Part 12

Ok, so!

The very first changes can be already seen in the opening narration. While in the English version the game is explicitly said to be taking place two days before the official end of the Prohibition, the Polish version plainly states that the Prohibition had been abolished some time ago. The bit about bars and so on stocking up in preparation? Yeah, that's not in the original. Why change stuff around so much? iunno

What's more, this is listed as the reason for Jack's downfall - apparently he's drinking cause he's... bored and has nothing else to do. Shit, you'd have thought they'd at least set up some sufficiently noir tragedy to make the hero at least a bit more sympathetic.

Our third rate Phillip Marlowe steps out of the bar, and we hit the concerned friend convo. Annnnnd already shit's got a totally different tone.

vs.
pictured: not the same thing

The dude comes across as way, way more of a dick in the translation (what a surprise). The "get your act together, man" bit should be something along the lines of "what's going on, man?", which would make it take a concerned tone as opposed to a 'man up you sissy' one but I guess the translator really wanted to use that shiny new idiom they'd heard.

vs.

"Everything changes, man, you know how it is" becomes "Wish it were that easy, my friend". Again, completely fucking discarding the nostalgic stuck in the past tone of the original line.

I've been reading this for like a minute and I'm already actually kinda sorta digging the writing in the original. It's actually, y'know, got a noir tone despite still feeling amateurish as hell and kinda stiff. The puzzles are still bound to be completely retarded but hey maybe at least the script has a bit of that good ol' so-good-it's-bad charm! (lol yeah right)

The "what the hell's happening to me" line is in past tense in the original. Makes it sound more solemn. Not that big of a change but dammit I'm gonna bitch this translation out for all it's worth

"Everyone knew my name" -"I used to be real good..." - again, subtle, but the translation makes Orlando out to be a dick who only cares about fame. Same with the flashback scene on the stairs - in the original, he replies with "I'd love to, later" which, again, makes him sound more polite.

The Colt scene is completely fucking butchered - not when it comes to tone, but grammar and wording wise. And I still have no fucking clue how "granted honorary citizenship" became "given the freedom of the city"

The dialogue in the scene where the blue coat guy gets killed got its dialogue shifted around for some reason, murdering the pacing. Also, the nonsensical "here's your money" one liner used to be "here's your back pay, Pete" which ok granted isn't exactly that much of an improvement look I'm trying to give this game some credit at least alright

The old lady who calls for the cops references Saint Teresa for some reason.

Oh yeah also, as a side note: the punctuation in the original script is pretty goddamn terrible. Like, I'm not exactly a master of punctuation myself but there's so many sentences in a dire need of a comma.

The cops are assholes. You get the options to throw out the classic bad guy "you can't arrest me, I've got friends in high places!" line - twice - which is kinda perplexing to say the least. The cop does not, in fact, threaten bodily harm (he just mentions he doesn't like Jack, which, well, to be fair, who would?)



How do you put one comma in and miss the other one?

The Italian dude actually reacts to Orlando shaking him around with bewilderment, instead of just going UGH WHAT DO YOU WANT



so stilted



...and calls him a crazy bastard. You're two for two, buddy.

The police commissioner or whoever this guy is is actually way more friendly, but then again the dude didn't choose the "you lost weight" dialogue option No mention of trashcan sleeping, just "you look like my uncle Nathan" whatever the hell that means.



No steamrollers mentioned - but "you look like you put your shirt while it was still on the hanger" isn't an expression I can say I've ever heard before in my life. shrug



you can spin the globe corn why'd you miss showing that off dammit I thought this was a QUALITY LP

Jack goes over for coffee and spouts some generic 'lol wives cleaning something something' sexist shit. That's why I love this country!



The white dude keeps calling Jack a cracker.



Annnnnnnnnnnnd you can N-word him back. nevermind Jack is still a fuckin' dick

I guess that's it for the first update and jesus christ I think this actually brought my high school bilingual class instincts back help I swear not to write any more word walls

tl;dr it is a shit translation that makes a kind of a dickish character sound like an absolute asshole! fuck this game