Hooyman

@humanity: haha interesting anecdote, I thought each NPC came with a pre-assigned name. I maybe overestimated the amount of attention they gave to the mechanic.

I thought it was a brilliant touch to have the NPCs calling out the names of those killed in combat. Fit great with the game's emphasis on consequentialism. Has this been so widely implemented in a game before?

Please keep prodding the Tommy Wiseau of game reviewers, guys. Two pages and I'm already hooked. So many quotables from that review, I can't possibly pick just one hahahaha

I just wanted to say that it’s really refreshing to hear this perspective. I’ve also been bothered by the fact that much of the criticism of the game has focused on a presumption of its “overly simple and repetitive message about violence and revenge.”

Better than anything else I’ve read or played before, the game explores the relationship between the perpetrator and victim when bound by revenge. As the line between perpetrator and victim becomes more and more blurry, Abby and Ellie develop a more intense - I would even say ‘more intimate’ - mutual dependency. There is a compulsive self-enslavement to hate and to the subject of that hate. And the bonds of hatred seem to be stronger than those bonds motivated by love. It’s paradoxical, frightening, beautifully tragic.

I really appreciate you typing up your thoughts and observations. You’re the first I’ve seen who refrains from rendering a value judgment on Ellie or Abby without first trying to understand the complex emotional and psychological forces that propel them. The plot’s complexity and beauty lie in understanding those forces. It’s time to move on from the low-level moral judgements of “violence is bad,” and “Ellie turned out to be such a bad person.” Great read!