Posted March 02, 2013
I finished the game last night in one sitting. It was a very moving game. I was shocked to find this thread just now detailing how radically different the game can play out. I was aware of a certain freedom in the choices that could be made but I didn't really see how the game could be completed without the ladder or the box for example.
My ending (resulting from more or less natural decisions on my part) was the one that results in Alice's suicide. In point-and-click games I tend to soak in everything I can—exploring every area, every dialogue choice, and picking up every item even if it's like Monkey Island where many of the items are clearly useless junk.
From the get-go and for most of the game I felt Alice was more or less supposed to be the game's most vital character. You really only control Richard in one area of the game, and his past and motivations are really only explored as asides to Alice's story. In point of fact, the characters' actions seemed to have little direct impact on one another until they met in prison, which at a glance diminishes Richard's role in the story. Thinking back however (and since beginning a new file) it has occurred to me that perhaps Richard really is the "player character" so to speak. He is the one you control in the present, and ultimately he is the one who is judged in the end, as the outcome seems effectively dictated by Alice.
Then again, it would seem that the outcome is dependent on some things that happen outside Richard's control. I'm interested in the notion that Alice can actually travel to Polar Bear territory in the end. I assume that the player has some say over this in the way Alice chooses to regard the gang in passing. I believe I generally guided her and Barney away from any threatening figures by disdaining the "bad men" or simply avoiding the subject. Furthermore, due to my nature, Alice picked up every last note left by anyone at all, so it could be said that my Alice had a larger scope of events and was privy to more "horrors" than the average player's game. Perhaps this affects her outlook and her opinion of Richard.
Certain items I see listed in the topic, to me, seem relatively unimportant to the outcome. I had Richard say "No" to having killed (not to be plainly dishonest but because I didn't think there was a "canon" answer), and though she calls him on the lie his excuse seems plausible. Similarly, I chose to push Alice about her illustrator dream (call it insatiable curiosity) and while this initially displeases Alice it seems to actually bode well when she ends up smiling about it and recounts her dream. Regardless of my reasoning, I can't help but feel Alice picks up on general traits that could be seen as unsavory (the former being a tendency to stretch the truth, the latter antisocial behavior in a sense) which could have affected my game's outcome. After all, Alice chose to doom Richard by putting him more or less in the same circumstances in which she found herself. Perhaps it was her way of punishing Richard, or perhaps it was a more neutral action born from Alice's arguably defeatist attitude. She was suffering from some manner of depression (to state the obvious) and thus it could have little to do with Richard in the end.
All in all, a very curious and engrossing story.
My ending (resulting from more or less natural decisions on my part) was the one that results in Alice's suicide. In point-and-click games I tend to soak in everything I can—exploring every area, every dialogue choice, and picking up every item even if it's like Monkey Island where many of the items are clearly useless junk.
From the get-go and for most of the game I felt Alice was more or less supposed to be the game's most vital character. You really only control Richard in one area of the game, and his past and motivations are really only explored as asides to Alice's story. In point of fact, the characters' actions seemed to have little direct impact on one another until they met in prison, which at a glance diminishes Richard's role in the story. Thinking back however (and since beginning a new file) it has occurred to me that perhaps Richard really is the "player character" so to speak. He is the one you control in the present, and ultimately he is the one who is judged in the end, as the outcome seems effectively dictated by Alice.
Then again, it would seem that the outcome is dependent on some things that happen outside Richard's control. I'm interested in the notion that Alice can actually travel to Polar Bear territory in the end. I assume that the player has some say over this in the way Alice chooses to regard the gang in passing. I believe I generally guided her and Barney away from any threatening figures by disdaining the "bad men" or simply avoiding the subject. Furthermore, due to my nature, Alice picked up every last note left by anyone at all, so it could be said that my Alice had a larger scope of events and was privy to more "horrors" than the average player's game. Perhaps this affects her outlook and her opinion of Richard.
Certain items I see listed in the topic, to me, seem relatively unimportant to the outcome. I had Richard say "No" to having killed (not to be plainly dishonest but because I didn't think there was a "canon" answer), and though she calls him on the lie his excuse seems plausible. Similarly, I chose to push Alice about her illustrator dream (call it insatiable curiosity) and while this initially displeases Alice it seems to actually bode well when she ends up smiling about it and recounts her dream. Regardless of my reasoning, I can't help but feel Alice picks up on general traits that could be seen as unsavory (the former being a tendency to stretch the truth, the latter antisocial behavior in a sense) which could have affected my game's outcome. After all, Alice chose to doom Richard by putting him more or less in the same circumstances in which she found herself. Perhaps it was her way of punishing Richard, or perhaps it was a more neutral action born from Alice's arguably defeatist attitude. She was suffering from some manner of depression (to state the obvious) and thus it could have little to do with Richard in the end.
All in all, a very curious and engrossing story.
