The Outer Gods

The Outer Gods is a psychological horror action-adventure video game. In the game, players take on the role of several characters as they battle a powerful entity who seeks to enslave humanity.

Gameplay
The game is conducted from a third-person perspective. An in-game map tracks a player's bearings. The inventory system stores weapons and items that can be used to solve puzzles. Some of which can be combined with other objects for different effects.

Combat focuses on a simple targeting system. Players must lock-on to an enemy to attack it, but can focus on striking an enemy directly or attacking one of its limbs and remove it, thus hindering an enemy. Decapitating the heads on most enemies effectively blinds them. There are many classes of enemies the player must either defeat or avoid. Each class also comes in a few varieties, and subtle differences between each variety exist as well, having slightly different appearances and traits. Some of the more common enemies vary very little. Usually only changing in the hue of their skin. But the larger boss enemies tend to vary quite significantly.

The narrative of the game's story switches between two phases. The main phase focuses on a series of chapters in which players take control of a new character each time. The other phase acts as an intermission. The game boasts twelve playable characters, split between four distinct locations, and from different periods of time. Each of whom are different in terms of the game's three main parameters – health and sanity – and have access to a small selection of weapons that they can use in combat, though what they can use is determined by the time period that they lived in. For example, characters from the more ancient eras are restricted to mostly melee weapons such as swords, with the occasional crossbow or throwable. Meanwhile, characters from the modern era have more access to ranged weapons, including modern-day firearms.

The player can return to the safe zone, known as the "Dreamlands", by interacting with lanterns spread throughout the world. Doing so replenishes health, but repopulates all monsters in the game world. Lanterns also serve as the game's checkpoints; the player will return to the last activated lantern when they die. The Dreamlands delivers some of the game's basic features to the player. It is considered completely safe as it is the only location in the game not to feature enemies.

The story features multiple paths that can be taken. This choice not only determines which of the game's three other antagonists are aligned to the plot, but it also has subtle effects on the gameplay in chapters and intermission periods. Some changes include slight differences in puzzles and items, but most changes revolve around enemy placement, which will determine how the player engages them. This can even have an effect on the relative difficulty of the game in certain situations. Azathoth aligned enemies, for example, are tougher than their counterparts. Making the Azathoth story path a kind of unofficial hard mode. After the game is completed down one path, it becomes unavailable in future playthroughs, until the player completes all three paths.

The other distinctive gameplay aspect comes from Sanity Effects. Upon beginning the game's second chapter, players must keep watch on a Sanity meter – a green bar which decreases when the player is spotted by an enemy. As the bar becomes low, subtle changes to the environment and random unusual events begin to occur, which reflect the character's slackening grip on reality.

While minor effects include a skewed camera angle, heads of statues following the character, and unsettling noises, stronger effects include bleeding on walls and ceilings, entering a room that is unrealistic before finding that the character never left the previous room, the character suddenly dying, and fourth wall breaking effects such as "To Be Continued" promotions for a "sequel", and simulated errors and anomalies of the TV or GameCube. While the latter does not affect gameplay, they can be misconstrued by the player as being actual technical malfunctions.

Setting
The story of The Outer Gods takes place over four principal locations which the game skips back and forth between. They include a pyramid, in Egypt; a temple called R'lyeh, a cathedral; and the Carter Family Estate in Rhode Island, which also leads to an ancient underground city named Y'ha-nthlei beneath the water. Each time a location is visited, it is done so in a different time period. Almost half of which take place in the 20th century. Each different era and character offers a different periodic and personal perspective on the location.

Plot
The chapters found in the game are not discovered in chronological order. Instead, to make the narrative more dramatic, each chapter jumps around the timeline of the plot. However, despite the overall story skipping back and forth through time, the chapters do follow chronological order within their respective locations. This is because each setting also has its own contained story.

In 2015 AD, Cynthia Carter finds herself returning to her family's estate in Rhode Island after her father, Edward Carter, her only living relative, is found brutally murdered. Two weeks after returning, with the local police having gotten nowhere with the investigation, Cynthia decides to investigate the mansion for clues and stumbles upon a secret room containing a book bound with human skin called the Necronomicon. Deciding to read it, she finds it contains accounts of various people in the past, beginning with the story of Nephren-Ka.

Nephren-Ka, an insane pharaoh, sends his men to locate an important relic. Lured away from his partners by mysterious voices, a servant of the pharaoh found himself venturing into a pyramid that led underground. He comes across three artifacts. Each possessing the essence of a powerful godlike being referred to as the "Outer Gods", Azathoth, Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth. The servant returns with one of the artefact and is killed by Nephren-Ka. Upon attempting to touch the artefact, Nephren-Ka finds himself corrupted by its power, whereupon he pledges his allegiance to the artefact's Outer God and begins working on summoning them into the universe.

In the case of Azathoth who is not sentient, Nephren-Ka simply uses the Outer God to further his own plans to rule the world himself. The remaining two artefacts that Nephren-Ka did not claim were put out of his reach. One of the other artefacts represents the Outer God that is stronger than him, and the other represents the one weaker than him. The artifact representing the weaker Outer God remained in the pyramid.

After reading of Nephren-Ka's story, Cynthia is attacked by one fo the police detectives involved in the case who reveals he serves the Outer God that Nephren-Ka is allied to. Cynthia kills him.

A Knight Templar named Josef ventures to the pyramid to locate a treasure to help in the crusade. Upon finding it, he sacrifices himself in order to guard it.

Nephren-Ka returns to pyramid in the Middle Ages to construct a Pillar of Flesh inside, as part of his master's plans. Roberto, a Venetian architect traveling through the region, is captured by Nephren-Ka's men. While under involuntary servitude, he encounters the spirit of Josef, who entrusts him with the artefact in his possession. Soon after, Roberto is buried alive, along with many others, under tons of concrete.

Centuries later, a soldier, Michael Eversmann. After an explosion killed his entire team and trapped him in the pyramid, he is approached by Roberto's spirit, who gives him the artifact and instructs him to take it to the Carter Family Estate. Michael then moves to destroy the pyramid with a bomb. A few months later, Michael delivers the artifact to Edward Carter in secret, telling him that he "won't last a night."

Meanwhile, the artefact representing the stronger Ancient is moved, by Nephren-Ka, to a cathedral in order to prevent it from being used against him. First, though, Nephren-Ka orders the assassination of Charlemagne the Frank, so his movement cannot impede his plans. A Frankish messenger named Anthony, who stumbles upon the plot, travels to the then small monastery in order to warn him of the danger to his life. Despite Anthony's best efforts, he arrives too late to save him and dies from the spell he was afflicted with.

When the location is a newly constructed cathedral, Nephren-Ka summons a creature called the Hydra, to protect the artefact that could defeat his master. During the late 17th century, Mary finds herself accused of murdering a fellow monk by the local Inquisition. Attempting to clear her name, she encounters the Hydra, which promptly kills her.

During World War I, the cathedral is converted into a field hospital. Alan, a soldier recovering in the hospital, notes that patients have been disappearing of late. Venturing into the catacombs, he finds himself encountering the Hydra and defeats it, recovering the artefact it was guarding. Sixty-nine years later, Edward is visited by a now elderly Alan who gives an account of his experience before handing over the artefact in his possession.

While the other two artefacts are fought over between Nephren-Ka and several unwitting souls, the "Great Old One" Cthulhu, another powerful god-like being that can oppose Nephren-Ka's master, has an artefact of its own.

In the Middle Ages, Nephren-Ka travels to R'lyeh in order to deal with Cthulhu. A young girl, named Ellia, who serves the Cult of Cthulhu, finds herself trapped within Cthulhu's temple at the same time. While trying to find her way out, she is approached by one of Cthulhu's servants, who entrusts her with the task of protecting his essence within her body. Nephren-Ka kills her shortly after before sinking R'lyeh to the bottom of the sea, weakling Cthulhu greatly.

Centuries later, during WWII, Dr. Edwin Jones, a noted archaeologist, ventures to R'lyeh on an expedition to visit a hidden temple complex. After nearly being killed by Nephren-Ka, who disguised himself in order to accompany him, Edwin finds Ellia's body and is entrusted by her spirit with Cthulhu's essence, which he eventually delivers to Edward a few weeks later.

Alongside the struggle to claim the powerful artefacts of the Outer Gods, the Carter Family Estate in Rhode Island, USA holds secrets of its own. In the 1920s, Randolph Carter, the grandfather of Edward and great grandfather of Cynthia, inherits his father's mansion in Rhode Island and decides to investigate its secrets. He soon finds a large cavern beneath the mansion, containing an ancient city within called Y'ha-nthlei guarded by Deep Ones that worship the Outer God. He returns to the surface to get help, only to be considered delirious, and is sent to Arkham Asylum for the rest of his life.

In 1993, Dr. Edward Carter, a clinical psychologist at the time, inherits the Estate. Finding his way underground, Edward discovers that Y'ha-nthlei incorporates machinery and uses it to greatly damage the city. Edward also finds an infant girl, Cynthia, inside and takes her, raising her as his own. Knowing this is not enough, he decides to research what he can within the Necronomicon for the final battle. After a decades-long time skip, Edward is assassinated by one of Nephren-Ka's servants.

Cynthia Carter, having learned all she can from the Necronomicon, decides to finish the fight. Recovering the artifacts from within the mansion, she soon ventures into Y'ha-nthlei and uses them with the city's machinery, in order to summon a rival Outer God to fight Nephren-Ka's master. Cynthia then engages Nephren-Ka in combat, aided by the spirits of those written in the Necronomicon, eventually defeating him and destroying the essence of his master, who is defeated by its rival. Cynthia then realises that the rival will now destroy the world. An alien called a Yith appears, claiming to be Randolph Carter, having swapped bodies with one of their kind. The Randolph who died in Arkham was actually a Yith in his body. Randolph offers to have Cynthia escape the destruction of Earth by swapping her body with another Yith who would die in her place.

At this point two endings are possible; After completing all three story paths, Cynthia discovers that all three paths have occurred simultaneously in separate timelines. One of Cthulhu's spheres of influence happens to be chaos, and with it, the ability to subtly manipulate time and space. It turned the other three Outer Gods against one another in mutual annihilation and merged the timestreams into one complete victory. Cthulhu reveals that Cynthia is in fact his daughter Cthylla who's purpose is give birth to Cthulhu in the event that he dies. As Cthulhu is finally dying, he will be reborn in Cynthia/Cthylla's womb with his power fully restored. Again Randolph appears offering Cynthia a way out.
 * 1) Cynthia accepts Randolph's offer and finds herself on a distant planet with Randolph in a Yith body.
 * 2) Cynthia refuses Randolph's offer. The Outer God that Cynthia had summoned turns her into his immortal servant like what the Outer God that Nephren-Ka had summoned did to him.

At this point three endings are possible;
 * 1) Cynthia accepts Randolph's offer and finds herself on a distant planet with Randolph in a Yith body.
 * 2) Cynthia refuses. The old Cthulhu dies and Cynthia gives birth to a baby Cthulhu who will one day destroy the world.
 * 3) Cynthia refuses. However when Cthulhu is reborn in her womb, Cynthia kills herself to prevent him from being reborn.