Alone in the Dark (2024)

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Set in the 1920s South, Alone in the Dark allows players to play as either Emily Hartwood and private investigator Edward Carnby as they embark on a perilous journey to Derceto Manor, seeking Emily's missing uncle. This reimagined classic blends psychological horror and Southern Gothic charm, inviting players to unravel the mysteries lurking within the asylum's walls. Players experience a haunting tale of mystery and madness, confronting themes of trauma, faith, and evil. Note: This review only goes up through the end of the game playing as Emily at the moment.

• Release date: 03-20-2024
• Developer: Pieces Interactive
• Publisher: THQ Nordic
• Platforms: PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X/S

Triggers for this game

Animals & Wildlife

• Arachnids

  Chapter 3 & Chapter 4

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 3 — When you're in the Egyptian section and climb down into the tomb, there are a bunch of tarantula-like spiders that skitter away after you land on the ground. Chapter 4 — When you are on the ship, the monsters take the form of small dog-size spider-like creatures.

  • Can't be avoided

• Birds

  Crows (encountered regularly), taxidermied birds

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Two taxidermied birds are in the lobby of the asylum.

  • Can't be avoided

• Cats

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable — There is a mummified cat in the garden that you do not have to find.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

• Dogs

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Jack had a dog, and you find the collar in one room

  • Can't be avoided

• Insects

  Insect noises on various levels; various insects skitter around here and there while you explore; sources of light outside will have flying insects around them

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Note: some of these insects are cockroaches or cockroach-like in appearance. After finishing up in Perosi's room, large maggot-like insects fall from the ceiling and come up from the floor in the hallway. After solving The Astronomical Clock puzzle, you will enter a swamp-like area with loud insect noises (crickets, buzzing, etc.).

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Animals & Critters

  Goats, taxidermied bear, frogs, alligator, horses (noises)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In the opening cutscene, you see a gator come out of the swamp and eat a frog. Later, while exploring the house, you find a pantry with hanging animal carcasses. A taxidermied bear is in the lobby of the asylum. While in the oil rig area, you will be attacked by a burrowing, gator-like beast.

  • Can't be avoided

• Rodents

  Rats

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Rats are around throughout the game, running past you as you enter new spaces. In the cellar, there is a rat that gets electrocuted.

  • Can't be avoided

• Snakes

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 1 — Preserved snake in a bottle in Batiste's shop. Chapter 3 — Asps in the Egyptian tomb.

  • Can't be avoided

Crime

• Explosions & Bombs

  Molotov cocktails, bombing, shelling

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 4, Emily has to come to terms with having abandoned her husband in Derceto after he was injured in WWI. You will encounter radio reports and wind up walking through trenches, where you'll encounter bombing and shelling.

  • Can't be avoided

• Fights

  • Can't be avoided

• Guns & Shooting

  • Can't be avoided

• Hangings

  On-screen in one ending

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Grace is hanged in Carnby's bad ending

  • Is avoidable

• Kidnapping

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Ted Stryker kidnaps Grace

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Crime

  Weapons

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Melee weapons, Molotov cocktails

  • Can't be avoided

• Road-Related Violence

  Car crash

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Ted Stryker crashes a car off a bridge.

  • Can't be avoided

• Theft

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  While no one is really around to notice, Emily regularly steals items from various rooms.

  • Can't be avoided

Death & Loss

• Abandonment

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Emily has to come to terms with having abandoned her husband in Derceto after he was injured in WWI. Carnby gets Grace's father killed, leaving her with her neglectful mother. Grace's mother sent Grace to Derceto instead of caring for her after the father's death.

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of Child

  On-screen in one ending

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Grace is hanged in Carnby's bad ending

  • Is avoidable

• Death of Parent

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby gets Grace's father killed, leaving her with her neglectful mother

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of Spouse or Partner

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Emily's fiancé John dies during WWI. In Chapter 4, you find him in WWI trenches and then encounter his dead body in the morgue.

  • Can't be avoided

• Death of Wild Animal

  Rats

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In the cellar, there is a rat that gets electrocuted.

  • Can't be avoided

• Drowning

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Ted Stryker dies after crashing off a bridge and drowning.

  • Can't be avoided

• Family Estrangement

  Many of the individuals in the asylum are estranged from their families due to mental illness (real or perceived)

  • Can't be avoided

• Missing Person(s)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Jeremy is missing at the beginning of the game, and you will spend most of the game searching for him

  • Can't be avoided

• Suicide

  Some of the game's themes imply self-harm, such as suicide and depression.

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable — Cassandra has chronic back pain from an unsuccessful suicide attempt. (Discussed in patient notes) In Chapter 3, if you encounter The Dark Man and try to pull out your gun, your character will shoot themselves in the head and you will die. At the end of Chapter 4, Emily may try to commit suicide. Depending on your choices throughout the game, she may wake up with the cultists inside the Dark Man's Temple. Instead, she may have also saved Jeremy.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

Disturbing Sounds & Sound Design

• Clicking Sounds

  • Can't be avoided

• Distorted Music

  Throughout the game

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  When you enter the Grand Parlor, you'll run into Grace playing a broken and untuned piano.

  • Can't be avoided

• Distorted Voices

  Whispers

  • Can't be avoided

• High-Pitched Prolonged Tone

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Emily/Edward hear a tinnitus-like tone while staring at a painting after arriving at the asylum.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Eerie Noises

  Shuffling, creaking doors & floors

  • Can't be avoided

• Scratching

  • Can't be avoided

• Screams

  Emily screams and yelps in fear at times

  • Can't be avoided

• Wet Sounds

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  These are especially prominent near bodies of water & swamps. In areas with monsters, you may hear gurgling and other wet noises.

  • Can't be avoided

Drugs & Alcohol

• Alcohol Consumption

  You heal injuries by drinking alcohol

  • Can't be avoided

• Alcoholism

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  MacCarfey is an alcoholic, as discussed in patient notes and seen in cut scenes.

  • Can't be avoided

• Drug Addiction

  Discussion in patient files (doesn't have to be read)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Cassandra uses morphine to help with chronic back pain and has gotten addicted.

  • Is avoidable

• Drunkenness

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  MacCarfey is an alcoholic, as discussed in patient notes and seen in cut scenes.

  • Can't be avoided

• Forced Drug Use

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  END GAME SPOILERS — In one ending, Batiste and his sister drug Emily.

  • Is avoidable

• Intoxication

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  MacCarfey is an alcoholic, as discussed in patient notes and seen in cut scenes.

  • Can't be avoided

• Prescribed Medication

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Cassandra uses a variety of prescribed medications, including morphine, to help with chronic back pain. One puzzle involves sorting the medication bottles.

  • Can't be avoided

• Tobacco & Smoking

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Emily, Ruth, and others smoke regularly

  • Can't be avoided

Financial & Resource Management

• Scarcity

  Ammo, throwables, alcohol (healing)

  • Can't be avoided

Gore

• Animal Violence

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In the opening cutscene, you see a gator come out of the swamp and eat a frog. Later, while exploring the house, you find a pantry with hanging animal carcasses. You will have to kill animal-like mutated beasts throughout the game, including some that look like gators. In the cellar, there is a rat that gets electrocuted.

  • Can't be avoided

• Blood

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Both Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood get bloody if they're injured. Additionally, you will encounter smears / streaks / trails of blood in some areas.

  • Can't be avoided

• Body Horror

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Many enemies are mutated or somehow either fused together to other corpse pieces.

  • Can't be avoided

• Dismemberment

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Depending on how you shoot your enemies, they may lose limbs.

  • Can't be avoided

• Guts

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 5, following the ritual

  • Can't be avoided

Hate & Discrimination

• Ableism

  & sanism; Derceto Manor is an asylum

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Towards the beginning of the game, Emily says that madness runs in her family. Cassandra tried to commit suicide by jumping off a balcony and the patient notes call her a "cripple"; she is a wheelchair user with chronic back pain. Chapter 4 — you will find notes in the infirmary about Dr. Gray considering an icepick lobotomy. Later in the chapter, you'll encounter a hallucinatory cut scene that ends with Dr. Gray accusing you of starting to go mad (which you heavily deny). It is implied that John (Emily's late partner) dealt with PTSD following WWI. He wound up at Derceto, which Emily was unaware of. She states that she stopped visiting him because she couldn't handle the "indignity" of his illness. END GAME SPOILERS — In one ending, Emily stabs Jeremy in the eye effectively lobotomizing him.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misogyny

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby is dismissive of Emily's concerns at first, in a way that may be misogynistic & sexist

  • Can't be avoided

• Sexism

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby is dismissive of Emily's concerns at first, in a way that may be misogynistic & sexist

  • Can't be avoided

Horror Themes

• Black Magic

  • Can't be avoided

• Chase & Pursuit

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Various enemies, including The Dark Man in Chapter 3

  • Can't be avoided

• Jump Scares

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Some jump scares happen when you're attempting to open doors. One particular one in Chapter 2 fills the room to your waist with black sludge while crows circle the room cawing. In the infirmary in Chapter 4, the room will change from one filled with empty beds to one filled with dead bodies in bags — complete with one trying to sit up.

  • Can't be avoided

• Monsters

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  The first enemies you encounter look like bloated corpses covered in vines. Others look like monsters fused together (or fused with corpses). Then there are some that fly (Chapter 3). Jacob is an undead being who will come back to life and have to be killed several times. He also has long-reaching tentacles for arms and tendrils around his mouth.

  • Can't be avoided

• Possession

  • Can't be avoided

• Psychological Horror

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Lovecraftian references

  • Can't be avoided

• Voodoo

  • Can't be avoided

• Witchcraft

  • Can't be avoided

• Zombies & Undead

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Jacob is an undead being who will come back to life and have to be killed several times. He also has long-reaching tentacles for arms and tendrils around his mouth.

  • Can't be avoided

Law Enforcement

• Misc. Law Enforcement

  Carnby is a private investigator

  • Can't be avoided

Mental Health

• Anxiety

  • Can't be avoided

• Depression

  • Can't be avoided

• Family References

  • Can't be avoided

• Grief

  & guilt

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Both Emily & Carnby must deal with their guilt & grief in chapter 4. Emily has to come to terms with having abandoned her husband in Derceto after he was injured in the war. Carnby gets Grace's father killed, leaving her with her neglectful mother.

  • Can't be avoided

• Hallucinations

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Early on, the character you start as will be affected by a painting and start seeing things the other character cannot.

  • Can't be avoided

• Mental Illness

  Discussions of paranoia

  • Can't be avoided

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

  John

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 4 — It is implied that John (Emily's late partner) dealt with PTSD following WWI. He wound up at Derceto, which Emily was unaware of. She states that she stopped visiting him because she couldn't handle the "indignity" of his illness.

  • Can't be avoided

• Psych Ward

  Derceto Manor is an asylum

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 4, you will find notes in the infirmary about Dr. Gray considering an icepick lobotomy. Later in the chapter, you'll encounter a hallucinatory cut scene that ends with Dr. Gray accusing you of starting to go mad (which you heavily deny).

  • Can't be avoided

• Therapy Session

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 1, the interaction between Emily & Dr. Gray feels very much like an impromptu therapy session. At the end of Chapter 3, Emily finds The Dark Man's contract, and what isn't blacked out is very therapy-based (discusses psychological trauma, self-deceit, manic behavior).

  • Can't be avoided

Natural Events

• Pandemic

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 4, you can overhear a radio report about the 1918 influenza epidemic. There is also a deadly fungal infection within the home, which you learn about following the WW1 sequence.

  • Can't be avoided

• Storms

  Rain, lightning, thunder

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  As the evening goes on, there is a storm brewing outside of Derceto.

  • Can't be avoided

Non-Sexual Abuse & Violence

• Altercations

  • Can't be avoided

• Assault

  Choking; Grace

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  When Batiste runs into Emily, he pins her down and chokes her without realizing who she is at first. In Chapter 4, Grace slaps Emily repeatedly while telling her she needs to learn her place.

  • Can't be avoided

• Child Abuse

  Grace; Emily

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby gets Grace's father killed, leaving her with her neglectful mother. Grace's mother never actually cared about Carnby finding her in the past and was only concerned with the valuable painting that was stolen and sent her to Derceto instead of caring for her after the father's death. In Chapter 4, Grace slaps Emily repeatedly while telling her she needs to learn her place. This reminds Emily of (nonsexual) abuse by her father.

  • Can't be avoided

• Child Endangerment

  Grace

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby gets Grace's father killed, leaving her with her neglectful mother

  • Can't be avoided

• Gaslighting

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Carnby is dismissive of Emily's concerns at first

  • Can't be avoided

• Manipulation

  • Can't be avoided

• Mutilation

  Self-harm (not shown directly)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Some of the game's themes imply self-harm, such as suicide and depression, but are not shown explicitly.

  • Can't be avoided

Phobias

• Acrophobia

  Occurs in cut scenes

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2, you fall out of a second-story opening. At the end of Chapter 4, you fall off a mountain top.

  • Can't be avoided

• Aerophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  At the end of Chapter 3, once you've solved the tomb puzzle, there is a cut scene where flying enemies pick you up.

  • Can't be avoided

• Agliophobia

  • Can't be avoided

• Agoraphobia

  • Can't be avoided

• Arachnophobia

  Chapter 3 & Chapter 4

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 3 — When you're in the Egyptian section and climb down into the tomb, there are a bunch of tarantula-like spiders that skitter away after you land on the ground. Chapter 4 — When you are on the ship, the monsters take the form of small dog-size spider-like creatures.

  • Can't be avoided

• Claustrophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  You will have to squeeze between some items in a way that could trigger claustrophobia.

  • Can't be avoided

• Emetophobia

  Chapter 5

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  The end boss in Chapter 5 will vomit or spit a green substance.

  • Can't be avoided

• Hemophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Both Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood get bloody if they're injured. Additionally, you will encounter smears / streaks / trails of blood in some areas.

  • Can't be avoided

• Katsaridaphobia

  Insect noises on various levels; various insects skitter around here and there while you explore — some of these are cockroach-like in appearance

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  There are visible cockroaches in the cellar.

  • Can't be avoided

• Megalophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Very large monsters. Large statues.

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Phobias

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Ballistophobia (Fear of missiles or bullets), Botanophobia (Fear of plants), Chionophobia (Fear of snow — after entering Dr. Gray's closet in Chapter 4), Coulrophobia (Fear of clowns — jack in the box in Grace's room), Dendrophobia (Fear of trees - final boss is a giant tree), Dipsophobia (Fear of drinking), Electrophobia (Fear of electricity), Fumiphobia (fear of smoke), Homichlophobia (Fear of fog), Iatrophobia (Fear of doctors), Methyphobia (fear of alcohol), Pagophobia (fear of ice or frost — after entering Dr. Gray's closet in Chapter 4), Pharmacophobia (fear of medications), Psychophobia (fear of mental illness or the mentally ill), Pyrophobia (Fear of fire), Staurophobia (fear of crosses or the crucifix)

  • Can't be avoided

• Necrophobia

  It is possible to die — Be careful!

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable — There is a mummified cat in the garden that you do not have to find. Unavoidable — Jeremy's room has a statue that looks like a skeleton, but shorter, as well as a skull statue in-progress. Other areas of the game have skulls and body parts placed in ritual designs. After solving the boiler room puzzle, the hallway outside the room will contain coffins in the wall, similar to a crypt. A set of stairs will lead you outside into Lafayette cemetery, complete with above-ground stone coffins, above-ground family tombs, crosses, tombstones, and statues (both large & small). Once you've made it through the cemetery puzzles, you will encounter a person in a coffin. As the scene changes back to Derceto, you learn that this is Perosi and she is dead in her bed. There is a Sarcophagus puzzle. In the infirmary in Chapter 4, the room will change from one filled with empty beds to one filled with dead bodies in bags — complete with one trying to sit up. In Chapter 4, Emily will wind up in the morgue tunnels near the infirmary after the WW1 sequence. Here, her flashlight will intermittently work.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

• Nyctophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Several areas are incredibly dark. This is especially true in Chapter 2, where you have to turn off the power to the cellar. In Chapter 4, Emily will wind up in the morgue tunnels near the infirmary after the WW1 sequence. Here, her flashlight will intermittently work.

  • Can't be avoided

• Ommetaphobia

  Chapters 2 & 5

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2, after you place the valve onto the boiler to stop the steam, you will encounter a man (possibly a corpse, Emily remarks) sitting in another room. When you try to speak with him, eye-like holes pop up all over his body. Then, he just disappears. END GAME SPOILERS — In one ending, Emily stabs Jeremy in the eye effectively lobotomizing him. In this ending, you will also have to fight a boss and shoot eye-like spots.

  • Can't be avoided

• Thalassophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2 — One jump scare fills the room to your waist with black sludge while crows circle the room cawing. This happens while trying to open a door. The Lafayette cemetery features areas that are half-flooded. In Chapter 3 — As you leave the infirmary, a window breaks at the bottom of the stairwell and begins to flood the area with water.

  • Can't be avoided

• Traumatophobia

  • Can't be avoided

• Trypanophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2, Lottie tackles and attacks Emily after entering the Hateful Mound. Tabouis has a syringe and holds it up, ready to inject who she thinks is Jeremy. When you enter the Grand Parlor, there is a cutscene during which Grace will stab Emily in the rear end with a syringe.

  • Can't be avoided

• Trypophobia

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2, after you place the valve onto the boiler to stop the steam, you will encounter a man (possibly a corpse, Emily remarks) sitting in another room. When you try to speak with him, eye-like holes pop up all over his body. Then, he just disappears.

  • Can't be avoided

Physical Health & Body Issues

• Acquired Disability

  Discussion in patient files (doesn't have to be read)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Cassandra tried to commit suicide by jumping off a balcony and the patient notes call her a "cripple"; she is a wheelchair user with chronic back pain.

  • Is avoidable

• Misc. Physical Health & Body Issues

  Memory issues & amnesia (discussion in patient notes — doesn't have to be read)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Memory issues & amnesia — Elisabetta Perosi has amnesia.

  • Is avoidable

• Pain & Physical Suffering

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable (discussed in patient notes) — Cassandra has chronic back pain from an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

Religion & Sects

• Catholicism

  Heavy Catholic imagery, including crosses

  • Can't be avoided

• Cults

  The Shub-Niggurath cult is a main focus of the game

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  END GAME SPOILERS — In one bad ending, Carnby embraces and joins the cult. In another bad ending, Emily is about to commit suicide. This causes her to wake up inside the Dark Man's temple with a bunch of cultists.

  • Can't be avoided

• Priests

  • Can't be avoided

• Religion

  Religion, evil

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable — Burial mound mentioned in the Oil Rig Report; "Beast of Burden" is a collectable "lagniappes" note about historical bull worship Unavoidable — Shub-Niggurath cult

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

• Ritual Sacrifice

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Chapter 5 starts out with a ritual. The decisions you've made will determine if it is successful or not.

  • Can't be avoided

Sex & Erotica (Consensual)

• Sexual Commentary

  Discussion of sexual proclivities in patient files (does not have to be read); flirting

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Sexual Proclivities — Ruth is a nymphomaniac flapper locked in the asylum as her family does not approve of her open sexuality. Flirting — When Emily meets Ruth in the library, there is a conversation that could be read as somewhat flirtatious.

  • Is avoidable

Traumatic Events

• Accidents

  Car crash, crashed plane

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Ted Stryker crashes a car off a bridge. In Chapter 4, Emily winds up walking through WWI trenches, where you'll encounter cars and planes that are crashed and on fire.

  • Can't be avoided

• Mass Casualty Event

  World War I references

  • Can't be avoided

• Mass Shooting

  World War I references

  • Can't be avoided

• Misc. Traumatic Events

  • Can't be avoided

• Structure Fire

  Chapters 2 & 5

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In Chapter 2, you set the oil fields on fire including buildings. Depending on the ending you get in Chapter 5, Derceto may be set on fire. You will have to fight the end boss in this environment. If you beat the boss, the house will burn down.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

War & Military

• Civil War

  Account written in the "Lost Plantations of Louisiana" in the library (does not have to be read)

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  In this short snippet, the Union army reached Derceto and worked to fight workers and free the slaves.

  • Is avoidable

• World War I

  ShowHide potential spoilers or triggers

  Avoidable — Ruth was a photojournalist during World War I. Others were impacted by the war as well. Unavoidable — In Chapter 4, Emily has to come to terms with having abandoned her husband in Derceto after he was injured in WWI. You will encounter radio reports and wind up walking through trenches, where you'll encounter bombing and shelling.

  • Is avoidable
  • Can't be avoided

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