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Some combat screenshots in mid-dialog with comrade Satanovsky. Edit - I honestly don't get the Stalker note in the demon station. Is it mocking traditional RPGs where the noble hero saves the world? I mean, in-universe the dude actually took out a bunch of demons and sealed off the station... having him be completely ineffectual or mistaken about the threat would at least be an attempt at a joke. Also, I don't know if TGEK is going to explore the area above the demons station (big hole) but it has the one combat in the game I actually found tense and atmospheric. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Dec 6, 2021 |
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Dec 6, 2021 11:27
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Oh thank god, Atom is about to be over.
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Dec 6, 2021 12:14
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... Yeah unless there's something particularly interesting (not "interesting" like the family you rescued that guy from  ) we haven't seen I guess it's time to wrap things up. I do want to know how the game ends but all the side content is getting pretty samey.
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Dec 6, 2021 14:54
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... I am very sorry, TGEK. I had only just started the game. I never got into any of, well, this.
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Dec 6, 2021 18:35
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Xander77 posted:Some combat screenshots in mid-dialog with comrade Satanovsky. Thanks for the callout, should be fixed now. And hell no, the one time I tried that fight it took a zillion reloads and all those explosives. I brought my Drake posted:... I am very sorry, TGEK. I had only just started the game. I never got into any of, well, this. I play this crap so you don't have to!
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Dec 7, 2021 01:15
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:I play this crap so you don't have to! That's basically the unofficial motto of Let's Playing, isn't it?
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Dec 7, 2021 03:38
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:
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Dec 7, 2021 17:38
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: The Secret Cartel. You've probably seen our symbol around, and even talked to our postal workers. We are everywhere. As silent as a muted horn, as forgettable as a silly drawing on a waste bin. Don't look at me like that. We're not monsters, we're professional postal workers who believe that all letters and packages must be delivered, no matter what they are.
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I missed this was a Pynchon reference as I haven't read Crying of Lot 49. Dammit.
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Dec 7, 2021 19:27
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I won't be surprised if we see a conspiracy collaboration between Jesuits and feng shui masters for no good reason before the end of the game at this point.
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Dec 7, 2021 19:30
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It Was A Waste Of Time All Along! Welcome back! Last time we battled (as Dack Fayden pointed out in the thread) an evil Thomas Pynchon reference that reminded us we could be reading things that are not poo poo. Today we're going to get very close to finishing the game. Forever.  Now that we have the Hazmat suit, there is no reason to go underground again. Now, there's a lot more stuff to do in the Dead City, but it all sucks, so it can remain undone.  This is where we need to go. We could hire the guys at the looter base to open the underground entrance, but this is cheaper and FAR less tedious.  This leads to a rat battle. I cannot emphasize enough how loving tedious and uncreative this garbage pile game is.  It's clear the developers consume a lot of media, but they have almost nothing to say.  It's an adaptation of the spirit of conspiracy stories, vaguely, but you have to really break down and analyze the tedious text and once again, none of the conspiracy poo poo really affects the player. Sure, we had to murder the totally not evil Valya Satanovsky on behalf of some stalkers, but we were never really threatened aside from game mechanics.  What we need to do is go down this hole.  I'm not making you read all this poo poo. I just think it's funny that ATOM always has all the party members comment in succession and have very little to say. If you have a rope you can go down the hole.  This leads us to the last bunker, which thankfully is not full of rats. Now, quick, I want you to think of the absolute laziest AI reference you can. Super basic. First thing that comes to mind. Ready?  It's motherfucking HAL 9000!  See it's funny because it's a reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey AND to calling people Comrade! Get it! Do you get it! Ha ha!   : [Intellect] Beep-beep, you say? It seems that I am dealing with a robot... Of course our old friend tedious narration is back.  : Beep-bop, comrade. I am VIL-a - 'Vladimir Ilyich Lenin' Atomic positronic-emission-based AI with widened machine logic. : In that case I'll just break the lock on this door...See? It's funny because he won't open the door, just like the movie! Ha ha! Ha ha!  : [You inspect the heavy metal door, but it has no keyhole, nor even a crevice to level open with a crowbar. The computer's voice, which you would swear has grown more serious, interrupts your fruitless conversation]: Unfortunately, this action will yield no result, comrade. Moreover, beep, a second attempt to discover a weakness in the bunker's side doors will result in punishment delivered by the built-in PERUN defense system. : Does that mean I need to identify myself? : What is the UU-1 protocol check?: Beep-boop! Vil-a refers to lines 192-198 of the Protocol - in order to regulate access to restricted sections of the bunker, ViL-a - 'Vladimir Ilyich Lenin' Atomic positronic-emission-based AI with augmented machine logic, will use its most advanced module - the EYE - facial and object recognition system based on spectral analysis.: If the EYE module is not operational, VIL-a will use the EAR module - voice pattern recognition system based on audio-waveform analysis. Beep-beep!: In case of EAR module failure, VIL-a will determine access rights based on the UU-1 Protocol. UU-1 protocol uses VIL-a logic. The system will ask the employee a variety of personal questions, and based on the responses decide whether to grant access.: The UU-1 Protocol is to be used only as a last resort, since at this stage of development the system can easily be deceived. Beep-beep! It's loving amazing to me that you have a functioning AI in a post-apocalyptic world and the only thing you can think to use it for is pissing it away on lovely references. : Maybe I'll just go find my employee access card, will that work?: [The talking computer's glowing red eye suddenly looks down. Perhaps the weird device is interested in your shoes, or maybe it "lowered its gaze" because it was "ashamed"...]: This method is not valid for gaining access, comrade. VIL-a is forced to admit that the following modules: EYE, spectral analysis facial recognition system, and EAR, voice pattern recognition system, have been restored to their original factory settings as a result of an emergency reboot, and thus are not currently functioning.: VIL-a is currently unable to analyze access cards. At the present time, VIL-a isn't even able to determine the height, body type, race, and gender of the comrade to whom VIL-a is talking. As you might guess, randomly picking a name gets us this:  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 You need to go find notes with personal information to open the door. It's not a bad idea, but again, I have very little patience left with this game. We have a last name, Turgenev.  This is a hint at how to cause VIL-a to lockdown, as he sees Engineer Turgenev as his father. Also more identifying information.  Talking to VIL-a again gets this.   Seriously. Both of them chime in to tell you what the AI just told you. Why are these chucklefucks even here?  The rest of the information we need is gated behind... a loving rat battle! It's the only one in this bunker, but why? It's a secret Soviet superscience bunker! We know there's weird psionic poo poo going on! Why the gently caress can't we fight psychic mutants or anything moderately interesting?  We have a full name now.  Lastly, you need the name of Mrs. Turgenev for the security questions.  We can throw all these answers at VIL-a and open the door.  Our next guy is a general.  We have a first name.  It also looks like the gun they gave him he used to shoot himself.   We can pick the lock on the safe for some good loot, including an automatic pistol, another backpack, and some +1 AP stimulants we are going to need very soon.  There's another reference in a locker.  This hockey mask looks like it's really good for us, but it has a very stupid catch.  The melee damage bonus isn't added after the roll like in say, Dungeons and Dragons, but it's added to the maximum range of the weapon. Our minimum damage with the Cossack Sword before was 17. With the hockey mask, it's still 17 but we can roll higher on damage. Have I mentioned that every single mechanical idea this game has is bad?  So I'm going to cut this short. We need to find all the crap for the general. There's an Intellect/Personality check pair you can pass to avoid this, but I whiff it.  Do you get it yet? Do you? I'm cutting out the party members' ineffectual pleading, threatening, and reasoning with VIL-a because it's just not funny.  We throw the general's information at it and we pass. This leads us to a choice between another unfunny reference door and the absolute, bar none, most garbage fight in a game full of badly designed garbage fights.  : I am sorry, comrade, but I truly cannot allow you to do that. In addition, due to the crimes you have committed within the facility, VIL-a cannot allow you to exit this bunker.: Please move away from the door, kneel, and enter what Protocol describes as "the pose of regret". Boop! Remain in this position until VIL-a is able to contact the authorities. Please stand by until their arrival. Until then, this bunker is your temporary prison. : Well, I never! After all our friendly talks, you're going to knife us in the back like this? Your creators must have modeled your artificial intelligence on a rat.The joke is that Alexander threatened to beat its rear end at the last door and it called "threat level bull", ha ha. : VIL-a has regained control over some of the modules which has[sic] ceased functioning. Now VIL-a understands the error of letting you through door after door. Beep-beep! No more doors will open for you here. : My friend! This bunker is barren. There is no food, no water. I do not want to be sealed in here!: VIL-a's spare bioreactor has enough rotten beets to feed you for 100 years, convict. Now move away from the door and kneel. : That's right, VIL-a, my boy! You tell him! Tell this so-called child of mine exactly what you think of him! Let Grandpa Hexogen help you! I'll take this terrible man outside and shoot him like a dog! What do you say? Just open the main door for us. gently caress it, we have 161 speechcraft. Eat it, robot. : [Speechcraft][Lie] Did you forget you're talking to your old father, VIL-a?  : [Intellect] The sensor was offline just moments ago. How can you tell it's functioning adequately? Ok, talking like Hexogen here to lie to the computer is actually pretty funny. Dammit! : [Speechcraft] But in your heart of hearts you do know that I am Turgenev, your father. You know this to be true, my son. Do not believe the lies your faulty sensors whisper to you, child! : The absence of logic and the prevalence of emotion render your statement suspect. However, your words and emotions demonstrate that your thought patterns are the same as those of Engineer Turgenev.: Warning! Paradox found: the same logic that disallows the opening of this door leads me to open this door. Warning! Warning! VIL-a...needs...reboot. And a thorough diagnostic of his cognitive chains... TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Excellent! But let's say I hadn't been dumping all those points into speechcraft?  So this robot is in the other room. It's the same model as the one we found back in Bunker 317 where the game wouldn't give us a sick rear end battle robot so we could take...Hexogen and Alexander instead. Do you see those two heavy machineguns?  So we have 123 HP and the best armor in the game.  We, of course, cannot reason with the robot (fair enough, your chance was at the door) or gently caress him up here, all we can do is make a lame unfunny Asimov reference.  Oh, and Dr. Who of course. I do not understand how these people probably put hundreds of hours into this game only to do it in the laziest way possible.  So we get the alpha strike off and the robot takes 168 damage. This is a massive amount, and it doesn't kill this robot. "Ok, TheGreatEvilKing, you finally found a boss who can put up a fair fight, what's the big deal?"  Well, this fucker has taken nearly 200 damage and it's not dead for one thing. Ok, it's a battle of attrition, right? Our party members can come in, and -  Yeah, the robot outspeeds the entire party except a competently built player character and deletes one person per turn. Remember, this is not a game where you can resuscitate downed characters, when someone hits 0 HP they are permadead. The Neoseeker guide recommends that you shoot and scoot the robot out of the room, but again, the robot goes before your worthless party members! Can you beat the robot? Yes, you savescum until you do enough damage to kill him with the chainsaw/sword OR he rolls low on damage and you miraculously survive. Is this an interesting boss fight? gently caress NO! gently caress this robot, and gently caress this game!  So we're speechcrafting the door. I know this isn't the pacifist run, but again, that robot fight is cancer and you cannot make me do it.  Despite the mushrooms being kind of important to the plot, you cannot interact with the mushroom tanks in any way, because everything about this game is inept and lazy. I'm really running out of ways to say it.  The game isn't being coy about hiding the Mushroom Cult retrieval squad anymore.  : Wait-wait-wait! I know some of these guys! They're from ATOM!: Oh, long time no see! A date with strangers...: Don't quote me! But I have a hunch something's wrong here.Why do I keep you people around? : [As unanimously as they turned, people now speak. It sounds as if they had been rehearsing this many times for this very occasion] Yeah it's a spooky hive mind! : What's all that supposed to mean..? Are they all hypnotized? : And who are you guys...?: [People speak simultaneously, in one voice] : Sample? What sample? This is the ultimate sin of the narration. This SHOULD be unsettling and disturbing, but the prose is so dull and formulaic that the reader does not care. This is a crowd of people mentally enslaved by a psychic mushroom so they all move as one organism, and it is boring because the writers do not know what they are doing and cannot evoke any emotion other than a dull disconnect. Bonus points for not even bothering to animate the models.  : The destiny of humanity? : Yes. We do not know all the details but we know this must be done. This is of paramount importance. There is no other way. The sample must reach Krasnoznamenny.: Is this all you can tell us about the situation? : How did you get here, guys?: [For a second the people disrupt their unanimity and look at each other, talking over each other] Okay, the hatred of that loving computer being powerful enough to disrupt mind control is actually kind of funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but I can see how one might get a chuckle. : Okay. I thought it all over, and decided... : You're really creepy, guys. What's your problem? : I don't understand what is going on here so I'll kill you just to be on the safe side.: What a shame! The Mission is too important. We need to stop you. Those fiends! They summoned the narrator! I just want to point out that Stalker does this much better with the controller mutants. Those are actually freaky! However, once again, the developers do not understand how to convey emotion, so they resort to the time honored tradition of just telling us we should be scared.  TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Now, you might be thinking "TheGreatEvilKing! You're in combat with a psychic hive mind composed of dudes! Are they going to use telekinetic attacks or mind control your party members, or something cool" To which I reply "what game do you think we're playing? This is ATOM RPG!"  On a solo melee playthrough you can lure these guys out into the hallway and kill them. Unfortunately, because I did not order all the useless companions to go hide in the other room, Hexogen gets machinegunned to death.  So we break out the chainsaw and run in.  This just gets you machinegunned to death. Don't do it! I most certainly didn't overestimate my tanking abilities and totally wanted to show off for this LP, honest!  So I figure, ok, this training grenade has a 40% stun chance, we can knock down a bunch of these guys and go after the remaining ones.  NOPE! Turns out, it only applies the stun chance to people in the middle of the blast radius. What a poo poo combat system.  These guys are not positioned well enough for us to stun more than one, with predictable results.  I finally get a rush of brains to the head and inject Bear with enough stimulants to kill a fully grown orca whale. This raises his AP to 13, which lets him perform turbo criticals against all three of these idiots. The game's love of huge damage variance once again screws us here.  Our party members all waste all their AP running into the room while Bear spends turn 2 decapitating Mushroom Cultist #4.  Finally!  We grab Fidel's SMG and use it to destroy the mushroom so it won't mind control any more people.  We also grab the second door code for the Mycelium Bunker. Yes, we went to all these new places just to get the numbers to open up the doors in the Bunker. The developers got pissy that people were lockpicking the doors, so if you try to go there early the Mushroom Cultists attack you with automatic weapons before you get a turn.  We begin our trek to the harbor. I try to rest off the drug withdrawal so we can haul all our loot.  This game just revels in tedium.  Captain Gorton the lying food provider once again takes our money. We're never coming back here! We're free! We're almost done with this awful game!  Hexogen has a whole spiel about how the party are his long lost children... wait a minute! That means he was gonna hire prostitutes to rape Bear, Fidel, and Alexander! What the gently caress, game?  Whatever. Let's go tell Ariadna the Mushroom Cultists were gunned down by a robot and then she'll tell us to go into an active volcano or some dumb poo poo.  Well, this is new. Good to see the Krasnoznamenny militia folds at the slightest sign of real combat.  Also, what the hell? The game uses grey text for narration and green for dialogue.  Oh boy! : [You're not the only one to recognize a familiar face though. The squad fighters recognize you one by one and go quiet, as if facing a threat - or a legend? The apparent leader of the noble gathering speaks first, taking the awkward responsibility of starting the conversation off your shoulders] It's Alf the tutorial guy! Remember him? No? TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:They even gave him a new portrait, which is a shocking amount of effort for the developers of this game. : Where else should we be? And what are you doing here? : Ahem... which bosses sent you here? : Our bosses from ATOM! The sane part of them, those who didn't switch camps. I'll explain...: So, while you were searching for Morozov and Co, there occurred some changes at the base... It turned out that some of the bosses, as well as some agents, had been members of this organization, 'Mycelium', for quite a long time. All hell broke loose! Arrests, shooting... Someone even hanged himself.: These were necessary measures as they'd been recruiting new members in their ranks for quite a while! Right under our noses! The agents would go on an assignment in the Wasteland and be brainwashed into joining them. You know, "enough hiding in the shadows, it's time to help people and take credit for this" and so on. Our own agents did it, can you imagine?! Traitors.: And if this was not enough, the bastards really started working for these...: [The agent looks at the Mycelium building with undisguised resentment]The part that gets me about all this is that the Mycelium are the closest to being actual communists this game has, and they're literally Ayn Rand moochers who want to steal not just your property but your free will. : ...these God knows what they are, cult followers? They disclosed secret information to them, revealed the base plan, names of our agents. It was a real flow of poo poo. So yes, this is why Alexander and Bear weren't issued radios. They were never supposed to find Morozov, they were supposed to gently caress around endlessly until they ran into the Mushroom Cult and got recruited for this poo poo. The player is super lucky they happened to be mugged outside the one town that had seen Morozov's expedition. : Exactly! Needs some serious brain racking. Their level of secrecy was truly amazing, better than ours.They even had sexy lady recruiters! : Crap, guys... I don't even know what to do now.: No need to worry, Alex. Our guys will win eventually. It's only a matter of time.: To be honest, I didn't pay attention to what you were discussing, young man. But I think the only way out of this situation, just like of many others, is immediate shooting of everyone found guilty! Merciless shooting! : Right... And how did you expose this plot?: We intercepted their secret conversations. Totally by accident! Vasily, the communications specialist, tried to tune in to the concert of the <<Atomic Love Gurus>> on the Wasteland-86, a Trudograd musical station. Instead, he tuned in to the traitors' roll call. He handed the recording to the department of internal investigations, the conspirators were arrested and questioned, and disaster followed. The Night of the Long Knives was Hitler's purge of the SA. I am not sure why the hell they made this reference when the game already referenced Soviet purges. Are we to believe that Alf and co are secretly Nazis? There's also the idea that the purge was orchestrated by the real mastermind against any ATOM loyalists who remained and secretly the last "boss" is manipulating the whole situation, much like Hitler purging his loyal Nazis because they were no longer useful, but who the gently caress knows? : How many of our agents have been recruited by the Mycelium? Approximately? : Do you know why the mushroom cult recruited ATOM fighters? : So what are you planning to do now? In Krasnoznamenny...: [The agents look at each other, uncertain]: Well, after what had happened, the bosses decided to take the horse by the horns and sent us to Krasnoznamenny to deal with this sect. The problem is, the mushroom lovers have apparently heard of it and fled...Uh huh. : Now we're thinking... If we're here already, perhaps we should seize the power in the city? What do you think? Seriously? If these freaks were right about one thing, it was that we need to come in the light. The Wasteland is in trouble, and we keep working from behind the scenes.: I've heard you liberated some village. Now we have something like a hub there, with this devil Gozhin looking after it. But why should we content ourselves with it? The time of commotion is the time to get one's act together!: Just imagine Krasnoznamenny as our new base! All the new opportunities! We'll put everything in order in these lands and encourage the residents for fruitful work...: I'm not sure... I don't think the bosses will be happy to learn about this unauthorised takeover on your part.Fidel loves Krasnoznamenny and will kill you if you attack a citizen, so this makes sense for him. Presumably he realizes he's bluffing, because we have no idea what these bosses really want and Alf might be lying on their orders. : It'll be fine. They have more serious problems now. It's time to act! And when they learn of it, why, they'll give us all medals!: You're a brick, man! As they say in Georgia, you have my respect!: Ahem... in Georgia? Alex, are you alright...?: Ahem... Let me interfere! Listen to these young communards. You know your old father is never against good prospects! I'd gladly join bees in the hive just to be in a good team! And this is an exceptional team! It's a wonderful opportunity! A revolution! Incidentally, if you don't have these guys Alf rants about how there's a male prostitute here instead. Decisions Lie Before Us! Are we supporting or opposing Alf's coup against the Krasnoznamenny Chamber of Commerce? Pros: The Chamber of Commerce are a bunch of corrupt and useless shitheads who want to do genocide. The militia is corrupt to the core and extorts bribes from honest citizens. Alf and co are on team ATOM (supposedly) which we are nominally a part of. We can probably force Captain Gorton to give us a refund for the food he defrauded us out of. Cons: Alf is going to probably force the members of the city to work for him, and is maybe a Nazi if I'm not reading too much into his Night of the Long Knives line. It'll be a military dictatorship, albeit one we get to be pretty high ranked in. Flip A Coin: The main plot was a waste of time no one needed done where the intent was to manipulate us into helping the Mushroom Cult. We were supposed to wander the wasteland of Pizzagates and incest bunkers until Ariadna... I dunno, mind controlled us or something? This was to be accomplished by sending us to an obviously suspicious massacre site linked to the Mushroom Cult on the Cult's orders. Literally every quest we've done has had us be manipulated by terrible people. Choose wisely!
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Dec 8, 2021 05:52
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Flip a coin, because gently caress giving this game any degree of thought.
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Dec 8, 2021 06:22
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BisbyWorl posted:Flip a coin, because gently caress giving this game any degree of thought.
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Dec 8, 2021 10:02
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BisbyWorl posted:Flip a coin, because gently caress giving this game any degree of thought. it is the only way.
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Dec 8, 2021 11:18
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Flip a coin or join ATOM, I dunno, I stopped caring about the plot awhile back and I'm just hate-reading this LP now. I'm sharing in your suffering out of solidarity.
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Dec 8, 2021 12:59
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Flip a coin. Either of those choices probably leads to a lovely combat encounter, might as well leave it up to chance
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Dec 8, 2021 15:10
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is there any way to just shoot both sides
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Dec 8, 2021 15:32
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dervival posted:is there any way to just shoot both sides Yes, actually, we will have that vote next update.
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Dec 8, 2021 16:21
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BisbyWorl posted:Flip a coin, because gently caress giving this game any degree of thought. Also, why is the writing on this pic in German...?
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Dec 8, 2021 16:28
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Yes, actually, we will have that vote next update.  Flip a coin, then.
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Dec 8, 2021 16:34
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dervival posted:
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Dec 8, 2021 18:18
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Throw up your hands in disgust, and just leave this dumb excuse for a wasteland. Failing that, flip a coin.
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Dec 8, 2021 19:16
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BisbyWorl posted:Flip a coin, because gently caress giving this game any degree of thought.
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Dec 8, 2021 19:46
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inscrutable horse posted:Throw up your hands in disgust, and just leave this dumb excuse for a wasteland. Failing that, flip a coin.
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Dec 8, 2021 20:03
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inscrutable horse posted:Throw up your hands in disgust, and just leave this dumb excuse for a wasteland. Failing that, flip a coin.
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Dec 9, 2021 18:53
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inscrutable horse posted:Throw up your hands in disgust, and just leave this dumb excuse for a wasteland. Failing that, flip a coin.
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Dec 10, 2021 01:00
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Alright, looks like the vote was unanimous for "gently caress this game, flip a coin!" On heads, we side with the "noble gathering" of ATOM!  Guess ATOM's hosed!
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Dec 10, 2021 08:48
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Truly the most fitting end for the most forgettable conspiracy.
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Dec 10, 2021 14:49
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The Last of All Sidequests Welcome back! Last time on ATOM RPG, we learned that the main quest was completely pointless and made up by our frenemy conspiracy the Mushroom Cult. We also were asked if we should support the "loyalist" ATOM fighters in their quest to cleanse Krasnoznamenny of corruption by installing a brutal military dictatorship. The thread voted to flip a coin and I can't blame them, so by the whims of fate we are opposing this dastardly... who am I kidding, everyone in ATOM is terrible and they all deserve each other.  : Give the locals the chance to develop. They're doing quite well, you know. The first time I played I really did think they were Nazis with the homophobia and the Night of the Long Knives, but who the hell knows? : What do you care? People live their lives. And doing quite well actually.Also how the gently caress did the guard at the gate ask them for bribes when he had a tragic smoking related death completely unrelated to the Cossack Swordsman giving him 5 packs of smokes?  This coup of highly trained ATOM fighters with actual squad level machineguns, assault rifles, and... one guy with a machete for some reason decides that even though they now currently outnumber the militia and the Krasnoznammeny bunker is guarded by one cuckolded man that they're just going to go home. I guess I can be charitable and assume they're scared of the dreaded Cossack Steel? : I think there might be some cult followers left in the building. Will you help me with them? So, yeah. Xander77 asked the developers about this and their reply was that we should pay attention to these guys not caring about the Mushroom Cult. None of this makes sense, because if their official goal is to take over the city why would they stop because we told them to? : Okay. Suit yourself. They all just wander off into the desert for forty days and nights. Look, I don't understand why this game makes the decisions it does, ok? TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 We're gonna go to death tunnel.  It turns out the poison area is a complete waste of time with crappy boring rat fights and the usual pointless loot.  What we're interested in is behind these Morlocks  So, what's hidden in the Tunnel of Death?  An actual, no poo poo nuclear missile launch controller. With a functioning warhead. This should really make us kings of the Wasteland, as the last remaining nuclear power. What do you actually do with it?  First, we need to cheat our way up to 100+ technology.   Now we can nuke... Bethesda! Man, aren't you glad this game squanders any kind of interesting premise for lovely references! That'll show that poopy Todd Howard for making games people actually like!  Fidel is mildly perturbed and we get 1110 XP. It's totally not worth it. Reload!   We find this letter on a guy who refused to launch the missiles. Whatever! Look, fighting for control of the last nukes in the Wasteland would be a lot more interesting that whatever the hell we're doing, and I cannot imagine that none of the conspiracy idiots want to get their hands on them. Hell, the Mushroom Cult even sent us here!  Whatever! Time for the REAL last sidequest of the game!  Remember him? A long time ago he gave us a quest to defeat 3 evil gangs of bad murderer people who were going to destroy everything for, uh, reasons.  This guy is our super secret contact we need to talk to about the Death Gang. : I just came to make your acquaintance. Don't fret.: [The man calms down and nods] : Teacher, huh? Hmmm... The moon hides behind a cloud...: [As the words leave your lips, the man becomes tense and serious all of a sudden. He whispers back to you:] : Don't fret. The former head of the Death Gang looks worst than death itself. I came here in his stead.Blah blah blah... look, I'll cut this short. He tells us about 3 groups of Death Gangers, led by Lena, Igor, and Dima Death. We don't care about the first two, but the last guy gives us the one actual meaningful decision the game allows us to make.  To trigger it you have to wander around to the indicated areas and trigger various Death Gang encounters. Lena here doesn't do what we want to do, so...  Yea Lena's super hot but also murderously crazy blah blah. We don't have the skills to leave peacefully and she doesn't - to my knowledge - let us do what we want to do, and no that's not rack up a sexual partner count.  Party wastes her in one turn, she's not interesting, at least there's loot we literally do not care about.  THIS is the guy we care about.  : [The lower part of his face, visible under the heavy steel helmet, is covered in burns. There's a can of gasoline hanging from his belt. He starts talking to you, without letting go on a thick cigarette, that burns in the corner of his mouth. You sense terrible hatred for all life, in his raspy voice...] : I love the smell of napalm in the morning...: [The Red Death looks at you with new found attention. You hear a click of an old fashioned cigarette lighter, and then the fire proof glove on one of the Gang Leader's[sic] hands sets ablaze..!] You need like 10 Endurance here, and if you gently caress it up you get hit with 10 screens of narration about him lighting an axe on fire and screaming. I most certainly didn't gently caress up a few times, but you need to use condensed milk to raise Endurance. If you do... : [Endurance] I laugh in the eyes of fear! [Shake the burning hand] : [A terrible pain goes through your body. But you somehow manage to withstand the torture... Red Death lets your hand go. His burned face contorts in a sickly, yellow-toothed grin] : Yes, I want to join the Death Gang. : Everywhere, from Krasnoznamenny to Peregon, in every village and every town, people will shoot you on sight. All friendships you had, all deals you made, everything will become ash... if you venture forth as one of us... Decisions Lie Before Us! Are We Joining The Death Gang? Dima is not kidding here. All quests will fail (although we will just be rushing the Cult Bunker to end the game), Fidel and Hexogen will leave the party forever, and entering a city causes a battle. On the plus side, we get a secret party member. Choose wisely!
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Dec 11, 2021 02:51
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Well, that was a limp end to the possible usurping of the local government. This whole game's been limp, in fact. Time to get the game over with and cut through everything in the way with the Death Gang. I'm sure they'll still flub it somehow.
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Dec 11, 2021 03:06
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gently caress it, Death Gang.
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Dec 11, 2021 05:34
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BisbyWorl posted:gently caress it, Death Gang.
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Dec 11, 2021 06:13
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Yeah, sure. There's some unique dialog for the Death Gang NPC I wanted to show off (and for reasons that will become very clear, there are mods that incorporate said NPC into the party without negative consequences) but it's not particularly pacifist, I guess.
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Dec 11, 2021 11:52
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Death gang The NPC can't be worse than our current companions. Unless the dog leaves too, in which case, no death gang.
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Dec 11, 2021 14:07
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Death gang. It's sure more of an honest ethos than the rest of this crap.
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Dec 11, 2021 14:46
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Whatever choice makes the game end faster
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Dec 11, 2021 16:47
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Dima is not kidding here... Fidel and Hexogen will leave the party forever, Sold! BisbyWorl posted:gently caress it, Death Gang.
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Dec 11, 2021 18:04
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Rend. Slaughtered. Devour your enemies. That is the only way to survive. Death gang. Slaughter every last living thing in this accursed game. Leave none alive. gently caress this stupid game, gently caress these stupid NPCs, gently caress this stupid cult, and gently caress anyone associated with the production of this blight on the history of crpgs.
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Dec 11, 2021 21:42
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The End of ATOM Welcome back! Last time on ATOM we voted to join the Death Gang and... look, I'm sorry. I tried. We'll see how that goes.  : I want to be one of you. A killer, and a barbarian of the modern age.: [The Red Death smirks] So you might think we're picking like a gang name that people refer to us as. : Count Vlad Burnacula.: Now go towards Peregon, Vlad Burnacula and find there my sister, Galina Bathory. She will tell you what needs to be done, to truly become part of our Gang.That's our secret party member! Guess what she does. Go on, guess.  No, the mistake was paying money for this game. TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 Yeah, uh, the game changes your name to Vlad Burnacula. Anyway, go on and guess at who Galina Bathory is. A fearless Wasteland raider? A witch? Some kind of cyborg? A mushroom powered psionic? The last real communist?  Ok, but she could still be cool, righ -  Yeah, the secret party member is a teenage Vampire the Masquerade LARPer. : [When some humble dweller of Peregon comes into her line of sight, she quickly flips him off, or shows him her tongue. Even you get flipped off, before the girl spits on the ground and starts talking to you] Kid, you're sixteen. : [The girl looks around and gets out a tiny knife, held on a keychain] : But if I won't like ya, your pretty face is going to be all cut up.  I no longer have patience for this game's dialog. : Let me guess, Galina Bathory of the Death Gang?: [Rage is seen in the girl's eyes. She nearly slaps you]Contempt is seen in the LPer's eyes. He mocks the game's narration.  : Sorry, kid. They told me to use this name. : Right. Now tell me. What do I need to do, to get into the gang?: [The girl calms down a bit, and spits someplace near your feet] : Let it be so. Wait for me here.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 I cut the trek from Peregon to Krasnoz and we cutscene kill this old man in a way that doesn't provoke aggro from the city. I want to point out that Fidel does not ONCE object to this, despite being the "moral" party member.  Whatever. Begin the Death March back to Peregon.   : Let's talk about business. : The deed is done. [Show Roma Death's ear]: Wow! An ear of our former leader!: [The girl grabs the piece of flesh out of your hands and hides it seemingly in her bra...]: I will go bring it to one of the leaders... And you can already go to any goodie-goodie city on the map. We'll be there, wrecking it! What a party that's gonna be!: [The girl puts her hands to her mouth and yells for everyone to hear]: Let everyone know! Your order has come to an end! And you have to thank this guy for it!: [She giggles as she points at you]: As for me... I'll go with you! And you can do nothing about it! Haha! Let's go...Unfortunately we have a full party! Is ATOM going to code some kind of party swap met- : I have tried to understand this plan of yours, amigo... But seems to me, you have no plan. You just want to attack peaceful settlements along with these immature killers and thugs. Amigo... Our ways... They become too different for me to stay with you...Oh, NOW you object. It's perfectly fine to help the Secret Cartel get rid of their competition or kidnap your own adopted daughter for the sewer mutant I guess. : Ph... Pff... Even though I, an old man, have a young soul... Younger than most, by the way... ! Attacking peaceful people is not... Like they say... Not my style... I will tell you two words I learned from hippies, those romantics, ugly on the outside, but beautiful on the inside... The words are, "Bye, dude"...: That's all.TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
Good loving riddance. Alright, I have stripped them of any useful equipment. Now, they are still trained and experienced fighters who are literally confronted with an evil man bent on massacring the city that Fidel loves. Fidel will even attack you if you attack Krasnoznamenny. If we talk to Fidel again, what do we think will happen?  He starts begging for his life like a coward. Keep this in mind for later.  Hexogen has moderately more balls. Whatever!  Galina is probably the closest companion to being actually competent, as she shows up with a whopping 9 dex in a game where all the enemies have 10. Baby steps.  Both she and the player character get this trait. The Wasteland is full of terrible awful people so no one cares.  Our quest log is mangled. Whatever! Let's go into Krasnoznamenny and confront the Mushroom Cult with the aid of our new allies!  Galina is also smart enough to recognize the crafting system sucks poo poo.  The trading caravans are still willing to trade with us despite us being mass murderers.  So here's how the Death Gang works. You go to a city, a bunch of allied NPCs spawn, and you have to participate in glorious ATOM RPG combat against every single loving member of the city.  I mean EVERYONE! Igor, the guy who recruited us to the Mushroom Cult by having us spy on Varna Banana is killed at our hands.  Now, the raiders are loving dumb and will wander off chasing farm animals and poo poo, while people spout off their normal annoying catchphrases. You might be thinking, "TheGreatEvilKing, you handsome devil, you said ATOM combat loving sucks and takes too long, doesn't that mean you're trapped in this hell for hours?" Yes and no.  See those sniper towers? The ATOM devs, in their infinite wisdom, decided that you cannot climb ladders in combat. So we have no way to actually get up there and fight the snipers. We also have a swiftly dwindling supply of drugs, which just cannot keep up with the militia's assault rifles. This is the part of the game where being a Cossack Swordsman kind of falls off hard - we can still one-shot almost everything we get into melee with, but we can't actually soak hits or any of that nonsense because the game is extremely reluctant to give you any tools to interact with combat at all.  This happens. It happens a lot.  We also kill Zombie Lenin, who is part of a quest I didn't do.  After a lot of reloads and murder we make it to the second half of the city.  Having ordered my party members to avoid combat I beeline toward the Cult headquarters. RIP Zhanna, I'll never forget that time you banged Bear in a bathroom because you liked books.  It turns out lockpicking is a combat action which costs 2 AP. It almost justifies the RNG, but then I remember that the ATOM crew does have code to detect combat and you never need to lockpick in combat anyway. This also triggers a massive gently caress you from the ATOM devs which we'll see in a second.  Who's ready for the final dungeon?  Yeah! If you force the locks, this sets off a magical bullshit alarm that puts you in a crossfire by 4 mushroom cultists where they all fire on you first. gently caress you for engaging with the game! As far as I can tell, this is due to various speedrunners just forcing the door open with lockpicking to skip all the bunker poo poo, even though the writing makes it very clear the cultists just want to get rid of you.  So it seems our options are either to deal with this or slaughter everyone in the dock area of Krasnoznamenny.  We go about doing that but I begin to run low on drugs because uh there are a lot of NPCs with guns.  We do terrify this stripper who runs off screaming. Of course the devs made a pole dance animation and relied on narration for everything else lmao.  At this point I just give up. I'm sorry. I tried the Death Gang. The people of ATOM deserve it, but I'm not save-scumming my way through this five hour long hell fight when we have 2 more save-scum filled fights to go  Oh, gently caress you.  Alright, let's reload. No Death Gang and no Vampire LARPers. It's just us and the usual gang of fuckups and it's time to go confront the Mushroom Cult once and for all.  So the reason we went through all that dumb bullshit with Ariadna was so we could get the door codes - randomly generated at the start of each game - to the two doors in a location we could access as soon as we reached Otradnoye.  The Mushroom Cult has left us explosives because holy poo poo are we going to need them in just a few minutes. These next two fights are absolute hell on a swordsman like Bear.  But first, it's time for glorious  I just want to point out that I'm pretty sure this changes based on if you're a guy or girl - remember, ladies worth with Artyom - but they lazily left the text as "Mushroom Member" even though we know her name is Ariadna. : Dios mio! This gathering is making me feel very conflicted.: Oh... if only I could avoid becoming a bone stuck in the collective throat of this possessed crowd of fanatics. This new cult of eunuchs, instead of chopping off their useless, wrinkled genitals, somehow severed their wills and identities! Find the words to calm them down, my child!I swear it's like reading a play written by a high school who realizes there are three characters also in a room but cannot figure out how to have them talk organically, so he just puts "you three improv here" in the stage directions.  This bit has never been funny.  : Is it just me, or are you really unhappy to see me? : Think about it. I got them from the people you sent to explore the Wasteland. Are you ready for the Mushroom Cult's evil plan? : What "Sacrament" are you talking about? : The Sacrament of Unity. The moment when humanity must become a single, whole Organism in order to maximize its chances of survival. The moment in which we start moving toward enlightenment and growth together, in a world where there is no more death, no more hatred, none of the bitterness of saying goodbye, no more fear and no more war... : Right... and how are you going to execute your immoral plan? : Why don't you let outsiders in? : Why is this operation so important? I don't understand. : How can I get to the last floor? : What do you know about Morozov's expedition? It is just so painfully obvious the authors do not know how to communicate this stuff without this clunky garbage.  : Well, now I am facing a conundrum of sorts...: [The Mycelium members look at you in silence. At the beginning of the meeting, they seemed lively and talkative. Now all color has drained from their tense faces, and their greenish eyes follow your every move]I realize they were too lazy to photoshop green eyes onto Ariadna too! This is the final dungeon! You can cut the incest rape quests! Really, we don't mind! : Sorry, there's just no nice way to put it, we have to kill you. Please, don't fight. I promise it will be fast and absolutely painless, as if you had laid down for a nap. Your eyes are tired... Your travels have left you exhausted, which is no surprise. Anyone would be tired after all you've been through. You deserve a long, deep rest...If it ends this game I'm down. Take me now, Lord!  Why are you like this? How do you make a psionic attack - that this character previously described as "sorcery" - so loving cliched and dull?  Look, the other party members are in this game too! Did I ever mention that Fidel's hat is green in his portrait, but the actual inventory hat is white? : My oh my, I am so sleepy. I'm too old for this. Feels like I haven't had a good night's sleep in, like, twenty years. Maybe I'll finally get some rest when I'm dead? My original theory was that we could no-sell the psionic attacks because we had a skin worm, but who knows. It really doesn't matter, because every time this game has gotten so close to being interesting it has veered off into lame references instead of committing to anything. : Hey! What is this land of sleep? What's going on here? This is a matter of life and death! You need 9 Personality here, which I don't have and stupidly decide "oh the pacifist run can show that off". This is a mistake. : [Personality] Listen up brothers and sisters, I am ordering you to stop! You don't want blood on your hands!They, uh, just tried to kill us.  : You leave me no choice. [Attack]TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 So, this fight. This fight loving sucks! Because this is ATOM RPG, it's the same generic human enemies we've been fighting all game - but they have crazy good guns you can't usually get, like the Dragunov sniper rifle. There's also a guy with two machine guns, and once again, our tools are: -We have one player character who can actually go before the enemies. -We have 4 useless sadsack idiots who steal XP and go after the enemies, and have garbage stats so they die real easily. Also they're under AI control and don't do what you want. Great! As you can see, this is why I've been stockpiling explosives.  I'm honestly not sure what the intended way to get through this fight is. What you want to do is stun people with explosives because every single one of these mushroom cultists has stupid amounts of firepower and will waste your rear end. The terrain is terrible for melee fighters as well.  We have the best armor in the game and I think I buffed to max endurance, and these fuckers can still one-shot us with machine guns.  Let's try this again. We need all the party members to stay out of the area, because they are dumb idiots who will wander into the bombs. I cannot stress enough that most guides for higher difficulties tell you to ditch all these fuckers.  You can skip Ariadna's awkward attempts at flirting by just telling her you're from ATOM and she decides to kill you immediately. This is great, because if we had to sit through all that crap again I don't know what I'd do.  Unfortunately I realize I'd given the wrong command to the moron squad and they all rush into the bomb area. I hate this party so much.  The general plan as a melee guy here is to run in and set up these timed explosives. They don't need skill to go off, and it only takes 4 AP to lay as many explosives as you can, so our plan is to run up to where we think the cultists will be when the timer expires and blow up as many as we can.  This takes a LOT of trial and error.  This looks great, but you have to remember these guys all have one-shot guns, so Bear gets killed wandering into the next room, and we don't have the AP to shut the door.  I finally get a good explosion off only for them to one-shot our incredibly worthless dog. It's kind of hilarious they gate him behind an RNG event only for him to be so useless.  loving finally. I only made it this far by save scumming like a bitch. I'm sure the sniper build could maybe handle this fight, but I honestly don't care enough about this game to do any more experimentation with it.  I'm not kidding when I say they have insanely advanced weapons.  Seriously, I've never seen this crap drop. Supposedly the slaver random encounters can drop them, but like hell I'm doing those.  This is the point of no return. We use the rope.  We can't go back up because someone cut the rope with a knife. Who did this when we killed every Mushroom Cultist at the door? Hell if I know!  The final dungeon is literally just a hallway to...another magic mushroom tank.  Who could this suited man be? Well, guess. We were looking for someone, weren't we?  : [Despite doing your best to stay silent, every man turns toward you in unison. You startle at their bright, glowing green eyes, and the pulsing, veinous protuberances covering their skin. But the weirdest part of it all is the man who seemingly leads them. You know this man]: General Morozov, I presume. That's right! Despite the goal of the entire game being to find Morozov, this is nearly the first time we learn anything about the man! It's just such an unsatisfying reveal, because the developers have been playing coy about it. We know he's an ATOM general and we had an inkling he was with the Mushroom Cult (although no one bothered to confirm Morozov wasn't killed in Bunker 317) and the only thing we really learned about our assignment was that it was a ruse to get us brainwashed? Earlier in the game posted:It's bizarre and makes no sense the more you think about it. Okay, we're supposed to wander the Wasteland alone with no way of contacting the base, until the Mushroom Cultists could pick us up. But wait! If we were supposed to be isolated, why were we told to make contact with Fidel? Our briefing posted:Fidel is an experienced agent with a low opinion of the Mushroom Cult. If you were trying to send the Cadet off to be brainwashed, he is the LAST person you'd want the Cadet anywhere near - in a competently written game, anyway. But wait! There's more! Our briefing, again posted:Why in God's name would you send any potential recruits there? Remember, the speculation is that this assignment was actually set up by the Mushroom Cult - if Fidel, a long time ATOM member, is to be believed - but Bunker 317 was the site of a purge of ATOM members by the Mushroom Cult, who didn't bother cleaning up their evidence. Earlier in the game posted:Fidel recognizes the evidence on sight, but he's also the guy our supposed Mycelium infiltrator ordered us to link up with! It's not like the Mushroom Cult had no means of communicating with their infiltrators, if Alf is to be believed they were brazen. A few updates back posted:
Now, the narrator - who as far as I can tell is omniscient third-person - described Alf and company as a "noble gathering".  So we have this bizarre situation where the conspiracy - which has been portrayed as fairly competent until their radio signals were intercepted by accident - arranged for us to be sent on the most inept recruitment mission ever where we learned that the Mushroom Cult is our real enemy because they purged our fellow ATOM agents. Were we just expected to die in the Wasteland, or what?  Of course, this is the game where Hexogen rants for a paragraph that the guy with loving glowing green eyes might not be on the level, so what did you expect?  : Yes, that's me.Is there some reason Morozov couldn't have radioed in false reports, or the bosses at ATOM couldn't have covered for him?  : At last we meet. You were always so close, but we could never get near you. As if proverbial Fate itself drove you away... Bear Bearovitch. Have I guessed your name correctly?Oh, did he want to recruit us? How were you unable to get near us when we were literally eating out of Ariadna's hand? Why does none of this make sense?  I don't know, Fidel. None of this poo poo makes sense.  : Am I truly talking to General Morozov?: Partially, yes, I am still this... Morozov. But I am now more than a single being. I am a part of the Whole! Part of the Mushroom Web linking me with all other living beings on the planet. With a kind of Mycelium, you might say. Yes, I am Morozov. But I am also the thing you see in the pod behind Morozov's back. And these people around Morozov, they are Me as well! This is no poo poo more characterization of Morozov than we get in the entire game.  This raises a question - is the Mycelium hive mind a metaphor for Soviet Communism? I'm serious. I really don't know! That was my first theory when I played through the game, but we'll have more to say in the postmortem. : Morozov, speak! What does it all mean? : Hold up. Part of a Whole? Mycelium? What about ATOM?: [The General's calm expression does not change, but a newfound disgust enters his voice]: What is... ATOM? A dried up husk of old glory. A miserable little group of soldiers and paper pushers, destroyed by its own secrecy. It served us well as a stepping stone. : Right. So how did you end up becoming this... part of the Whole? If only there was some kind of.. words, from the character, that could describe what he was thinking. : In the first years after the Last War, when Krasnoznamenny was still in ruins, We called upon a reconnaissance party that was by chance passing through the devastation above. This party was led by General Morozov. From below ground did We call upon him. From the depths of this very bunker, where We were created by the greatest minds of the old Soviet science.: I... He... General Morozov head the call. He and his men forced their way inside this facility with explosives. They talked to Us, and joined Us for the greater good.I assume Morozov wasn't running around the ATOM base with glowing green eyes but who the hell knows. : Wow, Morozov! What a waste of time you turned out to be! You know how much sand filled my socks as I passed through the Wastes, looking for your sorry rear end? And my buddy, Bear Bearovitch? He even got sand in his underpants, because he lacks proper hygiene. And THIS is the result of all our rashes and blisters? A half-mushroom, half-traitor babbling nonsense near some kind of giant chamber pot?!You know, the game calling this out as a complete waste of time is not helping.  ATOM just tried to pull an armed takeover of Krasnoznamenny. Fidel has no ground to stand on.  : And what exactly are "You"? Care to tell me?: Do you speak of mushroom before you? This is a fungal mass, created by scientists during the project they called Stakhanovite. They wanted to create a soldier that would fight without food, water, medicine and moral support, whose actions would be completely under his handler's control.: The fungus was an unwanted byproduct of one of the early experiments. Later on, discovering its telepathic abilities, the scientists tried to use this accident to advance their project. They wanted the super soldiers to link telepathically one to another, by means of a psychic mycelium. Then they could act as a single organism on the battlefield. : How long was this going on without ATOM's knowledge? The conspiracy, I mean?: Conspiracy? So be it. The Conspiracy started soon after the War, when General Morozov stumbled upon this very room in a scared and wild little town called Krasnoznamenny, so insignificant even the railroad ignored it. This forgettable place was an ideal location for experiments on an entity such as Myself. It was my birthplace. My birthing chamber. : Filtered? Meaning you killed those who opposed your plot?: Oh, no. No! We are against violence. It can be useful, but if there is any possibility of avoiding bloodshed, We choose it. Those who were deemed untrustworthy were simply never contacted again. We were very careful. Considering that the mushrooms have been trying to kill us with psionic attacks we can safely call bullshit on this one. : Why are you doing this? What's the endgame of this Unification thing?Are you ready... for the TROLLEY? : [Morozov sighs]: After the fall of society, We collected an unfathomable amount of information from the Soviet government's high-tech databases. We wanted to learn. About people, about this planet, about outer space. We fed on that information, just as our cells fed on nutritious solutions. And this feeding gave results. Oh yes. We saw! We saw everything. We became enlightened. We knew the inner workings of the Universe, the laws of physics, the endless possibilities the future holds.: We then "saw" one of the endless possibilities. That grew more and more probable with each year. With each day, each hour, it became more and more real. Maybe it was always there. Maybe it was caused by the fires of the Last War. It does not matter.: I'm talking way too much. The jist[sic] of it is this: An asteroid named 1997-TB146 is getting closer and closer to Earth. Today, it's close enough to be seen with the naked eye. Some have even given it a folk name - The Hesperus Star. This asteroid has a radius of approximately 20 kilometers. If it strikes, it will wipe out 95% of life on Earth.It's a SPACE trolley! Toot toot! TOOOOOOT! TOOOOOOT!  : The only way to resolve this situation is the Unification of humanity into a single hive mind. Our mind. Only then will civilization develop quickly enough to consider this threat that will otherwise destroy the planet. Only when we have achieved Unity.Over the course of our travels, we have found: -a working nuclear missile launcher -dimensional travelers (in the pacifist run) -an actual god who blessed us with magic lightning -a magic book that may or may not have summoned a Shoggoth. This is bullshit. : Pardon me. Something wriggled in my brain box for a moment, and no wonder, after hearing all this? Don't you find it scary too, you chav? Before today, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to spend my twilight years with the woman I love. Now, I doubt I'll even have time to find the woman I will love. Because the world will turn to poo poo in the next few years! : Ohh. We were all waiting for the green window of the poisonous Wormwood star, of which the Hebrew prophet spoke ages ago. But in reality our doom shall come from the blood red light of Hesperus! STOP WITH THE loving NARRATION ALREADY!!!! : I sensed that something was terribly wrong with our guest in the sky. I had hoped it was a pre-war satellite or something like that. How wrong I was, Bear Bearovitch.: ["General Morozov" looks at you with no apparent emotion. He seems indifferent to the world around him]: Listen! We know that you already met other parts of the Mushroom Mind. In the Mountain Pass of Woes. In the Dead City. Both meetings went badly. Maybe it is hard for you to grasp. But We always speak the truth. We would never deceive about something like this. That's right, goons! Your choices don't matter in this game! : We have waited long enough, and We will not delay the Plan any longer. Soon, our special spores will be introduced to the city's water supply. Then the mushroom will start it's[sic] work.: [The former General points at the vessel housing the center of the Mushroom Mind]Huh we haven't had one lovely reference this entire conversation. : After the unification of Krasnoznamenny, we will develop a plan of action to save the planet. It must be done! The Mushroom Mind must not perish! Do you understand?: Heehee. Good luck with this, guys. For a personal reason, my brain won't be affected by your poo poo, best of luck to ya. You're really smart. Like, wow. So smart.: [Alexander turns to you, nods slightly at the huge mushroom and, making an "L" with the fingers of one hand, displays it against his own forehead]: [Hexogen makes an "impatiently looking at wristwatch" gesture, despite not wearing a wristwatch]Ha ha see even the game realizes there are too many loving words! : I'm sorry, but aren't you going to say that not all people will be absorbed into this single mind of yours? When will you say that some people, famous writers for example, will be spared? And given new flats, perhaps? And summer houses. And a nice pension for a comfortable life outside this grotesque, single-minded atrocity. What? You don't even offer that pittance?! Oh.: Oh, how right was comrade Stalin when he proclaimed all mushrooms enemies of the state! Enemies of the elderly! Hateful, terrible creatures, neither plant nor animal! All mushrooms are a MISTAKE!Please stop talking. : [Fidel's face is twisted with disgust] : What if you're wrong? What if there is no danger? : Hold up. Let's reach a consensus of some sort. This speechcraft check is a little different. : [Speechcraft] There must be another way! I'm sure of it! Take the middle option for the pacifist option. : What will you be able to do? You told me there's 30-130 years until impact? Your plan is terrible. : I can't deal with you, but I can try killing you.I'll be honest, the sequel to this game is all about finding an old Soviet railgun to shoot down the asteroid. This choice, once again, doesn't matter.  : I'm doing this because I'm a conflicted person.: I see...: You made a hard but righteous decision, amigo. We will find a way, a human way to save our planet from this terrible fate. Now, we fight! No pasaran!: The last battle is always the hardest. But why do I feel so happy as I plunge myself into it? Maybe because I will be fighting without hatred? Yes, I will be fighting for literacy! For literature! For the cultural diversity of future generations. They will probably die, because we will never find a way to stop the asteroid, but they will die while reading my amazing books, and praising them for their ingenuity! Jesus god, shut the gently caress up! SHUT UP! TheGreatEvilKing summary posted:
 This fight comes down to, once again, RNG variance.  Oh, and the machine gunners can 1-shot Bear. gently caress this.  : Well it should. Different people will have different reactions to your Unification. You won't fool every single human! And then... there will be blood! : Even I managed to find out your plot. You think no one else will? : That's right. That's why you should look for a more... human solution to this whole asteroid problem. That includes you, comrade huge mushroom thing! The companions say the same loving thing but with references to fighting removed. : We... None of Us wishes to spread violence on this planet. It has suffered enough. There is no simple solution to the problem at hand. Ah, gently caress it. Consider the Mycelium project officially closed!: [Suddenly, General Morozov gives you a kind, human smile, and waves one hand] That's it! They didn't even change his portrait! Whee!   That's it! Gameplay is over! Next time: The ending cinematic!
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Dec 14, 2021 07:02
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Your Choices Totally Mattered! Time for the ending cinematic!  : You still can't believe it's all over.: The long road has finally ended, and now the only thing left is to turn around, and reflect upon the changes your actions have caused to life in the Wastes. : Some found new religious orders, some continued helping people on their own, and some... entered into politics. : As a modern monument to stagnation, this city stopped development, change, growth, choosing stability instead of progress, and clueless, faceless leaders locked inside the impenetrable bunker instead of brave innovators well acquainted with the modern timesI believe this changes if you let Alf take over. If you let the Mushroom Cult do it's thing there's a separate cutscene about how Krasnoznamenny and Otradnoye become part of the hive mind.  I did not miss a screenshot, they drop the last word.   The white font could have been better chosen. : Otradnoye turned into a criminal free, cozy town, that attracted honest and hard working folk from all across the Wastes Yeah, sure, whatever. : The cheerful citizens even erected a statue in honor of their founders.: The monument depicted you and Gozhin, standing on a pedestal, hammer and sickle in hand. We never did the Peregon questline so the Pizzagaters are still killing each other. : It's people lost their humanity and turned against one another in a desperate and pitiful struggle: Trade also became a victim in this fight, and soon only vultures populated the once mighty trade hub  I lost a few screenshots here, (although that font is awful) but Fidel got killed by Syoma Voronok. Remember the guy who declared war on Dan, that the mafia sent us to? You probably don't, but he's like, super important, mannnn!  Even at the end ATOM still fucks up. : There, he wrote his first post-war novel, "Travelling with my child": The book was critically acclaimed and quickly became a Wasteland bestseller: It's[sic] sequel, "Major Hexogen's last battle" didn't fare as well... : Many people remembered him as a traveling strongman, a good friend to children, and a lover of hard booze, who always called his traveling companions weird nicknames, like "chav" or "bub". Fun fact: the Hesperus star is still there if you just let Morozov do his plan. : Mercenaries, on the other hand, claim they saw you with troops, completing unknown objectives in the deadly Wastes: Drunker stalkers, on the other hand, swear that you helped them rummage through ancient ruins This is the last, and the game mercifully fades to black.  The game hilariously displays a loading screen before the credits.  You all loving sucked at your jobs! Anyway, that's ATOM. There's a bunch of content we didn't cover, such as Kovalev's quest - which involves you getting parts to fix the car, then he takes it for a joyride, gets ambushed by an old enemy, and dies wrecking the car in the process - or the Peregon elections, where a random dude asks you to discredit the trade and guard Pizzagaters so he can fix the place up. However, I think I've shown off enough of the game to make it clear that, no, you should not play it and you especially should not buy it. I have a few closing thoughts on the game and then we're putting this ATOM run in the ground. What Is This Game Actually About? I was watching TehSnakerer's review of Watch Dogs: Legion and he argues that the game is about nothing as Ubisoft doesn't want to actually commit to a position. Now, I don't think that Watch Dogs and ATOM are at all similar, but I think ultimately the message of ATOM is very similar. ATOM wants to be about something, and the developers were super excited by the RPGCodex review praising ATOM as a deep, literary game. The problem is that, while ATOM is full of words, most of these words are about nothing. First you have to get past the endless font of pointless references, and then the tedious wall of dull realistic narration in a game where - per the developers on the Steam forums - you are supposed to be questioning the game's reality. The problem is that none of this builds up to anything. The Mushroom Cult is written like Ayn Rand villains and seems like a parody of Communism, but are also able to be talked down by pointing out to Morozov that their plan will cause a bunch of violence, something the real Communists never hesitated to employ and that critics of Communism - like Ayn Rand - are quick to point out. It does not help that the game's pacing is uniformly terrible. There are references to the Hesperus star scattered throughout the game, such as when Agatha is asked about rumors, and of course the incoherent screen the developers cannot explain that the player receives at the beginning of the game.  Why is there a demon? Who the gently caress knows! There's a bunch of random crap in this game that goes nowhere. Alexander is infested by the mind worms, and does the same crap as the player, which raises the possibility the cadet is infested too... which the game immediately denies and does nothing with.  The one constant in the game is that ultimately you have no choices and are constantly manipulated by the conspiracy, whether it's being asked to destroy the evil Pizzagaters or sent to pick up the freezer for Satanovsky's "hospital" you're an idiot pawn on puppet strings. Even the main quest to find General Morozov is designed to recruit the Cadet into the evil Mushroom Cult conspiracy, even if the means by which the Mycelium Society does it make no actual sense. Ultimately even the confrontation with the Mushroom Cult doesn't matter. Yes, if you don't destroy the cult they take over Krasnoznamenny and Otradnoye and you personally have to kill Fidel, but defeating the Mushroom Cult just lets one faction of military dictators run Krasnoz, Dan runs Otradnoye (although the gang disbands if the cult wins), and ultimately everything you do sets up one brand of the Conspiracy to be victorious. The game wants to have an Age of Decadence or Tyranny ending where no matter what you do one man cannot fix the world, no matter how powerful or skilled, but the writers don't have the skill to pull off that kind of inevitability and we just get a bunch of lazy railroading. The message is that nothing matters, everything is poo poo, and you're a drat idiot for trying. Notice how Fidel, the supposedly moral and heroic party member, dies no matter what you do? Sure, there are occasional choices in side quests - do you spare the bandit who's gone straight, or turn him over to his victim for revenge? - but by and large, none of the quests actually interlock in any meaningful way and the world almost never changes as a result of your actions. The game is an empty theme park that tries to pull a magic trick - it throws out enough words in an attempt to convince the player that it's about something, anything, and it includes things like the great conspiracy that connects all the quests, or the possibility that the player character is possessed by a mind worm, or a few hints to the nature of the mushrooms or the Hesperus star, but ultimately going beyond these meager portions reveals the soullessness at the heart of the game. Most of this nonsense is here to set up references, hell, even the Postman conspiracy is a reference to Thomas Pynchon. The one recurring theme is that the player character is constantly the butt of the joke, from the character realizing he gets used constantly in the Dragon's quest to the crafting messages mocking you for failing to roll a joint.  That's ATOM! Bad, but ultimately bad in a tedious way that wasn't even fun to mock. It's over! I'm done! Don't buy this game!
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Dec 14, 2021 08:10
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 02:48 |
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Thanks for another great LP, GEK! 
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Dec 14, 2021 08:17
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