.It takes place in October of 1966 where a Fermi 1 Nuclear Power Generator lab accident occurs in a nuclear plant under Lake Erie and locals begin vanishing. Investigative reporter Oliver Victor is called to the scene to investigate these strange disappearances but quickly realizes he's trapped himself in an abandoned underground facility hunted down by the complex's hostile mutations.
Erie shows examples of:
- Arc Symbol: Black cats, which are scattered around the map as a very strange kind of collectible. While they lie around motionlessly and appear to be dead, their location is marked by loud meowing.
- Air-Vent Passageway: And thanks the lord for them, as the monsters cannot follow you through, allowing you to lead them to one side and then make a break for it on the other end.
- A Winner Is You: The game ends with a still image of the protagonist's silhouette jumping out of a waste pipe, accompanied only by the words "You Escaped into Lake Erie!"
- Featureless Protagonist: Also counting as a Silent Protagonist, all that is known about Oliver is that he's a Red Cross investigator.
- Informed Attribute: According to the game's description, the nuclear power plant is built underneath Lake Erie. However, the ending card clearly shows the protagonist falling out of a waste pipe and down into the lake, with the building itself being visible on a cliffside on the surface.
- Monochromatic Eyes: The monsters have wholly white eyes that seem to glow in the dark.
- Motion Blur: The game uses intense motion blur whenever you start running. With how fast your character is able to sprint, this can make it rather difficult to tell where you are going.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: Oliver tries to kill the remaining monsters in cryogenic suspension by shutting off their life support; this just ends up waking them all up instead.
- Pun-Based Title: The game takes place under Lake Erie, which is a homophone to "eerie", which means strange or frightening, a perfect description of this game.
- Top-Heavy Guy: All of the monsters have muscular upper bodies, but emaciated and seemingly non-functional legs. They walk around on their large arms instead.
- Was Once a Man: The collectible notes heavily imply the creature is a former human test subject who was mutated as part of some seriously nasty government experiments.