Board 8 > KCF cries and has some heart attacks as he plays Until Dawn: A Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Matt can get fucked over hard by the whole thing with the flaregun. You're kind of at the whim of Emily on that one and the weird thing where Matt will waste his flaregun bullet if he's been *too* nice to her

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I played this with my buddy. And every time, even if it was some decision from before that got a character killed I would relentlessly guilt him jokingly about murdering everyone and he'd get so pissed. Fun game, even more fun with friends.

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Oh, since we were mentioning famous names, Jordan Fisher (Matt) was a replacement for John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton in Hamilton on Broadway.

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Matt... is easily the hardest character to keep alive. Only character in the game that has a very easily-obtainable death that also feels like BS.

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The thing about that death is it seems like common sense to me that Matt isn't going to be able to reach Emily before the tower collapses, so if he jumps to safety he has a chance to go find help. Emily is going to fall either way, and the longer he sticks around the more of a chance he's going to fall too. So, regardless of the gun, if you jump early, you land on a higher ledge with no Wendigo and he can't die again until the chase in chapter 10.

For what it's worth, he was one of the four characters I kept alive in my first blind playthrough.

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Absolutely loving this topic so far!

I hate jump scares too, by that I mean I'm a bit of a wuss lol. But I thoroughly enjoyed this game!

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I lost Matt and Chris my first time through

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KamikazePotato posted...

Matt... is easily the hardest character to keep alive. Only character in the game that has a very easily-obtainable death that also feels like BS.

Yeah Matt... was the only one that died in my first playthrough specifically because of the flare gun thing. Well him and a certain side character because I fucked up at the very end of that particular section

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Also I really like that conversation Jess has (right before things go nuts) where she lets on that she's playing up the dumb blonde act because it makes life easier if no one expects things of you

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Oh hey, I finally found me one of those good fortune totems. Well...okay. I'm not sure how seeing Matt with a door nearby and a creature screaming is a good sign, but I suppose they wouldn't lie to me. I went through that metal cover shown in the cutscene before this, and hey another totem. This death totem showed Mike getting his face bashed in. I just couldn't really determine the assailant. It didn't look all that human. I'm thinking that there may really be a monster in this game. I feel like I'm hearing way more wolves than there actually are. We only saw the two, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's it. What are you doing Mike taking the direct approach? Thank god the chapel door was locked or Mike would have probably barged right in unarmed against two wolves and a potential killer.

I'm getting some info about miners trapped in the mines at some points. Hmm, should I head to the morgue via this dark stairs leading down where the sounds of wolves seem to be coming from? Nah. Crap, it appears that I must. Please no wolf jump scares. Okay, more info on those miners shows that 12 of 30 miners were rescued. What happened to the other 18 is unknown, but one of the 12 was mentioned in a note that they tried biting a doctor. I think I know where this is heading.

The trip down the stairs was good and uneventful. There's a random bird here, and man that is one giant knife. It must be a machete or something like that and the same one shown twice now being held by presumably the person that I am following. Oh no, an interactable green curtain. What's on the other side can't be good. Oh, it's just a restraining chair with fresh blood on the seat. Oh fuck, a wolf shadow!

A dead person's arm is suspiciously swaying back and forth while sticking out of a clearly man-made hole in like a work bench or desk. Pass. A preserved human head is in a jar in the next room. No thanks. Mike opened one of the cold chambers that clearly had a body on it, and he had a better angle than me, yet his reaction seemed like he was totally shocked. Whatever dude, we got the chapel key card. It is also mentioned that a dead woman here was found to have been partially eaten by her killer.
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I'm going to be so pissed if by going through the door here, I made the "wrong" decision and was supposed to go all the way to the beginning. The music is getting subtly intense, so something's about to happen...WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT WOLF JUMP SCARES!? I was surprised that there were no QTEs in that escape. I eventually came back to the first door, and dammit the other wolf! If I'm supposed to pet this one, I'm not going to harm it. It didn't attack me and went back to its spot. I'm assuming we're cool, but Mike is definitely confident enough to immediately turn his back on it. Jacket acquired! Better yet, pistol acquired!

In the next room, there was stuff on the wall like a detailed map and notes that, along with previous clues and past events, basically have me forming a new theory. While I am still very much on the Josh is not dead and is the person in the mask inside the lodge, I think that the person Mike is following is not a villain. He may or may not be an ally, but I think he's human and here hunting the real danger around in the monster that presumably has been making those shrieking sounds and whose perspective we have seen with the "killer vision" I talked about earlier. In the intro, I'm going to call this person The Hunter for now, The Hunter was around the lodge probably because he tracked the monster to this area. When, Beth and Hannah were being chased, he was chasing the monster and/or trying to get them out of harm's way. When Beth and Hannah were hanging off the ledge, he was legitimately trying to help them (if so lol me for why I chose to let go). It was this monster who killed the deer and eventually grabbed Jess and took her away while again The Hunter followed. The monster then fatally threw Jess down and in an unlucky coincidence, The Hunter was looking down as Mike was looking up and made a wrong assumption. The Hunter went back to his base with his trained wolves, and here we are. As for the identity of the monster, I am guessing that it is one of the rescued miners who resorted to cannibalism and that they somehow turned him into a monster.

Back to the present situation, I found a bone and pet the wolf, so I like Mike's chances, for the near future anyway. Somehow despite having no conversations with anyone but the wolf during this entire chapter, my honesty is now red. What? At first, I thought maybe the six stats were paired up with another and had an inverse relationship with the other, but I don't think that checks out. Whatever, I found another death totem. It appears that Mike can sacrifice himself to potentially kill something that I couldn't make out via setting the room he's in on fire. And would you know it, I end this segment by accidentally setting the area around me on fire.
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The person who knocked out Chris and Ashley, aka Josh, is watching footage of cameras in the lodge. The room isn't all that lit, so it probably isn't the one underneath the library. Man, it has been forever since I've been in control of Matt. It just seems so odd to me that they were basically not present for like 2-3 chapters, but I don't have reason to suspect them of anything. Going back to the cable car station...wait. I could have sworn that is where they apparently have been all this time. Maybe I do have reason to be suspicious! Where's the pink bag Emily?

Matt talked about seeing this axe, and I kept walking around like an idiot not realizing it was on the station's door. I saw the interaction glow, but I assumed it was simply letting me know that I could open the door. This is probably the axe from the case next to the opposite cable car station, but hell if I know the significance. Let's smash this fucking door! Why does Emily suck so much lol. Matt just brought up the fire tower while looking at the map, but Emily shot him down because she insisted on using the cable car. When that didn't work, she brought up the fire tower like it was a brilliant idea that she came up with. I, of course, agreed, but man this girl.

I saved Emily from foolishly falling to her death as we were shimmying below the station, but time will tell if that was the right call. I feel like Emily is going to get Matt killed or Matt is going to be killed trying to save Emily's dumb ass. Coming across a guidance totem, Matt should have the flare gun, and a fortune totem shows Ashley letting in a hobbling Chris wielding a gun. I wonder if Chris' death totem is from Ashley not opening the front door in the future. I wonder if I have to be worried about her bravery meter later. Emily keeps walking close to this cliff edge, and I don't want any part of it. More importantly, why does it sound like there's a bunch of cows? Oh, they're deer, and there's a lot of them.
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Is that somebody in the bathroom with Sam? OH SHIT, that is definitely someone in the bathroom with Sam. Josh/Masked Assailant just walked on out without incident. Truth be told, this whole segment wasn't all that scary. It was the anticipation of walking around knowing Sam was completely vulnerable while being directed by balloons to a home theater room that got me nervous, but the actual chase wasn't all that bad. I'm not sure if each action had a right and wrong response, but I did end with Sam successfully hiding in the elevator shaft. I did notice the person walking with what looked like a limp. It could just be an act or Josh's stunt with the saw actually did hurt him in some way, but in that fortune totem, Chris was walking with a limp.

I suppose that it is possible they are both working together because both Chris and Josh were not involved with the prank on Hannah. They were both passed out from drinking. They've still remained close over the ensuing year, so maybe they planned some of this. I'm not sure how that explains the saw choice unless Ashley was never in any real danger or something, but whatever. I'm not saying that's what I believe. If I had to put money down, I would say Josh was doing this solo, but it is a possibility. I do think the person chasing Sam was Josh though as the way "Looking for me?" while entering the home theater was delivered sounded just like the way Josh would say it.

Back with Dr. Hill, I was getting confused when he began by saying that I made a mistake, but then it was quickly revealed that he was talking to the masked assailant.
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Chapter 6: Psychosis

Oh shit, I wasn't sure that just walking up to the deer would work. Who in their right mind would chose to chop a random deer's neck with an axe when it was already clear that this non-violent walk plan was working? Another guidance totem, and another puzzling footage. Chris either really doesn't want to part with his precious pistol that he shouldn't have yet or he was playing Russian roulette or something to that effect. I will probably watch it a dozen more times once I actually see Chris with the gun in question.

That was a pretty dramatic closeup of Matt dropping the axe to climb up the tower. I bet that they will soon wish they had that axe on them. Climbing up went fine, but after turning on the power, I scoured the area and found the flare gun. I gave it to Matt as the guidance totem said, and he immediately used it. I hope that's okay because I'm not feeling good about that. Calling for help worked, unfortunately, what I assume is the monster is bringing this fire tower down. That sucker went down pretty fast after an initial delay, and we are back in the mines. This looks super bad! The immediate choices that I had to make were a bit odd. Why on earth would I bring up NOW that Matt saw Emily and Mike embracing earlier? I was supportive and concerned, and when it came time to saving Emily, I tried. Matt then said he was afraid that the structure was going to tip over. I assumed this meant that I should jump to the other side and try to get Emily from there. What ended up happening is that the entire tower just collapsed and fell down a long way. I don't see how Emily survived that, but her death is not confirmed.

I stopped as I was sent back to Ashley and Chris.
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KCF0107 posted...

It just seems so odd to me that they were basically not present for like 2-3 chapters, but I don't have reason to suspect them of anything. Going back to the cable car station...wait. I could have sworn that is where they apparently have been all this time. Maybe I do have reason to be suspicious! Where's the pink bag Emily?

So the deal here is there was in fact another chapter detailing what Matt and Emily were doing on the quest for the pink bag, but it got cut out of the final game (and then added back in as a pre-order DLC).


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Welp, he already avoided what many in this topic said was the hardest death to avoid.

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I can't recall if he actually killed Jess or not either. I remember it seeming like she was dead in my playthrough from a fall but then her lasting until the end before having a chance to actually die.

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davidponte posted...

I can't recall if he actually killed Jess or not either. I remember it seeming like she was dead in my playthrough from a fall but then her lasting until the end before having a chance to actually die.

This is what I remember too

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Depending on how many QTEs you miss in the chase, Jess can either be alive or dead at the top of the elevator shaft. And it's pretty obvious either way. She either moves around a bit, or her jaw is ripped off and her eyes open in dying horror. If she's alive at the top of the shaft, she survives the fall. But I honestly can't tell for sure what KCF encountered based on his description.

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Well something is certainly resembling an apparition down here. This isn't in first person, so I know this isn't a psychological trick. Since I'm still on Josh as I think the subtitles called him Psycho, I highly doubt he could pull dressing up like that, and since he didn't capture Sam, I don't think that there's anyone left. This is set in modern times, so maybe it was pulled using AR. There's a dollhouse with what I am assuming are the cast of characters, but I need a key for it.

It's always great when one character sees something and the other has a delayed reaction and juuuust misses seeing it when they turn around. Oh, we got the key rather quickly. If the prank from last year is accurately being displayed in the dollhouse here, I guess that sort of hurts the case that Josh is Psycho. Is the implication from when we saw the camera feeds on all the monitors that every room has a camera in it and that they were all actively recording last year? That is the only way that it makes sense unless one of Mike/Sam/Matt/Emily/Jessica gave Josh a very detailed description of what went down last year.

Reading Hannah's diary, poor Chris and Emily don't receive any recognition from Hannah. Not that I give much of a shit about their romantic relationships, but wasn't Mike dating Emily at that time? I'm probably mistaken as that calls into question the prank itself, but I just find it weird that Hannah was planning on making a move on Mike. Maybe I am right and they are just young, dumb adults who don't believe in consequences.

There's so many creepy door openings that one of these has to result in a jump scare one of thes...WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!? It was clearly that apparition thing, and then it just completely vanished. There can't be many explanations for it just leaving in an instant, so maybe I am on the right track with AR. I'm not sure if I should be deriving anything about the apparition from these nearby clues, but maybe the hidden camera and mentioning of a projector bulb means this was some sort of optical trick?
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Chris says that underneath the lodge is an underground hotel. That doesn't make any sense to me, so I'm guessing this was created as a movie set. I passed the area where I was last as Sam, but she wasn't there. There are fake newspapers here, so I'm certain that the whole Victor thing was in fact a red herring. More clues found in TV/lighting controls and a dead, gutted pig. Were the insides and blood used for the saw thing, the blood splatter I saw on the wall once, and more? This keeps pointing more and more toward Josh.

Matt and Emily are missing from the wall of character photos, Ashley is shown wearing the hat and top that she's wearing now, and more importantly, Jessica's eyes are crossed out. Now I'm a little confused, but I'm too far down the Josh path to bail. I followed Chris instead the figure because that figure was totally not Sam but Josh/Psyco. That is a lot of dead pigs. They definitely used their insides and blood for plenty, and for a lot of things it looks like. Was that Sam's recorded voice? It seems doubtful it would be Sam based on her last segment, so I feel like I am about to walk into an ambush.

Solely based on the back of that head, that ain't Sam. Psycho came back and after stabbing them with scissors, they punched Ashley like they did in the totem. I don't think it was a loss totem, so I am still hopeful. Oh, we are resolving this immediately. The ceiling saw is coming down, and Chris has to shoot someone.

https://youtu.be/rVfS5FTVhDk?t=99

Kidding aside, this seems to be the scene where the guidance totem said to put down the gun. I don't see that as an option, but seeing as this is a timed event, I think that means I just do nothing and let the time run out. I guess I won't get my answer until later. That Dr. Hill section was...something. They used to be first person, so I originally thought it was from the perspective of you the player, but now they went third person with Psycho clearly the patient, so I just don't know what to think anymore.
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Chapter 7: Violence

I played through Batman: Arkham Knight within the last month, so seeing Sam deal with removing vent covers was kind of sad. Oh boy, Dr. Hill is a real psychiatrist/therapist within the game, and Josh is/was his patient. That all but confirms that Psycho is Josh. Josh's parents spent over $26k treating Josh! I'm also seeing plans for the saw trick, and yep the voice recording is totally Josh.

Oh jesus, it's Mike grabbing at Sam. Wait, Mike? Wasn't he dealing with starting a fire miles away? I guess we are just going to gloss over that bit of conflict. Is that the mythical Emily's pink bag I see hanging off the door knob? Most of the gang got back together, and Psycho just simply unmasked himself as Josh unprompted. The whole thing was kind of weird and not at all how I pictured the reveal to go down.

Emily has survived the fall, for now, thanks to getting caught onto something. I know you're confused girl, but you can just keep staring at a collapsing metal tower. Now look what you did, your knee is all messed up. Oh great, the monster is nearby. This is what I have to deal with. There's flames, so I guess The Hunter is on the monster's trail. I was feeling a tiny bit better until I remembered that Emily could die being from being burned to death. That could potentially be during this segment! lol I get that her knee played a role, but the way she was walking all unenthusiastically and mopey after going through where the mine cart busted through was hilarious. That being said, I would very much rather be back at the lodge with Josh as the threat than all of this shit.

After some meandering, I found another death totem. Emily can get shot in the face by someone in what looked to be somewhere with some lighting with one of the other girls screaming in horror. I noticed that there was a gaping hole right near where the ladder was sitting, but I guess I wasn't expecting it to collapse at the very top and for Emily to fall through said hole. The Hunter took another flaming shot at the monster, and the game wants me to go up immediately? Uh, I think that I would rather wait 5-10 minutes so I don't get caught in the middle of it all.
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While I would prefer cellphone light to no cellphone light, it didn't really affect the lightning much, so this isn't so bad. Oh fuck, The Hunter and monster are right here it seems. I found another totem that depicts I want to say Mike avoiding a swipe by maybe the monster. In this new area, there seems to be a lot of references to Hannah and Beth. This must be where they fell down. A makeshift cross for Beth and the rock markings implies that Hannah survived the fall. I came across Beth's head that confirms her death, but she doesn't have a body. Did Hannah eat her to survive? Are there multiple monsters in the game then? There had to be one from the beginning, and given my theory how something in the mines/cannibalism turned at least one miner into a monster, there may be multiple monsters running around since there is no reason to believe that the one from the intro died. I'm not liking the idea of having to take down like a dozen of these monsters, especially since I have no idea what they are or even what they look like.

I'm getting a little worried that I haven't heard the monster or seen flames for awhile. My timing for this thoughts is always rather unfortunate as Emily came upon The Hunter. I have to be very thoughtful with my actions here as this may be where Emily can be burned to death. The first choice sucked. If I toss my torch, it will be harder for The Hunter to spot me, but then I have no defense if I come across the monster and maybe the monster is scared of fire. I reluctantly parted with the torch...only to be met with a dead end. Well, there's no point in turning back, so I tried to hide even though it was probably doomed from the start. The Hunter of course found me, but Emily's fate is unknown. That's usually a good sign though. They probably wouldn't cut to a different perspective then cut back to an immediate character death right?

I'm just now realizing that none of my totems I believe have to do with Josh's perspective. Well, I realize that the pause screen indicates this is a Chris segment, but I still thinking that with an upset, gun-wielding Mike leading Josh to a secluded area might mean Josh's life is in immediate danger, and I have to convince Mike that Josh had nothing to do with Jessica's death. I'm really not liking the complete unraveling of Josh. When I thought Josh was Psycho long ago, I pictured and was hoping for something along the lines of he was a grieving but still mostly together person who wanted the rest of the group to pay for their role in his sisters' deaths (or rather disappearances). This is just lame and disappointing. I had a choice to disarm Mike or hit Josh. Disarming felt like something would have gone wrong and someone would be accidentally shot. I feel sorry for Josh and don't want to hit him. On top of that, he's tied up, so abusing him just seems cruel. I let the timer run out, and everything seems to be okay. Mike will be staying behind with Josh though. I sense a monster visit in the future.
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I found Josh more tragic than anything. He clearly had mental problems to begin with, and the deaths just sent him all the way over the edge

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Chapter 8: Revelations

Well it seems the hunter is a friend, for now anyway. The monster is smaller than I imagined. It looks humanoid, which makes sense if my theory that they used to be human is right, and emaciated. A nearby fortune totem showed Mike either agonizingly deciding not to shoot or ran out of bullets. Oh no, is the hunter dead? I guess he could still be alive and the monster has once again eluded him, or there actually are more than one.

Oh shit, the monster has set its sights on me. Oh man, do I go left or right? I'm trying to think of the path that Emily has taken thus far, and I feel like going left will have her going in circles, and I am assuming that elevator sign is saying the elevator is to the right. I'm going right, and holy fucking shit! That monster appearance is probably the scariest thing that I have experienced thus far. I needed to pause a take a moment to collect myself. When it came to the conveyor belt, I assumed that I should stay on. What purpose would leaving it do since I was clearly covering more ground this way? Get away from the door you numbskull! Welp, she was bitten. Are they going to say that she's infected now?

Back at the lodge, the gang is slowly getting back together. Someone's knocking at the door. It has to be one of Josh/Matt/Hunter/Monster, so I feel like there's good odds it's worth opening. Plus, it doesn't seem like the monster has the mental capacity to do something like knocking on a door. Hunter it is! I have been watching the bonus material as it gets unlocked, and I think that he's modeled after the head writer. He says that the monster is a Wendigo. I've heard of the name. Cannibalism is what triggers it, and seeing Mike's flashback, I guess the figure high above where Jessica died was in fact a Wendigo. I guess it was just a coincidence that he got on the trail of The Hunter.

Chris and The Hunter are going for Josh now. If this is when Chris can die from the Wendigo, then I guess that I have to assume getting Josh will not be a success, and The Hunter dies. It definitely seems like The Hunter's minutes are numbered as he informs Chris of tips in fighting a Wendigo, needing to burn off their skin before truly hurting the main takeaway. Josh is no longer there, but that blood doesn't look fresh, so that seems like a good sign. Plus, they would probably show his death scene. Well, The Hunter at least died quickly and not slowly and painful like he described it. I wonder who The Hunter was. It's clear that this was his sole purpose in life for some time, so what set him on this path?
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The "hunter" doesn't have an official name. The end credits refer to him as "Flamethrower Guy" and most people either call him that or "The Stranger."

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Wait, was that the Wendigo dragging Matt? It sure looked like it had a head. Ohhhhh, it's probably Josh. That makes a lot more sense. In some room that I should probably recognize beneath the lodge, I see a lot of Mike, Sam, Ashley, and Emily, but where's Chris in this conversation? Ashley from behind Emily somehow sees her bite mark on collarbone, and panic has set in. I assumed that you only turned into a Wendigo if you resorted to cannibalism and not if you were the victim of cannibalism. I already forgot about the totem, but yeah, I ended up not shooting Emily. It just didn't make any sense from what I've seen/read in the game. The Hunter's journal seems to confirm that biting in and of itself is harmless.

"Understand the palm of my hand bitch."" - Emily to Ashley just before she slaps her.
- lol this might be my favorite non-Chris line and Emily has partially redeemed herself.

They ran off for Mike after this, but they left the book behind. I feel like it would be wise just to hold on it. Its contents could come in handy after all.
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KCF0107 posted...

I see a lot of Mike, Sam, Ashley, and Emily, but where's Chris in this conversation?

With the exception of Emily, everyone becomes less important after their first possible death, even if you avoided it. Their lines and scenes become fewer and further between and less character-specific, which makes sense so they can easily be given to another character or skipped altogether if you've already let them die. Chris is the worst victim of this. After returning to the lodge, he basically becomes a complete background character.

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Chapter 9: Karma

Back at the Sanitorium with Mike, I have now remembered the wolves. I wasn't super best friends with either of them, especially the darker of the two, but I hope they're okay. There was a Butterfly Effect regarding one of them, so I feel like the lighter colored one will at least be. Am I hearing wolves or Wendigos here? I feel like it should be obvious, but I honestly can't tell. I eventually shot a door open, and at least there was the light colored wolf looking alive and well. Moving into another building that almost looks like a prison, that is definitely a monster that I'm hearing. I know it tried to attack me, but that's just depressing what happened to the dark wolf. I don't even want to think how they got its body stuck in that position. I see you climbing Wendigo!

"Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake" - Mike
- lol what?'

If it wasn't obvious before, there are definitely multiple Wendigos here. I guess the transformed miners just stayed here at the sanitorium? I entered the open area in the middle, and something rustled this box. Why would I shoot it? Unless Wendigos come in all shapes and sizes, I don't want to waste a bullet on that. It was just a rat, and oh, there's a Wendigo. I eventually found my way to a hallway filled with cells and Wendigos. God there are so many. I guess they must be immortal or don't need any sustenance or something because some of them are locked in cells and must have been that way since probably the 1950s. I was never under the impression that The Hunter locked them up at any rate. I think I killed one as a soul/spirit was seen floating around. Maybe kill is the wrong word as it can probably inhabit another eligible body eventually.

I was a little heartbroken that Wolfie wouldn't follow me down a hole, but the Butterfly Effect says that survived, so I will hold them to that. Man, that last shootout went crazy with the amount of targets they gave me. I must have chose well in burning the place as Mike made it out okay, and another spirit is floating around.
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Mike seems fine for now, so when I was in control of Ashley, I decided to stick by Chris instead of going on ahead. A totem shows Josh transforming into a Wendigo. I don't understand as the medical records made it seem it would take days or weeks to begin the transformation from human to Wendigo. Going through everyone's favorite place in the sewers, Ashley was lagging behind after closing the sewer entrance. She heard a voice and thought that it sounded like Jessica. Let's see here: Ashley is alone in a dark and creepy place, and she's hearing voices of a dead girl. Yeah, I'm not going to investigate that.

Josh was seen thrown down somewhere in the mines. In control of Sam now, my curiosity sometimes gets the better of me, so I like to explore. I saw some shiny points of references but went up the stairs briefly just to get an idea of the area when rocks crashed down and destroy part of the stairs. I hope that shiny things weren't important. I found another totem, and I guess any death/loss ones will only depict that Wendigo-related deaths. I think Emily getting shot was the last one that wasn't. The Hunter was correct about flames weakening Wendigo skin as I knocked one's head clean off in saving Mike when he unexpectedly showed up.
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And he just got Chris through the game alive (even if he torches the cabin too early, Chris always gets out alive; his last possible death is being left behind in the sewers).

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Chapter 10: Resolution

This fortune totem shows the lodge on fire, so I'm guessing there will be some Wendigos there when we return. I think that I recognize that water wheel from a guidance totem. It's not showing me the same angle, so I went behind/left of it, and climbed out of the water. I read Hannah's diary which confirms that she resorted to eating Beth's corpse, so with the implication that she is one of the Wendigos, I feel like everything has been revealed now, and all that is left is to survive (and rescue Josh/find out where Matt is).

I stopped there.
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Am I the only one who followed Jessica's voice while playing as Ashley...it did not end well for me after opening the trap door!

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No, I definitely did that first time I played

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I made a ton of dumb mistakes my first game. I ended up with just Sam and Chris as my only Survivors.

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As Sam and Mike made their way to the other side, a pair of heads rolled out. One was Jess, and I am assuming the other is The Hunter. Oh great, Wendigos even know how to swim. Josh is okay, relatively speaking. I'm glad we had a brief moment of his old self. Josh and Mike didn't meet up with that Wendigo walking back. Please tell me that it still isn't in the water. Dammit! Oh, this one is Hannah. At first I thought this was a sign that she retained part of her humanity, but then I realized what The Hunter said about slow and painful deaths. Well this rescue mission was a bust.

Oh look, a Matt appearance! How many damn Wendigos are there? I figured that there would be around 13 with the miners and Hannah, but I guess there has to be a lot more. There are so many totems depicting Mike dying by fire or Wendigos. The poor guy has been through enough already! Oh shit, there's the Wendigo! Having seen Wendigos move and knowing Matt only has a lantern to protect himself, I hide and broke through the wood, and that seemed to work.

Great, another trek through the water, only its an unarmed, alone Sam. I could have done without the Wendigo sounds thank you very much. Mike always has impeccable timing with Sam. And here comes the sewer gang with Wendigos nipping on their heels. Oh shit, I meant to lock the door, but I was still processing the situation while monitoring the Wendigo closing in that I made a panic decision that happened to be running away.

The Wendigos are fighting each other? The ones at the Sanitorium didn't, so I guess they are territorial or hostile to unfamiliar ones, and this lone one must be Hannah or one of unknown origins. This was a very tense segment, but once I realized that I was supposed to buy time to allow everyone to escape, I made moves (just saving Mike and hiding) to also keep Sam alive.

Everyone made it out, and I guess Matt eventually showed up to get rescued even though the credits interrogations made it seem like he was rescued separately. And the cherry on top of Josh's disappointing trajectory sundae is that he's now a rampaging Wendigo.

In the end, Jess died, Josh became a Wendigo, and the other six lived with emotional and maybe some physical scars.
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I'm a little surprised that I had so many live. After Jess died as I made decisions to make sure that Mike would live getting to her, I figured that I would have a lot of players die. However, I credit scouring for totems to help shape some of my decisions that I assume saved at least a few.

In all, I enjoyed the game. I think the overarching story lost steam at about the 2/3 mark, but I think the game was stronger scene-to-scene than the big picture. I took the liberty to read some of the spoiler tags just now, and one mentioned that once a character reached their first potential death scene, they had significantly fewer lines, scenes, and just a general presence. That was definitely to the game's detriment and a big disappointment given the nature of the game, but this game was better than the sum of its parts, so I'm willing to overlook that to a degree. It will however have an effect on my character rankings, which I will do soon. I decided not to give an update on that after Jess died so I could maybe surprise people with my final rankings some.
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First time I played I lost Emily to the conveyor belt (so to the previous question, you have the option to jump off because it avoids the next QTE that can kill her) and Ashley to the Jess trap. Although Jess was alive at that point in my game, so it was a little more insidious

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Character Rankings

These will just include the main eight, and no Wolfie, Hunter, Hill, Beth, or Hannah.

8. Ashley

While I probably don't have as much experience in horror stuff as the average B8er, I feel like they typically show characters at their worst as the circumstances bring out all of their bad qualities. That is understandable, but it also doesn't mean that I can't hate them! Ashley is basically the poster child for that in this game. She spends most of the game being scared, crying, and screaming, and she was the driving force behind Emily's near demise. Even before everything went to shit and she became basically unlikable, she wasn't the most interesting character.

7. Jessica

I have to wonder where she would place if she didn't die so early. I thought that she had a strong intro, then I sort of hated her during the whole trip to the cabin as well as while being there. I occasionally thought about her throughout the rest of the game, and while overall I still think negatively about her, I softened up my stance some. She probably has Ashley to thank for that.

6. Josh

I feel sorry for him as much as I am disappointed in his character arc. I simply don't understand the specific moment that turned him into a miserable pile of incoherence. I don't care that there was documentation of his mental health issues just so they could say it wasn't completely out of the blue, he was able to be lucid and hold a conversation with people, and then he suddenly wasn't. It just seemed like he was the victim of lazy writing, and then they gave him such an unnecessarily cruel fate. This may seem like he should be dead last or at least below Jessica, but the pity is strong with this one.

5. Matt

Matt was both underutilized and underwritten. He was such an afterthought that I feel like Jessica being dead was brought up more than Matt, who was missing but presumably alive. Hell, I think they were more concerned about rescuing Josh, someone that they were thinking about killing, than finding Matt. He was probably the thinnest character, which hurts him, but he was even-keeled and one of the more relatable characters. Those are traits that I value highly in stories like this. I just wish that he was used more and better. He certainly deserved it.
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Jessica died because you failed too many QTEs trying to rescue her. If you hadn't missed as many, she would've been alive at the top of the shaft. She still would have fallen, but survived it and Matt would have met up with her at the end.

Fun fact - Chris is the character that you can condemn the earliest before an actual death (if he tries to shoot Ashley when the ceiling is closing in on them, she won't open the door for him later and he'll die), but he is also the character that you can lock in the survival of at the earliest point (if you choose not to leave him behind in the sewer, you have prevented his final possible death; everyone else can die in chapter 10).

Josh turning into a Wendigo is his best possible ending. He can never get rescued with the rest of the crew. Poor guy.

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Underleveled posted...

Jessica died because you failed too many QTEs trying to rescue her

Here's the thing though, I didn't unless they have different markers for showing you that you failed a QTE. The only QTEs that I can recall failing were one or two climbing prompts, someone (I don't recall if it was Sam, Chris, or Mike) running in the woods and stumbling, and one of the Wendigos in the cell block grabbed Mike. They all showed the button prompt turning red when I failed an action, but that never happened when Mike was chasing after Jessica and her captor.
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Cavedweller2000 posted...

Am I the only one who followed Jessica's voice while playing as Ashley...it did not end well for me after opening the trap door!

After reading the journal in the cabin mentioning the mimicry thing that was a hard no from me. Well that and just splitting from the group in general seemed like a bad idea anyway.

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It's not just how many QTE you fail for Jessica, you have choices of "shorter but dangerous" and "safe but longer" routes to take. If you go enough longer routes and/or fail enough QTE you are too late to save Jessica.

I think when I played a second time I took the shortest route each time and only missed 1 QTE and she still died.

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I guess I'll continue to spoiler stuff just in case you are planning to do a replay someday.

Also, part of the reason Matt was so underutilized is because he can die fairly early (the deer situation is his first possible death). With the exception of Emily, characters in this game pretty much become irrelevant after they can possibly die, and any lines/scenes they do have are designed so they can be easily given to another character or cut altogether. Which is also why Chris is basically a background character in chapters 9 and 10. No matter how badly you fuck up with them, Mike and Sam can't die until the final scene with the Wendigos in the cabin, because they're so vital to everything else around them.

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TotallyNotMI posted...

It's not just how many QTE you fail for Jessica, you have choices of "shorter but dangerous" and "safe but longer" routes to take. If you go enough longer routes and/or fail enough QTE you are too late to save Jessica.

KCF0107 posted...

They had this little flashback, and they make it seem like she died because I mostly took cautious actions getting here.

Yeah, that is what I assumed
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So, you can get Jess near nude, Undies/Bra only, if you woo her well enough on the way to the Cabin. She gets dragged around the snow all in her undergarments too. I always thought that would be just as bad, if not worse than the shaft fall.

To save her, you pretty much always have to pick the fastest route, and in doing so, never miss a QTE.

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A lot of your deaths were prevented by simply not doing anything at all. Not pointing the gun at anyone, not attempting to save Emily, not investigating the voice. In fact, a lot of detrimental things are avoided by simply not doing something, like saving Mike's fingers (which you also did). At the same time, you were still thorough enough to save Josh, so your intuition was on point through out the game, with some exceptions.

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My first playthrough was completely blind. I didn't know anything about the game other than it was a Slasher game, and I wasn't even aware everyone could survive. For me, my Deaths in my first run were...

Jess died - was too safe getting to her.
Matt died - tried to save Emily twice, and she had the Flare Gun (and used it already).
Ashley died - she investigated the voice.
Josh died - didn't find all of the collectibles to save him.
Mike and Emily died together - flipped the light switch with Sam when exiting the house.

Mike also lost two fingers in my first playthrough, and Sam got captured by the Psycho.

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I watched and LP before playing, so I didn't make blind choices myself, but I did do a playthrough where I played through the game in front of my Mom + Sister and outsourced all the decision making to them. One of the most fun gaming experiences I've ever had. They panicked the whole way through and still only got Matt and Mike killed!

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4. Emily

In terms of personality, she is definitely in the bottom two or three, and she made some aggrevatingly dumb decisions that made me facepalm, but she makes it into the top half by somewhat strong individual segments in the mines and being low-key funny. She clearly wasn't meant to be a great source of comedy, and even though I just listed her aggrevatingly dumb decisions as a con, it was also a source of comedy to me. One of her earliest scenes was an argument with Jessica where she mentioned her 4.0 GPA as proof of her high intelligence, and seeing her subsequently do or say stupid shit several times just made me chuckle. There aren't a whole lot of funny moments from the halfway mark on, but her understand my palm bitch and her motion-capture inside of the mine after her injury are just hilarious to me.

3. Sam

Let me start off by saying that there's a sizable gap between the Top 3 and the rest of the cast. I find it hard for me to describe my feelings toward her, but she is a well-rounded character that I am also appreciative that she kept her composure most of the time. I feel like (male) writers often make female characters become unlikably hysterical, but Sam avoided that fate thanks to Ashley and to a lesser extent Emily absorbing the brunt of that. I also feel like her actor had the second strongest performance outside of the next character. I don't know if I've seen Hayden Panettiere in anything before, but she was probably the most accomplished actor coming into this as I know she came to fame from Heroes, and her starring role in Nashville netted her some major award nominations. I'm actually wanting to see her in other works, but looking at her filmography, I may be waiting for something in the future lol.

2. Chris

Even though he was clearly the de-facto comic relief character (it goes without saying since he is #2, but the humor attempts had a high success rate), he also had his fair share of serious and other moments of varied tone that helped cement him as one of the deeper characters in the game even as his role diminished as time went on (though taking a backseat ultimately cost him a shot at #1). I was floored when I found out that Noah Fleiss (Tug from Brick) portrayed Chris. I feel like he did the best acting job out of anyone else, save for Peter Stormare as Dr. Hill.

1. Mike

I would sooner want to become friends with Sam and Chris than I would Mike, but his character arc was quite fascinating. He began as this self-centered douchebag. After Jessica's death, he was running high on rage that he became this overconfident but affable doofus as he took on danger head-on while woefully unprepared. It was weirdly endearing. He eventually rose to the ocassion to become a legitimate leader and hero. It may seem ridiculous that this character growth all took place in less than half a day, yet it comes across as believable, and in the end, I feel like that's what's important. I want that feeling like I'm seeing something genuine as that enchances my connection to the character.
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Mike/Chris/Sam is the pretty definitive Top 3, yeah. I'd put Emily near the bottom though.

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