SPOILERS for anyone reading who haven't watched the vid: . . . . , Yeah. I kinda called the twist. The Batteries you send down look awfully similar to the food we see in our quarters.
It also makes ZERO sense. This is the dumbest, most inefficient way to dig a hole ever. Also, in retrospect, nothing happened in the entire thing except for the twist. Pretty weak sauce.
one little thing i like about your gameplays is the way you nod the camera in agreement or disagreement to some scenarios. makes us feel like we're actually the ones in the game. keep it up!
Guy was like "hey mate, please keep this message hidden" ABG immediately pin it on the entrance wall, so everyone can see it even before entering the room. ABG truly is the spy master, CIA should learn from him.
The CIA's greatest security leak was Aldritch Ames, who did stuff even dumber. Like drive down to the Soviet Embassy in broad daylight with documents. He was also notorious among his coworkers for being a drunk who fought with cops, had multiple mistresses, and generally was so blatantly obvious. He went uncaught for ten years.
This reminds me of that scene in Parasite where the owner of the house thinks he's got motion-triggered lights that come on when he ascends the stairs, but in reality it's the guy living in the basement, banging his head on the light switches when he hears him come home. You take something for granted and don't realize or care how much hard work is behind it.
I think the shock part is the jumpstart wire when the drill 'malfunctions'; temperature is likely air conditioning to keep the digger at a survivable temperature and frankly no idea what rpm does
The most fascinating thing is that the USSR really tried to dig a very deep hole. One where your arm barely fits and not drilled by real people, but they discovered fascinating things about the Earth's crust. It still is the deepest hole ever dug, and there won't be another like it because at some point the crust is just so hot it either melts the drill's metal or is so malleable from the heat you can't dig it
It's the closest real-world equivalent to finding the !!Hidden Fun Stuff!! in Dwarf Fortress. We know more about _what's out there_ (in space) than _what's below us..._
Drilling this deep would be a good way to find long term storage for nuclear waste. Heck, you don't even need to drill that deep since it's way below the water table anyway. But the point still stands. Spent nuclear fuel being dumped that deep has no way of contaminating the ground water or soil.
@@sevenproxies4255 why would you waste potential fuel so bad? because uranium re-enrichment technologies already exist and are even used at some nuclear power plants, If fast neutron power plants will be widespread, then we won't have to mine so much uranium to provide them with fuel
Imagine if you could somehow actually be quick enough to grab the note and hop back on, or if you could somehow trick it into ascending again with you on. Would've been neat if they put in a failsafe or a special ending somehow.
I did wonder why in the very beginning there were open battery containers in the bedroom! I figured the previous worker was huffing battery fumes for fun or something.
Went back to the beginning to look at this part, and there looks to be spoon there also. So maybe a previous worker found out what was inside and helped themselves to free food.
Did you also make the game where you spend like 10,000 years answering questions in some kind of timeless dimension and when you return only a few minutes have passed on Earth? And you can take a medicine that makes you forget the experience, or not? I love that game and this one has similar vibes.
@@AlphaBetaGamerI like your style of playing, no commentary but the prologue, no speedrun, and giving time to read the messages. And, the head shaking 😂
The whole time I was wondering if you don't manage the gas properly you would have to deal with hallucinations. Guess I'd have to play myself to find out.
Hi! No the gas just kills you if you leave the holes open for long enough. There's not a death scene it just kinda cuts to black and says you died (and you restart the day).
So damn cool. I love the idea of putting notes on surfaces, then using those notes to plug holes. So you start trying to be organized, then... you're very not. END SPOILERS: That completely changes the context of the "left drill" needing to be replaced....
If you're sufficiently cold-blooded about it, its easier to find and replace desperate lower-class workers than advanced drilling machinery. Why do you think so much mining and industry in the second and third world nations still uses manual solutions, when automated or mechanised options exist?
Soviet approach to digging a shaft: send common workers down the hole to dig till they die and spend the money that should have gone to the drill on yourself.
Honestly its the little things but I kinda love the mechanic involving the notes and even love the tape they use just to secure it and even haphhazardly secure the notes and cover the holes.
I wonder if this game takes inspiration from this one soviet science experiments. They drilled the deepest hole ever recorded. They had to stop at a certain point because the rock they were drilling into was becoming too resilient. Not because it was hard, but because the heat was making it soft and almost "plastic-like".
The real scary part is knowing that this isn't a million miles away from what really happens IRL. You think they use drills to mine cobalt in DRC? Nope, they use kids. Do you think plastic recycling plants in India have special machines to segregate different types of plastic? Nope, the guy just melts it and inhales the fumes to tell the difference. Hell, you think there's a vape testing machine in the Lost Mary factory? Nope, just a guy who puffs thousands of vapes a day.
IKR. They also used dirt poor humans to do a lot of the initial training for AI, I recently learned. Just show people countless images and ask them to identify them or whatever it was. Pay them a pittance and pocket the monumental profits.
@@Coffeepanda294 I also heard about that, supposedly the company had a file of CSA which is incredibly fucked - although OpenAI denies it wanted that in the training data Either way the humans used on the training suffered PTSD from what they had to read and see
I still don’t understand what this game’s trying to tell. If manual labor digs the hole, why have the protagonist go through the play-pretend process of operating all those machines for 9 shifts in the first place? What’s the point?
@@The_Sweet_Res Eiron was probably still alive during those 9 days, so they needed someone to send down batteries/food, after they assume he's dead it's the protag's turn to go down and the next operator will repeat the proccess
I love the way you used the passcode system to ensure players actually read the instructions before getting stuck in, and then actually using those same instructions as a gameplay mechanic to tape up the holes. Very clever design, will look forward to more games from you.
@@DaussPlays Thank you! I just did the art so I was not responsible for the ingenious design :] , but I'll make sure the designer gets this lovely compliment!
I was expecting the twist to be that the entire operation was pointless, and it was some totalitarian "keep the peasants occupied" fake job, that maybe even the war was a lie... but the truth was actually far worse for it's simplicity! I guess the player character really was "controlling" the "drills" all along, just not quite how we imagined...
I get where the lights in the tunnel were coming from, but where were diggers putting the dirt that they were moving? That tunnel looked pretty even in circumference all the way down.
@@TheOneTrueClogger it goes up as well You can see the exit at the top, between the two boreholes edit: wait no nvm ignore that but the tube does go up i swear, you can see it better as you descend down just because it goes into a wall doesnt mean it just stops entirely
@@doubledanger8269 So what you're saying is that the digger has to dig out that part of the wall constantly to refit and extend the pipe and then cover it back up with dug out dirt?
Having a hole be dug by some poor schmuck with a shovel by threat of electrocution rather than just using an actual, more efficient drill for the job instead is like something out of Warhammer 40k
@@zikadraws79 to me, it's fitting (if a bit frustrating) that they don't give you nearly enough information to properly understand the setting. The only place where an elaborate conspiracy like this would be remotely practical was one where people had learned not to ask too many questions about the things their bosses told them, no matter how privately skeptical they might be.
Unlike the space race, the Soviet Union actually got the farthest down on the way to the earths core. The Kola Superdeep Borehole SG-3 is the deepest human-made hole on Earth, which attained maximum true vertical depth of 12,262 metres (40,230 ft; 7.619 mi) in 1989. It is the result of a scientific drilling effort to penetrate as deep as possible into the Earth's crust conducted by the Soviet Union in the Pechengsky District of the Kola Peninsula, near the Russian border with Norway.
I remember reading some magazines about the Kola Hole, where there were writing about how by digging that hole the scientist opened the gates of hell, kek)
@@user-vf6ge4mp9p Yeah there's a lot of misinformation and paranormal conjecture about the Kola Bore Hole. None of it is true except for the weird noises the center of the Earth makes, those recordings are real but we do know what's making them. Tectonic Plates moving, alongside a multitude of other totally normal subterranean occurrences.
I loved the game but not the twist... I get that it is deep but sound would travel well in a hole like that, so the "drill" would likely scream for help a lot. Also if I see a body when Im on that elevator I'm not hopping off. I guess I just expected more worldbuilding because thats what I found interesting about the game. Rant over
Do you... do you have to willingly put on the alligator clips to be tortured? Or do they send down a second guy to put them on? Also, how did Eiron survive the gas storms without any facial protection?
I don't think he'd need protection from the gas storms as the downstairs area is in the same envelope as the upstairs cabin (which you keep sealed). As for the electrodes, I guess if you don't attach them then you don't get fed or they might send someone down there to attach them (there was one day when you wake up early with the bedroom door locked and you hear noises outside).
The foreshadowing on the posters is really good, and I did not guess the twist, but I wish there was at least one other ending. There are good possibilities here though, I like it.
Idea: PLEASE MAKE A GAME ABOUT EXPLORING THE UNDERWATER SUBMARINE GRAVEYARD OF THE KOLA PENINSULA IN RUSSIA. WHILE WHILE BEING CHASED BY EVIL PROPELLER MONSTERS? 😳
The screen goes black and some text comes up saying you failed to reach your quota, then you restart the day (there's only one ending for this game, but it's a good one!)
No, but the guy who made Tartarus machine also did a game about drilling a hole full of spiders it's called Control Room Alpha. ABG have a video on it. Mike is currently working on Buckshot roulette
I guess if you don't attach the electrodes you don't get fed or they might send someone down there to attach them (there was one day when you wake up early with the bedroom door locked and you hear noises outside.
(spoilers) Well... That doesn't make much sense though, like if they have a lift to move people back up, why not just make it a normal job? It would be faster than having just one guy digging for part of each day. They clearly have other people alive, they can easily have the guy who sent the message, our protagonist, and the old digging guy taking turns, which would make it go 3 times faster...
Well, just spit balling here, but this could be a form of execution. The various operators have been unknowingly charged with some type of crime but instead of sending them to prison the government conscripts them into being a "drill operator." There is (supposedly) a war going on so getting a draft notice in the mail wouldn't be that surprising. And then...yeah.
I think it’s because they don’t want to pay the workers. I mean, you saw that they extended the other guy’s shift. They probably did that because the original contract hoped the the current “drill” would die and the new person would replace them so the new guy couldn’t collect their paycheck.
@@ianfinrir8724 Nothing about the game indicates that the player character is a prisoner or political dissident, they simply received instructions like any other newcomer to the job, and the entire premise gets dumber the more you think about it. Setting up an entire facility and large machine that controls temperature and atmosphere....just to have the hole dug by a *single* human with rudimentary tools? And to then have the current operator replace them once they die from overworking? It feels like a needlessly complicated and inefficient way to punish a prisoner or dissident or achieve anything useful. It feels like the developer wanted to make a game with the "organization/corporation is evil and exploitative and inhumane" allegory but didn't really think all the details through.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING Yeah I guess a place so shoddily built it gets holes due to corrosion every single day couldn't have actual real drills. Pretty cool foreshadowing with the batteries.
Great gameplay!! Did you try to hide the note from above in the locker with a password to see if it unlocks another ending? I mean, did they send the character down to dig because they discovered the note? The guy above may have been sent to take the player's position as punishment, creating a cycle. I'm also wondering if it's possible to use the cups on the side of the machine to drink water (if it worked, that would be an interesting detail).
Hi! Glad yo liked the vid! No you can't use the cups on the side of the machine. Also, I don't think hiding the note does anything. It's just got the one ending.
@@AlphaBetaGamer It would be great to unlock a new ending by hiding the note, since apparently they send inspectors to inspect the workstation while the worker is sleeping (even getting mad at him for waking up early). The glass of water would be a really nice additional detail too. Anyway, congrats on the gameplay again.
I assume that cooler doesn't have water, but some scientifically formulated, nutritionally complete People's Gruel. Probably made from potatoes. EDIT: I wrote the above before I read the ending.
man IDK what type of paper they be using in the USSR but if it doubles as an airtight seal against industrial grade hazards they must be made with some lead or something in them.
I don't know, judging by how russians operate today I can imagine someone going "oh fuck, we sold the drill on E-Bay and now we're expected to actually dig a hole", and so to avoid being thrown out a window they just trick people into going down there so they can have some results to show their superiors. Look at the Z-Storm units in Ukraine to see how little they care about human lives.
That explains the RPM, is the hearth monitor. If it goes over or under it uses electric shocks to re-start it. There is also the implication that half way through they put someone else in the other hole, maybe someone hinted at before?
The ending was dreadful. It left me scared. I was reminded about forced labour in africa and Asia. And that europe and north america aren't special and one day we might end up like them or worse.
I figured it out around half way that people were digging but I was like why sending batteries tho best bet was I guess they have to replace something and then they left behind but the moment I saw lights everything was crystal clear
the twist was actually crazy i was so ready to be ripped apart by some demon while going down but i was taken really off guard
SPOILERS for anyone reading who haven't watched the vid:
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Yeah. I kinda called the twist. The Batteries you send down look awfully similar to the food we see in our quarters.
This ending scared me more than if I had been scared by a simple screamer with a monster/ghost/evil spirit/or some other scary thing.
Manmade atrocities are scarier than generic monsters of the depth, imo.
It also makes ZERO sense. This is the dumbest, most inefficient way to dig a hole ever. Also, in retrospect, nothing happened in the entire thing except for the twist. Pretty weak sauce.
Turns out the demons were above you after all.
one little thing i like about your gameplays is the way you nod the camera in agreement or disagreement to some scenarios. makes us feel like we're actually the ones in the game. keep it up!
i also enjoyed the little nods and head shakes
Guy was like "hey mate, please keep this message hidden" ABG immediately pin it on the entrance wall, so everyone can see it even before entering the room.
ABG truly is the spy master, CIA should learn from him.
The CIA's greatest security leak was Aldritch Ames, who did stuff even dumber. Like drive down to the Soviet Embassy in broad daylight with documents.
He was also notorious among his coworkers for being a drunk who fought with cops, had multiple mistresses, and generally was so blatantly obvious. He went uncaught for ten years.
This reminds me of that scene in Parasite where the owner of the house thinks he's got motion-triggered lights that come on when he ascends the stairs, but in reality it's the guy living in the basement, banging his head on the light switches when he hears him come home. You take something for granted and don't realize or care how much hard work is behind it.
why is there a nice person in his basement
That always confused me, wouldn’t the guy know if he bought motion sensor lights or not??
They once sent a 4ft 6" criminal down this mine.
But people found it a little con-descending. :)
Seriously though, I really loved this game (has big Klubnika vibes) and the ending is very well done. :)
Ha!
And he got stuck halfway through the line.
Now only the compact ones are given the time.
That got a chuckle from me, not going to lie.
It's a fine job running an excavator
but there's no upward mobility.
It’s implied that every time you mess with the temperature or rotation speed it shocks the guy in the drill
I think the shock part is the jumpstart wire when the drill 'malfunctions'; temperature is likely air conditioning to keep the digger at a survivable temperature and frankly no idea what rpm does
@@muffininacup4060 heartbeat ig, 80 is normal and 150 is almost heart attack
Does the other drill even exist?
@@RedWitherITAI think it could be the oxygen pumps
Reminds me of the Milgram Shock Experiment.
Clever thing to actually make use of the in-game instructions as a means to continue playing the game!
Yeah, that was a very clever touch!
and thus making the game harder, now in the middle of an issue you gotta run around looking for the paper you put up as a repair
The most fascinating thing is that the USSR really tried to dig a very deep hole. One where your arm barely fits and not drilled by real people, but they discovered fascinating things about the Earth's crust. It still is the deepest hole ever dug, and there won't be another like it because at some point the crust is just so hot it either melts the drill's metal or is so malleable from the heat you can't dig it
It's the closest real-world equivalent to finding the !!Hidden Fun Stuff!! in Dwarf Fortress. We know more about _what's out there_ (in space) than _what's below us..._
@@WackoMcGooseah yes, the clowns and the circus
It is called cola superdeep
Drilling this deep would be a good way to find long term storage for nuclear waste.
Heck, you don't even need to drill that deep since it's way below the water table anyway.
But the point still stands. Spent nuclear fuel being dumped that deep has no way of contaminating the ground water or soil.
@@sevenproxies4255 why would you waste potential fuel so bad?
because uranium re-enrichment technologies already exist and are even used at some nuclear power plants, If fast neutron power plants will be widespread, then we won't have to mine so much uranium to provide them with fuel
Imagine if you could somehow actually be quick enough to grab the note and hop back on, or if you could somehow trick it into ascending again with you on. Would've been neat if they put in a failsafe or a special ending somehow.
Summary executed ending
I did wonder why in the very beginning there were open battery containers in the bedroom! I figured the previous worker was huffing battery fumes for fun or something.
Went back to the beginning to look at this part, and there looks to be spoon there also. So maybe a previous worker found out what was inside and helped themselves to free food.
It's not a battery, it's clearly marked as food ration. Would be a massive spoiler if it was a battery.
I work a drill and I'm drilling a hole
Drilly drilly hole
Drilly drilly hole
Made me smile
Comrades of the hole, rejoice!
(Dig, dig, dig with me.)
Raise your spade, and raise your voice!
(Sing, sing, sing with me.)
22:30 haha, putting out of order on the order machine after it told you you didn't do well.
Haha! Damn right! I'm not having a fax machine tell me I'm bad at my job! :)
Thanks for playing man! Glad you enjoyed :)
You're welcome! Loved the game and that ending was amazing. Great work! :)
I love the idea of the messages being used to block the holes. So eventually you look like an actual crazy person.
Did you also make the game where you spend like 10,000 years answering questions in some kind of timeless dimension and when you return only a few minutes have passed on Earth? And you can take a medicine that makes you forget the experience, or not?
I love that game and this one has similar vibes.
@@AlphaBetaGamerI like your style of playing, no commentary but the prologue, no speedrun, and giving time to read the messages. And, the head shaking 😂
@@-0rbital-that was a Mike Klubnika game, I don't think this game was made by him.
Most cheerful place to work in Tomsk.
i left tomsk several ears ago, but tomsk never left me
Most common work in Chelyabinsk
Isn't this, like, Mirniy?
@@still_live228You lie, no one has left Tomsk in decades
Happiest and Fulfilling Workplace anywhere East of Komi
The whole time I was wondering if you don't manage the gas properly you would have to deal with hallucinations. Guess I'd have to play myself to find out.
Hi! No the gas just kills you if you leave the holes open for long enough. There's not a death scene it just kinda cuts to black and says you died (and you restart the day).
So damn cool. I love the idea of putting notes on surfaces, then using those notes to plug holes. So you start trying to be organized, then... you're very not.
END SPOILERS: That completely changes the context of the "left drill" needing to be replaced....
And also why they wouldn't let you wake up too early...
You can always count on ABG to dig up little gems like this.
No pun intended.
I love these David Szymanski/Mike Klubnika style indie horror games. So much grime
The chunkiness, the rust, the dirt, and slowly working but massive machines... I love it.
right?!
It's that kind of minimalism in art styles you can only really get in games, it's just so neat to experience it.
I love these games where the controls and menu functions are essentially built into the game itself. There's just something kind of cozy about it.
"Diagetic" is the word I think, incase you wanted to look up more examples of games doing this
I thought those food capsules in your bedroom looked awfully similar to the batteries... How can this be better than just using a drill, honestly...
It isn't better in the sense of actually making the hole, but it's an extremely cheap and effective way to keep the propaganda machine working.
If you're sufficiently cold-blooded about it, its easier to find and replace desperate lower-class workers than advanced drilling machinery. Why do you think so much mining and industry in the second and third world nations still uses manual solutions, when automated or mechanised options exist?
Yeah but we are talking about digging straight down here with a shovel. They would almost certainly reach rock at one point then what?
Where. The. Fuck. Goes. EXCAVATED. ROCK/DIRT?!
Soviet approach to digging a shaft: send common workers down the hole to dig till they die and spend the money that should have gone to the drill on yourself.
Honestly its the little things but I kinda love the mechanic involving the notes and even love the tape they use just to secure it and even haphhazardly secure the notes and cover the holes.
You love that the game involves using tape? Lol ok?
@@michaelhaydenbell Wrote the comment late at night but still really like he funny mechanic and the funny little details
@@fenrirsrage4609dual purpose design
@@michaelhaydenbell is there something wrong with that? dont be so weird about it...
I wonder if this game takes inspiration from this one soviet science experiments. They drilled the deepest hole ever recorded. They had to stop at a certain point because the rock they were drilling into was becoming too resilient. Not because it was hard, but because the heat was making it soft and almost "plastic-like".
Probably
That, and at that depth the equipment started melting
Also, Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin.
The real scary part is knowing that this isn't a million miles away from what really happens IRL.
You think they use drills to mine cobalt in DRC? Nope, they use kids.
Do you think plastic recycling plants in India have special machines to segregate different types of plastic? Nope, the guy just melts it and inhales the fumes to tell the difference.
Hell, you think there's a vape testing machine in the Lost Mary factory? Nope, just a guy who puffs thousands of vapes a day.
IKR. They also used dirt poor humans to do a lot of the initial training for AI, I recently learned. Just show people countless images and ask them to identify them or whatever it was. Pay them a pittance and pocket the monumental profits.
@@Coffeepanda294 I also heard about that, supposedly the company had a file of CSA which is incredibly fucked - although OpenAI denies it wanted that in the training data
Either way the humans used on the training suffered PTSD from what they had to read and see
I still don’t understand what this game’s trying to tell. If manual labor digs the hole, why have the protagonist go through the play-pretend process of operating all those machines for 9 shifts in the first place? What’s the point?
@@The_Sweet_ResAlso what happens if the shovel breaks, or they hit solid rock. Where does the dirt that gets dug up go? None of it makes sense
@@The_Sweet_Res Eiron was probably still alive during those 9 days, so they needed someone to send down batteries/food, after they assume he's dead it's the protag's turn to go down and the next operator will repeat the proccess
Thanks for playing! Love the thumbnail :}
You're welcome! You've done a fantastic job on the game. Very cleverly designed. :)
I love the way you used the passcode system to ensure players actually read the instructions before getting stuck in, and then actually using those same instructions as a gameplay mechanic to tape up the holes. Very clever design, will look forward to more games from you.
@@DaussPlays Thank you! I just did the art so I was not responsible for the ingenious design :] , but I'll make sure the designer gets this lovely compliment!
FOR ROCK AND STONE!
Oh, wait...
Wrong game!
the way I literally have DRG hub in fullscreen opened in the background while reading this, and I haven't played it in a long time
If you rock and stone you're still not going home.
@@m0-m0597 Haha, okay, this is golden! I think they are expecting you in the deep mines in Hoxxes, miner! Rock and stone, brother!
@@RenegadeKamui Certainly not this russian miner!
I was expecting the twist to be that the entire operation was pointless, and it was some totalitarian "keep the peasants occupied" fake job, that maybe even the war was a lie... but the truth was actually far worse for it's simplicity! I guess the player character really was "controlling" the "drills" all along, just not quite how we imagined...
The real question is... who was in the second drill?
Unsurprisingly being a bottomless pit supervisor in Eastern Europe is rather gloomy.
most luxurious apartment in birmingham
@@bignerd3783 that's Malicious ☠️☠️
I get where the lights in the tunnel were coming from, but where were diggers putting the dirt that they were moving? That tunnel looked pretty even in circumference all the way down.
That's a good point I didn't think of this
there's a little white tube that i think the diggers shove the dirt next to and it gets vacuumed up
@@doubledanger8269 But it goes INTO the wall of the tunnel he was digging out.
@@TheOneTrueClogger it goes up as well
You can see the exit at the top, between the two boreholes
edit: wait no nvm ignore that
but the tube does go up i swear, you can see it better as you descend down
just because it goes into a wall doesnt mean it just stops entirely
@@doubledanger8269 So what you're saying is that the digger has to dig out that part of the wall constantly to refit and extend the pipe and then cover it back up with dug out dirt?
Now the question is, who was working on the other drill if it didn't die
This feels more Orwellian/INGSOC kind of thing rather than soviet.
….
Damn, this was very good! 👍👍👍
I really dug the ending too. It was deep.
10/10 if intended pun
Rock Off 😡😡
I'm glad they finally made a game about the Kola borehole.. 😐
Glory to the motherland, glory to the hole
Glory to the hole alright😂😂😂😂😂
FOR KARL!
Having a hole be dug by some poor schmuck with a shovel by threat of electrocution rather than just using an actual, more efficient drill for the job instead is like something out of Warhammer 40k
As Mark,Wade and Bob once put it: we love the company, the company, the company, we love the company!
Just another day, drilling a hole into hell
Damn what a twist
A twisted twist, even
Also who the hell were they at war against ?? And what were they digging for ?
Absolutely loved that your ration packs looked identical to the batteries. Nice dark foreshadowing, I should've realized there'd be a twist like this.
you know how 'murican propaganda works. you must make your enemies look silly, so your slavery to the war efforts seem honorable in retrospect.
The Gulag?
@@zikadraws79 to me, it's fitting (if a bit frustrating) that they don't give you nearly enough information to properly understand the setting.
The only place where an elaborate conspiracy like this would be remotely practical was one where people had learned not to ask too many questions about the things their bosses told them, no matter how privately skeptical they might be.
@@MisdirectedSasha
It is never practical- what if the shovel breaks?
Unlike the space race, the Soviet Union actually got the farthest down on the way to the earths core.
The Kola Superdeep Borehole SG-3 is the deepest human-made hole on Earth, which attained maximum true vertical depth of 12,262 metres (40,230 ft; 7.619 mi) in 1989. It is the result of a scientific drilling effort to penetrate as deep as possible into the Earth's crust conducted by the Soviet Union in the Pechengsky District of the Kola Peninsula, near the Russian border with Norway.
I remember reading some magazines about the Kola Hole, where there were writing about how by digging that hole the scientist opened the gates of hell, kek)
@@user-vf6ge4mp9p Yeah there's a lot of misinformation and paranormal conjecture about the Kola Bore Hole. None of it is true except for the weird noises the center of the Earth makes, those recordings are real but we do know what's making them. Tectonic Plates moving, alongside a multitude of other totally normal subterranean occurrences.
Just because you mericans declared yourself winners of the space race don't make you thr winners. Soviets beat you on a lot of fronts.
@@kitosjek9541 Lol tankie seething
Does that mean that... Soviet Union is a Dwarfian Empire?
Guess we diggin holes now
These days ABG plays so many 🔥 games I can't even watch the whole vids. I wanna play almost all of them myself so I'm only watching the short ones 😭
Yeah there was a time when I used to watch them all. My old bones can't keep up now (I'm not even 25)
Such a good premise, cant wait to see!!!
Reminded me of a novel by Viktor Pelevin called Omon Ra. Great stuff
Yeah, for me too, dude
Came here for this comment!
The core game loop seems a little meh, but the direction and environment building are great!
great game concept honestly
I loved the game but not the twist... I get that it is deep but sound would travel well in a hole like that, so the "drill" would likely scream for help a lot. Also if I see a body when Im on that elevator I'm not hopping off. I guess I just expected more worldbuilding because thats what I found interesting about the game.
Rant over
Nah its soundproof
А с чего вы взяли "советскость" сеттинга?
Wow, they told you you did a good job at the end of the day? Omg, way better than anywhere I've worked!
Do you... do you have to willingly put on the alligator clips to be tortured? Or do they send down a second guy to put them on? Also, how did Eiron survive the gas storms without any facial protection?
I don't think he'd need protection from the gas storms as the downstairs area is in the same envelope as the upstairs cabin (which you keep sealed).
As for the electrodes, I guess if you don't attach them then you don't get fed or they might send someone down there to attach them (there was one day when you wake up early with the bedroom door locked and you hear noises outside).
The foreshadowing on the posters is really good, and I did not guess the twist, but I wish there was at least one other ending. There are good possibilities here though, I like it.
Idea: PLEASE MAKE A GAME ABOUT EXPLORING THE UNDERWATER SUBMARINE GRAVEYARD OF THE KOLA PENINSULA IN RUSSIA. WHILE WHILE BEING CHASED BY EVIL PROPELLER MONSTERS? 😳
what
What happens if you fail to meet the quota?
The screen goes black and some text comes up saying you failed to reach your quota, then you restart the day (there's only one ending for this game, but it's a good one!)
Is this by the same people who made that Tartarus machine game or whatever it was called?
No, but the guy who made Tartarus machine also did a game about drilling a hole full of spiders it's called Control Room Alpha. ABG have a video on it. Mike is currently working on Buckshot roulette
that dudes name is Klubnika, and the answer is no
This is one of the most terrifying game that you show here ABG, give me chills. 😔
Wait, so how do they force you to wear electrodes? Food deprivation? I have some other questions. Still, a fun twist ending.
I guess if you don't attach the electrodes you don't get fed or they might send someone down there to attach them (there was one day when you wake up early with the bedroom door locked and you hear noises outside.
I heard the plot goes pretty deep
(spoilers)
Well... That doesn't make much sense though, like if they have a lift to move people back up, why not just make it a normal job? It would be faster than having just one guy digging for part of each day. They clearly have other people alive, they can easily have the guy who sent the message, our protagonist, and the old digging guy taking turns, which would make it go 3 times faster...
Well, just spit balling here, but this could be a form of execution. The various operators have been unknowingly charged with some type of crime but instead of sending them to prison the government conscripts them into being a "drill operator." There is (supposedly) a war going on so getting a draft notice in the mail wouldn't be that surprising. And then...yeah.
I think it’s because they don’t want to pay the workers. I mean, you saw that they extended the other guy’s shift. They probably did that because the original contract hoped the the current “drill” would die and the new person would replace them so the new guy couldn’t collect their paycheck.
@@ianfinrir8724 possibly
@@assassinunknown6664 Most probably
@@ianfinrir8724 Nothing about the game indicates that the player character is a prisoner or political dissident, they simply received instructions like any other newcomer to the job, and the entire premise gets dumber the more you think about it. Setting up an entire facility and large machine that controls temperature and atmosphere....just to have the hole dug by a *single* human with rudimentary tools? And to then have the current operator replace them once they die from overworking? It feels like a needlessly complicated and inefficient way to punish a prisoner or dissident or achieve anything useful.
It feels like the developer wanted to make a game with the "organization/corporation is evil and exploitative and inhumane" allegory but didn't really think all the details through.
SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING
Yeah I guess a place so shoddily built it gets holes due to corrosion every single day couldn't have actual real drills. Pretty cool foreshadowing with the batteries.
9:23 You were grounded for going to bed without being told to do so, and leaving the drills unattended.
id take the shovel and start digging hand and foot holds back up the tunnel. use the dudes shirt or pants as a sling and backpack to hold the food :)
When I first saw the title I could’ve sworn that this was some Mike Klubnika project I hadn’t seen yet.
Same. I was like "oh god, another game from those people who made The Tartarus Engine :O".
If not for the country, it will be for James Sunderland.
half through the video and im so confused. is the place youre in going down too? why are the 2 drills at different depths?
Hi buddy! Its been 3 days-
You get to the ending yet? It'll explain it
this dude hates me lol
I love the little satisfied nods when you read a.note praising you
Atmosphere > Monsters
Comrades of the hole, rejoice!
(Dig, dig, dig with me.)
Raise your spade, and raise your voice!
(Sing, sing, sing with me.)
That "it was just a miner injury" yea no, don't think you managed to slip that one by.
It's like they took a single joke and made a full game from it.
Great gameplay!! Did you try to hide the note from above in the locker with a password to see if it unlocks another ending? I mean, did they send the character down to dig because they discovered the note? The guy above may have been sent to take the player's position as punishment, creating a cycle. I'm also wondering if it's possible to use the cups on the side of the machine to drink water (if it worked, that would be an interesting detail).
Hi! Glad yo liked the vid! No you can't use the cups on the side of the machine. Also, I don't think hiding the note does anything. It's just got the one ending.
@@AlphaBetaGamer It would be great to unlock a new ending by hiding the note, since apparently they send inspectors to inspect the workstation while the worker is sleeping (even getting mad at him for waking up early). The glass of water would be a really nice additional detail too. Anyway, congrats on the gameplay again.
Looks like a Klubnika game.
I assume that cooler doesn't have water, but some scientifically formulated, nutritionally complete People's Gruel.
Probably made from potatoes.
EDIT: I wrote the above before I read the ending.
Secret ending needed frfr
man IDK what type of paper they be using in the USSR but if it doubles as an airtight seal against industrial grade hazards they must be made with some lead or something in them.
Ok, I wasn’t sure at first, but now I’m CERTAIN things are changing subtlety, like the text on papers such as the passcode each day
I feel like if this was Soviet, they wouldn't even bother with the pretense of a fake drill, they'd just send you down
They might bother if their superiors expected them to be using a real drill and they didn't want to have to explain why they weren't.
I don't know, judging by how russians operate today I can imagine someone going "oh fuck, we sold the drill on E-Bay and now we're expected to actually dig a hole", and so to avoid being thrown out a window they just trick people into going down there so they can have some results to show their superiors. Look at the Z-Storm units in Ukraine to see how little they care about human lives.
There are many horrors in this game.
Nothing like a little bit of pressure to descend into madness...
Pelevin's "Omon Ra" comes into mind.
That explains the RPM, is the hearth monitor.
If it goes over or under it uses electric shocks to re-start it.
There is also the implication that half way through they put someone else in the other hole, maybe someone hinted at before?
given the ending I wonder what the drill controls you fiddle with all game actually do.
They shock the guy in the hole so he keeps digging. The last letter explains it.
"An excavator has ran out of power. Find an energy cell."
The famous soviet hole is doing a comeback this year.
Ngl the ending is kinda funny
The ending was dreadful. It left me scared. I was reminded about forced labour in africa and Asia. And that europe and north america aren't special and one day we might end up like them or worse.
Good video keep up the good stuff
Ого, игра про кольскую сверхглубокую скважину
I like those kind of games
3:38 ABG looking out to see if there are no pesky invisible gas leaks behind the door.
You know, the ones that are deadly to inhale.
I held my breath! :)
@@AlphaBetaGamer I'm sure it helped. Now you're playing the rest of the game as a restless ghost ;)
The endinggg
Not sure if it's Soviet rather then early XX century era in general
I got dibs on the first bit of battery acid ya'll *hic* 🤢🤮
This feels like something Mike Klubnika would make.
"Soviet"? "Soviet era"? What? What's Soviet about this? The poster art style?
Agree!
5:29 ABG is so (sl)eepy he lost his way en route to the bedroom right next to him.
"This is my sectet diary on paper I stole from the fax"
"Keep thos message hidden!"
*ABG proudly tapes them to the cubicle walls*
I figured it out around half way that people were digging but I was like why sending batteries tho best bet was I guess they have to replace something and then they left behind but the moment I saw lights everything was crystal clear
The only Soviet thing about that game was how they used human labor instead of technology while pretending otherwise.
It was a dark ending, thought the games point was that noting stooped you from climbing the ladder up to the surface.
If it was real the guards would have shot you, either that or it simply wouldn't go up
average school day in Chelyabinsk
I never knew there would be a soviet horror game
In capitalist America, you drill hole. In soviet Russia, hole drills YOU!
In Soviet Russia, hole drills YOU.