Charon's Staircase is a horror video game released for Steam and the PlayStation 4. It was developed by Indigo Studios, published by Soedesco, and released in 2022.
Desmond, an agent of the mysterious government agency The Ministry, is tasked with travelling to Lewelin Mansion and Lewelin Hospital, located in Oack Grove, in order to steal the secret conclusive reports about the deadly experiments held there. However, as soon as Desmond lands on the island, he discovers that he may not be alone, and the ghosts of experiments past may still be haunting the place...
Charon's Staircase provides examples of the following tropes:
- Abandoned Hospital: One of the final locations of the game is a large hospital that once held the cruel experiments carried out by Dr. Lewelin. By the time Desmond breaks into the hospital, he finds that the remaining victims of the experiments have been locked in the upper floors of the hospital by the survivors, and have become mindless, emaciated monsters.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The setting of the game appears to be the mid-20th century, and the experiments Desmond alludes to have happened some 40 years ago. However, spectral visions at Lewelin Manor show women wearing early-20th century fashion.
- Big Fancy House: The Lewelin Mansion is an imposing structure, and is quite large on the inside. Its rooms are also richly ornate and decorated.
- Big Labyrinthine Building: The large Lewelin Mansion has spiral staircases, oppressive hallways, a dark basement, and secret passages.
- Bookcase Passage: In Arthemius's secret library in the attic, a bookcase leads to Arthemius's secret medical office where he conducted experiments on his wife Agatha.
- Elevator Escape: Desmond uses a key in the locked compartment on the wall of the elevator to open up a secret floor button that leads to the secret underground bunker where Dr. Lewelin hid his experiments.
- The Ending Changes Everything: As Desmond summarizes in his final narration, he is the third triplet, sibling to Dara and Devon.
- Eternal Engine: Despite being abandoned for nearly 40 years, both the mansion and the hospital are still functioning perfectly. The reason why is a radiation-fueled mechanism devised by Lewelin that he never patented.
- The Faceless: Desmond, the player character, never shows his face, and during in-game cutscenes, his face is obscured by his hat.
- First-Person Perspective: The entire game is narrated by Desmond, who uses first person narration.
- Foreshadowing: While exploring Lewelin Manor, Desmond finds letters and text files mentioning something suspicious happening at Lewelin Hospital. Desmond visits it after the manor.
- Gratuitous Spanish: In the final segment of the game, a Spanish-speaking voice says that radiation levels are off charts.
- Happily Adopted: Dara was given to Seth, the guard, to be raised in his poor hut. She considered him her father.
- Late to the Tragedy: Desmond reaches the groundskeeper's hut and finds him dead. The mansion is also deserted, save for Lewelin's corpse in his study. The hospital is also abandoned and bereft of any living soul... save for the remaining rejected Omega monsters devouring the corpses.
- MacGuffin Location: Desmond is tasked with finding the reports and escape through the fabled "Charon's Staircase", a secret passageway supposedly located under the island that leads to a safe escape.
- Not-So-Abandoned Building: As Desmond discovers near the end of the game when he visits the hospital, the Lewelin Hospital is devoid of life, save for legions of Omega monsters roaming the upper floor of the hospital.
- Old, Dark House: The Lewelin Mansion is an imposing structure that has been abandoned for decades by its owner.
- Separated at Birth:
- Twins Dara and Devon were forcibly separated at birth, while still being somewhat close to each other: Dara was raised by the groundskeeper on land overlooking the island where Lewelin Manor lay, while Devon was raised in the manor.
- Desmond, Dara and Devon's third triplet, was taken away to be adopted.
- Sole Survivor: As Desmond finds out, Dara did survive the Lewelin experiments and eventually found a way through the mansion and the hospital to a hut just outside Charon's Staircase. She is also the sole survivor of the Lewelin family... along with her other surviving triplet, Desmond.
- Tarot Motifs: A puzzle in Lewelin Manor uses tarot cards as part of a mechanism to open a gate, and they must be placed in a certain order following a small cryptic text.
- Theme Twin Naming: Dara and Devon were identified with the Greek letter Δ ('delta'), and given names starting with the letter "D". And so was Desmond, the player character.
- Timed Mission:
- In the Lewelin Hospital, in a segment in the fourth floor, Desmond uses an X-ray specs and has to turn down the lights for an exact minute in order to distract the Omegas roaming about in a corridor. All of this to get a keycard.
- The final segment of the game is one: Desmond reaches the underground, radiation-fueled bunker, and has seven minutes to locate Charon's Staircase before the radiation levels lead him to his death.
- Tomato in the Mirror: As a final twist, Desmond, the player character, is a third triplet, and brother to Dara and Devon.
- Twin Telepathy:
- Dara and Devon are twins and could communicate with each other telepathically. Dara was raised by a groundskeeper in a hut in the forest, while Devon was raised in Lewelin Mansion.
- This also explains how Desmond could see visions of Dara around the mansion, as he concludes in the final narration, because he is Dara's other male twin brother.