Part 24: Act III - Good Grief, Ray McCoy

Act III - Good Grief, Ray McCoy

After escaping the two rogue cops, McCoy finds himself in the seedy underbelly of post-apocalyptic LA. It's around this time the architecture and environment for the game starts departing a bit from the movie, as it moves from skyscraper nightmare-scapes, into more urban ruins and sewers.





If you look on the fallen sign in the background, it actually reveals this is under the Westlake/MacArthur Park station in Los Angeles. The mural along the top of the scene is probably suppose to be the back side of this:



The train station actually opened in 1993, so for a game based on a 1982 film I guess it's a little anachronistic. Or proto-anachronistic. Whatever.



Crystal's waiting for us up top.

The thing that's impressive about the graphics in this game is that the background is constantly shifting. I don't know whether it's because of the voxel engine or if it's prerendered or what, but the lights, the fans, and the fog effects are on a loop in the background, so not only does the world look alive, it actually looks busy. I still haven't seen a game that managed to match it since. These days, whenever a game is trying to look 'busy', it usually means they try to stuff however many low poly people milling about in the background they can without sacrificing framerates. But doing it with just lights and fog?

Wish I could show you by recording some bits of the game on video, but unfortunately the same engine that made the graphics look so nifty also destroys FRAPS.









Hmm. Where could Dektora have gone.





We'll go check out the front first, to make sure she hasn't slipped past us. But first we have to hit up the bar.



Kids, there's a good lesson to be learned here: if you're not sloshed before chasing after a stripper, then there's something wrong.



Hmm. That annoying bouncer isn't around any more. Would be a good time to check Early Q's office to see if Dektora's hiding in there.



There's something very wrong in this room. See if you can spot it.

No, I'm not talking about the giant Elvis poster. Or the tacky nudie statues. Or the Bond villain-esque aquarium behind Early Q's desk.



With Early Q and his bouncer nowhere in sight, it's time to ransack his office. First, a receipt on top of this desk:



The anklet we saw on Lucy. The earring we found at the Eisenduller murder scene, and it belonged to Sadik. And we saw Dektora dancing with the belt earlier. So this is our concrete link between all the suspected Replicants so far, and the only one around we can question is Early Q.

Next, there's a security camera disc hidden in a drawer:





We get caught red-handed by Early Q.







The dialogue in this game puts more emphasis on flow, and atmosphere, and FutureLingo™, and less on audience comprehension. Still, you're all adults; you can understand most of it, right? For example, here Early Q is offering Ray some whores to make him go away.



Hey, now he's offering booze, on top of the women. What a nice guy.





I think we all understand by now that Ray's a borderline cop on the cusp of spiraling into a life of alcoholic depression, so... bottoms up!