History VideoGame / ManOfMedan

* JumpScare: Quite prevalent for a horror game:
** Played straight for the various ghosts and random shadows [[spoiler: all of which are hallucinations]] that pop out of nowhere. These instances are usually accompanied by a ScareChord:
** {{Invoked}} in the beginning when Brad narrates a ghost story to his friends. As he times his scream with the thunder and lightning, the camera also zooms in to his face.

* UrbanLegend: Based on the legend of the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ourang_Medan Ourang Medan]]'', a GhostShip that supposedly vanished in 1947. It's unknown whether or not the story has any basis in truth or not.

** Early on, Julia gets injured while diving with Alex. [[spoiler:She is later intimidated by a shark coming through them face-to-face, but it simply passes by them anyway.]]

* ObviousBeta: The animation is stiff, especially where the faces are concerned, the characters behave in occasionally inexplicable ways, and the cuts are occasionally jumpy and nonsensical (one possible ending sequence has a shot of two characters sitting down beside each other, and the next immediate shot shows one of the two characters sitting down by the other again without any change in scenery or time). This story was clearly in want of more polish before release.

* DeadlyGas: [[spoiler:Manchurian Gold is revealed to be a powerful hallucinogen late in the game. Played with in that the gas ''itself'' isn't lethal (mostly; the pirate leader, who was ''much'' more heavily exposed than anyone else, eventually dies from either overdosing or a stress-induced heart attack). The effects of said gas rather are deadly, as it can cause anyone who breathes it in to become manic and violent.]]

* MortonsFork: [[spoiler:Whether you choose to ignore/hide from or confront the monster that haunts either Joe or Charlie in the prologue, [[DoomedProtagonist they will both die anyway]].

* UrbanLegend: Based on the legend of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ourang_Medan Ourang Medan]], a GhostShip that supposedly vanished in 1947. It's unknown whether or not the story has any basis in truth or not.

* AStormIsComing: The protagonists spend the dawn in the Duke of Milan, while several shots can focus on the impending thunderstorm. At one point, Fliss can pick up the binoculars, and the first thing she sees are the dark clouds from a distance. [[spoiler:The storm itself is crucial to the plot since it sent everyone onboard the Duke of Milan to be trapped in the now-risen GhostShip.]]

* IdiotBall: A twofer with the JerkassBall. Given that certain paths allow Conrad to prove fairly resourceful and intelligent, his insulting behavior in front of the fishermen seems to serve no purpose besides needlessly aggravating them. Note that his decision in this scene is ''automatic behavor'' beyond the player's control. [[spoiler:The three men are in fact, pirates who later return to ambush them in the night.]]

** Joe and Charlie in the prologue separate at one point. While you get to play as Joe in this segment, [[spoiler:you can find Charlie's corpse later on, and Joe dies via heart attack from seeing a ghost child]].
** The main cast would split into groups or explore alone as the story progresses, and they either survive or die depending on your actions.

* SequelHook: The game ends with a teaser for the next game in the anthology, ''Little Hope''

* DiesWideOpen: One of the dead bodies seen in demo has a gaping mouth open all the way in horror, and fully open eyes... with eyeballs that are no longer there, leaving wide open eyelids to reveal the empty sockets.

* IdiotBall: Given that certain paths allow Conrad to prove fairly resourceful and intelligent, his insulting behavior in front of the fishermen seems to serve no purpose besides needlessly aggravating them. Note that this decision in this scene is his ''actual behavor'' beyond the player's control. [[spoiler:The three men are in fact, pirates who later return to ambush them in the night.]]

** In a BadEnd, Alex hallucinates that a rat has just gruesomely burst out of his stomach, like a [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Chestburster]].

* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The interludes in The Curator's office use snippets from ''Music/WolfgangAmadeusMozart'''s ''Requiem'' -- and by "snippets" we mean "various chunks stuck together at random." For instance, the second chapter is capped by the second half of mm.46, and the full length of mm.47 & 48, of I. ''Introitus'', before looping round to the front of the piece (instead of moving on to the ''Kyrie'' fugue), and ''then'' jumps at some point to the passage right before it started, ending with the HalfCadence that forms the first half of mm.46!

* DoingInTheWizard: The game repeatedly employs the occult as a motif, [[spoiler: but the haunted house is infested with a hallucinogenic bioweapon, not actual ghosts]].

** Early on, Fliss gets injured while diving with Alex. [[spoiler:She is later intimidated by a shark coming through them face-to-face, but it simply passes by them anyway.]]

* HintSystem: [[NoticeThis certain paintings]] will preview upcoming events or glimpses of {{Bad End}}s when interacted with.

** When both Alex and Julia fall into the water, both are surprised that [[spoiler:another figure also rises near them, and Julia saw it as [[{{Dopppelganger}} someone looking exactly like]] the real Alex]].