[Subtitles by danielsangeo] Hey! Welcome to the Game Dungeon!
This is the Earth Day episode. Now if you're like me,
you know Earth Day exists, you don't remember when it is, or what
it even means you should be doing. Well, it's today and I like holidays, so we're going to be covering one of
the most Earth Day-ish games I know of: "A New Beginning". This is a graphic adventure game. Unlike last time, we do
NOT have aliens or robots. Nor do we have monsters,
demons, lasers, but...um... We do have time travel,
so I'm there. Let's go. Now this is a 4:3 ratio game. That's nothing new on this show, but
I feel like it's worth mentioning, because this was released in 2010
in Germany, and 2012 worldwide. Almost all games had made the
transition to widescreen by then, but my understanding is production on this
started before that became mainstream, and unlike 3D games, where you can literally change a few numbers in
the code to convert it, this is all hand-drawn content, so they would've had to modify everything, so 4:3 it is. That means this is last NEW
4:3 only games sold in stores. I mean, yeah, I'm sure some indie
people are still making 4:3 games to give it a retro feel or whatever, but you're just being a contrarian
if you're doing that on purpose now. I think widescreens are great and
don't miss the old ratio AT ALL, but you take what you can get. Now I'm not sure if I'm on board
with psycho-widescreen or not, but 16:9 is great--that's a good ratio. Let's get started. ["You keeping an eye on the watch, private? ["300 seconds and not a second to spare. ["And don't forget: Never
look directly into the sun."] What, like this? [static]
["-ea-y?"] [static]
["--at?"] Sounds good! Bird mode activated. Ah! This is the life. Anyway, we cut to a board meeting, and it's the future, and a
giant solar flare is coming. ["The Phoenix Plan is NOT
an evacuation plan, Hardy. ["Quite the opposite...No, Salvador is
right. A manipulation is our last chance." ["What are they talking about?"] I don't know. ["We are looking at certain death for
every living thing in two weeks."] Ohh! Okay, that's easy to understand. Seems like we should've
led the meeting with that. So best I can tell, we have kind
of a "12 Monkeys" situation. The Earth is ravaged and dying, everyone's living underground, but wouldn't you know
it? We have time travel. So I can only assume we're
going to go back and fix things. Though, I've gotta dock points since I'm
not actually SEEING anyone go back in time. This is a missed opportunity. Do they have to be naked
like in "Terminator"? Hello? And we cut to...somewhere. Looks sort of like northern Europe. Maybe Canada. Dammit, it's Clippy's brother: Pointy. No! Piss off! So our first goal is to fix the fogger. This is one of those games where you
don't really know what's going on, but hopefully all will be revealed later. ["The basement: Mausoleum of a failed life."] Ha ha! I'm liking this guy already. ["It's locked. The plan was
to leave everything behind. ["That day, I was so drunk I don't
even remember where I hid the key."] Yeah, this is a good character. This is a slow, but good, start. ["The fishing rod was
Dr. Angust's suggestion. ["'It is very meditative, Bent.
It will help you find peace.' ["I've been sitting at the
bank each morning since then, ["apathetically staring into the water."] So this must be the party
shack. Let's head inside. Here, we take a trip down memory lane. That's your wife. She's dead and
you weren't around when it happened because you were too busy at your
job trying to save the world. That's your son in the corner. He hates you because you were too busy at your
job trying to save the world. For someone who hates his dad, he sure seems to be following
in his fashion footsteps. And something tells me those guys
in the back have a criminal record. ["Sometimes Dr. Angust comes for a visit.
That's why I have a second chair."] We don't get much company up here. Anything in the 'refirgerator'? ["If I didn't have dinner in town, I
would never meet any people at all. ["A full fridge would be social suicide."] So we don't have any friends
either, it sounds like. This is Bent Svensson. He looks
to me like a man with no focus, a life of regrets and nothing to lose. I enjoy self-destructive
characters like this. Let's just say a lot of revenge
action movies start off this way also. So we head down to the basement to
reflect on how much we hate ourselves, and find some spare parts
to try and fix the fogger, when, what's this? Someone lands
a helicopter in our front yard, and, hey, isn't that Future Woman? Yep! It sure is! She's wearing the same uniform from earlier so I guess they don't
have to come back naked. So that's one mystery solved. We ask her a few questions. I like how clumsily she dodges
them about where she's from. ["Is that your helicopter out there?" ["It belongs to a...friend, I think?" ["Nice outfit. Are you military?" ["No. I am...
from a different organization."] Ah, time travelers! They're
always making mistakes. She says she desperately needs his
help, but he's WAY too jaded to care. Whatever she's taken the time
to fly out here and tell him can wait until he fixes his fogging
machine from spare bicycle parts. Priorities. And I'd like to point out that
someone landing a helicopter to come ask an expert in retirement for help is how the movie "Commando"
starts off, too. Just saying. So the future can wait.
It's motor repair time. The belt's snapped so I'm using my
kid's bicycle tire on it instead. Except it's too long, so let's just jam a screwdriver in there as
a makeshift axle to make it the right size. This is a very "Red Green"
solution to our problem. ["All right, put the screwdriver--and
use your screwdriver...as a chisel." ["For example: Take a screwdriver. Why
not use a screwdriver as a hammer?" ["When you're in there... ["You want something with kind of, uh...
Plexiglas or a hard handle that's... ["not gonna mar, anyway. In she goes."] Oh, and I'm also using some
salad dressing as lubricant. ["Okay, that should work."] So let's fire it up. ["Ugh. Dammit. Someone
has to hold the shutter ["to keep the stupid screwdriver
from popping out again."] Huh. Looks like Future Woman can be of
some use to us after all. Let's go get her. Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Oops! Looks like the fumes are so
strong, a bird drops dead in front of us! Future Woman doesn't take this too well. ["You are so stupid."] "Oh yeah? Well...your helicopter's ugly!" Actually, it's not. Then she makes a grave for the
bird and contemplates life. ["Maybe I was wrong. Maybe
you can't help me after all." ["Help? Help with what, for Christ's sake? ["I am retired. I don't
help anyone anymore."] Yeah? Well that's what
John Matrix said, too. Anyway, he changes his tune once she
has a dizzy spell and needs water. But whoops, it's a call
from his sleazy therapist. I do like how she makes him say his mantra that he's not responsible
for the whole world, then we immediately get our explanation, and Future Lady tells him he is
responsible for the whole world. ["You, Bent, and you alone are
responsible for the whole world!"] I'm sure people who have saved the
world have similar dilemmas like this. Prior to this, she reads from
her time traveling pamphlet on how to win friends and
influence people from the past. ["Mutual trust. My name is
Fay. I am a time travel pilot. ["Confrontation. I come from the
future. Mankind is facing extinction." ["What's that? What are you talking
about? And what is that note for?" ["Guidelines for trans-temporal contacting.
I told them I couldn't do this."] Ah! 500 years. So Fay shows us the rest of her team, and I realize this wasn't a big-budget game, but the voice sync work
here is a little lacking. ["All right. Never mind. [overlapping]
["It was a misunderstanding. ["Please, calm down."] Needs some work! So then we flashback...
wait...no, forward... to 2050 to see things
from Fay's perspective. Okay, we get to see the
time egg. That's something. She argues with another
future guy about future stuff. ["Don't give me one of your responsibility-
isn't-born-from-guilt lectures." ["Well how about my set-up-the-antenna ["or-I'll-lock-you-
into-the-atomic-oven lecture then?"] And he reiterates their
mission for the rest of us. ["What exactly is our mission? ["We search out the political
leaders, take them to task, ["then convince them to take
more care of the planet." ["That's the plan?" ["Yes! That's the plan! Why?"] Ah, future people. ["Sounds a little naïve." ["It's a matter of survival for
mankind! The future of our planet! ["Of course they will
listen. Anything else?"] I really like how they're
operating on the premise that we're just not aware of the
harm we're causing to the future. So all it should take is them
coming to tell us we need to change and then that should clear things
up. I guess we'll see how that goes. So we work on setting up the antenna,
argue like future people some more, and hey! It turns out this
is sunny San Francisco. ["The whole city is destroyed. Can it be
possible that we were so thoroughly mistaken? ["Everything is lost. We are too late."] I really enjoy the matter-of-fact
nature of the future people. "Hm. The city is dead. We
appear to have made a mistake." Okay, so global warming's a problem, but I'm not buying San Francisco
is going to be THIS bad in 2050. I mean, either the biggest
earthquake ever came through here, or the place got bombed by a nuke. But even then, there are no denizens or
refugees. Something else is going on here. We also find out why
Svensson is so important. In the future, everything is powered by this special blue-green algae that he
helped engineer, or something like that. Again, this game only gives us
pieces of information at a time. So we get the antenna working,
and check in with Command. [static]
["Oh...God. We tr...reach you for days."] Hm.
["Hello? Hello? ["The connec...is bad...can we...?"] Okay! See ya later! So, we contact the rest of our team and... Hm. Hm... Okay, she's having a bad day. ["I repeat: We are--"] OH! DEAD! ["Abort mission! Get...get
yourselves to safety."] Dead. ["...point six... I
c...hea...It's the da..."] Okay, bye! I have to give the game props. They just killed off almost all
the characters in under a minute. And this is after learning all
their names the scene before. Boy, that's time travel for you. Our characters may be naïve
but the game sure isn't. So we come back and our superior's headed
off to go kill himself or something. I don't know. I guess we'd better go find the body. [screams]
["Nigel?!"] Oh, he's alive. ["Fay!" ["Hold on! I'm coming! ["Ah!"] And that's the game! It's
short but satisfying. I've got to give an award here: Most naïve time travelers. I love them. Too bad they're all dead. Well, if you head into a rough situation with little more than optimism,
this is usually how it plays out. Anyway, stay tuned for the
next episode for a mo--Oh wait! She can't be dead.
This has already happened. Or rather it hasn't happened yet, but she obviously made the jump back
farther if she's telling us the story. Most stories don't end
with "And then I died!" So, um... Oh yeah. It was just
one story. That's nothing. ["Strange. There's a lot
of paper on the wall."] Yeah, that's called wallpaper, Fay.
That's what probably killed Napoleon. Future people are great. So after looking around, we find Nigel,
and Fay makes multiple good suggestions. ["I will get a rope! Then I can--" ["No, Fay. You have to--" ["Did you try the railing...?"] Yeah, try the railing.
That's what I would do. Or hey, there was a rope right here. But no, instead he gives these
long-winded instructions-- seriously, it takes him over
a minute to talk to her-- then he fakes her out like
he's going to take her help, and instead, passes her some data capsule, NOW he's dead. ["Aaaaaaahhh!"] So um... ["What's this? A distress signal! The
second San Francisco team is still alive! ["The source of the signal is
less than two miles away."] Ah, okay. We were a little
premature there. Onward! We find the other team--they're having some
problems like all future people seem to-- and through some adventure
game puzzling, we rescue them. But, oop! We have an interruption. ["Honestly! I know the
theories about climate change. ["And I truly believe something
must be done about it. ["San Francisco flooded?
Tornadoes in Europe? ["And all this early as 2050? Ridiculous!"] Yeah! Exactly! ["We calculate time
differently than you do."] Why? ["Maybe it's 2500."] That's kind of a big difference, Fay! ["Wait! I am sure. It was 2050."] Fay's not a very good witness. ["Do you want me to continue or not?" ["Depends. How long will it take?"] Yeah. I've got drinking to do. So, back to the future,
we rescue the other team and discuss plans for the next time jump. ["If I miscalculate, we could end up ["all across a period of
three weeks in pieces." ["Then you'd better not miscalculate." ["Hm. Then I'd better not miscalculate."] Ah, future people. I'd say "never
change" but you kind of have to. And we have power at night in the
devastated city, but still no people. ["I don't want us to get
murdered in our sleep."] Me neither. So we start getting things in order
for the next jump doing future stuff. Pew! ["Whoa-whoa-whoa! That's dangerous!
My color modulator has gone crazy ["and I need the membrane to
keep the energy level steady. ["If the light slips into the
red spectrum, even a little, ["the pulser will--"]
Okay, okay! Settle down. Nobody's taking your color modulator. All right! It's future time! PEWM! ["Are you mad?!"] Salvador takes my gun away
from me for some reason, but I get to explore the library. I like this part. What can I say?
I'm a sucker for future history. Anyway, I solve some future
puzzles, because of course I do, and then I gain access to the archives. ["My name is Quickie! And I am
part of a multifunctional--"] Oh no... Okay, so he's Quickie, not Pointy. Just go away. Stop. Just stop. ["Error: This query cannot be processed."] Yeah, that's what I thought. ["There is no help available
on the topic: help."] It is kind of interesting seeing a battle
of the wits between Fay and the AI here. ["Please talk to our friendly personnel
at one of the service points." ["All the personnel are dead!" ["I am sorry, but I didn't
understand you correctly."] Fay loses. ["Dammit! Ugh..."] But we get our data anyway
thanks to future elbow grease. We take it back to Salvador--who
has mellowed out a little bit, and we get a big plot point. Our research shows that an
energy tycoon, Emilio Indez, has a chain of power plants, except one ended up screwing up and
took out a bunch of the rain forest, which triggered a rapid climate change
event which led to San Francisco here. Just before the accident, there were protests and a
hearing to shut down the plants. but they decided to let him keep
going due to a lack of alternatives. Fay thinks they should present the
blue-green algae at the hearing, Salvador says we need
to prevent the accident, and sort of insinuates that maybe we
need to assassinate him--I don't know. And that drawing keeps making it look
like Fay has a soul patch. It's weird. Either way, we need to get our
asses to Brazil in the past. Except is that our future or the present? We're not given any dates and
Fay here mixes up 50 with 500. I don't know when we are. And Svensson jumps in. ["Nonsense. If a climate catastrophe occurs, ["it will be through global warming. ["Continuous environmental pollution is the
enemy, and not some Hollywood scenarios."] Yeah, sounds right to me. These are very expressive faces. Anyway, from here we get into a lot
of technicalities of time travel. I won't bore you with the details
since I could go on all day about that, but it ends up with Fay
sabotaging the jump zone, and Delvin being stranded in
post-apocalyptic San Francisco. He takes it very well, but I think
the reality just hasn't sunken in yet. And the game redeems itself because
we finally get to see a jump. ["The second time jump was... ["...different from the first one. ["The pain was excruciating."] Boy, ain't that the truth. And that concludes Fay's story. And wouldn't you know it?
After all is said and done, Svensson is still just a grumpy old hermit. ["Get out. Get out of my life!"] I can't blame him. I mean, let's get real. That fogging machine fix
isn't going to hold. He's going to have to buy real parts, then you question if you're just
throwing good money after bad, and I think drinking time is
going to come early today. Oh wait. He's just going to get cold
cocked instead. That works, too. So Svensson wakes up on
the helicopter, breaks out, traps Fay and her converted
pilot, tries calling the cops, but because it's time radio and not
normal radio, he gets Delvin instead. Then he sees the time egg,
this really confuses him, and it's flashback time! And this one is 100% flash BACK this time, as in this happened in the PAST before
she showed up in the helicopter. So not future-past, just present-past. Or rather, Svensson's past. I'm still not sure what time
this is in relation to us. So we head to Fay's and Salvador's arrival. I like Fay's reaction to
seeing a rubber chicken. ["I've never seen such a
strange thing before!"] So here we are at the conference. Here's where the game starts turning
up the mixed reactions for me and it's not going to stop. First off, we were teetering on the brink
of one-dimensional stereotypical characters, but it completely goes over the edge here. We have the bumbling scientist
trying to defend us... ["...find the relevant
graphs on...uhm...page 522, ["but I am sure you've already read it."] ...we have the evil megalomaniacal energy
baron smoothly lying through his teeth, we have his paid-off lackey inspector
also dripping with evil and arrogance... ["No 'but'! Tell the kitchen Dr. Brown
sent you. Ooh, yes, THAT Dr. Brown!"] This all confuses me because I feel like
we have two different narratives here. On one hand, the story is
trying to be taken seriously, and if you're willing to accept time
travel, it's attempting to be plausible. Also, this is not a game for kids. I mean,
it's not hardcore R-rated or anything, but there's some language in here, plus...
well, I don't want to spoil too much yet. Yeah, 12 and up. This is meant
for adults or mature-enough teens. So we have a plotline and content for
adults, but the characters, the dialog, some of the acting, is pure
Saturday morning cartoon material. I mean, let's not beat around the bush. This game is trying to
channel "Captain Planet". You're playing the underdogs trying to
stop the big and powerful polluters. Except we don't have superpower rings
or an actual pig-man as a villain; we just have regular people. So you would think this is Captain Planet
for adults, except the dialog never grew up. ["Take me to your leader."] So I don't even know how to
judge this. It's too bizarre. I feel like I'm witnessing
an identity crisis. In fact, this gets an award: Captain Planet midlife crisis. Okay, so that's the first
issue, but let's reiterate. This is a sort of hearing to decide if
Indez's power plants are safe, right? We have to change people's minds because, in a week, one of them is going to blow up, take out the rainforest, and
bring forth global warming. But here we learn these are
NUCLEAR power plants. To the best of my knowledge, nuclear plants: 1. Aren't built to blow up anymore; and 2. Are not the problem as far
as global warming is concerned. The big issue with modern nuclear
power is the waste disposal, because that stuff does not go away. In fact, "disposal" is kind of a
misleading term because that implies once it's disposed of, it's done, you
don't have to worry about it anymore. Yeah, maybe. Or maybe in 300 years, it'll
leak and contaminate the ground water. The future people in 500 years?
Whatever nuclear waste we create now, that's still their problem. But for global warming, it's
not really going to do much? So yeah, if it's not handled properly, it'll make everything in the vicinity
sick and kill you in a horrendous way, but the climate shouldn't change too much. So if global warming is the big culprit
that ruins the future in the game, why is the NUCLEAR power
plant the villain here? The game wants to be taken seriously, but then it throws up a scenario
that undercuts its own logic! But, it seems AWARE of this, too! Isn't that EXACTLY what Svensson was saying
earlier? None of the plot works this way? So is there some between-the-lines-fourth-
wall-breaking wink to the audience here? Why?! Okay, okay. I forgot. I
think that's the real answer. We'll see more of this, but
let's focus on some of the good. I mentioned how this game
didn't have an enormous budget, but it still has a lot of production value and it was probably still pretty high for
an adventure game, especially visually. That really starts showing here. I don't know if it's how my brain is wired, but part of me thinks everything
looks good in evening light. And man, that is certainly the case here. In fact, I like this art style in general. It keeps reminding me of "Aeon
Flux" and I love that show. Anyway, this part of the game stands out since we have some pretty
solid eco-terrorism here. First, we incite the crowd in
order to distract security. ["Listen to me!" ["Listen to her!"] LISTEN TO HER!
["Listen to her!"] Then Fay steals the
distracted monitor's car keys, wrecks his car,
which is his pride and joy... ["Oops! That must've been the
self-destruction mechanism."] He's mysteriously gone after that. I like imagining what might've happened. Next, after negotiations fail
with the lackey inspector, Fay taints his beverage so
he runs to the bathroom, except she's switched the
signs where the bathroom is, so he meets up with Salvador instead. Surprise! Salvador's negotiation methods
are a little different than Fay's. ["Let me talk to him. I
have my own methods."] His aren't any more effective,
but he decides, what the hell, he'll just stand in and
pretend to be the inspector. Now here I'm a little confused
because I don't think that's a wig since this entire operation is a Plan B. They're just making this up as they go. So I think Salvador must've scalped him? Oh yeah. I forgot to mention. He already killed some wastelander
back in the future off-camera. He was a little loopy
but not really dangerous, but Salvador isn't big on taking chances. ["Where? Where is my friend?" ["He refused to cooperate. I
had to 'minimize the risk'." ["Did you--?"
"Yes."] I mean, we just have some
blood stains afterwards, maybe he stuffed him in the
cabinet. I don't know. Moving on! Salvador gets an "A" for effort
but an "F" for execution. Again, I can't stop but admire how blunt
the approach is of the future people. ["If we allow him to contaminate
our planet with his pollutants, ["we have to expect catastrophic climate
changes worldwide as early as 2050."] They're just using common sense, and
guess what? That gets you arrested. ["Security!"] And to really round this off, Fay steals a key card and opens
up the doors for the protesters who rush in so Salvador
escapes in the confusion. It's like they're trying to squeeze in
a little bit of a zombie movie in here. I'm not going to complain about that. This entire chapter is above average for the level of chaos you can
cause in an adventure game. And that's saying something since almost every adventure game hero
is a kleptomaniac right from the start. I'm a big fan of games and movies where you
maximize chaos, and this doing it justice. The whole game should've been like
this--there's real potential here. And hey, if you've been paying attention,
you'd know that we just changed history. The convention did NOT approve the
plant because it never finished. That means we're doing something! So let's keep doing things. Fay managed to give some
airtime to the blue-green algae, so now we need to head to the source
so we can prove it to the world. And that means going to the
ocean lab where it was developed. ["You old warhorse! Never thought
I'd see you around here again! ["Is that gray in your beard?"] "Beard", huh? Looks like the scriptwriter wasn't
talking to the character artist enough. ["May I introduce you to Princess Leia." ["Huh? What are you talking
about? My name is Fay!"] Uh-oh! You hear that, Disney?
Looks like somebody's getting sued! And again, the audio
direction needs some help. Listen to Svensson talk about the possibility
of his life's work being destroyed. ["The research funds were canceled." ["What?!" ["Bent, that's a disaster!" ["Indeed. It would mean the end of my
work. It has all been for nothing."] Yeah. That performance really
pulls on the heartstrings, huh? The research base has
converted from an old oil rig, and as usual, the art looks
is pretty spectacular. Before we're let on, though, we
have to go through a medical exam, and this game does not forget
its adventure game roots. Jeez, that's a lot of crabs
for a doctor's office! Uh, anyway, we need to get the doctor to
approve our medical pass, but he's busy. So rather than tap him on the
shoulder, we try to stamp it ourselves, except the inkpad is out of ink. So we just use blood from storage
to stamp that sucker instead. No time for ink!
We've gotta save the planet! So we show up, and this
part just gets depressing. The research facility
has lost its grant money so now it's having to curry favor
with investors to buy them out. So we get to attend a meeting trying
to convince them we're worth it. And since we've changed history, now Indez is here interested
in buying the algae research. Here we have another identity crisis since
we have to eavesdrop and hear his real plans, which are to buy out the
technology and shelve it, because it would represent a fundamental
threat to his energy profits. And you know what? That is a real business
tactic that gets employed sometimes. Did you know that Kodak invented
the digital camera in 1975? And while it was rough, it was good to
go in the '80s, but they buried that because they thought it would
jeopardize their regular camera sales and stalled it as long as possible. Sometimes business interests
are diametrically opposed to producing a superior
or alternative technology, and that's a good point
to bring up in the game. But the presentation of this
is back to Captain Planet. He's antagonizing the scientists and even does an evil "BWAHAHA!"
laugh when nobody is looking. ["And what do you plan to do about it?" ["What every good businessman
would do. I'm going to buy it! ["I will put one specimen on my shelf,
and I'll dump the rest into the ocean. ["Bon voyage, Dr. Svensson! Hahahaha!"] Yeah, that'll really drive
the point home, guys. I swear, this game builds itself up
just to tear itself back down again. But we actually get a decent
mini-mystery in this chapter where both Fay and Svensson
discover signs of sabotage. We also have to talk to Svensson's son
about this who's an insufferable prick. He's no help at all. ["So, how's life as the head
of research on Atlas 11?" ["How do YOU think it is?! It makes me sick! ["I still can't believe that I
wanted to be like you once..."] No wonder your dad drinks so much. So we try talking to another researcher
who we're long term friends with. Surely she'll be help, right? ["We don't have any money left. ["That means no new instruments,
no repairs, no qualified experts. ["And if the research gets worse, we
get fewer investors. A vicious circle. ["We work under a lot of pressure
and under horrible conditions. ["In a situation like
that, mistakes happen."] Yeah, this is depressing... At least their refirgerator
is in good working order. Well that sucks, but what's
going on with the algae? She keeps dodging all my questions. ["I'll find out what's going on." ["Please don't. Please stay out of this." ["But--"
"Trust me. It's better this way. ["And I suggest you stop searching for it.
Just trust me. It's for your own good."] Man, what the hell? ["I found a dried out sample in its pocket." ["Please, Bent. Put it away
before someone gets hurt."] Good God, man! You trying
to get us all killed?! Actually, the answer is closer
to "yes" than you might think. We'll get there in a minute. ["Lissa?"] Meanwhile, Fay's investigation gets spurred when Indez's lawyer reveals he's
trying to sabotage the algae. ["The algae must be completely
destroyed or my client won't pay."] And does that not sound exactly
like a cartoon villain voice? ["Enjoy it while you still can! ["As of tomorrow, you'll
be a long way from here!"] I mean that is a kids'
cartoon character inflection. I'm not even listening for this;
I just notice it playing the game and have to remind myself he's not
a talking alligator or something. ["Hahaha! These things happen."] Anyway, long investigation cut short, the
algae was being sabotaged six ways to Sunday: During the presentation by a mole; two weeks before the presentation
by the same mole, I think; and by a worker straight-up
planning to bomb the rig. Ah, more evening light. Svensson diffuses the bomb... [ticking]
Uh... ...while Fay chases after him. He bumbles around, they struggle,
and he falls to his death, maybe. So they save the day in the end, but... Oh. No. Excuse me. The algae fields were set on fire while
they were taking care of the bomb. So they puzzle their way back to the lab and oops! Your longtime friend has
been shot and killed! Damn! Like I said, despite having
cartoon characters go "Bwahaha!", this game isn't really for kids. This is not Captain Planet territory here.
The power of Heart isn't going to fix this. ["Heart!"] So everything is trashed except the algae
ball where we can salvage the last sample, except WHOOPS! There's at least
eight more BOMBS set to go off here! It turns out THIS saboteur is
kid cartoon lawyer/villain. I mean, that's plausible. Lawyers are known
for getting their hands dirty rigging bombs and holding people up at gunpoint. You know, what with all
the free time they have. Hey, wasn't this the same guy
running the panel at the conference? So that conference didn't think
that was a conflict of interest letting Indez's lawyer be the chairman? Okay, back to the present...I think. We learn that the mole is--bum bum bum... ...your son! This isn't really a problem for us since
the game made him totally unlikable. But I guess that's Svensson's problem. Anyway, we get trapped
in here James Bond-style and we get one of the best
music tracks in the game that would fit a James
Bond or Hitchcock film. [driving music] I'll save more of it for the end. Anyway, while we're not doing
anything, about the music: It's serviceable and has
some interesting ideas, but it's a tad too reserved for my tastes. I remember thinking it was
so-so when I played this, but considering how many generic
symphony scores I've heard since then, it makes this look better by comparison. I like the moody music
in the future at night. [eerie ambient music] Yeah. So we escape, but the lawyer catches up and
allows us to live if we hand over the algae. And I know I keep doing this, but
I have to point out these lines. ["I may just be the lackey of
an unscrupulous energy mogul, ["but you are no James Bond!"] I guess the music got him
thinking about Bond, too. ["Farewell, Mr. Bent! Hahahahahaha!"] Anyway, we get reunited, Fay offers her usual insight... ["Are you hurt?" ["I think I...broke my leg." ["Does that hurt?" ["YES! YES, GOD DAMMIT! YES!" ["Then it is broken." ["YEEAAAARRRRGH-AAARRRRGH--!"] And we puzzle our way to safety
as we watch the oil rig explode. And it is back to Brazil for the
final showdown to get our algae back and put a stop to Indez. Meanwhile, Salvador is already in
place and is going in solo without us. This is all coming to a boil and this
really is starting to feel like a Bond film, if he had no gun or
combat skills whatsoever. But, since this game is a kids'
cartoon when it wants to be, we throw a snake at a mean guard
with a submachine gun trained on us, and that's all it takes to
stop him as you can hear. ["ARRRRRGGH! GO AWAY! GET
OFF OF ME! HURRRRRGH!" ["Hurry, Bent. Get in the boat."] So we make it. The jungle is gorgeous and we sneak inside. We're getting close to Salvador which means this is starting to
look like a scene from "Scarface". So I guess that means we turn
kid cartoon mode back off. Here we learn the villain is planning on
killing our son and idiot pilot. Oh no! But that's okay. Fay assures
us this can't happen. ["If Duve had died today, the algae
wouldn't have existed in the future ["and we wouldn't have been
able to travel to the past. ["The timeline would've changed drastically, ["so much so, in fact, that
I would disintegrate."] Wow. Okay. We split up, Fay saves the algae, and this part of the music sounds
very familiar to me. I can't place it. [music] Svensson saves Salvador who
returns the favor with a vengeance. ["Good grief! You didn't
have to go and kill the man!" ["Are you here to discuss ethics
or do you want to save the world? ["Because we don't have time for both."] Let's save the world! And here we get a big plot reveal. ["Fay lied to you, Svensson. There
was no accident. *I* am the accident. ["What day is it today? March 27, 1982."] What the f--? Okay, he's making
a speech, we'll keep going. ["There was a catastrophe, yes, ["but it wasn't an isolated
individual event that caused it. ["There wasn't a big bang. It was a
gradual process that took decades. ["The photos you saw were from the
early 26th century, not from 2050." ["My blue-green algae! The one you
use as a power source in the future!" ["Think about it. We live
in bunkers below the earth. ["What use is photosynthesis to
us if we don't have any sunlight? ["Ironically, we must get by
with the sources you left us. ["Our electrical power is
provided by nuclear reactors." ["So there IS no Svensson-Generator?" ["Ha ha ha, no. At least
not before my job is done."] IT WAS ALL A LIE! ["People must be forced
to do the right thing. ["Power plants like this ["will completely ruin the rainforest's
ecosystem over the next century, ["but when people finally realized that, ["and decided to act,
it was already too late. ["Only a catastrophe will open
their eyes to the truth."] All right, all right. I have
to stop. This is such a mess. Okay, first off, yeah, if this is 1982, then nuclear power WAS
still pretty dangerous, enough to wipe out a big part of the
rainforest if there was a meltdown. But we fixed that, right? And the
creators knew that! This was made in 2010! SO WE ALREADY KNOW THIS
WAS TO PREVENT SOMETHING THAT WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN ANYWAY! Nrgah! Second, I KNEW that wasn't
2050 and so did Svensson. ["2050 is nonsense, like
the rest of your story."] But third, THIS ISN'T 1982! Let's back up. That is a flat-panel widescreen monitor! Oh look! ANOTHER flat-panel
widescreen monitor, with what looks like reasonably modern
multi-track audio editing software! AND ANOTHER FLAT-PANEL WIDESCREEN MONITOR! Now you might be saying, "NO,
ROSS! THAT WAS FROM THE FUTURE! "HE WAS TALKING TO DELVIN ON IT!" Uh-uh. You see it moments before the time jump. Fay and Salvador haven't even
entered the timeline yet. Now this is a CRT
but that looks an awful lot like the starfield simulator
screensaver for Windows 3.1. Or maybe the After Dark
screensaver for Mac in 1989. And the bulky rounded edge keyboard and
mouse are looking awfully 90s to me! Sure, the hairstyles
check out. I mean, damn... But who had this in '82? Even the
damned game isn't in widescreen. But fine. It's 1982. I
got Black Mirror'd again. I guess the fact that the soundtrack CD is made to look like a record should've
tipped me off, but what the hell? Well then, if Fay was lying about the algae
power, why were they at the conference? If there's no nuclear accident, and the
algae power isn't ready for primetime yet, what are they even doing? I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF THIS MANY LIES! Okay, let's continue. You know, I actually kind
of agree with Salvador here, except he has a flaw in his logic. He's assuming if there's a giant
disaster and impending danger, humanity will naturally
react to save itself. Uh, maybe? We had Three Mile Island and
Chernobyl, nuclear power's still here. We had the Gulf War spill,
Deepwater Horizon spill, the Valdez, we still use oil more than ever. I don't think Salvador is going to get the
results he wants by blowing up the plant. So since this is Earth Day and
this plot twist got me riled up, I thought I should say some Earth Day stuff, but my mind's kind of fragmented, so we're
just going to do the lightning round. Let's go. This game is all about global warming. Here's a time-lapse video
by NASA of the Arctic that shows ice tens of thousands of
years old melting in the past 30 years. That looks like ice cream melting. I see that and I think we're freaking
done. We're going to lose this. It's just a question of how
bad we're going to lose. Antarctica is holding out better, which is good because that's where
all those Lovecraftian ruins are. We don't want those melting. But it's still melting under
the surface so that's bad. While it's important, I think all the talk of global warming
crowds out talk about regular pollution which currently kills one in six people. I mean, holy crap! That's
like Russian Roulette. Speaking of holy crap numbers, over half of our wildlife
is gone from 40 years ago. Unless you're someone who gets
attacked by wolves on a regular basis, that sounds really bad. [Awoooo!] I think most of humanity just
kind of goes with the flow and isn't trying to break
everything, unless they're 15, so if we have all these problems, I think it's our system pointing
us in the wrong direction. I see it like "Lemmings", except
the Blockers are in the wrong place, the Diggers don't know what they're doing, this level's a mess. So I think to save the Earth, we
need to get better at Lemmings? Or maybe sophisticated
counterpropaganda across multiple venues over a long period of time AND rooting out
actors trying to sabotage the human race? Okay, that's all I've got.
Let's finish the game. Fay shows up and starts her usual spiel
about how we shouldn't kill everyone. Salvador tells us to get out of here
because he needs to kill everyone. This leads to some disagreement. We head to the reactor, and it's
getting close to melting down. We try to stop it, but
Salvador intercepts us. From here, it reminds me of that door gag
from Looney Tunes as he chases us around. It ends with Svensson and Indez inside, and Fay and Salvador being
BURNED ALIVE by steam! ["Steam, not smoke."] [screaming in agony] BOO! This ending SUCKS! Salvador was live by the
sword, die by the sword, but I think Fay was the most
likeable character in the game. Her rampant naïveté can-do attitude, and not understanding the
present, all surprisingly worked. I found myself looking forward
to a lot of her commentary. ["Mascara? A lipstick? Why do people
need a paint box for their face?" ["I wonder how many people live here." ["Such a huge bed. He must've
found it in some kind of palace."] So yeah! Kill her off, game!
What's the point of anything, then? So Indez gets a threat because some committee member
was watching this on camera, because we have videoconferencin g inside
reactor cores in '82 al so apparently. She says that this accident
will be investigated, so maybe he'll go to jail or maybe nothing
at all will happen to him. We don't know. I imagine Indez can afford
pretty good lawyers. The annoying pilot writes
a book on the incident and goes on the TV circuit
talking about his bestseller. Whatever. I don't care. Bent is still alive, so that's something. He's working together on the
algae with his unbearable son. Yeah, I don't see that lasting. His son made it really
clear how much he hates him. Even as he was in a sinking capsule where it was looking like
they were all going to die, he was still trash talking his dad. He's on permanent Brooding Teenager Mode. If he's not an insufferable
prick when his dad's not around, I'll never know because
that's all I ever saw of him. And it ends with some stupid joke
I'm not even going to repeat here. And that's the game. This ending is garbage. It needs to be recycled
into something better. They should've escaped with Fay,
let Salvador kill everyone else, blow the reactor, start over. I mean, the way this ends, we don't
even know if we've changed anything since everything was a lie. So is that what happened? Everything's already a done
deal despite having time travel? That always is a risk. ["Do you know what a
predestination paradox is?"] So what to make of this game? Well, despite its many problems,
I found it largely enjoyable. Between time travel, the different
locales and the conflicts, it definitely felt like an adventure. And you know what? That's exactly
what I want from my adventure games. I'm not sure it had any impact at all on making people any more
environmentally conscious, what with the kid cartoon performances
and getting really preachy. ["Wait." ["'Wait'? Is that your generic
answer to every problem?"] I mean, what was the message? "Don't build nuclear power
plants based on 80s technology "because they'll wreck the climate,
even though that's not how that works"? I still don't know how to place this game. It did so many things right, then just sorta got drunk
watching Captain Planet episodes. Here, let's bring out this award
again. This much is obvious. I can tell a lot of heart went into this
game and that took us into odd places. That's about the best I
can ask from most games. Oh look! We have a kicker. Yeah, another time egg. So
we didn't fix anything. Yep. Well, uh, happy Earth Day! I'm still not sure what that
means we should be doing, and it seems like the game doesn't
know either, so really, it's perfect. And that's the episode! Stay tuned for
the next one for a movie-based game. Yeah! One of those. [music] Svensson? Where are you going? Svensson?
I really like seeing Ross videos on this sub, the guy really pours his soul on his work, he could really use more exposure.
Yeah! Ross Game Dungeon is the only long form YouTube content that I consistly enjoy.
One day I'll Patreon, one day.
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