(Original post by Aura)
Rais Sekth is barely a character. His profile has many usual v1 trappings, including a tragic backstory, manipulative behavior, and violent tendencies. So he reads as a pre-made player along the same vein as quite a few others who existed on the island.
On the island, he might as well have been a nonentity. His first thread consists of two very short posts where he does nothing of note, and in his second thread he gets backstabbed by Jacob Starr in order to give Jacob another gun and another name on his resume.
At the end of the day, Rais was just fodder who, despite his profile building him up as a dangerous person, offered virtually nothing at all. I can't recommend him because there is absolutely nothing of interest about him or his story.
Another character, if you please.
The V1 Read-A-Thon
(Original post by Flare)
Elijah Rice! So I pulled me a TERRORIST, nice.
Before I get into the actual factuals of Elijah's character, I will comment on the idea of putting some disgraced members of Danya's crew onto the island along the students. It reminds me of V4's rescue in terms of something big and out of the box that shakes up the way the game is played, so I appreciate the creativity behind it. The execution... well, it fits V1's style, I can say that. Which means it ends up resulting in mostly a lot of badly written action scenes and the concept doesn't get fully fleshed out. It's sort of a shame.
As part of the whole plot hook, the terrorists have all had their vocal chords ripped out. This means that Elijah has no dialogue to speak of, only internal monologue. While I'm sure, given the rest of the writing, any dialogue he might have had would have been mainly comprised of heartless, terrorist-y grandstanding, the lack of any option at all for his character to verbally communicate puts a damper on the whole idea of a terrorists vs. students conflict in the first place. This is evidenced in the first thread he enters, where he shoots two girls before agreeing to team up with Clemence because he admires her... kill-y nature or whatever. Nothing of real interest.
NEXT THREAD: He shows up with Clemence at the hospital and they decide to murder everyone because, y'know, SOTF. It's almost entirely action, Elijah is still pretty heartless and unrelatable, and barely anyone ends up dying anyways.
Should be... fun.
Elijah runs into Sidney Crosby and smacks him with his assault rifle, starting a scuffle between the two of them. It goes back and forth, with Sidney stealing the gun and Elijah starting to strangle him anyways... until the man, the myth, the legend, ADAM DODD himself shows up to save Sidney. Elijah gets up to get going with the whole murder thing...
And Adam unsheathes a sword and BISECTS ELIJAH RICE.
...
OK.
CONCLUSION: Elijah was barely enough of a character to even bother recommending him or not. He's given no real characterization, not even all that over the top in his evil-ness compared to Clemence, is barely on the island for that long, and his death scene barely gives him any credit at all and mostly just exists for Adam and Sidney. Hard pass.
---
Gimme another
Elijah Rice! So I pulled me a TERRORIST, nice.
Before I get into the actual factuals of Elijah's character, I will comment on the idea of putting some disgraced members of Danya's crew onto the island along the students. It reminds me of V4's rescue in terms of something big and out of the box that shakes up the way the game is played, so I appreciate the creativity behind it. The execution... well, it fits V1's style, I can say that. Which means it ends up resulting in mostly a lot of badly written action scenes and the concept doesn't get fully fleshed out. It's sort of a shame.
As part of the whole plot hook, the terrorists have all had their vocal chords ripped out. This means that Elijah has no dialogue to speak of, only internal monologue. While I'm sure, given the rest of the writing, any dialogue he might have had would have been mainly comprised of heartless, terrorist-y grandstanding, the lack of any option at all for his character to verbally communicate puts a damper on the whole idea of a terrorists vs. students conflict in the first place. This is evidenced in the first thread he enters, where he shoots two girls before agreeing to team up with Clemence because he admires her... kill-y nature or whatever. Nothing of real interest.
NEXT THREAD: He shows up with Clemence at the hospital and they decide to murder everyone because, y'know, SOTF. It's almost entirely action, Elijah is still pretty heartless and unrelatable, and barely anyone ends up dying anyways.
Elijah's handler seems to have gone inactive, because his final thread is a one-off DODDPOST. It is labeled with "(Intense and Extreme content warning)".To sum it up, it was a very disappointing scene.
Should be... fun.
Elijah runs into Sidney Crosby and smacks him with his assault rifle, starting a scuffle between the two of them. It goes back and forth, with Sidney stealing the gun and Elijah starting to strangle him anyways... until the man, the myth, the legend, ADAM DODD himself shows up to save Sidney. Elijah gets up to get going with the whole murder thing...
And Adam unsheathes a sword and BISECTS ELIJAH RICE.
...
OK.
CONCLUSION: Elijah was barely enough of a character to even bother recommending him or not. He's given no real characterization, not even all that over the top in his evil-ness compared to Clemence, is barely on the island for that long, and his death scene barely gives him any credit at all and mostly just exists for Adam and Sidney. Hard pass.
---
Gimme another
(Original post by Blastinus)
August Masbeth's handler would very much like you to know that this character is absolutely nothing like Helena Van Garrett, despite coming from about the same background and being best friends with Helena herself. See, the big difference, as we'll soon discover, is that she accidentally burned down her mother's bakery and killed her sister. That's basically it so far as characterization goes, so let's hop right in.
To be honest, her first thread starts out pretty solidly. She meets a guy named Terry Woodard and, having discussed that neither one is in the mood for playing, just sit down and have a casual conversation, getting to know one another and fleshing out their characters a little. It's a decent scene, but suddenly August's handler decides that the scene is boring, so they invite none other than Hawley Faust in to play. Now Hawley, being Hawley, is confrontational at best, but decides to not try anything directly, instead sending off a parting shot as he leaves the scene. Pretty simple action, and a sudden shock to end the thread. Now then, let's-
What do you mean there's eight more pages?
That's right, having been shot at, the two of them dust themselves off and get right back to talking. I'll freely admit that I started skimming it after a while. It's not that it's bad writing or anything. It's just that it's basically a back and forth of two characters going over the usual talking points that, by this point, have become rote cliches. What weapons did we get? Are we playing? What do we do if we encounter a player? Who do you think is playing? What friends should we be looking for? You could probably make a mad libs for "Non-Player Conversations" based on this scene alone.
Fortunately, Kichiro Taka awakes in the general area. Time to finally break the tedium, right? Instead, there's the briefest amount of tension and distrust, and it's right back to mad libs again. Kichiro leaves, and they finally decide to move on themselves, this entire 12-page thread having basically gone in one ear and out the other.
Anyways, in the amount of time it takes to go from thread one to thread two, Helena's been whacked by Hawley, and so it's now revenge time! Finally some action! And the scene is really, really fun. Riseruga's writing is one of the highest points of quality in V1, and Hawley's struggle with fighting off Terry and August simultaneously is well-written and entertaining. He prevails in the end, of course, but without making it seem cheap or contrived. And to that point, I have to say that I wish that orangeflamingo had more characters to run against riseruga's, because the two of them writing action scenes together can wring out pure gold. I would probably skip August's first thread, but I would definitely put both Helena and August's final scenes on a must-read list for V1.
Can I please have another?
August Masbeth's handler would very much like you to know that this character is absolutely nothing like Helena Van Garrett, despite coming from about the same background and being best friends with Helena herself. See, the big difference, as we'll soon discover, is that she accidentally burned down her mother's bakery and killed her sister. That's basically it so far as characterization goes, so let's hop right in.
To be honest, her first thread starts out pretty solidly. She meets a guy named Terry Woodard and, having discussed that neither one is in the mood for playing, just sit down and have a casual conversation, getting to know one another and fleshing out their characters a little. It's a decent scene, but suddenly August's handler decides that the scene is boring, so they invite none other than Hawley Faust in to play. Now Hawley, being Hawley, is confrontational at best, but decides to not try anything directly, instead sending off a parting shot as he leaves the scene. Pretty simple action, and a sudden shock to end the thread. Now then, let's-
What do you mean there's eight more pages?
That's right, having been shot at, the two of them dust themselves off and get right back to talking. I'll freely admit that I started skimming it after a while. It's not that it's bad writing or anything. It's just that it's basically a back and forth of two characters going over the usual talking points that, by this point, have become rote cliches. What weapons did we get? Are we playing? What do we do if we encounter a player? Who do you think is playing? What friends should we be looking for? You could probably make a mad libs for "Non-Player Conversations" based on this scene alone.
Fortunately, Kichiro Taka awakes in the general area. Time to finally break the tedium, right? Instead, there's the briefest amount of tension and distrust, and it's right back to mad libs again. Kichiro leaves, and they finally decide to move on themselves, this entire 12-page thread having basically gone in one ear and out the other.
Anyways, in the amount of time it takes to go from thread one to thread two, Helena's been whacked by Hawley, and so it's now revenge time! Finally some action! And the scene is really, really fun. Riseruga's writing is one of the highest points of quality in V1, and Hawley's struggle with fighting off Terry and August simultaneously is well-written and entertaining. He prevails in the end, of course, but without making it seem cheap or contrived. And to that point, I have to say that I wish that orangeflamingo had more characters to run against riseruga's, because the two of them writing action scenes together can wring out pure gold. I would probably skip August's first thread, but I would definitely put both Helena and August's final scenes on a must-read list for V1.
Can I please have another?
(Original post by MurderWeasel)
This is somewhat scattered and I didn't proof it. But here it is.
I'll take another, please!
This is somewhat scattered and I didn't proof it. But here it is.
Spoiler!
I'll take another, please!
(Original post by Aura)
Duncan Wright was a college student who was researching SOTF, and he was kidnapped by the AT because they felt that he knew a little too much about how they worked. This actually isn't too bad a backstory as far as v1 is concerned, although how a single college student can obtain so much information about a secretive terrorist organization to the point that he is considered a specific threat to them raises a few eyebrows in terms of realism.
Despite his profile making him seem pretty important, Duncan actually doesn't do very much on the island. He meets Angharad Davies early and teams up with her, and the two of them head to the lighthouse in search of shelter. Duncan explains the basics of SOTF as far as he understands, then heads to the kitchen to cook some dog food and go inactive. His next appearance comes when Angharad, now fully committed to playing, returns to the lighthouse where he had been staying. He shows her an escape plan that he had drawn up, and she responds by kicking him to death.
There isn't really anything wrong with Duncan. He's competently written and has a decent voice. However, he doesn't really get to do much on the island before going inactive. He's decent, but you aren't really missing much if you skip him either.
Another character, if you please.
Duncan Wright was a college student who was researching SOTF, and he was kidnapped by the AT because they felt that he knew a little too much about how they worked. This actually isn't too bad a backstory as far as v1 is concerned, although how a single college student can obtain so much information about a secretive terrorist organization to the point that he is considered a specific threat to them raises a few eyebrows in terms of realism.
Despite his profile making him seem pretty important, Duncan actually doesn't do very much on the island. He meets Angharad Davies early and teams up with her, and the two of them head to the lighthouse in search of shelter. Duncan explains the basics of SOTF as far as he understands, then heads to the kitchen to cook some dog food and go inactive. His next appearance comes when Angharad, now fully committed to playing, returns to the lighthouse where he had been staying. He shows her an escape plan that he had drawn up, and she responds by kicking him to death.
There isn't really anything wrong with Duncan. He's competently written and has a decent voice. However, he doesn't really get to do much on the island before going inactive. He's decent, but you aren't really missing much if you skip him either.
Another character, if you please.
(original post by Blastinus)
I might be a terrible person, but Vince Samsa's backstory had me in stitches. When he's four years old his drug dealer mother gets shot in the head on his birthday, which happens to be Christmas, right in front of him, resulting in this line:
Right from the start, we get an idea more of the handler than the character, since Slacker doesn't even wait for Vince to get rolled a weapon before sending him onto the island. His first thread is one post long and just features him getting pumped up, putting on that football war paint and all. Football is the one thing besides his mother's brains that we know about this character, so I guess we're going full-bore with it.
Anyway, he writes around the whole "not having a weapon yet" thing by saying that his character hadn't peeked into his bag, which means that he approaches his first interaction with Cody Jenson a bit cautiously. After all, why threaten the guy when you might just have a rubber chicken in there? He asks Cody for a spare weapon, Cody says no and fires some parting shots as he tears off into the distance on his magic motorcycle. How he manages to avoid wiping out on that thing is a mystery to me.
By the time he reaches his next thread, evidently he's been rolled his weapon, since he's fawning over his assigned handgun to an uncomfortable degree. Oh also, everything relates back to his dead mother, because he has one detail in his backstory, and by golly, is he going to run it into the ground. When he encounters a group at the lighthouse, he makes small talk and tries to be a member of the group, and then Cody's motorcycle of wonders roars into the scene, accompanied by threats and gunfire, as is Cody's modus operandi. Vince wants to go out to help Glenn's brother Fred, but he ends up just talking about his mother again and nothing comes of it. Fred dies, Vince walks out too late, and Cody rides off into the night, trailing rainbows and sunbeams out the back.
A new thread, a new group. Vince has apparently gone off the deep end at this point, which means that he's playing with the standard V1 tactic of walking out at a significantly larger group while raising your gun and acting threatening. But...wait a moment, this is the scene where Kousaka spontaneously turns from a cocky gun mage to a simpering nobody, so there's somebody even hammier to distract from him. Vince takes the initiative, nabbing Kousaka's bag and performing a Cody-esque goodbye on the way out (by which I mean turning around, firing two shots, and disappearing into the Elsewhere Zone before anyone else can fire back).
Vince returns to the lighthouse to observe Fred's corpse and talk to his dead mother some more, which a mod swiftly informs him is an impossibility because Fred fell off a cliff. Also, he leaves that scene in the same post, so it's effectively pointless filler. Moving on, he comes to the well, sees a collective group with Cody in it, and hatches the clever scheme of throwing a smoke bomb and unloading an entire magazine at them. This fails to actually score him any kills, because he's trying to shoot people IN A SMOKE CLOUD! What was even the point of throwing smoke at them? You use smoke to hide yourself, you silly man! In the ensuing fight scene, Vince also gets suddenly philosophical:
I really can't recommend Vince. At all. He's creepy, he's one-note, he accomplishes nothing of consequence, and his dialogue isn't even that fun. I'd take the psycho ballerina over him any day.
Another?
I might be a terrible person, but Vince Samsa's backstory had me in stitches. When he's four years old his drug dealer mother gets shot in the head on his birthday, which happens to be Christmas, right in front of him, resulting in this line:
There's a fine line between tragedy and black comedy, and I think his handler used it as a jump rope.As Vince stared at his mothers brains which at that point where spread against the floor of his house he promised himself not to cry.
Right from the start, we get an idea more of the handler than the character, since Slacker doesn't even wait for Vince to get rolled a weapon before sending him onto the island. His first thread is one post long and just features him getting pumped up, putting on that football war paint and all. Football is the one thing besides his mother's brains that we know about this character, so I guess we're going full-bore with it.
Anyway, he writes around the whole "not having a weapon yet" thing by saying that his character hadn't peeked into his bag, which means that he approaches his first interaction with Cody Jenson a bit cautiously. After all, why threaten the guy when you might just have a rubber chicken in there? He asks Cody for a spare weapon, Cody says no and fires some parting shots as he tears off into the distance on his magic motorcycle. How he manages to avoid wiping out on that thing is a mystery to me.
By the time he reaches his next thread, evidently he's been rolled his weapon, since he's fawning over his assigned handgun to an uncomfortable degree. Oh also, everything relates back to his dead mother, because he has one detail in his backstory, and by golly, is he going to run it into the ground. When he encounters a group at the lighthouse, he makes small talk and tries to be a member of the group, and then Cody's motorcycle of wonders roars into the scene, accompanied by threats and gunfire, as is Cody's modus operandi. Vince wants to go out to help Glenn's brother Fred, but he ends up just talking about his mother again and nothing comes of it. Fred dies, Vince walks out too late, and Cody rides off into the night, trailing rainbows and sunbeams out the back.
A new thread, a new group. Vince has apparently gone off the deep end at this point, which means that he's playing with the standard V1 tactic of walking out at a significantly larger group while raising your gun and acting threatening. But...wait a moment, this is the scene where Kousaka spontaneously turns from a cocky gun mage to a simpering nobody, so there's somebody even hammier to distract from him. Vince takes the initiative, nabbing Kousaka's bag and performing a Cody-esque goodbye on the way out (by which I mean turning around, firing two shots, and disappearing into the Elsewhere Zone before anyone else can fire back).
Vince returns to the lighthouse to observe Fred's corpse and talk to his dead mother some more, which a mod swiftly informs him is an impossibility because Fred fell off a cliff. Also, he leaves that scene in the same post, so it's effectively pointless filler. Moving on, he comes to the well, sees a collective group with Cody in it, and hatches the clever scheme of throwing a smoke bomb and unloading an entire magazine at them. This fails to actually score him any kills, because he's trying to shoot people IN A SMOKE CLOUD! What was even the point of throwing smoke at them? You use smoke to hide yourself, you silly man! In the ensuing fight scene, Vince also gets suddenly philosophical:
Then Vince decides that he's going to ogle a girl's breasts while a shotgun is being trained on him. But that's okay because:"Put a gun to my head and paint the walls with my brains. Just great, I say. Really." Vince told the boy evilly. "I know you won't, because you're just an idiot kid. You have been lied to about your individuality, there is no such thing as an individual and there is no such thing as you!"
Look, I'll just abbreviate it for you. He talks about his mother again. At this point, everyone's ready to shoot him, but first, Bohemian Rhapsody. No real point to it. His handler just posts the lyrics to a Queen song. He takes a shotgun blast to the...feet? Look, I don't know what happened there. This is what Clare Shepherd does:"Pull the damn trigger, you'll just be helping me out." he looked up to the sky "When I was three years old I had a gun pointed at my head"
And this somehow sends Vince flying, right onto a convenient rock that impales him through the chest. Undeterred by, you know, an object poking out of his torso, he fires off all but one round at the group and then serves himself the last one right in the mouth, but not before delivering one last speech about his mother, then his last thought is of his mother, and really, how do you milk a single character trait for this long?With a quick movement she stepped to the side, blocking Ryan who was still sprawled on the ground, and shifted her gun to aim at the ground directly in front of Vince.
I really can't recommend Vince. At all. He's creepy, he's one-note, he accomplishes nothing of consequence, and his dialogue isn't even that fun. I'd take the psycho ballerina over him any day.
Another?
(Original post by Blastinus)
Amanda Jones is my first Dodd character, and she's also the vice president's daughter? And she has a huge crush on ADAM DODD?! What kind of self-shilling nonsense is this? Oh well, let's just evaluate her as her own separate character.
Final thoughts on Amanda...Well, from what I can tell, Adam Dodd exudes a strange Second Banana Aura, which makes it impossible to stand out as long as he's nearby. I enjoyed the scenes most where Amanda has to strike out on her own and actually do stuff independently of the Doddster, but whenever she's attached to him, her character revolves around building him up and helping him through his emotional turmoil. She can only be Amanda and not Dodd's girlfriend when she's by herself, and so my opinion of her oscillated up and down. Ultimately, her character's death is just designed as a motivation for Dodd to get his revenge on Cody, and that feels a bit cheap.
Can I go again?
Amanda Jones is my first Dodd character, and she's also the vice president's daughter? And she has a huge crush on ADAM DODD?! What kind of self-shilling nonsense is this? Oh well, let's just evaluate her as her own separate character.
Spoiler!
Final thoughts on Amanda...Well, from what I can tell, Adam Dodd exudes a strange Second Banana Aura, which makes it impossible to stand out as long as he's nearby. I enjoyed the scenes most where Amanda has to strike out on her own and actually do stuff independently of the Doddster, but whenever she's attached to him, her character revolves around building him up and helping him through his emotional turmoil. She can only be Amanda and not Dodd's girlfriend when she's by herself, and so my opinion of her oscillated up and down. Ultimately, her character's death is just designed as a motivation for Dodd to get his revenge on Cody, and that feels a bit cheap.
Can I go again?
(Original post by Blastinus)
Eddie Serjeantson is an example of a Dodd character who doesn't revolve around Dodd, which means that he actually has personality. Is that a good thing? Yeh...Maybe? I've already talked about Sarge and his really weird speaking habits, but let's focus on that a little more. The guy's a history buff who has a jock-esque appearance but is actually smart. And I guess that Dodd wanted to manifest that in him doing a lot of rapid-fire banter. Is it jarring and tonally-dissonant? I don't know. It could just be a guy trying to deal with a stressful scenario by bantering his way through it in order to stay sane. It's hard to tell, because his story doesn't last long enough to answer that question.
We've seen a good chunk of Sarge's story because of following Glenn, so let's just skip to something important that he does at the Gazebo. Given what we know of Jacob Starr, it wouldn't be a surprise that Sarge decides to pragmatically take him on. What follows is a long OOC argument on the nature of bullet-dodging and how it relates to GMing that leaves Eddie on the run from Jacob and separated from Glenn's group. Running literally into Miranda Grey, he once again acts pragmatically and cautiously, telling her to lose her weapon. The back and forth between them, since they're exes, is both sarcastic and ribbing, and I really enjoyed the banter. Neither of them truly trust the other and have some bad vibes from their previous relationship, but the situation of the island necessitates putting that aside and working together.
Coming into a heated argument in a very chaotic scene, Eddie finds it all very amusing, and I'm kinda loving the guy. He's taking the situation seriously enough, but he's actually got a sense of humor and is trying to find the good side of things. It's too bad that he's about to be murderbush'd. Yes, it's that thread. He kicks the rock into the bush all casual-like and Daphne springs forth with the stabbing, putting an early and ignominious end to this strange guy. It's a shame, because we don't get a clear picture of who he is beyond his joking and his pragmatism. Considering how doom and gloom the rest of V1 was, he could have been a good comic relief.
Oh well, can I get another?
Eddie Serjeantson is an example of a Dodd character who doesn't revolve around Dodd, which means that he actually has personality. Is that a good thing? Yeh...Maybe? I've already talked about Sarge and his really weird speaking habits, but let's focus on that a little more. The guy's a history buff who has a jock-esque appearance but is actually smart. And I guess that Dodd wanted to manifest that in him doing a lot of rapid-fire banter. Is it jarring and tonally-dissonant? I don't know. It could just be a guy trying to deal with a stressful scenario by bantering his way through it in order to stay sane. It's hard to tell, because his story doesn't last long enough to answer that question.
We've seen a good chunk of Sarge's story because of following Glenn, so let's just skip to something important that he does at the Gazebo. Given what we know of Jacob Starr, it wouldn't be a surprise that Sarge decides to pragmatically take him on. What follows is a long OOC argument on the nature of bullet-dodging and how it relates to GMing that leaves Eddie on the run from Jacob and separated from Glenn's group. Running literally into Miranda Grey, he once again acts pragmatically and cautiously, telling her to lose her weapon. The back and forth between them, since they're exes, is both sarcastic and ribbing, and I really enjoyed the banter. Neither of them truly trust the other and have some bad vibes from their previous relationship, but the situation of the island necessitates putting that aside and working together.
Coming into a heated argument in a very chaotic scene, Eddie finds it all very amusing, and I'm kinda loving the guy. He's taking the situation seriously enough, but he's actually got a sense of humor and is trying to find the good side of things. It's too bad that he's about to be murderbush'd. Yes, it's that thread. He kicks the rock into the bush all casual-like and Daphne springs forth with the stabbing, putting an early and ignominious end to this strange guy. It's a shame, because we don't get a clear picture of who he is beyond his joking and his pragmatism. Considering how doom and gloom the rest of V1 was, he could have been a good comic relief.
Oh well, can I get another?
(Original post by Blastinus)
Now for something completely different. As a weird twist midway through the game, it was revealed that three of Danya's terrorist henchmen had accidentally turned on the PA system while reading fanfiction on their computers. As punishment for making Danya seem like an idiot, he decided that he would exile these three henchmen to the island, to fight for their own lives. One of these henchmen was Angelina Kaige, controlled by Dodd. The sensible one of the three who'd been chiding the other two for their frivolous activities, she would take more than a little umbrage about her situation, but chalk up an impressive kill record regardless, judging by her profile. I'm kind of interested to see where it goes.
First order of business, to prevent any unwanted leaks about his activities, Danya has gone and removed Angelina's vocal chords, along with those of her hapless colleagues. This is going to make any significant character interaction kind of difficult. Fortunately, Dodd is kind enough to give her a significant amount of thought and analysis to make up for it. Matter of fact, her first act is to try to blend in with the rest of the student body. Rather than wearing the obvious military gear she'd arrived in, she steals a dead girl's clothes and bag, and I have to say, this act alone makes me kind of root for her a little. What I expected with this twist was that she'd be another mad gunman like the kids on the island, but no, she's making strategic moves and playing intelligently.
Case in point, when she encounters a group of kids, instead of immediately opening fire, she instead crafts a story in the dirt about being a mute girl who found one of the terrorists and stole their gun. It's not the best excuse, and she gets caught in the lie fairly quickly, but at least she's trying. A fight breaks out, and one of the kids gets shot in the collar by accident, so technically not a kill for her, but it does provide enough of a distraction for her to escape, where she comes across a couple kids at the gazebo. Having been armed with a number of grenades, she throws one and takes them both out, demonstrating perhaps why it is that explosives are in short supply in these games.
Then she casually shoots Aiden Ambrose and breaks his neck just to be sure, and I'm beginning to see a problem emerging, which only becomes intensified with her kill of Lyndi. Angelina has no connections with any of these kids, and she's already a seasoned killer, so there's no development leading to her murder spree. She's the equivalent of a premade player, only even worse because she can't talk, so there's no emotion with any kills. She just kills because she wants to win, and that's that. Throw a grenade into a warehouse to kill several kids at once while picking off the survivors from a distance? Why, that's just business. Well, okay, she has one moment of characterization, and it's apparently that she's uncomfortable with gay sex. Woohoo for that, I guess.
Then "Cause I fell on black days" happens, and Angelina succumbs to the schlock factor. Turns out that she gets off on killing people, and so she curses herself for paralyzing a guy so he can't feel her slowly killing him. In an instant, suddenly her entire professional veneer vanishes, and we're left with one of the most cliched characterizations for a female villain you can get. The kind of thing you'd reserve for a Bond villain. This is somehow worse than she was before, when she was just flatly killing people for the sake of the game, and it really kills whatever hope I had for the character. Sure enough, next thread, she's forcing herself onto a 16-year old kid and it's just so, so painful. Like, what the heck, Dodd? You had a decent thing going with her, and you decided to just turn her into the sleaziest thing possible.
Thank goodness the next thread is her last one. Let's just cut to the chase. She snaps a kid's neck, another kid ambushes her, and she takes a bullet to the forehead. I don't even want to dignify her with a more in-depth analysis, because those last two threads killed whatever appreciation I had for the character. Ultimately, she ended up scoring 11 kills, most of which had no impact behind them and the few that did made me want to gouge my eyes out. So...thanks for that.
Another?
Now for something completely different. As a weird twist midway through the game, it was revealed that three of Danya's terrorist henchmen had accidentally turned on the PA system while reading fanfiction on their computers. As punishment for making Danya seem like an idiot, he decided that he would exile these three henchmen to the island, to fight for their own lives. One of these henchmen was Angelina Kaige, controlled by Dodd. The sensible one of the three who'd been chiding the other two for their frivolous activities, she would take more than a little umbrage about her situation, but chalk up an impressive kill record regardless, judging by her profile. I'm kind of interested to see where it goes.
First order of business, to prevent any unwanted leaks about his activities, Danya has gone and removed Angelina's vocal chords, along with those of her hapless colleagues. This is going to make any significant character interaction kind of difficult. Fortunately, Dodd is kind enough to give her a significant amount of thought and analysis to make up for it. Matter of fact, her first act is to try to blend in with the rest of the student body. Rather than wearing the obvious military gear she'd arrived in, she steals a dead girl's clothes and bag, and I have to say, this act alone makes me kind of root for her a little. What I expected with this twist was that she'd be another mad gunman like the kids on the island, but no, she's making strategic moves and playing intelligently.
Case in point, when she encounters a group of kids, instead of immediately opening fire, she instead crafts a story in the dirt about being a mute girl who found one of the terrorists and stole their gun. It's not the best excuse, and she gets caught in the lie fairly quickly, but at least she's trying. A fight breaks out, and one of the kids gets shot in the collar by accident, so technically not a kill for her, but it does provide enough of a distraction for her to escape, where she comes across a couple kids at the gazebo. Having been armed with a number of grenades, she throws one and takes them both out, demonstrating perhaps why it is that explosives are in short supply in these games.
Then she casually shoots Aiden Ambrose and breaks his neck just to be sure, and I'm beginning to see a problem emerging, which only becomes intensified with her kill of Lyndi. Angelina has no connections with any of these kids, and she's already a seasoned killer, so there's no development leading to her murder spree. She's the equivalent of a premade player, only even worse because she can't talk, so there's no emotion with any kills. She just kills because she wants to win, and that's that. Throw a grenade into a warehouse to kill several kids at once while picking off the survivors from a distance? Why, that's just business. Well, okay, she has one moment of characterization, and it's apparently that she's uncomfortable with gay sex. Woohoo for that, I guess.
Then "Cause I fell on black days" happens, and Angelina succumbs to the schlock factor. Turns out that she gets off on killing people, and so she curses herself for paralyzing a guy so he can't feel her slowly killing him. In an instant, suddenly her entire professional veneer vanishes, and we're left with one of the most cliched characterizations for a female villain you can get. The kind of thing you'd reserve for a Bond villain. This is somehow worse than she was before, when she was just flatly killing people for the sake of the game, and it really kills whatever hope I had for the character. Sure enough, next thread, she's forcing herself onto a 16-year old kid and it's just so, so painful. Like, what the heck, Dodd? You had a decent thing going with her, and you decided to just turn her into the sleaziest thing possible.
Thank goodness the next thread is her last one. Let's just cut to the chase. She snaps a kid's neck, another kid ambushes her, and she takes a bullet to the forehead. I don't even want to dignify her with a more in-depth analysis, because those last two threads killed whatever appreciation I had for the character. Ultimately, she ended up scoring 11 kills, most of which had no impact behind them and the few that did made me want to gouge my eyes out. So...thanks for that.
Another?
(Original post by Blastinus)
I'll tell you what I think, Asano. I think that was friggin' awesome! Ken Mendel's only thread was an escape attempt where he tried to swim away from the island. The terrorists, having surrounded the entire island with patrol boats, give chase. And what follows is one of the most intense and horrifying scenes in V1 for violence. Not content to simply have him get shot up, not even to let him be crushed by one of the larger ships, Asano goes whole-hog and essentially liquifies him in the propellers of the boat that ran him over. No detail is spared, and the actions of the terrorists provide a lot of humanity to the folks keeping these kids prisoner, as even they're horrified and disgusted by what just happened in front of them. It's a violent cautionary tale that holds nothing back, and lets all the other handlers know just what is at stake if they try to do something similar.
I think that Asano made Ken purposely uninteresting in his profile just for this moment. Ken is a sacrifice for the sake of horror, and boy oh boy is it effective. His time on the island is incredibly short, but this is the kind of single-post death that deserves a read, for some of the best writing that I've seen in the game thus far.
Keep 'em coming!
[and so ends Ken. Along one of my longest posts. And either most or second most graphic death, not sure...probably most. What do you all think? >>;]
I'll tell you what I think, Asano. I think that was friggin' awesome! Ken Mendel's only thread was an escape attempt where he tried to swim away from the island. The terrorists, having surrounded the entire island with patrol boats, give chase. And what follows is one of the most intense and horrifying scenes in V1 for violence. Not content to simply have him get shot up, not even to let him be crushed by one of the larger ships, Asano goes whole-hog and essentially liquifies him in the propellers of the boat that ran him over. No detail is spared, and the actions of the terrorists provide a lot of humanity to the folks keeping these kids prisoner, as even they're horrified and disgusted by what just happened in front of them. It's a violent cautionary tale that holds nothing back, and lets all the other handlers know just what is at stake if they try to do something similar.
I think that Asano made Ken purposely uninteresting in his profile just for this moment. Ken is a sacrifice for the sake of horror, and boy oh boy is it effective. His time on the island is incredibly short, but this is the kind of single-post death that deserves a read, for some of the best writing that I've seen in the game thus far.
Keep 'em coming!
(Original post by Blastinus)
Sydney Morvran's big secret is that he's actually from a version previous to V1, but the kids on the island don't know this at first. Instead, he's introduced stalking Xian Chun through the bamboo coppice, seeming to be deranged and scarred up for no apparent reason. Sydney seems to be almost desperate to find someone to use as an ally, to the point of assuming that Xian's friend Tayli was trying to attack her and throwing one of his flashbangs. Once that misunderstanding is cleared up, Xian, Sydney, and Tayli run off together, with Sydney implying that not only does he know this island up and down, but that he's been here for longer than you'd think. In fact, he was the winner of his version, and that's why he's missing some fingers and looks as messed-up as he does.
Immediately, this draws the group's attention, but they don't probe Sydney for details long before more people show up, including Gabrielle Minase. Sydney is the one who scoops up Minase's weapon almost the instant it hits the ground, but in turn, he gets shot by accident when Tayli drops her gun, so it all balances out. Sydney never gets the opportunity to explain why it was that he was put back onto the island, nor does he give any useful information that can help the next batch of kids. Guess you can chalk that up to early rolls. It makes me wonder what his handler was intending to do with the character, whether there was more that Kaishi was planning to reveal about the previous programs. I suppose we'll never know.
One more!
Sydney Morvran's big secret is that he's actually from a version previous to V1, but the kids on the island don't know this at first. Instead, he's introduced stalking Xian Chun through the bamboo coppice, seeming to be deranged and scarred up for no apparent reason. Sydney seems to be almost desperate to find someone to use as an ally, to the point of assuming that Xian's friend Tayli was trying to attack her and throwing one of his flashbangs. Once that misunderstanding is cleared up, Xian, Sydney, and Tayli run off together, with Sydney implying that not only does he know this island up and down, but that he's been here for longer than you'd think. In fact, he was the winner of his version, and that's why he's missing some fingers and looks as messed-up as he does.
Immediately, this draws the group's attention, but they don't probe Sydney for details long before more people show up, including Gabrielle Minase. Sydney is the one who scoops up Minase's weapon almost the instant it hits the ground, but in turn, he gets shot by accident when Tayli drops her gun, so it all balances out. Sydney never gets the opportunity to explain why it was that he was put back onto the island, nor does he give any useful information that can help the next batch of kids. Guess you can chalk that up to early rolls. It makes me wonder what his handler was intending to do with the character, whether there was more that Kaishi was planning to reveal about the previous programs. I suppose we'll never know.
One more!
(Original post by MurderWeasel)
Another, if you will!
Spoiler!
Another, if you will!
(Original post by Blastinus)
Sidney Crosby is a Canadian hockey player who currently serves as the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. During his time with the Penguins, Sid the Kid has won three Stanley Cups and scored 57 goals this season alone. But enough about him, let's talk about Sidney Crosby, the 17-year old high school student who apparently has almost supernatural powers of prediction. Yup, it's another eccentric Dodd character, this one based on a real ice hockey superstar. As if being the vice president's daughter wasn't weird enough. Sidney Crosby (that is, the real Sidney Crosby) was born in 1987, so back in 2005, he'd have been the right age for Dodd's portrayal of him, more or less. I'm not sure that a 17-year old would be the new darling of the NHL, but I don't know much about hockey.
I'll admit to sort of liking Sidney. He's obviously the weak link in the final four, but rather than have him go out like a chump, Adam gives him a decent showing and lets him be a pivotal part of the battle with Cody. He's obviously not suited for murdering folks and he's framed as almost kind of a danger to those around him, but he's got enough positive traits that I found him overall to be a fun read. That being said, I can't help but wonder how the real Sidney would have taken this portrayal if he'd known that someone had written a glorified fanfic about him. Probably not very glowingly, I'd imagine.
One more please!
Sidney Crosby is a Canadian hockey player who currently serves as the captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. During his time with the Penguins, Sid the Kid has won three Stanley Cups and scored 57 goals this season alone. But enough about him, let's talk about Sidney Crosby, the 17-year old high school student who apparently has almost supernatural powers of prediction. Yup, it's another eccentric Dodd character, this one based on a real ice hockey superstar. As if being the vice president's daughter wasn't weird enough. Sidney Crosby (that is, the real Sidney Crosby) was born in 1987, so back in 2005, he'd have been the right age for Dodd's portrayal of him, more or less. I'm not sure that a 17-year old would be the new darling of the NHL, but I don't know much about hockey.
Spoiler!
I'll admit to sort of liking Sidney. He's obviously the weak link in the final four, but rather than have him go out like a chump, Adam gives him a decent showing and lets him be a pivotal part of the battle with Cody. He's obviously not suited for murdering folks and he's framed as almost kind of a danger to those around him, but he's got enough positive traits that I found him overall to be a fun read. That being said, I can't help but wonder how the real Sidney would have taken this portrayal if he'd known that someone had written a glorified fanfic about him. Probably not very glowingly, I'd imagine.
One more please!
(Original post by Blastinus)
Angharad Davies caught my eye for multiple reasons. First, of all the characters I've read, she appears to have the most threads, which suggests she actually branched out on her own rather than just becoming part of one of those 17-page mega threads like everyone who followed Dodd. Second, her character is of Welsh descent, and therefore she'll be throwing in Welsh words during average conversation. I like that, because Welsh in itself is a fascinating language to read. Thirdly, she starts with a set of cat claws, and I really wanted to see how she makes any use out of those, since unlike all the guns and grenades and blunt instruments, those would require a degree more creativity.
All that being said, let's dive right in.
To be honest, aside from the craziness of how much damage she took in her last two threads, I found Angharad to be a good read. She's got this ability to connect with folks and lie that you don't see too much in V1. If there were more deceptive villains instead of crazies, I think V1 would have been less eye-rolling at times.
Another?
Angharad Davies caught my eye for multiple reasons. First, of all the characters I've read, she appears to have the most threads, which suggests she actually branched out on her own rather than just becoming part of one of those 17-page mega threads like everyone who followed Dodd. Second, her character is of Welsh descent, and therefore she'll be throwing in Welsh words during average conversation. I like that, because Welsh in itself is a fascinating language to read. Thirdly, she starts with a set of cat claws, and I really wanted to see how she makes any use out of those, since unlike all the guns and grenades and blunt instruments, those would require a degree more creativity.
All that being said, let's dive right in.
Spoiler!
To be honest, aside from the craziness of how much damage she took in her last two threads, I found Angharad to be a good read. She's got this ability to connect with folks and lie that you don't see too much in V1. If there were more deceptive villains instead of crazies, I think V1 would have been less eye-rolling at times.
Another?
(Original post by blastinus)
Cydni Pullman's game is pretty short, since she only gets one thread before being unceremoniously inactive killed by Angharad in that weird bathroom scene, so let's just examine the one time she's actually under her handler's control. She looks into her pack, finds her weapon, sarcastically muses about her situation, then gets startled to hear someone. And if you think that sounds like every SOTF kid's introduction, it's because it kinda is.
That's cool. She has one and a half pages to develop a personality.
Unfortunately, the remaining thread goes as bog-standard as you can get. The two kids she meets aren't threats, so she makes an alliance with one of them, and there's basically nothing she does that can be considered quirky or unique. Thus, as inactivity sets in before the thread's even over, her boring fate is sealed. Swoosh gets control of her from there, and she's easily disarmed and decapitated by Angharad without contributing anything of note or worth to the game.
Again!
Cydni Pullman's game is pretty short, since she only gets one thread before being unceremoniously inactive killed by Angharad in that weird bathroom scene, so let's just examine the one time she's actually under her handler's control. She looks into her pack, finds her weapon, sarcastically muses about her situation, then gets startled to hear someone. And if you think that sounds like every SOTF kid's introduction, it's because it kinda is.
That's cool. She has one and a half pages to develop a personality.
Unfortunately, the remaining thread goes as bog-standard as you can get. The two kids she meets aren't threats, so she makes an alliance with one of them, and there's basically nothing she does that can be considered quirky or unique. Thus, as inactivity sets in before the thread's even over, her boring fate is sealed. Swoosh gets control of her from there, and she's easily disarmed and decapitated by Angharad without contributing anything of note or worth to the game.
Again!