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Visage nails the terror aspect of gameplay so well that it’s all too easy to miss details about the characters simply because the player’s sole focus is to get as far away from them as (in)humanly possible, even if the “monster” is the protagonist himself.
10 George Is An Alcoholic
While it’s easy by the end of the game to chalk any empty beer cans up to being left from Dwayne, it’s important to remember that while in a chapter, the player is living in the house during the period of the story taking place. Within that timeline, beer cans litter the house of Dolores and George, specifically in George’s study where his body is found.
This is particularly concerning because he was the one trying to cure his wife, Dolores, whose primary diagnosis was dementia. It makes us wonder if he may have actually mixed up the “special tea” he was trying to serve to Dolores in a drunken stupor that ultimately led to his demise.
9 George Had Defense Wounds
While player-controlled Dwayne is knocked out by Deoores for allegedly trying to poison her, this is likely not how it played out with George and Dolores in their time. George died of six different stab wounds from seven different knives (which seems a bit excessive, but who are we).
This means they were more than likely in the kitchen when it happened rather than Dolores knocking him out, taking him to the study (or just finding him passed out), and doing it there. To remove all doubt though, the player can see clear defense wounds running all the way up the outside of George’s arms, meaning he was awake and trying to protect himself from Dolores.
8 Dwayne Dropped His Sledgehammer
After going through way too much to get the proper ingredients to make Dolores’ “special tea” for her, Dwayne makes it back to the kitchen. The only issue is that, naturally, he can’t make tea while holding a sledgehammer. So the player unequips the sledgehammer and drops it on the ground so they can use both hands to make the tea—only to thanked by (possibly the same) sledgehammer to the face.
Knowing that George was likely killed at this time via stabbing, and Dwayne is only knocked out by a sledgehammer that he himself just dropped, may mean that Dwayne isn’t merely living in their time, but they are also living in his.
7 Rose Is Drinking Blood During The First Phone Call
Dwayne’s elderly neighbor, Rose, is not as innocent as she appears to be. Through the closest thing Visage has to side quests, there are multiple comic book pages to collect that paint out a picture of what happens behind closed doors in the next house. Rose and her husband, Frank, have lived in their home for over 20 years and have maintained a relatively unhealthy relationship throughout their time there.
Frank is an alcoholic and Rose’s anger towards him grows over time. Finally, during the current year of Visage, she murders Frank and can be heard sipping his blood during the first phone call over to Dwayne, later stating she may “come to visit” him soon.
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6 The Demon Has Needles For Fingers
This is unconfirmed either way with the creators of Visage, but The Demon is always described online as having “claws.” However, there is a chance that the Demon actually has long needles for fingers/hands instead of just simply being “claws.” Lucy has developed a fear of needles after being forced to receive medication injections due to her mental instability after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital.
When Dwayne is killed by the Demon, the Demon simply points his fingers straight out into Dwayne, impaling him. The Demon shows no aggression in this attack, standing straight up and allowing the “injection” of his needles into him, rather than as a blatant slashing attack. As the physical manifestation of the Demon from Lucy’s experience, this could certainly make sense.
5 The Demon Behind Lucy
When Dwayne first encounters Lucy up close they are in an incredibly sketchy basement, blocking his path. To make matters even more terrifying, throughout the chapter the only way to effectively see is by looking through a camera and utilizing the flash function.
So when Dwayne first flashes the camera on Lucy, the Demon can be seen very briefly standing directly behind her, looming over both of you. It happens so fast many players don’t even notice it as their only thought is to get as far away from Lucy as possible and potentially shut off their console altogether.
4 The Demon Watching You
One thing that was so unsettling about P.T. is that players felt like they were always being watched or followed, and as we later found out, they absolutely were. Visage has a similar feeling of constantly being watched, although nothing has come out officially proving this.
However, in one particular moment, you actually are. In Lucy’s treehouse, the lights inside go red, and outside turns black while the Demon is heard speaking over the radio. In the apex of the player’s sanity slipping while finding no escape to the treehouse, the Demon is just outside the treehouse window, looking in, right at you.
3 Rakan Was Right All Along
While Rakan’s story was little more than concerning at first, with another angry guy shouting about conspiracies and being onto “them”, it gets very serious very quickly. Rakan is attacked in his home (although the wounds are said to be self-inflicted by the doctors) and admitted to a psychiatric facility where most of chapter three takes place.
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At the beginning of the chapter, he believes he has found a surveillance camera watching him, which is later chalked up to scopophobia. However, by the end of the chapter and back in his home, he claims he has figured out what “they” are up to and will expose them. Immediately after this declaration, men in suits come and trap him in the basement, leaving him for dead.
2 The Pills Are Not What They Seem
The pills the player picks up and takes throughout the game to keep the player’s sanity meter from dissipating are all prescribed in Dwayne’s name. They are labeled as Chlorpromazine, which is used to treat mental illness and behavior disorders, including schizophrenia and manic depression.
Throughout the game, each chapter details the story of someone who has lived in the house, become mentally ill, been put on medication, and gotten much worse afterward. The situation is not altogether different from what Dwayne experiences, with things getting worse (especially when he begins to drink) in what was assumed to be a purgatory or limbo state until he finally is reunited with his family before being pulled right back again.
1 Dwayne Is Implicated In The Prior Residents Misery
It’s discovered in the game that Dwayne is a chemist for a facility named “Health Pharmacy” but how does that tie into everything and everyone else? Through discussions found on Reddit, the theory is that Dwayne had a major role in developing the drugs the prior residents took and either intentionally or accidentally altered the formula leading to everyone’s sharp mental decline.
A major theory is that the house served as a sort of controlled environment for psychological experiments similar to MK Ultra, as evidenced by the chemical formula for LSD being found in Dwayne’s lab and his wife’s comment about his “blood money.” Furthermore, both Rakan and Dolores call Dwayne by name as if they are personally tormenting him for his wrongdoings either by their actual knowledge or by his own mind manipulating him for being involved in their deaths.
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