Fear the Reaper

Some video games leave us with a scar, even before we finish them. Imagine a scenery in a game that plays with you in a way and then reaches into your dreams when you go to sleep at night.

You encounter something or hear something in a game and the moment you see it, it scars you, but also a part of you enjoys the experience it brings.

I’ve had friends tell me stories that they played 5NAF and then started having dreams about the animatronics. I don’t know about you, but if I was that security guard, I’d just want the doors shut the entire time.

But in my case, it’s Subnautica that’s playing with my mind whenever I’m not playing the game.

I wrote a while ago when I went to the mountain island, I heard a very audible roar down in the depths below but I couldn’t see the source. Yet the sound stuck with me to a point where I was hearing it in my dreams and one of those dreams, I did not see the source of the roar until the very last minute.

As I progress through this game and unravel more mysteries, the dreams become much more palpable. The last time I played, I finally went over the crash site where the Aurora was. The water was deep and foggy. I heard that roar again and shuddered. As I drove my Seamoth around some wreckage toward an entrance inside the crashed ship. I saw the tail of a very long creature swim downward and out of sight. I quickly maneuvered around the wreckage to find the entrance to the ship and continued on my way exploring. Occasionally, I heard the roars from outside the walls and by the time I was done, I saw nothing else on my way back to the grassy plateaus where my base was located.

The same night, I had a dream that further vivified what I experienced in the game. I was in my Seamoth once again, exploring what looked like the dunes biome, which I have not visited yet. I was driving along, searching for salvage when I heard that roar again and my heart thudded. It sounded far away so I figured I was safe but then I was startled minutes later. The creature, the Reaper Leviathan, showed itself on my Seamoth, and grabbed and shook it from side to side with me inside, when it released me, I turned it around quickly and entered a dark cave hoping to lose it in there.

It roared again, far at first but growing closer and I shut off the lights, while seemingly parking the Seamoth in a corner, my hands were shaking on the throttles and I saw its long body slither by like a snake in the darkness. I may have been safe inside a vehicle, but if I wasn’t, then I’d be dead if I was found. I wish I could remember more after that, but I think I remember enough to know that would give anyone a bad case of thalassophobia or read this and never want to play this game!

Other than that, foreshadowing much? At some point in this game I’ll go back to the crash site to salvage or the mountains and dunes to explore for the hell of it and eventually a Reaper Leviathan is gonna scare the crap out of me because it hasn’t happened yet. First it started with the sound and a partial glimpse what’s next? The full package. At the same time it gives me adrenaline. It’s all part of the true Subnautica experience right?

I’m not going to lie here but despite it being marketed as one of the scariest creatures in this game, they are really cool and it makes me want to write a song about them!

👽Emily