[spoilers] So what's the actual story here?

[Malidictus]

I just finished the game and had read some spoilers ahead of time so I have some rough idea of what just happened, but I still don't have a complete picture of it and a lot of events really confuse me. Here's what I THINK I know:

Around the time Warren is getting his rig installed, someone sends the eponymous "Surge" through the neural net in Creo's facility. I don't know what that Surge actually is, however. At first I thought this somehow scrambled people's neural links and drove them insane, but after meeting the Rogue Process, I'm starting to suspect that the Surge was actually that AI entity trying to "hack" people's heads. Those who can still think report hearing other people's thoughts and voices in their head, and the AI tends to manifest as a cacophony of voices recorded from the comms. That's just a guess, however.

I know the board was either about to vote on the launch of Utopia or else was in the process of doing so when the Surge hit. Initially, I thought Dr. Evil (I forget his name) was responsible, but finding the Board Members dead and crudely hooked up to machines makes me think it was actually the AI - the Rogue Process. Besides, Dr. Evil doesn't seem to know what's going on, as he mistakes Warren for a security inspector sent by the Board, who've been mostly dead for several days. What's the deal with that?

I'm pretty sure whatshername - the woman with the South African accent... Let's call her "the hologram." I'm pretty sure she's not a real person and I'm also pretty sure she's actually the Rogue Process. If that's the case, however, why does she need Warren to drop the security lockdown on the board room? When Warren finally reaches there, the last of the board members dies, which she's very distraught about. However, his death causes the Utopia launch vote to pass, so if she were the Rogue Process, wouldn't that be a good thing for her? Supposedly, she's been recruiting lots of people and running them through the same gantlet of obstacles trying to reach the board, but WHY? What's her end goal there?

What exactly happened in the time since Warren blacked out? The game's opening is staged as though no time had passed, but we know it's been four days both from various logs and from the ending. How did he end up in Abandoned Production? Why did he wake up just as a drone was trying to cut off his leg? Did the hologram wake him up somehow, or did she just seize the opportunity when he walked up to the Abandoned Production OPS? How did Dr. Evil manage to spend four days with no contact with the outside world and not notice everyone was dead? Is he not on the board himself?

What's up with security? It's clear... Well, it seems like not everyone has gone insane. Cryo security still seem perfectly human and are dilligently guarding to board members and other executives, but... How did THEY not sense something was wrong? It's been four days of no contact with the board, no orders, no anything. What exactly did the two Cerberus guards at the board room think they were guarding? Or have they been corrupted as well, just in a different way? The berserk workers still carry on a facsimile of their day-to-day duties, so perhaps the guards do as well? I mean, we have Irina the named character who starts out normal but gradually seems to have her memories overwritten to act like security, so could perhaps others have had the same done to them? I know people have theories about how she's not human, but I'm not convinced.

Basically, does anyone know what the hell is going on? I played through the game, and I learned very little.

[Burusagi]

Chavez is as close to a good guy you get in this game. She's determined that she can fix Resolve so that it works without afflicting humanity negatively, and she's designed a virus that will nullify Utopia.

The fact that she wants to stop Utopia (without even knowing about the Rogue Process, she just wants to stop the global genocie) is admirable to say the least.

[Malidictus]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Vintage Villain:

The other slight question I have is the actual malevolence of the Rogue process. I don't think it's the "god of destruction and assimilation" that the gameplay and boss fight lead you to believe. I know the nanites are themselves an extinction-level threat, but does the Process control them, or is it an off shoot? A child born from immense trauma that the world never wanted? Even in the end, it's proven that we don't defeat it, we merely stop the nanite rocket death rain.

I don't really think any of the people involved are truly malevolent, in the "Gargamel" sense. Even Barrett, for all his infuriating circular logic, still ultimately sees himself as the saviour of humanity. At the same time, there are no real good people, either. In an almost Silent Hill fashion, literally everyone has their own cross to bear. Chaves pushed forward with Resolve even when it was proving poisonous, Barrett's playing god, Jonah Guttenberg is arrogant enough to feel he can "fix" both the world and humanity with technological solutions, Jo follows a self-destructive vendetta, etc.

As such, I don't think the Rogue Process counts as evil. The game goes out of its way to disempower and dehumanise the narrative. It shows us not a single uninterupted string of cause and effect, but rather a whole bunch of largely unrelated events coming together to breed disaster. Nobody "caused" this, there's no-one to blame or punish, no closure to be had. It's a car crash. Multiple drivers made multiple errors, but none of it matters when we're cutting through twisted metal trying to pull out dead bodies. The Rogue Process is both a victim and an instigator in much the same way everyone else is. It's a regular CSI episode :)

Ursprungligen skrivet av MasterZoen:

This whole thread is really interesting, but it seems to me that alot of the theories are slightly off. I didn't read the entire 300+ set of comments, but a thought occured to me while playing this game and watching a buddy play... What about corporate espionage? Is Chaves truly just someone wanting to stop a bad idea, or is she on someone's payroll? What about Greene? That particular individual's supposed motives seem... wrong somehow.

I don't think so - can't find anything which would suggest that. There is that one video where Jonah Guttenberg blames his critics as intentionally sabotaging him, but that's intended to show his hubris, I think. The media is dishonest, his critics are corrupt and also incompetent, the publing just "doesn't get it," it's everyone's fault but his. The state of his company can't possibly be his fault, oh no! I don't think Melissa Chaves is a hero - she was perfectly fine with dumping Resolve into the atmosphere even after she realised it was toxic. But I don't think she's a mole, so much as a bitter, stubborn old woman who won't take "no" for an answer. Same as Guttenberg, really.

Ursprungligen skrivet av MasterZoen:

Finally, I really hope the guys at Deck 13 had the story fully flushed out before the game released, and simply planned to reveal it, or maybe not, in DLC stuff. If it turns out that they just developed enough story for the game to make a modicum of sense instead of a full idea, like a certain other game that shall not be mentioned, I'm going to be pissed.

I really want to be proven wrong, but that's the vibe I get from a lot of the set-pieces. That storyline questions are so often easily explained with game mechanics and level progression and so difficult to explain with lore makes my Spider Sense tingle. I personally look forward to a DLC with more sotry and lore content. I had the same experience with an indie title, name of "The Final Station." The original base game feels like someone made a bunch of cool, unconnected setpieces and wrote the story on the fly. "The Only Traitor" DLC, by contrast, has just enough lore into it to put together a presumed sequence of events and actually make the story mysterious, as opposed to obtuse. There's every chance that a Surge DLC can do the same.

[Kai]

What I figured is that Warren himself could be demented in some forms and not realize it. He could have gone on his adventure and was controlled in the first place by someone or something.

This means the whole rogue process being the final boss means whoever is 'leading' warren through the neural link wants it gone, but the ending still felt like Warren was a pawn in a much bigger game.

[Ping Pirate]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kai:

What I figured is that Warren himself could be demented in some forms and not realize it. He could have gone on his adventure and was controlled in the first place by someone or something.

This means the whole rogue process being the final boss means whoever is 'leading' warren through the neural link wants it gone, but the ending still felt like Warren was a pawn in a much bigger game.

See, that would assume that there is someone, somewhere, who has any modicum of control in these events. I feel like the entire story/ atmosphere was about how NO ONE had any idea what the other person was doing, or was in any shape to do anything about it. Granted, it is strange that Warren was so unyielding compliant with Sally and Chavez's plans. We still know virtually nothing about him aside from a pre-existing condition (maybe caused by resolve itself) and his love for IronMaus.

[MasterZoen]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Malidictus:

Ursprungligen skrivet av MasterZoen:

This whole thread is really interesting, but it seems to me that alot of the theories are slightly off. I didn't read the entire 300+ set of comments, but a thought occured to me while playing this game and watching a buddy play... What about corporate espionage? Is Chaves truly just someone wanting to stop a bad idea, or is she on someone's payroll? What about Greene? That particular individual's supposed motives seem... wrong somehow.

I don't think so - can't find anything which would suggest that. There is that one video where Jonah Guttenberg blames his critics as intentionally sabotaging him, but that's intended to show his hubris, I think. The media is dishonest, his critics are corrupt and also incompetent, the publing just "doesn't get it," it's everyone's fault but his. The state of his company can't possibly be his fault, oh no! I don't think Melissa Chaves is a hero - she was perfectly fine with dumping Resolve into the atmosphere even after she realised it was toxic. But I don't think she's a mole, so much as a bitter, stubborn old woman who won't take "no" for an answer. Same as Guttenberg, really.

Actually, I was thinking about how Creo is supposed to be the top corporation, with fresh new tech like the Exoskeletons and the Resolve thing. That would mean they are a constant target of corporate espionage. So what competitor corporation is doing it? Who in the company is being paid off? Who in the company is being blackmailed?

[Burusagi]

So I found a clue about ol' Guttenberg: when you are talking to Sally, she mentions that "Guttenberg and the Board would know what to do!" or something along those lines. So Jonah is supposed to have been in there, too, I guess?

[Malidictus]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Alcohol Fueled Brewtality:

So I found a clue about ol' Guttenberg: when you are talking to Sally, she mentions that "Guttenberg and the Board would know what to do!" or something along those lines. So Jonah is supposed to have been in there, too, I guess?

Are you sure? That sounds like a line from Melissa Chaves, though I admittedly don't have a source.

Assuming Sally isn't lying, that makes her behaviour even weirder. Let's say she was locked out of the system and unable to see what's going on in the board room. Last she knew, Jonah Guttenberg was there. Wouldn't she be freaked out that he's gone? Or is she locked out of the Executive Forum entirely and assume Jonah was in his office? I'm really not sure what to make of that.

[Burusagi]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Malidictus:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Alcohol Fueled Brewtality:

So I found a clue about ol' Guttenberg: when you are talking to Sally, she mentions that "Guttenberg and the Board would know what to do!" or something along those lines. So Jonah is supposed to have been in there, too, I guess?

Are you sure? That sounds like a line from Melissa Chaves, though I admittedly don't have a source.

No, from Sally herself. I tried screenshotting it, but the subtitles had time to vanish beforehand :C

[Malidictus]

Right, understood. Then I really don't know what to say. Sally and the Board are I think the least-well-explored part of the plot so far.

[RUN PROGRAM > SENTIONAUTS]

Sounds (and like I remember it even) like Sally line to me too.

So if nothing else, she thought he will be there. So he probably did not get fired...and is not Warren :D Oh well.

Now Im hoping for that epic showdown with Guttenberg on CREO moon base in future expansion!
I mean if he left Utopia decicion on board, why not leave Earth and spend rest of your life on your moonbase? IF there is one of course.

Heck there we gonna discover he was there for a long time with seperate teams of scientist working on making our moon habitable as an last effort if things go really wrong.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GUYS ANYTHING! Expansion/DLC would be amazing.

[Ping Pirate]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Alcohol Fueled Brewtality:

So I found a clue about ol' Guttenberg: when you are talking to Sally, she mentions that "Guttenberg and the Board would know what to do!" or something along those lines. So Jonah is supposed to have been in there, too, I guess?

where in the NG cycle is this text? If it's close to the start, one of us can speed run to it.

[Burusagi]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Vintage Villain:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Alcohol Fueled Brewtality:

So I found a clue about ol' Guttenberg: when you are talking to Sally, she mentions that "Guttenberg and the Board would know what to do!" or something along those lines. So Jonah is supposed to have been in there, too, I guess?

where in the NG cycle is this text? If it's close to the start, one of us can speed run to it.

Nah, it's after you get the security rig.

[♤ S p a d e Ƨ ♤]

Was just reading on the weapons, and I found a connection in terms of the security weapons:

MG weapon descriptions say they were meant for crowd control situations, and the Adjudicator description says that MG Negotiator was the best non-lethal weapon for these situations, pointing to the fact that indeed to the public, they were trying to keep a peaceful operation

There was enough going on for them to be able to justify having strong security measures, and the Adjudicator was apparently an extreme last resort kind of weapon

I mean with CREO trying to save face left and right, it does seem logical that they would keep any touchy projects in the shadows, I mean secret projects is a norm there

[MasterZoen]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Vee_Spade:

Was just reading on the weapons, and I found a connection in terms of the security weapons:

MG weapon descriptions say they were meant for crowd control situations, and the Adjudicator description says that MG Negotiator was the best non-lethal weapon for these situations, pointing to the fact that indeed to the public, they were trying to keep a peaceful operation

There was enough going on for them to be able to justify having strong security measures, and the Adjudicator was apparently an extreme last resort kind of weapon

I mean with CREO trying to save face left and right, it does seem logical that they would keep any touchy projects in the shadows, I mean secret projects is a norm there

Well, yeah. Of course there is a reason to have strong security measures in place, it's a SuperCorp 'Verse, like ShadowRun and Cyber Punk. This is made fairly evident by the message log in the second Medbay of the game: "She said things will soon be under control, and that they've asked for external aid. It tells you how series things are if they've called for outside help!"

Also, I'm pretty sure the "She" being referenced is Sally. So, did Sally lie to this girl?

[Burusagi]

Ursprungligen skrivet av MasterZoen:

So, did Sally lie to this girl?

You can't really trust anything Sally says. It is pretty clear that she's been given a pretty loose (or even non-existent) morality subroutines when it comes to not letting such things come into conflict with her primary objective.