Darkness Within: Explained...?

[jlbenn26]

Hi friends,
So I wanted to talk about the game's confusing plot line, but not from a necessarily critical 'this game is bad because the plot doesn't make sense' viewpoint. The game leaves alot of unanswered questions, it's true. But it's such an intelligent game, it just can't be bad design. I've played the game many times, and had to get online help with some of the more difficult hidden clues. I thought it was a very well-made game, and I was really impressed with it. It's confusing story line seems to be a point that can make the game annoying to some players, or intriguing to others. So I've outlined some of the more outstanding questions that the game left in my mind. I don't know if there are any spoilers in here, maybe. Like I said, I've played the game many times. Anyone else want to get in on the discussion? I'm all ears!
So here we go...
- You don’t actually see any of the most important people. Do they really exist?

- You see who you think is Edwin Pickman, but only from behind, no face, and he looks a lot like Howard from behind. Same hair and head shape, ears. Also, the guy isn’t really aware of an identity, saying, ‘I am he…I think.’

- When I first played the game this struck me as oddly coincidental, that Howard’s in the hospital, and his story begins with a nightmare of a dead hospital guy, and, what do you know, Loath Nolder, whoever that is, escaped from the hospital last night.

- Nolder's office has been ransacked since Howard was last there. One thinks that most likely Loath Nolder himself went through the office, but like Howard said, it’s been sealed. And Nolder’s a suspect. How could he have reasonably done it? But whoever went to that office last basically went there to hide the packet that Clark gave to Jonathan, who in turn had given it to Nolder. But why would Loath Nolder so desperately want to hide the packet? It was just a few diary pages, the location of the house, and the house key. Howard says that there was nothing there the first few times they checked, so that would mean that Nolder had the packet somewhere else at that time. Where could he have had it? On his person at the mental hospital? That’s doubtful. If he had the packet somewhere else safely outside the office before, why would he return to the office and dump it there?

- Also Nolder, strangely, has that legend of coordinates for the maps in Ivar’s cabin. Why would he have such a thing? It would seem that Nolder already knows the crew who gather at the cabin, and since some of his journal entries are up in the cabin attic, it appears that they know him, too. How do they know each other? It’s oddly coincidental that the guy who Jonathan hired to find his missing brother is someone who knows the people who kidnapped him…

- Apparently Howard woke up his entire apartment that night with his screaming, but he doesn’t remember that happening. What else doesn’t he remember doing? Maybe, ransacking Nolder’s office? It’s been sealed for police investigation only, but someone’s been in there. So it’s reasonable to say that only a cop could have gotten in there. But only Nolder had the packet. Hmmm…

- So if he sold his house, where is Nolder living?

- When you think about the house, actually there isn’t much to show for Clark Field’s presence at all. All the authentic stuff from Africa? He didn’t make any mention of going to Africa in his notes. There’s only one person who is repeatedly mentioned as having gone to Africa, and that’s Nolder. Masks, statues, authentic vases, how could that stuff be Clark’s?

- The writings we find in Ivar’s cabin talk about Nolder finding carved wooden statues with compartments. These must be the D’Versahe statues. If Nolder got them, what are they doing in Clark Field’s house?

- When Howard responds to the note about the cabin meeting, a man there who he doesn’t know treats him with complete familiarity- he even gives him the keys. And when Ed Braunbell talks to him, he says, ‘You!” He doesn’t say, ‘who are you?’ He uses a somewhat familiar tone with Howard.

- Is there really any proof that Ivar in particular killed Clark Field? Clark’s last writings about him talk about him being scared ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about something, and then never seeing him again. Clark’s testimony would lead us to believe that something bad happened to Ivar, before something bad happened to Clark. But Howard puts Clark’s final notes about Ivar behaving strangely together with the jacket in the cell, and concludes that Ivar killed Clark. But there is no real evidence of this. I’d even say that the logic is faulty.

- . Why doesn’t Howard call his bosses and say, “I found Loath Nolder. He’s here at this cabin.” Isn’t that what he should have done? His task is to find Loath Nolder. But when he finds him, he doesn’t tell anyone. That’s odd for a police detective to do, isn’t it?

- We never actually see Nolder, not even a shadow, or a lighting of a cigarette, something to prove that Howard is not talking to himself like Gollum in the darkness of the cabin. This only adds to the mystery of Loath Nolder’s existence. Nolder protects Howard by telling him that some men are coming and that he needs to hide before they catch him. And Howard protects Nolder by not calling his bosses and turning him in. Why do they protect one another that way? Is Howard’s conclusion that Ivar killed Clark just another way to protect Nolder from blame?
- Is Loath Nolder Howard Loreid’s alter ego?

- Why is Arthur necessarily a bad guy? Why would he reveal the telephone number as belonging to Edward Braunbell if it was supposed to stay a secret? Couldn’t he have just said that he looked up the number and couldn’t find anything? He also told Howard the truth about the changed medicine, admitting that it was mixed with a hallucinogenic, although his people were not sure which hallucinogenic it was. Why would he tell Howard this if, like a lot of players think, he’s the one who secretly mixed the hallucinogenic in the medicine? Wouldn’t he just lie about it?

- The most intriguing bit about the entire story for me is at the very end, when Howard writes that he’ll stay in the hospital for the coming eclipse, but then he’s, basically, escaping. After he’s said his last piece, we hear the hospital guard yelling out, ‘Prisoner escape! Prisoner escape!’ And we are essentially taken back to the beginning of the story, with a guy who’s escaped from the hospital...

- The effect of all of this confusion I’m sure is deliberate. Howard can’t make sense of his reality, he can’t tell what’s happened from what he’s dreamed, and neither can we. No matter how hard we try, the events just don’t make sense, maybe because they aren’t supposed to make sense. Maybe that’s the whole point of the game. It’s rather foolish, isn’t it, to get excited about playing a game about a guy with a dual personality, who can’t distinguish his dreams from reality, and expect for the game’s sequence, as told by him in retrospect, to make perfect sense to us...