Part 45: Beast Within 24: The Grand Finale
Update Twenty-Four - The Grand FinaleThis update is video heavy. Recommended watching? Everything, obviously
. But seriously, you want to watch the opera and confrontation videos, at the very least. All the music in this update is courtesy of Sierrahelp, for which I'm duly grateful.
First of all - the aria starts up:
Did you watch the video in which Grace talks to Georg? You've probably ignored the "melon melon" crowd noise and vague instrument bleatings. A bit harder to ignore when it's the only thing you hear in the opera up until now. The aria is a welcome change.
Trying to go anywhere will have Grace bitching about not being dressed for the occasion, so we surrender to the inevitable and go get changed.
She gets dressed just in time to welcome Commissar Leber.
He came armed, just as the invitation shpezified. For *some* reason he's much more willing to cooperate with Grace than with Gabe.
We can't head into the auditorium, since
Grace gets ready to operate the projector when the moment comes. It's all terribly exciting:
Good thing she grabbed the opera glasses, because how else would she know whether Von Glower is in the lodge?
He is. As is the girl he hooked Gabe up with.
Grace ties the doors together. That's not quite inconspicuous enough, so she arranges the knot neatly and covers it up.
Surprise perspective shift!
Gabe is pacing back and forth in werewolfy rage. The door won't open, but Gabe really needs to get out there and mess things up.
Gabe can't just pry open the vent, but the Shattenjagger dagger doubles a screwdriver.
One way leads outside.
The other...
Leads to Gabe demonstrating his exceptional agility once more. Oh, and the basement.
There's only one way out of the basement Gabe will agree to take. The only way from here is into the actor's room. Oh, and have you spotted the one item you need to get in this scene? The one item without which you are walking dead?
It's the duct tape. The all too visible and highly obvious duct tape. Granted, Grace had to pick up the coil of rope from the same spot, but still.
Gabe makes his way into the lead actors room.
He starts to put on makeup, but reconsiders
And grabs the Englebert outfit first.
He hears that the previous opera act is over, so, all too intuitively, he uses the makeup to smudge up the mirror before hiding.
The lead actor comes in, finds absolutely nothing suspicious about this, clears out a corner of the mirror and starts applying his makeup.
Until Gabe sneaks up and duct tapes him. There's a new Englebert in town.
By the way, did you notice that our time at the opera is divided into three acts? Act three starts now:
Cue the opera.
(Would you believe that tindeck doesn't have an "opera" genre? Disgraceful.)
The opera is pretty much the centerpiece of the game, and a lot of work was obviously put into making it seem genuine(ish). Watch it / check out the lyrics (if any of the people reading this speak German, feel free to offer a transcription / translation of your own)
(It's also a 9 minute cutscene, and one errant mouseclick skips it entirely. Great for taking caps, as you'd imagine)
The evil Baron is about to marry the virtuous whatshername, and everyone are having a good time...
until Gabe emerges on stage as a spectacularly incompetent minstrel.
He's feeling a bit
Von Glower isn't too comfy either.
The minstrels beat down Gabe. It's a rather powerful and uncomfortable sequence, even if you're convinced Gabe actually deserves a sound trashing.
(It's a nine minute video, so I'm abridging a bit. Assume there's a lot more singing and closeups of everyone looking nauseous in between)
The Baron accuses Englebert of being the werewolf.
The music reaches a crescendo, Grace turns on the projector, the chandelier... does its thing...
Everyone notices something is wrong.
Von Glower tries to leave, but the door is
Everything is ready for
We get a wolf composed in the best CGI the 90's could afford. It's fantastic. Note how much better the opera wolf mask looks by comparison.
Von Glower doesn't transform on the spot. He leaps off the balcony and lopes down to the basement. Gabe!Wolf chases after him.
Time for the final werewolf showdown in the nondescript basement of an opera house. Huh.
This is the music that is supposed to be playing during this sequence. It's no "Wolfcam" (from the same soundtrack), but it does the job. Unfortunately, the music actually playing during the sequence (which you can listen to in the final confrontation video) is a lot more reedy and unimpressive.
This is what we get if we hit the "smell" button. Can you figure out what's going on?
This is the endgame puzzle. It's frustrating, but fair. What you need to know is: Wolf!Gabe is the blue triangle. Von Glower is the red square. We alternate between smelling to see the map and moving in the odd and unfamiliar first person view. Wolf!Gabe can close each of the doors via the convenient latches as he passes through. Our goal is to chase Von Glower down to the furnace room in the lower right corner - without letting him escape on stage / through the vent. We also don't won't him to get stuck in a dead end with Gabe between him and freedom - for some reason the Alpha wolf is perfectly happy to take down the Beta in this instance.
With all that info, obtained by repetitive trial and error in the days before gamefaqs, can you see how the solution works?
Finally, Leber, Grace and Gabe all corner Von Glower in the furnace room. Sadly, Leber will be a lot happier to shoot Gabe than he would Von Glower (which is probably something we should have planned for).
Wolf!Gabe subtly suggests that Grace should open the furnace door.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for a moment before Von Glower leaps for Grace's throat... and slamming right into him.
Grace stops Leber from shooting the fleeing Gabe!Wolf (after he already misses the first shot)
And they both head back to watch Von Glower burning merrily away.
"The stuff that gay werewolves are made of".
"Huh?"
We conclude
Gabe assures us that he's ready for any future tests, because he's done so well on this one. Grace agrees to stay forever by his side, because *duh*, even though he totally doesn't deserve it. Roll credits.
Stay tuned for ways to die and interesting side notes.