Adventure Gamers - Forums

There were more puzzles in this section than I thought, which was a nice surprise. Nothing mind blowing, but I’m glad you got some kick out of it.

They reminded me of Lure of The Temptress and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade.

If anyone’s stuck, or has questions:

We’ll start the next section tomorrow!

Great!

Next section begins in about an hour. I’ve decided to rearrange the final two sections into three, hopefully giving everyone a change to catch up.

We are now in the middle of the plot. It’s coming from all directions.

One of the more interesting characters we’ve met is Giselle. Like everyone aboard Center 7, she’s a survivor, but she still feels ownership of who she is. Everyone’s been broken, reassembled, and fed back into the machine. She made up her mind to resist.

If you ask her why she wants to escape, she talks about the philosophical core of Gemini Rue. Giselle’s mind wants to resist being wiped away. It could be pure neurological biology: why wouldn’t consciousness have a survival instinct of its own?

It seems deeper than that. There’s a sense of spirit in her, a desire to be in charge of who and what you are. Whatever they wipe from her memory, some elements of character seem to have adapted and formed a plan.

Wiping seems to target memory related to personhood, specifically. The Deltas are able to walk, understand English, operate weapons - wait.. what? Why would that be the primary skill to develop in a rehabilitation centre? How big is this project and who does it serve?

How long has this been going on?

We’ve learned a bit more about this as Azriel. We’ve met a couple of friends on this planet as well. We find Paul, with the help of Sayuri. She seems quite knowledgeable, but also kind of maverick. She tells us about the history of Center 7, in a rather flippant way. She drops a couple of bombs about a government, a war, rehabilitation, money and the Boryukudan - and then just goes back to the business at hand:

“You said you wanted the cure?”

We do. “Thanks.”

At this point, we’re supposed to have Paul up and running again. This starts section 3 of the game.

Giselle has one more question and it relates to some of the discussion about this section of the game:

Section 3: Hibiscus Highrise. It’s not pretty, but at least it’s not outside.

Hey, what happened to Craig the receptionist?

Anyway. We’ve found Paul, owner of the ship. Turns out he wasn’t the pilot. As a way of thanking us for fixing him up, we’re granted access to his rental database. What we get is inconclusive, but a good enough lead for a cop.

For now:

This section ends when Azriel asks Kane to rendezvous with him 5 klicks east of here.

Wow, that is quick! Nice job, though.

Any thoughts on the plot? You mentioned the distinction between the two main characters: how do you think they relate to one another?

Any thoughts on how Sayuri is so knowledgeable about Sector 7?

I’m also curious if anyone has any thoughts about the surveillance and general running of operations in Center 7. This part of the playthrough one person in the know seems to corroborate the information you got from Sayuri, which would explain the target practice and continuation of a project that doesn’t seem to consider it’s subjects humanity.

On a more personal and philosophical note: do you consider your self as the sum of experiences and the way your brain is wired, or do you think there is something other, maybe even metaphysical, that makes you who you are?

Or are we all just the product of stimuli registered by round and about seven senses + a brain that’s wired to turn this into a perception of reality, thereby alienating us from it - creating a completely fabricated sense of individuality as a coping mechanism?

Do we have souls? Are they individual, or are they parts of something else, temporarily bound to our bodies?

Yeah, I got a little carried away. Thanks for your response!

I’ve been thinking about the idea of a soul and how it relates to something bigger.

This section tells us more about Center 7. The next part will reveal more about the Deltas and the way they relate to the outside world.

Azriel seems to carry a lot of baggage in the form of his memories; even though Delta 6 is in more dire circumstances, he seems less burdened somehow.

chrissie - 01 June 2022 10:30 AM

also limited by, our bodies.

Spot on!

Thanks for the replies! And thanks for making sense of my word salad.

There was a curious overlap with a discussion in another thread about wiping the memory of a game from your brain. Meteor left a couple of interesting remarks.

The procedure in Center 7 is invasive and involuntary. The place itself seems more like a cult than a rehabilitation facility. It leaves very little ambiguity whether this treatment is moral or has merit.

On that level, there is plenty of motivation to subvert the system and escape if you can. But the game hints at another reason to resist. The Delta’s are kept bound to their direct circumstances. Their bodies need to sustain themselves, their conscious minds need to figure structures and relations in the moment. I think their personalities are expressions of ways to cope with the lack of a durable/reliable personality.

Of all the Deltas, Giselle represents the only actualized first step to reclaiming one’s self.

What motivates this? Is it a soul? How would that work and why would it work for her and not the others? Have they become more like zombies by giving in? Or is her brain just more complicated, provided it’s host with better directions for survival?

I think that’s a slightly less awkwardly worded version of what I meant in my earlier post.

New question, hopefully one that makes sense:

What if Center 7 was actually rehabilitating people?

Patients with cycles and patterns of violently destructive behaviour would receive treatment with the same effect as the one in the game, but without it being forced and gruesome. Patients would follow therapy, fmri scans, data would be compiled. Rather than trying to achieve some behavioral change through emotional breakthrough, openness and discipline, (which I think is a much more blunt instrument than we make it out to be)..

What if people whose future is most likely repeating offenses, followed by death in prison, or by violence, or both, get another option? People who match stringent criteria and choose to accept this treatment are given a chance to develop some new skills, restart their emotional and intellectual development, reform a personality and ways to relate to others. By wiping their current identity and dysfunctionality?

Would you be able to accept that?

If you would, do you think if affects a patient’s soul? Is it attached somehow to a persons experiences, or is the body only a limitation, like a cage? Can a soul become part of a new identity?

If you want to discuss something else entirely, feel free.

And about the cameras:

I think there’s someone watching, emphasis on one. He’s not God, he can’t be everywhere, all the time, seeing and knowing everything. And have you heard any other voices over the intercom? Put it this way: I don’t think he works well with others and it affected the operation, irreversibly.

Vegetable Party - 26 May 2022 08:14 PM

This section ends when Azriel asks Kane to rendezvous with him 5 klicks east of here.

A couple of us have reached this point, is anyone still playing this section?