In Strangeland you, a man in a half-undone, old-timey straightjacket, wake up with no memory of who, what or where you are. The "where", it soon appears, is the titular land, a sort of grimdark carnival floating in a terrible void. It is rendered in lovely pixels that make everything look fleshy, even if the colours are all muted. As soon as you arrive, you see a woman throw herself down a well inside the welcome tent.
It is explained to you - by a raven, a head-in-a-box fortune teller, and a payphone caller who hates you - that she does this repeatedly, because death doesn't work the same here. You immediately fixate on saving this woman, and set about doing so in a point 'n' click puzzle fashion. And if you've seen any prestige horror films in the last few years, or even just engaged with any horror tropes before, you'll figure out what Strangeland's deal is in about 30 seconds.
Its whole vibe is like an episode of Twilight Zone via an episode of American Horror Story via if Tim Burton got trapped in a secret vore nightmare, and every second inhabitant tells the protagonist he's an idiot loser who makes everything he touches worse. Many conversations and visual metaphors end up being about the self, and self-image, and how to change oneself. Eyes and mirrors both come up a lot. There are several references to a black dog. Need I elaborate further?
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