LogFAQs > #896591301

Alright, so we pick up with Max in the Dark Room... Max in the Dark Room... Max in the Dark Room... and I really enjoy the way the series handles flashback here (since Max experienced blackout) - the constant use of whatever photo is nearest to go back a little bit in time, maybe make incremental changes. Jefferson is getting off hard, and it's a little surprising that Nathan was completely used, though it makes sense in order to centralize the villainy here.

Getting into the alternate reality is almost suspiciously easy... yeah. It is too easy. Perhaps the coolest part here is how quickly it happens, which is extremely worrying. Everything about the San Francisco trip timeline has dream-like qualities to it (with Chloe's texts about "step-Hitler became step-hero!" perhaps being the clincher). Anyway, it's naturally wiped out, because Max was apparently too dumb to warn Chloe not to be caught at the beach (?!) during the tornado she 100% knew was coming.

(I'm being more than a little bitter here, but I tend to feel upset about fake happy endings, even when I know that fakeness is coming. Maybe that's the intent - I know that we're going to rewind into a shitty timeline, but even so, the game is able to get emotional attachment from me. Chloe's series of texts is fantastic here - in this timeline, Chloe finishes by congratulating Max, who replies "NO EMOJI!")

But is it even worth delving into that? We all know that it couldn't last, so we tear up the photo, and... boom, right back into the Dark Room, and I'm pissed about not having the journal anymore. One of the best parts of the game. It's a little unclear at which point we contact David in this timeline, but I'm grateful to have him back, and if his redemption in the previous storyline felt a little 'tell, don't show,' then this timeline absolutely reverses that. It requires our help, but he overpowers Jefferson.

A super-amazing choice hits us when we confront him - telling him the truth about Chloe versus letting him be ignorant. Dropping the bombshell is a scary option, and in-game. it feels like twisting the knife - David freaks out, shoots Jefferson, and then collapses, utterly drained. I actually back away from it afterward because of how grim it is - David doesn't deserve to be punished like this after what we've already put him through, and his redemption (which will be erased).

Saving everyone outside the diner (except the fisherman, no idea how to do that - I rewound the electrocution but he died in the fire) is a little tedious, but worth it, I'd say - it feels pretty rewarding (and huzzah for warning the homeless person). Grimmest is probably Evan's wordless demise as a collapsing board smashes him in the head and he just drops.

This segment also makes me feel good about Frank and Joyce. But I don't tell Joyce to forgive David. That's up to her, right? I dunno, when the game kinda says otherwise at the end, I feel like a douche. I also feel a little bad for telling Frank the cold truth, but the guy's a grown man, and he never got closure on Rachel. It's beautiful when he finds out she died by overdose - "I killed my lioness."

Sitting at a table in the Two Whales, with Pompidou on our lap and the world ending outside, is the greatest of peace.

Finally, it's time to chat with Warren, and he gives us the photo... though we're briefly worried that he's so jealous of us and Chloe that he'll tear it up out of spite. But he's sporting, and he even proposes the theory (that Max is also starting to realize) that we're responsible for the storm. I feel so bad for him that I can't resist giving him a hug. After all, guys and girls can hug and it doesn't necessarily mean anything romantic... except that after I choose the option, we can see that it obviously means way too much to Warren. So we rewind the shit out of it, friendzone him harder than ever before, and then finally, finally go see Chloe.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness