If you were told to investigate a haunting place, would you do it? With literally no knowledge about the place but you heard a horror story that patients went missing after checking into the hospital, would you be brave enough to enter its walls? But the ghost stories may not actually be of ghosts at all but of something completely different. Find out what happened to all of the missing people that checked into the hospital for help and ended up leaving in body bags instead. Why did the hospital shut down? What happened in 1985? Why was everything left as it was before and who on earth are those men running at you in boxers? So many question, not many answers. This is Vincent’s explanation of the story and endings in Abandoned Souls.
The Story of Abandoned Souls – A Vlogger’s Nightmare
The story begins following Tim, a vlogger following his viewer’s request to visit an abandoned hospital. With absolutely no idea what he was getting into and only knowing a brief history of the hospital in that people had seemingly vanished from the grounds in 1985, he set out to explore this haunted place. Before heading into the hospital itself, the atmosphere is already palpable, there is something in the woods observing you but whether or not it is a ghost is uncertain. Your first bit of action is actually taken out on your car, where a rusted, bloody axe lies as an indentation against your trunk. But what ghost can pick up an axe and try to stop you from leaving? On the contrary, a warning is left behind on your car telling you to leave but being a vlogger looking to get the best content possible, do you follow it? Of course not.
The game is filled with jumpscares of naked men who run at you from afar. Different to other enemies you will meet in the game, there is a wonder if these enemies are squatters of the hospital trying to make you leave or past victims to the horrible experiments that took place in 1985. But more on that in a moment. There are other instances of people staying inside the abandoned hospital where a mattress and belongings can be found further inside, indicating that there were squatters previously here but had they left or have they become another part of history?
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What Happened in 1985?
The first piece of history is left behind by Alex who claims that the hospital is being shut down after receiving massive donations from sponsors which should have more than enough money to keep the hospital open for years. For fear that those who needed help would be stranded for miles, it would turn out that those who needed help still came to the very hospital that supposedly shut down but what they received was far from treatment. Body bags kept leaving the hospital grounds but with no morgue in sight, what was being done with the bodies and how were patients dying?
Turns out the sponsors knew what was going on inside the walls – about all of the experiments that were taking place. But with the bodies rising and getting too much to handle, the sponsors pulled out. Years had passed at this point and the amount of bodies having to be pulled out of the hospital made the sponsors scared that the press would investigate the link between missing locals and the hospital. The bags ranged in sizes, holding men, women, and children, all with the goal in mind to create something brand new but what for?
You learn that the mastermind behind it all was Dr. Borkhoff who joined the hospital in the midst of all the experiments. His methods were described as torturous and whilst he added to the numbers of the dead, he also found a disturbing discovery. Technological advantages were made to place an implant inside patients as part of the experiment which ended up a “success”. Abnormal muscle mass grew, vocals altered forever to grunts that sounded like laughter and sight that could see easily in the dark. Their eyes emitted a white glow that could be seen from afar, the same eyes that followed Tim around the hospital grounds. The experiments resulted in memory loss but a clear ability to communicate telepathically with one another, demonstrating communication and intelligence as the notes left behind luring Tim may have been planted by the subjects themselves.
Why Did the Hospital Shut Down?
The aggression from the subjects however was too much to handle. Clearly being altered to serve as military weapons, their inability to tame however proved a long-term problem for the team behind the horrifying experiments. With the subjects developing animosity against their creators, the latest and last experiment resulted in the death of lab assistants and security guards. The hospital finally closed but the creature remained free to roam around the grounds. It is uncertain whether it was caught but through Tim’s experience inside the haunted walls – one creature was the least of his worries.
Dr Borkhoff explains that everyone should leave the premises to guarantee their safety and that the subjects would be put to sleep and transported. But as you find out, the subjects never left the hospital. It appears that everything was left the way it was – to collect dust and rot away. Whilst some creatures remained inside, that part of the hospital was locked down before Tim opened it’s doors. You find a camcorder of someone who visited the hospital just like Tim. Was this another vlogger tricked into coming here? Perhaps this is the person who tried staying overnight and instead left notes and axes lying around to scare other visitors away. But this vlogger did not escape the grasps of the creatures who had managed to grow in numbers that the notes never described.
Who Were the Enemies That Jumpscared You?
Throughout the story you are jumpscared quite a bit from enemies that appear as naked men. Whilst originally I wondered if these were squatters, my interpretation is that these are ghosts of past victims that did not become one of the subjects forever altered by the brain implants but left alive. Although having the ability to move inanimate objects such as the axe and leave notes behind, these could be poltergeists instead. These warn Tim to not enter the hospital and it would make sense that these are ghosts due to the horrible deaths they suffered from inside. The axe could not have been left by the creatures as they were trapped inside, trying to escape.
In the camcorder footage you see how the last victim of the hospital did not make it out as the front door remained locked. When Tim was escaping, he was able to make it out because the same door this time around was unlocked. Does this mean that turning on the power made it so that the creatures allowed him to escape? Unfortunately due to the similar model used for both the enemies that jumpscared you and the actual creatures it is hard to pinpoint whether the jumpscares were apparitions, figments of Tim’s imagination from being scared or the actual creatures warning him to leave as they saw the hospital as their home.
Is the Hospital Haunted or Stuck in the Past? – Endings Explained
Of course, if you did not want to experience any of this and had the brain cells to not be lured in by your curiosity, you can immediately leave by interacting with your car after seeing the blooding axe in the trunk. This is the appropriate ending to get and one that many should adopt this type of thinking when in a dangerous position. However, many will not have got this ending.
After watching the video, Tim learns the escape route and is chased out of there by the creatures. The story ends with Tim providing the police with evidence of the experiments and that the hospital is unsafe. The case to a lot of missing persons were solved, being part of the experiments conducted by Dr Borkhoff and his team. What’s worse is that a plush toy can be seen multiple times, almost following you around. The creature that watched you from the crawlspace in the ceiling resembled that of a child. Was this creature previously a little boy who enjoyed playing with the plushie and was trying to communicate with you? Or perhaps he was leading you to turn the power back on.
When the police searched the premises, evidence of missing persons were found but no bodies or creatures – including that of the creatures placed in those cryo pods. Were these woken up once Tim restored power to the facility? Who knows? Although it ends on a somewhat positive note that the families and friends of those who lost loved ones finally had the conclusion they deserved to hear, the truth about the creature’s whereabouts makes you wonder if Tim was lead there on purpose and the notes left behind were written by the creatures to restore power to the hospital, release the sleeping subjects and exit the hospital grounds for good. Described to be the apex predator, did Tim release these intelligence and powerful monsters into the world?
We hope you enjoyed this read, for more indie horror or other popular video game releases such as Armored Core 6, Starfield, or Baldur’s Gate 3, be sure to check out all of the latest GJ coverage found here. Thank you for reading this guide.
Published: Aug 29, 2023 02:16 pm