Didn't you wait for the post credit-scene?
The fact that there is no explanation for the Half Breed conflict is starting to bug me more and more. How the hell did things get so bad that both sides are waging genocide campaigns against each other? All the Half Breeds we fight in this game are being led by a murderous asshole, but the way the race is discussed by everyone else in the game its like every last one is inherently unnatural and evil from birth and they all deserve to die. I find this difficult to buy given the detail given to the setting as a whole. The Half Breeds are basically indistinguishable from humans when not transformed, and when transformed they can still think and talk. They're not simply animals or mindless zombies. Theres no reasonable explanation given by the game as to why theyre eating human bodies or hate humans so much beyond "they look really ugly when transformed so clearly they all love eating babies and hate our freedoms."
Also fuck the Lord Chancellor. He kills someone's parents and then is surprised that later on the orphaned child has issues with the people who deprived him of a family? I mean, theres no information given on the circumstances by which his parents were killed, but youd think the point where the Lord Chancellor was hesitating on killing a child would be the moment where hed realize Maybe going around and killing all these people is not the best solution, its creating an endless cycle of hatred that causes only needless death. But instead, he takes Lucan in while not doing anything else, missing a huge opportunity to try to find a more peaceful solution regarding the Half Breeds through Lucan.
With the cognitive dissonance and resentment Lucan must have experienced working for the man who took his parents from him and participating in the systematic slaughter of his own kind, its no wonder he would think joining up with a psychopath like Lord Hastings would be a good idea instead of the horrible idiotic idea it actually was.
This is not to say that I did not enjoy the game, I did like it enough to go ahead and get the Platinum trophy. Its just that with all the attention given to the setting, never going into detail on the catalyst that changed the world and is the main motivation as to why Galahad is fighting in the first place really bothers me when I think back on it.
...Maybe playing Nier and Spec Ops: The Line back to back wasn't such a good idea going into this game, those games probably made me put more thought into this than was probably intended by the developers.
@KC Denton:Well, I think the conflict is so old that, at this point, it doesn't even matter anymore that the original reasons for it may have been stupid ones. I mean, just think about it, thousands of years ago the pure-blood lycans and humans were probably pitted against each other, either because the lycans hunted humans for food or because both races fought for territory/food sources, etc. There would've likely been a huge antagonism between the groups and humans would have learned to fear lycans, would've probably thought of them as monsters, etc. Then the first half-breeds show up and the humans probably "shoot" (they didn't have firearms back then but you get what I mean ... well, they had bows) first and ask questions later. I mean, those things look like monsters, they look like they could rip you to shreds so you won't spend a lot of time trying to understand what it is and what its motives are. You kill it before it can kill you. And then, obviously, the half-breeds see how the humans are treating their brethren so they then start hating the humans for it and it's essentially a vicious cycle. Every time one side commits an aggression against the other it fosters the other side's belief that the first side is evil and that they need to defend themselves against it. It also doesn't seem like the half-breeds are in any way organised so that would complicate matters. It's not like they have their own state/government, etc. so there's no one who could negotiate with the humans on their behalf, no one who could enforce any sort of rules or laws in the half-breed community, etc. Even if there are half-breeds who are decent, humans will always judge them by the members of their species who commit the most heinous acts and as they have no spokesperson or "PR manager" (lol) there's nobody who could right that misconception (if it is a misconception).
However, there is something that I didn't quite understand. Now maybe it was explained in the game and I just didn't catch it (and it's probably already been discussed in this thread but I'm too lazy and tired to try and go through all the pages to search for it) but whyare the half-breeds and the vampires working together? I mean, why is Lucan working for Hastings? Usually, lycans and vampires are supposed to be enemies. Is that not the case in The Order's lore? Is the human threat to both sides so great that they have no choice but to team up? Or what is it *confused*?
However, there is something that I didn't quite understand. Now maybe it was explained in the game and I just didn't catch it (and it's probably already been discussed in this thread but I'm too lazy and tired to try and go through all the pages to search for it) but whyare the half-breeds and the vampires working together? I mean, why is Lucan working for Hastings? Usually, lycans and vampires are supposed to be enemies. Is that not the case in The Order's lore? Is the human threat to both sides so great that they have no choice but to team up? Or what is it *confused*?
Even if there are half-breeds who are decent, humans will always judge them by the members of their species who commit the most heinous acts and as they have no spokesperson or "PR manager" (lol) there's nobody who could right that misconception (if it is a misconception).
However, there is something that I didn't quite understand. Now maybe it was explained in the game and I just didn't catch it (and it's probably already been discussed in this thread but I'm too lazy and tired to try and go through all the pages to search for it) but whyare the half-breeds and the vampires working together? I mean, why is Lucan working for Hastings? Usually, lycans and vampires are supposed to be enemies. Is that not the case in The Order's lore? Is the human threat to both sides so great that they have no choice but to team up? Or what is it *confused*?
I guess you're right in that the cycle has become too embedded for the origin to mean anything, but the half-breeds can go completely as human. Couldn't they merge into human society in their human forms and gain the trust of people through that? Lucan ascended to an extremely high position, and the regard by which Galahad regarded him prior to the betrayal indicates that his rise was through merit. Even though Lucan ended up following a corrupt man, it feels like the Lord Chancellor could have instead used the opportunity to start integrating half-breeds into "normal" society by keeping a close eye on him and gradually revealing the truth to the most trustworthy knights over time. If LC had that much hesitation over killing a half-breed child, he could have used the (hundreds of?) years spent raising Lucan to reexamine his preconceptions about half-breeds.
Is it ever explained why they have the technology they do and why it's only really used to make weapons? They only other thing I saw using tech was the radios, everything else was pretty well suited to the era.
That's kind of the whole premise of the game . (Or well, not the whole premise LOL. For that you'd still have to add the Blackwater and the Knights.) That they had to come up with better technology faster because they needed it to defend against the half-breeds so they'd have put more resources into developing new weapons technologies, etc. because it would've had a higher overall priority for governments and for society as a whole.
They could have made an audio log related to it instead of audio logs about evacuation procedures on an airship and nursery rhymes.
I think the thing about who Percival met may have been hinted at in the game, actually.There was that one audio log in the United India House (in the final room where you have to search everything) which is that one guy recording his last will and he says something like "give the contents of the coffer to Sebastian, it's the proof he needs" or sth along those lines. Now we all know that the old Percival (we really should use their real names because Percival could refer to both Sebastian and Lafayette) was named Sebastian and I'm pretty sure that it's the same Sebastian this audio log is referring to. I can't remember whose last will it was, though (it was in the audio log but I'm not sure anymore). I do remember that, at the end of it, his wife came into the room and she clearly did something that upset the guy (maybe she killed him?). In any case, perhaps Sebastian was meeting up with the guy who gave him the contents of the coffer? Or it was just one of the Warrior Queen's men (keep forgetting her name) and he had been in contact with her? He must've gotten his suspicions from somewhere after all. On the one hand, I don't think he got them from her but then on the other hand, she obviously knew Tesla and Tesla knew about the conspiracy, so perhaps it's not that far-fetched to assume that Sebastian also knew her and he and Tesla were working together.
As for what Igrain did after that scene...is there any reason to believe she did anything note-worthy afterwards? I may be forgetting something (my memory isn't the best) but I'd assume she just continued spear-heading the search for Grayson.
The guy in the shack,that certainly is an interesting question. I'd have to rewatch the scene to try and pick up on clues. He knows about the conspiracy, he knows Tesla but he's definitely not affiliated with the Warrior Queen since she had no idea about Gray's situation until Tesla sought her out and brought her to him. If the man had been one of hers, she would've already known and probably been there sooner. So that narrows it down, I suppose, but chances are it's simply not someone we've previously encountered/heard about in the game so it'd be impossible for us to actually identify him. I'm sure he'll be in the sequel (if they'll get one greenlit). There was that one newspaper article that talked about Grayson's escape and it also talked about some figure lurking around the bridge... I think? Perhaps that was supposed to be a reference to Tesla and this guy as they were there to help Gray out of the water. I don't know. I think we did get to see at least part of his voice, though, didn't we? Did we see any part of the face of the guy Sebastian met up with? I have feeling they aren't the same guy but if we did get to see both their faces we could check to make sure.
well...from the story, it's easy to put the missing pieces together like:The only question I still have:The Order is founded by Vampires. The so called "Black Water" is nothing but vampire blood, that gives humans long life and super reflexes. This because obvious when Lafayette became a Knight, he had to mix his blood in the same bottle he drinks the black water from. Not to mention the Grand Chancellor is a confirmed Vampire (aka Jack the Ripper). It's either his blood in their necklace bottles, or an even more ancient/powerful Vampire.Are the Order enemies or allies of the Lycans? Why would the Lycans be there protecting that warehouse full of sleeping vampires?
well...from the story, it's easy to put the missing pieces together like:The only question I still have:The Order is founded by Vampires. The so called "Black Water" is nothing but vampire blood, that gives humans long life and super reflexes. This because obvious when Lafayette became a Knight, he had to mix his blood in the same bottle he drinks the black water from. Not to mention the Grand Chancellor is a confirmed Vampire (aka Jack the Ripper). It's either his blood in their necklace bottles, or an even more ancient/powerful Vampire.Are the Order enemies or allies of the Lycans? Why would the Lycans be there protecting that warehouse full of sleeping vampires?
Why do you need an audiolog? One of the most famous inventors in history is literally working directly for the Order creating new weapons for the express purpose of fighting halfbreeds. The characters don't have knowledge of another timeline where this didn't happen. There is no "normal" for them to ever draw a comparison to in fiction.
I'm just highlighting that it's yet another story element that is glossed over throughout the game. So much about the story, setting and characters is left unexplained or even acknowledged, the game just drops you in the deep end and assumes you know that the knights live for hundreds of years, Tesla is just knocking about and werewolves too. Poor storytelling really.
Soooo...
What exactly happened tothe scene that happened in the first trailer?
Whole team fighting multiple lycans?
Not really. It's subtle storytelling. And also ultimately this is a story aboutI really don't need to understand every ancillary character and motivation for it to be a good story, only as much as it affects the subject of that story.Grayson and his awakening. Since at the end he turns his back on The Order.
Honestly, that first walk through Whitechapel tells you everything you need to know about where that story is going.
I guess it was just promo reasons
The way things ended up in this game as well as what some of the audio logs discuss, it seems to me like the story RaD is telling is more about how the Order is a highly corrupted organization with a questionable outlook on the rest of the world than anything else.So I just beat it. I'd give it maybe a 7 or 7.5/10. So, some thoughts I had about a potential sequel (or sequels) is to include cameos of famous literary characters/monsters. With the revelation that vampires also exist, I do think it would be fun to have Van Helsing be a character (maybe have Dracula, too?). As others have said, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde would be a cool villain as well. Another fun bit would be having a level where you work with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Another wishful bit is a level where you assist Dr. Frankenstein in tracking his creation. With these additions, the Order wouldn't be just a group of Knights that fight half-breeds, but defends the earth from all forms of supernatural evil.
Except Galahad leaves London, and nothing's solved, the bad guys are still in power, the good guy's are unaware of the conspiracy inside the order and Jack the Ripper goes free.
I'm pretty sure Galahad is still in London at the end of the game, Tesla tells him to leave and go with Lakshmi, but he stays behind and says he will "join him shortly"
Nothing about the final scene suggests he stays behind, I'm sure he'll return to the city at some point, but it's quite clear thanks to the whole city being on alert that he can't really accomplish much at the moment.
And all the other points still stand.
I already talked about my opinions on the story in the OT, but after thinking about the game some more, I figured I’d make a list of unresolved plotlines just for the heck of it. I guess we are still doing spoiler tags here?
The discovery of the next shipment in the archives. - Unresolved; Galahad does not deal with the shipment and it is unknown if the rebels have taken any action in destroying it.
The fate of rebel-leader-woman-whose-name-I-already-forgot and the rest of the rebels. - Somewhat resolved; we ‘see her escape’, but that’s about it. The rebels play no further part in the story, but in the credits-scene, martial law is in effect. What would that mean for the rebels?
Igraine being all angry due to a misunderstanding (Which could have been very easily cleared up by having Galahad out the vampire conspiracy at any time ever at all.) and sending every able Knight on a manhunt for Galahad. - Unresolved; Igraine is not seen for the rest of the game and no hostile Knights are encountered.
The mystery man, his relation to Perceval and what his motivations were and what the purpose of his actions or him being in the story at all were. - Unresolved; we get a very minimal and flimsy ‘backstory’ from cliché-rebel-leader, but the character is never actually introduced, never has meaningful screen time, and the game never explains anything about his role in all this or anything else about him for that matter.
What did Perceval know of the conspiracy and what was he doing to stop it? Was he in touch with the rebels or not? Etc. - Unresolved; Perceval was unnecessarily killed off before anything was explained.
The vampire conspiracy central to the plot. - Unresolved; apparently, the Knights are still oblivious to the vampire conspiracy, Hastings is alive and well, still in charge and under protection, it is not clear which Knights are part of the conspiracy, and the second shipment discussed here earlier has not been stopped.
So yeah, pretty much nothing is resolved by the end of this game.
And for additional reading pleasure, a list of some cringeworthy clichés used in The Order and specifically the last few chapters, almost all of which I feel like could have been avoided;
Rebels are actually the good guys and all of their actions are instantly twisted into being for the greater good. Cliché noble rebel leader character shows protagonist that the people he once trusted are actually the real evil. Shocking!
“You and I are not so different.” followed by a scene in which the villain is made out to be a misunderstood person with tragic backstory (Despite this not making any sense or even remotely being related to or supported by anything that happened before it in The Order’s story.) and a humans-do-terrible-things monologue to force some kind of ‘profound message’ (Which again, made no sense in the context of the rest of the story; the Knights protecting public order by rooting out indiscriminately murdering werewolves is not the same as those indiscriminately murdering werewolves conspiring with evil vampires - the leader of which is Jack the Ripper - to take over the world.
“I cannot shoot this person, please shoot him for me because I’m too emotionally attached.”-cliché, followed by forcing the player to shoot a character they’re supposed to care for (I didn’t because we barely even started to know the character, and what we did know of him was that he was an evil murdering asshole supporting the vampire conspiracy. HE ALSO TRIED TO MURDER YOU MULTIPLE TIMES!), with bonus gunshot-fade-to-black-credits for maximum cliché.
Now, I don’t think clichés or the use of them are inherently bad; they have their merits and when used properly can support certain story beats, character arcs or plot points, but the way they were used in this game was just awful and unneeded at times, and the final scenes were cringe-inducing and confusing.
The story started off so promising with a great setting and lore, and a simple mystery plot to keep the game moving. Then they killed off Perceval prematurely, and from then on the quality of the writing and overall coherency of events went downhill and dragged the rest of the game with it.
I'm betting on the hooded guy being Merlin or maybe King Arthur.
So yeah, pretty much nothing is resolved by the end of this game.
So very ironic that the ending shows this whole mess started becausethe Chancellor couldn't take the life of an innocent.
The handling of "innocents" is one thing this game doesn't seem to understand. From the very beginning you're tasked with taking down bedlamites, but with the guidance to do so non-lethally wherever possible as those Bedlamites are still citizens. They even give you a gun with a wind-blast secondary for just that purpose. But good luck trying to take anything down non-lethally, and good luck trying to avoid killing innocents.
That is only the beginning of course, and is followed up with indiscriminate killing aboard the Agamemnon, the indiscriminate killing of United India guards at the docks and then later at the company HQ. And if that wasn't enough, once Galahad goes rogue he just HAS to go back and wipe out scores of royal guards, because reasons.
Is there a point being made here? Or...
Here's the thing though; Alastair was not established as the main villain at any point prior to the abrupt ending. Killing or defeating Alistair was never the main plot-point, nor was it even the in-story reason given for Galahad going to Nikola's lab; Galahad went there to rescue Nikola, not to fight Alistair or anyone in specific. Despite that, the game suddenly acts as if fighting Alastair is something that Galahad 'must do' (Cliché #1) while painting Alistair as a tragically misunderstood villain that is 'not so different' from the main character (Cliché #2) and has seen humanity do 'terrible things' (Cliché #3). Despite Alastair being previously established as a murderous traitor that was a pawn in an evil vampire conspiracy and who was more than willing to kill Galahad (And likewise, Galahad was more than ready to kill Alastair.), now we're supposed to believe he was 'fighting for the survival of his race' (Cliché #4) and the character is shifted into a tragically fallen / misguided 'brother'-character that the main character still deeply cares for (Cliché #5). Then, for no logical reason at all, the Lord Chancellor shows up out of nowhere to reveal that he 'knew all along' (Cliché #6) and that Alastair is actually the son of an enemy defeated in combat that the 'father-figure' couldn't bear to kill and thus adopted instead (Cliché #7). Lord Chancellor then turns to Galahad and asks him to kill Alastair (Which Galahad was going to do anyways.) because he can't do it himself (Cliché #8) and gives a completely confusing bullshit-reason in the form of 'The Order would be shaken at its very foundations!'; a statement that has nothing to do with anything that happens in the entire ending or anything else in the story.I don't think the ending is ambiguous. I'm pretty sure Alastair is supes dead and beardy came to terms with it.
There isn't a point. It's textbook ludonarrative dissonance. And unlike uncharted, the script demands you to take it seriously, so it was a bit jarring.