SCP – Containment Breach

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 fictional 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 labeled "D-9341" in an SCP Foundation facility devoted to containing and researching dangerous creatures called SCPs.[2] The goal 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 creatures while avoiding security teams sent in to end the breach. The game has a procedurally generated play area created from a random selection of pre-existing rooms and hallways that are strung together to create the facility which is played in. The game features multiple popular SCPs from the SCP Foundation Wiki, such as SCP-173 ("The Sculpture"), SCP-106 ("The Old Man"), SCP-096 ("Shy Guy"), SCP-049 ("Plague Doctor"), and SCP-682 ("Hard-to-Destroy Reptile").

SCP – Containment Breach
Developer(s)Joonas "Regalis" Rikkonen
Initial release15 April 2012 (2012-04-15)
Stable release
1.3.11 / 29 July 2018 (2018-07-29)[1]
Repositorygithub.com/Regalis11/scpcb
Written inBlitz3D (BlitzMax in 0.1 to 0.1.2)
Engine
  • Blitz3D
PlatformMicrosoft Windows
TypeSingle-player Survival horror
LicenseCC BY-SA
Websitewww.scpcbgame.com

Gameplay

The player controls a "Class-D" personnel in first person, 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. If the player refuses to leave their cell, they will be terminated by poisonous gas.[3] The player is pursued by numerous hostile SCPs; among them is SCP-173, a concrete statue capable of moving at high speeds when it is not directly observed. SCP-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. Another one of these SCPs is SCP-096, which will kill the player if its face is viewed, but otherwise will remain docile.[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 more difficult 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 the breached SCPs or destroy the facility by detonating the nuclear bombs situated throughout. These soldiers are armed with FN P90s and will shoot the player on sight. They travel in teams of 3, 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 of various levels for operating locked doors. They may also encounter benign or inanimate SCPs; one example is SCP-914, a large clockwork machine that 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.

Plot

The game revolves around the SCP Foundation, a secretive organization dedicated to containing any anomalous artifacts, entities, and locations that threaten the normality of the world. 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 The Nine-Tailed Fox is established shortly thereafter to defend this site from any more 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 SCP Foundation) 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 and attack by causing cervical fractures at the base of the skull or strangulation when not in the direct line of sight of a person.[2][3][6]

SCP-096 attacks 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 while, by player control, D-9341 escapes the containment chamber.[2][3] A site-wide broadcast then announces that several SCPs have breached containment, 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, and learns that it caused the power outage 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, nearly indestructible, reptilian creature with fast regenerative abilities which the SCP Foundation has attempted to terminate several times) 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 combat personnel to return to Gate B and deal with SCP-682, with a group of soldiers converging on the player's position. The player is thereby killed as the soldiers open fire. A transmission, after SCP-682 is dealt with, from a security chief orders an investigation as to how D-9341 got past Gate B.

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 performed said task, SCP-106 will attempt to break out at Gate A, shortly before the use of a weapon called an 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 "knows too much to let [the Foundation] get [D-9341]." The Insurgency takes him away, and his fate is unknown.

Finally, if the player has contained SCP-106, 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.

Development

The game was originally created by Finnish developer Joonas "Regalis" Rikkonen.[7] 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."[6] 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.[6]

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.[6]

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."[6] 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."[6]

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.

Over the course of its development, SCP – Containment Breach has become the combined effort of its community, relying largely on community-created content for its updates.[8][9]

Between v1.3 and v1.3.11, a group of independent game developers called Third Subdivision Studios assisted Regalis, who was mostly focused on his other game titled Subsurface, which later became Barotrauma. Third Subdivision also created a mod of the game called SCP – Nine-Tailed Fox, which swaps the player's role for that of one of the Nine-Tailed Fox agents.[10]

Following the release of v1.3.11, v1.4 began development, meant to be the final update. After internal conflicts within the development team, a member of Third Subvision Studios was suspended from further working on the game, leading to Third Subvision Studio's withdrawal from the project.[11] Development continued with a vastly reduced team, the plans for 1.4 changing a multitude of times. v1.4 is being developed on a new custom game engine named PGE ("pulsegun engine").[12]

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."[6] 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".[13] 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".[14] 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".[15]

SCP – Containment Breach's basic formula and assets have been adapted into multiple other games, such as the free Steam multiplayer game SCP: Secret Laboratory and the modern interpretation SCP: Unity on the Unity game engine.[16]

References
  1. Rikkonen, Joonas. "Releases". GitHub. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
  2. Rikkonen, Joonas. "Info". SCPCBGame.com. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  3. TheBoringAssGamer (July 2013). "Cute Little Things – SCP: Containment Breach Review". Retrieved December 10, 2013.
  4. Adam Smith (April 19, 2012). "The Eyes Have It: SCP – Containment Breach". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
  5. "SCP – Containment Breach". Jay Is Games. October 31, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  6. "SCP Containment Breach: A New Kind of Horror". Edge Online. Aug 30, 2012. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012.
  7. Diver, Mike (2016). Indie Games: The Complete Introduction to Indie Gaming. Michael O'Mara Books. ISBN 9781910552353.
  8. "Collaboration". Undertow Games Forum. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  9. "scpcb/Credits.txt". GitHub. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  10. PXLSHN (February 23, 2019). "(1.2.4) SCP — Nine Tailed Fox Mod (v0.2.0 in progress again)". Undertow Games Forum. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  11. CommanderMark (September 8, 2018). "A word on 1.4's development and Vane Brain". Undertow Games Forum. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  12. Arce, Juan Pablo. "juanjp600/scpcb: SCP - Containment Breach 1.4". GitHub. Retrieved January 6, 2021.
  13. Greene, Nicholas (October 16, 2013). "Weekly Horror Game Review: SCP Containment Breach". GeekInsider. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  14. Rich (Sep 21, 2013). "The 50 Best Free PC Games". PC Gamer. Retrieved Nov 10, 2013.
  15. Birnbaum, Ian (September 23, 2013). "Free Indie Horror SCP: Containment Breach Gets a New Update Full of Low-Fi Scares". PC Gamer. Retrieved November 17, 2016.
  16. "SCP: Unity". Retrieved January 6, 2021.
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