Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer

In 1869 Leopold von Sacher-Masoch signed a contract with his mistress, Fanny Pistor. On its terms he was supposed to become her slave for six months and due to the fact that the word "masochism" comes directly from his surname, what was written in their contract shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.He wanted her to treat him as a footstool and to whip him whenever she felt an urge to. The only thing he wanted in return was for her to wear furs (and nothing under them) while doing so. We know of their relationship because of his book, "Venus in Furs", which ends in description of their separation. Pistor dealt an unbearable blow to her private slave by finding someone who has enslaved her. Disillusioned Masoch has stopped treating her like a goddess and freed himself finally ending in the hands of mysogyny. It's a similar story to the story that Nicolau Chaud told in his free game Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, which you can download from rpgmaker.net.

Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart
The player becomes Verge - a loser with a lousy job, lousy life and unable to handle anything and especially his own self. The love of his life - Daily - is as elusive as vague in conversations and up til the end of the game there's even no indication whether it's male or female. Verge belongs to the social network of Dungeoneers, people who bring random people to their basements and lead them to the edge of nervous breakdown by torturing them and then just let them go: trapped forever in despair and mental hurt. Every Dungeoneer has to shoot a movie which documments his accomplishment and share it on the web, exposing himself to the critique of others.

And even if it sounds like a script for another "Saw" movie, precisely where "Saw" is just another retarted horror story with a promise of something deep between the lines (which turns out to be: "Hey, look, I'm saving the world!"), Dungeoneer is rather like "Fight Club". A love-story filled with thoughts of self-improvement/self-destruction and liberation. There, where visual tricks of movies like "Hostel" turn their stories into ridicullous mess, Dungeoneer turns out to be a disturbing work of art. It will evoke different feelings in every player 'cause every player is looking at the mirror by playing it, at his own own feelings, thoughts and mostly his own psyche.

Chaud made a wonderful use of RPG Maker - at least in terms of the story and dialogue 'cause gameplay is not the most interesting thing I've ever seen. It's two things, basically: searching for victims which plays like a dating-sim and torturing people in an action-puzzler. After hooking up with someone on the street we've got to build a dungeon and it's done by setting traps which are received as a payment for making movies. Then, a naked victim walks from start to finish and in set places gets wounded, drowned, drilled, dismembered and at worst: killed. At worst 'cause death prevents the titular Beautiful Escape which is the whole point of the game.

Different colors made of tears
However due to the fact that scenario is the most important thing in this game, it is just amazing as a whole. It doesn't give the player any time to get bored and bwcause it has no fillers it isn't trying to achieve any cliched, hollywood-like suspense. A couple of plot turns, some ideas about the storytelling itself - these are the best examples of how well Chaud led his narration. How fresh has he told the player - maybe even unconsciously - a tragic story of Sacher-Masoch, set in modern world and told with modern means. And that's why Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer is not a game about torture or psychos. It's not even a game about serial killers, it's a game about toxic, unhappy love and liberation.