Satan’s Repetition Game Description Overview: This is an adventure/quest game from a first-person point of view. The player will play as Satan, with the ultimate goal of taking revenge on God. As the player moves through the quest line, they will gradually receive more insight into Satan’s psychological state. The player’s subsequent choices will directly influence the path that Satan takes, deciding whether he chooses heaven or hell. |
- Details:
- First scene: black screen, a brief description of what happened appears on the screen (How Satan and the other fallen angels tried to rebel against God’s rule but were defeated and banished to hell), fade to black, The player/Satan opens his eyes in hell.
- The events of the quest line progress in the same order as main events in the epic.
- Satan acts like a charismatic leader and rallies his troops. He then embarks on his quest for revenge.
- Satan acts like a charismatic leader and rallies his troops. He then embarks on his quest for revenge.
- Satan encounters Sin and Death. They speak about events just as they did in the epic. Sin stops a potential physical conflict between Satan and Death, but as Satan makes eye contact with Death, he blinks and finds himself in a dark gloomy maze. Suddenly, Death appears right behind Satan with a scythe in hand, ready to slaughter Satan. The player/Satan must try to run through the maze without being caught by Death (using sound effects of footsteps, Satan’s heart thumping, and him breathing hard from running should be fun in this part). The player won’t know this, but there is actually no way out of the maze in this part and being caught by Death is inevitable. Regardless, once Satan is slaughtered by Death in this little side game, the scene shifts back to Sin standing between him and Death. At this point, the player realizes that the side game was all in Satan’s head due to his fear of Death.
- The player/Satan moves past Sin and Death, toward Earth and the Garden of Eden. As he gazes upon Earth, he contemplates repenting. He provides the same reasoning as he does in the epic, but here it is up to the player to decide whether Satan will choose to repent or not.
- If Satan does not repent, then he will proceed toward the Garden and try to tempt Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge. Throughout the stages of Satan tempting Eve, the game will continuously prompt the player to choose between repenting and continuing on with the plan.
- If Satan continues on with the plan and successfully tempts Eve, the game will proceed to Ending 1 (the Hell Ending). If he repents at any point within the quest line, the game will proceed to Ending 2 (the Heaven Ending).
- First scene: black screen, a brief description of what happened appears on the screen (How Satan and the other fallen angels tried to rebel against God’s rule but were defeated and banished to hell), fade to black, The player/Satan opens his eyes in hell.
- Throughout the game, as Satan moves towards evil acts, his vision will start to warp and gain a dark red tint that becomes more and more extreme if he continues on the path of evil. His field of vision will also become more narrow, symbolizing how he becomes so fixated on revenge that he is unable to rationally consider anything else.
- Once he repents, his vision will start returning to normal. However, the degree to which this occurs depends on when the player chose to repent, because the longer Satan remained on his path of revenge, the more warped his vision would have gotten.
- Satan causes the Fall of Man, and returns to hell triumphantly. He rests on his throne, telling the other fallen angels his victorious tale. However, as he speaks, his already warped vision begins to warp even more. As he finishes his speech, he expects applause, but sees that the other fallen angels have become snakes and all he hears is hissing. He tries to talk, but the first word that comes out of his mouth dissolves into incoherent hissing as he starts turning into a snake as well. His vision continues to warp and begins to fade. Suddenly, Death appears before Satan and swings his scythe at Satan (representing Satan’s fear coming true, also a jump scare for the player to increase emotional impact). Satan’s fading vision is splattered with blood as he feels himself forever plummeting into the depths of never-ending darkness.
- Satan repents, and God gives him grace. Satan must still be punished and can never return to the position he held before he attempted to rebel against God. Nevertheless, his vision lightens and everything looks more vibrant and lively as the burden of revenge that caused him much suffering is lifted off of him. He is left to pave a new path of his own, and he goes forward knowing that God will be with him.
Analysis
This game is primarily fixated on Satan’s psychological state as he goes through events of the epic’s plot, especially on the idea that the mind “Can make a Heav’n of Hell,” and “a Hell of Heaven” (1.255). I chose to make the game in first-person from Satan’s point of view because it allows the player to become directly immersed into Satan’s perspective of the events, more so than what the epic allows. Although Milton deliberately portrays Satan in a positive start at the start of the epic, the reader is ultimately still just an outsider peering into the epic’s world and the characters within it. Playing from Satan’s point of view quite literally places the player in Satan’s position, meaning that the player is no longer an outsider who might feel sympathy for Satan, but rather Satan himself, feeling every little detail from Satan’s perspective. As a result of this, all of the player’s emotions regarding Satan and his situation, whether they’re positive or negative, will be amplified. At the start, the player will be convinced that Satan is a righteous leader and a hero embarking on a quest (as portrayed by the painting above that could serve as the cover to the game). Without any perspective on what God and the other characters are thinking, the player would most likely remain on Satan’s side during the entire game. Despite this, Satan’s warping vision and mental turmoil should signify to the player that all is not as it seems. I would be very curious to know what someone who has never read the original epic would choose when playing this game.
Having the player be so deeply immersed in Satan’s perspective not only allows the player/reader to choose between falling further and repenting as with the original epic, but does so in a more emotionally impactful way. If the player ends up at the hell ending, there would be enough immediate shock and repulsion that the player would automatically steer clear of falling when it comes to their own actions in reality. If the player ends up at the heaven ending, the change in atmosphere should also leave the player with enough positive emotions to want to repent if they do wrong, and more importantly, to try and avoid falling in the first place. Between the game and the epic poem, I believe that each medium has its own advantages. Due to the greater depth of immersion, a game like this would be more impactful than the original epic in terms of immediate emotions, but the epic provides the reader with more justification of God’s rule and thoughts of more characters. Despite the game’s greater emotional impact on the first playthrough, such impact would be lost in following playthroughs and may fade over time. In contrast, the epic can be reread many times without losing its impact, serving as a continuous reminder and leaving a much deeper impression on its readers.