SCP – Containment Breach

SCP – Containment Breach
Developer(s)	Joonas Rikkonen
Composer(s)	Kevin MacLeod, Tim Morrison, FireFox
Engine	Blitz3D
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player
Distribution	Download

SCP – Containment Breach is an indie supernatural horror video game developed by Joonas Rikkonen ("Regalis"). It is based on the stories of the SCP Foundation website.^[1]

Gameplay

The main objective is to guide D-9341, a test subject, through the facility while trying to survive any hazards.^[2] The game's main feature is the blinking mechanic.^[1] Blinking is a basic mechanic that is measured by the blink bar in the HUD. It is important to keep in mind when encountering SCP-173, a statue that is capable of moving at high speeds whenever it is not in the player's direct line-of-sight; with each blink SCP-173 will move closer to the player. The player can blink manually by pressing the spacebar and can also shut their eyes for an extended period of time by holding down the spacebar.^[3] This can prove to be useful if encountering SCP-096, a humanoid creature that will chase and kill the player if they view its face.

Decontamination gas appears throughout the game, which also causes the player to blink at a faster rate due to irritation of the eyes. The player should wear a gas mask in order to keep their eyes from burning. While the effects of the gas will wear off, SCP-173 tends to spawn in places where this gas appears. D-9341 can sprint, crouch, as well as carry an inventory of up to 10 items.

One of the game's primary features is randomly generated rooms.^[1] The facility is divided into three areas: the Light Containment, Heavy Containment, and Entrance zones. Each of these areas contain their own specific randomly generated rooms with each zone being separated by a checkpoint area. The player starts off in the Light Containment zone which is used to hold SCPs that pose little threat, and that can be contained easily. The Heavy Containment zone is used to contain SCPs that can pose a much larger threat, and as a result, its pathways are made up of tunnels. The Entrance zone is the highest level of the facility. It's mainly composed of offices and contains all of the exits to the facility.

Along the way, the player can find a wide variety of items. These include a gas mask which can protect your eyes from gas, batteries which can be used to power specific electronics found throughout the facility, keycards ranging from access levels 1 to 5 that can open higher security doors, first aid kits which can heal wounds, an S-Navigator which can be used to navigate the rooms in the facility, a radio that can pick up transmissions on different channels, eyedrops which can slow down the player's blink timer, SCP-500 which is a pill that can cure any symptom the player has, and many more.

Plot

The game revolves around the SCP Foundation, a secret organization dedicated to containing anomalous artifacts, entities and even locations that can threaten the normality of our world.^[4] At some point before the events of the game, several of the Foundation's sites are attacked by a terrorist organization, forcing the relocation of many SCPs (the designation given to their contained anomalies) to an unspecified site. A Foundation task force known as Nine-Tailed Fox is established shortly thereafter to defend this site from any possible breaches in containment.

The player takes the role of D-9341, a Class-D test subject (criminals sentenced to death or very long sentences who agreed to work for the Foundation in exchange for their freedom ^[5]) who is forced along with two other test subjects to perform tests on an entity known as SCP-173,^[2] a murderous sculpture which can move at high speeds when unobserved, but cannot move while in a direct line of sight.^[6]

During this testing routine, the site's power and door control systems begin to malfunction, allowing SCP-173 to kill the other two test subjects and escape into the ventilation system. An intercom then announces that several SCPs have breached containment, forcing them to put the site under lockdown. The player must then guide D-9341 around the facility while trying to survive being hunted by SCP-173 and later SCP-106, a ghostly entity resembling an elderly humanoid with the ability to abduct the player to a strange pocket dimension under its control. SCP-106 can be re-contained by the player as an optional objective, while SCP-173 can be captured by the Nine-Tailed Fox team. Others SCPs can be met by the player; some dangerous such as SCP-049 (a creature looking like a plague doctor that kills people with a touch and reanimates them as zombies) or SCP-096 (a grotesque humanoid that will enter into a homicidal rage against any human who sees his face, whether directly or via a picture), others helpful like SCP-714 (a jade ring that will counter the effects of several harmful SCPs).

Later in the game, the player encounters SCP-079 (a malicious artificial intelligence inhabiting an Exidy Sorcerer microcomputer^[7]), learning that it caused the power outage. The monitor shows a conversation between an unknown person and SCP-079, stating that they have given it direct access to the facility's power in order to get revenge at the Foundation for containing it. Said person is revealed to be Dr. Maynard, a new doctor at the SCP site who turns out to be a Chaos Insurgency (an antagonist group to the Foundation^[8]) spy. Upon reaching this point of the game, the player can access the four different endings.

The first one can be reached by making a deal with SCP-079, who states that if the player re-activates the door control system (which allows SCP-079 to control all of the doors in the facility) it will open the doors to an escape gate, called Gate B. Upon entering Gate B, the intercom will state that SCP-682 (a massive reptilian creature which has the ability to quickly regenerate from virtually any injuries) has broken out and that nuclear warheads, kept in the base as a last-measure containment system, will be detonated in an attempt to destroy it. If the player de-activated the warheads beforehand, an Apache combat helicopter will shoot down D-9341, killing him.

The second ending happens if the player did not de-activate the warheads, causing his death due to the blast. At the end screen, a radio transmission will be heard as a radio operative requests the deployment of a task force to scout for remains at ground zero. However, the transmission is cut-off mid sentence as a large roar is heard, indicating that the nuclear blast was unsuccessful in destroying SCP-682.

In the third ending, the player can escape through another gate, named Gate A. If the player has not contained SCP-106, it will break out at Gate A. A voice over the intercom will authorize the use of a weapon called a H.I.D. (High Intensity Discharge) Turret to prevent it from escaping. D-9341 will use this distraction to escape through a service tunnel, only to be stopped by a group of soldiers warping in front of him. The soldiers will say that D-9341 knows too much to be killed and will warp him away, collapsing the tunnel behind them.

Finally, if the player has contained SCP-106 and escapes via Gate A, then several task force units will capture D-9341, triggering the fourth ending. After being taken by the task force units, the game will then end and a recording will play of a report on D-9341, mentioning his ability of overcoming hazardous threats that the containment breach produced (breaking the fourth wall, with a reference to the ability to quicksave) and classification of D-9341 as an SCP subject is considered.

Reception

The game has received generally positive reviews.

Gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun said "It's Warehouse 13 without the quips and the quirks but with a lot more panic, screaming and hiding from creatures made of teeth and wire" adding that "it has a fairly weak model and texture at the moment but hopefully it’ll turn into a massive collaboration".^[3] Edge Online gave the game a positive review, calling it an "indie title made in the low-end Blitz3D engine that casts a cheap-looking creature", but adding it "somehow manages to be scarier than most recent big-budget horror games combined."^[9]

The game was featured on PC Gamer's top 50 best free PC games at the number 22 spot, saying that "Containment Breach‍ '​s power is doubled by drawing on the SCP mythos: a set of invented (or are they?) [sic] internet stories about horrors and monsters locked up by a shadowy organization."^[10]

References

External links

• Official website
• SCP Foundation