Left Behind Spoiler Post!

SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS@@@ SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!

       Quick little spoiler post here. So... I guess Ellie is a lesbian. I'm really conservative about most issues and I believe that homosexuality is morally wrong per the teachings of the Bible. Of coures, I also adhere to Christ's strong commands to love everyone and not judge. So of course I still love Ellie as a character, but I'm also a little upset that what I view as a negative thing is portrayed as one of the only positive things in Ellie's life. I also feel like it kind of takes away from the great hours I spent with Riley in the mall. That felt like such an innocent playtime between two young girls, but the scene in the department store at the end soured that for me a bit (still very enjoyable though. Got a vibe of realism from their conversations and behaviors that I recognize from seeing teenage girls talk and run around malls).

       Ellie still comes off as quite the innocent character, and she's still great. And I still loved this DLC. I just wish Ellie and Riley were friends only. Hopefully I don't draw too much ire for this opinion. It's also a bit weird that this is revealed as a sneak attack in DLC months after the game came out. Very similar to what we learned about a certain character in a certain series of books after they were all published... It seems like nowadays we have to always think about sexuality as a possibilty when two people of the same gender are good friends, which to me is weird. Obviously some people of the same gender become attracted to each other, but there are also really strong, intimate friendships between people of the same gender that don't have any sexual undertone. I hope that kind of friendship can still be portrayed in fiction without people getting the wrong idea or making assumptions. I'm sure it can, I'm just throwing this idea out there. Thank you for listening, please don't send me hate mail :) Of course non-hate mail disagreeing with me is fine :)

      The combat situation I was talking about in the review is the handful of times there are infected and hunters running around in the same area. Throwing bottles at the hunters to make infected attack them is great, as is getting snuck up on by infected while hiding from hunters. Having both after you at once is quite frightening and also opens up room for some interesting tactics, and as far as I remember, there wasn't a scenario like this in the main game.

       I wonder what Naughty Dog is working on now... Hopefully something good.

The Walking Dead Episode 5: No Going Back SPOILER POST

YOU KNOW THE DEAL ABOUT SPOILERS!!!! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO READ THEM!!!!

YOU KNOW THE DEAL ABOUT SPOILERS!!!! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO READ THEM!!!!

YOU KNOW THE DEAL ABOUT SPOILERS!!!! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO READ THEM!!!!

Here're my stats:

I protected the baby.

I shot the zombies instead of going to help Luke in the ice.

I did not ask to leave with Mike.

I shot Kenny.

I was with Jane and the family in the end.

       Man, I think Jane is like the new Kenny now. She kinda made me kill Kenny, and I'm really mad about that. But I had to go with her as that's the best chance for the baby to live. And she did kinda prove her point about Kenny being crazy. Clementine's reaction of saying everything's ok with Jane is not how I feel. I'm mad, and I don't trust Jane now. But I need her help to protect the baby. Maybe I should have said I didn't want to go anywhere with her. But she is great at surviving, and AJ and I need all the help we can get. That's a pretty haunting ending, and another step toward becoming a messed-up adult for Clementine. Clem really took a physical beating this season too. She's going to have a bunch of scars. We'll see where things go from here in season 3. I think a bit of a time jump would be appropriate. Things went so bad for so many people this time around. I wonder if Mike and Bonnie and Arvo are still alive... One of them might be. We'll see if they turn up. 
       That Lee flashback was great.
       I talked to a friend who finished the season, and in the end, his Kenny killed Jane and then he and Clem went to this town they were hoping was safe, but they only let Clem and the baby in. Totally different than my ending! I wonder how season 3 is going to work since the two endings are so different. It seems like it would be hard to bring them back together to follow only one path for a bit in season 3. Maybe there will be two paths from now on? Sounds like a lot of work...
       Great stuff. Not as good as the first season, but still great stuff, and pretty unique among video games. 

The Walking Dead season 2 Episode 4 Amid the Ruins SPOILER POST!!!

DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT YET PLAYED THIS EPISODE!!! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Real quick, here are my choices:

I saved Sarah at the trailer park (Although I thought very seriously about leaving her both there and when she fell off the deck. Especially off the deck)

I robbed Arvo, thinking he was lying about his sister since he appeared to be making some kind of shady drop and had a TON of medical stuff.

I crawled through the ticket booth.

I held the baby.

I shot Rebecca.

       The emotion I felt a lot in this episode was anger toward Kenny. I know he's going through enough to literally make someone crazy, but he was treating Clementine terribly. I know it's good writing because I was genuinely mad at him. But now he seems to be doing pretty good. Arguing with Luke is almost a good sign. Man, a lot of people died horribly this episode. Can't wait for the finale!  

Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 3: In Harm's Way Spoiler Post!

Spoiler Warning! You have been warned that spoilers are ahead!



 Here are my choices (at least the ones I can remember, since I can't actually review “My Choices” (see review!):

At the beginning, I just stared at Carver, causing him to slap me (this was the first episode where I remained silent several times on purpose because I thought it was what Clem would do).

I tried to get Kenny to calm down and not try to escape when we were riding in the truck.

I think I said that it was my fault that Sarah was talking, but she still got slapped by her Dad (who died later!)

I helped Sarah with her work. Then I told Carver that she didn't understand (man, she is dumb, talking while Carver is talking and then not working!) but he still killed that guy who was watching us.

I said we should do both escape plans at the same time.

I tried to help Kenny and got a rifle butt to the face.

I didn't watch Kenny kill Carver. I wanted to just shoot him and get it over with, but Kenny is going crazy!

I chopped Sarita's arm off. Then when she screamed, I thought that I should have considered that she would scream and attract more zombies. Maybe I shouldn't have helped her and just chopped the Zombie, then cut her arm off later. But then she might not have survived the bite. That thing was going to town on her arm!

The big questions for me are the fates of Sarita and Sarah. Based on the preview, it seems that Sarah is still alive but has run off. It's a big ? For Sarita though. Kenny is looking awesome with his eye-patch. Wonder what he'll look like without it. And is Clementine going to run away with Jane? It doesn't seem like a bad idea. I think the next episode is coming out this month, so we might find out soon!

Also, that's Tavia from 400 Days, and this is the community she was recruiting people into. That is very upsetting. And Vince is there! And guess what? Vince didn't go to the community at the end of my 400 Days playthrough! This thing needs to load my choices better!

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 2: A House Divided SPOILER POST!!!!

!!!WARNING!!! THIS POST SPOILS THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2 EPISODE 2: A HOUSE DIVIDED AND ALL PREVIOUS WALKING DEAD STUFF!!!! DO NOT READ IT UNTIL YOU ARE DONE PLAYING OR YOU WILL HAVE NEEDLESSLY RUINED A STORY YOU SHOULD EXPERIENCE FOR YOURSELF!!!! THAT MEANS YOU JON!!!!!!!!

Here are my choices:

     I said that Carlos told me to distract Sarah, so Carver seeing the picture isn't my fault. I don't know why this is a big deal though, as there's no way I could have known that taking her picture is a bad idea.

I sat with Kenny at dinner, of course!! I was so happy to see him and felt so much loyalty to him. Then I remembered some of the messed up stuff he did in season 1, like not going with Lee to find Clem. Jerk. This made me realize that it's hard to find people you can really trust, and that maybe I would be better off in the new group of people I don't know that well. I miss Lee. Still, I'm trying to stick with Kenny as much as possible and stay with him. Forget this new group. I tried to warn Kenny that Nick is stupid by saying I can't vouch for everyone. I think Luke took that hard thinking I was saying that I didn't trust the group. But I do trust Luke. I just wanted Kenny to know that Nick might turn on him pretty quick. You know, because he's stupid.

     I told Walter the truth about Matthew. That was a tense scene. Seeing Matthew almost lose it after all that goody-goody talk was crazy. But he really stuck to his principals and saved Nick. Darn, I just remembered that he died. Darn.

     As previously said, I got Walter to not attack Nick. I considered throwing Nick under the bus even more than I did, but I said that he saved my life, because that is totally true. Although I don't trust him now that he killed Matthew like that. Since this is a major choice that has stat tracking, I wonder if Walter does kill Nick if you do that scene differently.

     I left to find Kenny rather than turning myself in to Carver. I thought it was the best bet to survive and to help a majority of the group, even if some ended up dying. I figured Kenny and Luke and I could find a way to get out of the situation, or get some people out. Didn't work out that way though. Luke is still out there somewhere. I wonder if he'll try to save us or if he really did run away like Carver said.

     There were some great subverted expectations in this episode. Not that subverting expectations automatically equals good writing. I feel in these games it fits the theme of things not going according to plan or things just happening without a reason. When Matthew got shot by Nick, I thought it was just a sad, random thing; a possibility that can never be explored because it was cut short by violence. It took me quite awhile to figure out the stranger Nick blew away was Matthew. Right in the middle of exploring the lodge and talking to people, bam, it hit me, and I knew Walter would have a bad reaction to it if he found out. I had hoped the group would move on and I would stay with Kenny, then I would tell Walter about Matthew.

     Kenny calling Clem “Duck,” was pretty interesting. At first I thought that is pretty unhealthy for Kenny to kind of replace Duck with Clem in how he thinks about her. She's not Duck. But is it really that bad in a situation like that? Maybe not. Maybe that would be good for both of them to have that relationship.

     Nick killing Matthew is a great example of the kind of morality that exists in this situation. You have to stay with people even if there crazy some times as long as they are loyal to you. You have to move on with them and hope they do better, or find a way to ditch them. Or just wait for them to die. And hopefully it doesn't come to killing them yourself.

     That's Bonnie, the lady from 400 Days, with Carver, right? Looks like she will be in the next episode too. I loved her section of 400 Days. I think she ran away without that guy she loved after killing his wife in my game. Can't quite remember though. Interesting what she is up to now. Carver seems like a bad guy, but I have a bit of a sinking feeling about the group that separated from him too...

     Anyway, I want to stay with Kenny. He did a lot of good stuff for Lee and Clem in season 1, and I wondered if he had really died. He was a total jerk and idiot a few times, and he seems a little high strung now, which is not good, but I feel a lot of loyalty to him just because he is a familiar face and has done a lot of good for Clem in the past. I think he will be loyal to her to in many situations that could come up.

Everyday Shooter Spoiler Post!!!!

WARNING! READING THIS POST WILL SPOIL EVERYDAY SHOOTER FOR YOU. THE GAME HAS NO STORY, BUT IS ENTIRELY ABOUT DISCOVERING THINGS FOR YOURSELF. DISCOVERING THEM HERE IS LAME, SO BEAT THE GAME FIRST, OR COME HERE FOR TIPS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

So, here's all the stuff I figured out in the levels (and one thing the internet told me).

Level 1 – Robot – Basically, you want to start a chain reaction on one of the spinny, shooty guys while he is shooting. This makes the biggest flare and also gives you some glowing points for the bullets he shot out. Don't kill any enemies except in chain reactions; you can usually hold out and dodge everything until you start an explosion, unlike in the other levels where you have to shoot to survive. Also, do you see how the pillars in the background follow your movements? Took me awhile to notice that.

Level 2 – Root of the Heart (I'm including all the level names because they are amazing. They remind me of the chapter names in Atlas Shrugged and The Zombie Knight. Always shoot the biggest base. That will usually make all the others explode and give you points when it dies, although occasionally, some rogue base won't be linked up and will survive this. Also, if you cause a chain reaction to go off while those search light lasers are firing, the whole beam will turn into tons of glowing points.

Level 3 – Lush Look Killer – This is a hard level. Shooting the yellow eyes once will cause them to expand. If you wait until they are huge to shoot them again, they will kill many more little eyeballs than if you blow them right away. This causes points. As does killing the glowing robots, obvs. But the one thing that I didn't discover for a long time is that if you shoot the center eyeball a lot until it shrinks to its minimum size, it will start spewing out tons of glowing points as you continue to shoot it. Killing the big eyeball bases it spawns at the end of the level makes lots of points too. Notice: those eyeballs are watching you!

Level 4 – Porco in the Sky – Is that a reference to Porco Rosso? Has to be, right? In order to take out three red-baron guys, you have to kill both suns in the first section. This isn't too hard; if you are really aggressive you can do it most of the time. One way to do it is to wait until they spawn a lot of planes, then fly inside the circle of planes real close to the sun. This gives you a lot of opportunity to fire on the sun. Or stop a cube right in front of a sun to kill all the planes just as they are spawned. Then, to kill all three porcos, you must be really aggressive again. The times I did this unlock, I lost many lives in the level. I sacrificed them to take these jerks out, and it felt great. The best way to fight them is to back away directly from their flight path, dodging their shots with subtle movements and firing the whole time. It seemed so impossible at first, but just be really aggressive and use all your lives and you can do it!

Level 5 – Build 88 – This is a more straightforward one, as many of the things you kill automatically give out lots of points. Of course, lots of things in the level can shoot, so it's really hard. Those red guys are healing stuff, so make sure you kill big structures before they fix them, or kill the red guys themselves.

Level 6 – Bits of Fury – Also more straightforward. There are tons of bombs, and using them will get you tons of points. Grab any bomb you can, then stay by it and detonate it when things get hairy (read: 1 second later). Fly into the bombs' explosion as it goes off to avoid fire. In the short time before the boss spawns, link up as many bombs as possible up near the top third of the screen. Hopefully this will take out some of his lasers and a big chunk of his health right away. Otherwise fighting him is going to be real cringe-worthy.

Level 7 - Earthworm – For a while, I couldn't figure out how to kill a worm without it splitting in two. Destroying a section near the head seems to do the trick, and net you a bunch of points. Those green spinny things turn into worms if you don't kill them quickly enough. A few shots will postpone this if you are dealing with many at once and they are all about to turn. The brown shots come out of the worms. Because of the raindrops, I didn't realize that for awhile and didn't know where they were coming from. Knowing they are from the worms helps. I find that staying on the edge of the screen and firing across the level helps you to dodge the brown bullets (at least until the bush starts growing). I don't know what is up with the all spider section at the end. I guess it's just a calm way to end the level. I can't find a way to generate too many points out of that part.

Level 8 – So Many Ways – In the first section, when you see one of the arrows stop moving and pull away from the group and turn purple, shoot it quickly to cause an explosion that will usually protect you from the other flying arrows. Keep shooting as you move toward points, and you should be good. How to kill the boss is the only info in this post I got from outside the game. I figured out that shooting the circles when they are near him hurts him, and that it hurts him more if they have those vibration lines on them, and that the circles that hold still hurt him a whole lot. But the internet told me that if you shoot a circle once when it has vibration lines around it, it will become a circle that holds still. Of course, if your bullet hits any of the other circles, they will set it off, so it is hard to create these still circle bombs. But using ten or so of them is the only way I was able to kill the boss. And even then, it took about 4 tries. I can't imagine doing it at the end of running through all the other levels.That's hardcore. I lost almost all my lives when doing it on level-select mode. Once it dies, it will float in the middle of the screen and gush points like nothing else in the game. It also still shoots those long purple seeker bullets, but I found that I gained so many lives from the points gush that I didn't have to worry about that too much. Of course, that was in single-stage mode, so gaining a life still took fewer points. If you were playing on full game mode, you probably wound't gain more than 1 life this way, so you would have to be careful. Of course, you will be tempted by the points though...

That's it! If anyone knows anything I don't, please let me know! I'm curious if there are more secrets to the game's scoring. Thanks!

The Last of Us SPOILER POST!!!!!

SPOILER ALERT! YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ SPOILERS FOR THE LAST OF US! TURN BACK NOW! THESE SPOILERS NOT ONLY RUIN THE STORY, THEY ALSO REVEAL GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS THAT WILL RUIN YOUR ENTIRE EXPERIENCE WITH THE GAME! TURN BACK NOW!

     So, the thing I talked about so much in my review that ruined the gameplay and made survivor mode harmless is the fact that even in survivor mode, the game will magically provide ammo and health packs for you. If you are low on health and can't make a health pack or find stuff to make one, Ellie will give you one. On my first play-through this happened from time to time and I thought nothing of it, but I realized you can actually rely on this in my second run.

     You can also use all of your ammo in every fight, and your enemies will drop you more ammo when they die. They'll drop some if you have ammo left, but if you are totally out or close to it, they will drop you A LOT. Trust me, I did this many times, and it works every time. Use all your ammo in every fight without worry, you will get more.

     That doesn't sound like too big a deal as you still have to win the fights, and there is some challenge to that. But the entire point of this game is managing your resources, conserving what you have, and searching everywhere to get the stuff you need to survive. And if you try to do that, the game lets you, and that's great fun. But it's an illusion; the game doesn't generate ammo for you unless you need it, so if you ration your supplies, you won't even notice this effect. However, you can run through the whole game without searching for anything and still be fine, as the game will generate ammo and health as needed. I understand why this feature exists in normal mode, as you could get yourself into a permanently bad situation if the game had limited supplies. But to have so much dropped in your lap in survivor mode is crazy! Survivor mode would be amazing if there was a set amount of supplies and you had to manage them. That's not the case. You wouldn't even ever really get stuck even if you did run out of ammo as you can stealth your way through most situations. It would just be harder, which is what it's supposed to be. Once I figured out I would always have ammo, I didn't search around anymore and I was very careless with my ammo. In other words, I was totally disengaged with the whole concept of the game. Not good. At least I didn't figure this out on my first play-through.

     As for the story, I won't go into too much detail on my thoughts, but here are a few things to think about.

You can't tell me that Joel is in the wrong for stopping a little girl from being murdered. I don't care what the greater good is, he's not in the wrong. Now, he might be in the wrong for going on a killing spree to save her, but that's another story. It's wrong of the Fireflies to kill Ellie. I haven't seen anyone agree with me on this on a message board, but I'm sure someone out there must agree with me.

     The ending is subtle and non-conclusive, which is not something you see too much in gaming (except for cliffhangers, which are usually poorly done).

I'M ABOUT TO SPOIL THE ROAD A LITTLE NOW, SO BE CAREFUL! DON'T READ THE NEXT BLURB IF YOU DON'T WANT THE NOVEL/MOVIE “THE ROAD” SPOILED FOR YOU!

     I think the ending is better than The Road's because The Road seems to spring a little hope on you in the end. It was abrupt and didn't fit perfectly in my opinion, although it's still a decent ending. The Last of Us kind of leaves things in the status quo. Life is horrible, there will be no cure. That's how we started, and that's how we end. Joel and Ellie have each other, but there will probably be problems between them in the future, if they survive long enough to have them. That ending fits into that world better than The Road's ending fits into its world.

!SPOILER POST! The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1: All That Remains SPOILER POST!!!

OBLIGATORY SPOILER WARNING! IF YOU HAVE NOT YET PLAYED EPISODE 1 OF THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2, YOU ARE CRAZY IF YOU READ THE BELOW SPOILER POST, AS IT WILL RUIN EVERYTHING FOR YOU! AS I WRITE THIS, I HAVE ONLY PLAYED EPISODE 1 AND THEREFORE WILL ONLY BE SPOILING EPISODE 1!

Here are my stats:

I distracted the guys who were interrogating Christa rather than running away.

I didn't mercy kill the dog. I can't take on the emotional stress of a mercy killing for a dog. I take on some for not killing it, but not as much, I think.

I gave water to the dying guy who was after Christa.

I accepted Nick's apology for almost blasting me.

I saved Nick. He had ammo and it looked to me like Pete had been bitten, although it could have just been a cut... I thought it was safer to go with Nick.

Omid died so quickly. At least his face got a graphical upgrade. So sad. Then.... where is the baby?! Was it stillborn or kidnapped or died or is it out there somewhere or what?! Then, Christa is now probably dead, although she could be the person Clementine is talking about when she says “I thought you were dead” in the “next time” section at the end. Her or Kenny... or maybe that one guy from season 1 who leaves the group near the beginning of the game.

The things that loaded up incorrectly from season 1 for me where:

1. In the “previously” part at the beginning, it showed Lee sparing the first St. John brother. I totally pitchforked him.
2. Clementine makes a reference to a friend of hers losing an arm. I think she's talking about Lee, unless I'm missing something. But Lee's arm stayed attached in my game. Really annoying that these things got messed up. It'll be even worse if there's something more important that gets messed up.

The object that was moving around like the wonky trees in season one that I was talking about in the review was a bush in the background that just continues to go down and down and down.... The object jumping around I mentioned is the rifle in the hand of the dude when they put you in the shed. He's holding perfectly still, but the rifle is vibrating and moving. The object I referred to that clips through a body is the frisbee: it goes through Clem's leg several times very conspicuously.

     I sure didn't want Clementine to die. I spent the whole 1^st season trying to protect her, and I feel like I was more focused in this episode trying to keep her safe. I don't want to watch her death scenes. I don't know if it was possible to die in this episode or in future ones, but I'm going to try real hard to not have her die once.

     Playing as Clem is different than playing as Lee. 400 days gave a taste of getting into the mind of another character. The choices I'm making now as Clementine are different than Lee would make, but also influenced by him since he had such a big influence on Clementine.

     It was interesting watching the group making a decision about your bite. In season one you had to make decision like that as part of the group. Being on the other end of that was a cool reversal.

     The part with the dog is heartbreaking. The part with the sutures is heartbreaking. This game has turned from a daughter simulator to a little girl suffering simulator. The Dr.'s daughter is interesting. I guess she's been mostly sheltered from what's going on in the world. That's not going to end well no matter what happens. Can't wait for episode 2!

400 Days Spoiler Post Contains Spoilers!

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ THE BELOW POST IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED 400 DAYS, AS IT CONTAINS EXTREME SPOILERS THAT RUIN IT FOR YOU!

Here are my stats real quick:

I killed Stephanie rather than driving off in the RV as Shel.

I stayed in the car and Nate got out, and then I left Nate when we got attacked as Wyatt.

I shot off Justin's foot (the white-collar criminal) as Vince.

I was honest with Leland about braining his wife as Bonnie

Russel's choices didn't make the stat page for some reason even though Wyatt got 2, which is weird. As Russel, I got a ride from that guy, and then told him not to kill the couple and walked off, but he did it anyway.

     Whether or not to kill Stephanie and which prisoner to de-leg where the two hardest choices. It took me like 2 minutes to decide to kill Stephanie, and I'm still not sure I should have. As Vince, I waited until the zombies attacked and killed me the first time before blowing Justin's leg off on the second try. That was a hard one. I started trying to judge the 2 guys' crimes and the fact that Justin admitted his crime and the other claimed innocence. But then I realized how wrong it was to try and do it that way and that any choice you make in that situation is wrong, but everyone dies if you don't do it. It was rough, and I felt horrible for Justin, especially seeing the epilogue pictures in the background of the credits of him being chased down after crawling out of the bus. Those pictures are cool. I even saw the zombie I didn't kill as Russel crawling down the street, and the dead bodies of the old couple that guy shot (is there a way to save them?).

In the end, everyone but Vince, Shel, and her sister went to the settlement. I'm guessing this is based on how you played the different characters. I need to talk to someone else who's played this to see who went for them and what decisions they made...

On to season 2!

The Walking Dead ***SPOILER POST*****

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Real quick, here are my stats:

Lied to Hershel

Saved Duck

Sided with Kenny against Larry about Duck being bitten

Didn't give the bitten lady the gun

Saved Doug

Chopped off that dude's leg

Listened to the crazy lady in the woods

Tried to revive Larry

Killed the first St. John brother, not the second

Stole the food from the car

Didn't shoot the girl who was being attacked

Brought Lily with us

Talked Kenny down

Shot Duck

Helped Omid instead of Khrysta

Killed the emaciated Zombie boy

Didn't lie to Vernon

Left Clementine at the house when going to Crawford

Saved Ben

Hid the bite

Ben, Omid, and Khrysta came with me to look for Clementine

Kept Lee's arm

Argued Kenny down

Kept my cleaver hidden during the stranger scene

Clementine killed the stranger

Made Clementine leave without killing Lee

     Quick thoughts. In this world, it doesn't matter that Lee is a murderer. All that matters is what he does now. You can instantly form a super-strong bond with someone (like Clementine) or instantly be enemies with someone (like Larry) in dire situations like this. All relationships like that are heightened. Killing Duck was the hardest part. Burying the zombie boy really made you feel the weight of what happened to Duck. You do a long list of questionable stuff. Stealing food from the car is the one that comes back to haunt you in the end. Some peoples' deaths are meaningless, they just happen with no great purpose. Like Ben, who in my game tried to do the right thing over and over but failed, and then died on his way to try again. Once Lee got bit, I instantly knew what the end would be, I just had to get there. This is exactly what Lee was thinking too, so at that moment, you are totally in his head. Amazing.

PS: In the review I talk about a conversation that the game didn't save. I told Clementine in the store that I had killed someone before the zombie infestation. Later, she didn't know that, and told me I could have told her. Stupid no auto-saving.

Spec Ops: The Line Spoiler Post! DO NOT READ THIS!

I was only planning on doing spoiler posts for games I give a perfect score to, like Closure, but I wanted to talk about a few things in this game with those who have played it. So maybe I'll do spoiler posts for games with really great stories, even if they aren't nearly perfect. And I don't know what I'll do if I give a game with no story a perfect score. Maybe a strategy post? Anyway....

SPOILER ALERT!! DO NOT READ THIS IF POST IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED SPEC OPS: THE LINE YET AS IT CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT A GAME YOU NEED TO GO INTO AS BLIND AS POSSIBLE FOR FULL ENJOYMENT! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK (COMMENTS SECTION WILL PROBABLY CONTAIN SPOILERS TOO)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So there are 7 endings by my count. I want to list them all as some are not as obvious as the others.

1. Shoot yourself (note that you shoot at the mirror, the reflection shoots himself. But then you see that the real you has died.)

2. Let Konrad shoot you (which is actually also you shooting yourself, and leads to the same ending as #1. Note that when Konrad fires, your reflection shoots himself, and you really die)

3. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, lay down your weapon.

4.Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, do nothing until the solider takes your weapon (basically the same as 3, except you didn't act by pressing a button)

5. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, attack them, and get killed by them (I believe this is the ending where it gives you a quote about crossing the titular “line”)

6. Shoot Konrad. When the extraction team comes to pick you up, attack them and kill them all (My personal favorite ending. After purposelessly slaying the soldiers sent to help him, Walker grabs one of their radios and announces, “Welcome to Dubai, gentlemen.” He's totally lost it, but you can also see that what he's doing is hurting him. Also note that in all of the extraction team scenes, Walker is wearing Konrad's uniform and has patched up a lot of his wounds. 

7. Quit the game before the ending because you don't want to do this anymore. I've heard that the developer (or someone else.... don't quote me) said that this is a legitimate way to end the game's story. In this case the loading screen with the skull and the skyscrapers that look like gravestones that takes you back to the main menu  is kind of your ending.

     Some of these are subtle variations where you see the ending unfold onscreen the same way but your actions are different. I love how interactive these endings are. Someone watching wouldn't see a difference between endings #3 and #4, but you as the player feel the difference. Great way to end a game. My first time through, I shot Konrad just as he counted to 5, then waited until the soldier took my weapon from me, ending # 4. My favorites are number 1, 5, and 6. 6 is my favorite, as I think it shows that walker has totally lost it and is killing just on momentum...kind of like you do in videogames. In this ending you attack and kill the soldiers just because you can, which is a very videogame thing to do.

I also want to list the references to videogames and videogame violence in the game that I saw. If you saw any others, let me know!

1. When you get in the helicopter and catch up to the prologue from the beginning of the game, Walker seems to notice, saying, “We've done this before!” or something to that effect.

2. There is a scene where you curse at the radioman and he replies something like, “Woh, this is a family show, rated E... for everyone's thirsty!”

3. When you clear out the roof of the radio tower before going inside, the radioman says something like, “What's causing so much violence? Is it the videogames? It's the videogames, isn't it.”

4. The loading screen that says, “Killing for yourself is murder. Killing for your country is heroic. Killing for entertainment is harmless.” 

These references are great!...at making you feel guilty for playing violent games. Definitely food for thought.

One more thing... there is one choice that you can make that is not pointed out to you by getting a trophy depending on your choice. In one of the early levels, when the guy is getting interrogated, but he takes the interrogator's gun and kills him, you then hold him up and yell at him to drop his weapon. You can either shoot him or let him go. There's no trophy, but you do get different dialogue depending on what you do. There may be other instances of this kind of thing, let me know if you know of any.

Also, here are the choices I made on my first playthough:

I saved the two civilians rather than the CIA agent. I shot the ropes of the two hanging men to save them, but they died in the firefight (or rather, they were already dead and just a hallucination, I guess). I mercy killed Riggs. I melee attacked a guy in the crowd that hangs Lugo, but didn't kill him. I shot Konrad. I let the soldier at the end take my weapon. Feel free to let me know the path you took your first time through, or your favorite path in the comments section or as a DM on twitter (@roboticattack).

Closure Spoiler Post Contains Spoilers!

 WARNING: The following post contains a massive amount of spoilers for Closure, an amazing game whose excellent story can't be more highly recommended. You will probably enjoy the game a lot less if you read this explanation of what I think is going on in the game. This post is intended to provoke thought about the game's story and give my interpretation to people who have already completed it. Please read at your own discretion. Don't ruin it for yourself, it so worth experiencing first hand!

     In the first level, the factory worker falls while adjusting a light. He has an accident at work and lands in a shaft. He travels through the factory, but he may, in fact, already be dead from his fall at this point. My first impression was that he was working tirelessly and monotonously in the factory throughout the different levels. But once I got deeper into the game and its themes, and read some other peoples' opinions online, I started to think he was dead the whole time after his fall. He travels through the factory and relives his tedious life of working (note the clocks everywhere). Reminds me of a co-worker of mine who dropped dead almost immediately after retiring. We spend so much of our time in life at work... RIP Robin. His body is then taken out by helicopter. I guess you could also think that maybe he's still alive and being medevaced, but I think if he's dead it's a better explanation of why you travel through the factory, and why you end up right back where you started. Also, note the appearance of the spirits you will see throughout the game in the furnace flames at the top of the factory in the last level. They are observers of death, and they feed off it.

     In the game's second part, you play as a young woman who has just been in a horrific car crash. She has been critically injured in the crash, and her spirit wanders through the woods to the hospital where her body is on life support. You see her body in distress on the microscopic level, her heart being shocked in an attempt to re-start it, and finally, her lying on what will be her death bed, a heart monitor barely registering life beside her. This was the most affecting part of the game for me. That last level where you see her cells and heart, and then her lying in the hospital bed was shocking and disturbing. My favorite part of the game. I know I saw the female spirit watching somewhere in these levels. Can't remember exactly where...

     Thirdly, we have the section where you play as the little girl, following her cat into the night and the bizarre carnival. The lights in her house flick on as the adults realize their little girl is missing, but she is already far out into the night. If Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes is to be believed, evil night carnivals are symbolic of growing up and the nightmares adults face. The end of childhood. The beloved pet is always just out of sight, disappearing the second it is glimpsed. After seeing much of the freakish circus, the little girl finally catches up with her cat, only to see it vanish for good before her eyes as a hideous spider-demon-like clown looks on in the background. Her story has a bit of a good ending. She returns safe and sound to her bed. But she's had her first experience with death and loss in the death of her pet. Just a foretaste of the many deaths we all experience throughout our life times. Also, someone has used the toilet since she left.

     Finally, the spider demon faces a handful of levels as himself. Who is he, and what is he doing? There aren't any clear answers to this. We know from official descriptions that he is called the spider-demon, although the game never tells us this. The trophies give us some hints. The trophy for completing the tutorial is “The River.” He has crossed the river Styx, into the realm of the dead. Completing the game earns you the trophy “Welcome to Purgatory.” My interpretation is that he is in purgatory, trying to get out. The moths he gathers in order to access the final level and ending are symbolic of death and the dead, if the short film Bunny with the anthropomorphic bunny with a dead spouse is to be believed. The spirits that have been watching throughout the game watch as the spider-demon completes the most complex final levels, more active and animated as he draws nearer to completing his enigmatic goal. Finally, he reaches them, and offers them the three experiences with death he has gathered from the human world, a worker's accident, a young girl's terrible car crash (possibly a suicide? This just randomly popped into my head), and a young girl's first experience with death, the loss of her pet cat. Having done this, he sheds his body, and his moth spirit, along with the other moth spirits he has collected. He ascends higher and higher, past the bodies of spider demons who have tried to leave purgatory before him, until he finally literally reaches what everyone is seeking in their experiences with death: Closure.

     I've heard some people say that he may be helping the three people to closure with their experiences with death. That is certainly a possibility, and the more I think about it, it makes a lot of sense. My gut impression is that he isn't up to anything so friendly. The music in the scenes where he takes on the other characters' personas is so full of horror and malice, it really shocked me the first time I saw it. And the way the pillars crush the masks of the people as he offers them to the spirits in the end is pretty rough, not like he's gently leading them to closure or anything like that. These two things make me think he is using and abusing these people for his own journey to closure. I could be wrong though, and I love that there are multiple explanations and theories that make sense. I don't quite get any meaning out of the tombstones with roman numerals on them, other than the association of stone markers with death. Just another clue as to what is going on, I guess.

      In case your curious, this guy on GameFAQs has tried every combination of putting the masks on the different pillars, and got the same ending each time. Here is his post: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/643242-closure/63100720

     My thoughts and interpretations of what is one of the very best stories in gaming. Please let me know on twitter and the comments if you agree or disagree, I'd love to talk more about this game!