*spoiler* Am I the only one who wanted to remain loyal to Julia?

[KBJ]

Everyone seems to wish they could have gone with Delilah. That just seems like a crummy thing to do when you have a sick and suffering wife back home. Having a little summer fling with someone is enough to make most people want to betray their sick wife? Even if she has dementia that's just a low thing to do. I guess I was one of the only ones who actually wanted to remain faithful to Julia.

[zaphodikus]

I did not trust Delilah (for many reasons other than the name.)
Dementia takes people, so not convinced Henry was stuck forever, but that was my take.

[Spaceman Spiff]

**spoilers

I guess that's part of the game. Do you feel tempted enough to indulge a secret crush away from your difficult usual situation? How does that decision affect the other events that unfold?

The option to be loyal definitely seemed to be there. In the end it didn't matter, Delilah was exhausted from the danger, and shocked by the discovery of the body. Especially with the fires, a potential relationship became small potatoes and had to be sacrificed.

[Scobee]

The tone of the game was set very poorly for me at the very beginning where I was presented with the options of "Tell my wife she can't get a job she wants" or "She can commute back and forth every week". This put a bad taste in my mouth and probably lowered my overall opinion of the game.

So in short, no, you are not the only one who wanted your character to be a good guy.

[PingvinSkin]

I felt like the game constantly pushes Henry to "choose" D and I really disliked that. Also wanted to stay true to Julia and kinda did through dialogue choices.

[zaphodikus]

On my first playthrough I wanted to meet D, on my second play and the 3rd I had flipped completely back as I had stopped to read the dialog properly - or maybe my real life context had also changed. I guess the latter.

[Space is the Place]

Personally I feel like choices like this are way easier on videogames, sure I´ll roleplay the characters differently, but personally I don´t really feel one way or the other making any choice. I´m the kind of players who enjoys watching the result of choices in game and will create several playthroughs to see the extend of those consequences.

Real life though? Heck, who knows. Sopnds scumm yeah, but if you had to live up that situation, I don´t know men. I´ve seen people in my family losing their grasp on reality, mostly due to old age and dementia, and as hard as it is, they are old, you kind of expect it. But when someone young gets diagnoses with something like this... men, specially if if you´re partner, having to accept your entire life should now be devoted to caretaking that person, and seen someone you love and desire to spend the life with lose itself that way...

Perhaps the game didn´t present it in the most empathic way, but I can totally understand the Henry playthrough where all he wants is escaping, even if he´s not sure he´s abandoning Julia yet, I can understand the tough, specially given certain choices at the start where seems like her family it´s gonna take care of her and Henry it´s just bagage for them.

[PegasusJF]

I chose to stay with Julia, in parts that suggested a path with Delilah I moved away from that or stayed slient. I thought Delilah was a nice enough character, I just put a bit of myself into the game characters I play.

[zaphodikus]

I sometimes felt like Delilah was trying to kill me, but then again she had no motive, and on my second playthough I cut her some slack and came to the conclusion that she too has hangups of her own. Probably even bigger hangups than Henry has with the alcohol.

[All Strippers go to Heaven]

It's been almost seven years since I played this game to a T. I remember the first time it almost took on a horror element, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Then it became an odd sequestered romance of a woman you never meet, with a wife you don't know will remember you.

To that horror note, I recall an old quote by Stephen King: "Horror is coming home and realizing everything has been replaced by a perfect replica." and this game does an element of that with the attempt to get you to essentially play with your own heart.

In the end it really makes me wonder what the point of the game truly is, if not to make you either feel bad because of your wife or because you want to try and cheat on your wife who might not even really be your wife when you see her again. It's a crazy guilt trip.

[zaphodikus]

^^ I think I got this ^^ on my 3rd play-through when I was really trying to get my head around the lost boy, which I had ignored the first time and really I was instead hung up on the big guilt trip that I never solved instead.

[RabbleViolet]

Originally posted by KBJ:

Everyone seems to wish they could have gone with Delilah. That just seems like a crummy thing to do when you have a sick and suffering wife back home. Having a little summer fling with someone is enough to make most people want to betray their sick wife? Even if she has dementia that's just a low thing to do. I guess I was one of the only ones who actually wanted to remain faithful to Julia.

I'm with you. All the choices I made were to remain loyal. There was one morning he woke and that wedding ring was sitting on the desk - made him put it back on. I never trusted Delilah. and the notes in the notebook at the secret camp with the electrical towers confirmed that she wasn't to be trusted; the boyfriend she said she broke up with was still her partner, she has an alcohol problem, and let's not forget that weird conversation we overheard in the beginning where she says "he doesn't know a thing"