Ultrakill is the incredible retro arcade style shooter that will have you blasting limbs and unloading bullets as you see fit. In the cathartic carnage, players will explore a very classically modelled land and fight enemies that look ripped straight from an old console. An image has been leaked from the code of the game, with the word, ‘panopticon’. What on Earth is it?
What does ‘Panopticon’ mean?
Panopticon, funnily enough, is a philosophical term that is part of a thought experiment, developed by Jeremy Bentham, the same man that developed the modern understanding of Act Utilitarianism. The Panopticon refers to a prison. In this prison, every single prisoner can be observed by one guard at all times. Naturally, however, the guard cannot possibly observe every single prisoner at once. The thing is, the prisoners can’t see the guard and never know exactly when they are being observed, the idea being that the prisoners will have to self-regulate through the ambiguity of being watched.
It raises questions of human nature under surveillance and other such concepts. In other words, the Panopticon is a prison. If you have played Ultrakill, then the mention of ‘prison’ should spur some thoughts.
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What the Panopticon could be in Ultrakill
Below is the leaked image that is spurring so much discussion.
A very strange… thing with the label ‘Panopticon’. This image was found hidden in P-2, ‘Wait of the World’, a level in a future update that the developer has said will be a step-up in difficulty from P-1, ‘Soul Survivor’.
Due to being an asset in a future update, there is no concrete knowledge about the Panopticon, but there have been many suggestions. In P-1, one of the bosses is the Flesh Prison. The Flesh Prison is a powerful boss found in the inner sanctum of Soul Survivor. Interestingly, there are a couple similarities between Flesh Prison and Panopticon.
Firstly, both reference prison, explicitly through the names, which is a huge detail to latch onto. Secondly, they both have very similar complections. The fleshy texture of the skin and the barred teeth. There are some differences, such as the way the mouth is angled and the eye of the Panopticon, however the large themes and landmarks are very similar.
Considering the physical and labeling similarities of the Flesh Prison and the Panopticon, there is large belief that the Panopticon will be some sort of boss, like the Flesh Prison was. And considering the developer’s statement about an increase of difficulty and the angry expression of the Panopticon, we can tell it won’t be an easy fight.
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Published: Jan 9, 2023 02:29 pm