Future Racer 2000 Lore and Ending Explained

The Coronavirus pandemic transformed the lives of many people. Being trapped inside day-in-day-out for the fear of something that could not be seen was one that invited carpenters to the house to install multiple locks on the front door. But with no one being able to hire, you had to trust that the four walls you residing inside for months on end would keep you safe. The pandemic taught us that as humans, we need to go outside. As a gamer, this is an awful revelation and so I took a job as a Freelance Writer instead, just to spite COVID-19. Lockdown dramatically increased the overconsumption of hobbies. Be it video games, clothes or Pokémon packs, the abundance of cardboard packaging that needed to be recycled every week got ridiculous. With boredom came the bottomless pit where only the online world would could fill.

If only Census Business would give you a call and offer you something new and completely free to pass away the time in lockdown. Because if you are having fun then nothing else matters, right? Well in Future Racer 2000, the choice between a new video game, VHS film, Italian hoagie or a year supply of medicine was simple. With 2020 being the year of The Last of Us II, Ghost of Tsushima, Genshin Impact and Call of Duty’s Warzone; Future Racer 2000 is the exact game you need for when you are bored out of your mind in quarantine. This is Vincent’s interpretations of Future Racer 2000’s story and ending.

Related: Night Security Lore and Endings Explained – All Endings Guide.

Entire Story of Future Racer 2000

To put it simply, Future Racer 2000 is a strange game. It appears inspired by the COVID-19 lockdowns where a parasitic infestation is rampant in your local area, forcing you to stay inside and quarantine. All exits of your apartment building are locked and off-limits to the public. The signs of the exit states that there is an active Eremnomyces infection outside. Being bored out of your mind, clueless to how much time has passed as you remain trapped inside your apartment, you receive a call from the Census Business. What originally sounds like a survey instead asks you what you would like to receive for free during quarantine. But as we all know, nothing is ever free. The choice is quickly made for a new video game where you receive it in the post but how can people deliver if the area is under quarantine?

With the electricals continuously going out, pushing into the unsafety of the outside world, far from your safe four-walls, you venture into the great unknown and hope that nothing is contaminated. But bringing in your brand new, awesome video game of Future Racer 2000 is already put yourself at risk. The lobby has a well-stacked pile of packages, left to dust where your video game awaits you. Were these dropped off just today or has no one come down to collect their parcels? Your friend Henry confirms that everyone in his apartment building was sent a copy of Future Racer too. But what is the purpose of these free games?

Doing Anything to End Boredom

The Slugs & Money TV Show is a weird one. It is hard to grasp its meaning, or whether or not we are meant to simply view it as satire or a comment on our lazy, overconsuming behavior during lockdown by watching the worst Shows on the planet. The actual game of Future Racer is a simple racing game in which you need to press the corresponding arrows at the right time to overtake the other 7 drivers. Of course, this is not where the game actually shines and although it is filled with bugs that can make Future Racer 2000 unplayable at times (which strangely matches the setting for being a game about a virus), FR2000 is as bizarre as it is creepy. The actual packaging of the game is otherworldly, with an appearance similar to an easter island head and bearing a smell similar to the ocean.

The eyeballs of the game packaging appear more like cameras. Are they observing those who play the game? When the game arrives it has a note that states that you only have 24 hours to insert and play it. Upon playing it for a couple of hours you realise that much more time has passed. Henry has left you 3 messages where his boredom has resulted in the consumption of multiple apples (and he hates apples). The fourth message is from Bob who complains about the noise coming from your apartment. Unable to know what time of the day it is and just how long you were playing the game for, you hop back into Future Racer to beat the highest score. As you are playing, a humanoid silhouette appears in the background, causing glitches in the gameplay (what a shame).

What Happened to Henry?

Henry uses the intercom, trying to get inside your apartment building. For the sake of safety, you leave him outside and go back to sleep. Your dreams are getting more vivid now, linking your mind to the parasite. The dark dreams remind me of Under the Skin (2013). You awake to the sound of thudding only to find someone slamming their head against the door, trying to get in. With a wide grin on their face, the intruder looks human but does not behave like one. You check the answering machine to find a horrifying message from Henry who claims that his mother visited him, however she died when he was 8-years old. He signs off stating that he will not survive the encounter and that if he calls again, it will not be him on the machine. Both Henry’s message on the answer machine and the behavior of the infected is much like the Mandela Catalogue which I believe is another inspiration for this game.

The Parasite Wins

When you play the game for the final time, the real heroes of the electrical gods get involved once more and turn the power off. Although it means the horror truly begins inside the basement, you gain a unique ability to see through closing your eyes. This must be the parasite’s sight, with the final stage of the infection being blindness but still being able to see through blue pulses in the darkness. The man trying to get inside your apartment must have been Bob, but with no confirmation from Sam (protagonist), I cannot safely assume this. My guess is that it is Bob as his knocking on the door would be to complain about the noise from your apartment. It also does not make sense that Henry would be able to get into the apartment building.

The building is now infested with infected neighbors who crawl through vents and along the walls. Although this is more like Hereditary (2018) than a Spider Verse sequel, your new pulsing eyes ability gets you through the tunnels.

Future Racer 2000 Ending Explained

When you arrive back at the entrance of the apartments you are reminded of Henry who was waiting outside for you to let them in. Your final options are to let Henry in or leave him outside. Regardless of what you pick, Henry is left outside. You head back to your apartment where the inside has transformed into the inside of Future Racer’s packaging. At the end of the line, a strange figure stands and then folds into nothing, like skin that just stood in place, awaiting your arrival. The game ends as your vision is lifted out of the shallow waters of the abyss where you see the remains of your biological body floating away into the darkness. Your mind floats upwards into the white sky and the credits appear.

My personal interpretation of Future Racer 2000 is as follows:

• Future Racer 2000 was sent by the Census Business to spread the Eremnomyces parasite.
• Census Business were testing the rate in which the parasite spreads by using apartment buildings and their residents in their experiments. The ‘eyes’ of the Future Racer packaging are cameras.
• There was no infection outside. The infection was created inside.
• People were brainwashed to stay inside believing that the threat lies outside their houses.
• The smell of the ocean and the breeze from the Future Racer 2000’s packaging was the parasite.
• The stages of the parasite – loss of time, strange and vivid dreams of the parasite, hallucinations, blindness.
• Eremnomyces mimicked the human form and language but could not mimic appropriate behavior. Seen by Bob knocking on Sam’s door whilst being infected, the sick Henry trying to get into Sam’s apartment building and the parasite being able to crawl along walls and ceilings.
• Message of Future Racer – do not believe everything you are told, nothing is free and go touch grass.

That was Vincent’s interpretations of Future Racer 2000. What did you think of this game? If it was not for its bugs, it would be a real indie horror gem. With similarities to Alex Kister’s Mandela Catalogue, Under the Skin and our living proof of getting through the COVID-19 pandemic, Future Racer 2000 is a unique experience and one that has some great scares inside its short gametime.

Looking for more horror content? Feel free to see our GJ related articles under the horror tag here. Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoyed this article.