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 Late Shift is an FMV interactive movie game, developed by CtrlMovie Ltd and published by CtrlMovie Ltd and Wales Interactive. It features a bunch of people I've never heard of but you might: Joe Sowerbutts, Haruka Abe, Richard Durden, and Lily Travers, to name a few. In it, we play as Matt, a parking lot attendant in modern Britain who gets wrapped up in a heist and subsequent power struggle around a Ming dynasty artifact. Late Shift apparently had several special screenings in movie theaters across Europe. As the movie played, the audience would vote on choices via smartphone, creating the full in-theater interactive movie experience only dreamed of in Futurama. Some of you might remember my Contradiction LP and the soft spot in my heart for FMV games, as bad as they can sometimes be. Wales Interactive is keeping the dream alive, having published a number of FMV games. I plan to go through several of them, comparing and contrasting, and with The Bunker LP completed, this one is up next. While I prefer this to The Bunker, I'd still place this on the bad end of the spectrum. The acting on display isn't as good as The Bunker, and while this game finally has some interactivity that The Bunker lacked, it's strictly limited to which railroad track you want to ride down. There are, inevitably, a plethora of false choices, so oftentimes you aren't even picking between two railroad tracks. The obvious comparison here is going to be a visual novel, but Late Shift falls short even there; the compressed format of film means that you just can't get the depth or complexity of characters into a one-hour playthrough that a 10 or 20-hour VN can provide through text. On the bright side, Late Shift does boast six (relatively) significantly different endings, compared to The Bunker's two non-ending endings. We'll explore all six, but I'll spare you having to re-watch the movie six times, instead showing off the two major railroad tracks. So come join me as we explore the second of several modern FMV games. The audio mixing is also much better here, yet there are some weird discrepancies with the subtitles. So, my own commentary will be subtitled, and if you have trouble understanding the dialogue, we might get some unintentional comedy like Contradiction had. Episodes Lawful Good Matt Lawful Stupid Matt Chaotic Neutral Matt Optimal Matt CirclMastr fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 6, 2018 15:06
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Fine, upstanding advice as always from the SA forums, never plot murder and drive. Gotta say, I'm intrigued at what's happening to good ol' Matt. Kind of a fun thought that this one and "The Bunker" could be set in roughly the same decade, though obviously a wildly different turn of worldwide politics. Or, possibly not, and "The Bunker" was just a Vault-Tec-esque experiment which failed as spectacularly as one might imagine.
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Jun 6, 2018 20:10
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Having played this myself, the 'false' choices are kind of interesting still, like the police - it's a whole little section you can totally miss.
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Jun 7, 2018 03:52
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That 'gently caress' 'yes, I dare say' at the end was amazing. ACAB. I'm liking the 'comedy of errors' thing going on with Matt.
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Jun 7, 2018 04:31
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This seems a bit more gripping than The Bunker. Maybe the choices aren't as complex as I may think they could be, but it's pretty entertaining, and I like Matt's analytical view of whats going on around him as it happens.
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Jun 7, 2018 09:17
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I'm fairly sure it's Mei-Ling, by the way. And the prospective employer for the job would probably be spelled Wu.
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Jun 8, 2018 00:40
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malkav11 posted:I'm fairly sure it's Mei-Ling, by the way. And the prospective employer for the job would probably be spelled Wu. I don't want to point any fingers (at the Brits who made this game, Brits) but it's spelled May-Ling in both the subtitles and credits, and the prospective employer's name is spelled Woe. For some reason.
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Jun 8, 2018 04:05
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malkav11 posted:I'm fairly sure it's Mei-Ling, by the way. And the prospective employer for the job would probably be spelled Wu. Apparently some people spell it like the way in the clip, although it seems much rarer.
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Jun 8, 2018 05:59
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I mean, it's all transliteration from a completely different alphabet, so I guess ultimately it's a matter of taste.
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Jun 8, 2018 06:07
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this is an LP of a bad game by a good LP. I don't know if I'll watch but I already recommend it.
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Jun 8, 2018 20:35
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It may be a 
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Jun 9, 2018 03:03
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The time has come to reveal the fate(s) of Lawful Stupid Matt. Be sure to stick around for all three endings! Also be sure to come back next week for the first half of the next playthrough, where Matt will be less Lawful Stupid and hopefully more successful as a result.
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Jun 13, 2018 14:46
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Whoo boy. That's a hell of a night for poor ol' Matt. I'll certainly be lurking about to see the next installment of this! The first playthrough was Lawful
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Jun 13, 2018 15:52
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Not so much Chaotic as Optimal? Maybe I'll end up calling that version Game Theory Matt but basically he'll be doing the opposite line: working with the heist instead of sabotaging it, getting on May-Ling's good side instead of pissing her off, and not, y'know, handing himself over to the police.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:19
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 Clue reference.Matt is such a douche, lawful or not.
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Jun 13, 2018 16:22
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Fun to watch, but there's also scenes in things like this that bug me. It's the writing, like, why isn't matt telling the triad guys 'I'm a parking attendant that got held up at gun point to be the crews driver when they bungled stealing a car from my garage. I did what they told me so they didn't shoot me. As far as I knew the bowl was the real one and I have no god drat clue who was putting the crew up to it'. You know, something like that. Or that if triads cant tell a scared kid with a night job from someone with the actual chops, experience, and skill set to pull off the robbery in the first place, then what the gently caress triads? You guys suck. Or the inept police guy. Okay, got it, you got a stiffy for nailing matt on the crime, how about the garage CCTV footage that shows a jackass falling out of a vent and shooting at Matt? How loving hard could that have been for matt to say 'check the CCTV at my garage' and for them to go pull it? Boom, done, gently caress off Officer arrest boner . Bleh, just some venting. Enjoying the tour through the game. I dig it. Kind of weird comparing it to Detroit which just came out. Way more interactivity there, but I like late shifts style a lot more. Can't say for certain why. If it's the real actors or that it plays more like a TV series or what.
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Jun 14, 2018 00:18
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 I'm the picture on the old guy's desk of himself, all alone on vacation.
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Jun 14, 2018 01:56
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Jade Star posted:Fun to watch, but there's also scenes in things like this that bug me. It's the writing, like, why isn't matt telling the triad guys 'I'm a parking attendant that got held up at gun point to be the crews driver when they bungled stealing a car from my garage. I did what they told me so they didn't shoot me. As far as I knew the bowl was the real one and I have no god drat clue who was putting the crew up to it'. You know, something like that. Or that if triads cant tell a scared kid with a night job from someone with the actual chops, experience, and skill set to pull off the robbery in the first place, then what the gently caress triads? You guys suck. Or the inept police guy. Okay, got it, you got a stiffy for nailing matt on the crime, how about the garage CCTV footage that shows a jackass falling out of a vent and shooting at Matt? How loving hard could that have been for matt to say 'check the CCTV at my garage' and for them to go pull it? Boom, done, gently caress off Officer arrest boner . To be fair, Matt's story is pretty implausible (because really, who's dumb enough to rely on a random parking garage attendant you've just met and forced to come along at gunpoint to play a critical role in your heist?) and there's really no particular percentage in the triads at least giving him the benefit of the doubt when they could just put the (literal) screws to him and maybe get something.
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Jun 14, 2018 03:38
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Just assume this takes place in a fantasy world where everyone is both alternately very trusting and very suspicious. And a bit dim.
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Jun 14, 2018 04:50
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malkav11 posted:To be fair, Matt's story is pretty implausible Yeaaah.... I guess when we start with crooks loving up a car theft and force the valet to join the heist I shouldn't really expect a lot.
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Jun 14, 2018 12:09
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It's a pretty massive writing failure, though. If you're writing a crime story, the first thing you want to work out is the crime, right? e: I like the hook of 'recruit the valet', I don't get why they force him at gunpoint - wouldn't blackmail ('we got footage of you taking a car for a ride') or just 'a giant pile o cash' work better, and give more incentive for Matt to stay on side? Set up a reason that the heist needs a valet with some company credentials that can't be faked, maybe. lofi fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jun 15, 2018 |
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Jun 15, 2018 00:38
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Jade Star posted:Yeaaah.... I guess when we start with crooks loving up a car theft and force the valet to join the heist I shouldn't really expect a lot. It's also vaguely possible that things make a little more sense with other choices - they clearly reused footage as much as they could so we can't assume that there'd be a ton of difference between branches.
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Jun 15, 2018 03:02
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It's a new playthrough with a new Chaotic Neutral Matt as we avoid the police and get close to May-Ling.
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Jun 20, 2018 14:54
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Getting incredibly distracted from the actual content by the intro segment where he gets a bus from near Old Street station to Oxford Circus where he goes down the clearly marked no-entry entrance, but the following scene is shot in Old Street station (despite the heavily unfocussed background, I go through there every day so it's pretty obvious), then when he gets to the bottom of the escalator suddenly it's Baker Street. Not sure if they cut some early-game decisions or they just couldn't get the shots they wanted elsewhere. I figured it wasn't going to end so easily but I expected Mr Wu to tell them it was a fake himself, rather than bail on the plan because he didn't want the hassle/have the money
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Jun 20, 2018 23:22
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I thought from what we learned last time this is all being run by Mr. Parr. I figured the crew was just told that Mr. Woe was the buyer so Mr. Parr could scam 'em and keep the real one and then if anyone catches on to the theft or comes looking, the Choi's(?) the go looking for Mr. Woe instead.
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Jun 21, 2018 20:17
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This game seems to be all about the elusion of Chois.
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Jun 21, 2018 21:25
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Jade Star posted:I thought from what we learned last time this is all being run by Mr. Parr. I figured the crew was just told that Mr. Woe was the buyer so Mr. Parr could scam 'em and keep the real one and then if anyone catches on to the theft or comes looking, the Choi's(?) the go looking for Mr. Woe instead. That basically works for the rest of the crew but I'm not sure what May-ling's concept of the wider plan was. She made the forgery herself but is surprised in both timelines to discover that's the one they have, so presumably she thought they were stealing the original and had no hesitation in going to the restaurant to try to sell it on. What did she think the forgery was for?
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Jun 21, 2018 21:54
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Polsy posted:That basically works for the rest of the crew but I'm not sure what May-ling's concept of the wider plan was. She made the forgery herself but is surprised in both timelines to discover that's the one they have, so presumably she thought they were stealing the original and had no hesitation in going to the restaurant to try to sell it on. What did she think the forgery was for? Well according to the expert during the police interview in the previous timeline, the forgery was made about 5 years ago.
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Jun 21, 2018 22:31
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Ah, I'd forgotten that detail, that's a little less weird then.
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Jun 21, 2018 22:51
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I didn't think that the dating was that exact. More of a line to say 'this bowl was made recently' because what loving dating thing is that precise? That, and may-ling said Parr asked her to make it, so I think the fake was made as part of the lead up for the job. Or during the job. Got the sense that only may knew a fake was involved.
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Jun 22, 2018 02:38
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It just occurs to me that the van's driver didn't move into the wrong lane but the bus or whatever did. Edit: Oh, that's why. One line. Kibayasu fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jun 25, 2018 |
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Jun 25, 2018 19:52
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Okay this time Optimal Matt is actually up. See all three remaining endings, including the best one! There's a bonus video on the way as well. It'll be one complete playthrough so expect it to be on the long side, but I think it's better not to break it up. CirclMastr fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 27, 2018 15:05
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Polsy posted:What did she think the forgery was for? Well, at least they cleared that up, but yeah, not very convincingly.
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Jun 28, 2018 00:07
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All told short of the beatings and murders and the millions of pounds Parr's crime would have been incredibly well orchestrated if Matt and May Ling hadn't goofed it. He presumably makes a cool 6.25 million pounds, and getting away with keeping the original bowl in the first place by destroying the "original". Also, in the first playthrough I missed that it was an actual rice bowl, so when Matt was bitching the entire second half of being Lawful Stupid I thought he was being comically racist that any old chinese bowl would be a rice bowl, not that he was actually getting charged with murder/getting tortured/getting killed etc over an actual, bona fide bowl for rice.
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Jun 28, 2018 16:20
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CirclMastr posted:Okay this time Optimal Matt is actually up. See all three remaining endings, including the best one! Are you sure about those being all the endings? The list I found says that the one where he's arrested for May-Ling's death only counts as one, and you're missing two endings (there's a total of 7).
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Jul 3, 2018 03:01
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I like the take they use when he shows up at Parr's house. He's just standing at the back of the van, and the box was just delivered. So was Matt just hiding in a corner of the van when they showed up? Did the delivery driver open up the back and he just passed the box to him? "Parr? Here you go, mate."
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Jul 3, 2018 21:24
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whitehelm posted:Are you sure about those being all the endings? The list I found says that the one where he's arrested for May-Ling's death only counts as one, and you're missing two endings (there's a total of 7). Ugh, I am missing one, due the way the achievements are bugged. But the game lists the two endings where you're arrested in the hotel room as separate endings (rejecting Parr's bribe leads to The Delivery, getting it out of the cabinet leads to The Lion's Den). So the last episode will be slightly delayed as I need to record that.
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Jul 4, 2018 20:25
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CirclMastr posted:Ugh, I am missing one, due the way the achievements are bugged. But the game lists the two endings where you're arrested in the hotel room as separate endings (rejecting Parr's bribe leads to The Delivery, getting it out of the cabinet leads to The Lion's Den). So the last episode will be slightly delayed as I need to record that. I was going by http://lateshift.wikia.com/wiki/Late_Shift_Wikia in which you haven't shown endings 6-7, but maybe they didn't give one of those an achievement for some reason even though its a new scene.
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Jul 5, 2018 01:02
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All of these ending would also probably end with "And then Matt and May-Ling were arrested after Parr is found dead and the police investigate the suspicious money transfer that happened immediately before his death"
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Jul 9, 2018 21:46
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