Panopticon

**Panopticon** is the ninth level of *Switchback VR*. It is the second level themed around *The Devil in Me* as part of the "Doomed Hotel" levels.

## Before Level

The player is back on the train with all the passengers shrouded in darkness except Robert, who clutches his chest in pain before looking down at his dog.

## Layout

The player emerges on the track from an empty train station and into the Columbus Spa. After passing over the pool, the cart stops at the closed doors, with a sign explaining that the player can shoot at generators with a stun gun in order to activate them. A refilling Demon Crate containing a stun gun appears, and upon shooting the generator to open the door into the spa, Belial says "You've been very bad!" A Lucinda animatronic, which does not take damage from bullets, then crawls out from the pool to attack, with the cart proceeding before she reaches it. Another can be seen in a hallway the player passes before they enter the furnace, where the cart stops and a Lucinda animatronic slowly approaches the player from the end of the room. A refilling stun gun Demon Crate appears next to the player, who must use it to activate the furnace and destroy the animatronic. The player enters the basement, where they can shoot a Demon Crate and must dodge some swinging scythes before they see Belial's seal on a wall outside a room and hear her laugh. The room has descending shredder blades on the ceiling, and the player must clear all the debris in the track to get through before the blades kill them.

The player goes through hallways full of mannequins before stopping in a room with a Demon Crate, where a shelf of mannequin limbs falls over and several Sherman animatronics attack. After killing them, the player enters a room where they see someone being stabbed behind a curtain and stops in front of numerous Sherman and surgeon animatronics, and one Lucinda animatronic standing in front of the cart. The animatronics begin activating one by one, and the player can kill all of them immediately by using a refilling stun gun Demon Crate to shoot a generator at the end of the room, activating a wall trap that crushes everything in front of the cart. Once it is activated, covering the room in blood, the player proceeds into the hotel, slowing in a bar full of various animatronics. Suddenly, the bartender animatronic slides out, attacking by throwing fireballs that the player must shoot to avoid.

The player enters a lounge full of animatronic enemies, with a group of them on the left activating to attack. There are two generators above the door at the end of the room, with the left one releasing fire around the left and middle of the track and the right one activating a wall trap to the right. A refilling stun gun Demon Crate can be used as the player must kill the animatronics in the room, plus several more that enter. After killing them, the player goes through several hallways and returns to the basement, where they can choose to go left or right on the track.

* Going left leads into the cellar, with the cart stopping in a hallway with refilling stun gun Demon Crates and generators lining the walls on each side. The player must shoot the generators connecting to the several level crossings in front of the track in order to go forward and exit the cellar.
* Going right leads back into the spa, with the cart stopping in four rooms that each contain a refilling stun gun Demon Crate and two generators in front of the door. One connects to the door and allows the player to proceed, while the other connects to the wall trap and will kill the player when activated. After going through all four rooms, the player exits the spa.

Returning to the main track, the cart rides through the hotel's corridors and stops in an overgrown room when a train suddenly comes through the ceiling and lands close to the cart. Bartender animatronics emerge from the floor above the player and begin attacking from the balcony. After killing them, along with a Sherman animatronic that runs down the stairs to attack, the other bartender animatronics around the track activate and attack. When they are dead, the cart moves forward again, exiting the hotel and entering a forest full of dead trees and red mist. A distant screech can be heard as the player ascends a hill toward the lighthouse, where guttural growls can be heard from inside. The cart goes back down the hill and into a shallow lake full of upturned buses, with more shooting out of the lake as the player rides through.

Exiting the lake, the cart stops at the dock, and Belial walks out. She says "I'm not done with you yet!" and pulls a lever, causing the player to switch tracks and go right instead of riding off the dock. A police boat on the water is blown up as the player passes it and returns to the dead forest, going up and back outside the hotel, where Belial's seal can be seen on the outside of the building as she laughs. The cart stops, with a stun gun refilling Demon Crate and generator on the left and two generators on the right. Each generator activates a fire trap in a different area, and can be used as all the different animatronic enemies begin to emerge and attack the player. After killing several waves, the player enters the hotel, but the entrance is barred. Belial, in her demonic form, appears behind the bars and says "Let's play a little more!" before opening the cell door and allowing the player to proceed.

The player enters a long hallway made up of several small rooms, each with a refilling stun gun Demon Crate, two generators, and machines on the wall that begin filling the room with acid. The player must shoot the generator connecting to the level crossings in each room and proceed, while shooting the wrong generator causes the room to fill faster, eventually killing the player. After escaping in time, the player enters the freezer room, with the environment changing each time the player blinks: first, the slaughtered pigs on the wall change to bagged human corpses, then the room is covered in blood. The player enters a room with a Demon Crate that is unfinished on the left and resembles a kitchen on the right, and can choose to go left or right on the track.

* Going left, the player goes through staff corridors and some unfinished rooms, having to dodge several metal beams in the process. The cart stops in front of a refilling stun gun Demon Crate, and after shooting it, a mattress leaning on the wall is pushed over to reveal a Sherman animatronic behind it, which attacks. After killing it and more that emerge from ahead, the cart proceeds through rooms with doorways that are blocked by spinning sawblades connected to generators, and must shoot the generators to go through, with refilling stun gun Demon Crates appearing when necessary.
* Going right, the player enters a kitchen with a refilling stun gun Demon Crate, a generator on the left that activates a fire trap, and a generator ahead that activates an acid trap. Various animatronic enemies appear, After killing them all, the cart proceeds through a hallway with doorways that are blocked by spinning sawblades connected to generators, and must shoot the generators to go through, with refilling stun gun Demon Crates appearing when necessary.

Returning to the main track, the player must dodge an obstacle and quickly rides through a hallway with walls that lift up to let the cart proceed. The cart stops in a room with the track lined with five level crossings, spinning shredder blades on the wall around the player, and Robert tied at the end of the room with three red lights above him and spinning sawblades nearby. A refilling stun gun Demon Crate appears next to the player whenever necessary as Robert explains that the player must shoot the right generators and avoid dying. At each new level crossing, three generators lower from the ceiling: one is connected to Robert's trap and turns one of his lights green, one is connected to the level crossing and allows the cart to proceed, and one moves the shredder blades closer to the player, eventually killing them.

* If the player turns three of Robert's lights green, he is saved, and tells the player to get out of there because Belial is coming. He then slowly floats up into the air and disappears in a white flash.
* If the player takes too long before saving Robert, he is killed by the sawblades.

After escaping the puzzle, the player rides through a long hallway of Du'Met mannequins, stopping in a room with a large TV that displays Du'Met gesturing to the track ahead before going through a door. The TV goes into the floor, revealing it was actually a window displaying static, and player can see Du'Met in the Ultimatum telephone room before proceeding through the hallway as Belial mockingly repeats Charlotte's "It's all my fault!" two times before changing to "It's all your fault." The cart stops in a room where the track ends, only for the floor and wall to move and reveal more track. The cart stops again as another wall opens up and a fire-spraying mechanism enters the room, slowly turning toward the player and dealing damage. Its orange part must be shot at until it faces away from the player and deactivates, and then the cart proceeds.

The cart slowly goes through a long hallway and into a tall, open room resembling the nerve center with a pit of acid below and Du'Met standing in a glass box at the center. Two fire-spraying mechanisms are in front of the box, and the player must periodically shoot them away, causing the front of the glass box to crack, while also dealing with bartender animatronics and acid-spitting Sherman animatronics that walk along the beams around the track and attack. After deactivating both mechanisms, Du'Met activates something that drops the beams and fire-spraying mechanisms into the acid below. The entire room then slowly rotates so that the cracked part of the glass box faces upward and the acid spreads into a metal channel below the track.

The next phase of the fight begins, with bartender animatronics and acid-spitting Sherman animatronics attacking from the top of the box while scythes with yellow pieces in their centers slide out toward the player, dealing damage if the pieces are not shot off in time and the scythes are not dodged. This phase is repeated twice more, with the room rotating sideways at the start of each new phase, and various animatronic enemies appear along the beams again in the final phase. Toward the end of the fight, an acid trap above the player begins advancing toward them, and its two orange parts must be shot back like the fire-spraying mechanisms. Eventually, it breaks while above the glass box, pouring acid onto it until it breaks and the acid kills Du'Met. The acid trap then falls in, shattering the glass box completely as tracks appear through the room.

The cart goes back through the hotel and out the front door into the courtyard, with the player riding through fog and past the lighthouse toward the shore. The track goes down the cliff and over the lake, reaching the other side of the lake and going through a dock, where a crow flies in front of the cart. A speedboat moves alongside the player toward another dock that shows the player's score and stops when Belial suddenly jumps out of the water. She says "Not yet!" and laughs as the sky darkens and large ice spikes begin jutting out from the water, freezing it over as the game fades to black.

## Trivia

* The options on this level's *Journey So Far* screen are:
	+ You shot/didn't shoot the Animatronic in the Spa
	+ You shot/didn't shoot the door while passing the lighthouse
	+ You saw/didn't see the Control Room before the Final Fight
	+ Robert saved/killed/abandoned in the Doomed Hotel
	+ You turned/didn't turn off the music