Rise of Nightmares: The Lost Tapes of Roland Childs

Rise of Nightmares: The Lost Tapes of Roland Childs is a graphic novel based on the Xbox 360 Kinect game Rise of Nightmares, it was created by Al Ewing and artist Marc Olivent. The graphic novel tells the story of Roland Childs, the private detective that left the tape recorders in the game.

Pages

Plot

The story begins as Roland is hiking the mountains with his guide Dorin. Roland grew frustrated as his tapes constantly break in the middle of recording but didn't mind throwing it as he brought along around thirty more tapes. Dorin asked Roland if the tapes were for his autobiography, Roland replied that they were notes for his psychiatrist but their conversation was cut short when they came across several impaled heads on the path. The panel then jumps into a therapist's office where Roland is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation after his investigation in Eastern Europe. Roland tells the therapist that the actual reason he went there was because he was hired the Thomas Foundation to track down one of their ex-employees, Viktor Fleischer in exchange for a large sum of money as payment, which he gladly accepts. During his investigation he was shocked when he discovered several horribly mutilated human corpses in the forest, as well as various grave markers in the area. The therapist doesn't seem to believe Roland's stories and assumes that he made it all up, the enraged Roland objects to the accusation and insists that the whole event he had witnessed was very much real. The therapist then presents Roland with one of his tapes and the two begin to hear the recording, it depicted Roland discovering an ancient grave site, he entered the underground chambers and discovered several corpses laid on pedestals, the corpses also exhibited signs of extensive surgery that what he described as a stuff of madness, they were also fitted with bizarre mechanical parts, as if the corpses were treated as "toys" or turned into "macabre clockwork dolls". Roland begins his recording and once he was done, he was attacked by the now living corpses.

The therapist considered the recording to be implausible, suggesting that Roland was delirious from fatigue or that he was dreaming. Once again Roland objects and shows her the scar on his hand which he got from hitting one of them directly in the face until Roland saw a brief glimpse of the therapist with rotting eyes. It turned out to be a hallucination and the therapist continues to hear the recording, revealing Roland's further discoveries. such as Viktor's manor, the dungeons, Mary, and O Zhuvindo. Roland can't remember anything depicted in the recording, the therapist assumes that Roland is experiencing memory loss that may be caused by Roland's mind helping him to forget what really happened, the therapist suggests that he should take a rest in a sanitarium due to him being under stress and should stay away from the world for a while in order to heal. But as Roland considers the offer, he begins to wonder how did the therapist obtained his recordings as he had left them all over Viktor's manor, he then slaps the recording off of her hand. The therapist still insists that Roland is being delusional, the enraged Roland leaves the office only to reveal an oblivious realm outside. It is revealed that the whole evaluation was actually Roland's own delusion that has been keeping him sane and believed himself that he had escaped the mansion. Viktor appears in a glimpse reminding Roland of what really happened to him, Roland tries to convince himself that he was fine and there was nothing wrong with him, the therapist tells Roland that he must find a new delusion to cling on as Roland falls into oblivion. In reality, it was revealed that Viktor had transformed Roland into one of his altered creations, the altered Roland simply mutters "I..." "...Feeeel..." "...Fan...Taaas...Tic..."

Trivia

• The comic depicts several things that coincide with Roland's tapes.
  • The female Thomas Foundation representative mentioned in Tape 02 makes an appearance.
  • The Romanian guide mentioned in Tape 03, who's name is revealed to be Dorin makes an appearance.
  • The events that transpired during and after the recording of Tape 05 are shown in the comic.
  • Tape 15 was presented to Roland, although it was different when compared with the in-game recording.
  • The comic's epilogue display several things in Tape 21, such as Roland's left arm being replaced with a mechanical one.