Sewers

Sewers
Type	Urban
Map Name	c_sewer1 to 3, c_avlopp, c_fsewer1,
Inhabitants	Slower Sewmo Crawler Faster Sawrunner* Sawer** Mace** * Only in forest sewer ** Boss

The Sewers refers to three locations visited by Simon in Cry of Fear. The first after escaping from the Apartments, the second in Ronald Street, and the third in the Forest, after crossing the lake.

Background

There are multiple areas in which Simon must traverse sewers to reach an objective, or gain access to an area.

City Sewers

After escaping from the apartments, Simon is required to call a number found on a magazine, advertising to help people with depression. Simon speaks to a person and requests help, however a person with a sinister voice just gives him the following advice:

“	I've always felt alone. My whole life. For as long as I can remember. I don't know if I like it or if I'm used to it, but I know this; being lonely does things to you. Feeling shit and bitter and angry all the time just... eats away at you...	”
	— Simon in the intro of Cry of Fear

The main sewer, Simon faces attack from a Sewmo

After unlocking the door, Simon navigates through an underground tunnel network and gains access to the sewer, and it is split into three main areas.

• Main Sewer: The main sewer appears to be relatively large, with red brick tiling, Simon faces several Sewmos, and must break through a grate to gain access to the next part of the sewer. This area contains little natural light, and is difficult to navigate without a light source

The sub-roadway sewer section, collapsed

• Sub-Surface Sewer: After breaking through the grate, Simon comes to a large open air area, in which it appears the surface of the above road has collapsed. This appears to be a sub-surface sewer that is used to drain water away from the road or pathway above. It is most likely the grate you break through is a sluice grate, to drain the water into the main sewer when it reaches a high enough level

• Maintenance Area: After escaping the sub surface sewer and walking through a construction site, Simon goes down a ladder to some caves, which represent the Sewer's maintenance area. The maintenance area is in 2 main sections. The first has some storage cupboards, a combination locked door, and a puzzle requiring Simon to obtain a lighter, which is used to ignite a pool of oil and destroy a rope, allowing Simon to obtain the key for the inner section. After unlocking the inner section, Simon witnesses Doctor Purnell decapitate an individual with a saw, and must do battle with Mace to find the key to the exit corridor. After turning a number of cranks to electrify the water (the purpose of this is never explained), mace is killed, and the key must be cut free. Simon walks through a locker room, and into what appears to be a supervisor's office to retrieve a saw and cut the key free. After unlocking the exit door, Simon experiences another nightmare sequence, and when that ends he can finally leave the sewers behind and gain access to the city.

The inner caves

The Locker Room

The Supervisor's Office

Ronald Street Sewers

Sewmo attack!

The Ronald Street sewers are the second sewer complex that Simon encounters. After navigating his way through the subways service tunnels, Simon encounters another door locked by the doctor. He is required to backtrack to pick up 2 fuses to open the door, and on the ground next to it lie a key and a battery for his phone. The key unlocks a previously locked door on Ronald Street, back at the start of the city map (bloody footprints have appeared since your last visit, making the path obvious). Unlocking this door grants Simon access to another sewer system. This system has 3 different levels, connected by drainage ditches and ladders that appear to flow into a massive central chamber chock full of SewMo enemies. This sewer section is a lot shorter than the previous one, and only covers one map, although it contains at least 8 enemies. Whether it is connected to the main sewer is unknown, however it appears to link the city and the apartments, making it likely that it is part of the city's municipal water system. Like the other sewers, this area contains little natural or artificial light and is hard to navigate with a light source. The Glock tactical light is your friend here.

Forest Sewers

This area contains the longest swimming section in the game

After escaping the Asylum and crossing the lake, Simon heads into a dilapidated house, he falls through the floor and must go through another sewer system to gain access to Kirkville. This area constitutes the longest swimming area in the game, Simon must swim through dark passages with little natural or artificial light to pickup a key, which unlocks the exit door, allowing him to climb an access ladder and enter Kirkville through a manhole.

Relevance to Simon

It is unlikely that anything Simon did in his life involved him going down a sewer, and later on his disability would have prevented him from doing so anyway. Therefore it is likely that the sewers have no relevance to him, and simply represent a realistic way to link areas together, and improve the diversity of the game's challenges.

Trivia

• The first sewer area, with the red brick walls is modeled on the sewer systems in London, England. James (Minuit) saw them in a book he found in his house, and thought it would be interesting to add a similar area into the game, although ruMpel finished the map for him.
• The caves section, representing the maintenance area, is based loosely on a dream ruMpel had, in which he explored some caves with his friends, and although the area doesn't really represent the one in his dream that closely, it served as an interesting location.
• Real life sewers, especially those completely enclosed with no surface ventilation, are known for being areas where toxic gases build up relatively quickly, including carbon dioxide, ammonia, and methane. In reality it is likely that it would have been hazardous for Simon to enter the sewers without a gas mask or respirator, even for a short period of time.
• Additionally, sewer water is about the nastiest form of water you could ever wish to swim through. It will contain feces, mud, fat, and many other nasty things suspended in the water, as well as a number of pathogens that would have the potential to make Simon extraordinarily ill. Swimming through the sewer would be likely to be every bit as nasty an experience as anything else Simon did in Cry of Fear, and in reality it is likely that the things suspended in the water would make it impossible for him to see where he was going without scuba equipment. And even if the Sewer was just a runoff sewer for surface rainwater, it would still be hard to see, and dangerous to swim through. In reality it is likely that Simon would have either got lost and drowned, or vomited and asphyxiated.