As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
Nowhere to run...
Where being trapped in a Hellhole Prison on the frozen moon of Callisto is the least of your worries...
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Pre-release
- The entire cinematic trailer is one long roller coaster of terror. A prisoner at Black Iron is awoken by a garbled, glitchy hologram of the prison warden, which squawks out a message ordering security to assemble and that the incident is not a drill. The prisoner hears something outside the cell and, after rousing his cellmate by knocking on his bunk, heads over to investigate. The source of the noise is a malfunctioning security robot, jerking back and forth as if it's having a seizure. As the prisoner watches, his cellmate slowly lumbers into frame behind him... and we see that he's been horribly mutated. The mutant attacks, infecting the prisoner with a squirming, tentacled parasite that burrows into him through his mouth, nose and eyes.
In-game
- The Biophage, the main horror of the game. The Biophage are former humans who have become possessed by an alien parasite which forces them to "evolve" into a myriad of gruesome forms. The Biophage range from relatively humanoid to abominations the size of a truck. All of them are distinguished by extreme aggression, frightening durability (to the point of being able to continue attacking while missing their heads), and a variety of physical mutations ranging from the mundane to the utterly alien in appearance. Despite their zombielike appearance, the Biophage are disturbingly intelligent, capable of blocking melee attacks, sneaking through ventilation ducts, playing dead to ambush victims, and utilizing pack hunting techniques. When killing their victims, the Biophage prefer slow, deliberate methods of execution, such as gouging eyes, ripping limbs off, or stomping both arms of their victim into paste, leaving them screaming in agony before a finishing blow to the head.
- The Security Robots present throughout Black Iron are just as terrifying as the Biophage monstrosities. Seven feet tall and as wide as a barn, they exist to keep all inmates inside the prison... without regard to whether or not said inmates are alive or not. Although they can be destroyed with enough damage, they are extremely dangerous due to their ability to kill Jacob in one hit, brutally smashing his leg off before stomping his head into oblivion. And if you think you're safe from them at range, think again, as they pack a devastating arm-mounted cannon that will kill you just as quickly.
- Throughout Black Iron, you may come across the robot guards in various states of disrepair, most of these being obviously mangled and missing pieces of themselves. One specimen, however, is fully intact, but sparking and fizzing and otherwise staying still where it stands. Next to this guard is a dead body that Jacob needs to extract an ID from. The robot never reacts to anything happening around it, merely repeating itself about being damaged and babbling about security protocols. considering their ability to One-Hit Kill Jacob the instant he gets the active ones' attention, it makes for some pretty intense Paranoia Fuel, leaving you bracing for when it starts going after you without warning.
- The Alpha, both before and after its One-Winged Angel. Before its final transformation, it was almost human, but with pale skin, sunken eyes, and exaggerated muscles. However, it is immensely strong, shrugs off bullets effortlessly, and is almost a terminator in terms of durability. After transforming, however, it becomes a gigantic monstrosity with multiple limbs, including a bladed tentacle, but worst of all, it retains enough of its human intelligence to cover its only weak point with armor, and regularly refreshes it if it gets broken during the fight.
- Getting killed to the Alpha's second form is HORRIFYING, especially since it's one of the longest death scenes in the game. The Alpha spears Jacob through the back with his bladed tentacle before slowly pulling him off it, snapping him in half and breaking his spine, ripping his lower half off, and slamming him down onto the floor so hard that it smashes his head to paste. All the while, Jacob is screaming in agony, only finally dying when he's slammed into the floor. It's a BRUTAL death that goes on FAR too long to feel comfortable with and you'll likely get to see it PLENTY of times as The Alpha's second phase is quite difficult to beat.
- Black Iron itself seems to be actively trying to kill people. From hazardous machinery to malfunctioning systems, the entire prison somehow comes across as being just as malevolent as the monsters overrunning it. Jacob himself notes that it seems like the facility itself wants him dead.
- This is possibly intentional, given that the ones responsible for the events of the game are trying to create an evolved human capable of enduring any environment, no matter how hazardous. As such, an environment where a single misstep could cause death or painful dismemberment wouldn't be seen as a problem, but a bonus.
- Arcas is a truly nightmarish place, making even Black Iron look tame. For context, Arcas was the original colony established in the caves beneath Callisto's surface almost a century earlier, before it was consumed by a previous outbreak and abandoned, with Black Iron later being built on top of it. The entire colony is a dark, claustrophobic hellhole that's teeming with Biophage. Even without the infestation that destroyed it, there's something about the place that's just a bit off, having been built in a pitch-black cavern deep underground, seemingly thrown together with whatever they had on hand. The result is something that looks more like an underground slum constructed from scrap than an actual colony, which only serves to increase the creep factor.
- The Blind. What happens when Biophage are left underground to fester for seventy-five years with nothing to do and no one left to kill? They stick themselves to the Meat Moss and go dormant, their bodies adapting to an environment that is lightless and lifeless. As their name would suggest, they are completely blind, and are drawn to any noise they hear including gunfire or environmental noises. Some of the tensest moments in the game come from having to stealthily take them out one at a time, fearing that any mistake could bring the wrath of all of them down on you at once. Despite seeming frail and almost zombie-like in their slow patrol shuffle, once alerted, they're faster, stronger, and more resilient than any of the Biophage encountered so far, and the wrong move at the wrong time can have Jacob facing a far larger horde than anything he has encountered so far. While most encounters can involve only two or three enemies, there are several sections where one wrong move can bring up four to eight Blind rushing the player at the same time.
- The Two-head are large, monstrous brutes made of two humans fused together to create an incredibly strong Biophage. They serve as a Recurring Boss, with one of them first attacking you on the train to Arcas and only increasing in appearances from there. They constantly advance towards you, tanking almost any damage you do to them as you slowly whittle away their health and your ammo. When you finally do enough damage, the beast will rip off the half of its body that took the most punishment and will just keep on coming at you, only faster and more aggressive. And if you don't have enough bullets to put them down, unless you can time your melee attacks right you're essentially screwed. Whenever one of these things shows up, expect to die a lot, especially on hard difficulty.
- You know how in other games, small group is easily overwhelmed while a single person can take on a horde and still survive? Not so here! Love or hate the combat mechanics, there is a source of tension anytime more than one monster enters into the brawl as it can really mess with your timings on evasion and retaliating. The game expects a more realistic approach of picking your battles and not drawing too many enemies into a drawn out battle, else you WILL get overwhelmed and killed easily...
- Jacob's situation at the end of the Final Transmission DLC is utterly horrifying. Rather than survive his encounter with the Biophage horde at the end of the base game as we were initially lead to believe, he's instead revealed to have been completely torn apart, being kept alive by Mahler as a barely-living torso and forced to fight his way through a Dying Dream version of Black Iron Prison, which warps and changes around him as his guilty conscience torments him throughout. It's clear Mahler doesn't want to do this, but she does it in order to extract his memories and upload them off-planet to expose the truth. The only silver lining is that he is finally put out of his misery when the facility is destroyed, and he dies believing that he escaped Callisto on his ship.
