, will be our legacy. In subspace, they cannot use their shields. And into subspace, they can be tracked.}}
* ''[[Doom]] 3'' and ''Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil'' both have a few PDA's in them with this. Most of the PDA's are members of the task force complaining about security problems, other members, or the occasional [[Things That Go Bump in the Night]], however a few PDA's involve people trying to relay a last minute message, and the one inside of Hell details two logs about a man being toyed with for nearly two days by the demons. One man involved in the storyline gives you a data disc he asks you to send back to Earth when you escape which details the entire plan that {{spoiler|Dr. Betruger and}} the powers of Hell had for Mars.
* At least one of the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' games does this, detailing {{spoiler|Shou Tucker}} cracking under the pressure of having to create
* In the ''[[StarCraft]] 2'' mission "In Utter Darkness", the Protoss {{spoiler|create and seal one of these, along with the history of their species, into a temple as the last of their civilization is destroyed by the Xel'Naga hybrid-controlled Zerg Swarm. The mission is a prophetic one that takes place in an alternate future.}}
* The Steam game ''Alien Swarm'' has a number of pads lying about on the floor from a number of people showing how quickly the swarm progressed and took over the facility.
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** Both of the two kids (who unwittingly released the Ixupi) leave behind notes too. The boy's notebook is instructive and helpful at first, but end in panicked scribbles about having to find some place to hide. Do some poking around near where you find it, and you'll find... his dessicated corpse, curled up inside one of the displays. Hiding didn't help, evidently.
* Parodied in the ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' official blog with [http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=3692&p=1 A Week in the Life of the TF2 Team], where they depict themselves as insanely devoted to making new [[Nice Hat]]s, to the detriment of everything else.
* The summer camp in ''[[Psychonauts]]'' has a history of the area display, complete with gradual decent into madness of the entire town. The display is matched with the rings of an ancient tree, making it a literal Apocalyptic Log.
* One of the secret Reports in ''[[Dissidia]] 012 Duodecim Final Fantasy'' is written by a {{spoiler|Lufenian}} scientist. It's a log of the events happening around his lab in {{spoiler|Cardia}}, including a few things about {{spoiler|Garland}}'s growth and {{spoiler|Cosmos}}. When disaster strikes, his final log is this:
{{quote|Military on orders to [[Deadly Euphemism|expunge]] all persons with knowledge of experiments.
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* In the original 1992 ''[[Alone in the Dark]]'' game, one of the first things you find is the suicide letter of Jeremy Hartwood. It is literally written just after he has unwittingly released the evil of the mansion and hears the footsteps of the newly awakened abominations closing in.
* Every dungeon in ''[[Tales of Maj'Eyal]]'' has some form of records or diary entries, and almost all of them end with the writer about to die horribly at the hands of the dungeon boss. Twists include: the writer let the boss kill him, the writer allied with the boss, the writer ''is'' the boss, and, at least once, the writer may possibly have gotten out alive.
* The True Laboratory sequence in ''[[Undertale]]'' give us two of these:
** The logs in the computer screen tell us the story of an experiment Alphys did: {{Spoiler|Alphys intended to investigate how human Determination worked and if it was possible to use it to empower monsters, so she injected determination extracted from human souls on dying monsters and on inanimate flowers in increasing doses, with increasing desperation. The monsters then appeared to having recovered, only to completely collapse and become ungodly abominations just the day before their intended release. Oh, and one of her flowers injected with determination mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the chaos...}}. One screen has also an alternate log, obtainable only by poking in the game code, {{Spoiler|implied to be the last thing wrote by unpersoned scientist W.D. Gaster before he booted himself out of reality}}.
** The tapes in the resting room tell the story of the death of the children of the Underworld kingdom. {{Spoiler|More exactly, how the human Fallen Child convinced his adoptive monster brother Asriel to enact a plan which involved the death of the Child via ingesting poisonous flowers and Asriel absorbing his soul and how Asriel reluctantly agreed to it.}}
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