Covetous is a Surreal Horror Indie Game. You play as some kind of parasitic creature (probably a fetus) living inside of your brother's body, eating him from the inside by moving over the green and yellow patches. You gradually get bigger and bigger the more you consume, and between each level the parasite narrates its story.
At the very end, you are big enough to burst out of your brother, killing him in the process. You can choose either to break out of your brother's body and live instead of him, or you can choose to give up and die, allowing your brother to live on.
It's full of Nightmare Fuel and manages to be pretty creepy despite, or maybe even because of, its poor pixel graphics. It focuses little on actual gameplay (you just use the arrow keys to move and eat) and more on the story and theme of the game.
The game can be played here
, though those with sensitive eyes and/or epilepsy should refrain from playing it thanks to the last two levels having some serious Epileptic Flashing Lights.
"O, tropes, let me be known.":
- Alas, Poor Villain: You feel bad for the fetus, since all that it wants was to simply live.
- Angrish: In one text screen, instead of a usually coherent message, it says, "FUCKAND EAT YOU CUNT SHITPIG/" [sic].
- Body and Host: The brother and fetus, respectively.
- Body Horror: A fetus growing inside of you and eating your life force and organs, need we say more?
- Button Mashing: In the final level, you have to mash the left and right arrow keys to burst out from your brother. Or you can choose not to, and spare your brother at the cost of your own life.
- Cain and Abel: You can become this trope if you choose to live for yourself and let your brother die.
- Chest Burster: Should you decide to kill your brother: "O, existence, let me be known."
- Eaten Alive: The living brother, from the inside out, by his twin.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: In the last levels, the background rapidly flashes between red and white.
- Evil Twin: The fetus, whose mind is very twisted and malicious.
- Flat Character: The brother has no personality to speak of. He's only relevant by virtue of hosting the fetus.
- Green-Eyed Monster: You can become this if you choose life for yourself instead of your brother.
- Heel Realization: If you end up withering away to spare your brother's life: "In the end, I couldn't do it. I couldn't put myself to steal from another what was once stolen from me." There is the implication that either the protagonist is too ridden with guilt to finish the job, or is lamenting his weakness.
- Horror Hunger: The protagonist must eat parts of his brother to survive.
- Humanoid Abomination: The player falls under this trope.
- I'm a Humanitarian: You appear to be eating your brother's insides.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The brother's fate should you decide against bursting out of him. The game ends with you lamenting over not having the gumption/being too guilt-stricken to go through with the act of consuming him completely... but it never shows what follows as a result of having his insides get eaten over time.
- Last-Second Ending Choice: Depending on whether or not you follow the Button Mashing prompt on the final stage, you either explode out of your brother, or let yourself wither away to spare his life.
- One-Word Title: Named for the idea of desire. In this case, the desire to live.
- Sensory Abuse: The final three levels feature progressively worse sensory assaults: the seventh stage replaces the music with a loud, high-pitched tone, the eighth has Epileptic Flashing Lights in the background, and the final stage turns both of these things up to eleven with the tone becoming higher and louder while the flashing becomes much more intense.
- Surreal Horror: Complete with low quality graphics, creepy music, and very disturbing dialogue. It gets a whole lot worse by the end.
- Stylistic Suck: The game has low quality pixel art and ear-grating music... and yet, it doesn't detract from the horror that is a parasite consuming one very unfortunate person from within.
- Truth in Television: Frighteningly enough, there is actually a developmental abnormality called Fetus in fetu in which a fetus can become trapped inside of its twin and lives inside of the twin parasitically. This seems to be what the game is based on.
- Two Siblings In One: A physical and literal example, in contrast to the trope's usual spiritual definition. It's not a good time for either, of course.
