The Complex is an interactive webcomic run through Reddit by u/TheFullestCircle. You control Tim, a man who has woken up in a room, remembering nothing. Except that his name is Tim. And that he likes video games.
The comic started on December 10, 2019. The first few updates were posted erratically, taking three months to reach ten posts, but since update 20 it updates every Saturday.
The Complex contains examples of:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Tim travels through one in update 20, although he suspects that it's not actually an air vent, just a passageway designed to look like one.
- Art Evolution: The first few posts were not of the greatest quality. The next posts are a lot more polished.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Parodied; after being told to pick up something, Tim decides "that doesn't sound complicated enough" and comes up with the word "inventorializate", which is then used for the rest of the comic.
- Heroic BSoD: Tim has a minor one in Update 22; see The Key Is Behind the Lock example below.
- The Key Is Behind the Lock: In Update 22, there's a padlock with a key hooked onto the padlock. Possibly subverted, however, as Tim mentions that the key on the padlock might not be the key to the padlock.
- Never Say "Die": Deconstructed; when Tim defeats the Corrupted Cat, the battle text box says that it "becomes tame", but the cat itself fades out, leaving Tim confused as to what exactly happened to it.
- Ontological Mystery
- Precision F-Strike: One occurs in Update 22 (se The Key Is Behind the Lock).It seems like whatever is stopping the chest from opening is on the side, so you go around to check what it is and what the fuck is this.
- Shout-Out:
- The first thing you see is a poster of Matt Gray.
- The water bottle/sledgehammer is one to Problem Sleuth.
- Stylistic Suck: More prominent in the first 5 or so posts, but present throughout.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: This update suddenly turns the Ontological Mystery room-escape game into an EarthBound-esque RPG. Lampshaded by Tim....oh, it's an RPG now? Okay.
- You Wake Up in a Room: The first line of the comic is this verbatim.