Written by: Rik
Date posted: May 6, 2016
I was quite interested in discussing some of the plot specifics but decided to keep it out of the main review for fear of spoilers: I know we only ever talk about old games here, but the assumption is that you may or may not have played these games before and therefore would appreciate us not ruining their stories for you, regardless of how long they’ve been around.
So: WARNING! Spoilers for pretty much the whole game ahead!
Early on, it’s pretty obvious that most of the people who were on the ship are dead, bar a handful of survivors, whom you must rescue one by one. Of the characters who express an opinion about Seth’s cybernetic enhancements, Lieutenant Reynolds is fiercely anti-enhancement, Dr DeSoto is broadly in favour of them but only to a limit, while fellow military man Jake wants you to do whatever it takes to win. (The final main human character, Frank Murphy, doesn’t seem to have much of an opinion on the matter, as far as I can remember, and his main contribution is to serve as a third gravelly-voiced male character out of four and have intermittent growl-offs with Walker and Jake).
The ship’s computer, PILOT, is also very interested in you upgrading. Even if you don’t initially suspect that PILOT may not an entirely benevolent guiding presence who is in fact totally mad and evil (which you should, to be honest) the dye is well and truly cast by the time you find the cybernetic brain. I did wonder if installing it might later have ramifications for your freedom of choice: perhaps PILOT would be able to control Seth and prevent you turning on him, which would have been quite neat and clever.
Not only does that not happen, but actually going ‘full robot’ seems to have very little impact on anything, presuming you choose the ‘good’ ending and decide to fight PILOT, other than whether Reynolds might fancy you or not, and a mild expression of regret from Seth during the epilogue. It does change the little picture of Seth that flashes up during dialogue, but there’s no change to the script, and he doesn’t even talk more robotically. A bit more attention in this area would have been nice.
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