Creepypasta and video games have a long and storied history with each other. There are numerous examples of so-called corrupted games all over the internet. Perhaps the most famous of them all is Sonic.exe, which revolved around a seemingly possessed and corrupted copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. Another famous example of creepypasta videos is BEN Drowned, which told the story of a dead boy’s spirit possessing a cartridge of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. There are numerous stories that feature these two creepypastas.

Joining these creepypasta standouts is a web series called Petscop, which premiered in 2017. Many of the established tropes of what’s expected in a creepypasta and other horror media are subverted throughout this series. On the surface of Petscop, the actual plot is rather obtuse and experimental. The main tension and story throughout the episodes require the viewer to do some detective work.

It can often be frustrating for a viewer to analyze and do some digging to understand the actual themes of a piece of media, but luckily there are many different options people can use to get into this gem of a web series.

This article is the first in a series that will not only be a good all-in-one place for new viewers to learn about the theories and undertones of Petscop, but also highlight new ways of looking at the episodes for viewers who are already well versed in the show’s lore.

What is Petscop?

This web series easily falls into the genre of corrupted games, claiming to be a Let’s Play of a forgotten PlayStation game—the eponymous Petscop—which was allegedly released in 1997 by publisher Garalina. Petscop follows Paul, a player known by the only name on a file select screen found in the game. He is tasked with collecting a variety of abandoned “pets.” These pets are typically collected through various puzzles and such, making Petscop resemble a superficial Pokémon clone.

As would be expected by a work in the “corrupted games” genre, things don’t stay as simple as that for long. Paul eventually finds an area of the game that the average player was not supposed to find. This leads him to unravel a sort of mystery about what this new area of the game was hidden for. Paul records his travels to prove that he is not lying about Petscop.

An Ongoing Let’s Play

Petscop, at the time of writing this article, has released 16 episodes on a very staggered schedule. The dates of release can be important to the overall understanding of the episodes’ themes, resulting in months between uploads. Unfortunately, this usually leads to a long and difficult wait for fans.

Technically, the game featured in the web series does things that would be impossible for the actual PlayStation to handle. This is a small thing, but has been used to critique Petscop.

This article series will not review the quality of each episode. Instead, it will focus on the information gained in each episode, and the overall impact it has on the lore and themes of Petscop.

I believe we will have a fun time going through this series, and learn a little more about humanity in the process.