Friday 9 November, 2018

Since finishing the game, I went back and made sure to complete all the extra little achievements. I had to make the protagonist throw up from drinking too much and make sure to inspect each of the paintings in the art gallery. The latter achievement was particularly interesting since that collection of artwork made up every art asset-every character, location, and item-in the game. That one room serves as credits, an in-game location, and a hidden achievement, all in one. In fact, I think that Joe Richardson accomplished a number of impressive achievements with this game.

First of all, the concept of taking Renaissance artwork and rigging it to all the game's assets is incredibly creative and very well executed. The game's writing is amusing and thought-provoking, and it functions well in the point-and-click genre. I thought the ending was excellent. The protagonist ends in hell, chained to a rock and armed with a pickaxe. There are all sorts of crazy characters doing bizarre acts on every side, but when the player tries to interact they are all too far out of reach. The only object within reach is a rock, and the only available action is to swing the pickaxe. And so the player does that, and then again, and then again. After the fourth or fifth swing, the game's title appears. Another swing, and the first of the credits appears. With each swing the next line appears, until it just says, "the end :)", and with each subsequent swing the screen darkens a shade, eventually to black.

And now let's get back to that ethical perspective. "Four Last Things" might be summed up as one extensive and harsh critique of Catholicism, or perhaps of organized religion in general. From the beginning, the protagonist is driven to repentance out of guilt inspired by the Church. He dreams about the creation story, of Adam and Eve and "original sin," and it startles him out of his lifestyle of low-key debauchery. But when he comes to the nearest church, the Bishops handle it bureaucratically. They don't care about his sins, about absolution, or about his intentions at all. All that concerns them is that the protagonist follow protocol, even if that means committing each of the seven deadly sins again. The protagonist remains consistently aware of the absurdity of it all, but follows through by seducing a woman, murdering an innocent man, eating far too many meat pies, and siphoning money out of a dead man's inheritance, among other smaller misdemeanors. Later in the plot, another higher up in the Church acknowledges that all this was done for no reason other than to satisfy a power-hungry organization. Even choosing to give away all your possessions to a beggar within the cathedral does not matter to the Church, and you are sacrificed regardless of how you act. The game even goes so far as to let you scream for forgiveness or salvation at the clouds, but no god ever answers. Regardless, you end up chained in Hell for all eternity.

Great job! You’ve got a lot of good thoughts, many of which could be fleshed out and turned into part of an OPA. You mention the game being a critique of Catholicism, which could make a good OPA. You could also do an analysis of the specific design decisions that helped convey the game’s themes, or an analysis of the concept of trying to “sin” for “salvation.” You’ve got that you mentioned that you could work with, I look forward to seeing what you write about.