Clash of Realities Version 3: Signups

[Draxas]

Here's the signup thread for Version 3. You request 'em, I'll draw 'em up, you folks know the drill by now (or can check the archives if you need a refresher).

[N3B]

I intend to play Edward Carnby from the Alone in the Dark series, most notably the recent incarnation from 2008. Are you familiar with this game, or shall I write up a brief synopsis and bio?

[Razor]

I think I'm gonna go with Thrall of Warcraft 3 fame.

The badass Shaman with the Doomhammer just seems too awesome NOT to play.

[Draxas]

Well, you guys sure can pick 'em.

I have no familiarity with Alone in the Dark, so yeah, a summary would be helpful.

I'm somewhat more familiar with Warcraft 3. I'll see what I can whip up.

[Razor]

I can always help, y'know.

[Draxas]

All right then, feel free to give me the detailed rundown. I'm particularly interested in the stuff that I haven't been able to acquire from my recent dig around the FAQs at Gamefaqs (and for the longest time, that even included which type of hero he was. Useless FAQ authors...), so things like a reliable link to his character models or animations would be great.

[N3B]

Alone in the Dark is a survival-horror action/adventure game starring Edward Carnby. Gameplay consists of a combination of free-roam survival exploration of Central Park, isolated levels with exits and objectives, and scripted action sequences (high-speed driving chase scenes, platforming stuff, etc).

Though the story is set in "modern day" New York, Edward himself is over a hundred years old -- he was a paranormal detective in the mid 1920s, and at some point in his career, suffered a bit of amnesia and (conveniently) wakes up at the beginning of the 2008 iteration of the series.

(By appearances, Edward is either 30 or 50 years old, physically. The box art and loading screens depict him as a younger dude with slightly SE-Asian features, but his actual in game rendering makes him look liked a gnarled-up 50 year old dude. Regardless, his age doesn't appear to take any toll on his actions, since he appears to be some sort of supernatural "Key" to Lucifer's Gate (if I understood the scattered, poorly-implemented plot devices properly))

The first on-screen control prompt, as he is waking up, commands him to blink. He clears his vision through labored blinking efforts, and then, surprisingly, discovers that he must continue to blink in order to see things clearly.

The building soon begins to crumble as it is torn apart by pitch-black fissures tearing through floors and walls, and Edward must prove his dexterity and agility are up to snuff by rappelling down elevator shafts and down the side of the building, by jumping across huge gaps, climbing and dangling across and around ledges, and being an all-around acrobat as he dodges explosions of fire and shrapnel.

In combat, Edward uses a semi-automatic .44 magnum, but discovers that a majority of his foes require fire (by virtually any means of combustion) to die permanently and return to the void of the darkness (this is usually one-hit type of deal, except against bosses -- enemies will fall over (temporarily) with six to ten swings of a melee weapon, but one flash of fire and they dissolve). Magnum ammo is near limitless, as he is never short of it, but incendiary devices are harder to come by. He becomes skilled at improvising weapons from his environment; fashioning bludgeoning devices from chairs, desks, computer monitors, pipes, 2x4s, shovels, fire axes, katanas, and so forth.

Using high-proof bottles of liquor and plastic bottles of gasoline, he creates a variety of explosives and molotovs, which are set on fire and explode on contact, or are shot mid-air and explode mid-air, or adhered with sticky tape and explode once the "fuse" depletes. He has also been known to apply oil and alcohol to his bullets to make fire ammunition. Wooden or otherwise burnable melee weapons are often set on fire in order to battle enemies. Using a combination of his lighter and compressed spray cans, he makes a short-ranged flamethrower.

Edward is a master of hot-wiring, and is able to hijack any vehicle he gets his hands on. Vehicles ofter serve as his stockpiles within Central Park, either by cutting open the gas tank and refilling empty water bottles, or by finding bandages, sticky tape, batteries, bullets, or bottles of alcohol. (He usually has to check trash cans for rags to use as fuses, empty bottles, and so forth.) He'll often shoot cars and use them as massive explosives to take out enemies, to clear paths, or even to destroy Satan's Roots of Supreme Evilness. He likes jumping and rolling out of fast-moving vehicles through a dramatic slow-motion camera angle.

Through the course of his adventures in Central Park, New York, Edward gains the power of Spectral Vision, which allows him to close his eyes and see supernatural elements in their full form. These elements typically manifest themselves in the shape of "fissure points" on enemies -- streaks across their bodies where they are susceptible to fire, weak points which he must aim for. Various puzzles and scripted events require him to use the spectral vision to communicate with ghosts, to see hidden objects, and to find paranormal switches and magical barriers.

He seems to be an expert at mending wounds by using healing medical sprays, or by bandaging deep cuts and burns. Either way, he seems pretty resilient and can take a heavy beating before ultimately falling over dead. It's rare that he actually dies to common zombie demons (if you can call them that) since his health seems to replenish just above the "critical death point" (you take real time damage to your body, and once you reach a certain point the screen goes black and white and your heartbeat starts up, but if you aren't hit badly for a few seconds, the screen turns back to normal and you can take a few more hits before the screen starts up with that B&W stuff) -- with the exception of when he gets a deep wound and will bleed to death within 5 or 7 minutes, if he doesn't find bandages. I don't know if the resilience is a plot element of his peculiar supernatural prowess or just a gameplay mechanic.

Personality-wise, he's a really dry dude with a bit of a cynic attitude. He often makes sarcastic comments, and prefers to use the F-Word to express his exasperation with overly complex puzzles or relentless zergs of zombie demons. He doesn't seem to care too much about the threat to his life -- why the zombie demons are after him -- or that the world is being destroyed and the Final Doom of Man is nigh.

It's never quite clear why he pushes on to solve the mysteries of the crumbling Earth, especially considering he has amnesia and doesn't remember who he is or what he was doing. One explanation might be that he hopes to discover his connections to Satan or whatever the hell is going on, but this is never really explained. The ending seems to indicate that he's a really careless and apathetic dude, when he kind of chuckles and simply walks away from the reincarnated Lucifer, after all the Hell he went through to get to the end of the game (ha ha I made a pun). So I have no real idea what his motivation is.

He seems to have strong feelings for the romantic interest NPC who seems more like an afterthought, implemented so that she can stay out of the actual game and send you EMAILS summarizing the plot. It comes as a bit of a surprise when she is possessed and Edward seems stressed to save her, and when they make some sort of romantic comment and have a dramatic slow-mo kiss.

[Draxas]

Razor: The preliminaries are already posted, but your profile remains a work in progress. If you could help fill in the mising info, that would be great.

N3B: Oh lordy, where to begin? After having read up on Alone in the Dark on Wikipedia, and through your summary, all but the first sound like absolute train wrecks of games. While I will take Edward's abilities and skills from all of the installments, the plot of the most recent one is too scattered, nonsensical, and cliched (if that's at all possible) to even attempt to work with. So yeah, I'll be dumping your ass into the first game.

Amnesiac detective thrown forward in time from the 1930s, but he's a master at hotwiring modern automobiles. Seriously, WHAT?

[N3B]

Do I still get molotovs and incendiary devices?

I aint never played any of the other ones -- I picked Mr Carnby cause of what an experience playing Alone in the Dark (2008) was. Don't know that I'd be that enthusiastic if he's going to be drastically different than what I'm familiar with O.o

[N3B]

Jul 15, 2009 14:27:33 GMT -5 Draxas said:

Amnesiac detective thrown forward in time from the 1930s, but he's a master at hotwiring modern automobiles. Seriously, WHAT?

Is he thrown forward in time, or semi-immortal? The game I played featured another character who was a "Key" to Lucifer's Gate who'd been hanging out in a cavern for several hundred years waiting for something to happen. Which makes me think Ed's got the vampire thing going on, where you're immortal so long as you don't get killed.

[Draxas]

As I said, I'll be drawing Ed's abilities from all the games he's been featured in, so he shouldn't feel like a stranger... Of course, his only real ability seems to be a knack for firearms and finding clever ways of slaughtering undead horrors. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

As for his immortality, I read somewhere during my research that he was "asleep" somehow between the 1930s and 2001 (when he came back for AitD: New Nightmare). Of course, this leads others to say that the two more recent games are non-canon; I think canon is overrated. But still, it's a mystery how he manages to fail to age (or perhaps age in reverse) between the games.

[Draxas]

Edward Carnby is complete. Let me know what you think, and if you'll accept or reject him.

[Draxas]

Thrall is now also complete. As above, let me know if you want to accept or reject.

[Razor]

Acceptable, if you've got some reason for Thrall to be missing the Doomhammer and Orgrim's Plate Armor, since they're kinda his trademarks.

[N3B]

Jul 15, 2009 16:29:23 GMT -5 N3B said:

But do I still get molotovs and incendiary devices?

Also, what is the potential to learn Techniques?

Of course, the only one that comes to mind is Spectral Vision O.o