Being One is a point-and-click science fiction adventure series, developed by Psionic Games.
The game centers a mysterious being that wakes up in an abandoned science lab, having been experimented and tested on by a scientist named Dr. Rycroft for reasons unknown. The goal of the game is to find a way out of the lab and discover what happened to you, why you're here, where you are, and even what you are.
The series spans across 6 titles thus far:
See also Killer Escape and Icescape, its sister series in a Shared Universe.
Being One contains examples of:
- Abandoned Laboratory: The first four episodes are spent exploring abandoned labs, each of them host to different experiments gone wrong. Episodes 5 and 6 subvert this, with you directly going after Dr. Rycroft in his lair.
- Apocalypse Cult: At the end of Episode 4, a cult of Golden Warriors intercepts your shuttle and takes you aboard as their supposed king. They then proceed to "cleanse" the Earth by launching dropships and wreaking havoc everywhere until you give the order to stop in the next game.
- All Myths Are True: As far as Rycroft's test subjects can reach. Werewolves, Vampires, and Aliens? Confirmed.
- And I Must Scream:
- The first game has a few alien specimens kept in stasis. A disembodied head of a telepath says "Help us, help us, help us..." just as you pull the plug, and another alien was reported to have uncontrollably grown eyes, arms, and limbs at random non-stop before the scientists killed it.
- The lycans in Episode 4 go on a rage-driven rampage to kill themselves and everything they see, but suicide isn't so easy due to their regenerative abilities.
- One of the mummified lab workers in the same episode screams "Kill me! KILL ME!" when you find him. And you have to shoot him in the chest to go forward.
- Rycroft's nanobots in Episode 5, and he injects you with some through a decontamination shower. Though your regenerative powers keep them from killing you, you have to endure extreme pain while looking for a cure.
- Ax-Crazy: The werewolves from Episode 4 are utterly howling mad thanks to their infection. A guard notes that they usually tear themselves and their cells apart whenever they transform; looking in the High Security Holding Cells bears this out, with three lycans (and at least one guard) seemingly ripped to pieces by themselves or the escaped subjects.
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: Parodied with a scientist named Token Coolname in Episode 2. It's implied that a woman got sick of him flirting with her, and caused a vampire to escape into the vents and kill everyone in the area.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Dr. Rycroft and his shady employer, Weston Carnodyne, are behind countless unethical experiments to find the secret to immortality.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Some episodes require collecting blood samples and even whole body parts to access Rycroft's systems.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Weston Carnodyne, an intergalactic billionaire whom you find out in Episode 5 has been funding most of Rycroft's research.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Many of the journals on the asteroid base refer to other experiments Dr. Rycroft is carrying out on the other levels. However, they are never elaborated on beyond these mentions and (in Episode 3) a handful of signs indicating other levels and their experiments note .
- Data Pad: Used as journals for the staff members, starting from Episode 2.
- Distress Call: In Episode 5, you can use a Quantum Radio that displays dozens of these in text form, and listen to three audio transmissions warning of the attack on Earth. One of them is from Venus, adrift in space after escaping Rycroft's lab.
- Early Instalment Weirdness:
- The lab notes in the first two episodes state that Being One Was Once a Man who had alien DNA spliced into them by Dr. Rycroft, with their name of "Being One" coming from the fact they were the first subject to survive the gene therapy without going mad or dying. Episode 3 onward shifts toward Being One being outright alien in nature, perhaps even the first being to ever exist and the ancestor who kick-started humanity's evolution.
- One of the Episode 1 lab notes also has Rycroft refer to the "project managers" directing him to pull the plug on Specimen 3; this conflicts with later episodes which establish Dr. Rycroft as being in charge of the base's experiments and part of the Big Bad Duumvirate directing them.
- The first episode is also the only one to have a proper Game Over - having your health bar depleted by the Guardian bio-mech results in a screen saying you failed to escape the lab, and an invitation to try again in a "different universe" (i.e.: restart the battle.). While the remaining episodes do have Boss Battles or hostile opponents to defeat, being hurt by them will only decrease your final score.
- Eldritch Abomination: The "dark matter creature" from Episode 3 is heavily implied to be one, being from another dimension entirely and strange enough to baffle even Rycroft.
- Evil vs. Evil: Carnodyne Industries has a reputation for dabbling in amoral activities that range from selling illegal drugs and human organs to funding Dr. Rycroft's experiments. They're at odds with the Golden Warriors, a sect that worships Being One and tried to "cleanse" Earth to appease their god, killing millions in the process.
- For Science!: Subverted. While Rycroft's experiments are unquestionably immoral, they do have a purpose that becomes clearer with each episode - replicating your immortality to find a cure for death.
- Freak Lab Accident: A running theme in the series.
- A vampire escapes into the vents in episode 2, and a strange Dark Matter entity is already loose by episode 3.
- Subverted in episodes 4 and 5, as Dr. Rycroft deliberately unleashes the Lycans and Nanos to keep you and Venus from meddling with his plans.
- Game Over: Played with. The only Episode with a proper lose condition is the first (having your health depleted by the Guardian Mech); the remainder just have penalties to your score for taking too long or being hurt by enemies.
- Genre Shift: Episode 6 switches to a First-Person Shooter layout, but the gameplay is largely the same.
- Giant Spider: Near the start of Episode 4, which had already mummified several workers by the time you see it. Handwaved by the crew logs saying that the lighter gravity in Rycroft's base allows spiders to grow larger than they would on Earth.
- Hacking Minigame: Used in the fifth episode via your "Autohacker", where you either have to find a code from a math equation, or reach firewall weaknesses by dodging red defenders on a grid.
- Healing Factor: Rycroft's experiments revealed that your skin and body can rapidly regenerate over time, to the point that you draw upon universal elements to reform if destroyed. Half of your head was missing when Rycroft first found you before the series began.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In Episode 5, as you research the nanoslaves around the base, the nanobots inside your body start communicating with your suit. When you finally make contact, the nanobots rebel against Dr. Rycroft's programming and side with you, enhancing your suit and body on the side.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Excepting Episode 1 and 6, each Episode is named for the experiment or main threat encountered within. "Episode 2: Bloodbath" deal with vampires as the main antagonists and research subjects, while Episode 3's main focus is dark matter research (and the "Beast" made out of it that Being One must fight); likewise, "Episode 4: Moonrise" deals with Lycans going on the rampage, and "Episode 5: Infection"'s main threat is the nanobot swarm infecting Being One to tear them apart from the inside out.
- Immortality Seeker: The reason Rycroft values you so much for his research. He and Weston Carnodyne want your powers to be able to achieve immortality.
- Jump Scare: Undoing the crew quarters air event in Episode 2 an escaped vampire to rush at the screen while hissing loudly.
- Killer Robot: The Guardian mech at the end of Episode 1, and a flying vampire robot at the end of Episode 2.
- Late to the Tragedy: By the time you wake up, every crewmember is dead. Revealed later on that Rycroft had evacuated most of his colleagues and unleashed his specimens to kill off saboteurs coming in from earth to destroy it.
- Like a God to Me: The warriors that pick you up believe you to be this, as do many people on Earth when trying to survive the former's attack.
- Living Shadow: Episode 3 deals with a lab where Dr. Rycroft experimented on what he thought was Dark Matter, but was actually dealing with a living, shadow-like being from Another Dimension that even he doesn't fully understand. And judging from the results of the experiments therein, it didn't end well in that regard.Backwards message on window: WE WILL TEAR YOUR UNIVERSE APART!
- Mad Scientist: Dr. Rycroft, full stop. He performs strange, unethical experiments on all sorts of creatures, and locks his staff members in with the test subjects when they don't obey him. All while claiming you and his science can help millions.
- Meaningful Name: You are codenamed by Rycroft as "Being One", since his theory is that you are literally the first humanoid in existence, with genetic traits unlike any normal human's, having existed for thousands of years thanks to your gifts of immortality and regenerative abilities.
- Nanomachines: The main threat in Episode 5. These nanos can easily strip flesh from bone, and create zombies from corpses. They're also slowly trying to tear you apart from the inside out, forcing you to hunt down samples of them to prevent this.
- Only Smart People May Pass: Slightly downplayed by the explanation that Rycroft had designed his labs so that his workers couldn't leave without finishing his experiments in that area.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires in the second episode draw their longevity and regenerative powers from blood, so much they turn psycho and try to rip people's throats out to get it.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves in this universe - here called "Lycans", are actually normal humans infected with a virus activated by moonlight, and once transformed, they go on a murderous rampage to kill themselves and anything in their path. In the fourth game, you have to deal with several of them when escaping the lab when it moves in front of the moon, and at one point you get briefly infected with the virus and have to clear debris while in wolf form.
- People Jars: You wake up in one, and the first puzzle is to unlock it from inside. The ending of the third game reveals that Dr. Rycroft has hundreds of these for his research.
- Room Full of Crazy: Every episode has messages and clues written in blood or scratched into walls. Some in episode 2 only show up under your UV light, revealing messages such as "MORE BLOOD" and "YOU ARE NOT LIKE US" on surfaces.
- Room Escape Game: Each game fundamentally amounts to this - Being One is stuck in a section of an Abandoned Laboratory, has to explore the rooms for clues and tools, then solve a series to puzzles to advance toward the exit. Rinse and repeat with each episode.
- Running Gag: From Episode 2 onward, your character becomes increasingly unnerved by air vents. Examining the air vents at the start of 3 will cause several annoyed remarks."No more vents please"
- Safely Secluded Science Center:
- The majority of the series is spent on an asteroid in the debris belt orbiting Earth after the Moon impact of 2020, to allow Rycroft to perform his research without restriction from Earth's bureaucracy. Saboteurs blow it up just after you finally escape in Episode 4.
- Episode 5 is set on Rycroft's orbiting "nano-station", with a giant teleporter in its center to covertly transfer cargo to and from Earth without the authorities noticing.
- Schmuck Bait: Opening an air vent in Episode 2 results in the escaped vampire charging straight for you, briefly knocking you out and leaving a very clear trail of your blood behind.
- Sigil Spam: The logo of Carnodyne Industries is seen on several cargo crates and pieces of equipment in episode 5.
- Sudden Lack of Signal: By Episode 4, Venus stops texting you because the base's cell signals went down.
- Voice with an Internet Connection: Venus Callahan, a mysterious woman who left you a cellphone at the beginning of Episode 1. She can only send you text messages, though. Logs later reveal that she was Dr. Rycroft's assistant, which was how she set you free.
- Weakened by the Light: The "Dark Matter" Dr. Rycroft was experimenting with becomes unstable when exposed to light, which is implied to be part of the reason the level takes place in darkness (beyond Being One's torchlight.) The other would be the beast made out of dark matter wandering around there, which is ultimately destroyed by exposing it to beams of bright light from four large lamps.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Dr. Rycroft's ultimate goal is to replicate your immortality and effectively mass-produce it for humanity's benefit. His method of doing so involves conducting experiments on hundreds of people and aliens, outright murder, and partnering with the very ethically dubious Weston Carnodyne.
- Wham Shot: Episode 6 ends with Dr. Rycroft reporting that the Golden Warriors have decided to ram their entire mothership into his nano-station, as a sacrificial act in your honor.
- You Wake Up in a Room: Episode 1 involves the protagonist waking up in an Abandoned Laboratory, with no memory of who they are or why they are there.
