Part 25: Hold Your Breath

Previously, on Policenauts:



This update's gonna be a little different. We're going to cap off this update with a video; there's no commentary, no subtitles or anything. It's just a gameplay video.

Then afterwards, we're gonna have an update devoted to all the different things that could've happened in that video, the things we had to fix in the hack, etc. But it's a cool point in the game, and it's pretty atmospheric, so you won't get any crap from me in the way.

Anyhow:

You ready?
Hell yeah.
One... two....
Three!





Alright, didn't see that one coming.

Don't shoot!
Where is he?!
Please don't kill me!
It's okay, we're the police.
Oh, thank goodness!
No sign of him.

Look; Woman

Who is this woman? A customer?
Probably the hostage Meryl was talking about.
So where is he?
Watch it. He could be hiding somewhere here.

Talk; Woman

You work here?
No, he dragged me in here.
Where'd he go?
Out the back.
Out the back of the store?
Yes.
Damn! Let's go! Where's the back exit?
Over there, to the right.

Look; Back Exit

Yeah, I see it. It's back there.
It looks like he ain't here anymore.

Go out the back

C'mon, let's get him already!
Hold on, Jonathan. Her safety comes first.
He's gonna get away again.

Ed, we're in the middle of a chase here! Well, he's not gonna let us leave so...

Talk; Woman (again)

Are you okay, ma'am?
Yes, I think so.
You're not injured?
No. I was just grabbed outside all of a sudden.
Alright, she's fine. Let's move!

Go out the back

Wait!
What is it?
I....
Just wait here. You'll be fine.
I think she's got something to tell us.

Oh Christ, fine. Screw up the whole chase, what do we care?

Talk; Woman (third time)

What's wrong, ma'am?
That man, he... he planted a bomb in here!
A bomb? Where?!
Ma'am, if this is your idea of a joke....
He said to tell you it would go off soon!
This isn't good.
He put it in my Elles, then placed it among all these.
Son of a bitch is buying time.
Where? Which bag?
I was scared. I didn't see. There's just so many of them. He said you can't touch it either!
You're telling us you don't recognize your own bag?
I don't know! I only bought it recently.
This is just great. Had to be an Elles outlet. No way we could check each one. We'd never make it.

Huh. Well shit. That's a stroke of luck for the bad guy. What's the opposite of deus ex machina?

Talk; Woman

Just relax and try to think, okay?
I already told you, I don't know.
You really don't know which one is yours?
I'm sorry.

Alright, well, we're getting nowhere so let's just look at one of these bags.

Look; Bag

Is this your bag, ma'am?
I told you, I didn't see.
It's your own bag!
I said I don't know! They all look like mine.

Look; Another Bag

What about this one?
Please, I don't know! How many times do I have to tell you?
What do we do?
He'll be miles away soon.
Guy knows how to improvise alright.

Look; Third Bag

Is this it?
I'm sorry.



If we don't think of something....
We all die. Everyone in this block, anyway.
What?! My house is in this block!
Mine's nearby too.
We'll have to get the bomb squad to check all the bags.
There's no time for that.
Come on, there's gotta be a way. It's only one of them we're after.
Tell me something, ma'am. Is your bag a real Elles? In other words, not a fake?
Of course my bag's real! I bought it at their main store last week. I still have the receipt.
I think there just might be a way. Ready for this?
What? Some kinda sensor?



These are all fakes?
Pretty good ones too. A lot of tourists from Home buy them when they're here. They're not too happy later.
I get it. So all but one are bogus. Can you tell 'em apart?
Not me, I'm no expert. And any serial numbers would be on the inside. We couldn't use those.
What about you, ma'am?



Not like I've studied it carefully or anything.
What about the employees?
They ran out the back when we came inside.
There goes that.
So that's it? Game over?
No, hang on.
Real Elleses have one design, right? They only make one, don't they?
Yeah. One design wherever you go. That's why everyone wants one. Every year they come out with a new one, then get rid of it at the end of the year.
So if we just had another real Elles, we'd be able to match it to the one with the bomb.
Right, since these are all fakes. We wouldn't even have to touch them.
If only we had another one here.
What are you getting at?
Well, Anna has one, doesn't she? I saw it at your house the other day. You gave it to her for her birthday or something, right?
Yeah.
So could you get in touch with her and have her bring it over? Your house is nearby, right?
Well, yeah....
What is it? You got another idea?
Thing is, Anna's at school right now.
It's a bomb, for god's sake!
Yeah, that's true....
Ed! If this place goes up your house could be history too! Let's go!
You see....
Jesus, we can give it back when we're done!
It's like this....



What is it?
We can't use her bag.
What are you talking about?



Promise you won't tell Anna? You see, I... I could never afford a real Elles on my salary....



I bought it here. I'm sorry, Jonathan.
God dammit, Ed! When the hell were you gonna tell me?! What's a cop doing buying counterfeit merchandise anyway!
I said I'm sorry!
Now what are we gonna do?!
It's alright.



Meryl?
This is a real Elles.
What are you doing with one?
Dave gave it to me. Said I wasn't feminine enough. It doesn't suit me, so it's been sitting in the car ever since.
Thanks, Meryl.
You can thank Dave.
Let's get going!
Right!



I haven't shown off a lot of save prompts, but this is the last one of Act 2. We've got a long puzzle ahead of us, but at least there are checkpoints. This puzzle is sort of infamous insofar as if you were a big Hideo Kojima fan and tried to play Policenauts without knowing Japanese, you'd probably get stuck here.

This is the bomb puzzle.



There's 21 bags here total. This is the real Elles we got from Meryl.



Just be sure to look carefully. A difference in design or size, no matter how small, means it's one of the store's fakes. We can move them no problem.
So we get rid of the knockoffs until we're left with the real deal. That's step one.
Right. But touch the real one and - Kaboom! Unfortunately. I hate to say it, but my life's in your hands.
Just promise you won't get mad if I blow it.
Mad? What do you think's gonna happen if you screw this up?
That's what worries me. Spending this life AND the next with you.
Fine. You go to Hell, I get Heaven.
I highly doubt either of us is going anywhere but down.
So... live together, die together?
Indubitably. Shall we begin?



So yeah, this is pretty much Photo Hunt. We're going to examine a bag, we get both, and we can "leave alone" or "remove." Here's the deal - the bomb's on a timer. While this half of the puzzle does not happen in real-time, if you decide to leave a bag alone and come back to it later, that will decrease the amount of time we have when we actually have to defuse the thing.

A lot of the bags have very obvious differences. We can safely remove this one, of course, and Ed will say:

Okay, we're eliminating this one.

If we're wrong, the screen goes white, Beyond contains the explosion, and we get Game Over. For such a silly puzzle, it's a little nerve-wracking.



That's the first one gone.



Some of the differences can be more subtle, and apparently the PC version of this is hard as hell. I'm not going to go over each and every bag difference, but some of these...



Some of these get pretty tricky.  It's the size of the loop on the right side. 



This is another one that's pretty rough.  Look along the bottom of the bags. 



And this is the one that always gets me.  There's two beads on the right side, on the handle. 

Jonathan and Ed do have random remarks like "Another one down," but it's a slow puzzle. They also make a remark about being half done, but having half to go.



And of course, some of the differences can be really, really hard to spot.  This is the bomb. 



No idea here. Leave it alone.



It all comes down to this.
One or the other.

And of course, discard the right one and-



And now, ladies and gents, grab some headphones and turn down the house lights because here's...



The Bomb


(That's a video, by the by.)