What do the red switches do in Superliminal?

Question

From time to time, in the recently released game Superliminal (portal-esque game based on perspective) you can find red switches that can be interacted with like this one:

They can be only flipped once, so once flipped you cannot interact with them anymore. Is there any purpose to them, or are they just decoration like fire extinguishers probably are?

Please note: the example is brownish in color because of the lighting of the room, they are rather red in normal lighting conditions :)

Kevin Reid · Accepted Answer

They are fire alarm pull stations. They never actually activate an alarm or do anything else relevant to gameplay, but they relate to a number of achievements. Here are their descriptions as given in Steam:

Fire Alarmist: Pull one fire alarm
Expert Fire Alarmist: Pull enough fire alarms
Fire Safety Achieved: Pull all the fire alarms

If you pull all the alarms (completing the Fire Safety Achieved achievement), then there is another bonus effect:

I believe the alarm stations in the “Clone” chapter which do not function normally do not count for the achievement, but I don't have proof.
If you're trying for the achievements, make sure to always turn around when you pass through a doorway to see if there's one on the wall behind you.

Related: the fire extinguishers, often found next to the fire alarm stations, have a set of achievements for emptying them (clicking them until they wheeze) and if you empty all of them,

Nick S · Answer

EDIT: This is no longer true. Apparently they now do something. See accepted answer.

I can't be certain that they do nothing, but as far as I can tell they serve the same purpose as all of the other misc objects with no story purpose (fire extinguisher, etc).

Using this walkthrough, in which the author interacts with every switch, there is no visible effect on the story.

Interestingly, the switch will duplicate itself an infinite number of times during some sections:

first appearance
second
final

Though later the switches will revert to the same original behavior.

This strange effect isn't limited to switches, either:

source

jay · Answer

It does in fact have a small effect on the game play. The doctor narrating the story congratulates you for activating all 823 emergency protocols (the switches and fire extinguishes) through one scene with a cassette player/ jukebox.

Answered by jay on May 4, 2021

What do the red switches do in Superliminal?

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