| “ | Now we can get to know each other a little better. Let's see what horrors lie in that little brain of yours, shall we? | ” |
– Malak | ||
Chapter 4: Mortal Ramifications (Or simply Chapter 4) is the fourth and penultimate chapter of Dark Deception.
Official summary
Dark Deception Chapter 4 is the next chapter in the Dark Deception story. Face off against multiple new nightmares as Malak's dark army closes in. The Reaper Nurses, the Joy Joy Gang, and Mama Bear & her Trigger Teddies all await you. Dark Deception mixes the fast-paced style of classic arcade games with fun horror game design. Trapped in a dark world full of nightmarish mazes and ridiculous monsters, the only way out is to face the darkness and find a way to survive.
Enemies
- Reaper Nurses
- The Matron
- The Joy Joy Gang
- Lucky the Rabbit
- Hangry the Pig
- Penny the Chicken
- Joy Joy Gang Clones
- Joy Kill
- Tammy Houser
- Trigger Teddies
- Mama Bear
- Malak
Levels
Plot
Introduction
The chapter continues where the previous chapter left off, with Bierce reminding Doug in her ballroom on how many ring pieces he has left to collect, and proceeds to unlock the portal to the next level.
Upon entering, Bierce notes the metal gates containing a soul shard within, blocking off the entrance to the nightmare. After instructing Doug to return to the ballroom's altar, she gifts him a power that makes all nearby soul shards attract to him. This power not only allows Doug to earn many shards at once while it's in effect, but also allows him receive soul shards on the other sides of walls. Doug tests this ability by opening a gate that was blocking the entrance to the stage and opens it. Doug is allowed to enter into the level, starting in the Hospital.
Torment Therapy
The level starts in a parking lot in front of a giant hospital, with ambulances parked in some of the bays. Inside the hospital, several Reaper Nurses are standing around, with two more dancing in front of a giant statue of a Reaper Nurse holding a heart. Some harmless Gold Watchers are sitting on some seats in the area.
A Reaper Nurse is sitting at reception on the phone with presumably Malak, but hangs up yo talk to Doug. After a chat with Doug, another Reaper Nurse comes over and tells him to follow her. She takes Doug through a few hallways before entering a side room. She tells him to stand on the weight scale, which Bierce is suspicious of. After standing on, a jet of fire blasts onto the scale, which narrowly Doug avoids.
The Reaper Nurse apologies for the "malfunction" and takes Doug to another room to take a "small blood sample". She tells Doug not to leave until the timer reaches zero. Doug manages to escape, as it reveals that the room would've impaled him with giant needles across the room had he not gotten out in time, and the Reaper Nurse, showing frustration about this, calms down quickly. She tells Doug that they "don't have time to play games" before taking him to get a chest scan.
The Reaper Nurse take Doug to yet another room to get a chest scan. She again tells Doug not to leave until the timer reaches zero, also spawning a red barrier to stop him from escaping, but this plan also fails. This time, after Doug escapes, the Reaper Nurse chases him down the hallway, but stops after Doug goes though the door, stating that Bierce has already "infected them" and that they know how to exterminate viruses like him.
Doug heads into a decontamination unit before heading into an elevator, but unlike "Monkey Business", Doug has to manually call this one.
When the elevator arrives, Doug gets out and then proceeds through the hallway. However, before collecting the shards, one of the nurses announces over the PA system that the hospital is now on lockdown because of an "unruly patient", referring to Doug.
There are total of 337 soul shards across the floor. There are also three Reaper Nurses which will wander the halls while cloaked, their position given off by skating sounds and red flashes given off with every step; they will also occasionally spout dialogue. Should he get close enough to a Reaper Nurse, she will begin to chase him at a rate faster than his run speed, decloaking themselves once they get close enough and killing him on contact. Should he be out of the reach of their syringe, the Reaper Nurse will throw a pill at him instead, which stuns him on contact. The Reaper Nurses are also attracted to sound, moving to his location should they hear them opening a double door. This zone also has electric lasersthat are scattered around the place as well.
After Doug has collected all the soul shards, he then leaves the Emergency area and proceed to the Transfer area. But before doing so, two Reaper Nurses jumps off of the building and begin charging towards him, but he escapes and manages to got on the top of an ambulance which goes through a tunnel. The ambulance then takes him to the therapy center.
Once the ambulance arrives to the destination, he runs inside and sees the Matron for the first time, along with the ring altar and other nurses. While he's looking around, one of the nurses sneaks up behind him knocks him out with her syringe, causing him to fall unconscious.
He then wakes up to find himself inside a jail cell. The frenzied nurse then says that he snores pretty loudly while she was taking him there. But before he can try to escape, the cell door slams shut and locks. The nurse then activates a lever, which reveals a ceiling full of needles, which descends slowly. He manages to escape right on time as well as getting through the Matron and the nurses without being spotted.
There are now total of 342 soul shards around the area which need to be collected. The Reaper Nurses are now in their Frenzied Mode, and another trap is introduced, the buzzsaws. Doug has to collect the shards on both floors by using metal platforms that can move him up and down.
After Doug collects all the soul shards, he dashes to the ring altar to see that the Matron and the nurses have gone. He then takes the ring piece and leaves the zone, then takes an ambulance outside to return to the Hospital.
The Matron then alerts all the Reaper Nurses to chase after him as Reaper Nurses swarm the area on other ambulances, with her coming along behing them. One of them gets onto Doug's ambulance to yell at him and attempts to stab him with the syringe, but he dodges it, stuns her with Primal Fear and knocks her back into the Matron with the syringe he obtained from her.
During the fight, The Matron has the ability to destroy ambulances with the two buzzsaws that she wields. When she destroys these ambulances with the buzzsaws, the ambulances produce fire for a split second, and then sparks making the air change from red to yellow. She is able to travel slightly quicker than the speed of an ambulance when the vehicle is moving. She also follows whichever side he teleports to on the ambulances. After a minute, she will charge at him, destroying some of the ambulances in her way.
To defeat her, he must stun the Reaper Nurses across the ambulance with a Stun Orb or Primal Fear, before knocking them away using their giant needles. If he hits them without stunning them first, they will block the attack instead and proceed to kill him immediately. When knocked away, the Reaper Nurse will fall from the ambulance and crash into the Matron, and if done enough times, it will cause the Matron to trip over herself and fall on the ground.
After the fight, Doug gets down from the truck and makes his way to the portal. While he's in the decontamination room, one Reaper Nurse is bashing against the door attempting to break it. When making his way to the lobby, three Reaper Nurses come out and two launch each other to him, but he managed to teleport past both of them while using Primal Fear on the other one. He then makes his way through a bunch of nurses in the lobby and goes through the portal.
In-between "Torment Therapy" and "Mascot Mayhem"
Upon Doug's return, Malak comments on his victory and say that the only reason Doug won was because Malak had more oppressing matters to attend to which won't happen again. Bierce comments on how Malak is losing horribly and might need to plead with him and saying "soon the ring will be [hers] again" as she then prepares him for another nightmare. In the entrance to the next level, Bierce comments on the cameras there, and gifts Doug the Vanish ability. He tests out the ability and proceeds through the portal.
Mascot Mayhem
The level begins in an area with a fake town surrounds the pathway to the portal. There is written graffiti of phrases such as "Joy Joy Land". When Doug walks to the castle there are two sides that he is able to travel to; one side contains a path to one of Elise's notes where she mentions that Lucky and Hangry found her and tried to kill her, the other side contains an entrance to a room at the wall of the castle, and this leads to Doug to enter the first zone.
Once Doug enters the room, he finds two members of the Joy Joy Gang; Penny the Chicken, and Lucky the Rabbit. They sing the Joy Joy Song and assure Doug that they will be seeing him soon. The door then opens and Doug enters zone 1 of the level.
Doug has to collect 181 soul shards while trying to avoid Penny and Lucky clones, as well as the security cameras. Penny's clones will constantly be flying down, and they're capable of stunning him with eggs while Lucky's clones will use speed boost and toss bombs from the air to try and kill him.
When Doug heads back to the hallway after he collected all of the shards in the zone, Lucky pops up behind the glass and comments on how lucky he has been so far. A bunch of Lucky and Penny clones burst through the other side causing him to run towards the castle entrance as clones block the other two paths, as the castle gate shut behind him and he uses the elevator. Before the elevator heads down, one of Lucky's clones comments that Hangry will be very happy to see him as he descends down.
As the elevator arrives to its destination, Doug enters the security control center, as he hears Jocelyn saying that Zone 3 access is restricted and that he needs to restore power on Zone 2, which is a research & development area. As he's about to enter the next zone, Hangry introduces himself. During this, he shows his insane addiction of ribs, telling Doug to step closer and that he wants to devour Doug's ribs with his own BBQ sauce that he made, as he laughs maniacally and disappears.
Doug now has to collect 170 soul shards while trying to avoid Hangry the Pig and Lucky the Rabbit. While he's getting the first few shards in the zone, he meets Lucky again. He comments how Hangry can go crazy when ribs are involved that everyone goes a little crazy because it's a mad world out there, before running away and teaming up with Hangry. Hangry is capable of breaking doors and walls which could give Doug a hard time doing his work.
Eventually, he gets past Hangry, Lucky and the traps. When he was about to press the button on the fuse box, the Joy Joy Gang corners him. However, they are standing in a open wire lying on a puddle, which when Doug presses the button, they get electrocuted, turning them into their Frenzied mode and stunning them. Doug then slips past through them and gets back to the control room. Jocelyn then says that access to Zone 3 is granted.
Doug then makes his way to Zone 3, which is a production factory and he has to collect 150 shards in this area. He makes his way through the Joy Joy Gang's clones being transported by a conveyer claw. Jocelyn then announces that there is an intruder, referring to Doug, which causes her to dispatch the Joy Joy Gang, and to reboot the breaker switch to resume the crusher function inside the factory. When he's about to enter the factory, the Joy Joy Gang appears from behind and accuses him for ruined their look, then teaming up against him. After he collcets all of the shards, The Joy Joy Gang disappears and Malak enters the chase. Doug eventually resets the crusher, makes it out and activates the crusher, which crushes Joy Joy Gang members before they could reach him. When Doug is about to escape, a metal door closes right in front of him. Malak appears and reveals the true form of the Joy Joy Gang. Jocelyn goes into salvage mode, taking the remains of them and turning them into project Joy Kill. Doug tries to crush it again but to no avail, as it gets melted away by their laser.
Doug has to find 4 switches to power up the piston while being hunted down by Joy Kill. They can jump across every large round platforms, shoot lasers from their eyes and can even launch him right into the lava below. Once the piston is powered on, Doug then presses a button to activate it, and lures Joy Kill right into it so they get knocked down to the lava. As they're drowning in the lava, they let out some final words, saying that it isn't over and that he won't escape.
The whole place is now in self-destruct mode with the countdown beginning, as Malak reappears. Doug makes his way back to the control room. When he gets the ring piece, Jocelyn then proceeds to put the room on a 2-minutes lock down. The front moniter starts cracking, and Joy Kill bursts through, revealing it survived (Likely due to how its indestructible). Doug has to survive them until the countdown ends and the door to Zone 1 unlocks. Doug then dashes outside, as Malak and the clones chase after him. Doug almost escapes but Joy Kill jumps right in front of the portal, cornering him. They each punch him, making him fall down to the ground as they all beat him up. Weakened, Malak then appears and then enters his mind seeing what memories he has of his life.
Doug then appears into a dark hallway with a trail of pills. He follows it and it leads him to a part of his house. Tammy can be seen crying in the stairs. A dark area lights up, revealing the argument between him and his wife, Elise. Doug then feels regret and apologizes to Tammy before he continues following the trail of pills. It then leads him to the time Doug was cheating on his wife by flirting with his secretary. When his secretary asks about how Tammy will feel, Doug tells her not to worry about it and that he will take care of Elise as Malak decides to dig deeper, and tells him to proceed to the trail of pills again. Now it leads him to his current coma like state in the hospital as Malak askes if cancer was the reason he's like this or worse, thus explaining why he ended up in the hospital. After that, Malak continues to go even more deeper, revealing that Doug's family lost their lives in a car accident. He then wakes up Tammy and orders her to attack her own father. She then says "You did this", implying that he's the one who was behind the car accident. As Doug comments on how Tammy's mother wasnt supposed to drive, Tammy then knocks Doug down injuring him badly, and put the Mark of Malak on him. Doug then becomes Malak's puppet as a result of the hex before Malak brings him back to Joy Joy Land. Malak then orders the Joy Joy Gang to throw him back through the portal, announcing that it is time for Bierce to pay the debt she has owed. Hangry then protests saying that Malak promised him that he could let him eat Doug, only for Lucky to remind the pig that the demon is their superior. Hangry reluctantly complies, admitting he at least got a bite out of him. The Joy Joy Gang then mockingly bid Doug farewell, before Hangry picks him up and flings him into the portal.
In-between "Mascot Mayhem" and "Bearly Buried"
After Doug is thrown out of the portal by Hangry, Bierce asks him if he's alright, and tells him to get up to prepare for the next nightmare. The hex then beginning to activate, causing the Portals to deactivate and Malak to appear to come and collect the ring pieces from the Ring Altar. Bierce use her telekinesis ability to smash Malak between different pillars, throw him on the floor and uses a couple Soul Shards to impale his back. Just as Bierce comments on how she has won, Malak summons clones of himself through the portals to take on Bierce, and she uses soul shards to destroy them. As Malak recovers from being impaled, he lights the ballroom on fire and summons some of the monsters from Doug’s previous encounters. Bierce is suddenly impaled in the shoulder by Agatha and falls to the ground, while Malak steals the ring pieces. After this, she uses one of the ring pieces that she stole before to banish Malak and the other monsters from the Ballroom. Malak decides to open the portal to "Bearly Buried" and drags him in there with him.
Bearly Buried
Bearly Buried starts with Doug being brought to Mama Bear's realm by Malak, where he lectures Doug and tells him about the past that Bierce has hidden from him, of how Bierce desired to become a famous actress, executing sacrifices to achieve her goal, and making a deal with Malak. However, Bierce plotted to break free of her end of the contract with Malak to avoid handing over her soul, so she foul-played Malak, which resulted in her sealing herself in her own pocket dimension.
After the lecture, Mama Bear comes out of her cabin, greeting Malak at the doorway. The two have a conversation about how Malak hates the way Mama Bear loves to call him names and if how Mama Bear will execute him. Mama Bear then commands her Trigger Teddies to carry Doug into the kitchen, implying he will be food for the little teddies. When the Trigger Teddies brought Doug into the kitchen, a mysterious blue orb emerges and electrocutes the Teddies unconsciously. The orb tells Doug that it wishes to help him escape Mama Bear's realm. Doug is quietly led by the orb into the attic of the cabin to retrieve the first found hidden ring piece. From above, Doug eavesdrops on Malak and Mama Bear's conversation, with Malak frustrated that Doug has escaped her clutches, and later informing Mama Bear that Doug has been watching on the atticdue to how Malak can see through Dougs eyes because of the Mark of Malak, which Mama Bear responds with compliance, ready to capture Doug again.
There are 18 soul shards in the first zone, however by collecting the first ring piece, the only power Doug can use in this zone is vanish. Trigger Teddies will be roaming around this zone, and they can detonate when in contact with him. He have to use vanish and avoid them while collecting the shards. Once Doug collects all the shards, he leaves the area and opens a door, getting jumpscared by a flying Mama Bear head, then quickly slamming it shut. Doug is then told by Malak to head to the basement, which is the entrance to the cave below. Doug travels around the cave, then encountering Mama Bear who breaks down the cave to get near Doug, revealing he is in the tunnels. Then Mama Bear and the Trigger Teddies proceed to ambush the player through the tunnels, but Doug gets another ring piece (primal fear) and breaks down boards to where the ring altar is. The tunnel behind Doug comes to a close by collapsing. Doug then uses primal fear to get the bear traps out the way, which can also be useful when a soul shard is inside a bear trap. Doug breaks down more boards and heads into zone 2. This time Mama Bear is roaming around with the trigger teddies, messing with his vision if he gets too close, and running at a quick pace due to her speed increasing due to blood lust. She will spawn Trigger Teddies through the cave system as well. He also have to find another ring piece through the cave (telekinesis).
After completing zone 2, Doug leaves and climbs down ladders, where he ends up in a room filled with holes with green liquid. Mama Bear then traps him in the area, as the boss battle begins.
Mama Bear can extend her arms through the holes, trying to crush him with her hands. This cause boulders to break off. A Trigger Teddy can randomly come out of the holes too, along with Mama Bear's head. He can pick up a boulder, and throw it at Mama Bear's face, hurting Mama Bear and causes her to disappear if done enough times. This heavily frustrates Malak, as he yells at him to just give up and die. Then the player progresses to zone 3, the final zone.
Now, Doug has to gain back 2 of the ring pieces (the Deadly Decadence and Mascot Mayhem pieces), which are stolen by frenzied Trigger Teddies. This is made easier via the Speed Boost returning to his arsenal after the first boss. Eventually, Doug returns to the centre of the cave, where the blue orb, later to be revealed as Tammy's spirit, breaks the Mark of Malak from him. He then heads to a mysterious glowing green light.
The pool leads to Mama Bear, who mutates into her second boss form. She swings her arms at him, spins around the stage with both arms, and transforms into a spiked form faster than our running speed before leaping out of the water and summoning Trigger Teddies. Doug uses his Primal Fear and Vanish powers to knock her out and recover the Elementary Evil piece.
Doug then teleports near the exit, as Mama Bear's mutated hand starts chasing him through the tunnel, saying "I'll never let you go!" Doug runs away from the hand and also is pursued by Trigger Teddies. He slides down back to the cabin, where he continues to escape. Mama Bear starts breaking her floor in the cabin to try and kill Doug. Trigger Teddies are also seen crawling on the ceiling and the walls, some would even chase the player.
Doug leaves the cabin, and runs to the portal, begging Bierce to open the portal. Trigger Teddies come out from the ground, and Mama Bear exits the cabin, saying "Mama Bear is coming to get you." The spirit then opens the portal for Doug, and Doug escapes Bearly Buried.
Outro
After Doug arrives from the portal with the soul shards, Bierce gladly comments that Doug is alive but questions how, as she thought Malak had taken him for good. She sees how Doug has reclaimed the multiple ring pieces from the level and exclaims that she could kiss him, but isn't going to and to not get his hopes up. She then reveals that she's fine after her implement as she isn't made of flesh and bone so she heals quite quickly. She also says that Malak cannot destroy her, just enslave her for eternity.
She then notices in Doug's eyes that Malak told him what she did to him and how she cheated him but dismisses it anyway. She tries to relate with Doug by stating that she's not proud of what she did, although she did live in an era of cruelty and she got caught up in her desire for stardom that led her down a dark path. She then goes on and says that Malak wants their souls but yet she wants to get out of there and that she still keeps her promise of giving Doug a new life. She exclaims Doug has seen what she can do with just a few pieces let alone the whole ring itself. She then states that only 2 pieces of the ring remain and that its good to have Doug back.
Bierce opens the portal to "Holiday Horror", and the silhouette of a Mannequin is shown wobbling/walking. Chapter 4 ends here.
Trivia
- This chapter was the most long awaited chapter until now. Before its release, it was on development for over 2 years.
- This chapter has gone through a lot of delays, having in total about 6 delays. This caused a huge amount of negativity towards developers from the players, but in the end Chapter 4 was finally released.
- The Dark Deception team tried to conceal most of the chapter's content during its production.
- Chapter 4 is so far the second chapter to have all of its enemies with voice lines, the first being Chapter 2.
- Chapter 4 has more enemies than Chapters 1, 2, and 3 combined, as confirmed in a tweet.
- Furthermore, Chapter 4 has more music than Chapters 1, 2, and 3 combined, having a total of 20 tracks.
- This is the only chapter to have an updated cover. This is due to the old cover missing Mama Bear and having the Matron in the Reaper Nurse's place.
- On October 4th, 2019, a 48-second video released by Glowstick Entertainment of the official voices for the Joy Joy Gang. On October 7th, a video for the voices of the Reaper Nurses was released. On November 11th, a video for the voice of Mama Bear was released. On February 17th, 2020, a video for the voices of the Trigger Teddies was released. On March 11th, 2021, a video for the voice of The Matron was released.
- Vince confirmed in a Q&A video that he and the team were developing chapters 4 and 5 simultaneously. This is done to facilitate Chapter 5's development after Chapter 4's release.
- Each level in Chapter 4 (along with Chapter 5) has three zones, except for Torment Therapy, which includes two zones. This was revealed in the 2nd and 5th Q&A, respectively.
- Every enemy in Chapter 4 turns into their Nightmare Mode forms before collecting all of the soul shards, just like the Clown Gremlins in the second zone of "Crazy Carnevil". This possibly suggests that the later monsters are becoming more and more aggressive, relentless and threatening when they realize that Doug is a significant threat to their nightmare than any other mortal.
- In Bearly Buried, there used to be a display bug that made it impossible to achieve S Rank; it showed that player need to collect 3 bonus shards while the level has only 2 bonus shards. This bug has now been fixed.
- Every portal in this chapter has been updated from what they were originally shown as, with Torment Therapy now showing a Reaper Nurse as opposed to The Matron, Mascot Mayhem's portal including blood, and Bearly Buried showing Mama Bear instead of a Trigger Teddy.
Gallery
