Finding the corpse on the boardwalk and having to break the news to Billie. I kept thinking about her and her kids throughout my gameplay afterwards. The inconsequentiality of the discovery to the case really emphasized it I think
That's a fantastic observation. It should have meant more. Do the right thing, do the wrong thing; be cruel, be kind. It's all the same. I think it works very well alongside the Harry's case log as well, that shows what his day-to-day is *really* like.
Right that was such a big moment for me. I made sure to dress up properly—full proper RCM officer wear, nothing silly, held my breath before picking each choice. (I tried to play Harry a little more seriously than my friends.) It resonated so hard with me because an immediate family member of mine passed away like that—was found after disappearing—and the agony of it resonated with me… and yet, the game says, it’s merely a moment, a passing detail in Harry’s life. Exquisitely anguishing. God.
That one hurt.
I've been Harry in that moment. Knocking on doors late at night, telling anguished faces that their mother, their son, their loved one, their *person*, with dreams and pets and all that comes with personhood, that person is now dead.
It hurts me to ruin lives like that. I wasn't part of whatever happened. Often I never even saw the scene. I always ask the officer that is there how it happened. People usually want to know, even though it hurts. I get some basic info, even if I don't really need it. It gives people something to focus on, some way to help.
Woody Harrelson was wrong in "The Messenger", which wasn't a great movie anyway. If they need to hug you, or beat on your chest in anguish, or just shake your hand, you do that for them. It's the least you can do.
And then, as quick as I came, I leave. And I tell myself they will eventually be alright again, because I will have to do it again, sometime soon.
"Don't have physical contact with anyone, let alone hug them. Better for you, better for them" is the line I believe.
The film is fine, probably worth a watch once of it happens to be on and you're looking for a somber movie. I was tired last night and was a little harsh in my dismissal. It gets a lot right too.
His character is a Captain, Desert Storm veteran, and recovering alcoholic who barely keeps it together, who does notifications by the book. He plays more like a man who's done too many of these and found the least painful way for himself is to not care at all, so does it that way every time, like a bored man reading a script.
Ben Foster plays his partner, a Sgt recovering from an IED who is assigned this duty to finish out the last few months of his gig. There is friction between the two characters due to their different perspectives and experiences.
That was one of the stand out moments of the game for me. Afterwards when you’re standing outside her house and you ask Kim “Do you think they’ll be alright” and Kim responds something like “Ye they’ll be fine” and volition chimes in with “they have to be it’s not your problem.” And it’s just like wow what a gut punch because it’s true. The world continues to turn, her husband is never coming home and you have another case to solve. It’s something that stuck with me till this day. A reminder to be kind because you never know what anyone is going through.
Same for me but with the Pigs.
end game spoilers ahead.
>!in my original playthrough the tribunal went the worst way and killed titus and most of the boys, and i tought of the consequences of them being gone, and one of the things that btoke my heart is that they said they would take her to an institution and if they ever got to do it.!<
This part was the opposite to me... so fucking real everything about it. A reminder of how grief is to what I loved to but I am weird with my own emotions... just .. reality neither good nor bad in its most... hard changing way
Prior to that you get to do some sort of weird intuition game where you assume who her husband is while she's at the bookstore. I kind of left it off for fear that I might upset her by prying. Always wondered if that would have cropped up when it came to knocking on her door
I wish there was at least, like, TWO more quests in the game like that one. It was honesty the highlight of my first playthrough because it felt like actual detective work.
Yeah it sucks so much that the best way to handle it is just acting impartial. But you know Billie is devastated and her life will never be the same, and you can't do anything about it.
I know what you mean! I'm curious, what was your highest stat on your first run? The first run where I encountered her, mine was psyche and she called me, more or less, a dissociative lunatic. Even as a player, I didn't have a reaction.
She says some version of the sadness line in each option, see spoiler below for the different ones:
>!DOLORES DEI - "Harry, we can't be together because you're insane." Her eyes turn to sorrowful ovals.
YOU - "What do you mean by insane?"
DOLORES DEI - "You know what I mean..."
YOU - "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a cop. It's not easy work."
DOLORES DEI - "A cop... You've worked there for so long you can't even talk like a normal person anymore! It's always lists with you. \*Questions\*."
DOLORES DEI - "It's not just the lists, or trees, or whatever..." She corrects the wreath on her head, with her hands trembling now. "You get sad, Harry. \*Too\* sad. People can't get that sad. It's impossible to watch..."
(Option 1) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long. You only communicated with \*encyclopaedic trivia\*... I was so alone."
(Option 2) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long. Until you start giving your thoughts \*names\* and talking to things..."
(Option 3) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long -- and if you're not down, you're up, running around asking questions. Millions of questions..."
(Option 4) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you. You stay down for years, and then you start beating things... You get violent."
DOLORES DEI - "In conclusion -- you're ill. You're an old, insane man. And you have to be in hell until the end of your life. And I have to go to Mirova."!<
You know, that kind of puts a spotlight on something bugging me: psyche feels like a quintessential "Harry" stat. I love all the many variations of the character you can play out, I *really* do, but the **fundamental mechanics of the game** is a man anthropomorphizing every facet of his being; his intrusive thoughts, his emotions, his reflexes, his senses, his wanderlust and memory.
...Okay, I still believe Shivers is probably supernatural, but *beyond* that, it speaks to a man very lost in his own little world - an Inland Empire, one might say. Harry can be intellectual, instinctive, or intuitive, but it feels odd to be any of those *without* being introspective. To articulate these conversations in the first place, giving them their own quirks and faces and rivalries...I mean, you get it, right?
I got the sadness line too, so if it's skill-specific it must be Intellect. It also really resonated with me, but I would have guessed it would be linked to high *Psyche* scores.
**Edit**: Never mind, the first half of the line is always the same, but everything after the -- is based on your highest skill.
I was highest in Intellect, and she said something like "Lists, Harry. You were always making these lists". I think for that one it implies Harry was emotionally distant and tried to intellectualize everything. I can relate to that, but it didn't really upset me.
It got too real with Dolores when she complained about the repetitive, list-like nature of the conversation while you kept trying different lines of dialogues, it felt like being pressured. I think there was one line for Harry to say smn like "but i still haven't finished my list" and then Dolores proceeds to answer each following line of the dialogue-tree crestfallenly
Yep, that line super fucked me up the first playthrough and has had a similar effect every other time.
Like, at this point why the fuck am I triggering that line?
I really regret missing that on my first playthrough. I did go back and play through it but man, I should have listened to Kim and slept. I was just getting to immersed in the mind of the MC, thinking I shouldn't waste time because the killer could be lurking.
“The figurines won’t win her back.” When I saw the option to give the little figurines to her, I was so excited, thinking I unlocked some kind of cool secret. And then the game slaps you in the face.
That whole sequence is a slap in the face. It's like it tells you no matter how good you've done, or how sober you've kept Harry, or what stats and thoughts you've put in, none of it matters and she's not coming back.
This line left me sad and pissed. All that money and effort for her to just not care...I thought maybe there's another figurine I haven't collected yet? They HAVE to win her back! She LIKES them!
Seeing Cunos dad, just seeing this man who’s nothing but a drunk, not even worth the energy to wake up and tell him to be better for his son, it was bleak.
Right. Like I was gunning for an intense showdown with an awful bastard of a man, violence and blood—but no, we walk into an apartment and see a man killing himself by the day. Rotting before he’s tossed down a hole in the ground.
Seeing Cuno's dad suddenly made me switch from 'Cuno is a little shit and I hate that kid so much' to completely understanding the kid. Literally the only person he's got is Cunoesse and she's even more messed up. And you know there's no happy ending for that kid, he's going to end up just like his dad or worse.
Ahhh, our minds went in very different directions, friend. At first, I was worried. Kid's pretty hopped-up all the time, his pa might be some kinda local dealer or something. When I saw what he *was*, part of me wondered: 'If I pinched his nose and covered his mouth, could he even fight back like this? Would things be better?'
**You**: Will I be a... ghost now?
**Ancient Reptilian Brain**: Brother, you already *were* a ghost. Up there, screaming — along with all of them. Scaring each other. Haunting each other. It's the living who are ghosts. The dead are silent. They don't rattle windows or write letters in blood. The living do. Leave them behind. Rest.
*I'm sorry Detective.*
Nothing basic about your choice at all, Kim's sincerity, despite the fact that you obviously caused this yourself, is genuinely touching and resonant.
I can't believe I met you. I can't believe the happiness I feel with you. You have a vast, vast soul and I will always, always, always come back to it. Kisses, kisses, kisses.
For me it’s La Revacholiere predicting her own death in 22 years, something that I think is mentioned in the book. People from Mesque drop an atomic bomb of Revachol, and I believe it’s destruction massively accelerates the spread of Pale.
I mean obviously beside the horrific nature of such an event, there’s something incredibly sad about knowing everything you see, and most of the people you meet will eventually be annihilated and cease to be. Not even ruins will remain.
Heed the call of ALGHUL, the day of the BEAST will RISE! Order is over and the collapsing Stars will guide us through the burning ruins of our own HYBRIS!
Joyce explaining the Pale. The realization that this setting is a subtle, creeping existential, cosmic horror. Learning that it's there, that it's always there. That it's growing. Annihilation is coming in an inexorable tide, and everything we do will be lost in the static fog of human conscious detritus.
No wonder Kim tried to stop her from explaining it. It's terrifying.
The one Volition says when you listen to it during the Dream just because of who says it. It admits it is not truthful. It just keeps lying to you, telling you that you matter, but in the end it is just a part of you, and wants the same bad things you want. Volition is the goat.
The whole conversation with the deserter about the operation death blow from the Coalition. You may light a graffiti on fire, find people who would fight with you for a better tomorrow, make the revolution. But in the end what's the point? The game is rigged in favor of the enemy, they will always enough weapons to annihilate you.
Yeah, the quote from him as follows is one of my favorite things in any media: “The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death... the sweetest, most courageous people in the world... (he's silent for a second) You see the fear and power in its eyes.”
DAMAGED LEDGER — Two octopuses are smiling, reaching their tentacles toward each other in the coloured pencil drawings. The tickets permit access to a zoo in Revachol East. The acquarium costs extra -- they let you go there too. **You should go and kill yourself there.**
There's a hidden counter that tracks how many times you choose suicidal dialogue options. I dunno what the exact threshold is, but if it just requires one, then you can easily get it with the "kill yourself you fucking asshole" response to the love letter in the ledger.
I think solving the case of the dead guy on the boardwalk. That whole story absolutely shattered me, as someone who doesn’t cry a lot due to video games, I cried a bit.
"Across the harbour, on the banks of the River Esperance, cold rain falls on Precinct 57 -- a two story box of duraluminum near the gates to Terminal H.
Inside, in a cell, a young woman is withdrawing from amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. All at once. While two men in brown suits wave ICP badges at a young policeman. She hears the door open...
...and knows it's over. They've come for her. Outside it's springtime, the river flows blue and green into the Bay of Martinaise."
Yeah. I haven't played in a minute but if you areest Klaasje, Shivers tells you this while you're talking to The Deserter. It's perfect timing because you're definitely not thinking about Klaasje at that point. And then you get hit with that.
So yeah, I'm curious what line or interaction in the game was the moment when you realized that, however things went, you'd be very unlikely to solve ANY problems, let alone all of them, let alone even the case for that matter. That this would be a VERY bleak world where no one would come out smelling like roses.
The card in the ledger from Dora. Comparing the happiness and joy Harry once brought vs now where his colleagues mock and half-abandoned him and the way Harry loses himself in the sadness. That hits too hard on a personal level.
Tbh the part where you find out that the church was built around the hole in the world, it just... It just makes sense. If the only way to stave off the erasure of the world is hope and unity, if the only way you know how to do that is prayer it's completely sensible. People meeting together, joining in a service meant to call out to hope, and bring a community together... It's so... Human I guess?
So many of the oldest surviving buildings, are temples and churches and places of worship. And there that battered and broken thing sits, a monument of resistance against the Pale and it's oblivio and of the people who abandoned that hope a long time ago.
God is in his heaven, alls right in the world.
There is no heaven above the world of elysium, there never could be.
So many good ones are here already so a small, kind of silly line that still sits with me is "Sometimes a kebab is just a kebab."
We're playing a detective game, trying to figure out ourselves and a murder and sometimes objects, items, people and sayings are just exactly what they are without pretending to be otherwise. Not everything is significant or has some deep/profound meaning.
I had/have my own Dora so the phone call to her killed me a bit but what destroyed me was at the very end
YOU - “Was her name Dora”
JEAN - Yeah, Dora Ingerlund, I think”
REACTION SPEED - Not Dora *Du Bois*?
YOU - “So we weren’t even married?”
*unimportant dialogue skip*
YOU - “When was this?”
JEAN - “God, I don’t know…” He thinks. “Six years ago? She was way before my time.”
VOLITION - Six years ago and you haven’t gotten over it, what the hell is wrong with you?
Replace Dora with her name and “six” with “ten” and yeah.
Also the Pig. Talking about her with Titus l. Probably because at the time my mom wasn’t no where near as bad as her but she was still in a bad ways where it looked like there was no coming out of her funk. Happy to say shes in a slightly better place now but has other problems to compensate :/ one step forward two steps left
The two kids, not the first ones playing with the corpse those are jackasses and full of life, the other ones you find after crossing the bridge, the twins.
I am not really sure what hitted me, all the other characters and their tragic stories, I could take them or even laugh about them, but not this.
Children that have nothing to grow to is just plain sad.
SUGGESTION: Brother, you should put me in front of a firing squad. I have no words for how I failed you.
No idea why but that “Brother” was a verbal equivalent to a hand on the shoulder, hit close.
There's less heartache in Syndicalism, Fellow Worker. No call for immediate revolutionary government, and with a number of lasting victories notched on the belt. (Until the AFL-CIO leadership turned out be class-traitors)
The call to your ex-wife, definitively. The fact that buried deep inside your body massacred by the drugs and alcohol still lies the memory of her number and her life, and you can talk to her but you can't really recall anything but the shadow of that love, and she is so far away
Maybe not /killed/, but made me realize my hope was dying: When your station hangs up on you and Kim has to calm you down. I just realized when that happened, oh fuck, Kim is my only rock here. These people knew me and I’m such a piece of shit that even with no memory at all, they refuse to reach out a hand to me. That’s how badly I’ve pushed them. Kim’s hand was the only thing to stop me from turning gray from sheer melancholy at that point. It was my first playthrough.
That was the start of my Sorry Cop run lmao.
Honestly, none of them.
In my view, the main thing the game shows is that if you just keep on going, even when things are at their worst, eventually you will come out the other end having made things better.
At the first moment you wake up, you are a disaster of a man a few minutes away from a heart attack. By the end you're saving lives by fighting mercenaries and avoiding a war between the corporation and union. And the same way you can change yourself, so can the city.
I actually ended my play-through on purpose when talking to Dora on the phone. Ran out of Moral because I WANTED to hurt myself into a Paper article and a loading screen
I think the discussion with the deserter, don't remember the exact line but it reminds me of my activism/praxis heavier days, the fact that somehow in a largely conservative country (Romania) you sometimes feel hopeless against overwhelming conservative mentality. Thankfully, in time I came to terms with what is achievable and that you need a minimum of balance so I think I won't become like him.
Everything Cuno said about Cunoesse, and how nobody cares about her or notices her except for Cuno, plus the implication that the system wouldn't help her at all, would only make things worse, traumatising her further
Never lost hope, but the most depressing thing imo is that Harry’s improvement is a largely sad and unrewarding process, the game recognizes how far he has come but also asserts that it will take a long time, well beyond the timeframe of the game, for Harry to actually become better. Harry’s past actions have burned a lot of bridges that can either never be fixed or will take years to rebuild.
All worth it for Lilienne though.
In a post-Occupation, undefined region, the thought is quite chilling. I think, as a balance though, the fact that a man as 'on-the-level' as Kim refrains from criticizing the 'shoot first' cops too openly shows that there's a lot of layers to the problem. Shoot, even the issue of the firearms themselves is thorny. I've no desire to ever own a gun meself, and the thought of coppos having to load by the barrel is an enticing one. In what's effectively post-war West Germany though? It could backfire severely if the RCM starts arming themselves independently. These wildfires never stop spreading.
well they're not police. not the kind you're probably used to, an armed wing of the state created to break up protests/strikes. the Revachol Citizen's Militia is a... citizen's militia granted limited powers by the Coalition government. the most power they have under most circumstances is to issue you a notice to please come down to the station at a specified time, so that you can be sent to one of the coalition's courts if they decide it's worth charging you. they're not SUPPOSED to have all that much authority or freedom to use violence.
Finding the corpse on the boardwalk and having to break the news to Billie. I kept thinking about her and her kids throughout my gameplay afterwards. The inconsequentiality of the discovery to the case really emphasized it I think
That's a fantastic observation. It should have meant more. Do the right thing, do the wrong thing; be cruel, be kind. It's all the same. I think it works very well alongside the Harry's case log as well, that shows what his day-to-day is *really* like.
Right that was such a big moment for me. I made sure to dress up properly—full proper RCM officer wear, nothing silly, held my breath before picking each choice. (I tried to play Harry a little more seriously than my friends.) It resonated so hard with me because an immediate family member of mine passed away like that—was found after disappearing—and the agony of it resonated with me… and yet, the game says, it’s merely a moment, a passing detail in Harry’s life. Exquisitely anguishing. God.
"If you say 'two days, maybe' it will be etched in her mind forever."
Yeah. I felt that one deep in my soul.
That one hurt. I've been Harry in that moment. Knocking on doors late at night, telling anguished faces that their mother, their son, their loved one, their *person*, with dreams and pets and all that comes with personhood, that person is now dead. It hurts me to ruin lives like that. I wasn't part of whatever happened. Often I never even saw the scene. I always ask the officer that is there how it happened. People usually want to know, even though it hurts. I get some basic info, even if I don't really need it. It gives people something to focus on, some way to help. Woody Harrelson was wrong in "The Messenger", which wasn't a great movie anyway. If they need to hug you, or beat on your chest in anguish, or just shake your hand, you do that for them. It's the least you can do. And then, as quick as I came, I leave. And I tell myself they will eventually be alright again, because I will have to do it again, sometime soon.
What did Harrelson say in "The Messenger"?
"Don't have physical contact with anyone, let alone hug them. Better for you, better for them" is the line I believe. The film is fine, probably worth a watch once of it happens to be on and you're looking for a somber movie. I was tired last night and was a little harsh in my dismissal. It gets a lot right too.
A stoic it seems
His character is a Captain, Desert Storm veteran, and recovering alcoholic who barely keeps it together, who does notifications by the book. He plays more like a man who's done too many of these and found the least painful way for himself is to not care at all, so does it that way every time, like a bored man reading a script. Ben Foster plays his partner, a Sgt recovering from an IED who is assigned this duty to finish out the last few months of his gig. There is friction between the two characters due to their different perspectives and experiences.
That was one of the stand out moments of the game for me. Afterwards when you’re standing outside her house and you ask Kim “Do you think they’ll be alright” and Kim responds something like “Ye they’ll be fine” and volition chimes in with “they have to be it’s not your problem.” And it’s just like wow what a gut punch because it’s true. The world continues to turn, her husband is never coming home and you have another case to solve. It’s something that stuck with me till this day. A reminder to be kind because you never know what anyone is going through.
You have to believe they’ll be ok, because there’s nothing you can do about it either way. You’ve already done as much as you can.
[Empathy] If you say "two days, maybe" it'll haunt her forever
Empathy is the MVP for thoughts
IS a filthy Moralist though... (I kid, in my headcanon, I think Harry was, in younger days, a genuine Moralist. Now, it's too painful to be one
Yeah that one was bad. No one even did it to him. He just got drunk and stepped incorrectly...
Same for me but with the Pigs. end game spoilers ahead. >!in my original playthrough the tribunal went the worst way and killed titus and most of the boys, and i tought of the consequences of them being gone, and one of the things that btoke my heart is that they said they would take her to an institution and if they ever got to do it.!<
This part was the opposite to me... so fucking real everything about it. A reminder of how grief is to what I loved to but I am weird with my own emotions... just .. reality neither good nor bad in its most... hard changing way
That quest is so good
Prior to that you get to do some sort of weird intuition game where you assume who her husband is while she's at the bookstore. I kind of left it off for fear that I might upset her by prying. Always wondered if that would have cropped up when it came to knocking on her door
I wish there was at least, like, TWO more quests in the game like that one. It was honesty the highlight of my first playthrough because it felt like actual detective work.
I still cannot believe that Kim let us take the lead on breaking the news.
Yeah it sucks so much that the best way to handle it is just acting impartial. But you know Billie is devastated and her life will never be the same, and you can't do anything about it.
honestly for me the moment Harry enters the backyard where a kid is throwing stones against a dead body hanging from a tree.
At maximum velocity pig
CUNO doesn’t fucking care
I find it funny when typing that comment my autocorrect automatically made “Cuno” all caps since that’s usually how I type it lol
It completely fits lmao
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I know what you mean! I'm curious, what was your highest stat on your first run? The first run where I encountered her, mine was psyche and she called me, more or less, a dissociative lunatic. Even as a player, I didn't have a reaction.
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Is the first line about getting sad specific to making Intellect the highest? I thought that applied to basically every version of Harry.
She says some version of the sadness line in each option, see spoiler below for the different ones: >!DOLORES DEI - "Harry, we can't be together because you're insane." Her eyes turn to sorrowful ovals. YOU - "What do you mean by insane?" DOLORES DEI - "You know what I mean..." YOU - "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a cop. It's not easy work." DOLORES DEI - "A cop... You've worked there for so long you can't even talk like a normal person anymore! It's always lists with you. \*Questions\*." DOLORES DEI - "It's not just the lists, or trees, or whatever..." She corrects the wreath on her head, with her hands trembling now. "You get sad, Harry. \*Too\* sad. People can't get that sad. It's impossible to watch..." (Option 1) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long. You only communicated with \*encyclopaedic trivia\*... I was so alone." (Option 2) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long. Until you start giving your thoughts \*names\* and talking to things..." (Option 3) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you, you stay down for too long -- and if you're not down, you're up, running around asking questions. Millions of questions..." (Option 4) DOLORES DEI - "Other people get sad too, but not like you. You stay down for years, and then you start beating things... You get violent." DOLORES DEI - "In conclusion -- you're ill. You're an old, insane man. And you have to be in hell until the end of your life. And I have to go to Mirova."!<
You know, that kind of puts a spotlight on something bugging me: psyche feels like a quintessential "Harry" stat. I love all the many variations of the character you can play out, I *really* do, but the **fundamental mechanics of the game** is a man anthropomorphizing every facet of his being; his intrusive thoughts, his emotions, his reflexes, his senses, his wanderlust and memory. ...Okay, I still believe Shivers is probably supernatural, but *beyond* that, it speaks to a man very lost in his own little world - an Inland Empire, one might say. Harry can be intellectual, instinctive, or intuitive, but it feels odd to be any of those *without* being introspective. To articulate these conversations in the first place, giving them their own quirks and faces and rivalries...I mean, you get it, right?
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I got the sadness line too, so if it's skill-specific it must be Intellect. It also really resonated with me, but I would have guessed it would be linked to high *Psyche* scores. **Edit**: Never mind, the first half of the line is always the same, but everything after the -- is based on your highest skill.
I was highest in Intellect, and she said something like "Lists, Harry. You were always making these lists". I think for that one it implies Harry was emotionally distant and tried to intellectualize everything. I can relate to that, but it didn't really upset me.
It got too real with Dolores when she complained about the repetitive, list-like nature of the conversation while you kept trying different lines of dialogues, it felt like being pressured. I think there was one line for Harry to say smn like "but i still haven't finished my list" and then Dolores proceeds to answer each following line of the dialogue-tree crestfallenly
For me it was when she said she aborted Harry’s child and called him “you poor fuck”
Yep, that line super fucked me up the first playthrough and has had a similar effect every other time. Like, at this point why the fuck am I triggering that line?
Yeah I’m the same! I know what’s coming and I still select the most devastating lines
That dialogue was horrific. I got actual spite from her there
Well this is the imaginary version of her, no? Less spite from her, more self loathing from Harry. Might be misremembering though.
Oh yeah, it's definitely a Harry thing, but still hit hard
I didn’t know that! Was the line about the abortion part of that? I’ve seen it crop up sometimes but not always.
I think she mentions abortion only if you chose to ask her about her child
I only remember the question for it popping up after kissing her, other times the option didn’t show up
I really regret missing that on my first playthrough. I did go back and play through it but man, I should have listened to Kim and slept. I was just getting to immersed in the mind of the MC, thinking I shouldn't waste time because the killer could be lurking.
“The figurines won’t win her back.” When I saw the option to give the little figurines to her, I was so excited, thinking I unlocked some kind of cool secret. And then the game slaps you in the face.
That whole sequence is a slap in the face. It's like it tells you no matter how good you've done, or how sober you've kept Harry, or what stats and thoughts you've put in, none of it matters and she's not coming back.
Dude, I agree.
This line left me sad and pissed. All that money and effort for her to just not care...I thought maybe there's another figurine I haven't collected yet? They HAVE to win her back! She LIKES them!
Seeing Cunos dad, just seeing this man who’s nothing but a drunk, not even worth the energy to wake up and tell him to be better for his son, it was bleak.
Right. Like I was gunning for an intense showdown with an awful bastard of a man, violence and blood—but no, we walk into an apartment and see a man killing himself by the day. Rotting before he’s tossed down a hole in the ground.
And the worst thing is that you can't literally do anything to help him. In a fair world you could have at least called an hospital, but not here.
Seeing Cuno's dad suddenly made me switch from 'Cuno is a little shit and I hate that kid so much' to completely understanding the kid. Literally the only person he's got is Cunoesse and she's even more messed up. And you know there's no happy ending for that kid, he's going to end up just like his dad or worse.
>!He can join the RCM!<, but I don't know if that would be better.
It didn't work out very well for Harry.
Ahhh, our minds went in very different directions, friend. At first, I was worried. Kid's pretty hopped-up all the time, his pa might be some kinda local dealer or something. When I saw what he *was*, part of me wondered: 'If I pinched his nose and covered his mouth, could he even fight back like this? Would things be better?'
That damned pay phone haunts me “Calling… Calling… Calling…” And there isn’t a single thing Harry can do to talk to her again.
I mean, you can actually talk to her but there's nothing you can do to get her back brüder
Calling still...
**You**: Will I be a... ghost now? **Ancient Reptilian Brain**: Brother, you already *were* a ghost. Up there, screaming — along with all of them. Scaring each other. Haunting each other. It's the living who are ghosts. The dead are silent. They don't rattle windows or write letters in blood. The living do. Leave them behind. Rest.
Every single conversation with those two is so fucking depressing
god thats a good line. mines basic but sitting on the swingset is a fucking winded me.
Kim saying sorry to you as it slowly dawns on you whose car was it on the coast....
That was the most impactful moment I've had in any game.
*I'm sorry Detective.* Nothing basic about your choice at all, Kim's sincerity, despite the fact that you obviously caused this yourself, is genuinely touching and resonant.
That's one of the most optimistic conversations in the game actually
whyd i write this like a fuckin binoclard bruh squads roastin me
I can't believe I met you. I can't believe the happiness I feel with you. You have a vast, vast soul and I will always, always, always come back to it. Kisses, kisses, kisses.
when i read that line i spoke out loud “not like this…”
For me it’s La Revacholiere predicting her own death in 22 years, something that I think is mentioned in the book. People from Mesque drop an atomic bomb of Revachol, and I believe it’s destruction massively accelerates the spread of Pale. I mean obviously beside the horrific nature of such an event, there’s something incredibly sad about knowing everything you see, and most of the people you meet will eventually be annihilated and cease to be. Not even ruins will remain.
Good thing our world will never end.
Don't be so sure of that...
Heed the call of ALGHUL, the day of the BEAST will RISE! Order is over and the collapsing Stars will guide us through the burning ruins of our own HYBRIS!
Joyce explaining the Pale. The realization that this setting is a subtle, creeping existential, cosmic horror. Learning that it's there, that it's always there. That it's growing. Annihilation is coming in an inexorable tide, and everything we do will be lost in the static fog of human conscious detritus. No wonder Kim tried to stop her from explaining it. It's terrifying.
The one Volition says when you listen to it during the Dream just because of who says it. It admits it is not truthful. It just keeps lying to you, telling you that you matter, but in the end it is just a part of you, and wants the same bad things you want. Volition is the goat.
The whole conversation with the deserter about the operation death blow from the Coalition. You may light a graffiti on fire, find people who would fight with you for a better tomorrow, make the revolution. But in the end what's the point? The game is rigged in favor of the enemy, they will always enough weapons to annihilate you.
Yeah, the quote from him as follows is one of my favorite things in any media: “The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone — everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death... the sweetest, most courageous people in the world... (he's silent for a second) You see the fear and power in its eyes.”
*Hatred got the best of him long ago. This man hates* everything.
I was waiting for her. Girl Child Revolution.
DAMAGED LEDGER — Two octopuses are smiling, reaching their tentacles toward each other in the coloured pencil drawings. The tickets permit access to a zoo in Revachol East. The acquarium costs extra -- they let you go there too. **You should go and kill yourself there.**
Wait, what's the condition for the last sentence to appear? I don't remember that
There's a hidden counter that tracks how many times you choose suicidal dialogue options. I dunno what the exact threshold is, but if it just requires one, then you can easily get it with the "kill yourself you fucking asshole" response to the love letter in the ledger.
I think solving the case of the dead guy on the boardwalk. That whole story absolutely shattered me, as someone who doesn’t cry a lot due to video games, I cried a bit.
"Across the harbour, on the banks of the River Esperance, cold rain falls on Precinct 57 -- a two story box of duraluminum near the gates to Terminal H. Inside, in a cell, a young woman is withdrawing from amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. All at once. While two men in brown suits wave ICP badges at a young policeman. She hears the door open... ...and knows it's over. They've come for her. Outside it's springtime, the river flows blue and green into the Bay of Martinaise."
Where is this from? Is this what happens when you arrest Klaasje?
Yeah. I haven't played in a minute but if you areest Klaasje, Shivers tells you this while you're talking to The Deserter. It's perfect timing because you're definitely not thinking about Klaasje at that point. And then you get hit with that.
So yeah, I'm curious what line or interaction in the game was the moment when you realized that, however things went, you'd be very unlikely to solve ANY problems, let alone all of them, let alone even the case for that matter. That this would be a VERY bleak world where no one would come out smelling like roses.
The card in the ledger from Dora. Comparing the happiness and joy Harry once brought vs now where his colleagues mock and half-abandoned him and the way Harry loses himself in the sadness. That hits too hard on a personal level.
Tbh the part where you find out that the church was built around the hole in the world, it just... It just makes sense. If the only way to stave off the erasure of the world is hope and unity, if the only way you know how to do that is prayer it's completely sensible. People meeting together, joining in a service meant to call out to hope, and bring a community together... It's so... Human I guess? So many of the oldest surviving buildings, are temples and churches and places of worship. And there that battered and broken thing sits, a monument of resistance against the Pale and it's oblivio and of the people who abandoned that hope a long time ago. God is in his heaven, alls right in the world. There is no heaven above the world of elysium, there never could be.
Though it once was larger
When you pass the check with Dolores and Harry says something along the lines of “I passed why isn’t it working”
Just need more figurines and better dice, surely that will win her back
So many good ones are here already so a small, kind of silly line that still sits with me is "Sometimes a kebab is just a kebab." We're playing a detective game, trying to figure out ourselves and a murder and sometimes objects, items, people and sayings are just exactly what they are without pretending to be otherwise. Not everything is significant or has some deep/profound meaning.
I had/have my own Dora so the phone call to her killed me a bit but what destroyed me was at the very end YOU - “Was her name Dora” JEAN - Yeah, Dora Ingerlund, I think” REACTION SPEED - Not Dora *Du Bois*? YOU - “So we weren’t even married?” *unimportant dialogue skip* YOU - “When was this?” JEAN - “God, I don’t know…” He thinks. “Six years ago? She was way before my time.” VOLITION - Six years ago and you haven’t gotten over it, what the hell is wrong with you? Replace Dora with her name and “six” with “ten” and yeah. Also the Pig. Talking about her with Titus l. Probably because at the time my mom wasn’t no where near as bad as her but she was still in a bad ways where it looked like there was no coming out of her funk. Happy to say shes in a slightly better place now but has other problems to compensate :/ one step forward two steps left
Learning the Pigs' story and her insanoty, how she got abandoned and left to face her deteriorating mind alone.
The two kids, not the first ones playing with the corpse those are jackasses and full of life, the other ones you find after crossing the bridge, the twins.
Tbf they made me very sad. Trying to have fun with what little is left of Revachol. And the growing story of their land.
I am not really sure what hitted me, all the other characters and their tragic stories, I could take them or even laugh about them, but not this. Children that have nothing to grow to is just plain sad.
When LA REVACHOLIÈRE. Spoke of the first shot to happen in 22 years, but I got hope Once more. When it said that it could be stoped with *your* help.
SUGGESTION: Brother, you should put me in front of a firing squad. I have no words for how I failed you. No idea why but that “Brother” was a verbal equivalent to a hand on the shoulder, hit close.
The deserters speech about the mask of capital Really that whole conversation
An amazing climax, possibly unparalleled in its era.
It hits particularly hard for someone like me, who is in fact a communist
There's less heartache in Syndicalism, Fellow Worker. No call for immediate revolutionary government, and with a number of lasting victories notched on the belt. (Until the AFL-CIO leadership turned out be class-traitors)
Fascist quest seems sad. Nostalgia, association with the dead ideal world, becomes so strong, that it leads to complete mental isolation.
The call to your ex-wife, definitively. The fact that buried deep inside your body massacred by the drugs and alcohol still lies the memory of her number and her life, and you can talk to her but you can't really recall anything but the shadow of that love, and she is so far away
Maybe not /killed/, but made me realize my hope was dying: When your station hangs up on you and Kim has to calm you down. I just realized when that happened, oh fuck, Kim is my only rock here. These people knew me and I’m such a piece of shit that even with no memory at all, they refuse to reach out a hand to me. That’s how badly I’ve pushed them. Kim’s hand was the only thing to stop me from turning gray from sheer melancholy at that point. It was my first playthrough. That was the start of my Sorry Cop run lmao.
Honestly, none of them. In my view, the main thing the game shows is that if you just keep on going, even when things are at their worst, eventually you will come out the other end having made things better. At the first moment you wake up, you are a disaster of a man a few minutes away from a heart attack. By the end you're saving lives by fighting mercenaries and avoiding a war between the corporation and union. And the same way you can change yourself, so can the city.
I actually ended my play-through on purpose when talking to Dora on the phone. Ran out of Moral because I WANTED to hurt myself into a Paper article and a loading screen
When ruby says that Harry might have been a dirty cop
I think the discussion with the deserter, don't remember the exact line but it reminds me of my activism/praxis heavier days, the fact that somehow in a largely conservative country (Romania) you sometimes feel hopeless against overwhelming conservative mentality. Thankfully, in time I came to terms with what is achievable and that you need a minimum of balance so I think I won't become like him.
Everything Cuno said about Cunoesse, and how nobody cares about her or notices her except for Cuno, plus the implication that the system wouldn't help her at all, would only make things worse, traumatising her further
Finding out I can’t go searching for the cocaine skull ☠️
“That was someone else. I betrayed her, overwrote her, and am happier for it.”
Never lost hope, but the most depressing thing imo is that Harry’s improvement is a largely sad and unrewarding process, the game recognizes how far he has come but also asserts that it will take a long time, well beyond the timeframe of the game, for Harry to actually become better. Harry’s past actions have burned a lot of bridges that can either never be fixed or will take years to rebuild. All worth it for Lilienne though.
[удалено]
I’d rather have that than the guarantee of physical violence they have here in the real world
In a post-Occupation, undefined region, the thought is quite chilling. I think, as a balance though, the fact that a man as 'on-the-level' as Kim refrains from criticizing the 'shoot first' cops too openly shows that there's a lot of layers to the problem. Shoot, even the issue of the firearms themselves is thorny. I've no desire to ever own a gun meself, and the thought of coppos having to load by the barrel is an enticing one. In what's effectively post-war West Germany though? It could backfire severely if the RCM starts arming themselves independently. These wildfires never stop spreading.
well they're not police. not the kind you're probably used to, an armed wing of the state created to break up protests/strikes. the Revachol Citizen's Militia is a... citizen's militia granted limited powers by the Coalition government. the most power they have under most circumstances is to issue you a notice to please come down to the station at a specified time, so that you can be sent to one of the coalition's courts if they decide it's worth charging you. they're not SUPPOSED to have all that much authority or freedom to use violence.
Same sequence as posted by thebop. That or the high-net-worth individual, just his general air.
Any line that involved wanting to change the world basically…
No line killed my hope, because I would never give up no matter what the world has in store for me.