Game Over

Being a teenager was great. Well, it was for Andy. He was a high school drop-out and a gamer, or as his parents called him, a 'failure and going nowhere in life.'

That wasn't true. Not in the slightest. Andy had a job as a game tester, which for him was the ultimate dream come true. Getting paid to play games all day? He couldn't ask for a better occupation.

Currently, he was on his way to the local Game Stop his friend Danny worked at. Sometimes Andy finished his game play-throughs before his deadline and had some time to spare. He looked at the big red letter on the window advertising the upcoming release of a new, very anticipated game called 'F.E.A.R.' Andy wasn't too interested, but he hadn't learned too much about it either.
Andy opened the door, the bells chiming to notify anyone of his entrance.

"Hey, Andy!" The stores manager, Craig, grinned wildly. "How's that game Danny's been telling me about? What was it called again...?"

"It was the new Batman game- Arkham Knight." Andy smiled proudly. Out of all the games he had played, the Batman games were always, by far, his favorite. Craig nodded with a laugh.
"Ah.. Of course. You enjoying it so far? I hear it's gonna to be pretty good." Craig leaned over the counter.

"It's absolutely killer." Andy grinned. "But I'm not giving anything away. Sorry." He made a zip motion across his lips.

"Damn." Craig sighed. "Alright, I get it. I'll go get Danny for ya, wait here." He pushed off the counter and went into the back. Andy leaned on it, arms crossed as he waited patiently.

"There's my favorite customer!" He heard Danny's British accent from behind him and turned, high-fiving him. It was probably a no-brainer, but Andy stopped in about twice a week. Needless to say, he was pretty close to everyone who worked there.
"Hey, slow day, huh?" He asked, looking around the empty store.

"Yeah... But it'll be crazy next Monday when we finally put that new game on the shelf." Danny shrugged.
"What, F.E.A.R? It looks... Kinda lame." Andy shook his head.

"You would say that." Danny rolled his eyes and pulled out a copy from under the counter. "Look at this." He pointed to the case.
Andy took it and read the brief description it gave and rolled his eyes. "Really? A dystopian rebel fighting to save mankind from an organization who goes by the name of F.E.A.R? You're kidding. The characters name is Deviant, too." He laughed and handed it back. "Sorry, man. Compared to the stuff I've played lately, that doesn't even sound remotely cool."

"Says the one who gets to play all the hottest new games before the release date." Danny rolled his eyes. "C'mon, mate. Look, Craig won't mind- so just take it. You can pay later."
Andy raised an eyebrow and took the case again, observing the design critically. "Fine. But I'll probably return in before I'm done."
Danny hit his shoulder and playfully shoved him.

"Just go play it, you nerd." He laughed.
Andy shrugged and put it in a GameStop bag to keep it from view- he may not be thrilled about it, but some people were absolutely going nuts over the game already.

Andy walked down he sidewalk to his house, whistling a song from the Arkham Knight game. There was no way this new game could top Arkham Knight. No way.

"Oh, Andy. Where were you?" His mom frowned, glancing at him from the kitchen door. "You never said you were going out."
"I went to visit Danny." He shrugged and kicked his converse off.

"And you got another game?" She sighed heavily. Andy looked at her and nodded.
"Um... Yeah. Mom, it's kinda what I do." He laughed and went upstairs, listening as she muttered 'that boy's addicted,' before walking back into, presumably, the kitchen. Andy rolled his eyes and tossed the game on his bed, sitting at his desk with his laptop and finishing up his review about Arkham Knight to send to the company. Playing through it, the only bugs he really came across were some occasional lagging in movement, and sometimes the characters mouth movement wasn't in sync with the dialogue. He re-read his email before sending it and closing the lid of his laptop, stretching over the back of the chair.

"Alright..." He sighed to himself and stood, going to the kitchen downstairs. He returned with a sandwich and a can of Mountain Dew, setting them on the desk and taking the game he received earlier on.

Andy popped the disk in to his laptop and watched the title screen open, nodding a little. Ok, the violin music wasn't bad... He spent a few minutes speculating and critiquing the title screen art. A rosary with a star charm dropped in front of the screen, slowly catching fire as it spun slowly and disappeared into the flames completely. The light of the fire faded into the title screen, the options on the left of the of the game title. The background showed a camp site of some sort, with a flag hanging from a post. Ok, he was curious now. Andy raised an eyebrow before beginning a new game file under the name 'Prophet,' his gamer tag. While the prologue cut-scene played, Andy turned his bedroom lights off.

"The days are long and tiring, and the nights are sleepless." The voice, who Andy assumed to be the main characters voice actor, began to speak. "F.E.A.R has taken more than 300 prisoners in the last week, and I'm beginning to question the motive. Are they provoking us to strike or are they trying to weaken our spirits? Or is it both? Regardless, we will fight until the end. We'll either win this fight or we will die trying."

Andy yawned. Lame... Way too cliché. The prologue soon ended, thankfully, and Andy began the tutorials of how to move the character, how to pick up items, how use them, etc. before the actual game play started. Just like he always, he took a bit of time to observe the games layout. When Andy reviewed a game, the detail and design was key. If the game was lazily made, he usually didn't give a good review- unless the game-play itself was good. He looked at the layout, squinting his eyes. It seemed to be set in a desert, wind blowing up clouds of dust around the character every so often. In the distance he saw a small camp, the cloth tents looking to be covered in dirt and black war paint, and surrounded by black flags with an upside down star painted in white. The fabric flapped in the wind, seeming very realistic. Ok, so far, so good. Andy moved the character around a bit, observing the dust that appeared when he broke into a sprint.

Going a bit further into the barren dystopian wasteland, he saw a large structure that looked almost like a Gothic cathedral, with two large figured guarding the entrance. With curiosity, he moved closer but was frustrated to find there was a barrier keeping him from going any closer. He hated it when games blocked off areas until a certain point...

With a sigh of defeat, Andy turned the character around and moved them in a different direction. The surroundings were very dull, but then again it was the middle of nowhere. The desert floor was dry and cracked, with no signs of life anywhere, besides the two locations he had already seen.

After closely observing every small detail, from the dust clouds to the way the sun glared on the scene, he moved his attention to the appearance of the character. Black leather vest with the words 'The Deviant' across the back. The characters hair was black and about shoulder length, with a bandanna around his forehead. The pants were black as well, tight, too, and were followed by very worn combat boots. Well, the guy sure looked like a rebel. A very stereotypical rebel with tattoo sleeves and eyeliner, but a rebel, nonetheless.

It wasn't even a few minutes before the first enemy came into play, dressed in a black cloak and weird ritualistic looking mask, with large horns. In its black glove clad hand was a long, tall staff, with an odd design that looked to be a weird variation of a cross inside what looked to be a sun . Creative, but it could've been a bit better. Andy thought to himself as he fought it off. The character moved flawlessly, which pleased Andy.

After a long while, though, Andy got bored and paused it. "I told Danny this game was lame." He muttered as he tossed his now empty Mountain Dew can in the trash. Just as Andy moved to take his plate back down to the kitchen, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Hey, pretty boy!" The voice snapped. Wait, didn't he pause his game? Andy turned to look, jolting back when he saw the main character up on the screen, looking a little irritated. Actually, it looked extremely realistic, too. How was it talking to him though?

"What the hell...?" He frowned. "Damn, this game is whack." He leaned in, moving his mouse and going to the menu page- but the character was still there on the screen. Andy rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"You're trying to get rid of me, huh?" It glared. "You're quick to judge a game, y'know. The betas that played before you were a hell of a lot better than you were." The guy sneered.

Andy blinked. He took a moment of silence before responding, taking a look at the characters face now that it was closer now. Chocolate brown eyes, pink lips, very sharp jaw line. Wow, not bad for a game character.

"How the hell are you-" but before he could finish, the characters arm reached out of the screen- Ok, freaky- and pulled him in with the leather clad hand.
And then, everything was black.