this
is one of those games
where you play all the way through the game
and then
you get to play through another game
which takes you back in time
fills in the backstory of the first game
so it's a two-for-one deal
okay
which is all right
it's an all right deal
the second game
comes down to a series of choices
about whether you want to
continue
to survive
in a difficult world
of plagues and duplicity
or not
you gotta decide if you're going to inject yourself with a vaccine
which you should definitely do
but it's a choice you're obliged to make
in the absence of any kind of government that's worth-a-fuck
or any kind of social connections or bonds
up-to-that-point
you
the player
have been wandering in the ruins of plague and war and institutional disregard for life
so it really is a stark choice:
do you jab yourself
because you think there's any kinda future;
or do you not jab yourself because you don't,
you accept oblivion,
and that is that is that
next
you have to light a fire
which you then must fight your way through
the fire
that you yourself have lit
and then
you are confronted with a mirror in the center of a room of shadows
do you like what you see
can you live with what you see
can you live with all that you have seen
can you live with the fire you have lit
can you live with what you will see
if you can move past the mirror
you find your way to an autumnal room
but there's a window
looking out on May flowers
as it were
climb out the window
and
ah
well
then you have to decide if you can live among flowers
but that's cushioned a bit
I suppose
by the cut scene that kicks in
which I do not mind
I needed a break by that point
-May 2018,May 2019,
May-September 2021
