Story Summary
What happens in each chapter, told only from what the game says: the Director's radio calls, the documents you can read and the tape recorders you can play. Every chapter is folded, so open only the ones you have played.
Chapter 1: The Shoreline
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
Two explorers walk up from the beach, across the snow and through a cave to a great hall. They open its double door together.
The opening film follows. In a storm, the crew of a ship finds two frozen people lying on the ice in the sea, pulls them into a boat and carries them aboard. In the ship's cabin a calendar reads 5 May 1945 and the radio reads the news.
Heard in the game
The roses were blooming in Washington today as Prime Minister Roosevelt welcomed Tsar Alexis II for his first official visit…
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Checkpoints
Chapter 2: The R&D Headquarters
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
You wake up in a waking room. A voice on the radio checks your vital signs and introduces herself: Dr Kathleen Bowe, Director of the facility. She tells you that you have been frozen under the ice of Antarctica for nearly five years, and that the facility runs an experimental reactor on energy leaking through a tear in reality, which might implode.
The building is empty. Asked where everyone is, the Director only says: don't. She sends you through the rehabilitation suite and the common room to R&D, the domain of Dr Dahne, the former Head of Research, who left his security measures, his shrinking and enlarging machines and his guinea pig Clive behind.
In Dahne's prototype room you take the two tools he built, the Hook Gun and the Goop Gun. His papers say what they are made of: living, symbiotic organisms from beyond a rift that bond to whoever uses them. His journal describes the rifts Norček studies, all connected to the largest of them, Rift 0.
The monorail takes you to the Exotic Matter Laboratory. On the way, the Director explains that a rift opened a few decades ago and that this central rift, Rift Zero, then tore open many others.
Heard in the game
So much to tell, so little time. I am Dr Kathleen Bowe, Director of this facility. And you, I’m sorry to say, have been frozen... ...under the ice of Antarctica for nearly five years. I know, I know, it’s a lot to take in, but I want to assure you we have a wonderful benefits package... ...which will ease your transition to this new and exciting stage of-
You may be wondering: "Where is everyone?" And let me assure you: Don't.
A few decades ago, a ‘rift’ was opened... by... ...well, we’re not entirely sure. You’ll have seen the giant tear in the sky. That central rift - 'Rift Zero', then created numerous other tears in the fabric of reality. Each one has unique, powerful properties and only a small percentage drive men mad to look on them, which is quite the win.
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Checkpoints
Chapter 3: The Exotic Matter Laboratory
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
The laboratory's reactor is failing. While alarms count the rift's instability down from 99 percent, the Director sends you through the stabiliser, the laser array and the gravitonics department to the control room, cheerfully reminding you what will happen if it implodes.
She also tells you how the world has changed: a bug got into the world's oil fields and turned fuel to mulch, and global starvation and the collapse of the political order followed. Norček's own statements call the oil collapse an opportunity. Staff letters talk about blackouts, rationing and families back home.
Letters between the engineers Colin Chapman and Dr Emily Doyle run through the laboratory. Colin asks Emily whether the Theta Splice, built to stabilise Rift 0 and hold it open, could also be adjusted to close it. A recorded phone call has the Director brushing off a safety report and then shouting down the line as things go wrong.
In the control room the collectors come back online and you reboot the system by hand. Power surges through the facility and the screen fades to white.
Heard in the game
Little reminder that if the reactor implodes, we will all die in an interdimensional calamity. Just incase it had slipped down your to-do list.
There’s some things that have changed in the last five years that you won't know about. Long story short... A bug escaped into the world's oil fields, and it’s been turning fuel to mulch. Cue: global starvation and the collapse of the political order... ...but at Norček we believe that calamity is the mother of invention!
I can see the collectors are coming online. You really are exceeding my very low expectations! Simply manually reboot, and we won't all die! ...today.
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Documents
Checkpoints
Chapter 4: The R&D Headquarters
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
You wake up in the waking room again and take the common room's lift up to the crew quarters. A power surge knocked you out, the Director says.
Upstairs you restore power in the server room and reach the Director's office. A data tape there holds the Director questioning Dr Robert Murray about what happened to Lewis and Sen; Murray talks about the dark, a clicking sound like bone on bone, and the Theta Splice test. Notes in the clinic say Murray needs sedatives, and that Dr Dahne dreams of red mist and hears voices offering him a life beyond the rift.
The Director calls you to R&D and admits she got it wrong: you were frozen for forty years, not five, and everyone you knew is probably dead. Instead of compensation forms she offers a little time travel: stabilise a rift at the Temporal Research Centre and you could go back to your own time. She has upgraded your tools while you were out.
Heard in the game
So sorry I wasn't there when you woke! We had a power surge - you felt it, knocked you clean out, you poor things! And I had to do... uhm... a thing... Dreadfully manual, usually have people for this, but you know what they say - there's no 'i' in team! But there is an - aaaaahhh [chuckles] am I right? Oh I make myself laugh...
Oh. You know. Of course you do. This is dreadfully embarrassing - what can I say? There simply wasn’t any guidance on how to onboard employees who’d been frozen in the ice for forty years instead of five, I was flying by the seat of my pants! I can see you're upset, but I already have a plan. You walk, I’ll talk.
So, forty years in the ice - you must have questions. Let me answer the most pressing - everyone you know and love is probably dead, but I promise you - I promise - I will help you fill backpay requests for the time you spent frozen like the old-timey popsicles you are. No compensation claim unexamined, that is the Norček promise.
Now I don't want you to get over-excited, you wonderful icebergs you, but there are rifts at the temporal laboratory that cut through time itself. Stabilise one of those and you could pop back to your own time! Tadaa! And while helping yourselves, you could perhaps fix a few teensy little problems for me too. Just as part of your process, of course.
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Documents
Checkpoints
Chapter 5: The Temporal Research Centre
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
At the Temporal Research Centre the Director asks you to restore power to the main hall and reboot the Chroniton Inverter, and to lift the lockdown on Rift Seven on the way. Recordings of Dr Elena Rodriguez, head of temporal research, say why it is locked: the time crystal is not a toy, every experiment makes Rift 0 more unstable, and she sealed the lab against Kathleen.
When the time machine starts, one of you is thrown back in time. From then on you work in different eras of the same building: the present, the years it was being built, and Rockbury, the medieval castle that stood here before. Notes from the construction years tell of a worker who touched something shiny and was found centuries old, and of a crew told not to speak the names of the dead and "reminded" of their non-disclosure clause; a fax from Dr Bowe says the construction team was reassigned and their indiscretion is no longer a concern.
Rodriguez locked the vault keycard behind her own security, and the Director revoked her clearances. With the crystal back in place, the time machine sends one of you to Rockbury, where Alard, the alchemist of Castle Rock, talks to you from the tower he is imprisoned in. In Dr Murray's greenhouse you grow his plants and take his battery bulb.
The bulb in the time machine sets off a catastrophic temporal calamity; Rodriguez's recording says she told Kathleen so. You are caught in the clock tower, where Alard has been stuck for ten years in a loop of time. You gather the crystal shards across the loops until the tower explodes.
Heard in the game
Kathleen, I'm locking down the lab. The time crystal is not a toy. You think seeing the future gives you control? But you can't control time.
Of all the rifts we have observed, the temporal rift is most closely tied to the central Rift 0, the beating heart of the Berg. And with every experiment we run, Rift 0 becomes more unstable, and the probability of catastrophe - global catastrophe - grows.
[radio distorts] ...which is why I revoked her clearances, thus rendering the card inoperable. So much for smarts.
Oh - you are not from here! Forgive my manners! I am Alard, Alchemist of Castle Rock, or rather former alchemist, currently prisoner of this cursed tower.
Catastrophic temporal calamity detected. Ah, I hate to say ‘I told you so Kathleen’ but also I really don’t. Adios!
Oh it's you! Oh it's you. The twin idiots. Did you break time itself? Of course you did! WELL YOU'RE STUCK HERE NOW AREN'T YOU! Welcome to the calamity, only ten years later and the rest of your lives!
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Documents
Checkpoints
Chapter 6: The R&D Headquarters
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
You wake up a third time to a furious Director: you were meant to secure the laboratory, not blow it up. Then she tells you the truth. You did not survive forty years in the ice: you are clones, and as such the property of Norček Industries.
Whatever you did at the Temporal Research Centre has destabilised Rift Zero, and when it goes it will kill everyone within thousands of miles. Only one of you got an upgrade this time. On the monorail to Rift Zero Staging she makes her offer: go inside Rift Zero and stabilise it, and she will waive Norček's ownership of your biological matter. Previous expeditions went through before you; don't think about what happened to them.
Heard in the game
Can you hear me? I said can you hear me!? Good. This is notice that Norček will be pursuing you for damages to property, corporate espionage! We’ll see you in court! You were meant to secure the laboratory, not blow it up! Say goodbye to your end of year bonus, say goodbye - to a corner office, it’s the nook next to the toilets for you - and janitorial have been on strike since 1972! You idiots! This is what happens when you use clones!
What? You think you survived in the ice for forty years? Ha! What is it with people like you just walking into Antarctic death traps anyway? You’re clones - and as such you are officially property of Norček Industries. You’re not people, you’re project capital, and I’m gonna get the most out of you, even if you are a pair of idiots!
Okay, I need you to grab your gear and get to the transit station, because Rift Zero is destabilising, and when it does it will kill us all. I won’t be bringing you back again. This isn't a "whoops it must be Tuesday" kill - this is a everything in a five thousand mile radius kill... and you are the only ones - god this is awful - the only ones who can fix it. Let's go!
Got your upgraded gear? I say that, though I only gave the least incompetent one of you an upgrade. Tested it? Happy? Great - let's go.
So whatever you did in the temporal research center has messed up everything, including the central rift - so here’s what you're going to do. You’re going to go inside Rift Zero, and you’re going to stabilise it once and for all and save our lives. And in exchange; A) We won't be dead. And B) I will waive Norček's legal ownership of your biological matter and release you from your professional obligations. Obviously the paperwork will be immense - but I’m willing to give it a try. For you. For the world.
Rift Zero is connected to all the other rifts - if it closes we lose everything we've worked for here. Previous expeditions have travelled through to try and stabilise it. Don't think about what happened to them - what matters is that you are going to finish the project!
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Checkpoints
Chapter 7: The World Beyond the Rift
Show the story of this chapterSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
Beyond the rift lies a living world. A machine translator picks up a voice that grows clearer as you go: Rama, the creatures of this world. They thought the humans who came before were snacks, but they won't eat stranger-flesh again. The tear hurts their world, they say, and they will show you the cave where the others hid a machine to alter it.
On the road you find a dead human and one of the creatures that ended; they do not blame you, Rama says, but your world poisons theirs. At the crash site stands the Theta Splice, unfinished. Its keys are in the Farpoint Outpost, the expedition's base.
The outpost tells what happened to the expedition. Murray's logs record Emily's runes, near-death experiences, and a macrophage that grew in the entrance hall and swallowed the splice. Dr Bowe's memos say stabilising the rift will let enough energy through to restart the world, and that she cannot promise another supply ship. Emily's journal, left by the machine, begs whoever finds it to close the rift: the creatures are intelligent, and we have no right to sacrifice their world for our own.
Murray's last recording waits at the Theta Splice: stabilise the rift and save the Earth but kill this world, or close the rift forever, and this world will live while the Earth goes on suffering and starving. The two of you put the keys in, leave your guns on their racks and ride up to the machine to choose.
Heard in the game
We have questions! What do you eat? Do you comprehend love? Other of your kind have come through. We thought they were snacks. But now we see they perform infant play behaviours and exceed our expectations! [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR]
This is [ERROR]. They tasted of hydrocarbons, calcium, [ERROR]. We won’t do it again, never again [ERROR] [EMOTE]. No more eating of stranger-flesh!
Others of your kind made this machine to alter tear. It is incomplete. We will show you their hiding cave, and you can complete the device.
We do not blame you for [ERROR] death. Your world poisons us, tear unstable - but you are sentient, will make good!
I don't know how much longer this base will survive. A swelling, like a macrophage, has appeared in the entrance hall, absorbing the splice. It behaves like a white blood cell and we're the disease.
I don't know if anyone will hear this. I don't know if... If you've turned the machine on then you understand. Stabilise the rift, save the Earth... ...but kill this world. Or close the rift forever. Earth will continue to suffer, to starve, its people, our people... ...but this world will live! I don't know what I'd do if it was me. And I don't think I'll get the chance to find out.
Quotes are the game's own subtitles in your language.
Documents
Checkpoints
How it ends: the final choice and both endings are on the Endings page.
Dates the game shows
Dates the game showsSpoilers up to the end of this chapter
A calendar in the ship's cabin in the opening film reads 5 May 1945; the reactor shutdown fax is dated 08-20-1983; the Norček newsletter is Issue 12, August 1984. The Director first says you were frozen for nearly five years, later forty.