History VideoGame / TheConsumingShadow

** Seperate from the Challenges is "The Descent" mode, where your goal challenge is to gothrou as many levels as possible [[spoiler: Most notably, the dungeon is Stonehenge, thus this mode can only unlocked by beating Ending A.]]

* EndlessGame: "The Descent" challenge, which can only be unlocked by getting Ending A. [[spoiler: Which is justified as Stonehenge opening up again, leading to the player's curiosity as to what down there.]]

* BaldOfAwesome: The Warrior is brave and strong enough to only take on the horrors with his bare fists. His silhouette indicates that he is bald.

* EmbodimentOfVirtue: The Steam achivements seem to point to four positive aspects of the characters:

* EmbodimentOfVice: In contrast, the Ancients can represent one of these rather terrible aspects. [[spoiler:In the final battle with the Ancient, their aspects determines what enemy will be summoned and what their large eyes will do]]:
** Pain
** Madness
** Lust
** Disease
** Fear

* ChallengeRun: The Insanity Edition includes 12 Challenge modes that affect your gameplay run:

** Daily Challenge

* EmbodimentOfVirtue: The Steam achivements seem to point to four positive aspects of the charactersL

** Four Character specific challenges
** Biological Clock
** Amnesiac
** Caution Advised
** Pistol Whipper
** No-One Left Behind
** China Shop
** Scourge of the Ancients
** Daily Challenge

* {{Minimalism}}: Every character and monster are rendered as silhouettes. This rather helps to give the monsters an air of mystery, as you get a general idea of how they look, but at same time [[NothingIsScarier you don't exactly how they look]].

* ColorCodedCharacters: Each playable character is associated with a color: red for the Scholar, blue for the Ministry Man, Orange for the Warrior, and Green for the Wizard. In addition, each ancient has an associated color, generated randomly at the start of each game.

* SlidingScaleOfVideoGameWorldSizeAndScale: "Visit parts of map" variant. You speed across the British Isles by car, from town to town, fighting monsters, finding clues and buying drugs to keep up your Sanity Meter. Actual interactive gameplay is limited to realistic-scaled Dungeons, which are buildings or parks taken over by minions of the various {{EldritchAbomination}}s in action. Between each town and dungeon, you get a first-person view of your Player Character driving their car along a highway.

* CampbellCountry: The whole of Britain, apparently.

** Some messages are sent by "T", who may well be Trilby. [[spoiler:He's unlocked as a playable character after beating the game for the first time, and the silhouette definitely looks the part.]]

* OutWithABang: Victims of a lust god are described as having died from "exhaustion". All damage to the body coming post-mortem.

* ColorCodedCharacters: Each playable character is associated with a color: red for the Scholar, blue for the Ministry Man, Orange for the Warrior, and Green for the Wizard.

* BossInMookClothing: The Dangler.

* CallAHitPointASmeerp: "Birth stars" are basically skills points that provide various permament bonus (more health, more sanity, faster car, etc.) at character creation. They're granted at the end of the game from experience gained during the previous playthrough.

* DegradedBoss: The birther, a human who's been colonized by spiders, is a weak boss monster early on (though he's actually weaker than most mook monsters). Later in the game, he can be found in ordinary rooms as a regular mook, as the threat level of the Shadow increases.

* ChekhovsGun: A literal one.[[spoiler: The Warrior actually does have gun, but this is only hinted by his inventory, which shows he has six bullets. The gun itself is is never mentioned unless he runs out of time, when he will use it to commit suicide.]]

* ChekhovsGun: A literal one.[[spoiler: The Warrior actually does have gun, and his inventory even shows he has six bullets, but it is never mentioned unless he runs out of time, when he will use it to commit suicide.]]

* PapaWolf: One of these can be encountered on the road, and will direct this towards you if you use BrutalHonesty on his daughter.

* ResourcesManagementGameplay: You have only so much time, money, health, and sanity. The tradeoffs become important; for example, to get money, you either [[RandomlyDrops find it in a dungeon]] or get it from a job, both of which take up time and risk damage to health and sanity. Similarly, filling your medical kit costs money, and you also have the tough choice of using precious bullets to terminate minions or going into hand-to-hand with them and risking your health. And spells cost sanity to use... but they can also save your hide, or be "I win" buttons under the right circumstances.