After waking up in a dingy alleyway and roaming through various street ways, Simon ends up at an apartment complex:

- Simon is drawn in by a series of texts on his phone asking for help on the 4th floor. Once inside, Simon can tell there is something wrong about this place


- It's made apparent that in order to reach the apartments on the 4th floor, Simon will need to find where a jammed elevator is. Along the way, Simon stumbles across a few disturbing notes:


Though it's never made explicitly clear who this person is, there is evidence of a serial killer that resides within the apartment complex. They mention killing multiple kids, along with some parents within 4 notes dotted across all 4 floors of the building. At a certain point while Simon is finding out how to reach the 4th floor, he finds this room:

When trying to leave, the door becomes locked but is silently unlocked by someone after some time. At which point tons of children appear and then disappear in the apartment. It becomes apparent that the garbage bags in certain rooms likely have the corpses of children in them, as the children enemies Simon finds wear garbage bags.

- The only suspect who has any real evidence for possibly being this serial killer happens to be the same person who sent texts to Simon's phone:

When reaching the 4th floor by elevator, Simon finds a bloodied body laying in a bathtub. Simon (having a very nonchalant reaction to this information) reaches into the tub to grab a key to the basement. While in the basement he finds what appears to be a torture room. Simon finds a VHS tape labeled "home videos", which when played shows a tape of a man cutting someone else's head off:
The man with the shears in this tape looks nearly the exact same as the one Simon found in a tub on the 4th floor. This is almost certainly the serial killer, and I can prove this further. In one of the notes left by the killer, they mention how they boarded off access to one of the elevator's with a code so the "kids had to use the stairs" and on the VHS tape, Simon finds a code written on a corpse which is the exact code to call the elevator in the stairwell.


In this apartment complex there are often roadblocks which could be solved by riding the elevators, although they are either jammed or gated off with a code. It's certainly subtle but all the references to the elevators are because as we find out later in the game, this complex is where Simon currently lives after the car accident. Therefore, Simon wouldn't be able to use the stairs anymore and would rely on these elevators to make it to the 3rd floor where he lives...



Later in the game Simon returns to the apartments looking for a fuse to go deeper in the subways. However on the return, the apartments are more dilapidated than before and have a much thicker air. Simon has to climb through the boarded up building with a ladder to enter now. When reaching the 3rd floor, the previously chained up door is now open leading to a blood coated version of his apartment. A hatch in the middle of the place brings Simon down into a long corridor where he hears a doctor describe his therapeutic sessions with Simon. Here we find out Simon is unwilling to open up to his doctor about his life prior to "The Black Day", when he was hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. The doctor concludes Simon has suffered mental issues since before that day but they have been greatly magnified since, the doctor has been prescribing something to Simon, but Simon insists the doctor on upping his prescription.

What follows is a nightmare sequence which seems to imply Simon is very unwilling to cooperate with his doctor, as he runs far though darkness to exit the nightmare. After this Simon gets a fuse and can leave through the destroyed elevator shaft.


On the 2nd floor, Simon finds a corpse in the ceiling holding onto a gun, which he promptly takes. Simon states the corpse reeks, but leaves it at that. It didn't occur to me until many replays that the corpse would have fallen from the 3rd floor where the real Simon lives. Although this certainly is not underneath his apartment and likely has no connection to him I think its still worth pointing out.

- In Chapter 4, Simon grabs a fuse from his college to open up a gate into the subway system of Stockholm. This chapter is handily the longest in the game and spends a lot of time here.

- Simon figures out that if he gets to Hansson Square he could take a southbound train heading to Norcastle to reach his home town of Kirkville.

(A lot of these places have silly names)

The graffiti on the wall here, though smudged, says "Bone Thugs-N-Harmony" which is pretty wicked.


- After fiddling with machinery Simon opens a way down through the Maintenance Tunnels of the Subway as his phone dies, leaving him to navigate with flares.

Simon here is certainly at a point where he's searching for anything to help him, this may be around the time when he started asking his doctor for more medication to take the pain away... Simon happens to find a dead cat down here, as the saying goes, curiosity killed the insane man.

- From here Simon is now at Hansson Square, however his train is at a lower line and he's halted by a gate needing 2 electrical fuses.

- After treading back through many more street ways, Simon obtains the fuses to go into a seemingly run down or inactive station:


- Simon finds his train at the other end but once again needs fuses to open the gate out of the station



Finding a sledgehammer on the train, Simon uses it to tear down a wall through the station.
This wall must have been all that was holding Simon's brain together because behind it lays an unimaginable amount of horror. If you try to escape back through the yellow doors you'll be greeted to the real Simon hysterically writing away.

That extra medication may be fueling Simon's thoughts even more than before, as the world warps and the subway turns into winding paths. The cages with people cutting themselves are a solid sign of what Simon feels, but the bloody paths may tell the story of how unclear the way to help is for Mr. Henriksson. Through a door leads into a clean hallway, and many padded cells all with one page at the center of the floor:

This is the only page we ever get to see of Simon's book. A page with nearly incomprehensible rambling about how Simon views his life, coated in delirium and suspicion of everything and everyone in it. He views the car accident as being the turning point of his life, and anything before was just a premonition to that moment. The page ends with a latin saying:It translates directly to "According to the capabilities of the reader, books have their destiny", but a more rounded meaning of this saying is "Life is what you make of it". This relates to Simon's book, but with a negative connotation. Based on what's elaborated on in the page, his mindset points to a place of self loathing and harm. However, this line can also represent the various possibilities of what could happen to Simon, as seen through the 4 main endings which are based on the decisions you make throughout the game. The "implement of his destruction" mentioned likely IS his book, which has opened up Simon in a way which has made him realize how grim his scenarios are looking, it's only with the trust of doctors and an amicable friendship that Simon is able to overcome the urge to end it all.

- After figuring out the order of "events", Simon is brought through a bloody maze, only for the maze to lead out to the upper station at Hansson Square. Realizing how close he is to home, Simon grabs the fuses to take the train immediately, Now everything that was behind those yellow doors has turned into a single ladder.

Following the departure of Simon's train, he contemplates what has been going on. This cutscene is very revealing:

- Simon recounts how since the car incident, he has been attacked by "these things". Obviously referring to the various enemies in the game, but as we understand Simon's consciene more, it's implied that all of those "things" are projections of the mental anguish of various things/people/ideas which lately have been more apparent than usual in the mind of Simon.

- We see Simon directly reference the texts from his mom asking to return home, it's been hinted at multiple times by now that Simon is living in the apartment block visited multiple times in the game, since his mom is asking for him to come back we know it's likely his mother's house/the home he grew up in, signifying that whatever may be causing Simon all of this distress could only be resolved at a nostalgic place where he could reflect more clearly on his situation.

- There are questions drawn out about the validity of the doctor and his motives but more importantly Simon becomes very self aware when he starts questioning if anything happening to him is real.

During the middle of the ride, Simon is drawn to retrieve a rotten foot and put it in the case. Since the accident Simon certainly misses being able to walk...

Doing this task suddenly causes the train to buckle, and as it exits a tunnel the rail line is torn off, causing it to derail and slide off the side of a cliff. Fortunately the train car hangs on and Simon is able to climb through the wreckage, but in the resulting tumble, loses everything he once had. It's possible that Simon's monologue questioning the reality of his circumstances reflects what has been happening to him in the real world, as this incident may be a moment where Simon feels he lost all idea of what could help him going forward.

- A good chunk of chapter 2 takes Simon through various construction and sewer ways within the city, here are a handful of things within this sector:

After breaking through a grate, Simon finds a bloodied police car with the radio on, the radio spouts police code names but nothing else, moments earlier in the game you were required to use your phone to call a number, which may prompt the player to call 911, only for the call to be unintelligible. So to see a mangled cop car soon after gives context for the eerie call.

In the exact same place, Simon can find a fleshy thing on what looks to be an operating table wedged in the sewers. A friend of mine said to me that it resembles a womb. Which could draw to a rather unpleasant thought that this scene may be a depiction of how Simon wishes he was never born, something which may pervade the mind of someone like him who has dealt with too many sources of stress he cannot handle.

Within the construction tunnels of the city, Simon finds some Kurt Cobain mf with his shotgun in tow. This being another remark at something Simon has thought over, although we know little about his interests it wouldn't be far fetched for him to idolize a rock star who succumbed to many personal demons. Also within this room Simon can light up a cig, it doesn't change anything but I'm sure the man needed it after all the craziness in that apartment block.

Finally, after a boss fight with Mace, a nightmare sequence occurs where Simon is taken down a bloody path with discouraging words written on the walls. These scribbled thoughts are definitely those of Simon, who is still resentful of his new state as a paraplegic. The path suddenly changes into white corridors where hands come out the ground, hurting Simon. Through the pain he manages to escape, with a flashback showing the scene of the car accident. This sequence must be in direct reference to the post-accident recovery Simon went through, as many people may have handled him into an ambulance followed by the ER, causing immense pain to his shattered lower half. I'll elaborate on how I think the fight with Mace plays into this idea later.


Chapter 4 finds Simon on an electrical hunt for its entirety, starting with robbing his college of a single fuse. We're at an impasse when it comes to what Simon was attending college for or most context surrounding his schooling at all due to what the doctor says in a later moment about how Simon refuses to open up about any of this or his home life. Yet when we walk through Harbor College it has an inviting appearance despite the lack of any people inside. It's possible that Simon was very hopeful and optimistic when it came to going to college, however that image becomes broken when Simon takes a fuse and the place becomes infested with horrid abominations. College seems to have over time taken a toll on Simon mentally, whether it be from other students, work loads or external factors.


As discussed the forest section may correlate to a period in Simon's life after the car accident where forms of escapism or treatment stopped seeming tangible, and Simon may have felt lost and without any guide. In this section of the game Simon unceremoniously stumbles through tons of mortifying moments only to regain structure when encountering the doctor open the gate of a mental hospital. Although he's had a rough relation with his doctor, it's undeniable that Doctor Purnell has been one of Simon's best guides throughout not just the dreamscape that you play through but also what the real Simon has been navigating.


Once daylight hits the forest, Simon is finally close to his home town of Kirkville. The gameplay here is a huge swan song to every previous triumph of Simon as you get a slew of guns back and all types of enemies are here. Finally being back in town has opened Simon's mind up to think about what it truly is that has got him to this state. Nobody seems normal, everyone is out to get him, and he is getting weird visions of the past. When Simon reaches his mom's house he's really worried about her, considering her texts throughout the game we know that something here is urgent whether it be for Simon or his mom. Note too how Simon's father is never brought up once, making it possible that he's been an absent figure in Simon's life.

For the majority of the game, Simon carries a Sony Ericcson phone where he occasionally receives texts and uses its flashlight as a light source.

In the waking moments of Cry of Fear, Simon mentions he has no phone credits, being unable to contact anyone besides emergency numbers (as someone living in the US with a phone contract I had to search this up) and since Simon states this is the usual it implicates either Simon is poor and can't afford credits, or what is more likely is that Simon doesn't have anyone he'd want to communicate to.


Also at the start of the game, Simon gets texted by his mom, worrying about him coming home. Although many details about Simon's family are blurry or unimportant to him, it's clear that he has a good relationship with his mom, or at the very least they both care about each other.


Early on Simon is screwed with by a text message leading him to a door that seemingly opens as Simon reads the message, this same door would lead Simon to his first enemy encounter which is the first drop in the bucket of strangers harming him. (it's worth noting although the phone number here is fake, searching it up in google led to a single result which happens to be this page https://vk.com/id303560164 it appears to be in Swedish and unrelated to anything about this game but it weirded me out)

After killing something in self defense, Simon is shook and tries to call the police, showing his morality.

Before arriving at the apartments, a different number texts Simon for help later telling him he is on the 4th floor (which appears to be the top) except he's found dead in a bathtub by the time the player reaches him.


Simon finds an article about depression and is given a number to call. Calling surprisingly results in someone on the other end telling Simon to "follow the path of inequity" and reveals the code to a locked door. Throughout the call Simon begs the caller for help. It's likely that this is a number for a suicide hotline, which would explain why Simon is so desperate with the caller, yet to Simon the advice given is very cryptic as he struggles to find meaning or purpose with himself. It would also explain how Simon was able to call this number in the first place as it could be assumed that this is an "emergency" number so he could call it even without phone credits. (P.S trying to call 911 results in weird noises)


Simon receives his final text message, another from his mom, who is very anxious about what he's up to, it's obvious his mother knows at least something about Simon's mental struggles and is understandably on high alert for her son.


The phone battery suddenly gets low while navigating the subways and dies as Simon clears a path into the subway tunnels, causing him to rely on flares to navigate the dark.

The tunnels, along with the forest later on in the game both require Simon to use obtuse light sources to navigate, which arguably represents that these are places Simon is not familiar with and is mentally and physically poking in the dark through these areas.


Although Simon loses his phone in the train crash, he has to make one final call on a landline in the mental hospital to reach the Doctor in the attic.

After calling, Simon sees HIMSELF across the building holding up the code to the attic. It may be a stretch but this may foreshadow the 4th / Good Ending of the game, as this is quite literally "real" Simon helping himself, and because in said ending we find out he ends up in a mental hospital due to a psychotic episode.

Various enemies in Cry of Fear take clear inspiration from Simon's insecurities and are literal manifestations of his fears and state of mind:

I won't go over ever enemy type, however I think all of them play into Simon's subconscious thoughts

These are one of the most common enemies you'll see in the game, besides their disfigured faces and twitchy movement, they resemble mostly normal people. It's likely that these enemies represent any typical person Simon may come across. Simon may have an overly irrational fear of strangers and believe they are out to harm him. This could be a result of PTSD from the car crash, or a belief Simon always had but was greatly strengthened by the accident. Note that slowers wield hammers instead of sharp objects, implying they are simply handymen/street workers.


In the apartments Simon starts encountering children with knives wearing trash bags. As eluded to in the notes found in the apartments, the children appear to be reanimated corpses of the children a serial killer stuffed into bags. These enemies represent kids which Simon has encountered in his apartment complex which annoy him or keep him awake at night.


First found in the apartments, these enemies have the shape of a fetus and will charge at Simon with a spike imbedded in their heads. Babies likely cause a similar distress living in the apartments as the children do for Simon. However it may be deeper than that, as the babies get themselves killed just to hurt Simon. This may either relate to how Simon views babies as being burdensome, or how he wishes to kill himself and hurt others in the process (as happens in multiple endings)


Simon is ambushed by this enemy for the first time in the apartments. Their bladed limbs are very loud, and they make just as many loud screams, (bullets even ping off of their blades when shot at) In their death animation they slit their throat and scream. Like the other enemies found in the apartments, it's likely Simon interprets these as distraught and overly stressed mothers that disturb him while he lives there. Once again these are enemies which in some way hurt themselves out of spite.

These enemies silently float and have straps on them as if they were weighed to the bottom of a pool of water (hence "drowned"). They have babies pop out of them when you get close, once again a sign of Simon despising children/babies. Finally, if Simon is holding a gun these enemies will give him the urge to attempt to shoot himself in the head. As made apparent by other moments in the game, Simon is a loner and tends to have difficult relations with other people, it wouldn't be too far off to imagine Simon feeling uncomfortable having to interact with or deal with people, and in this case its taken to the extreme as Simon fights the urge to shoot himself at the suggestion from these enemies.

Typically found in the sewers, these french people attack Simon like a frog while they have their arms bound by wire. After you hit them enough they may break free allowing them to punch Simon. These people may represent blue collar workers as they appear mainly in maintenance areas of the city and throughout work sites. Besides that, their depiction as being restrained by wire could be associated with Simon's immobility after the car crash, along with the feeling of being imprisoned by himself due to his spiraling sanity.


Only 2 of these appear in the game, but they are certainly one of the most hideous enemies. They both act as road blocks preventing Simon from getting to a certain destination. With their contorted faces and various appendages, I feel these deal with the dysmorphia Simon feels about his body after the incident, being unable to accept his state as a cripple in a "vegetative" state. The second appearance of this enemy is plowed by a train Simon starts up in the subways. Seeing as this one guards the depths of the subway tunnels its likely it acted as a way for Simon to mentally block off help that would lead to the doctor.


One of the most recognizable enemies in the game, it appears multiple times throughout the game. First, it breaks free from a chained door behind Simon, making him flee through alleyways. On its second appearance, it causes Simon to fall through the floor in the nightmare sequence on the return to the apartments. The third encounter is deep within the forest as Simon has to attach a knob to a door to escape. Finally, it appears in a long corridor within the flooded sewers on the way to Kirkville. This enemy more than any other is a very direct interpretation of a panic attack/anxiety. It's fast, wears multiple masks (disguising itself in various ways) yet can only kill Simon if he stops moving, gets cornered, or runs out of stamina. This is the best example of gameplay-to-narrative storytelling I can think of in this game, as it literally represents how Simon can only die to anxiety if he lets it consume him.

At this point there are certain clear tropes in enemy depictions, and the flygares embody many previous characteristics. Like the Sewmos, they are physically restricted, this time being strapped to a bed like an out of control psychiatric patient, reflecting how Simon may view himself. That being said they can fly around quite easily despite this. As well, they wield scissors and have cuts across their bodies, which as seen with Simon when he injects himself with morphine, is also no stranger to forms of self harm.


Easily one of the most dangerous enemies in the game and the only to brandish a gun (besides Simon). They run fast, shoot as often as they can, and have a general disregard for their own safety. As they have low health they quite literally will suicide-rush Simon if given the chance. However, if they shoot enough rounds they will eventually blow their heads off themselves. Obviously this is another poke at Simon's worsening regard for his own safety, as evidenced by his self harm and destructive desires. In a literal sense, it's likely that these enemies represent criminals as they are mainly spotted on certain city streets and through the subway systems.


After retrieving a fuse to enter the subways from Simon's college, the building bursts with tons of these enemies which flail around and scream a lot. This moment happens right on the heels of the cutscene involving Sophie, in that moment Sophie reveals how she was often picked on at school, and Simon says how he was never a strong person. So for the college to be flooded with featureless bodies of flesh which harass Simon would paint the picture that Simon (as well as Sophie) often felt weak and targeted by various people at their school. These enemies appear a lot even outside the college however, especially on the return trip to the apartments. This may represent a gradual turn for the worse in Simon's psyche over time as he starts viewing more and more people he sees or meets as faceless things which just want to scream at and attack him.

These monsters only found in the deep subway tunnels share similar features with many other enemies, however their name and where they are found make them unique. Citalopram is an anti-depressant which works by increasing the brain's production of serotonin. It's likely that Simon's doctor gave him a prescription of this drug to try to help him, later in the game the doctor even mentions Simon wanting his prescription increased. However as these monsters harm him at arguably his most vulnerable, Simon, whether he wants to consciously admit it or not knows the anti-depressants have only hurt him because they hide the true issues that Simon has faced up to this point.


First seen in the nightmare sequence in chapter 2, but only reappearing again after the return to the apartments, the stranger is one of the most thematically complicated enemies. The Stranger is a literal representation of Simon's book which he has been writing, detailing his life and troubles to a great extent, and ultimately manifesting itself into the scenarios and moments that Simon goes through in the game. Seeing as the stranger is dressed well and looks out of place in comparison to the other enemies, its likely that they represent health care workers which have attempted to help him. But seeing as Simon's vision is blurred and he takes damage the closer the strangers are to him, he has begun to realize that the book which was advised to him for therapeutic benefit has slowly become his own internal downfall, which pains him. The way these enemies die so unnaturally also indicates that these visions are infiltrating Simon's dream-like state throughout the events of Cry of Fear.


In a small section in chapter 4, a handful of these enemies are dotted across parts of the city. The tallers are gargantuan but slow, and if they get close enough to hit Simon, he'll get tossed on the ground where it can then stomp on Simon. These enemies could be an interpretation of Simon feeling weak, once again as he expressed to Sophie, as these enemies overpower him tremendously. It could also be how Simon views healthy people after being paralyzed, as they can push him around and have the physical upper hand that Simon used to.


These only appear in the nightmare sequence at the end of chapter 4, they resemble an upside down body tied up in possibly a strait jacket. Their heads writhe around violently but appear to be smiling. After getting assistance from doctors and health care workers its possible that Simon feels he's only going to end up institutionalized and that he'll eventually be restrained like these enemies are. It's important to note too that the bodies are attached to hooks like animal carcasses ready to be chopped up, implying that not only does Simon feel unable to break free, but also that he will be "gutted" by doctors.


Found in the train sequence of chapter 5, these things look to be blindfolded. Seeing as this is the only section they are found, and its accompanied by Simon having to "retrieve" a foot, their blindness may be how Simon feels at this juncture of his life. On the train ride Simon confesses to how lost he is trying to understand what's happening, saying maybe it will make more sense at home, only to be interrupted and thrown off course by the train being derailed.


This one needs little explanation, they are enemies that literally attack Simon by hanging themselves and screaming. Seen in a specific forest level, Simon likely wishes to end it all as the game is heading towards a close.


I just wanted to put this here because this is genuinely one of the most horrifying screamers I've seen in any game. A single enemy found within a spooky bunker in the forest. Easily one of the most contorted people Simon spots in the game. The enemy attacking with its legs is about as blunt of a jab at Simon's inner thoughts as possible.


The last new enemy variant of the game, these guys are found only within the Mental Hospital. They move and attack very quickly, and have strange bird-like masks. This could be how Simon views the people who reside within mental institutions, and relays a strong fear he may have of ending up in a similar place.

Every boss fight throughout Cry of Fear often relates to a literal or mental victory for Simon in the real world:


This boss fight happens after the nightmare sequence in chapter 1, the boss wields a chainsaw and can cut Simon in half if caught. It chases Simon quickly but takes them awhile to swing at him. When simon kills it by hitting the eye on its back, the Sawer cuts its own head off with its chainsaw, causing Simon to throw up a bit and collapse to the floor. This fight is much more ambiguous than most other bosses, however I would have to assume this fight deals with Simon regaining knowledge about his life/current situation. Seeing as he collapses after killing the Sawer it's clear that it had a hold on Simon, and may have physically hurt to kill him. However, when he does we see a flashback of an apartment room (which we learn to be Simon's own apartment), followed by a cutscene with the first appearance of the doctor, a character which we learn Simon is very familiar with. If Simon didn't defeat this boss he would have been blind to what has happened to him.


After the doctor evades Simon in chapter 2, this boss appears in the corner of the room, eating the key he needs to make it out of the Sewers. A very slow enemy which takes a long time to wind up a swing, which crushes Simon. After shocking it to death Simon retrieves a Saw to get the key out of the beast to enter a second nightmare sequence. In the flashback following the nightmare sequence we see the site of the car accident which hit Simon. It's possible that Mace is a manifestation of the pain he felt from the initial car crash. In this case, it would mean that killing this boss would have been the point where real world Simon no longer succumbed to the physical pain of the accident anymore, which adds up as later in the game, Simon's doctor never explicitly references giving him medication to treat physical pain.


At the end of the interaction Simon has with Sophie, she abruptly jumps off the building they're on. Only moments later does Carcass show up, Simon blames the choking monster immediately for Sophie's death, calling it a "sick ♥♥♥♥". This battle is one of the most important, because as Simon identifies, this thing IS responsible for his interaction with Sophie. Carcass represents Simon's overwhelming guilt over Sophie, from him feeling rejected by her, to Simon's acknowledgement of how wrongly he may have treated her. Carcass is huge, very tanky and can easily kill Simon with his attacks. He is bound to a chair and has no limbs, which certainly is an embodiment of how Simon thinks of himself being bound to a wheelchair to move around. You can leave this fight if chosen by going back through the window to the rooftop. Choosing whether or not to affects real life Simon. If you were to kill Carcass it means that Simon overcame the guilt he felt over Sophie and can accept her as a good friend who supported him. However, if you don't it means real life Simon never was able to come to terms with being rejected and selfishly villainises her for not wanting what Simon did.


Very late in the game, Simon finally has a face to face confrontation with the doctor in the mental hospital. After the doctor shoots Simon while grabbing a key, he soon finds the doctor in the attic, causing a shoot out. Unlike Carcass, Simon must kill the doctor. He plays peekaboo with Simon and runs from cover to cover shooting at him. When Doctor Purnell eventually falls down, Simon walks over and curb stomps his face in. The doctor drops his gun and key leading out of the mental hospital. Simon killing the doctor wouldn't literally translate to real life here as there are 2 endings where Simon doesn't kill Doctor Purnell. Instead what this moment may represent is an argument the two may have had over Simon's treatment. However that argument turned out, Simon feels that he had won it, because in the next moments of the game it finally turns day time, meaning he may finally feel clarity about what he should do with himself.


In endings 1-3 of Cry of Fear, if you were to make at least 1 "bad" decision for Simon, the game ends with him shooting himself in the face and the game cutting to a demented sequence where Simon navigates what appears to be the remaining pieces of his conscious. In these endings, you play as "Book" Simon who hunts after the "Real" Simon through the bloody morphing geometry and disgusting thoughts that permeate his mind. Eventually the player finds the real Simon, who locks himself away. In this fight, Book Simon must then kill disfigured "faceless" enemies to retrieve valves to open up the gate to hurt him. This sequence ends with Book Simon going up to his real self and violently beats him senseless until they are both on the floor, and Simon is choked out. This causes both to die simultaneously as the dream ends and we see Simon dead in his apartment. This sequence represents Simon being unable to conquer his inner demons and succumbing to choosing to commit suicide. Since we don't play as "Real" Simon in this moment, it shows how he has lost control of his true self and has become subject to his own book he wrote to try and get rid of the pain.


If you were to make both the right decisions for Simon's psyche throughout the game, instead of shooting himself, he has a vision where "Book" Simon breaks into his apartment, and real Simon chases after him with a gun. Book Simon shoots at his real self with various guns as you wheel yourself down the path to kill him. In this ending, killing the demonic version of Simon leads to finding the real Simon alive in his apartment, however this is at the cost of 2 police officers who perished in what was likely Simon having a hallucinatory episode where he shot both. Unlike other endings, this one shows how Simon was able to separate himself from the agony that has been plaguing him and metaphorically destroy the source of his pain by killing Book Simon.

Seen in a single moment of Cry of Fear, Sophie is a very important person to Simon. She is a very mysterious character as many details regarding how Simon got to know her are foggy or never fully revealed. However we can try to piece together their relationship through their one cutscene together:

When Simon reaches Waspet Gardens, he suddenly is called by Sophie, although he doesn't realize it at the moment. She tells him to meet her up on the rooftop of a nearby building. Simon finds a buried key in the garden to enter an apartment building to reach the roof and find her. I want to point out the relevance of the building itself, it's told through Simon and Sophie's interaction that they know each other through school, its unclear how long this has been the case but seeing as Simon enters his college soon after this moment, we can infer that they have known each other since at least the start of college. Therefore, the apartment which Simon goes through to reach the roof may very well be Sophie's own.


In the wake of the previous chapters, Simon is eager to tell Sophie what has been happening to him, and all the insanity which he's seen across the city. But Sophie is dazed and lost at what he's even talking about and would rather him sit with her to talk about life. Here, she comes across naive to what Simon has been through, which may not be far off from how their actual interactions would go. Simon may have tried to open up about his inner thoughts to her before but she would never quite understand, at least not in the way that he himself could.


Their conversation is contemplative and although Simon is still reeling over the confusion of his situation, Sophie quiets him down by mentioning topics such as school and life as a whole, things which real Simon has seemingly walled off from his mind at this point. Sophie is even supportive of him as she appreciates how Simon is one of the few people who isn't mean or mocking of her at their school. Afterwards, Simon fumbles the bag by making it awkward and uncovering how he really loves her and wishes they could be together if they got to know each other more. Sophie is still polite but says she never thought of Simon in a similar way and always viewed him as a good friend. Simon does his best to act okay with this but is clearly shook by this revelation. Moments later Sophie suddenly gets flustered and says she wishes to "get away from all of this" to then inexplicably jump off the building... Simon being rejected by Sophie hurt him way more than he'd like to admit and this portrayal of her killing herself summarizes how he felt from that.


After the Carcass fight ensues and Simon goes to where Sophie jumped to the concrete below, we see a flashback which shows a creepy moment where Simon is falling over Sophie saying he loves her. There isn't much clarity about what transpired to make this happen, but seeing as the flashback looks to take place in the same sort of place as where Sophie now lies dead, my conclusion here is that Simon and Sophie were walking together, possibly after school, and when they were close to Sophie's home, Simon in an emotional burst finally lets out how he feels about her, freaking Sophie out as she presumably walks back home.

- If Simon never killed Carcass, in the corresponding ending(s), Simon confesses to killing Sophie either in spite of how he perceives to be treated by her, or in an incredibly selfish act where he refuses the idea of anyone else being Sophie's "friend" but him.

- If Simon did kill Carcass, the associated ending(s) paint a much more empathetic Simon who knows Sophie was as supportive as she could be.

- Doctor Purnell, aka "The Doctor" is hands down the most crucial character to Simon's life throughout all of Cry of Fear.


Waking up from a nightmare in chapter 1, Simon gets up to find a strange man with a gas mask on, the man claims to be "nobody" and is skeptical of Simon, claiming he doesn't know if he's even real. The doctor also skews Simon's thoughts by mentioning that he wears a gas mask because he "doesn't want to turn into one of them". This makes Simon question multiple times in the future if there is an infection going around and turning people into the deformed beings he fights. Later we learn this to be false, meaning either the real Simon misconstrued advice from his doctor, or Doctor Purnell may have initially alienated him early in their sessions together...

- The Doctor walks through the door and locks it, which will become a recurring theme.

By the end of the chapter, Simon walks in on the doctor sawing off a crucified man's head in retaliation for not giving up information about a key. Simon is confused and disgusted by this, however the doctor leaves through another door before any answers could be gotten. This solidifies the shaky relationship the two will have throughout the course of the game. Simon may have had a bad perception about doctors previously, or had known of people (like the crucified man) who were intentionally or not harmed by the assistance of a psychiatrist. Either way The Doctor will continue to question Simon's motives and vice versa.


After a lengthy hiatus, Simon finds the doctor once again when arriving at Hansson Square station. He hears a gunshot and creeps up to the platform to see the doctor having shot a man and calling them a "stupid psycho". Once again the doctor is giving mixed signals, he may not be directly harming Simon but he is killing other people, so who knows how long until Simon is next.

When Simon attempts to follow the doctor he has once again locked himself behind a door, except this time it seems as if the doctor has also left ammo, health and a new phone battery for Simon. Although the doctor is shifty and abstract, he has certainly been helping Simon.


In the nightmare sequence within the reprise of the apartment complex, we hear a lengthy testimony from Doctor Purnell about how he views Simon. The Doctor wants to help Simon with his mental issues but unfortunately he has been stonewalling a lot which has been a huge impotence to Simon's recovery. The Doctor has given him more pills because Simon claims they help, but as seen through the nightmare sequences in the subway, it seems they have only made traumas more vivid.

On that note, at the end of said sequence in the subway, we are taken to another flashback, this time Doctor Purnell appears to be talking to somebody (either one of Simon's parents, or a police officer). The Doctor describes Simon's condition as being paralyzed from the waist down, but still retaining upper body movement. He also comments on how even prior to the accident Simon likely suffered from mental issues. Here we see Doctor Purnell genuinely concerned over Simon's future, because if this person he's talking to is a police officer, it may infer that the doctor was worried that Simon may eventually try to hurt himself or take drastic actions.


Deep in the forest Simon wanders across the doctor once again entering an abandoned mental hospital, where the doctor finally stops fleeing and the two have a set of interactions:

- While rummaging through the hospital, Simon finds a note which states what he's been thinking this whole time, which is that the doctor (that we now learn to be Doctor Purnell) is very fishy. - When reaching the 2nd floor of the hospital, Simon greets the doctor who is standing behind metal bars and a locked gate. Simon calls Doctor Purnell a lunatic as the doctor in the most incongruous way possible tells Simon to "come closer" so he can "help" him. Finally he explains in more simple terms that he wants Simon to retrieve a gun for him, at which point he'll give Simon the key to open the gate. Though he's still very unsure of the doctor, and points out how the doctor already HAS a gun, Simon goes to get the gun anyways.

- This is a key decision for the real Simon, as in this moment if we don't hand the gun over to Doctor Purnell, it would mean that Simon would continue to stonewall the doctor and refuse to give any leeway to allow him to open up new possibilities for treatment. In this instance the doctor is disappointed with Simon, claiming he hasn't changed one bit, but still ultimately giving the key. However, if you were to give Doctor Purnell the gun, it would mean the real Simon had emotionally given trust to the doctor to further his treatment. Yet in both instances this happens:


The Doctor pops a cap into Simon's shoulder enraging him as he once again runs off through a door. Depending on whether you trusted the doctor with the gun determines what gun he would have shot Simon with. Doctor Purnell takes a far larger chunk off Simon's permanent health with the Ruger that Simon gave rather than the revolver the doctor had in his pocket. This shows how by Simon trusting the doctor he is making himself more vulnerable to any potential pain caused by future treatment methods, but we do know that at the end of the day it ends up being the right move for Simon to trust Doctor Purnell.


- In the following exchange Simon pursues Doctor Purnell, shooting him and then squishing his face. But not before another flashback, this time to something groundbreaking, the introduction of the book. Here Doctor Purnell insists that the previous use of anti-depressants will not ultimately resolve Simon's pains, and he suggests a form of cognitive therapy, in this case it would be Simon venting out and articulating his thoughts into a book. Simon is fairly unsure but as we know by now, this book would be critical in Simon's story. The entire section in the mental hospital is an allegory for this one moment in Simon's life. The new form of treatment, which was settled by a "gun trade", was the introduction to cognitive therapy.

At the climax of Cry of Fear, when you make your way to the home of Simon's Mom, there is a shocking discovery:

All this time the thing that Simon was being led to throughout the game was.... his book. Simon's mom in Cry of Fear may represent the good judgement Simon wishes he had, as when he finally holds up his book and takes a look, it all makes sense, and the dream world that the game has been taking place in starts to crumble. We're now faced with the reality of it all, and depending on Simon's choices do we know who the Real Simon truly is:

3 of the 4 possible outcomes for Simon end with him taking his own life:

- In the 1st Ending, Simon is livid and in his final confession belts out immense hatred towards the doctor and Sophie both, claiming they did irreparable damage and were out to get him from the start. Just like the page we see from his book, Simon is maniacal and suspicious of everything. Instead of trying anything else he sticks to downing pills, something his doctor had worried about before. Here, the prophecies that were written out by "book" Simon become true as he both kills Doctor Purnell and Sophie. Everything is as negative and demotivating as possible, with Simon's final words in his confession being "♥♥♥♥ you".

- In the 2nd Ending, Simon has a much more depressive tone. Here, he trusted the advice of Doctor Purnell but could not overcome his lustful feelings about Sophie. Like the 1st ending, he kills Sophie, but this time he describes that it was because he couldn't accept that anyone else could be with her, so he takes her into the afterlife with him. He is very sorry for his doctor, and praises him for all of his help, however he claims that "not everybody can be saved". Simon fought well here, but in the end the ideas written out into his book still managed to overpower his rational mind.

- In the 3rd Ending, we see Simon once again very visceral and hateful. He describes his life as a rollercoaster of anxiety and despair which he couldn't get off no matter how much he tried. He decries the doctor and his treatment as a fraud and only a hindrance in his life, confessing that he killed Doctor Purnell. However, he says that he appreciates Sophie as her one and only good friend who tried to help him, wishing she never knows about what happened to him.


This ending subverts everything that had Simon to this point. In every other outcome, the overwhelming thoughts that Simon had written out into his book would eventually consume him, but here, with the support from a good friend and therapeutic treatment, Simon does a 180 and instead of Book Simon pulling the plug on him, the REAL Simon pulls his gun out on Book Simon. The cutscene goes from black and white to color indicating that this isn't a flashback anymore, this is actually happening. When Simon finally riddles the alter ego of Book Simon with bullets, he snaps back into a more adjusted state of mind, and realizes he was having a mental episode where he killed two cops:

It's possible that based on the flashback we see where Doctor Purnell is talking to someone about Simon's condition, that these cops came to Simon's apartment because his doctor was concerned he would try to kill himself. Although this ending comes with the deaths of 2 cops, Simon is finally at a place of mental fortitude and in spite of all of his monstrous thoughts throughout the game, manages to defeat them and push back against the struggles of the past. Doctors, likely Doctor Purnell himself, testified in court that Simon must of been having a psychotic episode, which would spare his life to what is likely a life long stay in a mental facility. Yet, with Simon's clearer outlook on life, he takes this in stride, no longer is he bound to the chains of perpetual hatred at people he perceives as trying to hurt him. Simon says that he was even able to finish his book and write a "happy ending, just for myself". We'll never know what Simon wrote for himself, but whatever it was, it put all the misery that he was held onto to dearly, out of sight. Sophie even visits him when she is able to, and for the first time ever we hear Simon voice regret and remorse for her, as he comes to terms with his behavior, which in his eyes, has "broken" Sophie. Here, Simon is mentally free and despite his possible life-long sentence to a mental hospital, faces his future with a positive outlook, something that he likely never knew could happen.

Cry of Fear is a strangely enduring game for me. I first played it 2 whole years ago but I've known about it since at least a decade ago. It was at the suggestion of a friend that I decided to play it, and I'm very glad I did. I never expected to analyze this game to hell and back but after getting the "good" ending on that first playthrough, this game really resonated with me and I knew it would stick with me.

It also comes with the bonus of being a fairly fun game as well. Admittedly the melee combat and the fuse grabbing in chapter 4 aren't my favorite but as a whole the game solidly delivers. What matters though, is that this is one of my favorite depictions of a single person's mental journey in any video game. The only similar game that tops this for me is Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and I don't think anything could ever clear that bar.

I also have to give my dues to so many creators and sources which have inspired me to make this guide, here are a few but there are many more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AA-7kByVuk
The Batesee's analysis of this game is hands down the greatest, most concise breakdown I've ever seen of possibly any media. I hope wherever he is right now that things are going well for him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTpCsKOzoCE
As much as I want to kid myself, this insanely famous Pyrocynical video deserves a lot of praise for not just being a really great ode to this game, but also being pretty responsible for a wave of popularity that has been brought back to this game so many years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZp1s0qmEbU&list=PL75D7CA414336B1A4
The final video I want to thank is Markiplier's series on this game, which was where I learned of it in the first place. Obviously markiplier is ubiquitous at this point and all of these old series are a drop in the bucket for what he's done as a content creator, but still it's very humbling seeing some of these videos 12 years later.


If you've gotten this far I thank you so much for reading this, I hope you can come up with your own interpretations of various thematic portions of this game as well, I'm sure there are much more cohesive breakdowns for certain enemies or events that I couldn't think of. I've hurriedly composed this guide in about a month as I've been busy with college work but I wanted to make this before Halloween, because... you know :)


P.S THE FLASHLIGHT SAYS ♥♥♥♥ AND BALL TORTURE