|
Christ, what a load of nothing. Dare I ask if you played the expansion?
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2021 09:11
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 07:05 |
|
|
What an piece of garbage. Thanks for the LP, TGEK - now, please stop hurting yourself by LPing games you hate, haha.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2021 13:53
|
|
|
I can't decide if ATOM should be categorized as be an actual game made by incompetents, a blinded-by-cargo-cultism tribute to Fallout, or a cynical paint-by-numbers cash grab intended to sucker in the edgy, RPGCodex crowd; perhaps it was all three. Either way, it loving sucked. Thanks for taking one for the team, GEK.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2021 16:12
|
|
|
You can tell they really liked the Master from Fallout 1, but had no idea what actually made that encounter great.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2021 16:31
|
|
|
anilEhilated posted:Christ, what a load of nothing. Dare I ask if you played the expansion? Nope and God willing I never will.
|
|
#
?
Dec 14, 2021 17:12
|
|
|
It's odd that it's really hard to summarize why this game is so terrible, in part because it's terrible in so many ways. But not like say, solely because of incompetence. There's a lot of incompetence for certain, but I think the main takeaway is the creators were so completely soaked in cynicism and irony poisoning that they could never, at any point, actually say anything. And I think, even if they had been more competent, this still would have been the main issue. They had nothing to say because anything actually thematic would be too "simplistic" and not edgy enough in this hard man's world of hard knocks. But it's not actually cynical, or clever, it's just kind of pathetic.
|
|
#
?
Dec 15, 2021 08:03
|
|
|
They wanted really hard to make a thing that said something, but didn't actually have something to say, like the difference between people who want to be writers and people who want to write. Sad.
|
|
#
?
Dec 20, 2021 07:02
|
|
|
What a terrible game. Thank you for your service TheGreatEvilKing. Question tough, why did they choose a "RobertDeNiro with a full Beard"-picture for Hexogen?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2022 01:14
|
|
|
I believe that is supposed to be a Prokhanov portrait?
|
|
#
?
Jan 17, 2022 05:58
|
|
|
Pacifist Walkthrough - spooky scary cultist-tons : Apologies for taking this long to get back to this (the Happy Merchant poo poo really made me lose my interest). Still, might as well do 2-3 updates to wrap up stuff of interest.This update will deal with supernatural stuff hidden away in sidequests and rarely encountered NPCs, barely tangential to the main plot. But before we start delving into the paranatural, let’s go add Galina Bathory to our party. As she’s a Goth Harley Quinn cosplayer, you won’t be surprised to learn that there’s a mod that allows you to recruit her without turning everyone in the game hostile. Link to the relevant update in case you forgot who the hell Galina and the gang even are.   Igor Death is actually based on a character from Chernobyl, which is thematically appropriate. No, not that Chernobyl. You wouldn’t know it, it goes to a different  : The Death Gang is relatively interesting, as despite being a bunch of dramatic poseurs, they’re actually fairly lethal (in narrative. In-game,only Dima’s gang is a real threat to a combat optimized character \ party).Which is a bit more true to life than the narrative convention about true badasses not being huge drama queens and arrogant blowhards not being truly dangerous.Also, both Fallouts and the Metro series go “of course you’ll have an inexplicably endless supply of raiders to fight, that’s what the post-apocalypse is all about”, while the DG brats get an explanation for their turn to banditry (abused, starving homes, wooden toys nailed to the floor [exactly the sort of timely and appropriate reference Atom RPG would be proud of]) and for their poetic turn.   You can’t actually actually convince Lena to let you join the gang if you're a male, so being a pacifist, I send her off to murder and pillage anywhere else. Not our problem anymore.  My mistake – I thought TGEK joined Igor’s group rather than Dima’s. Not much of a difference - you just impress Igor with your sensitivity, rather than your endurance. Anyway, if you notice that Arthur is now Sparkie in dialog – that’s why. : Appropriating the tl;dr summary from the OP:quote:
  : Galina sends us off to kill the Death Gang’s founder. But wait, I hear you ask – however will I do that in a pacifist playthrough? Does the quest allow you to fake his death? Will I be abusing a glitch or exploit, a-la Fallout’s super-steampack assassination method?  : Don’t overestimate this game – we kill him in dialog, so it doesn’t even count as far as our stats are concerned. We’ll see if this counts for the pacifist achievement once I complete the playthrough.  : Be careful around her, she's a very dangerous woman, and if allowed I believe she would try to corrupt us. Just don't listen to her dark preachings and we will be fine.: As I noted above, the mod allows us to keep playing unless we specifically talk to Galina and ask to activate the “Agent of Chaos” perk, so I don’t think that’s actually a thing. Anyway, we head over to the outskirts of KRZ  : As long as you have a rope, you can go down right into the caverns, without paying off the gate guard. Unfortunately, the gate remains locked, and picking it aggros everyone. The bribe (or cigarette overdose) will save you a long track through the caverns every time you go in or out of the city. While in the caverns, let’s have a brief look at the rat king’s abode:    : Besides being genuinely creepy, it kinda works in terms of making all those pesky mutant rats everywhere an actual (post) apocalyptic threat that could enslave humanity.But on to the actual point of visiting the caverns with a possessed character – the cultists that  : I don't think we ever met them in the normal playthrough?  : [Possessed] Tell me, what name do you use to call upon my dark lord, the father of lies and madness, knave! Pio! : Hmm. I was wrong about you. With this manner of speech you will fit right into my community. Walk right in. You can even try to change their minds about the Hesperus Star while you're there. : “That goat” etc is Alexander. Minor script break.That made me think. The Hesperus Star is a new thing, a cool shiny object in the sky, and everyone knows it exist, which cannot be said about the Dark Goat who's (sic) unholy spirit only dwells in sewers and dank woods.So, basically, I decided to retcon the Hesperus Star into the Dark Goat religion. I even made up a theory, that the star is actually our Dark Goat's space daughter, birthed by the unholy spirit. How cool is that?! ...Don't answer. But when I introduced these changes to the guys, they started smirking and rebelling against my dark will! Quit conforming to the newest occult fads, they said. This is a silly idea, they said. The Hesperus Star is a natural phenomena, not a religious one, they said. Baseless hatred of new things, is what it is. Maybe you could talk some sense into them? : Sure. Let’s go convince the cult members to “retcon” their beliefs.   : Don't die on me now, I wanna ask you about your feud with the leader of this community.  : Ah... You know... When I was younger, I even had fan theories about the origins of our leader, Anton Loshden. I thought he was the descendant of the old kings of Lemuria. But nowadays I don't find him cool anymore. He disappointed me, just like Victor Gaedov did with his last album. : What's wrong with his last album? My helpers, Kostya and Nastasya really enjoyed it! : They are probably simps and conformists, as well as members of the proletariat.: What? Huh? : How many cool tattoos do they have? : None, thank god. Why would they? They never been to prison.: Because Robert laSardo is covered with tattoos, get it. GET IT?!: What is this whining I hear? Think about the community! : I'm not whining, I'm protesting. Do you even know that he is trying to change our religion? We were worshipping the Dark Goat and killing cats. Life was good. But now he dreamed up that the Hesperus Star is actually our dark master's daughter and also needs sacrifices. How weird is that? I told him loud and clear that I found it silly, and that I would never bother with the new rituals he made up. It's one thing to believe in an unholy forest spirit, the Dark Goat. He even has a cool statue made from a nice, hard granite-type stone. But stargazing is moronic, and beyond stupidity. But why do you ask? You want to change my mind, or something?  : If that's not the only time tinkering can be used in dialog, it's one of the scant few. And the game managed to avoid an obvious homophobic joke, so kudos on that one. On to the next dupe. : [Before you, stands a young woman. She looks very different from other cultists you've seen in this dank place. She wears clean clothes, she seems energetic, her eyes almost glow with playful excitement and youth. When she spots you, she greets you with a lovely smile] : Cult members?: They are interesting people, I tell you what! Vlad and Alucard are always planning new cattle heists, for sacrificial needs. They already caught all the cats and dogs in the city, so there's no other way now. Arina is always kinda lethargic, though. I don't know what goes on with her. But the best one of all is Anton Loshden! A true modern day genius. A brooding, misunderstood prophet of high ideals and free love. Oh, I can't even imagine what he got in plan for us all.: Life in the cult?: I remember one time we had a girl here, her name was Dana. Here we were, sitting around the fire, drinking home made wine, when she started screaming at us, telling that we don't know poo poo about the Dark Goat worship! She even told Alucard to go "f" himself in the "a" and that people like him should be sacrificed. So yeah, sometimes we get real weirdoes around here. But you can't call this type of life boring! : Rumors?: I try not to go to that part of the caves where the rats live, but one time I did, and I noticed a throne, decorated with skulls! And the walls around it were covered in drawings... The rats here are like... weird. Strange that they don't bother us. As if they have no interest in us at all. But that's a good thing.: You don't look like the others around here. Why is that? : I know I don't look like the rest! We're a very diverse bunch, actually. It's all because the Dark Goat teaches us that the main virtues of men are absolute individualism and an inability to conform to norms and boundaries created by the society. [The woman pouts as if she's thinking about something really hard] Well, that's how our leader Anton Loshden describes the Goat's teachings anyway. The actual ancient texts about the Dark Goat are old and obscure, and you can only find them in ancient scrolls and stuff. :How does your individualism cope with the fact you're all wearing similar robes? : Ummm... Well, like our leader once said, wolves need to look different from the sheep. We're the wolves, by the way! [The woman smiles happily] : I missed a screencap, but she’s already into the Hesperus star because that’s what Anton preaches.  : Staying in the hotel was too much for me, 50 rubles for a night is no joke after all, but when I almost gave up, I met Anton Loshden. You know, the cult leader. He told me about his commune and told me that he lets those who believe in the Dark Goat stay for a pittance. Long ago, my granny used to tell me stories about some dark forest god, so I easily made Anton think I'm one of his kind. So, now I live here. Stuck in this hole. The pay for stay is truly low, but it costs me all I earn by washing clothes and sewing stuff for people. And you know what's the scariest part? I don't even think I want to leave anymore. I kinda have all I want in here. [As the woman finishes her monologue, her eyes lock on something beyond the dank walls of the dungeon. She shrugs and smiles weakly. Her next words come out as shy:] No, this is really a part-time thing for me. When I get enough money, I will leave. I will. Who in their right mind would want to spend eternity in a stupid cave : How did you get into this cult? : I‘ve told you before, haven't I? l live here like in a hotel, or like in a communal flat or something. Its (sic) just for some time, though. Once I have enough money, I will leave this place. Who in their right mind would actually want to live in a stinky dungeon? : What can you tell me about this place? : This is something along the lines of a hotel for cultists. It was created by our leader, Anton Loshden. When people who believe in the Dark Goat or read about it in ancient grimoires, travel through Krasnoznamenny, they spend a night or two down here, to rest and worship. : I'm here to talk about the problem you have in your ranks. : Oh, you wanna talk about the Hesperus Star being the Dark Goat's kid or some bullshit like that? : What, you wanna argue with that theory? : Argue? I don't care either way. [The woman shrugs her shoulders and yawns] You can tell him I'm totally fine with accepting this new idea. God Bless the Hesperus Star, or something. : Cool. : [When he notices you, this thin young man carefully smells the air, and hisses like a cat, bearing his filed down, yellow teeth. He then straightens out his back, takes his hands out of his pockets, and starts talking in a completely normal, sane voice]In case you're wondering, I reacted like that to the goodness that still lingers in your heart My beastly senses can't stand goodness. It pisses me off. : Sniff me again, for my soul is as dark as the hands of a coal miner! : [The man's eyes fill with rage!] Hey! I didn't lick badger fat off an altar in the woods to later hear some scrub calling my beastly senses into question! Oh, how low Loshden hath fallen... First he became a heretic, then he invited some sort of a cultureless skeptic into the community... Tell me what you want to know, or leave me be!  : What do you do for a living?: The man smirks, showing off his teeth, filed down quite painfully to look like sharp fangs] In strange aeons even death may die… : Motherfucker, this reference isn't just out of place, it doesn't even make sense. We'll see a far better one later in the update. : Quit being poetic, you nerd! The only thing really dead in you is your hope of losing virginity! : Um! That which is already lost: cannot be lost, got it?!   : I'm sure you will... But first, you'll have to become a believer. Praise Hesperus! Kill a cat for Hesperus! Do it! : Hey! I'm doing it! I'm doing it! Ave, ave Hesperus Star! gently caress the stupid Dark Goat! I believe in you, oh Hesperus Star!: IThe girl turns back to you with a grin] You owe me a bottle of good wine, buddy. And not some dry stuff. Red wine! Red, like blood! : Mildly amusing.: Solved your problem.: Yeah, yeah, I noticed. My flock finally switched to the new way of thinking. You have a silver tongue it seems, oh noble one. I even got scared you'll steal my flock from me! He—he. But seriously now, here's your reward. You earned it.: We get some condoms, reefers, and sweet milk (endurance booster). Neat.quote:
: This game has three different cults, but has very little to say about them beyond "they sure are exploitative, and only morons actually believe Anyway... some other stuff than a possessed character can get up to:   : As well as other worshippers of the Dark Goat just hanging around:   : Finally, a quest TGEK couldn't figure out what to do with:  : Ah, young man, dark times are upon us! My neighbor, Rudolf, isn't feeling that great. He's just laying in bed all day, every day... Sleeping. I am feeding him melted condensed milk, and linden honey. He is swallowing as if he were awake, but his eyes won't open...: Talking to the old woman doesn't actually do anything. You need to recover the sleeper's dream journal.    : So we head over to Foglevka (our PC audibly remarks that this is where we should go, just in case we missed the clue in the journal and \ or didn’t bother to read the quest details). : Or we would, if I didn’t decide to pick up the quest at the exact wrong time. It’s now morning, so all the NPCs in the apartment building woke up, walked out into the hall, and decided to engage in ambient dialog with each other, blocking my path for a few minutes. Neat. : We meet this NPC at the entrance to Foglevka. We’ll get back to her later.  : [Sitting in front of you is a beefy, middle-aged man with a mustache. He's smiling vacantly into space and slowly sipping beer from a sweating bottle. As he turns to you and dreamily gestures you closer, you notice his arms are ringed with intricately patterened (sic) bracelets] : What is it that you sell to your clients, and can I become one? : [For a couple of seconds the man's expression becomes stern] Hey, I better not hear you call me a drug dealer. It's true I sell certain substances, but not to create a buzz or other pleasures of the flesh, and my stuff isn't addictive. I sell substances that open the mind to other worlds, lucid dreams. There are many people in this world who are dissatisfied with our current reality. They need an escape. I concoct these potions from various mushrooms and herbs to give them some fun in their grey lives. However, since I myself am not a gardener, I buy my ingredients from someone else. And at this moment I'm out of stock. But what do you need hallucinogenics for? You look like you're doing quite all right for yourself. : Know any good local rumors? : There are people in the Wastes who devote themselves to creatures so ghastly that, even though I'm not religious at all, I hesitate to speak their name aloud. And yet, these nightmarish cults didn't all just appear overnight. They were always here, hiding in the shadows since the times when people had to share this Earth with the unimaginable abominations that descended from the Icy Stars... : Listen, bro, the thing is... I'd rather not remind her of my existence right now. I owe her some dough and while we're being honest with each other, I'm not on the best of terms with my other colleagues either. To put it simply, I'm totally powerless in this situation. You are that comatose slob's only hope. quote:
: Before we head over to Peregon, let’s wait until night time to meet the resident witch (as opposed to the resident shaman, resident healer, and resident prophetic dreams sage) : Fine. Fine. Fine. Let’s wait until she ambles over to the bar.  : [Personality] [A dark haired woman in a hat watches your every move with a sneer. When you come closer, she gives a barely perceptible nod and says:]Another traveller in these lands? Come closer, let's you and I have a little talk. This place is quite dull for anyone of superior intellect. : What is your name? : It's not for you to know. Telling your true name to every Tom, Dick and Ivan who stumbles by is a stupid habit and I'm not going to start now. If you need to address me, use my cover name. [She pulls a shabby pre-war passport out of her pocket and slowly reads out:] Dana Evgenyevna Shustrova. : Rumors?: In the centre of Krasnoznamenny lives a follower of my -ahem!— religion. Third generation at least. Her grandmother was a follower too and it may even go farther back than that, but she's an atheist.She only remembers participating in our rituals once, as a child. She thinks it mere superstition, or doesn't understand that it... happened. Some people are offered the truth from birth, yet still they turn away. Human beings are idiots. : You don’t look like a local.: Aren't you clever! You're right, I'm not from around here. I'm here -ahem!- on business. I'm checking to see how closely the locals adhere to the natural way of doing things. Literally. And I'm not saying a word more. : [Speechcraft]: 79 The only thing I understand is that I didn't understand a thing you just said! Tell me more, please. : [Success] [She rolls her eyes at this, but goes on anyway] Well, aren't you a curious little fellow? Okay, I'm not going to tell you more than you need to know in any case. It may seem counterintuitive, considering the scale of the ecological disaster, but nature has in fact benefitted from the war. There are fewer people now, fewer pollutants, and all industry has been destroyed. At last, the forests have a chance to return to territories devastated by people and technological progress. I travel the regions and monitor nature's process, and also look for settlements that have developed to a degree where another genocide of trees might begin. : Why are trees so important to you? : [The woman shrugs mysteriously] To me they are not important at all. But my god loves dense, unkempt forest, land covered in centuries old oaks so tightly intertwined that the canopy blocks out the sky. Unbridled wilderness is the Black Goat's temple. The more such places there are in the world, the stronger he is. tl;dr posted:
: Do you remember this little tidbit in the RLM dungeon? : Or Dan's meanest guards? There's a whole bunch of that stuff, moderately well thought out, and kinda-sorta connected to neo-paganism, which had a modest revival in the 90's (to the extent that anything in the game is an actual reflection of the 1990's). It's not bad, though I can't help but think all that attention to detail could have gone into the main plot instead.... Anyway, let's head to Peregon.   : Is it hard being a professional comedian nowadays?  : My man! In the heyday of my career, I had a show in the same building as the Krasnoznamenny Chamber of Commerce. Whilst walking down a long, poorly lit corridor before the performance, I heard the shrieking of a pig coming from beneath a massive steel hatch, along with a senile voice reading "Das Kapital"... Nikita Konev: See where I'm going with this? Nowadays the comedy writes itself, no talent or hard work required! Life itself has turned into a joke... and I think that's the only thing about all this that isn't very funny. : I know a guy who fell into a coma after taking some psychedelics... [Tell the story about Rudolf] : Jeez, that's some heavy poo poo. Just imagine getting stuck in a nightmare! Well destiny is a sneaky bitch, no doubt about it. I was angry at the person who told you about my love affair with chemistry, but now I see it was the right thing to do. Here you go. I was saving this for myself, in case my brain ever needed a quick detox after getting shitfaced, but it sounds like your buddy needs it more than I do. This is a real pick-me-up, made with amphetamines. [The man hands you a bottle filled with an opaque liquid] : Back to KRZ. So glad I don't have a car that would allow me to speed across the map.  : Here, I have some condensed milk... I remember, through a fog, that a kind old woman, my neighbor, was feeding me while I was sleeping. I think she used her own stash, because mine is still here. And here I have some beetroot left... Uh... It's a pity there's no money. Hmm... However there is something in my pocket... : [Silently wait while the man is checking his pockets] : [With caution and sincere surprise Rudolf pulls something completely unexpected from his pocket. It is a figurine carved from a single piece of jade. It's depicting a weird creature, that looks like a mix between human and amphibian. The creature is posed as a thinker, sitting, resting its head on its scaly fist] I have no idea what the hell is that... And how did it end up in my pocket... However this thing looks as if it's capable of making any antiquities salesman cough up a pretty penny for it. Take it, my friend. I won't take no for an answer! The time flows differently in the other world, my friend. My wanderings in the land of dreams led me to the chambers of a mad demiurge revered by some cultists. This monstrous, perpetually undulating mass of proboscis and pseudopodia crawling in the darkness, consoled only by the of (sic) wailing of the diabolical violins, got a hold of me... And it held me so tightly my sleeping body almost died of all the pressure! We fought, and for all the time that we fought, I was unable to return to my earthly body, because that would've meant me being distracted and possibly missing a deadly blow! There it took us several exhausting hours. Here - many, many days. : What are you planning to do after everything that has happened? : Nothing. At least for now. In that place, where my poisoned mind has taken me, I was hoping that I will get a chance to go home and re-start my human life from a clean slate..! Now that it became possible, I am not gonna dream of other worlds anymore. I'd rather write a book. Or go on a hike. Or I'll find a job as a caravaner. I will live my life to the fullest. And even if this joy I feel now wears off, even if this desperate reality pushes me to relapse, then I will start using again but in smaller quantities and take longer breaks between doses... quote:
: The statuette will actually be somewhat important later on. Meanwhile, this update is done, so let's briefly note the weird part about all the magical \ spiritual quests:The game kinda \ sorta has poo poo to say about cults and neo-paganism, but absolutely nothing about the Russian Orthodox Church, even though it was undergoing a massive revival in the late 80's \ early 90's, and really should be right there, supporting the regime and ordering the persecution of mutants. But unlike abstract corrupt politicians and generic cultists, "offending the feelings of believers" carries the penalty of a prison sentence (if within Russia) and \ or the remote possibility that the game won't be sold in the FSU. So the threat of real consequences stops all truth-telling edgelord takes on the spot. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Sep 20, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jan 26, 2022 01:58
|
|
: We're goth nihilist cosplayer raiders. Die, normie!
|
Xander77 posted:
The game refuses to comment on anything to be fair. I'm half convinced that it's a joke on the player - the Mushroom Cult almost means something, but it is the nuclear cloud imagery featured heavily in the game's imagery? Mushrooms as symbols of decay? Does any of it jive with Morozov and his plan to form a hivemind to stop the Hesperus Star? Is there a point to this game? After watching TehSnakerer's YIIK video and the first interpretation of how YIIK is a joke on the player and a gently caress you for playing, I'm convinced that's the point of ATOM, and the ultimate joke is that you will never get the money back. ATOM Team has your money. It's theirs now. It's going toward more ATOM games. Nothing matters.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2022 00:45
|
|
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:...the Mushroom Cult almost means something, but it is the nuclear cloud imagery featured heavily in the game's imagery? Mushrooms as symbols of decay? Does any of it jive with Morozov and his plan to form a hivemind to stop the Hesperus Star? given the overall humor of this game it was probably a dick joke
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2022 01:02
|
|
|
I kinda rushed the end of that post and forgot the most relevant part: The game kinda \ sorta has poo poo to say about cults and neo-paganism, but absolutely nothing about the church, even though it was undergoing a massive revival in the late 80's \ early 90's, and really should be right there, supporting the regime and ordering the persecution of mutants. But unlike abstract corrupt politicians and cultists, "offending the feelings of believers" carries the penalty of a prison sentence (if within Russia) and \ or the remote possibility that the game won't be sold in the FSU. So the threat of real consequences stops all truth-telling edgelord takes on the spot.
|
|
#
?
Jan 27, 2022 10:25
|
|
|
Sex and Totally Unintentional Violence: Oh hey. Only took me 5 months to get another update out. Sorry. With any luck, I will manage to finish this off moderately quickly, getting into both content and themes that the main playthrough didn't really cover. First of all - a quick jog to Bunker 317, with a few stops along the way.  : [You feel the cold stare of a tall, well built, blue-eyed girl dressed in a tattered camouflage uniform. The bore of her tightly held gun is pointed right between your eyes] : Yeah... I fell victim to the Mandela effect, being convinced that TGEK covered this little farm on the way to the Bunker, so I took fewer pics than usual.  : [Possessed] That's funny! A lonely foundling, little daddy's girl! Always tinkering with her loving gun while her family badmouths her behind her back Pio! : [The girl jumps and looks at you with fear so strong it overpowers her instincts. Instead of grabbing her gun, she takes a few steps back] What are you... an actor? Where did that terrible voice come from? It's as if the devil himself spoke through you. Ugh, and cursing too. So what if I'm a foundling? They never lied about it Father says they found me in the forest when I was five, walking alone to God knows where... : But you remember different, right? : I remember it differently. The memories are vague, of course, but I remember a deep ravine, tree roots poking out of its walls like withered arms. There's a man with me in the ravine. He has a moustache but no beard and I know him. He's armed with a gun, a Kalashnikov I think… There's loud noise, screams. He sticks his head out to shoot, then throws a grenade. Someone is shooting back at us, the earth is rocking! My hands are so tiny, a toddler's hands... and I'm holding a Makarov pisto. I’m trying to reload. At first I'm clumsy, but I get faster, faster, and then there's a blow! That's it. I don't remember a drat thing after that. [Love (and you'd bet your right arm it's love this girl's dreamy eyes are full of) sometimes finds a tricky way into people's lives...] : Interesting. Also, epic random reference: : If you're interested in rumours, I know one from a merchant who got lost on his way here. There was a gang laying in ambush for a merchant or small caravan near a camp of the local thugs. What they saw instead was a man dressed oddly for the weather, in a wide—brimmed hat, wool coat and thick gloves. And behind him he was pulling a coffin by a length of twine. The gangsters came out of cover and demanded he explain what was going on. The merchant said he was going to bury a friend. They didn't believe him. ''I bet that box is stuffed with goods!" they said. "Open it." He shrugged, walked around the coffin and raised the lid. Inside was a pre-war Maxim gun! It was fully restored and functioning, with a bipod and 200-cartridge belt. The bad guys were rooted to the spot... long enough to accommodate about 50 rounds from the Maxim. He took the entire gang down with one burst, all except one guy, whom he ordered to tell this story to the Wastelanders.: There are plenty of Maxim scenes in actual Soviet movies, but that would be too relevant to the setting. (FFS, we're about to get a White Desert Sun ref, that would be a thousand times more appropriate)  : Who I do need now, though, is a... what do you call them... a private detective. Yes. Can you imagine? : A detective? Really? What for?: People say there's a guy walking around these lands who introduces himself as Korallov, the tourist. But he's no tourist, you understand? He's not interested in our cities and villages. What's remained of our architecture is all the same to him... What he pays attention to is our women! You got me? People say he's convinced at least 30 women in Krasnoznamenny alone for some horizontal mambo.I'm afraid he might have seduced my wife. I'm not always home... Sometimes I cross the border to visit my family, or spend the night fishing... And she's here alone... Try to understand me, friend... We've been having it rough already. And if she's cheated on me with this Korallov... I have to know. As for checking... it's easy. This bloody Casanova gives a plastic ring to every woman he's seduced - as a keepsake... So if you could rummage through her things... and find the ring... It would all be clear as day. Could you do this for me?  : Cool. That's part one of what we want to do here. Bronislav also has a biological daughter feeling confined on the farm.  : She leaves to explore the wide world following this encounter. And finally, as we dig around for evidence of the wife's infidelity, we also recover an ATOM membership card, because that's an integral part of the inventory of a secret organization that doesn't want to... ah ffs, I don't even care anymore. : I don't remember your parents but we have a base here. Have you heard of the village called Red Fighter? : Of course! So Red Fighter is an ATOM stronghold now? I'll go there right now! Look after my family, please. I can't stay with them. And here's some food, take it. Thank you again.: Weirdly, she refuses if you offer to join your squad, and then you don't have a follow up option to have her join you at Red Fighter : My daughters are leaving, my wife is leaving... What will I do..? Ah? What? Is that you..? Sorry, I'm busy now...: Having quite thoroughly ruined this farmer's life, we leave and come back. : Note the rare achievement popping up.  : Oh God! Oh God! : What is it? What happened? : I don't know... I wanted to visit a friend, and... and... there are two corpses there!: Fast forward a bit...: Erm... The thing is I, tourist Korallov, a traveller and an adventurer, at some point had an affair with the lady of this once wonderful house... I'm afraid... I'm afraid her dishonoured husband might have found out and... well...  : Before I gained the glory of a Casanova, a Don Juan, a Robert Lovelace of our time, a heartbreaker and a lover... I used to be an ordinary student and collected the myths and legends of the Wasteland. Until one day... [Tourist Korallov plucks up courage] Until the day an evil witch cursed me! I was hungry and didn't sleep for 24 hours, so when she begged me for money, I might have answered a bit ruder than I should have. What a grave mistake it was! The next second the witch flew above me like a vulture. Only one word her blackened lips uttered: "Heartthrob!" I closed my eyes, full of fear, and when I opened them again, she was nowhere to be seen. Since then... I've been obsessed with this desire to seduce women I meet on my way. I don't understand myself how I always find the right words, how my body assumes the right position... As if I'm possessed by some invisible demonic power... But my methods, for the most part, work like a clock.  : That’s a new spelling for Ahasver, which is understandably uncommon in modern western fiction. Since I'm being kind to this game (for the moment) I will not dig into the reference to the Wandering Jew beyond the litany of literary references this over-educated character spouts. For the moment. : Whoops. ... PACIFISM! TGEK visited the Thug Fortress slave camp, but never bothered to interact with the thugs.     : I've heard the guys who work for Don Sarkis, to the north from here, once decided to record their skirmishes on the camera, just for fun... when the don learnt about this, he got so into it that now he orders to record fightings and killings on purpose. And he doesn't only watch it himself but also provides rich folk with the tapes! They sell like hot buns.: A connection to the RLM snuff dungeon, perhaps?   : Merchants from the black market complain it's getting increasingly harder to get guns in a more or less decent condition. If guns and ammunition don't get produced on an industrial scale soon... we'll have to stop laughing at makeshift crossbows and arquebuses and begin fleeing from them in terror!: That would actually make for a more interesting game. But anyway, the thuggish slave traders that even other mafia characters despise are lovely people. Who'd have thought. You'd think that getting the dialog options to get into the fortress would allow you to learn more about the slave trade and how to oppose it, but... nah. You just get to buy a slave. : Fine, we’re just going to take the money off your corpse anyway. But regardless, you could resolve things via pacifism here. : We’re not going to, though.  : I’m keeping Gyulchatai as a companion. The reward for having her wait tables in Fidel’s bar is pretty lame in-universe and out, I never skip free party members, she can carry loot even if she can’t fight, and she can actually be useful by… we’ll get to it in a moment, as we finally explore the bunker.  The bunker is actually fairly easy as a pacifist. Just go straight through, no side passages, no rats or ants (our party did manage to aggro a single rat, but I'm pretty sure you can easily sneak past it). Your party members may be unwilling to craft, barter, inspect computers, pickpocket or do anything of use besides kill stuff… but they CAN lockpick, via the handy “help me” icon. Our “former” slave is now a dedicated skill monkey. : Anyway, the bunker thoroughly pacified, we head back to Red Fighter : Look at that huge party. And only one of them had to be cheated in via a mod. : [A young woman is walking the Red Fighter streets with a very businesslike air. She keeps a firm grip on her gun and her eyes burn with energy. She throws you a salute as you approach]Gozhin has charged me with watching the stalkers who move through the village. With those rascals you have to be a good shot and a devoted haggler! I could teach you one of these things, but only one. : We don’t need gun skills, so that’s +10 to barter. Can’t tell her anything about the horrid fate that befell her adoptive parents, obviously. Anyways, let’s head back to KRZ, lots of stuff still there.  : For some reason, there’s a spare Fidel hanging out at his bar. A glitch from having him wait somewhere? A mod issue? In any case, I can’t recruit both, but at least I will have a replacement for his scintillating company should he disappear from existence. : Hitting the barman for rumors, like back in the Ultima days. Like I said, I like the mix of true, false and nonsensical rumors in this game.  : Ha-haaaaaaaaaaaaa. Random dude asking for 10  : Random dude gives us +10 to melee weapons (which we’ll need shortly): What happens if you actually let Nastya know that Toilet Kruul wants her.  : (See, the gag is that she’s got allergies, so the sewer and Kruul’s smell don’t bother her. Ha-ha).  :Oh, Toilet Kruul, did you want to tell me something? Tee-hee! Dear Nastasya... My sweet heart... My gal pal... My darling. My lovey-dovey sunshine princess... So long have I struggled to find the right words. and failed, finally deciding to perfom the beautiful kidnapping ritual of my people instead. Beloved Nastasya, will you choose freely, to end my love quest, and to spend your life in my underground abode, in my sewage drenched home where the sun never shines, until disease and madness do us part?:Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes, my sweet Kruul! Oh, how I waited for these words! I said yes right after your helper told me about your plan! : So… at least this bit of writing succeeds. At being really loving gross. You don’t get a reward if you warn Nastya though. : Down in the sewer Mafia hangout, there’s an infrequent visitor: : [A fair haired woman of around 40 or so is eyeing you with an ironic grin on her lips. As she notices that you are looking back at her, she nods, and invites you to come closer. This would all look very friendly and lovely, although one detail ruins the picture: a large knife in the woman's left hand]  : No, but I'd make the old fucker sleep or; the floor using his pathetic book as a pillow.  : You're a cold woman, do you know that? Icy, icy lady.: You offered me to play some sort of a knife game before. What's that all about? [The woman smirks] : What's there to tell? Let me show you. [The woman smacks her right hand on the table, fingers spread. She then grabs a large knife with her left hand and starts stabbing the spaces between her fingers, each time aiming at a new gap. As she does this dangerous trick, she sings:] Oh, I have all my fingers, the knife goes chop-chop-chop and if I miss the spaces in-between my fingers would come off! But still I keep on stabbing, oh this is quite the feat! Now think hard for a second - is this the record you can beat? [After the song ends, the woman sticks her knife in the table and gives you a challenging look] : A disgusting game for working class slobs, criminals and plebeians... In all my years in the icy camps of Siberia, never have I played this terrible knife game. I needed my fingers nice and healthy in order to turn the pages of the books I read for other victims of the regime! : Failing gives you a bit more melee skill, but we don’t want that. : Winning can get you this pretty good melee weapon (particularly as you could theoretically head to KRZ and meet Sveta right out of Otradnoye, if you have the skills), but we don’t want that either.: Nah. Keep that pig sticker. : You're the boss. But hey, at least grab yourself a beer at my expense.: Not that either. But not “I don’t want any gifts”, because that will just cause her to dismiss us.  : We now have three mysterious artifacts, which will surely be useful for… something or another. ... Once again, I kinda like the idea that random NPCs around town have their little stories and can boost your skills, or that the major quest hubs have wandering NPCs that you only meet on certain days. The basic design isn't terrible.  : This is basically the only interaction most characters will have with the sewer cultists - chasing them away based on sewer mafia orders. : Well... We are constantly bombarded by hostile religious and secular propaganda here in the sewer... Take that Krasnoznamenny television as an example. Constant attempts to make listeners into patriotic communists! But now, when I finally see the potential risks of living in the open like that... Hmm... Hey guys, you wanna go live in the woods away from all traces of humanity? No? Well we're doing it anyway! Pack your stuff. : As we head back from the cultists (or several in-game days and quests later, either way):  : This is our one-time respec potion. I’m actually moderately happy with Arthur, but you can take any NPC: And turn them into a combat god:  : INT could be dumped much lower actually, as each NPC really only needs one maxed out combat skill. Not sure what attention does for companions either.  : Actually paying Fidel’s informer. Rather comprehensive, and eliminates the need to work with the cult (good for a “true” pacifist playthrough, as their latter quests require violence). Though you don't actually need to know about the bunkers in advance in order to visit the areas they are in and meet the mushroom folk.  : Telling the mushroom that Devi is dangerous. Another bit of dialog that we can easily ignore as mystical ramblings, but is actually true. : Devi pisses off if we told the cult she’s not harmless and they asked us to get rid of her. And remember TGEK asking about why a real life person facsimile can have sex with the PC? Because that’s the “sneakily kill her” option, of course.The game kinda has some issues with sex. ... Speaking of, do you remember the bra retrieval quest from the main playthrough?  : She’s not *just* a random horny housewife.  : TGEK missed this when recovering the bra.  : Neat. We can now enter the municipal bunker without doing the election quest or having to bribe the guard, while he’s busy… what exactly *is* he busy doing, anyway?    : Yup. If you break into the house while the argument is happening, you get attacked by the husband and aggro the entire town. Also, Borislava doesn't have that stupid plastic ring the tourist is supposed to be giving every conquest of his.... So… Let’s talk about how this game treats sex. Your first reaction may in fact be "this game treats sex the exact same way Fallout 2 treats sex, same as it does with everything else". And... sure, Fallout 2 had that Beavis and Butthead "boobs, hehe" attitude that "mature" games in that era often had. It had an actual sex quality mechanic behind the scenes, it had its own porn movie questline (and porn magazine questline), several brothels and a shotgun marriage. What it didn't have is a consistent fascination with adultery and Swiftian misogynistic emphasis on just how gross sex can be. Zhanna, the nurse a male PC can randomly boink is probably the most Fallout "you can just have sex with someone if you pass some We've got a chance to get it on with several married women, and several other married women cheated on their husbands in the backstory. Two of these stories can end in murder. We have a chance to get it on with several mutant \ drug addicted prostitutes, with the narration and our companions pointing out just how gross this is. We're asked to break up at least two young couples, often by playing up their jealousy. We can recruit for (and star in) a porn movie, with the narration emphasizing the abnormality of our co-stars, the principal NPC insisting that the point is neither to make money nor to sexually educate, but to corrupt Wasteland society with perverse sexual norms. Toilet Kruul and his romance with a "normal" girl is outright written to be as disgusting as possible (particularly interesting if you recall that Mutants are kinda meant to be minority representatives). The incest-family in Dead City are meant to be as disgusting as possible, but on a less comic note. The Mushroom cult specifically pairs us up with an opposite gender NPC to manipulate us, though no outright romantic options are presented. And the one near-romantic NPC relationship with Katya is never consummated. Anything I'm forgetting? Anyway, game is more weird and awkward about sex that usual. News at 11. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Sep 20, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2022 23:21
|
|
|
The sex bits being weird and bad through trying to "be more mature" is just another example of the maturity of the writers, yeah, also it doesn't speak well of their ability to contextualize what the gently caress they are writing (but then again a lot of writers badly need to read The Iron Dream and then a good portion of them will need to have it explained to them) and speaks volume as to the quality of their souls.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2022 23:47
|
|
|
Ugh! So this line is (as you may have guessed) from Othello where the titular character murders his wife over false allegations of infidelity, while Desdemona literally lies on his behalf and damns herself to hell for love of him. Meanwhile Borislava is unfaithful (I believe you have to bone her to get the bra recovery quest) and this guard is no tragic hero poisoned by the lies of a jealous man, he's just a dumbass working knowingly or unknowingly for The Conspiracy. If we are being generous it's a nod to Borislava not sleeping with the tourist as she doesn't have the ring, but I refuse to give this game any credit. Xander77 posted:And remember TGEK asking about why a real life person facsimile can have sex with the PC? Because that’s the “sneakily kill her” option, of course. That doesn't make it better! I do wonder if there's something to be said not just about this game's treatment of sex but about this game's treatment of women as well - all of the cheating spouses are women, for one thing. gently caress it, I've overanalyzed this game enough.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 01:39
|
|
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:gently caress it, I've overanalyzed this game enough. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 03:39
|
|
|
TheGreatEvilKing posted:That doesn't make it better!
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 08:09
|
|
|
The weirdest thing about all of this is that there are so many literary references, but the writing is terrible. You'd think that writers this well-read would have a little bit more to say.
|
|
#
?
Jun 8, 2022 10:21
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:Oh, and you can get her Turban, which I believe is unique. +5 to gambling (at least it's not +5 to explosives, I guess. If only because Eastern European edgelords operate on a different set of stereotypes) plus ca change etc
|
|
#
?
Jun 9, 2022 14:38
|
|
|
Propaganda and Politics: We just took a look at the game’s attitude towards sex, adultery, and murder. Let’s move on to the far more pleasant (or at least less TW) subject of politics. I’m going to treat this game’s take on elections and propaganda as though it’s making an allegory for 2013 Russia. I’m sure that’s not at all what the developers intended, because naturally this game has nothing to do with anything ever, but… the author is dead, and this is the most coherent and least charitable take I have to give. You need to remember that when this game was written, pre-2014, Putin’s government was mostly considered a quietly corrupt kleptocracy, rather than a genocidal fascist dictatorship. So the takes on propaganda and politics are indicative of certain trends, but not quite seeing where said trends will inevitably lead. Let's start with the Trudograd journalists hanging out at the KRZ hotel.  : Just 12 rubles for every “makulatura”. Finally a use for all that wastepaper of Soviet dialectics scattered around the Wasteland. Never managed to get 500, so no idea if there’s a bonus associated. : This is more pertinent (or possibly even more germane). : How is it, being a journalist nowadays?  : Just like in any other job, everything runs smoothly if you manage not to turn into a fanatic. If they ask for a piece on, let's say, corn, go to the fields and describe everything that goes on there as best you can. If they ask a piece on carnivorous mutants, well, look for someone who's met with them, make up a plausible story that involves you, and relax.: Are there any rumours that seem interesting to you? : One fellow was investigating the local legends about a brain worm that gets inside your head through your pupil and subdues you. But while his investigation was in full swing, he dashed to Georgia all of a sudden. Said he wanted to visit his family. Weird. He never said he had any relatives in there. : Reasonably sure that urinals are affixed to a public toilet wall, while chamber pots... whatever, not the worst translation error in this game. Interviewee #1 can be found outside Fidel’s bar at night.  : Maybe you should sober up a little before you talk, winebag?  : I might be a bit drunk, don't let it disturb you. I'll tell you the whole story as it is! But I should warn you there will be no gory details... Just think, my boy! Peace is what all warriors truly aspire to... Peace... Not bloodshed. Perhaps this is why we screwed up so mightily that day. : Jesus, that's a pointless reference overload. At least the Fallout one is making a point of sorts - note it for later.: Serving in Berlin was a cushy job. Hiccup! East Germany was ours, but it was still totally foreign. All these alleys and fashoinable fraus... Ahem... Still, intelligence, I don't know which, American, or West German, or maybe the Englishmen stroke back... still, they did us a lot of harm. Under the guise of a peaceful demonstration... So, people gathered at our part of the wall posters in their hands, slogans... Ambrose Truffelev - hiccup! - was our boss. Kulikov and Sveklenko were a sniper and a pointer, res... pes... respectively.: Come on, more to the point. : So, people were shouting, singing, calling out to unite the two Berlins... I noticed one cute German girl... Fair-headed beauty... hiccup... Her poster featured a heart, half painted as the East Germany flag, half as the West... Smart, eh? But Kulikov, who had a wife, noticed a man that tried to lay a mine under the wall in all that turmoil. So he shot at him! At the foreign provoker.: Provocateur is apparently too complex? Or too on the nose? : What was your comrade in arms Sergey Maslov doing that day?: [Drunk Navigator hits himself on his chest, his cheeks puffing with anger] And I almost forgot... Maslov! Sergey Maslov..! Bloody liar. He says he was fighting at our side at that time. Serving at the checkpoint But we never had an officer with this name! He wasn't anywhere near the wall! I might be drinking, but I have no problems with memory! And his uniform! Ask him someday to put it on. He only wore it once to press the Chamber of Commerce to pay his pension. It's three times bigger than mine! : Who was it that fired a gun at civilians? Maslov? : This lying... hiccup... dog... curse him... I think he'd have gladly shot at people from the wall, except he wasn't there! There was no officer with this surname at the wall!  : What do you do for a living?  : What do you think I do? [The old man lifts one of his legs with his hands and then lets it go. The leg falls back down like a dead weight...] Do you suppose I run marathons? Nope. Krasnoznamenny is paying me a pauper's pension! drat it to hell…: What do you think about Krasnoznamenny? : They have respect for the old and the crippled. But not too much, of course. Just enough to stop me from wanting to assemble a mine and blow up their damned government bunker on one nice sunny morning... : Any rumours you'd like to share? : What's the use of sharing them? People have been talking for I can't remember how many months now, about that some shady people in Peregon are doing God knows what under the disguise of a barbeque shop. But our local politicians still go there to eat! : It all started like a usual West Germany-approved 'love rally’. It was all pretty standard: ‘we want peace, we want union, the wall is bad, blah-blah-blah...’ At times I would even feel for those protestors. I would think - indeed, why do we care to hold on to this piece of the country? But it looks like for somebody love and beautiful speeches weren't self-expression enough... : So, what happened there? : At some point, Lesha Mamedov and I began noticing very suspicious people in plain clothes among the crowd of the peaceful protestors. They communicated with each other with gestures and it seemed as if they were directing the crowd...They provoked the protestors to move ever closer to the wall! That was when Serezha Kulikov, our sniper, noticed that one of these people in plain clothes was carrying something under his trench coat. And now he crouched down and was attaching this ‘something’ to the base of a wall, while hiding behind the hippies that surrounded him... : Explosives, right? : It was C-4..! After that, everything went to the dogs. I remember it second by second. First, Kulikov neutralised the man with the explosive because he saw him attaching the detonator already. Right after that, one of the agents in plain clothes killed Kulikov with a shot from a gun concealed in his sleeve, right from the centre of the crowd. I can still see the poor guy falling from the wall and holding onto his neck After that, the crowd that didn't figure out what had happened, rushed to the nearest checkpoint, attacking us for their murdered 'friends'...  : What was your comrade in arms Sergey Maslov doing that day?: [Ambrose frowns and rubs his forehead] Maslov... Maslov... No, I don't remember him. I didn't have anybody with that name.   : So what stopped you? : Rascals! Rascals among us! A group of turncoats headed by division commander Petrenko, my immediate, so to speak, superior, detained me for defection... for bargaining with the enemy. It was then when I came up with my famous utterance: "An eye for an eye is not a way of the noble but the way to get blind...” People saw just now right it was when the first bombs touched the ground...... What do you want now, comrade? I’ve answered your questions already. : To accuse you of lying, fake!: [The man suddenly looks scared] I suppose it was one of my unfortunate fellow soldiers who fed you this story? Yes, the boys are not what they used to be. Illnesses, alcoholism and old wounds have got the better of them. Of course, as their comrade in arms, I do everything in my power to help them. But they seem to ignore it and constantly accuse me of lying! : What a dilemma! Edit - OF COURSE Sergey Maslov's name is a reference. What else would it be. Anyway, should we reveal the truth or  : Who cares. 1. A direct polemic - a "take that", if you will - to Fallout's "who knows or cares who fired the first shot that led to WW3 now that they're all dead? If it wasn't our side, we've done our share of provocation and escalation". Nope, just evil Western invaders. We all know just how much Russia's enemies apparently love to hide behind civilians and kill their own population to make Russia look bad. To be fair, at the time the game was written there was no way of knowing that... outside Chechnya (1 and 2)... Georgia...Syria... 2. The framing of the question \ moral quandary is very much in the style of Russian propaganda. My dad, RIP, used to watch a lot of Russian talk shows. Solovyov and all that sort of garbage. They had a fairly common way of framing issues. "Since we know that [insane fact du jour] – for instance, that the reptilian ZOG government is coordinating the destruction of Russia and everything holy – what should we do about this obvious fact? Should we conquer the west with conventional weapons, or nuke the lot? Since we know that trans people only transition to earn money, should we exterminate them or just deny them human rights? Discuss amongst yourselves". Once the “fact” is well established as the foundation for further arguments about means and ends, the actual discussion is beside the point. This is why the journalist is just as happy to accept a story praising heroic soldiers or a scandal about stolen valor and military pretenders – that's not the point once the basic story is accepted. If anything, WW3 would have the same in-setting cult as WWII has in RL Russia. 3. The value of propaganda. In-game, most propaganda distributors and consumers are deeply cynical. Whether writing for newspapers (shame we don't actually get involved in TV news), repairing televisions, getting interviewed or consuming the new cycle, the prevailing opinion is that those in power know they're lying, and the consumers know they are being lied to. Would anyone take this nonsense seriously? Is anyone actually getting brainwashed? Yeah. They do. They definitely do. Not necessarily saying that KRZ should be conducting a(n even more) genocidal cleansing against mutants and "enemy" settlements in the area, but... : Ok, this was kind a lot. Let's move on with the game and see what else there is to see. Right next to the fake veteran we have an aspiring writer.  : Tell me, honestly, you're Trudov? : Yes. In the flesh. A man and a bathyscaphe. : "However, this bathyscaphe will only agree to dive in the abyss if the world ocean turns into alcohol"! : I can see someone here has read my early collection of prose - "Student columns". : Of course! It's a great book! : What did you introduce them for? Their babbling will never stop now! : Quite the contrary, thank you! If only you knew what a great honour it is for me! : I have a hunch Hexogen will not talk about anything but this encounter as we travel.: Trudov, the great writer! : Oh no, I'm not worthy of these words. Great... You can apply this word to Kharlamov, the legendary ice hockey forward! The legend of the Summit Series USSR - Canada, 1972! Call me simply "Ballistic rocket Hexogen-6". Or better even, "maestro". : Legend No. 17 came out the year this game was made. And the summit series was barely 40 years old, so that’s an entirely timely reference!: Yes, maestro! Oh! I'll never forget this meeting! : “Strawberry” is one of the Russian words for light erotica. I’m not actually sure why.: This sounds just terrible. And that means something, coming from me... : Wait! It's not that simple! : Well, it's not the worst idea I've ever heard. This bullshit might actually get quite popular in the Wasteland.: 30th century. Soviet humans, reborn from the ashes of the nuclear apocalypse, explore space and meet other sentient beings. Young, strong and well-built Central Committee member Dick Popov flies to "‘Strawberry" to represent the interests of the Soviet Earth! : But how can a simple red-blooded guy keep the presence of mind, like any worthy Soviet citizen should, when surrounded by exotic beauties, such as blue-skinned generalissima Liarna Pildak from Ganymede, or lascivious Lizorra from Venus? : Another classic reference, sorta. : Let alone menacing stripper robots from Uranus that appear once in a cycle to seduce men or all civilised races! Gubtsov smoothes out his neat beard dreamily and sighs] And the strangest thing is, as soon as this idea occurred to me, the editor-in-chief -of ‘”Shoot to Kill Print House" came to town for some business! This publishing house prints hundreds of materials, from survival, manuals to fiction Alas, I failed to persuade him that publishing my stories was a good idea... But if you think my plan is worthy... Maybe you could talk to him..? He's staying not too far from here, in the hotel! His name is Vladislav Zhirenko. : Of course! We're bound to help the young talent, this seed that'll yield previously unseen literary harvest! [Hexogen turns to you and continues his speech in a whisper] Hexogen: Tell him to go screw himself, son! He's a moron! : I think I forgot about this bit? We'll finish it at a later date, though I'm pretty sure it's just a "publishers sure are greedy" gag. Soviet literature didn't really have an erotic streak - after a short sexual revolution in the 1920's, the USSR regime was really quite puritanical. As the Soviet Union was falling apart, a lot of perestroika films used the lifting of censorship restrictions to get some titties on screen, but... they weren't really erotic (due to lack of skill and practice) and weren't really into space opera as a genre (due to lack of budget). A LOT of modern Russian sci-fi is Revanchist time travel nonsense which I imagine would be far more popular post-apocalypse, but... that's not where the game goes.tl;dr posted:
: Let’s move on to Peregon. TGEK didn’t really spend a lot of time there, but there are some things of interest. As long as we’re here, let’s take out the BBQ crew. Before we do, their cook has a warning for us:  : BBQ meat is probably the best food item in the game, which would matter more if food was ever even slightly a concern.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQizEQMo2ec : Mildly amusing. Probably going to review some other encounters that are resolved by appealing to luck – I like the idea. Some of them actually take care of the encounter completely, which allows your character to remain a strict pacifist.  : Wait, what?! Well, I was right! It's writer Trudov himself! But how? What brings you here? After all this time in camps... After being exiled to America...: Despicable! As if I would've let anyone exile me to that rotten godless empire of withered capitalism..! The only thing they did was run that story full of lies in their useless newspapers! In reality they just drove me from Moscow and left me there. And trust me, there was no America there, it was good old city of Zaraisk, cheerful and full of light!: I can't believe what I am hearing... I've been reading your books for all my life. "Tobik and the shockworkers", "Mishka's borsch', "The adventures of Lazyus”, "Lazyus on the red planet"... The scene where the humpty-dumpties tear Lazyus apart with their bare hands for overthrowing the Communist regime on Mars is haunting my dreams till this day...: As long as we're talking about weird communist sci-fi, check out The Wizard of Oz with Aliens : I've written that for the occupying forces! To remind them of how beautiful their Vaterland is! So they would return there. Who knew that drat Vlasov would be so impressed by it he would defect with a whole army?! : Well, yes. That's what I thought. : Just jokey joke jokes, obviously. The real Solzhenitsyn went to the Gulag for criticizing Stalin, and wasn’t a German collaborator on any level. Except for the “criticizing Stalin is the equivalent of working with the Nazis”. Which the makers of this game don’t believe of course. Hexogen isn’t Solzhenitsyn at all, while we’re at it.: And then there was this book... "They conquered Berlin". In the book the hero liberators were some English guy with a Japanese sword and a woman with rakes for hands! : It's my creative vision, you scoundrelly ill-wisher!: Why did he choose to live a life of an outcast for so long? : Well.. After all, he sold his book about life in gulag, the "Vorkuta tricks", to an American publisher, even though the Khrushchev's government offered him to publish it for free, to combat the personality cult... : Mfff..! Mhh..! I... I have to support my addiction to cheap tobacco and a self-made drug from tea leaves that I acquired in the mincing machine that was the Stalin's regime...: Omitting some hiiiiiiiiiilarious “Hexogen was in prison, so that must mean…” dialog...Hexogen may take his name from a 1990's anti-Semitic thriller, but the in-game character draws from a number of dissident writers who hated the Soviet Union but also "Western Values" and had an abrupt nationalist turn towards the end of their career, looking for a strong leader to bring back Russian-Christian values blah blah blah.  : The Peregon election quest starts out in this cargo container, which I completely missed on my first playthrough.  : If they're so paranoid, things could escalate. What would you say if I killed them all in the process of 'inspiring' them? Would that negatively impact your plan?  : Very much so. Replacing all those people would be quite an undertaking. Don't get me wrong, I understand the risks, but what else can I do? It's all or nothing. : Do you think it's wise to send shady adventurers to solve a critical social problem that could at any moment lead to all-out war? : I don't even know of a place where people ‘don't’ think it wise. Why, only a few years ago, we sent six adventurers from the Dale of Icy Winds to dispose of an army of bandits plaguing the trade routes. And they did everything we asked. : I'm not sure they'll enjoy such a surprise, but as proletarians we have nothing to lose but our chains. I agree! Where do I look for them? : Good show! They're both right here in Peregon. The head guard, Nikolai Siplovsky, sits in my former office in the Inland navigation building. The head merchant, Lyonya Abramov, is in the hull of this very ship. They will resist at first, but do your best to persuade them.: Let’s head over to Lyonya first. : 10 to pistols and SMGS : Lyonya Abramov is of course a Jewish oligarch in the Berezovsky \ Abramovich model.: I found this interesting list of names in a meat roasting joint over yonder. I noticed your name on it as well. Maybe it will change your mind?  : [Lyonya Abramov smiles a friendly smile, in spite of your words, and leans back in his chair] Barbecue joint? You mean "The Gourmet's Delight"? Yes, of course. Where else would you find it? Good work! Now tell me, why did you do this?: A mailman in Krasnoznamenny directed me to it.: Ah, I see. The muted scout horn... Single loop. [Uttering this odd phrase, the merchant calmly rises to his feet, then yells out loud:] WE HAVE A SLAVER OVER HERE! THIS SLAVER WANTS TO KILL ME! : This aggros the entire map. Let's rewind and try again.: [Intellect] Use your brain for once. Someone needs to resolve the disputes people have in Peregon. You can't simply push them away. If neither of you does it, your neighbors will. : [Lyonya Abramov gives this some thought. Seems like your persuasion technique has worked a small wonder] That's true. I became too emotionally invested. All right As long as Maximovich doesn't mess up my deals, he will probably even be helpful. It won't hurt to delegate him some of my work. : Simple as that. The guards are stationed in a side building that we don’t really have a reason to enter if we’re not messing with the election.  : I'm communist number one, amigo, but even I believe such superstitions...: Yeah, killing the spider actually does drop our luck. No other point to this interaction that I can see. [Entering the room, you hear a telltale click. Turning around, you find a mustached man in a cap aiming a gun at your belly]   : [Streetwise] Don't spin me that bullshit, monkey mouth! You're a thief through and through, just like me! : I wrote a breakdown on Russian mafia rules back in the KGB LP, so if you want to know why “thieves” can’t serve in the army – there you go.  : [The head of the guard looks at you a long while, until he coughs and pushes his cap to the side of his head] So where's your Cadillac parked? Siberia? Magadan? Be quiet, okay?! All right, I didn't serve in the army. But after me and the boys stopped looting people on the river, we had to come up with a pretty legend. : What kind of a thief are you if you don't want to fool all these plebs? You don't need to kill them, you need to make them trust you. : [Nikolai Siplovsky thinks this over for a while. It seems like your words have convinced him] Huh. That's actually true. Someone has to show some wit around here, and why can't it be me? Dang. Go tell that simpleton Maximovich that I'm in with all his cooperation shtick.: Alternately, you can blackmail him with the BBQ list. : You could also silently murder both faction heads. But you know – pacifist. The pedophile murderers get to live. : And then he takes a loooooooooooong treck across the level Only to end up at the entrance.  : At least it’s a moderately appropriate reference? The previous Twelve Chairs reference was also to the point.But what if we really didn’t tolerate pedophile serial killers?   : Lyonya’s bodyguard needs an excuse for the noise not to agro the entire ship, Siply’s bodyguard is glad he’s dead, which is the most characterization the entire building full of guards gets.: Mother of God! I knew it was a possibility, but I had hoped it wouldn't come to this. I was foolish, it seems. Nothing to be done about it now. It's not a pretty solution, but it's still a solution, and you are the one to thank for it. I don't even know. You disposed of the people who kept the situation in Peregon from becoming a true nightmare. Money will likely become a real problem in the near future. Take these 500 rubles, three tins of food, and ten 9mm cartridges, as well as this Kasparamid pack. : Restricting ourselves to a single death:: I don't know. You disposed of a man without whom managing trade in Peregon may become a problem. I'm worried money will become scarce in the near future. Take these 700 rubles, 4 tins of food, and fifteen 9mm cartridges, as well as these two packs of Kasparamid.: Scintillating differences. Finally, as all sides ask you to murder the others: : Fyodor actually has a decent stash of cash and a LOT of alcohol on him : For a moment I thought it was a bit of characterization, but that’s probably just his shop inventory. : Siplovsky doesn’t actually do the long walk to announce his new authority. The main change that happens – the guard no longer stops us as we go in \ out of Peregon proper, free of charge. Woooo.... What we've got here is Which is why this is the good option. tl;dr posted:
:Finally, let's take a ride with Ivan Ivanovich and support Grankin in the Otradnoye elections.  : [Ivan Ivanovich casts a quick glance at Grankin, who's sweating buckets, and nods] It's true he's experienced. But he's also a coward, a doormat and a liar, if my initial impression of him is correct. However, with Denis Denisovich by his side I believe he will implement beneficial policies for the village. You might be interested to learn that there are two people in the village dead set against his candidacy. First of all, Vasya, the barman from the pub, who obviously supports his sister. Second, a certain Akhmed, a big moustached man, a former tractor driver. He himself is against Grankin, has set his wife against him, and is generally muddying the waters for everyone else. You've got to find these people and... convince them to change their minds. [The man slicks back his receding hair and moves closer to you] - The elections have to go smooth as silk, by which I mean one hundred percent turnout. Like it was in the USSR, may it rest in peace. But the problem is that two men in the village refuse to vote! Worse, their recalcitrance is confusing the other villagers. : So supporting either candidate doubles your workload. Well, Dan did send us two dudes to settle any problems, so we can get this done even if none of our skills are up to snuff. : I need you to chat up a local named Akhmed.  : That guy with the mustache? He's the fighting type, eh? He's been giving us the stink-eye the whole time we've been here.  : Let's pay him a visit... ...after which he'll be paying his doctor a visit to treat his many new ailments. : That’s one. : Old Semyon won't vote! Talk him into it! : We'll talk, but we're not going to harm the old guy. : Oh, come on! Why not? : It's a matter of principle. Let's go.  : Ye drat bashtards, ye want to make me vote, dontcha?! : Huh. Seems like-this one has less dementia than we thought. Vote for you know who, got it?!: God drat bastards!: You can also scare Semyon with your demon: : Yan:     : But… but… : We have nothing to talk about. Oh, and we don't serve drinks to people like you. : Get out of our establishment. You're not welcome here anymore!: What’s the hardest thing about leadership? : For me - it's the despicable light-heartedness with which the former leader dealt with tax evasion. Almost everyone evaded taxation one time or another! Not just the poor or the needy! Everyone from the local merchant to your friendly bartender got away with it! With me at the helm - such nonsense will not go on! Everyone will pay...: This one is fairly self-explanatory.tl;dr posted:
 : And in fact, when we return to the village: : Semyon had a grave reserved for him ever since we first visited Otradnoye, and now he's finally occupying. it. On paper, this could be touching. He may be one of our first quest givers, handing us a gun and a lesson in Wasteland survival. He's got that backstory with the two other elderly hunters, and now he's never going to be reunited with them. It's just, you know, the rest of the game...Next time - Mafia and organized crime, with practically no meaningful differences between different paths. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Sep 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2022 22:59
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:
Is...is that a Zelda CDI reference?
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2022 23:26
|
|
|
Yup. There's also an Icewind Dale reference.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2022 02:47
|
|
|
Mafia and Criminal Activity: Last time, we handled the elections in Otradnoye. Going back to Dan’s factory afterwards triggers a takeover attempt by Shishak and his men, which they inevitably lose. Nothing we can do to change things one way or the other (kind of a running theme in this update). :We do pick up Shishak’s keys, unlike TGEK. Our totally freed slave will be probably be happy with the additional lockpicking bonus. … We are now tasked with investigating the source of the takeover attempt.  : Perhaps it’s in Peregon? : Nope, all we find is the most 90’s face ever and (unwittingly) the source of the problem. : Apparently this actually increases your chance of encountering a wealthy caravan in the wastelands. I have a whole lot of stuff to sell after offscreen deviations from the pacifist way, so that would be handy. : I actually forgot where the hell the gems are, and had to run around looking for them. You CAN get the gems out without any instructions or an explicit quest, which is a nice bit of verisimilitude. : Once you pick up the gems, Syoma’s men are a fairly frequent random encounter. : Not really that scary. : The Sewer mafia aren’t really helpful, but they do send us after some Tawfik Mozambique guy – maybe he can be useful. As long as we’re here, we can wait for the guard to go talk to one of his friends…  : Hit the hidden door button and loot the bandit stash. Nothing particularly gamebreaking, give the ease of getting in. : The guard will actually enter the loot room when he first patrols back, so you want to open the door and go about your business for a while. He won’t re-enter after that, so you’re free to loiter, as long as you only enter and leave while he’s away.Anyway, let’s go   : For too long, the Wastes have been ruled by old coots who lost the plot ages ago. Our organization has decided the time is right to push them out of the market. But bold moves must start with a big boom. You know, to show everyone that we mean business.In Peregon, there's a pimp who calls himself Aurum. He likes to chat up poor women from the North, tell them he's got connections to cooking or dry cleaning jobs if they come with him to Peregon or Krasnoznamenny. Once they're away from their friends and family, he forces them to become prostitutes or worse, sells them to rich perverts. Quite a lucrative scam, right? … Local gangs won't touch him, so we need someone who will in fact touch him. Fatally, if possible. That someone is you. Walk around Peregon, find this cat, and show him what for. I'll wait for you in Fogelevka.   : Easy. Except:   : [You nod to the pimp and his two bodyguards... But the next thing you're about to say is interrupted by a couple of thugs, let by a young man with his hair combed back]We're with Uncle Hook's gang. We were looking for Aurum, but it seems like you found him first You're like some scout or something! : Were you sent here to find a pimp? : Nobody sent us. We decided to do that on our own, to grow in the ranks and all that jazz. But there actually were talks in the syndicate, about teaching the local bosses a harsh lesson, not only by threatening or killing Aurum... But by killing his hoes as well! : Well… there’s no bribery or speechcraft or intimidation option, so I guess we fight or leave Aurum to his fate. Shame.: Aurum has left this world... Forever. : Well, gently caress him then. I'm telling you, Hook, we got this operation by the balls! This kid is a real pro. [Tawfik takes a sip from a glass of some murky substance and sniffs at a crunchy piece of bread. His friend smiles and extends his hand for a shake]  : Nice to meet you. I'm Uncle Hook. [You reflexively take the stranger's hand. His handshake is firm, but not overbearing. With the pleasantries over, the man grabs a bottle from the rack and pours everyone a drink] For your health. Uhh... Nice. Hey, you're probably expecting a reward, right? We got you covered. Tawfik, get the money and loot out.  : Hey, did you know that your henchman wanted to kill Aurum's women? : Seriously? Goddammit. I'll give it to ya straight, there are a lot of bastards in our ranks right now. But don't you worry. As the organization grows, we'll clean out the deadwood. Even someone like Dan can make mistakes when hiring new people. But enough about that. Are you ready to steal a bunch of drugs from our colleagues in crime, and leave them a sign that we mean business?: I dunno. Cutting off heads seems a bit extreme. : Oh, come on. In Krasnoznamenny, even the militia is out headhunting criminals. : That’s actually true. Probably didn’t bother showing it off though.: Why can't we do the same? As a bonus, you don't have to bring the head back with you, bouncing around in your bag with your food rations and photos of your family. : If you’re analyzing each picture with care (why?) you might notice a corpse there. Suspicious and stupidly placed though it is, it’s actually an old war victim irrelevant to this quest. : I uh… actually didn’t screencap the rest of the conversation. The dude already handed over the drugs to someone who seemed legit. We can take his head or not, but the drugs are gone now. : Skip forward to the next day: : So after after deciding to work for the other side of the sewer mafia conflict, we’ve had one (1) genuinely different quest, one “other side of the story” quest at the same location, and now that we’re being set up to be eliminated, we’re asked to head to the same bridge and… : Motherfucker. It’s the exact same dude and his thugs waiting to take us out, whether working for Hook or Simon. : : Uh. I mean:: Hey there, you rat gently caress. You thought we were having a meet up with the smugglers? Nope. We're here for you. My name is Valera Dober and my boys here are ready to punish you. loving stole the drugs and disrespected Uncle Hook like that...[The men gathered around Valera look at one another and start cackling. You quickly understand the situation... There will be no meet up. Uncle Hook didn't believe you when you said you could not find the drugs, and decided to kill you for theft] : As a man of business, I can understand that Hook person. He did not believe your true and honest story about that awful substance being already gone when you met up with that poor courier. I can respect his wish to punish us for it... But... But I don't want to die like some dog!: Aight. Let’s try our luck: [Accelerated to unimaginable speeds by the tornado, the rusty, diseased razors cut your enemies one by one, as they attempt to run away, tearing through backpacks and armor, turning boots into rags, and flesh into mince meat. You soon hear not a scream of pain, but a horrible death rattle. You don't know it yet, but that noise is made by Valera Dober himself. His jugular was torn asunder by one of the thousand flying blades, and he fell to the ground, gurgling, quickly losing blood] [The metal storm calms down as quick as it descended upon you. The screams and moans also go silent, one by one, as your terrified, injured enemies lose their final drops of blood. You finally get up in the middle of the chaos... Untouched. Seems like you were lucky enough to jump straight into the eye of the storm] : Never in my life have I seen such a horrible miracle, Sparkie. I hope I won't, ever again...: Thank you, horrible rusty Soviet shaving blades!  : The “Wounded Tourist” tunnel was actually interactable before this:  : Just a bunch of spiders, not much of use. You can’t lay traps or mines in this game, so accessing it early wouldn’t be very useful. Anyways, now that Uncle Hook’s gang is here: : Same dude, same spiel, still no way to bribe or intimidate him. Because even in a quest chain that can otherwise be pacified without any combat, the game has to be a dick about things. Oh well, let’s at least make it to the end of the line: : Same dude in the tunnel as well. For once, we don't JUST pass a speech check, we also have a think (a little). And Fidel is the most useful he’s ever been in dialog. : [Success] [The bandit ponders your words, then nods] Yeah, I guess you got used to calling him by his real name long before he picked himself that cool nickname. I dunno about you guys, but I think this kid is legit saying the truth. How about we go for a quick smoke, while he meets his bro?  : [Attention] I can see you're not armed. You wanna fight me with your bare hands? : Ha! Don't you know who you're talking with? I'm the boxing champion of Navoloki and the whole Kineshma area of the Ivanovo region! Since the war began I started honing my skills. Nobody can beat me now! [Seems like your words turned on a switch hidden deep in the man's brain. He loses his cool attitude and starts jumping around and punching thin air with his scary looking boxing gloves] : [Personality]: 8 You lost here, guys. Just go, okay? : [Success] [The man laughs nervously, but his eyes are full of fear. He knows you're right He has nothing. His drugs are gone. His gang is in shambles. All of it done by a single person...] : I mean… one dude with a machete got killed, and one group of independent contractors (?) who might as well have worked for Simon got razored in a freak accident, but sure. Demolished a major criminal organization.: Ahem. Yes. Right. Fine. I'm a reasonable man. I can admit defeat. We can leave this part of the Wastes. We'll do it right now.: Oh no you don't. First, you pay me, for my silence. : [Uncle Hook thinks about it for a second, then finally nods, and without any enthusiasm, hands you some money. His buddies also chip in. You get 400 rubles in total...] [The bandits bow their heads and leave one by one. Hook is the last one at the exit. He stops suddenly, and squints his eyes at you. It's hard to tell what goes on in this man, who lost everything he fought for all these years...] These Wastes now have a mortal enemy. One day I shall return and knock this loving place out! : Man. If I wasn’t a pacifist, I could have at least gotten the second (or third) best martial-arts weapon off his corpse. Oh well.… So… basically, nothing changed, regardless of who we sided with. Things even end in the exact same location, facing the same enemies. … Let’s try following things up with the non-sewer mafia. Last time, TGEK called in some debts for them, returning the cash in exchange for a small % of the money and access to the boss. We’re going to do basically the same thing, but first:  : Chaaaaaaarming. Yeah, you could do the same in Fallout 2, but (again) that game is 20 years older, and it wasn’t explicit sex-slavery.  : The other debtor just gets speeched at. However, the mafia guy did say we have only three days to get the debts settled. What if we wait a while? : Yeah. You can collect over 10,000 rubles with some speech checks (or not), then just wait three days and get to meet the boss. No repercussions (except for the removal of three NPCs from the gameworld).There are no differences worth mentioning when you talk to Rosario. But! If we happen to annoy the mafia boys, possibly by trying to break into their little side room, we could kill them all without aggroing the rest of the city.    : The fight itself might be complicated, but every single quest leading up to it doesn’t require you to have any skills or stats.  : Now that we know the location, we could head out to handle things on our own, or…: Shishak wasi sent by some guy called Syoma Voronok.  : Hm. Syoma Voronok, the bandit with the diamond mine from up North? What did we ever do to him?  : Do you remember how Dan used to react to us loving with him by “letting us go”, then telling his men to shoot us as we walked away? Fun times. Last chance to do that now, by refusing to divulge the source of our info.: It's what I was been told by the Krasnoznamenny mafia. Syoma Voronok's people forced them to comply with his plan. : [Dan listens carefully, pinching his upper lip beneath his mustache and looking at the floor. Then he looks up at you again] I'm not surprised. Those rats would serve the Devil himself if it meant saving their own hides and earning some cash. They will be the first to die when it's time to clean up that city. Dan: Okay, I see you told me the truth. Let's get back to Syoma Voronok's bandits. Do you know where to find them? : In a place called the Container Yard. : Great, I know where that is. I'll send my men and I want you to go there too, to oversee the operation. Death to spies! No mercy for the enemy!: Hold up. What about a peaceful approach? : If I could end it peacefully I would, but no. This is war. It's either us or them.  : So we go into combat against Syoma’s dudes with  : Ugh... Ummm... Finishing the Death Transmission... Ha! Did you like it, child? How I killed these men with my psionic abilities?!: We already covered Dan’s reaction to the news: : And that’s settles the whole affair. Except… we still have that bag of diamonds to fence. I  : [Grishka is sitting at a sticky, dirty table. He plays around with a glass of vodka, while looking at the entrance, as if waiting that one of his enemies will enter at any moment. He probably has his reasons to have that fear]  : Who's the buyer, if it's not a secret? I : don't know if I can tell you... I’ll just say that it's a guy from a major local cult It's not your first day in the Wastes, so you might as well guess the rest.[Grishka winks at you] Why does that cult need the stones is anyone's guess... Such stones are usually used to make all sorts of pretty jewelry items or... for some high-tech stuff. God knows. I don't even care why they need them. : [Barter]: I was nearly killed on my way here. It's a risk, and high-risk jobs should be well paid. I : [Success] Oh, fine... You got a bit of the ol' bandit spirit inside you, you know? Here's 200 rubles. Don't ask for more, though!: [You place the bag on the table, and move it towards Grishka.] I : [He winks at you, and quickly hides the bag into the pocket of his worn work pants] Thanks a lot, brother. Here, 250 rubles for your labor. Buy yourself something good.As for me... It's time to meet the buyer I'll sell these stones, and after that... There's a lot of places to visit! The Legendary Trudograd, Mountain Pass of Woes, the lands of the oil barons. Maybe I'll see you again one day. : See you in Trudograd. The jewels are worth 2750 rubles, but I guess handing them over to Grisha stops Syoma’s men from chasing us, for some reason?Last but not least, let’s go get Kovalev’s car. First thing’s first – the car we get from the mutant scrap yard is not acceptable, we have to get and renovate the car junked next to Dan’s factory.    : You can tell him that detective Kovalev sends his regards... but I doubt that will make a good impression. You could also ask among the scavengers, though I don't think they will have the right parts.: [Speechcraft]: Comrade Kovalev, obviously there's a story about this Artemyev. : [Success] [Kovalev looks into your eyes and then turns away. Seems like he suddenly lost his iron spine, the organ that kept him standing proud and tall in this terrible world] He... He's a reminder of a failure from long ago. : Aha... : I was a detective with the people's militia. We were chasing after a gang of car thieves who disassembled their stolen stock and sold the parts and scrap. Just before the war, all the factories were working to supply the army. Times were rough. Everything was dedicated to the war effort, even though some people were starving. That was when we first heard about cars being stolen. We increased our patrols and sent undercover operatives to check things out. We assembled a civilian militia from some willing volunteers and had them watch in places with a lot of parked cars. Finally we found out a small gang of car thieves was operating in town. Artemyev was their leader. [Kovalev goes silent for a moment. Then he stretches his back and continues] He was thought to be a good man, a true communist, a local factory mechanic who knew his craft. But when the war started, it turned out he wasn't interested in making an honest living. He faked sickness to avoid conscription, gathered a bunch of his deadbeat pals, and started stealing from honest folks. The cars he stole were broken up for spare parts on the black market. This business filled his pockets with precious cash! In time the gang became savage - they attacked a truck carrying tractor motors! : [Personality]: So did you get him in the end, Kovalev? : [Success] That I did. We knew in advance that he was planning to steal a massive gas tank from the railway station. So we planted an ambush and caught his gang red handed. But then Artemyev started shooting at us! Who knew he would stoop that low?  : Now… we could head out and get the ingredients in question from some junk dealers.  As long as we’re here, we can pick up some doggy armor:  : I think this might be a mod making dog armor actually worthwhile, rather than a waste of funds.: But the other route is slightly more complicated \ interesting.  : [Before you, sits a fat bloke in a crimson suit He is studying a ledger. From time to time, the man pouts and scratches his triple chin, all while making some markings in the weatherbeaten book] : Huh. That’s the very first time our Ebonics dictionary has failed us. Let’s try again, without starting a fight with the entire town.: Pardon me, comrade Artemyev... It was a mistake.: Fine, fine. Now, what did you want? Don't waste my time, got it? : They say you can get all kinds of rare gadgets. Is this true? : Depends on what you be needing. You know how the times are. Quality tech is rare, and costs a lot. So what will it be? : I need a carburetor and an ignition starter. Got anything to offer? : [Artemyev starts looking through his notepad] Yeah, I got those. I can deliver them in a couple of days, but it will cost you a pretty penny. 7000 rubles for the carburetor. 10000 for the starter. Yeah, it's a lot, but these days this stuff is really rare. Although there are other ways to pay. You can work for me, if you don't have enough cash on yo : Maybe we can talk about a discount? : Oh, God, not that... : [Barter]: What's the market price of these things, exactly? I don't think it's the one you told me. You'll lose all of your clients this way! : [Success] [Artemyev fights it... but finally accepts the truth of your words] Fine, fine, I'll take off 4000! Which means you'll get the carburettor for 3000 and the starter for 7000. But this is my last offer.: Work? What kind of work? : First off, I need you to take care of a man. An independent god damned journalist. He has some intel on me. He's hiding near Krasnoznamenny. You need to find him and silence him. How you do it - I don't really care. But I need the deed done.The second job is a fair bit more interesting. Close to the town, there's this locked bunker. They say it was used for intercepting communications of supposed enemies of the state. There should be a gadget in this bunker, called the "K22 Decoder". You don't need to know what it does. I just need you to fetch it for me. If you complete both tasks, you'll get your parts and more. Any questions? Hope not... : I need to actually kill the journalist? Is there no other way? : Maybe you don't need to kill him. What you need to do is make him shut up for good. Buy him off. Threaten him. I don't care. : What's can you tell me about this bunker? : It's near Krasnoznamenny, in the mountains. There was a communications array there some time ago. intercepted enemy signals and what not. You need to search that place for a Decoder.  : The journalist is hostile to us, armed with a poo poo pistol, and surrounded by wolves. No dialog options, no nothing. A pacifist could just let him die and walk away (as it stands, one of my party members snipes him) : The decoder bunker is incredibly toxic (about half my total health per tick!), and full of rats to hold you up. If this game allowed you to engage combat mode at will, you could easily make your way to the decoder, scarfing down healing items and toxicity cures. But you can’t, and while you’re in your inventory, trying to heal up, time goes on and you keep getting more and more damage.We could go buy a gas mask, or hold out for the Dead City toxicity-proof suit, but I manage a no-damage run straight to the decoder and back, possibly glitching the game.   : Well, that’s that. Let’s head back to Kovalev and… : Learn that we also need to get some scrap metal and wire, because there hasn’t been enough fetch questing already. It’s fine, I have hundreds of each in the trunk of my real car, from the mutant scrapyard. : Wait, no no no…. we’re still not done. The game is mocking me.… At least it’s only one bottle of gasoline, and I already got some for my own car. : Just what I needed. Let's see if we can start her up again! [The old man pours the fuel into the tank, grabs the wheel and gives you a sign. You switch on the starter... and the car starts chugging! Black smoke is shooting out of the exhaust] It works. |t works! I'm going to drive to Krasnoznamenny real fast and get some more parts! See you in Otradnoye when I get back. [With that, Kovalev, looking much younger all of a sudden, drives away, ignoring the surprised shouts of the village guard and the maniacal barking of his mutt]    [You find the car you repaired. It's been shot several times and is on fire. Near it lies the former Head of Otradnoye, Kovalev. He looks bad, covered in blood, his clothes torn to rags and burned through in some places. Burn marks on his skin as well...]  : One of the few portraits that actually change based on in-game events.: [First Aid] Hold on. Don't talk. Let me check your vitals.  : [Kovalev stops you]No use... I'll pass on soon. You know... it was a good life. I served my country well. I helped people. I built Otradnoye. And you helped me with my daughter! I know she loves this old fool... It's just that I won't have time to see her get married... or get to hold my grandkids... : You're in shock, Kovalev! Let me get help! : [The man looks blindly at the sky] Don't tell anyone I died. But promise me you'll look after my girl! Give her good advice. Don't let her get into trouble. This... This is my final request! [The old man's gaze becomes foggy. He coughs, then wheezes, and suddenly goes limp. It is over. Kovalev has left the Wastes for the snowy High Tundra of Heaven] : There goes Comrade Kovalev, the first leader of Otradnoye. : Let's get back to Artemyev?  : Well, there's only one other person who cares.: Katya, I wanted to talk to you about Kovalev. : [The girl nods and wags a finger at you] I already know everything! : What? From where? : He told me that he wanted to travel the Wasteland. And I agreed. He did so much for us, so now he is free, and happy... someplace.: Katya, I'm sorry to say this but Kovalev is actually dead. : [Fear blossoms like an ugly flower on Katya's face]What are you saying?! I don't believe you! Please don't joke like that... : I'm telling you the truth! Why would I lie? : Mind, this happens regardless of whether you mention Kovalev to Artemyev, or even if you pick up the necessary items from scavengers right outside Otradnoye (save before you talk to them and reload if they don't have the items you need. Good trick for traders in general). Which... I don't mind the game having a story to tell, but why even bother with the appearance of choice?
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Sep 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 21:01
|
|
|
Here i thought we'd covered most of the poo poo in the game but selling people into sex slavery is vile.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 21:47
|
|
|
Haha, what a reference, Atom RPG! Did this game ever have any humour that wasn't referential or, I dunno, "whoa isn't it funny we brought up rape and slavery haha"?
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 23:13
|
|
|
LJN92 posted:Did this game ever have any humour that wasn't referential or, I dunno, "whoa isn't it funny we brought up rape and slavery haha"? Xander77 fucked around with this message at 21:00 on Sep 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 23:17
|
|
|
Crime and Punishment, I guess?: Took me a while to come up with a semi-coherent theme for this update. It's mostly going to be about various miscallenous criminals (entirely unlike the previous update, which was about organized criminals. Completely different). That said, we’ll start by breaking strict pacifist rules to show off the damned car.  : Sadly, the scrap yard is empty of cars and most loot if you go with the pacifist solution to the quest. : The same is probably true if you approach the area before the quest triggers as well? Getting 120000 rubles is a bit too difficult to make checking worthwhile.   : The mutants have fairly poo poo weapons and are spread out around a large area, so I guess you could hit this place at level 4-5 with a combat ready team, rather than waiting for level 10 and the quest. Besides the car, it also has shitloads of basic crafting materials that a low-level player might appreciate more. : There’s a bit of a puzzle involved in restoring the Pobeda, and you could outright blow it up. : And… we’re good to go. We now have infinite inventory space in the trunk, can cross the entire map in seconds (several times over on a full fuel tank) and perhaps most importantly: : We park right in the middle of known locations, saving a lot of mindless backtracking to the area exit. The car is hella handy withal. : You do need fuel to get around, but you can get some from most traders driving a truck (and of course, there are a lot of individual bottles filled with gasoline in places like the gas station)… Anyway, let's get to the actual crime and punishment part of this update.   : That house is older than the War. It was falling down when we got here, but I rebuilt most of it with new materials. The land was barren too, until, with God's help, I revived it.: Ah, Nekrasov, the ugly, grotesque poet of Russian Lands! How many works did you scribe about the women of Russia, strong and kind? Why didn't you write about alpha males like this one? About those who labor without cease, who fear God and love the Earth?! : That's right, grandpa.: You know how I’ve complained about most of the Russian Wasteland looking like moderately updated Fallout, all corrugated iron? Foglevka actually looks like an idyllic village, pastoral and full of produce. No idea why Otradnoye is so generic in comparison.Anyway, we give things the very briefest of pokes…  : Konstantin Hamovskiy - "Kostya χɐm" - Ham, after Noah's son, a rude and uncultured person. : One man told me that in the Mountain Pass of Woes there's an ancient castle where mutant mice have built a kingdom. He said a fat ol' mouse king sits on a throne with a beautiful lady mouse at his side, and a platoon of knight mice waiting his command, wearing rose petal cloaks and wielding rapiers fashioned from finishing nails. Konstantin: Come Easter, the mice stage jousting tournaments and hunt cats. In the cellar, they have a huge library where grey haired rodents study old scrolls and write new ones with chicken feather quills. I know the castle he was talking about, but it's ruled by drunks and bandits. There's no such thing as a mouse kingdom. But that's just my luck - I'm always meeting crazy people. Or was he simply drunk?: Yeah yeah, cool. What about the people you’ve murdered? : Well, maybe we can lend god a hand. No, not by doing anything ourselves – even if we weren’t pacifist, we don’t want to agro the entire village. : The gas station stronghold commander has something for us.: What's the story with your lucky charm?  : [The man squints his eyes for a second to look at the bullet, hanging on his wide, muscular chest. Then he just dismisses your question] It's nothing... A trophy. : [Attention] I don't think it's simple at all. For example, what do these scratches on its side mean?: [The man sniffs with irritation and looks down at his lucky charm]drat, you're eagle-eyed... Only these aren't scratches. That's a name. Of one citizen... Kostya the Yob... : Old Soviet linguistic specifics. An accused criminal or jailed prisoner couldn’t be a “comrade” to the militia \ military (who maintained “comrade” as a form of address even when it fell out of favor elsewhere), so they were referred to as “citizen”, which remains a fairly insulting term to this day.: Who is this Kostya the Yob..? To deserve a personal bullet... : [The man sighs loudly and turns his gaze to some faraway place only he knows about...] Ah... This is a story from a whole different life. My life... But sometimes I even forget about it. And begin to think it's from someone else's. From the life of an ordinary soldier who, after the war, came to his home village... To his father and mother, and his son, to his wife pregnant with their second child. And he was lucky, that green youth - he saw everything the way he left it half a year earlier. The same faces, the same houses. Only everyone around had gone wild. As the first post-war winter came, the raids started. First they were cunning, in the night, with masks on the mugs of the looters. Then the looting became open and shameless. Why the hell did I decide to organise a resistance? At first it didn't go too well. But then, me and other ordinary, civilian men managed to fend off an attack! And on top of that, we've wiped out half of the gang! With hunting rifles, can you believe that? And also with my Makarov gun that I brought from the army... We thought things would get quiet...  : My wife, Lenochka, fell down... Seryojka ran to her, "Mum, mum!"Bang! Seryojka fell down too... Bang! My mother fell down with a hole in her chest! Bang! My father! Bang! Bang! My friends, Ivan and Stasik with precise holes in their foreheads... : https://youtu.be/4inyhzOv_LQ?t=86: By then, I wasn't standing on my knees any more, but on all fours... Biting the earth, groaning, howling like a beaten dog... Wailing... Wailing and begging to die. Chocking on earth and my tears. I've never wanted anything as bad as I wanted to die at that moment.But when Kostya the Yob finally pointed my own gun at me and pulled the trigger... only a click came out of it. The bullet got stuck in the chamber and rolled out, in the mud, through the ejection port. Can you believe that? The last bullet got stuck. My bullet. My... [With a shaking hand, the man grabs the bullet on his neck chain and clenches his fist until it goes white...] And now it's his... I swear on the names of my loved ones... This bullet will find Kostya the Yob. : Not gonna lie, for all the melodrama, this isn't the worst setup. : Wait! This Kostya has to be punished! : He does... But where can I find him now..? Back then, we lived far away, in the North. His closest analogue here is only Dan from the Factory. But even Dan pales in comparison with that scum. drat! I'd love to do the same to the Yob..!: Hmm. What if we claim to have killed him? : Ok, let’s do this the right way.: I found Kostya the Yob. He lives in the Fogelevka village. : Fogelevka? I know that place! It's not too far away. You're telling me Kostya the Yob is there? : Yeah. He settled down, got himself a family. : gently caress! A family, huh?! I'll show him family! I'll show him a calm life! He will eat his own poo poo, when I'm done with him! I will show him hell on Earth! loving murderer! [The man's nostrils go wide, his eyes become bloodshot, but he manages to get a grip on his emotions, and calmly says:] Thank you. Thank you for finding him. Thank you for keeping calm and not killing him on the spot But now... Now I have to pay a visit to Fogelevka. Meet an old pal... : Easy, commander. He was a right bastard, but now he is peaceful. He is no longer a bandit. : I don't care if he's Gandhi. He was a bastard, and he always will be, to me. He lives, while my family, friends and unborn child lie dead. He stole their lives. He killed them. Now go. We'll talk later.: Rook heads out, and we come back the next day: : I thought you understood that revenge is useless and doesn't fix anything... : Have you read it in some weak rear end book or something? Revenge kept me alive all this time, and now I feel like a mountain dropped from my shoulders. I can finally live again, thanks to revenge! Last time I was in Krasnoznamenny, I met a wonderful lady named Yegoria. You know what? I should totally call her on a date! Yes, that would be awesome.  : Don’t think either NPC has any worthwhile interactions otherwise. tl;dr posted:
: As long as we’re in Foglevka, let’s take on more criminal-chasing jobs. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Auj_u7wEyw8&t=1553s On the off-chance you care about how the name is pronounced. I can’t figure out any connection to the character, but that’s the first association for any Russian speaker.  : Look, this gangster by the name of Chigurov robbed a bank courier and fled with the money. I need someone to take over for my late partner and talk to three people who I suspect know where Chigurov's hiding. Then report back to me and I'll take care of the rest. How does that sound?… But remember, you need to talk to all three of them! Chigurov's not some idiot who's just going to lay out his master plan. But I know a few things already and if you're really thorough, we might stumble upon something useful. : One drifter is at a random roadside camp: : But, listen... Child! I am overcome with doubt. That man in Fogelevka, sent us to find a criminal, a robber... But according to his acquaintance, this Chigurov is actually a noble man! Maybe it wasn't wise to disclose the information acquired here to that cruel investigator?: His ex-girlfriend is at Peregon. Let’s see what’s new there.  : New traders, complete with rare items (I still don’t have my entire team equipped with backpacks). : Reactive \ dynamic rumors. : Some local color. : Things are going well for the area in general. I didn’t care enough to check how much things change if we kill the other two leaders.… Ok, enough faffing around – let’s go down to the dog-fighting area and find our informer:  : Oh, I mistook you for someone else. I'm often approached by dog fight enthusiasts, asking me to arrange a date for their bitches with my champion dog, the bloodthirsty, sadistic, four-legged flesh-and-bone-ripper named Busya. So that their puppies get those merciless killer genes. : Wow, what a lucky dog! I'd love to trade places with him, spend my days making fat rubles and my nights with a bunch of hotties! : Yeah... I doubt there's a woman anywhere willing to pay for the dubious honor of giving birth to... What's the French word? Ah, yes! "Le Rétard.": Cool. About your boyfriend? : Honey, I can't take Busya for a walk, the children of Trudograd need my help! Kitty, I can't take you to Yozh Mountain, the Chelyabinsk orphans need a new TV set! Baby, I know I just stole two hundred grand from the wealthiest bank in the region, but we need that money to fund a new orphanage! What an rear end. I hate his guts. : Didn't you love each other? Where is all this anger coming from? : Everyone has their limit. When your man values you less than a street beggar, you can either surrender all your self-esteem or tell that man to go to hell.: A dog fight breeder might not be the best source of advice. The last informer is at the Mountain Pass, so we’ll get to him later. … As long as we’re here, let’s do the truck escort quest and meet the old gang:   : [The bandit cannot finish ‘his phrase, as. in a brilliant display of light and deafening sound, a satellite crashes right in the middle of the small bandit army:] : What the..! [Everyone looks at each other, baffled... Where the bandits stood just seconds ago, there's a small circular hole in the ground. The bandits themselves lie dead, killed by your celestial savior. Nobody says a word. The situation is far too strange for celebration. You just nod your head and whisper:] : drat, I’m lucky! The bandits are actually all around the truck, but changing the text so that the satellite debris hits all around you was apparently too much work. And now that we’re back in KRZ, might as well get one last last bandit hunting mission (until the next last bandit hunting mission), from Hannibal  : What threat is Otradnoye facing, exactly?  : A big gang of slavers who've decided they want the village for their central base in the Wasteland. If they succeed, it won't just be the villagers who suffer. It'll be all of us. I need someone to gather the men I need together, and perhaps even participate in the forthcoming operation himself. It'll be one hell of a clash, trust me. ... A professional team. Lyudmila the sniper, a trooper known as Major Pronin, and Konstantin Arkadyevich Smirnov, a well known saboteur. These three used to work together until they had a falling out and went their separate ways. Now they can't stand the sight of each other. Such a pity! I've never seen a better team of killers. : I can deal with this problem myself. What do we need them for? : It's nice you're so sure of yourself, but this is serious business and we need real results, not a demonstration of how tough you are. We're not playing games here.: Aight. Let's get the band back together. Major Pronin is at the border outpost (the one with the bearded slave driving guard) : Let me be frank... You don't look like you belong here. So who are you? Who were you before?  : [The warrior is cracking his knuckles] I appreciate your candour... Once you've fought as many battles as I've had — you will start hiding not only your name, but even your favorite brand of vodka as if it was a matter of national security. : For now I have only seen you, blabbermouth. And all the stories of your military past don't seem that convincing at all. : [The giant takes one step forward with truly unexpected grace and is now standing right in front of you! His muscles are tense, his eyes are red with rage! "Punishment is inevitable" — it's very clear to you now... but suddenly you feel a heavy yet playful pat on the shoulder instead:] I see you don't scare easily, rookie! You're still soft as clay, however after a proper burning you'll probably be really hard to break! In the good old days boys like you used to carry my ammo for me. And all the others were jealous of them. Okay, you earned it. My name is Major Pronin. Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Costa-Rica, Tanzania... GRU... And after all that — a border outpost on the road to Peregon and Krasnoznamenny. : I am happy to hear that, Major. The Strategist is assembling a team... [Share the plan] : [The Major listens to you with a stony face and then shrugs dismally] Sounds interesting, I must admit. But the bureaucracy got me trapped in here, I don't even know when I will be able to leave. See, for example, this is the duty roaster for this month... [The man takes out a yellowed piece of paper and starts to straighten it out on his broad palm. When the paper starts to more or less resemble a document it once was, Major takes out two more papers] This is the days off plan. And our work contract. What do we have here? "Obliged to serve in the "Wolves of Peregon" detachment for three months after the date of filing an official resignation letter in duplicate." Have you seen that? In other words, let's meet at the Strategist's place. [A smirk reappears on the vet's face. With a swift movement he stuffs the rolled up piece of paper with some chart printed on it with tobacco, lights up, throws the rest of the papers on the ground and leaves... The commanding officer aims his gun at his back and threatens to shoot.. But then gives up and just waives his hand and lowers the gun] : Wow. He’s so cool. : Smirnov is at the Otradnoye bar, but won’t join until we recruit Lyudmilla, unless we have 188(!) speechcraft. I actually checked, and there’s no real point to not assembling the full team. : Lyudmilla is currently helping deal with an attack on the gas station by a bunch of unarmored thugs armed with broken bottles and bricks.  : I just realized there's a problem. I promised the locals I'd take care of a wolf pack that's been using a nearby cave for their den. I wasn't particularly eager to deal with it, so I've been putting it off. But since I gave my word, it needs to be done. Do you think you could help me?: Let's exterminate those grey beasts and be on our way to the Strategist! : Well now, we can't both run off hunting wolves. Having heard your story, I need to stay at my post and keep an eye on the road. I think you should be the one to take care of the wolf business. It'll be a piece of cake in comparison.: I could convince her to forget about the wolf relatively easily, but hey – content.     : Also, this helps complete a sidequest I was sure TGEK did, so wasn’t really screencapping. There’s like a whole thing about recovering pieces of the family shield \ crest of the medieval dude who founded KRZ, scattered across the wasteland. The wolves in the cave guard the last bit.       : Whatever. Every bit of the shield is fairly well hidden, and while it’s not quite, in tvtropes parlance, “Guide Dang It”, I was stuck for a bit. : Let’s get together with our magnificent trio and defend Otradnoye. I mean, we could actually leave the three to it, they’re more than capable in-game and in-lore, but still. : Right. So we’ve got a saboteur, a sniper and a straight up fighting machine. Do we ensure they set up appropriately before fighting? Possibly interact with the enemy before engaging them, using traps and so forth? : Nope. We either let them rush ahead, or fire the first shot ourselves. That’s straaaaaaaategy.   : The enemies are fairly numerous and well armed, but our allies are about up to the task. Pronin will probably die if you don’t pull a bit of agro off him, but Smirnov and Lyudmilla will finish the rest off. : If they do somehow meet an unfortunate accident, you can loot one unique weapon, and some mid-tier other stuff.    : Not really worth it, pacifism aside. A swift reload later:[The fight started and ended almost instantly. The battlefield is covered with the bodies of the unsuccessful conquerors of Otradnoye, and the heart-rending cries and sounds of gun shots are replaced by the ringing silence. You shiver involuntarily...] [All three mercenaries approach you still clenching their weapons. Major Pronin looks pleased, sniper Lyudmila and Smirnov the saboteur on the contrary, seem a bit tired. Lyudmila is first to break the silence:] : Seems to be all... : Seems that way. [Somewhere in the distance a howl sounds, a howl of a wolf, or a jackal, or a wild dog, or some other creature, unknown to the human kind altogether. Soon the bodies of the dead will be eaten and thus returned to nature]  : Well, at least it's a lot of almost free loot for a low level player?tl;dr posted:
: Setting the original characters (steel donut) aside - jfc, I get that raiding is the primary career path in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but come on. How many NPCs and quests aren't connected to crime in one way or another? I get that "half the country sat in the Gulag while the other half guarded the first", but this is ridiculous.  Just how many different gangs are fighting each other on this tiny piece of land you can cross in an hour by car?
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Sep 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Aug 3, 2022 20:12
|
|
: I'll only join if Lyudmilla joins.
: We'll only die if you kill us. Wait, gently caress.
|
Clown world, amirite?: I tried to come up with some sort of coherent theme for every update. This time I was mostly picking up odds and ends, but I guess a lot of time was spent on the circus. : Haaaaaa. “Check out the clichés we’re using, aren’t they clichéd as gently caress?” is pretty bad in even competently written games. I said in the past that I liked the rumor system and how you get truths, myths and semi-truths mixed together, but we get so many clues tying the expedition to the Mushroom Cult from so many angles, that a random civilian pointing us that way feels like too much. How about some red herrings \ false leads? Maybe the mailman conspiracy recruited the expedition. Maybe they all definitely disappeared in the Roaring Forest? Maybe Sema loving Voronok took them out?   : Right after the pointless and date crypto bullshit, we walk into KRZ and get a far more period-appropriate scam. : Listen, this young man is onto something... Bottles! Hmm, yes. Why didn't I think of this before?  : You see? That old feller is tired of being poor. He doesn't want to be poor anymore! : Maybe I should sell you some of my bottles? I do have a few. : A fine bargain indeed. But unlike you, I am not an investor. My job is making my clients rich. That's how I earn my living. Listen, quit letting your money line your filthy pockets. You need to invest, and bottles are the best kind of investment. The glass ones symbolize fragility, grace and nobility. The plastic ones - practicality, longevity, durability. In your opinion, what is the price of a dream? I personally think dreams have no price. This is why I'm willing to give you a 1000% discount on your purchase. Only 100 rubles for this bottle and you become an investor. No, my friend, not a buyer, a true investor.: [Barter]: 175 I have a better proposal. How about I sell you my bottles for, I don't know, 50 rubles? : [Success] [The man thinks it over carefully, rubbing his chin, and finally nods] Yes, that actually sounds like a bargain. I'll get new inventory at half the market value. Listen, I've got some money stashed and I'm ready to spend it to gain a bottle! : Great, because I have something you might like. [You give Oleg the bottle, and he passes you the money] : Ha! Glad to do business with you. I'm sure this beauty will sell like pancakes.tl;dr posted:
: I kinda like this. It’s moderately creative, and rewards your (ultra-high) investment in Bargaining by allowing you to make money from literal trash. But, as this game can’t help but loving up, you can’t sell bottles in bulk. Separate dialog tree for every single sale.  : There’s probably power armor in Trudograd. But once again, it’s moderately nice that not every bit of Soviet tech that you hear about is actually acquirable.  : Some Soviet nostalgia (which the game is actually very poor at evoking) at the movie theater. Check out that Star Wars poster on the left.    : I’ve got a brilliant idea for utilizing all the extra references we couldn't shove into regular dialog!… : You can at least ask about \ try to solve KRZ’s problems: : [Our problems include] the barbaric chaos that is Peregon, the wild gangs of the North, the drug trade, the slave trade, mutants, and so-called ATOM, just to name a few. But we're holding up well in spite of them. : In the interests of pacifism, we actually warn pig-lecturer about the Mushroom plot.  : Couldn't gank the pig.  : [The woman sighs and shakes her head, clearly disappointed] But I was so sure about you. You gave me so much hope... Ugh, I see now that I was mistaken. You really disappointed me, and lost out on an ideal opportunity. [Ariadna looks at you regretfully and waves her hand] What can we do with you now? Nothing. It saddens me to say it, but we can no longer work together. You may come and go as you like, but you will never be one of us. : You can’t pacifist your way through the Death Tunnel anyway, and you don’t need the quest to uncover the two bunkers. The warning itself doesn’t lead to much of anything, you can’t investigate the Mushroom cult and report back to him.Oh, and while we’re at it, we could gently caress up the very first assignment:  : If you understand it, start living by your own code of conduct!  : Seriously? Well I did hear that only lonesome shooting stars have the opportunity to break the mold. But you actually believe I can go my separate way after living with the society for so long? : (They didn’t even bother to come up with a different joke for the Russian version, which is just odd) : Basically the same deal, except you can apologize at the last moment and keep going with the quest chain. Cooperating with Mycelium is strictly optional.: Any good rumors? : All I hear in this dark abode are the histories of long dead politicians... Lenin, Krupskaya, Stalin, Khrushev, Brezhnev... How many words, that a pig does not need to know..! Even the rumors my master tells me revolve around these names. Check the city above us. Is it true that some con artist is telling people the dead man in his box are the remains of Lenin? Is it true that another man, dressed like a jester, is ready to die for a statue of Lenin in the market square? : The Lenin’s mummy quest broke for me. The Roma fortuneteller is supposed to ask you to send the competition packing.We could also try to help trader Yashin:   : When that person is reduced to a sobbing heap of tears, they "show him the way". In other words, they recruit him to their ranks, and maybe ask him to contribute some of his wealth to the group. I strongly advised Yashin to go to them when his life started going downhill, but he ignored me. Now... Well, you know where he has to live now. Very sad indeed. [Sablin looks at you very seriously] I am myself a member of the noble Mycelium. I love their key principle of Unification, as do all good people! What can I say... Do you want to live? Then you do what it takes. : I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, "cults are full of poo poo, none of their 'good intentions' ever do anything, they're just organized crime under a different guise" isn't the worst message. On the other hand, if the endgame demonstrates that the mushroom actually has good intentions, having the cult be ever so slightly consistently dickish and engage in SOME good acts would make sense.  : Yashin takes this well, all things considered. : You can do the same with Katia, except the game manages to frame the transaction as less corrupt. A 100 rubles is nothing even at the start of the game, much less post-election.  : We don’t ever meet this dude at the Mountain Pass. I feel like most of the time, the game is assuming the player character rather than the player is getting duped, but this is one of the few times where you’re probably expected to wonder whether we’re going to deliver some actual medicine (given what we know about KRZ anti-mutant attitude).But once we head to the circus…  : Yeah, nah. It’s Black Lotus. More Postman Conspiracy stuff. You can give the package to the guards in Foglevka, but there’s no reward. : Gutsy the Clown? How did you come up with a name like that?  : [The clown comes close and flashes a smile that shows off all his rotten yellow teeth] It was never about choice. Life made this name for me. [The clown touches his round red nose] Like my nose? Think it's a prop? Heehee. What did the good doctor from Otradnoye say? "Cancerous growth". Probably something to do with all those times Mother threw boiling water at my face.  : What can you tell me about the circus? : Well, to your average normie we're nothing but a rag—tag bunch of mutants, fiends, drug abusers and baby murderers. But for me this place is home. It's a roof above my poor head, it's family, friends and lovers. And by the way, Shats the Clown was the only one who actually stole and murdered babies, and that was just until I convinced him to retire... with my own two hands. [The clown takes on a terrifying expression, and mimes violently choking the air with his huge, calloused hands] : [The clown lifts his hands, and with his last remaining strength huffs like a dying horse, hawking out a gigantic blood-loogie] Here we go... : Santa Maria! Such a trick would rather make one cry than laugh! : The ten rubles stay with me! If you didn't laugh, there's something seriously wrong with you. : And I... I always told you he was no clown. He is a terrible human being! Not only does he steal money, but he also displays horrible, unsafe imagery! tl;dr posted:
: Hey, I suffered though this, and so will you.  : Cool reference, bro. Even less connected to the story than normal. : Look out guys, the writers of ATOM RPG are going to go for actual pathos here: : (Other way around actually, dear translator. Butt = interest, eggs = mockery) : I lay giant eggs. it's my mutation, see? Once every month or so, when I feel like I'm about to lay one, the guys set me up in a big nest inside a cage and drive me around the Wastes like a traveling sideshow. Everyone wants to see the supreme mockery of nature that I represent, so we make a cool 500-600 rubles each month! Sometimes kids and old folks give me bread and sacks of grain too. So lovely of them! There's just one thing I don't like. The embryos inside those eggs always turn up dead. Except for one time... but I don't want to talk about that. : [Speechcraft]: 71 Come on! I'm sure this story won't mess me up as much as your previous one. You can trust me. : [She thinks it over briefly and nods] Okay. Maybe sharing my pain with you will reduce my suffering. Once I laid an egg that wasn't the same as the others. It had a living baby inside it. One of my colleagues even heard it's tiny heart beat through the shell. I was so happy! But during the night, someone snatched the egg from my bed, smashed it open, and ate the baby! I didn't know who to blame -who would even think to do such a thing?- until someone told me it was Barbara the Bearded Lady! And to think I trusted her completely. She was my best friend! Now... Now I hate her guts! : About your feud with Barbara the Bearded Lady... : [The usually shy Yana the Egglayer rapidly turns scarlet with fury] Don't you dare even mention that bitch's name! I've laid tons of eggs in my life, but only one had a living embryo inside! I was going to raise him as my son! I was planning to call him Vadim the Egglayer or something like that. But that stupid bearded bitch broke his egg open and not just killed him but ate him! I'm not going to talk about her anymore. I can never forgive what she did. Ever since my loyal new friend Ivan the Crane reported Barbara's evil deed, she is dead to me. Dead! Ohhh... Why did you even bring this up? What Ivan says is true: in all this cruel world, only he understands me. : Uh huh. So Ivan the Crane was the one who told you about Barbara's crime? Okay, let's change the subject.  : l was a good looking but otherwise ordinary boy until the age of fifteen. That was when my mouth began fusing together with my nose, eventually hardening into a long bealc Luckily, my family did not panic - they arranged to feed me from tall glasses and vases, and led me to the swamps where I could feast upon my natural diet, frogs. But those blissful times ended when my dear papa died during a hunt. After half a year of grieving, my dearest mother married Zheka "Mutantslapper" Matveyenko, a true Leninist and hater of all things mutant. His ignorance made my home life impossible. Thus, I found myself enlisting with this troupe of misfits. ... Oh, what I really want is to create art on a real theatre stage, not here. In the circus, I mostly sit in a makeshift nest taking care of plastic eggs, or just stand on one leg as the crowd cheers or jeers at me. Ivan the Crane: Although a few times, me and Gutsy the Clown acted out our own theatrical shows. One of I these, "The Emerald Mammoth" received a standing ovation. In that show, I played a burned-out Soviet officer whose service awards were stolen by his friend. I stood on one leg and made bird noises, begging my stage partner to give them back, but he just insulted me in return. Twas a real old-fashioned drama! : "The Emerald Mammoth", huh... Hey, I actually wrote the treatment for that. It was a stage play about the terrible bullying of the Red Army barracks. Never expected to see it performed in our sad world, a world completely devoid of art. Let me quote a few lines from one of my characters: "Yes, comrade, I want to talk about pus! Why, not that long ago I got a zit that looked ever so huge...":”...I went to the military hospital, but they wouldn't touch the zit. Instead, their surgeons cut off my poor leg! How's that for a story?" Brilliant words. I remember your whole work by heart. Thank you so much for this masterpiece. : [Intellect] Yana's mutation so hurt your feelings you went the way of Shakespeare's Aaron? : [Ivan the Crane looks at you with horror, and also some respect] : What is it? : Listen, Ivan the Crane confessed. In reality, he was the dastard who ate your baby. : [Yana the Egglayer staggers as if she had been struck in the face and lets out a muffled scream. Trembling uncontrollably, she slowly turns towards Ivan the Crane, who's sitting with his beak down in the dirt] I... I even asked him that night... why was his beak so red. He told me he'd been pecking at some beets. But in reality, the stains were the blood of my unborn child! My Vadim the Egglayer! My god! And I've been cursing Barbara all this while. How many times did I beg God for her death? How many black gypsy candles did I burn for the Devil to claim her soul? While the real filthy baby-killer was right at my side! Forgive me, sweet Barbara the Bearded Lady. Forgive me for being such a fool! [Yana the Egglayer falls face first into the dirt and covers her head, shaking with sobs. She needs some alone time now]  tl;dr posted:
: Visiting the actual circus performance:   : Hey, did you spot something extraordinary? Probably not. This – this one optional activity in the entire goddamned game – has our    : The red clown nose you get as a reward is very handy for a few Luck checks.  : Yeah, I’m doing the rat quest. You kill a bunch of low level rats, then: : What are you, for God's sake?  : I am the one that is not stupid. The strongest, the most powerful, the luckiest of brethren. Keeengrat! Keeng Ra'at! King Rat! : Is the grey stuff you're talking about brains? ..: Yes. It is brains. I need more of them, much more to gobble up. They give me knowledge. I know how to write... How to from paper. How to apple! How to tool and gun and fire burn! Top predator! : I've heard enough. Time to exterminate this bloated vermin.: This can actually be fairly challenging at low level. You can kite the rat back to the circus, but make sure that anyone you care about (Agafya) isn’t in the area. So I guess this can technically be accomplished as a strict pacifist. Forgot to claim the reward - there was a “humorous” “This is just a rat killing job, what kind of reward do you expect” bit.  …  : Barbara and Yana the Egglayer made up. Turns out Yana's child was eaten by Ivan the Crane. Now people are calling him Ivan the Eggslayer. I always thought he was the one who did it but hey, it's their business. I didn't want to get involved.: [Speechcraft] But let me be honest, there's no future for you here. It would be best for everyone if you leave. : [Success] You're right. That fool is never going to give us any peace! Ehh... We just got here and already we have to leave. : And hurry it up! His patience is already pretty thin! : [Madam Voovah grabs her skirts and runs out of the plane. You hear distressed voices coming from outside, followed by panicked screams and the stomping of many feet Looking out the window, you're surprised to see that Silly Peapod's threats have been taken very much to heart by the circus folk. The camp is now completely empty. The carnies even left their decorations behind]: Right. Let’s go back to Peapod.: But you'll never be able to hide your mutant nature from yourself. There's no other choice; suicide is the only way out.: [With trembling hands, the Secretary General opens a drawer and pulls a shiny gun from a lacquered wooden box]I know... I... l... Deep down I've always known. I know that I'm dealing with an idiot! And if you only knew when to leave, you could've made it out of here alive. Guard, get over here!  : Pfft. Ok, that’s a decent gag. The power of speechcraft fails us. Weirdly, this is one of the dialog breakdown points – the conversation completely ignores the circus folk running away, so you can get him to agree to the circus sticking around. But let’s pretend that's not an option. : After a productive and respectful dialogue, I convinced the circus folk to leave these lands for good. : [The Secretary General frowns and makes a steeple of his hands] That's bad, very bad in fact. I asked you to eliminate the threat, not merely weaken it. Keep half what was promised you for partly completing the mission. [The man extracts the money from his breast pocket and hands it to you] : Now get ready to cough up that same amount of cash again, this time to keep my mouth shut, Pee-Pants.[ : Gennady Nikolaev looks up at you gloomily] All right, fine. Have another three thousand rubles. That should be enough.  : Let’s get the erotica writer his contract.   : I'm sure this has something to say about the publishing industry, but I don't really care to analyze further. Odd that English doesn't really have an expression for soaping the hanging rope.  : I know I harp about this almost as much as TGEK harps on “realistic prose”, but I do like this mentions of things that may be real and germane to the game or might be just utter nonsense \ actual mirages. : For example – this is an absolute spoiler of the endgame, but you’re very likely to disregard it the first time around. That’s pretty neat.  : Moderately interesting – pickpocketing people nets you a tiny bit of xp. That includes your own companions, who never get upset when they catch you stealing. The xp gain resets at some point (so many items per companion? Per location? Per rest?) and isn’t really meaningful, but still, you could get a much needed levelup when you’re almost there.And as usual, I pair guarded praise of the game with another fuckup – when you pickpocket something, transferring the item from your inventory to that of a companion without leaving the inventory screen first counts as a separate pickpocket attempt and might get you caught.  : Got any good rumors to share?  : I monitor map locations and local rumors. How do you like this - from time to time people in the Wasteland stumble upon various anomalies. I'm not talking about witchcraft or stuff like that, I mean just really weird poo poo. Zakhar: A 1 kopeck coin apparently issued in 1993, after the war. An old newspaper in which Gorbachev is referred to as President of the USSR instead of General Secretary. A toy produced in some country called the Russian Federation... or even the shoulder strap of a Generalissimo, though no one ever held this rank after Stalin. Ordinary merchants turn their backs on finds like these. But I've heard that somewhere around here is a man, or a whole gang of men, with bottomless pockets and a desire to buy these bizarre trinkets. At ANY price! No one knows where to look for this man, however the name "MystPromTorg" often pops up in conversations with stalkers getting drunk after suddenly coming into loads of money. : “MystPromTorg” sounds like generic Soviet abbreviation. “The Ministry for Promotion of Trade” or something of the sort. Man, ATOM has so many ideas that could be cool.: Thanks for sharing, buddy. One more question... : [The man interrupts you mid-sentence]You know, I strongly advise against you looking for that man. I've heard it said that people who owe their fortunes to him have a very short life expectancy. And not always from being robbed by other gold diggers. It seems these particular fatcats just run out of luck. I heard one got killed by a falling brick, while wandering around the Wasteland with no buildings in sight. The other had a rat crawl into his open mouth while he was asleep. A third was pecked to death by pigeons. You get the idea.   : More mildly interesting rumors. : Probably the most sympathetic depiction of mutants in the game. : drat, game, if only you took your own advice. : Various ways to mess with Varna.  : Finally, setting up a gym pumping iron at Red Fighter gives you the Trained perk (+1 Strength) : You first get the perk for a day (and have to rest for a day before you can train again), then for a few days, a week, a month (more quickly the more weight you can pump). At a certain point, you can assume the perk just sticks with you for the rest of the game.... Sorry for that eclectic collection, hope some of it was interesting. Next time, we'll hopefully get to Dead City and the Mountain pass and finish the game.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2022 05:34
|
|
|
They're advertising the power armor pretty heavily for Trudograd, yea. I'm kind of ashamed of myself for missing more postal conspiracy nonsense, but on the other hand ATOM is staying uninstalled.
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2022 07:29
|
|
|
I think the Anna Karenina joke is just about the only one that actually hits being funny in this game.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 03:08
|
|
|
Mountain Pass of Woe and the end of Pacifism: Before we head out into the endgame, let’s craft some stuff. The best crafted guns are barely mid-game equipment (the ultimate crafted sniper rifle does 11-17 damage) and you can’t craft melee weapons, but you can create some stuff that uses the Martial Arts skill. 2 Battle gauntlets (each made from 2 spiked gloves, which in turn are made from weighted gloves) 2 Makarovs, wires and a tool box. The final result is:   : Actually worse than the best melee weapon, strictly speaking. But I swear Alexander crits far more often with this. Maybe the damage done by the bullet \ “Martial Arts master” bonuses isn't counted in the weapon stats. Also, you could craft this more or less as soon as you get your hands on a toolbox, rather than levelling up and hoping RNG is on your side when rolling for trader inventory.  : All right, with that diversion over with, let’s head to the Mountain Pass of Woe and murder everyone at the Caravanserai (actually, I tried murdering just the guide, but the game always aggroes everyone around). : The map allows you to skip the Mountain Pass sidequests and head straight for the bunker. : To go back to the Wastelands proper, you do need fuel for the car (there’s plenty at the Old Castle).… But that’s just  : [As soon as you enter the room you notice an old acquaintance of yours. Wait, what! If it isn't the hustler Artemyev himself! The man who sent the mercenaries to end the former chairman of Otradnoye, comrade Kovalev. Artemyev has also recognized you...] : Nope. He’s just in a random Caravanserai room.  : I strongly suggest you focus on leaving us alone! Otherwise her blood will be on your hands! : Go ahead and shoot - I don't know this broad and I don't care. Look at you trying to scare me... : [The man hesitates and licks his dried out lips nervously]You... You-re bluffing! You don't want any innocent blood on your hands.  : Hey, boss... I think he's telling the truth...  : Great! And now I am gonna get killed because I got involved with a failure like you, Artemyev! : Shut up! Both of you! : Be careful, amigo! We don't want this bastard to kill this poor lady. : Yeah, that's right! Listen to your friend! : Ha! Kill ‘em all! It makes no difference, who's guilty and who's innocent... : [The gangster looks Alexander up and down, swallows a lump in his throat loudly and clenches his fingers stronger on his gun] : You know, my son could very well open fire at the crowd, comrade... He's a sick man! A man with a broken moral compass. I'd pay attention to his threats if I were you. : Your son isn't going to do anything! I am sure of that! : It will be my pleasure to gut you, scum! : Ha! You would not dare to shoot me! : I have him at gun point. : No, big guy, I have You at gun point! : Chill out! Let's not let this become a full-blown massacre! : I've said shut up! : [Speechcraft]: 100 Surrender yourself to the mercy of justice! I promise you a fair trial! : [Success] You do? Ehhh... To hell with it. I'll try my luck. [The mobster lets the woman go and she quickly hides behind your muscular wide back. You shrug and lock both criminals up in the room]tl;dr posted:
 : The old Caravanserai guard is now watching the door. Trying to lockpick aggroes him. Artemyev and his guard don’t have anything further to say anyway. : [A red-haired sharp-nosed woman is inserting a cigarette rolled from an old newspaper into a long amber mouthpiece with an independent look on her face. It seems that she has completely recovered from the unpleasant incident. The woman takes a short break from the cigarette only to give you a propitious smile]: Someone has a word of the day calendar out. [ : Hexogen's remark makes the woman giggle politely, she then turns to you making a cuckoo sign] : You seem pretty calm, considering what just happened. : This is all just an act. Under this mask I am crying. I am shaking! Because of the unbearable fear and this vile betrayal from a man who swore he is going to love me forever. And, of course, because of unclear prospects for the future... : Well, this is nice and all that, but what was your connection to this murderer? : Regrettably, our connection was romantic. This respectable (on the outside) man with a portly frame made me fall head over hills in love with him. I was a simple inexperienced girl from a tiny suburb of Krasnoznamenny.  : One problem with this quest (besides the obvious) is that it's all very "Aniskin as a 1990s Russian action movie". The parody journals are actually better at setting up "Aniskin in a post-apocalyptic wasteland". : I saved your life! Why are we even talking about the money?: [Marina squints in disappointment as she starts to pack her things]If you haven't showed up, none of this would have happened! drat it! Get out of my way! [The woman lifts her head up high and leaves the Caravanserai at a cracking pace. You follow her with your eyes and nod your head] : Alternately:: No problem. Here's a thousand and have a safe trip. : [Marina quickly takes the thousand rubles from you and starts to pack her things] Thank you! Thank you very much! I'll pay you back, as soon as I reach Trudograd. l'll mail the money to you. Alright, I'll be on my way. Ta-ta! : Goddamn, does the game hate  : Simple as that. TheGreatEvilKing posted:
: Oh yeah. The Russian word for blue is “Siniyy”. So, Cinephile. That’s the title of Goblin’s movie reviews. I guess that’s slightly better than being cast as a cannibalistic pedophile?As an aside, nothing about the postman quest here changes if you kill the conspiracy dude without ever talking to him.  : I’d say this is a Metro: Exodus reference, but that came out years later. Weird.… Moving on to the castle proper:  : Weirdly non-racist. Let’s go help the guy ditch his Black Lotus (of course) addiction. : Marvel – this is exactly the sort of impressive 3d environment Fallout would have a really hard time modeling (and this game practically never uses either). Back in 1997. Also, note the strategic use of Devil's Weed to help a person quit their drug addiction. : I do appreciate the Possessed trait (which has been irrelevant for most of the game now and which most players will either not get or quickly get rid of) suddenly getting more useful.… : Where are you from, buddy?  : I come from the beautiful souther (sic) city of lzberbash. Ah, life was so good back there... But the oil barons have driven us all out and then the Caspian Sea retreated... So now I'm here instead. : Metro Exodus once again. Early trailers? Communication with the Metro team?  : Doesn't matter either way.  : What are you doing here?  : Nothing, really... having a break. If you milk a cow all the time, it'll run out of milk eventually. And if you milk it, pocket the milk lie low for a month and then set out to milk it again, it might well last till your retirement..! Don't think I'm a farmer... He who has ears, let him hear.: I'm looking for our mutual pal, Chigurov... : [The man squints cheekily, winks at you and says:] What did you say? Cheburov? Never heard the name. : [Strength] Did you say you didn't know him? Maybe if I knock a couple of your teeth out, it'll improve your articulation..? :[Success] [The man winces instinctively and takes a step away] Argh... Where are my loyal fighters when I want to cut an arrogant freak..? Okay, you can lower your fists. I do know Chigurov, and I respect him in a way, despite his complex of a Wasteland Savior. I saw him some three weeks ago... But all I heard from him regarding his location was that he planned to go into hiding under the very nose of the debt collectors sent for his skin. I mean the bank he had robbed to buy that orphanage off the city of Far Gate authorities, who had planned to demolish it... …  : I have some bad news for you. A while ago a group of weirdos, some kind of researchers it looked like, passed through here. They paid me well to make sure that not a single living soul would follow them. Tell me, you don't seriously think you can convince me to go back on my word, do you? : [Strength] Is your word more important than the lives of all your people? : [Success] Goddammit! It looks like you're really not kidding around. Hey guys, we have some village tough on our doorstep. Come over here and shoot him!: Hah. I do appreciate the occasional skill success being a failure (if that happens to be logical). : That was… kinda subtle?: I just wanted to ask, do you really live in this tiny tent?  : Yeah, we do. So what? Despite my dear Alina's multiple shortcomings, we love each other. And when you love a man, you don't need money to thrive... A woman, I mean. When you love a woman.: That wasn't.: [Strength] Don't make me drag you there by force, girl..  : [Success] Yeah... I see. Someone like you could easily beat up my Arsen. [The girl unbuttons the top of her shirt, letting out a tiny bit of her breast. Her boyfriend bites at his lips and sticks out his fists] But first you'll have to kill me! Go on! Tear me to pieces! Only then will I move from this spot and return too my father! : No problem, I'm always the one for killing. Let's start. [Attack]: Not really. I imagine this aggroes the castle, but with the agonizingly slow speed of moving around the Mountain Pass, I can’t be bothered to check. : Or, grosser yet: tl;dr posted:
: See the previous post about just how much this game hates couples.   : More stuff indicating that U.S forces were the ones who started the attack.  : I decide to blow the missile up, but neglect to factor in how slow the companions are at moving their rear end when you start running. :   Back to the fort to turn in the quest, nothing much new. Into the bunker we go.   : Yeah, you can lockpick your way to the Vitinsky. Not sure how much skill is needed – our lockpicker is maxed out. : This is where a strict pacifist playthrough comes to an end. There’s no way around these guys, and you can’t sneak past them even with maxed out stealth. Shame. More info about what the Mushroom entity is trying to do. There’s also disturbing note from Ivanenko himself that I couldn’t find it on this playthrough.  : Just for fun, I try taking out the ATOM defectors. Perfectly easy – I’ve got more companions than  : [Fidel turns to you. He looks bewildered and blinks frequently, as if trying to shake off a very deep sleep] Dios mio..! What does it mean..? What happened here..? It feels like I was half-asleep... And this voice... The voice like the rustling of leaves sounded in my head. : You're so boring, Fidel. What does it matter? There's no rush, we'll deal with it later! : Is it the worm talking in you, or have you always been so reckless? : What do you mean, reckless?! I just think we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! : Alexander, I love you like my own son, but shut up, please.tl;dr posted:
: That’s all we have at the Mountain Pass, so let’s head back to Foglevka.   : Ufff... We did it. One more thief has been sent on his way to the Higher Tundra. Yeah, I've heard what he was planning to spend the money on. But let me tell you! The good that has been acquired illegally isn't good at all! It's a mockery of the concept. However, let's not get lost in the whole philosophy. Here's the bonus to your paycheck and goodbye.: Yeah. No dialog, not even a named enemy. I actually messed this one up – you can lie to the bounty hunter three times to get him off the trail of the noble bandit, or you can tell him the truth three times and get this riveting low-level bandit encounter, but trying to mix truth and lies just breaks the quest. So I basically had no choice but to go for this ending.  : We craft 160 bullets. Enough ammo for Fidel to spend the rest of the game sniping. Shame we have to indicate every single priority target manually. : There’s a specific perk to make shields less terrible. Two perks, actually. Anyway, on to the Dead City. : This is the bad (generic RPG) rumor writing, with every word being absolutely true while the NPC scoffs. The reference to the goldfish is icing on the cake. : How much do you think a man's life is worth? : You need to have someone whacked? Up to a thousand, depends on how difficult the target is. : [The man's eyes light up and his tight lips curl in a smile] Now you're talking business! Okay, listen. There's a gang led by a guy called Guber walking around within the city's perimeter. I and many others have wanted him dead for a while now. This piece of poo poo believes he's the Savior of the Wasteland. He and his sidekicks wander around, shoot a few mutants and gangsters, then pop in to our tent city to put the squeeze on people "for protection and ammunition". Some pay him gladly and thank him, but I'm not happy about it. I know how to avoid mutants and gangsters, so why should I pay these chumps? I'd rather give my money to you, if you can eliminate this wanker. : And back to semi-decent writing. You could play the Wasteland hero, and Kust here will come up with a sob story about Guber killing his sister. Be a hardened merc, and he gets right to the point.  : Reference overload. I’m familiar with The Norm, which is the exact opposite of the dull realism TGEK is so annoyed by. : See, totally not Moscow, as Moscow is not a port. Also, we never meet Corsair or discover anything about him, but I’m not sure whether that’s good rumor writing or lack of development time. : Random best backpack (for a companion \ slave). Dead City has a lot of excellent loot that you can get without encountering any danger. (Edit - you actually have to steal it, and need high stealth. Whoops).   : Like this armor, right at the entrance to the base.  : Why are you so nervous, comrade? : Also, why do you look like a Civil War officer? : [The man looks at you with surprise and goes all pale, as if recollecting something horrifying] It happened a few days ago. I thought I'd drink a few vodkas with the guys, but when I neared the harbor a bullet whistled past my head! And then another one! I ducked into cover. That's when I took out my binoculars and saw Misha Altayskiy shooting at me with his Vintorez! He was shooting, screaming and flailing around like a crazy man! Why would he do that? And who will be next to betray me? Brother... pal, buddy, friend, amigo... Please find out why he did what he did, I beg of you. Not knowing - it cuts me like a knife. I'll even pay you.  : Quit speaking so much. What will I get if l apply for this test?  : Umm... I won't pay you, because I can't. But this substance will most likely give you awesome powers. Isn't that a reward in itself? And if the drug won't work, you won't be worse for wear. Well, you might go blind. But it's a pretty rare side effect. Almost impossible. No chance to go blind at all. Nope. No chance what so ever. It's basically around fifty-fifty.[The professor looks at the contents of his syringe and licks his dry lips as if thirsty for the substance] After I added several... Hmm... Very special components to the formula, I became a little bit hooked on the stuff. But you don't need to know such things! So? Will you try this amazing product, my friend? : Oh child... Please! For the love of God! Do not suck on the teat of this foul man's syringe. Look at him lick his lips. That thing probably contains heroin, the drug that destroyed a generation. A generation of godless capitalists, but still! USSR, by the way, had no drug problem whatsoever. Well, there was one light recreational drug we loved to use. It was love. Love for the country, for your mother, for your neighbors. For the giant lines to the potato store. For comrade Brezhnev's political decisions. Oh... And it takes only so little for love to become hatred. Remember this, my child. Love is a mask hatred wears.: There's no heroin in the official formula. None what so ever. No heroin. Umm... According to me. People like to badmouth my research. And that includes myself. Some times, when I'm completely stoned by this concoction and I'm stumbling around this place naked, I shriek about my formula actually containing heroin and other terrible, terrible substances... But it's all lies! Lies, I tells ya! : Wow, Old man Hexogen finally found someone with a similar weird rear end speech pattern.: We’re asked to take a stroll until the elixir kicks in, and on the way out of the station we run into this NPC, cleverly hidden by level geometry: [  : Sticking out a corner of his dry, yellowish tongue, this unshaven man in stalker garb fiddles with a tiny metal cube. He's either trying to crush it in his huge hands or split it in two. Doesn't look like he can make up his mind. When he sees you, he hides the cube in his pocket]... [Personality] I'm a stalker. They call me Killdozer. : What does that mean? Doesn't sound like Russian... [ : You're right about that. "Kill" is English for murdering a guy, and "Dozer" is the second part of the word "Bulldozer". A bulldozer is like a huge tractor, but way cooler. It's an ideal nickname for me, since I dig through old piles of poo poo like a bulldozer, and if someone tries to steal my stuff, I'll kick him in the balls until he's dead. : [The heavier side of the cube does not move. It has "21" engraved on it: You hold the cube 21 up (sic)] [Press the far side] [You press on the side farthest away from you. The cube clicks nine times. That side stays pressed in. You cannot press it again right now] : I think you get how this "puzzle" works.  : Right. We now have two different quests leading us back to the harbor, so let’s check things out.   : [With dread in your eyes, you notice a giant myrmic standing before your frame which is tiny in comparison. The monster watches you silently, and every facet of his multi-facetted eyes reflects your scared, wide-eyed face. Finally the silence is broken... By the myrmic!]Hey there, human. : Umm... Hi? Who are you? What are you? : Me? I'm Gosha the myrmic, human. What are you doing in my hallowed grounds? : These are your hallowed grounds? But where are they? Where am I?    tl;dr posted:
   : In a letter. He told it to me in a letter.: Something about the phrasing actually works for me here.... There’s no way to get the key via barter or dialog, but I happen to be a pickpocket specialist.  : Bro, why you shooting at other traders?  : Half a year ago I caught a thief in the camp. Her name was Homeless Sonya. I could've let her go after recovering our goods, but I did not. I called the whole camp to join me and we judged her, and sentenced her to death by hanging. People were bored, you know, and many a man had been swindled by Sonya during her life. After she died, someone presented me with her glass eye. Like a souvenir. That's probably her ghost, stalking me in the night. She's making me anxious, fearful, and dull-witted. She's taking vengeance for the life I helped take from her. But maybe... just maybe... if I put the glass eye with her in her grave, she will vanish and let me be. What do you think? [The merchant loudly swallows and grabs you by the hand] Please, do this for me! I will give you all the money I have left! Here's some in advance. Call it payment for finding out what you found out  : I actually have to travel back to the mainland to retrieve the shovel. Googling around, the developers at least claim that Dead City has a shovel for this quest, but I couldn’t locate it. : [From far away it seems like your new friend, the paranoid, red-haired trader, has covered his lips in glitter. Upon closer inspection you see he is actually drooling, and it's his yellowed spittle glistening in the light]   : Oh hey, another strange serum. +1 to any of our stats (in exchange for either investing in pickpocketing or killing everyone on the beach). : In game, it will probably be a while between when you first get the “I need to get rid of the competition” tirade and when you get back to the quest. And to be honest, I was a bit past the point of paying much attention to what NPCs said. The sheer volume of text helps hide the plot twist.... Quick visit to the three-breasted hooker:    : Hexagon and Galina (who usually can’t both be in your party at once) get a Morte-style perk. Finally, let’s end the update by wrapping up the conspiracy questline.   : Fast forward some more…  : Jeez, how many Luck combat resolutions depend on expired food products? : That does leave Satanovski and Fancy Pants around (as well as Shpak, if he lives \ you haven’t sided with Hook). How about a less violent solution to the problem? : Perfectly pacifist, as all things should be. Next time – remaining Dead City stuff and the endgame.
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Sep 11, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2022 17:17
|
|
: Like this one drug dealer I know... I mean... An experienced mailman, Blue Phil, he introduced himself as Adam to all the cops in Krasnoznamenny. And then one day some Adam feller just materializes out of nowhere, with a knife, a jar full of acid and a couple of question[sic] to my buddy...
|
Is it over : Let's open this final update with some thrilling screenshot action. Are you ready for the tensest fight in the game? : Right above the demon-infested station, on the very edge of the city, we have a big crater with a lot of Shadow dudes. : No, I mean A LOT of Shadow dudes.  : In retrospect, I should have had Fidel using an automatic weapon rather than sniping. There’s only one Shadow Mother (mini-boss that spits acid) so being able to drop several enemies at once is more important. Still, the team did well, even without me contributing. That's the thing - your companions are playing by the same rules as you, and can be just as effective, as long as you spend forever babysitting their stupid asses and wrestling with the terrible companion command UI.   : The loot is so-so. Weirdly, this is the only (?) location in the game with two entrances on the same map screen. You can lure the shadows to one side, run away to the map screen and come in from the other side to get the loot.  … TGEK talked to the artifacts woman in the Stalker base, but only had one artifact to present (as they are appropriately hard to find). : Look at this little stone... [Tell the story of how you found the Paleolithic Venus] [You tell her about your misadventures in the Roaring Forest and the tunnels beneath.]  : [The woman listens politely, but at the end shakes her head and returns the figurine to you] Sounds like a fascinating adventure, and this figurine would most likely be of great interest to historians, but it's not for me. Sorry, I am more interested in... "special" items. : Look at this jade figurine... [Tell the story of how you helped out Rudolf who was stuck in a dream realm] : We take a walk around the city, hand over the nutcracker, waste more time and finally return to deliver the third artifact:: [The woman looks tense. She shudders as you approach, but then a smile flickers across her face. You feel that something new is hiding behind that smile. Could it be uncertainty? Or is it fear?] : This gets us the  achievement. When we next to return to the STALKER base,   tl;dr posted:
: Yeah, this just doesn’t work at all. For all the mockery of Lovecraft’s signature style, you just can’t achieve that “there are things MAN WASN’T MEANT TO KNOOOOOOOOW” effect with that "dull realistic prose" TGEK hates to much. : Rraawr! Rrrawr! : This one speaks human talk too, oh confrere. : What? You also ate the gray stuff from twoleg’s head and developed speech, confrere?…. : Together we will find more gray things... More twolegs, more brains! We will teach confreres speech, knowledge, understanding!: Quiet now, confrere. We are being listened to. These twolegs! We must take their gray things!…  : Like I said, I find the rat creatures fairly creepy. Even when they're being stupid stupid rat creatures.      : Concentrated Metro 2033 “influence”.  : That’s like, right next to the main room. Probably the one case where something in ATOMG RPG is too small and not lifelike enough, rather than too full of empty space.  : You can only open the station doors from the inside. Doing so raises and alarm and summons a bunch of shadows, including this non-hostile fellow who disappeared when I reloaded the game.   : I actually had a toadstool in a companion’s inventory… but I forgot and had to trekk back to the looter base to buy some   : [You blink a few times and wipe your eyes to make sure this isn't some trick of the light. Yet the apparition of a fair-haired woman does not disappear, or even lose focus. It continues to hover at the feet of a dead stalker, who for some reason is hugging a blackened skeleton. With a shiver of dread, you notice that the skeleton's tattered dress is the exact same style as the ghost is wearing] : I appreciate the break; I was getting tired of walking around this place. But I'm getting a bit freaked out by the way you've been standing there for, like, ten minutes, looking at nothing and moving your lips as if you're talking to someone. What the hell is wrong with you? : Prithee, do not let the bald one interrupt our parley! : I bet there's a big story behind all this.  : This girl will be disappointed with me... for I am not what she wants.: How can I put you to rest? : [The ghost girl slowly floats over to an old, mangled skeleton clothed in the remnants of a dirty dress]Our bones are not yet buried... They remain uncovered, playthings for the draft, food for the rats, seedbeds for rot and fungus. Cover us, protect us, I beseech thee! : My sweet child... So you've finally gone all the way off your rocker, eh? Boarded the psychedelic bus, express route to Crazytown. Where can I find some of the Haldol they used to silence political prisoners back in the day? Uhh... Ahem! What I meant to say was, good luck, child! Go on and commune with that spirit, kiddo! Papa's little shaman is making me so proud! Yes, proud is the word. : Thy father dost not believe I exist, but I do exist, I do! Help me!  tl;dr posted:
: Let’s get on with the main quest.   : This skips having to discover stuff about the bunker personnel, fighting the rats (and since you can sneak past the rats on the surface, this is quite pacifistic).  : This shuts down the other doors, but not the robot.  : The robot fight is infuriating – you can’t manually toggle combat mode and the party members' pathfinding hates the door, so piling into the robot before it deletes you is a chore. Thankfully, I have just enough damage redaction from Think Like an Enemy to survive a round before Hexogen finally makes his way in and machineguns the fucker. I forgot what the reward was, but nothing particularly valuable.  : Dead City is very much the endgame, so dropping foreshadowing (or even backshadowing) here is odd. : We let the cultists go, and finish up with the city before we head back. : Visual storytelling which the game could honestly have more of. Face McPunchy, from the hit game  : See, because the actual actor is covered with… oh, we already did this joke? Get ready, because the tattoo thing is a whole sidequest.   2000 each. I stole it back mostly as a matter of principle, it’s not like we have anything to spend the money on. : I'm here for the competition.  : [The old man claps you on the shoulder]I really hoped we'd get a first-timer into the tournament. Watching the amazing professionals you've followed all your life isn't what makes these things fun. Anyhoo, here's the deal: each contestant, including you, will be given a volunteer to act as a canvas for your tattoos. The creator of the most purdy tat will get a fabulous prize, a nice stack of money or a unique tattoo from me personally. You like? : Um, why are you even asking my friend to join this tournament? I bet he's never drawn a single tattoo in his life. : I don't care about that. I just wanna know what he thinks of my proposition. : In case this wasn’t clear – we’re getting some STALKER bandits mixed in with our Metro experience, and this whole sidequest goes into prison tattoo culture, which you need to be vaguely familiar with to succeed. I’m not sure if its “edgy” bullshit per-se, but it’s kinda gross regardless. : [After all, is doodling on the walls of a bunker as a child really that different from permanently marking up a buff and probably violent man who wasn't warned about your complete lack of experience? You really hope the answer is "no"] : [Pick the man's chest] [You start working on the beauteous, rock—hard chest of your model, until you're interrupted by crazed laughter. Hake Merluccius's model is giggling as Hake's marker tickles the skin of his chest You give your head a shake and try to focus. Now is the time to pick the theme of your piece] [Dexterity]: 6 [Intellect] [Attention] [Draw a huge rat in a hat] [Success] [You quickly yet naturalistically draw a rat in a fedora on your model's body. The job looks quite impressive, but it's not ready by a long shot. You need to decide on the details surrounding the main drawing] [Crudely ink in a bucket of fecal matter next to the main drawing] [With the tip of your yellowish tongue curving up to touch the tip of your nose, you look at the real looking rat in a hat and add a bucket of fecal matter to the empty space next to it] : JFC, someone is really fond of yellowish tongues all of a sudden. That’s the third one in Dead City alone. : [“Where's the third one?” you ask yourself, and discover the answer seconds later. Kind on the outside, but unfortunately rotten on the inside, that bloated bastard Hake Merluccius darts in front of you and spits on your partially finished tattoo! Hastily wiping away his vile saliva, you lose most of your sketch, leaving you with no guide to finish your work]  : Oillo puppelle! I be so clumsy! Perkele, do forgive me! Nyeh heh heh... : [Stealth] [Sucker punch the bastard when nobody's looking] [Success] [Happily, not all of the drawing was washed away by Hake Merluccius's stinking snot, but the dirty cheater is already preparing a follow-up “sneeze” at your work. You quickly grab up the rag you're using to sponge away your model's blood, and hold it out to Merluccius as if to offer him a handkerchief]  : [You wait for a moment when the crowd's attention is fixed on another contestant, and then quietly spit into Rabinovich's coal and ink mixture. Dobrovid is none the wiser, but he will discover too late that any images he creates with this diluted mixture will turn out runny and blurred] : [Pity the fool] : Even before reviewing the tattoo itself, I really must compliment the kid on his choice of canvas. It's an ideal spot. Neither the scarred gut, nor the hunched back attracted the kid (or anyone else I imagine). Instead, he picked the ripped chest. That decision alone put this contestant on the road to victory.Next, I'll look at the rat in a hat you drew... Oh my! Flawless. Such depth, so much detail! This kid has talent, ya hear me, guys? Now let's review the small details. Quality isn't too important in this category, the main thing is the juxtaposition of the central image with the background stuff. In this case it works perfectly, kid. The tattoo of a rat in a hat is a perfect fit for a bucket of poo poo next to it. Airtight.   tl;dr posted:
 : Well, if it isn’t the consequences of my actions.   : Low level thugs. But they do have some newly published pulp fiction in their inventory.  : Before we head out, a few last bit of chatter from random Stalkers at the station:   : We're back on the mainland. One more bit of conspiracy stuff before the endgame:  : You can only get this quest the first time you talk to this Peregon official, so I had to rewind a bit (LPs are one of the few times my habit of saving early, often, and in different slots actually helps).jpg) : Clear out some trash bandits : And it turns out that KRZ (and possibly the Mushroom cult, of which Ivanov is a member) has more than one way of pressuring Peregon to join. : Grabbed some weapon and armor upgrades – I don’t really have anything to spend money on. : Or rather, I saved, rested until merchant inventory refreshed, reloaded as it didn’t have anything good, and kept up until I got something useful. Great system. : Just for fun, I tried killing the ATOM task force. Forgot to show it off, but every single one of the fuckers has a bunch of super-stimpacks (understandable) and grenades (!) in their inventory. When you pick a fight, their first reaction is to focus fire a dozen grenades, which will knock people down and out. : At least fighting them doesn’t agro the rest of the city, for once. I used my pickpocketing skills to relieve them of the grenades, then abused AI pathfinding – the closer companions are behind a door the ATOM dudes have trouble pathing through, while my snipers are tearing them apart from across the hall. For what it’s worth, killing these guys doesn’t influence the “ATOM took over the city” end slide one bit. : One last Luck roll.  : The later stages of mushroom infection? We never see that in-game, because we never learn anything about the cult (as opposed to the Mushroom itself) : Everything (everything!) is connected. (There's also a project involving mind-control drugs in the water supply, which I forgot to screencap). : As an aside, there’s actually some different dialog if you’ve officially joined the Death Gang. : The only way to resolve this situation is the Unification of humanity into a single mind. Our mind. Only then will civilization develop quickly enough to counter this threat that will otherwise destroy the planet. Only when we have achieved Unity. : Hee. Heehee. Hurrah! I always wanted something like this to happen! Yeah, right on! The sheep deserve to burn. I'm not scared at all! Haha! Thank you, Baahl-Zebub!: We know what you've done. We know that you lead violent monsters into this land. Do you know the magnitude of the danger you put the planet in? These marauders will soon be upon Us. We won't be able to stop them in time. The destiny of this world is sealed. The probability of mass extinction - 99.99%!: Not sure if you can talk your way out of this one, but that would be kinda against the Death Gang ethos.  : Sickos. Kinda a difficult fight with just Galina, Alexander and the dog (Hexogen and Fidel gently caress off when you officially join the DG) : A formerly well protected city held on for some time, but a massive fire in the commercial district quickly placed the final stop in it's story. The memories of the city scattered, along with its ashes...: I occasionally wonder whether Ron Perlman or someone could imbue these lines with some pathos. There's no attempt at the emotional or poetic weight that Fallout ending slides have. : Most of the men travelled the world, searching for work and a roof above their heads. Some became a new gang of lawless marauders, who waged war against the trade caravans and villagers they were once sworn to protect.  : Soon after, a slaver camp grew in its place. Terrible rumors surround that place... Some of which are so horrible, they will make the bravest man shiver. : Gozhin fled to the lands of the Gasoline Barons, where he died, by falling into an open manhole while drunk. : (Same as in TGEK’s playthrough) : Her dream abruptly ended as she fell in love with a handsome peasant, found faith in God, and became a housewife and mother of six.: The companion endings are the same no matter what you do, as long as they're alive as the game ends.... But joining the Death Gang (even at the last moment) and massacring the Mushroomers kinda goes against the pacifist ethos. How about we just join the cult?    : [The former General turns to you and sighs heavily] We also understand that there may, theoretically, be other ways of solving the problem our planet has gotten itself into. Therefore, you may leave. Look for alternative solutions! Who knows? Our plan might not be the only one that could save us. : Man, you can't even join the cult in the very endgame. Why?: Go now. And... Good luck. Who knows? Perhaps-: Oh no you don't! Go away and leave the locals alone with this disgusting thing and its schemes?! Over my dead body! I will kill every single one of you! No pasaran! : drat it, Fidel! : Yeah, party members are actually a pretty good source of xp – I guess it’s a direct function of level, and nothing else in the game is actually powerful due to its level, rather than stats or equipment.   : I might as well use this opportunity to reposition and murder the Mushroom cult in a more advantageous fashion (the only reason this fight is usually difficult is that the game automatically walks your character into a crossfire while leaving your party members stuck behind a door). The only reason not to do so is Fidel’s freakout. : Oh, and the fact that the game doesn’t account for every single Mushroom cultist and the Mushroom itself being dead at all. : After poisoning the drinking water and most of the city's supplies, the Mycelium Society quickly overtook Krasnoznamenny. : I didn’t get the water filter, so I presume none of this is affected by other sidequests.:Quickly, did it's citizens become meager parts of the united fungal mind. Their wealth was used to continue the spread of Unity all across the Wastes.  : The people of Otradnoye could hardly cope with the raids, after Dan's gang dispersed. This is why, when some kind people came over, offering humanitarian help and protection, they quickly agreed. Soon after, travellers started noticing something strange about the people of the small village. It was as if they all had one mind...: Right. Take three, this time with the pacifist approach.  : The still extremely dead, piled up in the Mycelium building, forces of ATOM.: Not everyone was pleased with the new leadership, and many old citizens left the city, just to be dissolved by the Wastes... Still, those who stayed, started building civilization with doubled strength. However, progress came with a price... For the sake of survival and revival, the military rule of ATOM took most of the freedoms, people of Krasnoznamenny used to enjoy. : Under the protection of the Factory Gang, led by Dan, this dream came to fruition, at least partially. Even though Otradnoye eventually grew into a large, rich city, settlers from the Wastes usually ignore it, because of the high levels of corruption, spread in the local government.... : Thanks for keeping up with this alternate playthrough, slow though it was. I posted an updated review below, but I do have one thing of note to say about the pacifist playthrough - there's only one way to get the Mushroom to put a hold on its plans, and that's to prove that it will have to kill a lot of people to take over. It's not quite as complicated as finding all the evidence that the Master's Plan is flawed and doomed to failure, but does require thoroughly exploring all those empty bunkers, figuring out how the Mushroom thinks and taking it seriously. TGEK killed the fungus every he encountered it, citing how every person in the game lies to you, but the Mycelium isn't human - it's an untainted creation trying to save humanity in its own way. Like a lot of ideas here, this modern Frankenstein could have been interesting in another game.
Xander77 fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Sep 21, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2022 17:24
|
|
|
All righty then. I already wrote up a review on steam, so let's see if I have anything to add, as well as what I and The Great Evil King agree and disagree about. Some relevant background - I am, in fact, a former Russian and an avid RPG player (LPer, guide writer). Huge fan of Fallout, Stalker, Metro and a lot of the same classic sci-fi (Soviet and otherwise) that the developers claim to be inspired by. Gameplay Unlike TGEK, I didn't suffer through every bit of gameplay. Quite the opposite, I occasionally had a fairly fun time (particularly when modded to be less of a hassle). As my playthrough demonstrated, this game has like 1 bit of (fairly difficult) mandatory combat in the main questline, and most sidequests can be completed with little to no fighting. If you do decide the engage the wide host of random encounters and optional combat, even gimping yourself by playing a melee character will allow you to facetank (and save-scum) your way through most fights, and you'll tear through the combat encounters with anything moderately optimized. Thoroughly engaging with every bit of content will shower you with permanent benefits (skill and stats increases in dialog and sidequests) and temporary stat increase items (having a thorough meal with tea, coffee, cookies and condensed milk makes you a combat machine). All the boosts are reasonably common and last for a while, so that you generally won't regret using them. Cooking giving you a tiny bit of xp is a great positive incentive to use all that food you pick up. The common stat boosts and wide variety of stats used in dialog ensure that you're rarely unable to complete a quest (and as worst case scenario, you can always resort to violence). Issues with the gameplay include the same clunky combat, barely upgraded from the original Fallout. Almost anything would be an improvement - using the Fallout Tactics combat system, including a real time combat setting, direct control over your companions actions, allowing you to start combat mode with the press of a battle, an entirely different UI... just about anything would be better. Another gameplay issue that doesn't really come across in a screenshot LP is just how stupidly oversized and empty most locations in the game are. Trying to evoke a sense of place that the graphics and design can't handle, we end up with dozens of pointless named NPCs and hundreds of empty or trash filled containers, all working to waste the player's time as it takes minutes to run from one end of a moderately sized dungeon to another. A hundred crafting designs, most of which are useless and can't be found in-game. I kinda have a thing about games wasting my time, but this sets a brand new standard. I went on about this in detail over the course of the LP and in the review linked above, so I won't waste more of your time complaining about the waste of mine. Edit - oh yeah, the lockpicking. So many of these endless doors and containers are locked. If you don't have the required lockpicking skill, you can't try to open them. If you do... you get to fail over and over until the dice finally land in your favor. The worst of both New Fallout approaches. And being locked doesn't even guarantee the container will contain anything of value, or anything at all. Writing Once again, unlike TGEK, I didn't hate every single line of dialog in this game. "Dull realistic prose" didn't murder my parents, and frankly, it takes far more tedious and pointless RPG writing for me to get genuinely annoyed. ATOMG RPG is miles away from something truly unreadable like Pillars of Eternity or something truly vile like Planet Alcatraz. It helps that my first playthrough was in Russian, and a lot of the references at least got an "I recognized this" out of me. If anything, I feel like more deep cuts about 1980's Russia would work better than Shrek or crypto currency. Russia had the same revival of 80's nostalgia in the 2010's as the US (unlike now, as we seem to be going back to the good old 1930's). The companions had coherent and (with the exception of Fidel) vivid personalities. Some of the more absurd jokes, like the Luck outcomes for difficult combat encounters, actually landed. Most of the game's content and sidequests was tied together into... well, not a thematically coherent whole, but at least tied to the same in-universe lore. The Mushroom cult and the Postman conspiracy were involved in almost everything that happened. TGEK posted a "conspiracy board" of the various relations halfway through the LP, and I feel that updating it now would make it more complex than the KGB LP conspiracy chart. On paper, it's better than a bunch of things happening in total random isolation from other. I consistently praised the rumor system - all these NPCs have something to say, and you're never entirely sure whether it's directly relevant to the game, a bit of lore or just made up bullshit. The game at least mentions a lot of very interesting subjects, and is subtle enough about it that TGEK first assumed that the game barely has any supernatural elements in it. On the flip side, the writers seem to think that references are the same as jokes, and that mentioning something is the same as discussing that. There's a lot of "hey, this doesn't belong in post-apocalyptic USSR!" stuff that's meant to be funny on its own, and a lot of concepts are brought up and never followed up on, with the game acting as though it's done something clever. There's also a lot of... charitably, edgy cynical internet hot-takes from people who get a lot of their humor and worldview from Lurkmore \ 4chan. Less charitably - bullshit alt-right takes "sneakily" wedged into the game. With all that, I didn't find the game the worst thing in the world... but with the revival of Fallout-likes over the past few years - Encased, Underrail, Shadowrun, even Wasteland (3), there's really no reason to go with this. Even if you're a Russian Fallout fan, this game doesn't really lean into the aesthetic and the references in an interesting way, and you'd be better off with Fallout mods. Xander77 fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Sep 22, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2022 20:09
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:All righty then. I already wrote up a review on steam, You reckon that "Cunning Fox" person was a troll or a bonafide nutcase? "I see nothing wrong with chauvinism" is a hell of a take.
|
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2022 23:43
|
|
|
The proudly and smugly self aware shitstain is the T10 entry in the main shitstain line, just got to upgrade the engine and bob's your uncle, no nutcase to be seen and no real need to look any further, some people are like that.
|
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2022 23:54
|
|
|
Xander77 posted:Once again, unlike TGEK, I didn't hate every single line of dialog in this game. "Dull realistic prose" didn't murder my parents, and frankly, it takes far more tedious and pointless RPG writing for me to get genuinely annoyed. I think I need to clarify here that I am still going to die on the "dull realist prose" hill because this isn't a history textbook, it's supposed to be a surreal conspiracy story full of untrustworthy characters, talking pigs, alternate universes, cosmic horror, and fourth-wall breaking characters who look like celebrities. This is done by dully describing character mustaches. Taken with the empty rooms, endless empty containers, excruciating lockpicking, and other waste of time mechanics I think it's reasonable for the dull and excessive verbosity to be the time wasting straw that breaks the camel's back. If you can stomach it, more power to you, but I think the game is overall weaker for trying to present a surreal conspiracy by combining dull realism and the Unity Asset Store.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2022 20:58
|
|
|
Honestly, the most surreal thing I've seen in this thread is someone trying to use multiple-award-winning RPG Pillars of Eternity as an example of a bad game with bad writing. I appreciate both of you going to so much effort to show this thing off; I picked up Atom a long time ago but bounced off it several times just because the prose is so dang clunky. For a game that's mostly about reading, you really need text you can sink your teeth into, and bumping into a dozen grammatical errors during the tutorial really just turned me off of it. Nevertheless, I always worried that I might have been missing out on some amazing game experience as a result of this, and the dual LP here has convinced me that, no, I really wasn't. Thank you for playing this game so that we don't have to.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2022 22:27
|
|
|
idonotlikepeas posted:Honestly, the most surreal thing I've seen in this thread is someone trying to use multiple-award-winning RPG Pillars of Eternity as an example of a bad game with bad writing. As to writing quality... I could appeal to goon consensus, but more to the point, it takes a remarkably bad game for me to drop it based on interminably wordy, dull and purposeless writing. PoE is honestly one of the very very few RPGs that managed that feat, and it will always feature a place of loathing in my heart. I won't even try the sequel, which is consistently billed as "in retrospect, the first game was poo poo, but we promise that this one is better". Xander77 fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Sep 23, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2022 11:32
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 19, 2024 07:05 |
|
|
Xander77 posted:Hey - did I say it was a bad game? It sure as gently caress is, absolutely terrible, but my initial post didn't say anything about that. For what it's worth the stuff in the first game stretches the story of the second into, um, bizarre incoherence. Maybe i should do the Pillars games sometime.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2022 15:30
|
|