SCP – Containment Breach

SCP – Containment Breach

Developer(s)	Joonas Rikkonen (commonly known as Regalis)
Initial release	15 April 2012 (2012-04-15)
Stable release	1.3.11 / 29 July 2018 (2018-07-29)[1]
Repository	github.com/Regalis11/scpcb
Written in	Blitz3D Engine
Platform	Microsoft Windows
Type	Single-player Survival horror
License	CC BY-SA
Website	scpcbgame.com

SCP – Containment Breach is a free and open source indie supernatural horror video game developed by Joonas Rikkonen ("Regalis"). It is based on the paranormal fiction stories of the SCP Foundation website. The game is played in 3D from a first person perspective and the protagonist is a human test subject in facility containing and researching scientific anomalies.^[2] The purpose of the game is to escape from an underground SCP containment center in the situation of a complete security breach leading to the escape of the contained and dangerous anomalies. The game has a procedurally generated play area created from a random selection of pre-existing rooms and hallways, and are strung together to create the facility which is played in.

Gameplay

The player controls a "Class-D" test subject (a human prisoner taken from death row who is allowed to work for the foundation in order to postpone execution), designated D-9341 as he attempts to escape an underground research and containment facility operated by the SCP Foundation amidst a total containment breach of its hazardous anomalies, designated "SCP"s.^[3] The player is pursued by numerous hostile SCPs; chief among these is SCP-173, a concrete statue capable of moving at high speeds when it is not directly observed. 173, along with other SCPs, must be evaded by D-9341 to avoid death, which is made more difficult by the player needing to blink periodically, enabling SCP-173 to attack if it is nearby.^[4] Certain environments (such as rooms filled with decontamination gas) will cause the player to blink more often.^[5]

One of the game's primary features is randomly generated rooms. All of the rooms in the game are randomly chosen from a set of hallways, chambers and offices, which are strung together to create the facility. These rooms are divided into three sets: the light containment zone, heavy containment zone and entrance zone. Each set contains a unique set of rooms and hallways that can be randomly generated, as well as its own artifacts and SCPs. Some SCPs, such as SCP-173 and SCP-106, may appear throughout the entire facility.^[2] The zones become gradually harder as the player progresses; the heavy containment zone possesses more dangerous SCPs than the light containment zone, and the entrance zone marks the appearance of "Nine-Tailed Fox", a squad of elite soldiers deployed by the Foundation to recapture SCPs such as 173. Those soldiers will shoot on sight and travel in teams, making them some of the most dangerous enemies encountered in the game.

Along the way, the player can find a wide variety of items to assist them in survival. These include tools such as gas masks, various electronic devices, batteries, and keycards for operating locked doors. They may also encounter benign or non-animate SCPs; an example being SCP-914, a large clockwork machine which is capable of refining items the player inserts into it into either worse or superior versions based on how its controls are set prior to activation.^[6]

Plot

The game revolves around the SCP Foundation, a secret organization dedicated to containing anomalous artifacts, entities and locations that threaten the normality of the world.^[7] At some point before the events of the game, several of the Foundation's containment sites are attacked by the Chaos Insurgency, a rogue element of the Foundation, 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.^[2]

The player takes the role of D-9341, a Class-D test subject (usually inmates on death row, who have been drafted to work for the Foundation)^[8] who is forced along with two other test subjects to perform tests on an SCP known as SCP-173, a concrete statue that can move at high speeds when not in the direct line of sight of a person.^{[9][2][3][10]}

SCP-096 attacking after the player viewed its face.

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.^[2][3] A site-wide broadcast then announces that several SCPs have breached containment, namely SCPs labeled Euclid and Keter, forcing the site to be put under lockdown. The player must then guide D-9341 around the facility while trying to survive many of the escaped SCPs which roam the facility, including SCP-106 (an entity resembling a decaying old man that may travel through matter and which attempts to drag the player into a pocket dimension to kill the player), and SCP-096 (a humanoid creature that will unavoidably chase and kill the player if they view the creature's face, but which is otherwise docile).^[3] The player must additionally evade Nine-Tailed Fox soldiers deployed to recapture the SCPs, as they have been ordered to target and kill any stray Class-D personnel. Later in the game, the player encounters SCP-079, a malicious artificial intelligence inhabiting a microcomputer,^[11] and learns that it caused the power outage when when several Chaos Insurgency spies gave it control over the facility, resulting in the foundation being busy recontaining it. From here SCP-079 will propose that the player reactivates the door control system, allowing SCP-079 to regain control over the doors, in exchange for helping the player escape the facility. If the player re-activates the door control system, SCP-079 will open the doors to two different exits, Gate A and B. From here 4 different endings can be reached.

The first and second endings can be reached by exiting the facility through Gate B. Upon reaching the surface, an alert is sent out stating that SCP-682 (a massive reptilian creature)^[12] has broken out of the facility near Gate B and that nuclear warheads, kept in the base as a last-measure containment system, will be detonated in an attempt to destroy it. Shortly after, the warheads are detonated, vaporizing the entire area, including D-9341. 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. The second ending occurs if the player had disabled the nuclear warheads while they were inside the facility. Another alert is sent out advising all personnel to return to Gate B, with a group of soldiers converging on the player's position. The player is thereby killed shortly after.

The final two endings are accessed through the alternate exit entitled Gate A. The ending that plays out is dependent on whether or not the player re-contained SCP-106 while inside the facility. Should the player have not perform said task, SCP-106 will break out at Gate A, shortly before the use of a weapon called a H.I.D. (High Intensity Discharge) Turret is authorized to prevent its escape. The turret fires a concentrated beam of light, forcing SCP-106 to retreat due to its sensitivity towards light. While this is occurring, the player passes by the commotion to attempt to escape through a service tunnel, only to be halted by a group of Chaos Insurgency soldiers. The soldiers note that D-9341 holds too much valuable information to be retaken into the Foundation's custody, before warping them away. This leaves their fate unknown.

Finally, if the player has contained SCP-106, then several task force units will capture D-9341 instead. The end screen plays a recording of a report on D-9341, mentioning his extraordinary luck and ability to overcome any hazardous threats that the containment breach produced; the classification of D-9341 as an SCP subject is also considered.

Production

The game was created by Finnish developer Joonas Rikkonen.^[13] Prior to creating SCP – Containment Breach, Rikkonen had played the game SCP-087 (about a seemingly endless stairwell and a mysterious entity that lurks within) and was impressed at how terrifying the game was given its relatively simple premise. Rikkonen decided to work on his own version, which he released as SCP-087-B; this minigame eventually became so popular that he decided to work on a larger game that included more SCPs. Rikkonen started to design his game in Blitz3D because, in his own words, "I was too lazy to start learning some other language or engine."^[10] As the game was being designed, Rikkonen decided that the main enemy would be SCP-173 because it was a personal favorite and he also felt that implementing a blink function into the program would make gameplay more interesting.^[10]

The game is highly atmospheric, as Rikkonen felt that the best way to create a truly scary game would be to focus on the environment and soundscape, rather than exclusively the monsters. In an interview with Edge magazine, he said:

I think one of the things that makes Containment Breach so scary is that the player is almost never safe, and even the slightest slip can end the game. You have to constantly stay alert for SCP-173, listening for any scraping sounds and carefully looking around when entering a new room. The randomly generated map and randomly placed events are an important part in making CB scary too. No matter how many times you play it, you can never be 100 percent sure what happens next. I’ve also spent a lot of time looking for and making the sounds and music clips for the game. Atmosphere is one of the key elements of a good horror game, and a well made soundscape adds a lot to the atmosphere.^[10]

And while Rikkonen found them to be "a somewhat cheap way of scaring people", he implemented a number of jump scares to "keep the players on their toes."^[10] He explained, "When you’re making a game about a creature that charges at you with supernatural speed when you’re not looking at it, you pretty much have to have some jump scares."^[10]

When Rikkonen first started working on the game, he was graduating from upper secondary school. While he enjoyed making games, he had always considered it a mere hobby and a "pipe dream". However, after the success of the game Rikkonen decided to pursue game programming at the University of Turku.

Starting from v1.3 onwards a group of independent game developer called Third Subvision Studio assist Regalis with working on SCP – Containment Breach. Third Subvision produced also a good on MODDB and IndieDB rated modification of SCP called "SCP - Nine-Tailed Fox".^[14]

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".^[4] Edge magazine 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."^[10] Jay Is Games wrote that while the game was "not perfect and still a little buggy", it nevertheless "has some serious moments of inarticulate, squealing terror."^[5] Nicholas Greene of GeekInsider wrote positively of the gameplay, specifically applauding the use of the blink timer. Greene also noted that its "somewhat dated appearance does absolutely nothing to make it less frightening".^[15] 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?) internet stories about horrors and monsters locked up by a shadowy organization".^[16] With the release of version 0.8 in late 2013, Ian Birnbaum of PC Gamer once again reiterated the site's praise for the game, calling it "excellently scary".^[17]

References

External links

• Official website
• SCP Foundation website