. A wolf named Hailey finds herself trapped in a virtual reality machine and, guided by the friendly NPC Kora, must find a way to escape.Playable on itch.io.
This game provides examples of:
- All There in the Script: The airstrike-commanding police officer on the balcony is called 'bomber bob' in the source code.
- Ambidextrous Sprite: All characters.
- Antepiece: The baseball in the building level lets you practice the Derezzer's mechanics before you find it.
- Bat Out of Hell: Several levels have flying bat enemies.
- Blob Monster: A weird, immobile version that just sits there spitting out slime balls into the sky.
- Boss-Only Level: Kevin and ACE are the only things you fight in their respective levels.
- In the original short story, the first level is a Roman Coliseum with a giant dragon as the only enemy.
- Bottomless Pits: Failing a jump during the rooftop level causes you to respawn.
- ...even though Hailey falls for over a minute and lands unharmed on solid ground later in the game.
- Caltrops: Encountered during the police section of the streets level. If Hailey steps on them, she'll drop her deflector plate.
- Checkpoint: Visualized as glass globes on stands, often 1-2 per level. The one in the final level is broken.
- Crate Expectations: Show up as falling debris in the falling level.
- Cutscene Incompetence: Hailey trips and loses her deflector plate at the beginning of the second level, forcing you to play through the whole level as a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
- Death from Above: The airstrike at the end of the streets level, and some of the debris from the falling level.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: If you die, you simply respawn at a checkpoint. Any enemies you killed or objectives you completed don't even reset. Averted in the falling level and final fight with Kevin, where you have to restart the whole level if you die.
- Direct Continuous Levels: Every level is separated with a cutscene showing Hailey walking (or falling) from the last location to the new one. The opening cutscene also uses the final line from the original story.
- Disney Death: Kora gets destroyed by ACE during the factory level cutscene. She comes back later, explaining that she can't really die since she's part of the game. Of course, in her very next sentence she points out that since Hailey destroyed the game, she won't remain alive for much longer.
- Do Not Run with a Gun: The police. Averted with Kevin, who can shoot his derezzer while sprinting just like Hailey.
- Electrified Bathtub: Not a bathtub, but a flooded factory floor. There are levers on the catwalks that will run an electrical current through the water; Hailey uses these to defeat ACE.
- Energy Ball: ACE is constantly dropping these while in the air.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: They're the most frequently-appearing enemy, with little explanation as to where they came from.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: Kora is the only non-hostile NPC in the entire game.
- Evolving Title Screen: Kevin appears on the main menu after beating the game. He's trapped in a tiny grey cell above the door to enter the first level.
- Fictional Video Game: The setting for the entire storyline.
- Fade to White: Used when the game finally dies, as opposed to the normal Fade to Black between levels.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Halfway through the streets level, Hailey sees a setpiece zombie munching on a policewoman's corpse. Almost immediately afterwards, the game's first police enemies start appearing.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Hailey isn't wearing any clothes, except when in the real world. Same with Kevin, though he looks like a palette swap of Hailey rather than himself.
- Game-Breaking Bug: Sometimes cutscenes will get stuck, and won't progress to the next level. Pressing V restarts the cutscene and usually solves the problem.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: As previously mentioned, Hailey falls to her death whenever failing a jump in the rooftop level, despite taking no damage after falling for almost a minute later in the game.
- The short story also establishes that dying in the virtual reality machine will kill Hailey in real life, despite the game having checkpoint respawn as an in-universe mechanic.
- Gamer Chick: According to the short story, Kevin originally imprisoned Hailey as revenge for her beating him at various video games.
- Healing Checkpoint: Checkpoints will give Hailey her Disruptor Plate back.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Early in the building level, Hailey bypasses two zombies by hiding under red ceiling lights that are the same shade as her fur.
- High-Speed Missile Dodge: At the end of the streets level, your progress is blocked by a fence and a faraway cop is constantly dropping airstrikes on your position. You need to stand near the fence and dart away after he fires the missile so it removes the blockage without also killing you.
- I Fell for Hours: The aptly named Falling Level. It ends when Hailey wonders how much longer she has to fall.
- Informed Equipment: None of the stuff Hailey collects appears on her sprite.
- Injured Player Character Stage: Hailey begins the building level by tripping and losing her deflector plate. This forces her to survive the rest of the level as a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
- Killer Robot: ACE.ACE: I CANNOT LET YOU ENTER THAT PORTAL. YOU WILL DIE HERE. AND THEN I WILL READ YOUR HIGH SCORE.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: Kora was halfway through explaining how to defeat ACE...
- Load-Bearing Boss: ACE's death causes the game to unravel around Hailey.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Hailey's deflector plate will block a single attack, which will send it flying. She'll have to recollect it if she wants to survive another hit. Also the riot shields carried by several police enemies.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Kora's death at ACE's hand counts as this, since she's been guiding you throughout the game.
- Mirror Boss: Kevin has the exact same abilities and equipment as you, even the ability to respawn from a Checkpoint.
- The Most Dangerous Video Game: The virtual reality machine.
- Mr. Exposition: Kora's primary role in cutscenes is to tell you where you should go next.
- Naked on Arrival: Hailey in the original short story, Kevin in the final level of the game.
- New Work, Recycled Graphics: The police officer is Emilena's sprite from an earlier game, Electra City. In turn, later game The Wolf and the Waves reused this game's zombie sprite.
- No-Gear Level: The building level.
- Non-Combatant Immunity: Averted. You don't get the derezzer until the end of the second level, forcing you to survive by jumping, stealthing, or dodging enemies before then.
- Numbered Sequels: A weird example, since the original Gamer was an unfinished short story, not a video game.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: If Hailey loses her deflector plate, she's one hit away from death until she gets it back.
- Opening Scroll: One that quickly sums up the plot of the original story for players who didn't read it.
- Palette Swap: When Kevin appears in the final level, he looks exactly like Hailey but with blue fur. When she points this out, he compains that such a feature is "hard-coded" into the machine.
- Playable Menu: The first "level" doubles as the tutorial and the title screen. Also comes with a harmless zombie NPC so you can practice the controls/mechanics.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Just one song; Kevin's boss theme is a song from an earlier game called P.A.N.G.
- Respawn Point: The levels are littered with physical checkpoints. In the final boss fight, yours is broken, and Kevin has two of his own.
- Roofhopping: Most of the jumping puzzles in the first level.
- Secret A.I. Moves: Kevin can shoot his derezzer diagonally.
- Sequential Boss: ACE and Kevin both need to be defeated twice during their respective fights.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Some of the police enemies are wielding riot shields that can block Hailey's derezzer shots.
- Silent Credits: The only sound is the low beeping of the deactivated virtual reality machine. It contrasts the real world with the musical game world Hailey just escaped.
- Special Thanks: The credits give special thanks to the deceased author of the original story.
- Standalone Episode: This game (and the short story inspiring it) have nothing to do with the rest of the Darwin's Soldiers universe.
- Stealth-Based Mission: The building level, since there isn't room for jumping and Hailey lost her deflector plate in the opening cutscene.
- Turns Red: ACE grows visibly damaged and starts sparking over the course of your fight.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: The falling level. Instead of leaping platforms and shooting enemies, Hailey falls through an endless sky dodging falling objects via air control.
- Wallpaper Camouflage: Hailey can hide under red lights in the building level thanks to her red fur.
- Win to Exit: In the original short story, Kora says this is the only way for Hailey to escape. In Gamer 2, however, she kills ACE which causes the game world to unravel and the machine to shut down.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: According to the short story, if Hailey dies in the virtual reality machine, she'll die for real. (In actual play, she simply respawns at a checkpoint)
