Propagation is a series of VR-based Survival Horror games made by indie French company WanadevStudio.
Playable from a first-person perspective, the original Propagation is a wave-based shooter set after a Zombie Apocalypse of unknown origin (how original), you're single-handedly fending off the undead, as well as giant monsters inexplicably spawned by the same zombie virus, in a subway. Luckily, you're armed with your firearm of choice (shotgun, pistols, machine-guns) right from the start, with enough ammunition to last you for a day as you try surviving while waiting for a rescue team.
A reasonably short game (it can be finished in 30 minutes max) that managed to put Wanadev on the map among horror-themed VR developers (it helps that the game is quite affordable - it's free), they managed to produce a sequel two years later.
Propagation: Paradise Hotel, presumably set in the same universe (they even recycled the same logo!) features the twin sisters Emily and Ashley Diaz, who work as chambermaids at the Paradise Hotel. Inevitably separated in the original game's outbreak, the player takes the role Emily, trapped inside the kitchen alongside police officer Owen with dwindling food supplies. When the army announces over the radio that rescue is coming, Emily needs to navigate her way to the seventh floor to find her sister and make it out alive - but there are creatures far scarier than zombies on the hotel's upper floors.
Unrelated to the fanfic.
The Propagation series contains examples of:
- Action Survivor: Emily went from a hotel chambermaid to a zombie-killing badass. It helps that the sight of her protector, Owen, being mauled to death, makes her realize she'll need to stand on her own feet.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Emily needs to navigate her way through rat-infested vents while exploring Paradise Hotel. All those vents are bolted shut, however, requiring Emily to find a cordless power screwdriver from the maintenance room.
- Alice Allusion: The sequel revolves around Emily's efforts to locate her missing sister, Ashley, where she can collect toy rabbits as tokens to unlock bonuses and there's a pair of giant zombies called Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
- An Arm and a Leg:
- Zombies in both games lose limbs when being shot in the arms, and there's even a "Severed Arms" bonus.
- Propagation: The spider-zombie boss lose an arm after being hit by a subway train. Somehow it's still alive after that.
- Paradise Hotel:
- After splitting up with Owen, Emily explores the basement area, realize something is hiding in the vents, and quickly rendezvous with Owen... only to find him dead, with both legs chewed off. It turns out it was the Brute who killed him off-camera.
- Legless zombies are a common sight throughout the game.
- Slicer, one of the undead monsters, doesn't have legs, instead using it's scythe-like arms for dragging itself all over the place.
- And This Is for...: Emily dedicates one for Owen after killing the Brute, the last monster in Paradise Hotel.Emily: "This is for Owen."
- Apocalyptic Log: Paradise Hotel contains plenty of notes from survivors' final moments."Disappeared to date... Isabella Navarro, Kai Wong, Vanessa Hopkins, Trevis Martin, Colton Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Durand, and undoubtedly many more... may their souls rest in peace."
"Dad, Mom, Emma and Ben, I love you very much."
"I've been barricaded for two weeks now. Help will not come. I'm starving. It's that or end up on the chopping block for these things. I'm not complaining, many don't get to choose their own end." - Big Sister Instinct: Emily and Ashley Diaz are twin sisters, and Emily is presumably the elder one who's fighting through the hordes of undead and monsters to retrieve Ashley.
- Blackout Basement: Both games respectively takes place in a subway and the bowels of a hotel, where the lights are out and zombies are all over the place. Keep the flashlight on to avoid an ambush!
- Bottomless Magazines: Your firearms carried unlimited ammunition in the first game. Averted in the sequel.
- Dead Weight: Paradise Hotel has the Mini-Boss, two grossly overweight zombies (called Tweedledee and Tweedledum) who can tank plenty of hits thanks to their kevlard.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: One of the vents Emily crosses have these, and she needs to be wary not to move too much to the left or right or be chewed to shreds. There's an unfortunate zombie who tries attacking her only to be dragged in, resulting in a glorious red spray.
- The Determinator: The Final Bosses of both games simply refuse to give up, to absurd proportions.
- Propagation's spider-zombie monster tanks maybe a hundred rounds before it's pushed to a subway track and subsequently run over by a passing train, after a lengthy boss fight. Just as you try approaching the train, it suddenly emerges from the tracks, sans an arm, and continues crawling at your direction... until you pump a few more shells into it's face.
- Paradise Hotel have the abomination called The Brute, who chases Emily throughout the lobby, up the second and third floor, absorbing plenty of damage along the way including multiple shotgun blasts into it's ''skinless' face. Expectedly for a Marathon Boss, the whole battle can last for around ten minutes.
- Excuse Plot: Propagation sees you killing zombies in a subway for 30 minutes, with occasional moments for pausing in-between, for no reason other than of course. Paradise Hotel averts the trope (well, mostly) with a plot revolving around the player character trying to retrieve her sister.
- Eyeless Face: Crawling zombies in Propagation, where the virus somehow caused their eyelids to fuse together. It's especially evident when they managed to get the drop on you and begin chewing your face up-close.
- Facial Horror: Whoo boy.
- The last boss of Propagation is a human-spider hybrid whose face literally splits open, revealing a flesh-coated skull. That it bares in full glory while chasing after you!
- The Brute from Paradise Hotel can be damaged by shooting it's head, causing it's facial skin to peel off. It doesn't stop the monster from trying to chomp on Emily.
- First-Person Ghost: From a first-person POV, the player's arms in both games are a floating pair of limbs.
- Flash of Pain: The screen of both games flashes red when you're hit.
- Giant Spider: The original game have oversized arachnids infesting the subways. They don't show up at first, but when the train starts moving you saw a cobweb wall on the track's other sides, and dozens of these creatures scurrying at your direction...
- Healing Potion: Both games uses disinfectant sprays for restoring health.
- Hell Hotel: Paradise Hotel, where every single tourist, guests and employees are converted into the undead save for a few survivors. Emily knew her sister Ashley is somewhere on the seventh floor, and needs to locate her.
- Make Sure He's Dead: An early cutscene in Paradise Hotel, shortly after the first zombie appears, have Emily and Owen (still alive) fleeing to another area. They then come across a corpse, which Emily quickly walks past, but Owen shoots the corpse a few times "just to be sure".Emily: Hey stop it, they'll hear us! It's clear he's already dead!
Owen: I thought it moved. Sorry. - Mean Boss: Paradise Hotel's manager, David, seems to be one. Emily shows some minor degree of guilt when shooting zombified humans, but when she realize David was also infected by the virus...Emily: Okay, I just killed my boss. It's all good, everything's fine.
- Nameless Narrative: The player character of the original Propagation doesn't have a name. Averted in Paradise Hotel, the player is a chambermaid named Emily Diaz and most prominent characters do have names as well.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Owen, the tough policeman who accompanies Emily early on, who helpfully offers to train her into becoming an Action Survivor, watches her back in the game's early parts before Emily has access to firearms, and agrees to help Emily locate her missing sister Sarah. It gets him killed half an hour in.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: All over the place in Paradise Hotel. The first air vent Emily enters have her flashing her torch, and immediately peeking into a decayed body hanging on the ceiling two feet in front of her. And then there are bodies behind doors and whatnot.
- Redshirt: The original Propagation sees you rescued by a team of Special Forces soldiers who refills your ammunition, but just then some screeching in the dark causes them to leave and investigate. Take a wild guess if anyone of them comes back after that.
- Scenery Gorn: Both games are loaded with plenty of onscreen gore, from rotting, decayed corpses in full display to ruined interiors of the subway and hotel, bloodstains on the walls and rubble everywhere. The zombie outbreak's aftermath isn't a pretty sight.
- Sinister Subway: The entirety of the original game takes place in a zombie-infested subway.
- Spider People: Propagation ends with you fighting a zombie-spider humanoid in the last phase. You managed to kill all the giant spiders, including the largest of the bunch which is supposedly the queen, but just then the queen's gigantic abdomen (taller than a human) splits open and something crawls out...
- Undead Child: Some zombies in Paradise Hotel are adolscents or teenagers, which Emily notes when she encounters one the first time.Emily: Oh my god, even the children...
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Paradise Hotel begins with two characters, hotel maid Emily (the PC) and policeman Owen, deciding to leave the hotel's kitchen in order to locate Emily's sister Ashley. Five minutes into gameplay, they're forced to pull a Let's Split Up, Gang!... and Emily finds Owen's body moments later with both his legs chewed off by the Brute.
