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Tuesday 29 May, 2012
On my third play I continued leveling up this time I entered the gym where the boys let another person escape stating how it is not some miracle but because they choose to let her live. Upon leaving I was greeted to another cut scene this one of Eric being beaten up by some jocks. I also notice that in replenishing health Eric is allowed to replenish by taking Anti-depressants while Dylan is not. This along with the girlfriend cut scene makes me feel like Dylan was the leader and Eric who was just the weaker of the two followed along to feel some kind of connection to another human being. The next new place I found was the stage’s lighting room where you see a cut scene from a Frankenstein play. After the boys talk about how they too have become monsters because of the evil doctor which is society. By playing this second time through and finding more places like this I realize even while going through the school committing this crime they most likely were having their own self-realization at moments.
A part of the game that seemed wrong to put in was in the upstairs bathrooms. In the boys’ bathroom a smaller boy is being picked on by some jocks. You proceed to kill the jocks and let the boy escape and he gives you the reward of health packs. This section seems to glorify their acts and almost treat them as heroes. I as well as others probably felt this was wrong to do. In the girls’ bathroom your character makes jokes about a girl being on her period after you kill her and about the janitor fixing the leaky roof would be confused for a third shooter. While I laughed a little other people may take these bathroom jokes as bad humor. But if the creator was to throw any jokes in then the bathrooms would be the best place for them. The last person I found that was able to live I found in the library. He asks your characters what they are doing they respond “just killing people”. This made me question what parts of this game were actually real. So I investigated online and read an account of what had actually happened. I found that the boy in the library and the boy in the lot were both actually confronted and allowed to leave but the game uses different names. I also read about the majority of incidents occurring in the library so I played through the library some more to see what actual events were included. I found there is a church girl that the boys asking if she believed in God which they kill in the game. The game followed a rumored story and not the true story where the girl actually lives and doesn’t get killed. This is another place where the game succeeds in getting players to investigate what really did happen. I continued playing the game making my way through hell but stopped through as I got bored with the game after about twenty minutes. While I consider myself an RPG fan this one just seemed to get tedious.
As a whole the game was average. The main draw to me was the story it portrays and the fact it gets players to think about the topic. There are a few parts where I feel the creator counteracted points he was trying to make about violence, video games, and music, but some of these may have been done on purpose in a satirical sense. The game did include moral and philosophical aspects throughout and I feel the game’s main focus was to push anti-bulling and just critique society as a whole. I feel the creator chose to use the Columbine background since it would get more attention to show his artistic aspects. This game could have been made with the same message using different characters in a different setting and portrayed the same plot but it would have not received the same attention. In a game rating I give it an average 5, but in the artistic sense it would receive a higher rating as it is using the game media to get it’s point across in a creative way. It mixes in actual events and details with some of the creators ideas. This makes the game feel like it is the boys’ actual thoughts at times when it very well may not be.
The inclusion of poems and lyrics to music after the cut scenes made the games message stronger since it show the ideas that the boys/creator have are not different from others throughout history. While I would not consider the boys heroes in any sense the game tries to make them such at times. While their ideas and feelings may be right and just their actions upon their thoughts is not. This is where the player must distinguish just because you feel strongly about something; violence is not the best answer for portraying your thoughts and getting your point across. I feel this aspect of the game should be pushed more. While it may be there I did not notice it on my play through. The game itself is a good way of portraying such ideas but younger players may not pick up on this. As with most games I feel this game is a valuable tool to get the word and ideas out to the public but not everyone should be allowed to play it since they may not understand the underlying motivation. Also in telling people I was playing this game I received mixed reviews. Some people were disgusted just hearing about it others were disgusted but had a slight open mind to it after I talked about it more, and one person was even happy just to hear I had downloaded it and wanted to try it themselves. The most entertaining was in telling my mother and telling her how I agreed with some of the message the game was portraying. After reassurance it wasn’t in the method of the way the actual event occurred but the message being made by the creator of the game she felt a little better but was still slightly uneasy. Just as I received mixed reviews about playing the game I understand how this game as a whole will receive mixed reviews to society.
The best advice I can give to players starting this game is to play with an open mind explore everywhere and do everything you can. Realize the feelings it gives you as you play and shoot innocents and see how it affects your play-style. In my first play I found myself avoiding fights even though unlimited ammo was just one screen away. I felt my morals kicked in at times as I only killed people who got in my way of reaching my goal. In my second play through of grinding I noticed I almost detached myself from the game skipping dialog and playing with a TV on in the background paying more attention to it than the game. When I did have to chase down a student running down the hall or had to corner someone who kept dodging I did feel a little uneasy at first but I eventually fell into a gamer’s usual detachment from the real world. While this may be a real world event it is all just a virtual portrayal of the real world.
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