PigLick on 7/5/2014 at 01:12
Arise from the grave!
Act 3 is finally out. Gonna be playing it tonight, apparently is quite a bit bigger than the previous two chapters.
Renzatic on 7/5/2014 at 05:51
I'm starting to get the distinct impression that the choices you make in the game, the dialog you choose, and the history you build, change the story by quite a bit as it goes along. Makes me wonder if Act III played out any differently for you all than it did for me.
I hope we don't have to wait as long for Act IV. We're getting so close to Dogwood Lane now.
june gloom on 7/5/2014 at 10:01
Worth the wait. Oh my god, worth the fucking wait.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, KRZ seems to be a love letter to the weird bits of my teenage years. Up to and including making Colossal Cave Adventure references -- something I spent many hours playing back in the mid-90s.
I think the bit that really cemented this game's place as my favourite thing ever, though, was the bit in the bar with Junebug singing. Just mindblowing -- I'm going to take that memory with me forever. I also love that the bar itself mirrored the entirely fictional (well, fictional for the KRZ universe) set of "The Entertainment," up to and including a bartender named Harry waiting on a singer named Junebug.
It feels like things are picking up, now. Like we're about to head into the run-up to the finale. If you play Limits and Demonstrations, then the first two acts, then The Entertainment, then the third act, it becomes clear that there is a narrative thread strung throughout having to do with Lula Chamberlain, her university friends, and Kentucky's caves (which, by the way, really are that enormous -- Mammoth Cave has been mapped to about 390 miles, and that's just where they stopped.)
I think part of what gives the game its retro feel is that so much of it is in reference to the early days of computing and how artists in the 70s and 80s used then-emerging technology (sometimes blended with older, outdated tech) in their work. Lula Chamberlain's name refers to William Chamberlain, the creator of an early-80s poetry generator called Racter. Racter apparently was used to write a book of poems titled "The Policeman's Beard Is Half-Constructed" which Ben quotes in Limits and Demonstrations (and which I bought on a whim off Amazon for like 4 bucks, so I'll let you guys know if it's any good.) There's also the abundance of retro hardware throughout, Shannon's fascination with such (inasmuch as it leads her to a career in TV repair) among other things. So much of what goes on in the game makes it difficult to really date. You'd have to make educated guesses based on Lula's supposed age in the main game vs. her age in 1973 (at least college-age) when she helped put on "The Entertainment."
I've also begun to suspect that Ben, Bob and Emily are stand-ins for the developers. They've shown up four times now -- both the free games (though they have no lines in The Entertainment, they're very clearly part of the audience) and in acts 1 and 3. They're probably in 2 as well and I just haven't found them.
PigLick on 7/5/2014 at 11:07
Yeh the "love too late" song in the bar was worth the price of admission alone, my jaw dropped.
Thirith on 7/5/2014 at 12:46
How much longer is this than the previous acts? I'm wondering whether to take a break from Drangleic this weekend and immerse myself in some magic realist goodness instead.
Briareos H on 7/5/2014 at 12:47
Not longer.
PigLick on 7/5/2014 at 12:50
Well the developers themselves said it was "more involved". I guess that doesnt relate to actual gameplay length.
But godamn that song was awesome.
june gloom on 7/5/2014 at 19:21
It's a BIT longer. Not double the length of either act, but at least a good 15-20 minutes more than before.
