“Bureau of Contacts” horror-game: Easter Eggs search and theories.
Actually I was planning to talk about another Margot Robbie. About Easter Eggs in “Barbie”. But I was given a game strangely called “Bureau of Contacts”, where in an original way the riddle is placed on its poster.
I was ready to bet that it was done with neural networks, especially since the game is positioned as the first one, where neural network is trained to kill, but when I looked closely at the faces on the poster, I started to doubt.
Let’s get to the point — the game itself has not been released yet, but judging by the description it will be about ghost hunting. On the poster, we see something like ghostly appearance of people, apparently symbolizing the spirits.
But here’s the question — are they random or are the images familiar to us and deliberately created here?
I confess, with this question I went to Discord-channel of the game and found out that I’m not paranoid and I’m not the only one who after studying the poster thought that it smells of riddles, references to some kind of movie characters. Search of mysteries energize me)
And so I got this poster in the largest possible resolution, which I met in the network and took to recognize it.
In fact, we have about 30 faces, of which 25 are clear and another 5 are going as a fragments of faces.
From them I immediately see several similar (with empty eye sockets), which seems logical to put in trash at once, ’cause they are here rather to the heap — I mean 6–7 such (5 on the right and 1–2 on the left).
That leaves us about 23–24 faces to recognize.
“Bureau of Contacts” Easter Egg recognition
My recognition process is not easy, I’ve only recognized 6 so far, but the process is ongoing.
Now let’s deal with the rest as best we can. Did I cheat during recognition? Yes, I did :) I used a Google search, but I don’t think I was very successful in that, since I haven’t managed to figure out all of 23–24 yet anyway.)
Face #1.
The easiest thing here is, of course, the central character. A girl who resembles Margot Robbie without a shred of doubt. As mistakenly believed by the networks as Harley Quinn.
I disagree, as Harley Quinn had a different hairstyle — I’d rather bet on “I, Tonya”.
Riding out the billing of an image of one that doesn’t come off the screens (Babylon, Barbie, probably the Sims) is certainly a smart move :)
Next, we move to the left side of the picture.
Face #2.
The screaming face on the upper left is also generally recognizable without problems, as the only thought that comes to mind is that this is the mummy from the The Mummy movie.
Even the specific moment is when she lets out insects from her mouth.
Face #3.
On the bottom left is another familiar image — a face looking directly into the camera. Fortunately, I still have “The Town” in my memory, so the image of the robber dressed as a nun immediately popped into my mind’s eye.
It was probably even Ben Affleck, but I decidedly don’t remember if it really was him.
So we already have 3 images and they are all movie images. But the 4th I’ve identified ruins the theory that it’s all movie.
Face #4.
On the left we also see only a fragment of a face, but this is the one that made me doubt whether the neural network made this picture.
Because to reproduce The Outlast Trials so accurately you have to try hard. The girl from the short film “Frightening Woods”, but she is less known.
From here we could conclude that we are dealing with characters not from movies, but from media in general…but let’s go to looks #5 and #6.
Face #5. On the right, apparently a female image, blindfolded.
I, frankly speaking, thought about the fact, and who I know similar, except for the goddess Themis — after all, it is directed in the first place. But it is most likely impossible, as such an image ruins all my hypotheses that these are all references to media resources. But that’s the only working theory so far.
I sectioned off Sandra Bullock’s heroine from “Bird Box” 2018, as well as the girls from the already mentioned short film “Frightening Woods” and “The Last Thing Mary Saw” — the faces are not similar, since in the picture the woman seems to be inhaling this bandage))
Face #6.
As with Themis the first thing that came to mind was the Virgin Mary.
I’ve so far tried in vain to google someone from the movie or remember on my own, but have not succeeded. Maybe it’s an image from some game.
False theories
Of course, I decided not to invent a bicycle, but to also read those who have already tried to make sense of this picture and have a couple hypotheticals…which I would like to dismiss.
1. As one theory — the picture has Theodore Rousvelt’s face from Mount Rushmore or from Night at the Museum (unclear where)
I would refute it, as Theodore was wearing glasses at Night at the Museum, and there is no one wearing glasses on the banner. Secondly, personally, I don’t see anyone who could resemble at least 50% of his appearance from Mount Rushmore.
2. Terminator’s appearance (it’s unclear where).
Definitely not. Even if I add red lights to one of the faces with empty eye sockets, there is no main thing — the Terminator’s head is similar to a human skull, and there is nothing like that on the picture.
3. The hunchback from “300” about Spartans (top left).
Here I could rather agree, but I remember the image of Ephialtes with an open mouth and teeth, whereas here the mouth is closed and no teeth are visible.
Conclusions
What can be stated after examining the banner:
- Is the image made by a neural network? I don’t know.
- Are there any Easter Eggs? I guess so.
- What do the images have in common? Of the 6 I recognized, 3 represent movies of different genres, 1 is a game, and 2 more are more like myths/religion (but maybe there are games in there that I’m not too familiar with).
Recognition is on the pause but will be continued…
Don’t hesitate to share with me similar things to crash my brain)
