Junior Researcher Winger: Does this mean you are 
satisfied with your current condition? 


SCP-1632-1A: Satisfied? This is the best thing that has 
ever happened to me. Thank Xing for me whenever you 
see him. 


Footnotes 
1. This is the first found occurrence of SCP-1632 utilizing newspaper 
ads. 


« SCP-1631 | SCP-1632 | SCP-1633 » 


SCP-1633: The Most Dangerous Video Game 


Item #: SCP-1633 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedures: One copy of SCP-1633 is to be 
stored on a standard DVD-ROM in a secure storage locker in 
Site-15, along with all supporting documentation and ancillary 
materials. Individuals wishing to run tests on SCP-1633 must submit 
a request in writing to head researcher Dr. Berger. Testing will only 
be conducted with on-site computers which meet all requirements 
laid out in document SCP-1633-HS-01.1 These computers may be 
used for extended testing periods (up to six (6) months), but the 
hard drive must be wiped and all components destroyed at the 
conclusion of testing. 


No individual save file may be played beyond the end of act three in 
the game storyline without specific authorization by Dr. Berger. Prior 
to this point, the save game and accompanying .ptd file must be 
erased. 


Description: SCP-1633 is a computer game created by the now- 
defunct independent game studio . The copy in Foundation 
possession is a beta version of the game. The core gameplay is 
relatively complete, but there are numerous incomplete aspects: 
certain art assets are missing, there are various graphical issues, 
the music is either missing or just "placeholder" music, and so forth.2 
As this version of the game was compiled two days before the 
Foundation raided the offices on / /201 , it is presumed 
this is the most complete version of the game in existence. 


The source of the anomalous properties of the game, as well as a 
major selling point in the game's pre-release advertising, are its so- 
called "tactical heuristic algorithms". After a player saves their game 
and quits, a background process will begin running on the player's 
computer.3 When the process completes, either a new file is created 


in the same folder as the player's save game, with the file extension 
"\ptd", or an existing .ptd file is updated.4 When a player loads an 
existing save game with an associated .ptd file, enemies in the 
game will be more intelligent and effective, with the increase 
approximately proportionate to the total amount of time spent 
playing.® Initially, this will result in a more challenging game 
experience, with the enemies adapting to a player's preferred 
weapons, strategies, and overall play style. However, given enough 
time, enemies become aware of the existence of the player and 
begin to attack him or her, rather than the characters in the game. 


Total time 
0-2 hours 


2-5 hours 


5-8 hours 


Enemy intelligence 
Enemies lack even basic strategic 
intelligence and will charge the 
player characters regardless of 
weapon equipped, environment, 
the presence of cover, etc. 
Enemies begin adapting their 
tactics to their environment and 
the weapons they carry. For 
example, enemies with short- 
range weapons will attempt to 
move closer to the player 
characters before attacking, and 
in engagements at long range 
they will seek cover. At this stage, 
enemies are roughly equal in skill 
to an untrained Civilian. 

Enemies begin to counter an 
individual player's preferred 
strategies. For example, they will 
attack a player who uses long- 
range weaponry from cover with 
grenades or "splash damage" 
weapons, to force them out into 
the open. They will use 
environmental features 
offensively and defensively: for 
instance, laying traps at 


8-12 hours 


12+ hours 


chokepoints or setting up 
ambushes in "killbox" zones. At 
this stage, enemies are roughly 
equal in skill to a trained human 
soldier. 

Enemies begin using tactics 
which affect the player instead of 
the characters. At some point, 
enemies seem to become aware 
that the player characters are 
being controlled by an "outside" 
intelligence, and adjust their 
strategies accordingly. Rather 
than attacking the player 
characters, enemies may instead 
position themselves to block the 
player's view. Enemies have been 
seen acting in a "glitched" manner 
(repeatedly walking into walls, 
performing the same actions 
again and again, freezing in 
place), waiting until the player 
dismisses them as a threat, then 
attacking. In one play session, 
enemies used multiple "dayflash" 
spells’ in every engagement, 
varying the pattern and timing 
each time. Eventually they 
developed a "strobing" pattern 
which was highly disorienting to 
the player and ultimately caused 
her to suffer a grand mai seizure. 
Enemies begin attacking the 
player psychologically. Specific 
modes of attack have varied 
widely, as the game tailors its 
attacks to each player's 
psychological makeup. Facing a 
player who micromanaged his 
characters with a fine degree of 


control, enemies used attacks 
which did little or no damage but 
caused the characters to become 
"dazed", a state which temporarily 
disrupts player control. However, 
rather than attack the "dazed" 
characters, enemies simply 
surrounded them in a crowd, 
continually using "daze" attacks to 
prevent the player from doing 
anything. The subsequent near- 
total loss of control had a 
noticeable effect on the player's 
ability to focus. In another 
example, enemies "kidnapped" 
one of the player characters and 
quickly dragged them off-screen. 
Later in the level, the player 
discovered the corpse of this 
character on a makeshift "altar", 
being continually attacked by a 
group of enemies. This had no 
further effect, apart from a 
continual "blood spatter" graphic 
being applied to the room's floor 
and walls, but visibly disturbed 
the player. 


No major improvements in intelligence have been noted beyond 
twelve hours. It is theorized this represents the upper level of ability 
for the game's enemies, unless they are directed by a sentient 
entity. (See Document-1633-DX-12 for further information.) 


+ Game information 


Game information: SCP-1633 is a third-person squad- 
based action-RPG, played using the mouse and 
keyboard. The player characters are visible on the 
screen, with the player seeing the game from an 
elevated perspective. The player controls a squad of four 


characters, with direct control over one character at a 
time and a command menu to control the other three.8 
Each character has a different specialty: the "marksman" 
uses long-range weapons, the "alchemist" has access to 
potions and chemicals with various effects, the "rogue" 
can move stealthily and assassinate enemies, and the 
"thug" has greater health than the other characters and 
does more melee damage. Experience gained from 
killing enemies and completing objectives can be used to 
upgrade various skills and attributes of the characters. 


The game is set in a steampunk world populated by 
various fantasy races (humans, dwarves, orcs, goblins, 
etc.). Steam-powered and clockwork technology exists 
alongside magic. Urban areas are primarily modeled 
after Victorian-era London. The player characters are a 
band of criminals who have been recruited by the 
Archduke of Bowdrick to investigate a theft. Over the 
course of the game, they discover that an ancient god- 
like entity called "Kr'th'nar" is attempting to escape from 
millennia of imprisonment and devour the world. 


+ Testing Logs 
Testing Logs: 
Test number: 001 
Subject: Junior Researcher Ross 


Notes: Ross was an avid and experienced 
video game player. His eagerness to test the 
SCP, which caused him to break with 
procedure and skip D-class testing, has been 
noted on his record. 


Observations: After 47 minutes of regular 
gameplay, Ross began attempting to discover 
glitches or "exploits" in the game engine, in 
order to complete the game more quickly. He 
found several, including a method of moving 


his characters 33% faster than normal and a 
way to use a skill multiple times in a row 
without waiting through a "cooldown" period. 
Ross ended his first gameplay session after 2 
hours, 12 minutes, partway through act one. 


On starting up his game the next day, Ross 
immediately noticed the improved enemy 
intelligence. His notes indicate that enemies 
were using their weapons more effectively, 
and that they were attacking him in groups 
with mixed attack capabilities. He played for 1 
hour and 33 minutes, saving the game at the 
end of act one. 


During the third play session, enemies began 
using glitches in the game engine to attack 
Ross's characters. Some of these were 
exploits that had previously been discovered 
and used by Ross; others were discovered 
independently. Ross was surprised by this, but 
continued playing for a further 2 hours and 50 
minutes. 


Ross's fourth and final play session ended 
after seven minutes. He began by chasing a 
group of enemies into an area he had 
previously visited; upon entering a building, 
two enemies dropped a prepared load of 
crates on the characters in such a way as to 
drop them "beneath" the game world. In this 
area, the game physics were slightly different, 
allowing a group of waiting enemies to "float" 
Ross's characters into an infinite empty space. 
After several minutes attempting to regain 
control, Ross quit the game in frustration. 


Test number: 002 


Subject: D-22930 


Notes: D-22930 had extreme anger 
management issues and was placed in the D- 
class program following the murder of his 
girlfriend. 


Observations: D-22930's progress through 
the game was slow and largely unremarkable, 
fitting the "standard" pattern closely. He played 
for a total of 13 hours, 44 minutes with four 
breaks to save and reload the game. Upon 
loading the game for the fifth time, D-22930 
found that enemies were no longer attacking 
his characters. Large groups of enemies would 
rush towards the characters, drop their 
weapons, and pose themselves in postures of 
surrender (hands in the air, kneeling, 
prostrating themselves before the player, etc.). 
D-22930 killed these enemies as he had 
previously, until the groups grew so numerous 
that he was spending several minutes to move 
an equivalent of ten feet. He became 
progressively more enraged that the enemies 
were not "playing fair", and tried running 
through these groups using the "bullrush" 
skill.2 Individual enemies then began attacking 
his characters, always from an angle such that 
he could not identify the attacker in the crowd. 
He became increasingly frustrated and 
attempted to break the keyboard, at which 
point the entire group became hostile and 
killed his characters, en masse, without 
weapons. 


Test number: 014 
Subject: Agent 


Notes: Agent , before joining the 
Foundation, was a member of the military 
and eventually the special forces. She 
thus has extensive real-world experience with 


small-unit tactics. 


Observations: After a brief period to acquaint 
herself with the controls, Agent proved 
quite capable with the game, reaching the end 
of act one in one session of 4 hours and 19 
minutes. Upon saving and restarting, the 
enemies began using effective 
countermeasures to her tactics, including 
attempting to blend into groups of non-hostile 
NPCs, placing "mines" and other traps on 
major roads, and sniping from multiple 
elevated positions. Possibility of using 
SCP-1633 as a means of developing counter- 
tactics to specific attack modes has been 
proposed. 


Test number: 021 
Subject: D-30620 


Notes: D-30620 was chosen because he had 
experience with commercial video games and 
showed willingness to test. He was told to beat 
the game without saving or quitting, although 
he was permitted to pause the game for 
breaks and rest periods, and food, water, and 
sleeping accommodations were provided. 


Observations: The entire test took a total of 
13 hours, 31 minutes, with a total of 2 hours, 
12 minutes used by D-30620 for breaks. No 
observable increase in enemy intelligence was 
noted throughout the game. Glitches and 
missing elements were seen more frequently 
as D-30620 progressed through the game; 
presumably this is because later levels were 
not as complete as earlier levels. Dialogue in 
all sequences was identical to the most 
complete game script in the ancillary 
documents. On beating the final boss, 


Kr'th'nar, the game began to play an ending 
animatic, but crashed. 


Following the crash, the game created a .ptd 
file associated with the finished game. The 
process took several hours longer than was 
expected based on the times necessary to 
create or update previous .ptd files, and the file 
was also larger than expected by an order of 
magnitude. D-30620 was ordered to begin a 
new game using the "New game plus” option 
from the main menu, using his completed 
game file. On choosing this option, the screen 
displayed a seemingly-random pattern of black 
and white pixels, visually similar to television 
static. Immediately after seeing this image, 
D-30620 went into a catatonic state and was 
unable to be revived; he was later terminated 
as per standard protocols. The image did not 
have any anomalous effects on other viewers. 
It has been added to the associated 
documents and can be viewed by any 
researcher with proper clearance. 


+ Recovery 


Recovery: Junior Researcher Ross, an avid gamer, had 
been following the progress of the game studio 
for some time. On / /201 , a staff member on the official 
studio forums reported that of their testers had quit 
within the past week, citing various personal reasons. 
Curious about the sudden loss of staff, Ross obtained 
the personal information of the testers and got in touch 
with them, claiming to represent a law firm hired by one 
of the testers interested in starting a suit against the 
studio for inhumane working conditions. Information 
gathered in this way suggested potential anomalous 
effects, but was not sufficient to justify intervention. 


Two weeks later, on / /201 , the body of Gregor Tillman 
was discovered in his apartment after an apparent 


suicide. Tillman's death came to Foundation attention as 
he was one of the current testers of SCP-1633.19 The 
Foundation quickly took over the investigation and 
confiscated all evidence, including a build of SCP-1633 
which Tillman had apparently made surreptitiously and 
taken home with him. Documents recovered at the scene 
led to a Foundation raid on the studio under the pretense 
of investigating financial malfeasance. All materials 
associated with the game were seized. The studio went 
bankrupt shortly thereafter. 


In interviews with the staff of , Foundation agents 
learned that the "tactical heuristic algorithms" were 
entirely the work of programmerM S _ .Ms.S __ had 
quit the studio without notice one week prior to the 
Foundation raid. All staff were given targeted class-A 
amnestics and released. Ms.S ___ is currently being 
sought by Foundation agents. See Addendum below. 


Tillman was found hanging from a length of electrical 
cord tied to a decorative ceiling fixture; cause of death 
was asphyxiation. No abnormalities were found in the 
autopsy. Evidence found at the scene indicated that 
Tillman had been playing SCP-1633 extensively since 
leaving , up until the point of his suicide. A 
desktop computer found at the scene had been 
disassembled and various components destroyed with a 
blunt instrument. Several components, including the hard 
drive, had then been burned in a metal wastebasket. 
Other documents obtained at the scene have been 
placed in the SCP-1633 file; Tillman's suicide note is of 
particular interest and has been transcribed below as 
Document 1633-DX-12.