Finished the game....Spoilers.

Talk about Kojima's hard sci-fi masterpiece.
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Reborn from the Ashes
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Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by Reborn from the Ashes »

Spoilers for both Policenauts, and Snatcher.

First, thanks to the team that put in so much time, effort and work into creating the patch. The dedication and determination is truly inspiring.
Spoiler:
One of the first things I noticed while playing Policenauts, is that it doesn't seem quite as strict as Snatcher as far as investigating everything on the screen goes. There are exceptions, first time in the AMM Museum being the first that springs to mind.

Also, it may just be that I played Snatcher years before Policenauts, but, while Policenauts had more shooting scenes, and it was more difficult to target, I found the Act 3 Insectors in Snatcher harder than any shooting scene in Policenauts.

I thought Policenauts seemed somewhat lighter than Snatcher. Just like in Snatcher, Policenauts is set in a world with a dark history, and a dark present. However Snatcher mainly took place in drab environments, during the night. Policenauts also has it's sinister environments, but there are also a couple of colourful environments, and a good part of it takes place during the daytime. This isn't a criticism of Policenauts, just an observation.

The music also, seemed a little lighter on the whole, although, again, Policenauts did have it's tense tracks.

I did find the plot to be a little predictable. It was quite disappointing that Redwood did turn out to be the bomber, after the game whacks the player over the head with a sledgehammer during the prologue. Lorraine revealed Karen's age right at the start of the game, which pointed to Jonathan being her father, or at least, made it quite unlikely that Kenzo was her real father, which made the scene where Karen declares her love for Jonathan very...awkward. And something about Gates just seemed a little off. Still a good story, but slightly disappointing in it's predictability.

It's hard to imagine Jonathan really being that competent as a Negotiator/Detective, to be honest. He's seems pretty slow to catch on to things some times, and he's got a pretty short fuse. I couldn't help wincing a couple of times in the game when he got riled up, and started shouting about everything he'd learned during the investigation, the scene in the Garden when he first meets Tokugawa being an example.

I'll admit, I prefer Gillian to Jonathan. I'm not sure how to describe it, but Gillian just has something that Jonathan doesn't, in my opinion. I think it may be down to the fact that Jonathan is very much living in the past, as the newspaper clippings in his office show, whereas Gillian doesn't have a past to live in. There just seemed to be something of a barrier between Jonathan and the other characters in the game, that Gillian didn't have. That's a major part of Jonathan's character, of course, he hasn't fully accepted that the world moved on without him during those twenty five years. Maybe it's because I did feel there was a barrier between Jonathan and the “friendly” characters, Ed to an lesser extent, but still there, or because Jonathan did lose his temper so many times, but some how, his emotional moments, never seemed to reach the same level as Gillian screaming “Snatcher! I'll get you for this!”. Entirely my opinion, of course.

This isn't to say I didn't feel Policenauts didn't have it's emotional moments. The Plato Crater, in particular, was just sad and horrific, just that Policenauts somehow never had quite the intensity Snatcher did.

I liked Ed as well. Really enjoyed the way he tried to keep Jonathan in check, especially when it came to Jonathan's behaviour towards female characters, but really, he was just as bad. Incredibly loyal as well, and interestingly flawed in the way that he can't really stand alone. He's just as moralistic as Jonathan, but without Jonathan to lead/support him, just keeps his head down, and goes along with the flow.

I thought Dave and Meryl were good characters as well. What happened to Dave was very tragic, and somehow worse, in my opinion, since Dave always tried his hardest not to hurt any one more than was necessary for an arrest, and ended up being shot because of it. And then what happened to him afterwards.....Meryl, despite playing a smaller role, was just as loyal as Ed was.

I have to admit, I think I may be missing something as far as Redwood goes. He's only out for himself, but in that case, why was he helping Gates and Tokugawa? He wouldn't have anything to gain from what they were doing, and he certainly doesn't seem the type to be loyal to someone else. And why did he seem to have something of a fascination with Jonathan?

There's really only sort of three motives I can sort of think of for Redwood targeting Jonathan:
1) He threatened to kill Jonathan in Old L.A, and he always carries out his threats.

2) He seems to regard himself as being superior, being a Frozener, and became fascinated with Jonathan after Jonathan injured him in Old L.A. This could be supported by what he says about Dave (who shot him in the kidney in Act Two) in Act Seven, but then, Meryl also shot him.

3)Jonathan's actually Redwood's father. The game did seem to be hinting in that direction near the start, with how Frozener's are created, and Redwood's line about visiting Earth on a family matter, but nothing ever came of it. Also, all the familial ties would have started to become a bit too much, in my opinion.

It just seems a little strange that Redwood's sort of the main, if not final/ultimate villain of the game, but he doesn't actually seem to really be connected to the plot as such.

On the subject of Redwood, during the fight between him and Jonathan, he says that no one's ever killed a Frozener before, but maybe Jonathan will be the first, but, isn't AP comprised almost entirely of Frozeners? Jonathan had to shoot loads of them to get to Redwood. Am I misunderstanding something, or is Redwood just trying to make Jonathan angry?

On that note, I couldn't help but feel surprised when Jonathan shot a human, because that was such an issue in Snatcher. Although, even though Jonathan killed without a second thought during combat, when he faced Redwood, badly injured, in the Prop, he couldn't bring himself to kill in cold blood, even after Redwood confessed. I thought that was a nice way of showing Jonathan's humanity.

Not sure if I was supposed to feel this way, but the ending felt sad as well, with Jonathan heading back to Earth...where nothing is waiting for him. I can understand why he chose to return, rather than stay on Beyond with Ed and Karen, but it still seems sad.

Very enjoyable game, and well worth waiting for. :mrgreen:
cacetete
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Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by cacetete »

relax, its just lethal weapon in a oneill cylinder.
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Snatcher42
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Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by Snatcher42 »

cacetete wrote:relax, its just lethal weapon in a oneill cylinder.
Heh. Well actually I just finished the game myself, and while I absolutely loved it (thanks so much again team!!!), I have to agree with most of Reborn's observations. Though Redwood didn't bother me as much because
Spoiler:
I just took him for a total psycho, and all the Narc he was getting from Gates and Tokugawa sweetened the deal.
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Reborn from the Ashes
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Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by Reborn from the Ashes »

Spoiler:
Redwood was on Narc? Sorry, I have to admit, I played some parts of the game late at night, so I probably missed some details. He seemed the type that would hate being dependant on a drug.
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Snatcher42
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Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by Snatcher42 »

Spoiler:
I think so. Forget exactly where, but remember someone (probably Victor) explaining that all the morphine in his system was one reason he was able to withstand such beatings.
akakak4747
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Favorite Game: Snatcher and soon to be translated Policenauts

Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by akakak4747 »

Spoiler:
Um.......where did you get that? Only thing I remember is that those frozeners or whatever with that other blood type....u know white blood. Is able to loose more blood and keep going cuz it's artificial blood and less dependent on oxygen or something like that.
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Snatcher42
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Favorite Game: Snatcher!
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Re: Finished the game....Spoilers.

Post by Snatcher42 »

To summarize the lost posts, Marc said
Spoiler:
It was Ed who told Johnathan about the Narc in Redwoods's blood during the phone call in act 3. Then I wondered if the drug was something used to keep many of the AP frozeners in check.
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