trauma and avoidance- my interpretations !
hello! recently watched a playthrough or two of Subliminal, since the first section came out so recently, and i have a lot to say about how i interpreted it. First i do want to give my actual opinions on the game as a whole, so if youre not bothered about that scroll down a lil🙂↕️
environmentally, subliminal is a gorgeous game- its clear that the people working on it are suuuper talented when it comes to making uneasy, yet familiar spaces, and the puzzles are okay (if a bit difficult). However, i have to say i feel pretty let down by the story element,,, it feels like after the first section or two, the whole idea of creating any kind of storyline flew out the window, and it became scary backrooms game with a monster number 500. I am very aware that there are more chapters to come!! but it just felt like a little let down. Anyway… onto my yap session.
Small disclaimer- i will only be talking about the basement section and the waterworks section, since they were the only ones that genuinely interested me. This is entirely my personal interpretation of what the game could be about, none of which is canon as far as im aware. Take it with a grain of salt!
And, of course, massive spoilers if you havent already checked the game out!!! :-)
the very first memory we’re transported back to is that of Caleb’s childhood basement. Not a childhood bedroom, living room, or even back garden, but an eerie, slightly unkempt basement. It’s relatively sparse in furniture, and even sparser in decoration, aside from the TV and kids toys scattered about. The faint buzzing of lights and unpleasant yellowish hue of everything make it an odd place to end up when prompted to think about core memories, but perhaps the point.
“Our memories here and their corresponding feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and soul-crushing guilt are rather inconvenient.” says Caleb’s conscience. These suffocating feelings seem out of place for something thats mean to be a memory from childhood. The lights buzzing feels loud in the heavy silence, and whatever small sense of foreboding already came with being here is growing uncomfortably fast.
Unfortunately, it seems we cant spend quite as long in this memory as previously thought, as we are suddenly told by Caleb’s conscience. The calm voice feels almost out of place here, but who else can we listen to? Certainly not our own thoughts, it seems, as they’re quickly dismissed as purely intrusive. Now comes the first actual interactive gameplay- loud thudding on each of the doors that we hastily try to keep shut as they creak open over and over again, lights continually flickering off despite our efforts to keep the rooms safely lit. There’s a sort of childlike need for safety and security, accompanied by a strong fear of the unknown. We haven’t yet seen what’s outside the doors, or what will happen if all the lights aren’t on. We’re being blindly led by our conscience, and our memory of the event itself. Surely that in itself is enough evidence that this isnt a pleasant memory.
The banging finally stops, and we’re safe to leave the room and travel to other parts of the house. Or so we think- turning a corner to what looks like a room illuminated in a blueish light hastily gets the door shut in our face, followed by Caleb’s conscience awkwardly talking about how many “joy filled memories” we have waiting. The fact that it’s the subconscious telling us we aren’t allowed in a part of our own home, possibly for our own safety, doesnt exactly imply the joy filled memories we were initially promised. It’s as if Caleb’s conscious is protecting him, and in turn us as the player. We aren’t allowed to see anything that might be scary or bring up uncomfortable feelings; our mind is protecting us by forcefully forgetting.
We come to a painting, brightly lit and displayed at the end of a hallway. We are instructed to look at it, focusing so intently that the scene around it starts to break and fracture, the bad memory drifting away from us like dust. A past method of escapism, perhaps? We cant ponder on it too long, for we quickly find ourselves in the next dreamlike environment.
the first thing that caught my attention about this section was honestly the name “waterworks.” Im sure many know what “putting on the waterworks” means- often the accusation of fake crying for attention. Maybe that has something to do with it, maybe im reading too much into it, or maybe im projecting who knows😭
Anyhow, we find ourselves in an indoor water park, a place full of the sounds of children laughing and playing. You can almost feel the humid, colourful atmosphere from behind the screen. And yet, it’s completely empty- perhaps a reflection of Caleb’s state at the time of that memory. Lonely due to past traumas. Travelling through gets us quickly redirected away from a “gloomy corner” by Caleb’s conscience.
“please immediately disregard whatever feelings caused you to seek this out, and return to the happier parts of this memory.” He says. It’s as if facing whatever dark past happened is being made nearly impossible by the subconscious desire to remain ignorant to bad memories. There’s a staggering amount of reluctance to face the memories and heal, almost to the point of straight up refusal. Being constantly told that we are just “distracted” and need to regain our focus only pushes this distorted view of whatever past our character has- the happy memories must remain in focus.
i am absolutely 100% reading far too much into this game, but i do think that there’s a lot of missed potential when it comes to exploring the ideas of memories that are somewhat distorted in this way. I am very much projecting i think, especially in the first section, since i think it makes me uneasy for the reasons that i brought up. I hope this isnt too corny though, and at the very least makes sense !! im not used to writing, but ive definitely got my interest in it back, and definitely want to do more stuff like this🙂↕️🙂↕️
i think thats all i have to say about this though… bye for now :-)
