ajhasaplan:

mildlyinterestedstuff:

marsomarvelous:

mildlyinterestedstuff:

otherwindow:

IT’S THE THEME IT’S THE BOSS THEME HOLY SHIT

Never played it but I would be terrified if this music was playing during a boss battle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRFaIu1vPqI

Is there a name for this kind of setting? Vaguely Victorian 1800’s Britain, but still medieval-y and fantastical with some kind of steampunk and dieselpunk influence, and of course there’s always some kind of plague and rat infestation even though it’s not the Dark Ages because of course there is.

It’s in this, Dishonored, and Thief, and it’s always got really strange out-of-place scientists and engineers and stuff.

I’d say it’s something like a cross between cosmic horror and steampunk, playing up the existential ‘you are a small part of a big machine’ of steampunk, as well as the old fashioned ‘i gripped the lanthorne tightly as I peered into the darkness’ of lovecraft’s original writings.

They also share themes of progress. In steampunk, you’ve got mad science and steam powered robots and all that. in cosmic horror, you have those things, but they come at a cost.

Both genres are very much about how everything we thought we knew was wrong. In steampunk, the industrial revolution is in full swing. There is progress to be made and old systems to revolutionize.

Cosmic horror approaches it from the other direction. That of the luddite hiding in their home, unsure how to react to the strange and terrible machines working their way into everyday life.

You might be interested in checking out Amnesia: the Dark Descent or it’s sequel Amnesia: a Machine for Pigs. Near as I can tell, they sort of invented this subgenre. They’re definitely a little more on the steampunk end of hings, but thematically, a lot of it is still there.