Part 15: Blackwell Unbound - Update 1

Let's get this show on the road!

Update 1

Lauren's Theme



Unbound starts off in Lauren's apartment, which is unfortunately one of the least attractive rooms in the game, a pity since we'll return here fairly often. Lauren storms home yelling at Joey, and slams the door on him.

I don't believe this scene is intended to follow the introduction from the previous update, since as we will soon see, Lauren and Joey have not succeeded in sending any ghosts on their way this evening.



Joey, in his usual frustrating manner, simply floats through the door and completely disregards Lauren's anger.

Lauren: I am NOT talking to you.
Joey: Oh, promises promises. So what's next on the list?
Lauren: What's next?



Lauren refuses to even look at Joey in this scene. She's very clearly pissed off at him, but Joey doesn't let that stop his sharp tongue.

Joey: Why? Going to throw yourself over and join me?
Lauren: No. I'm having a cigarette.
Joey: Great. You want a cigarette. What am I supposed to do?
Lauren: You can do whatever the hell you like.



Sure enough, Lauren marches out to her tiny New York balcony and lights up a cigarette. It's very clear early on that she is a serious addict, and uses cigarettes as a way of dealing with her copious levels of anger and frustration.



Lauren has a few inventory items early on, as well as access to a notepad similar to the one Rosa used in Legacy. Notably, three of her inventory items are her cigarettes, lighter, and a lit cigarette. The only item not tobacco related is the case list, which presumably is the list Joey was referring to earlier. Lauren is not interested in looking at it.

Lauren: No. The case list doesn't EXIST. Nothing exists until I finish this cigarette. I am not moving from this spot until I've finished my cigarette.

In fact, trying to get Lauren to do anything, from moving, to looking at objects, doesn't really work.

Lauren: Absolutely not. Right now, nothing exists except for me and this cigarette.



Lauren: This will probably be my last cigarette of the day.

Lauren is pretty much in denial about her smoking habits. If you leave her standing around during the game for any length of time, she automatically lights a cigarette and smokes it, only dousing it (and scattering the ashes at her feet) when you ask her to interact with an object. It doesn't have any effect on the game, but Unbound will actually keep track of how many cigarettes Lauren smokes in the game just for fun.

I'd comment about how serious Lauren's smoking issues were, but given that she went insane and then fell into a coma at 40, I guess it was the least of her issues.



This scene is fairly effective at introducing Lauren as a much more emotional, stubborn character than Rosa - however, it's not done entirely for the sake of the writing. By refusing to have Lauren move anywhere or do anything, it clues the player in that a new option has been added to Unbound. We can now switch between controlling Lauren and Joey at any time, other than a few scripted sequences where only one character is available.



Switching over to Joey, we see him trying to continue reasoning with Lauren in his wonderfully annoying manner.

Joey: This place is boresville central.
Lauren: In a minute, Joey.



With not much else to do, Joey looks around Lauren's apartment. This picture should be familiar, as Rosa had it in Legacy. Unlike in Legacy, we can individually look at each of the four people/ghosts in the photo. From left to right:

Joey: If I'd known I could be photographed, I would have shown my good side.
Joey: That's Jack, her kid brother. He's all right, I guess.
Joey: Oh, look. It's HER. Good old Patricia Blackwell. Also known as Cleopatra, Queen of Denial. Spent seven months bonded to that woman. She never spoke to me once.
Joey: Look how young she was. She's gotta be 18? 19? It's been over ten years. Time flies.

As was hinted at in Legacy, Joey has some fairly strong feelings for Lauren. It's never really addressed overtly in Unbound, but it is a little creepy since Joey was effectively watching Lauren as a teenager long before they ever truly "met". On the other hand, Lauren was mostly away at college during that time, so I guess it's not all that bad.

Joey also reiterates here that he spent seven months bonded to Patricia, which I had assumed was a mistake when he said it in Legacy. It doesn't really line up with Jack's letters, so I guess Joey was just floating around in the ether for a while until Patricia died, or something.



Joey continues looking around the apartment.

Joey: Oh look, another ashtray. I REALLY want to blow on this and make a mess. But there'd be no point. It's not like she'd clean it up.

Joey isn't kidding when he says "another" ashtray. I think there are five scattered throughout this place.



Joey: Every night, I get to watch her snore on that thing.

The couch looks way to small for Lauren, and unlike in Rosa's apartment there isn't exactly a lot of privacy from Joey. I guess Lauren just doesn't care?

Anyway, Joey decides to not spend forever looking around here, and continues arguing with Lauren instead.



Lauren: What?
Joey: Why the heck are you so mad?
Lauren: You honestly don't know?
Joey: I have no idea.
Lauren: Typical. If you don't know, I'm sure as hell not going to tell you.

Joey and Lauren work fairly well as characters because they're both as stubborn as each other, and in many ways, as flawed as each other. Having a ghost, from who the protagonist can't escape, refusing to back off and continuing to argue with her could be creepy, but Lauren has enough fire herself to make the power dynamic feel equitable.

Joey: You done moping? Or do you want to grind your teeth some more?
Lauren: Christ, Joey. Can't you leave it for just one minute?

Of course, that doesn't mean Joey won't frustrate Lauren from time to time.

Joey: Look, I'm sorry.
Lauren: Sorry for what?
Joey: ... Um...
Lauren: Exactly.

Finally, Joey pushes things one step too far.

Joey: Take another drag of that cigarette, darling. You get real ugly when you stop smoking.
Lauren: Oh? Is that right?
Joey: Well...



I love the way Lauren actually intimidates Joey further and further backwards, even though Joey is a ghost and she couldn't touch him if she wanted to.

I'll say this up-front - I really like the character of Lauren. We are seeing a fairly harsh introduction to her here, but I think her character is great, and really suits the mood this game sets. The distinction between her and Rosa is quite profound, and the fact that both characters manage to be likeable and believable in their own ways despite being so different to one another is a credit to Gilbert's writing.

Lauren: Like today, when those pipes burst?
Joey: Oh. Hehe. Wait. Is that what's got you in such a guff?
Lauren: I got SOAKED. And you just laughed.

As I mentioned in the final update for Legacy, the "choose one of three options" mode of dialogue is less common in the subsequent games, but it does still happen. Here Joey can choose to either play innocent:

Joey: What was I supposed to do? Give you a towel?

Tell the truth:

Joey: Well, it WAS funny.

Or to simply give in:

Joey: All right. I'll try and hold it in next time.

Of course, none of the three options placate Lauren, and it is very clear that Joey still finds it funny.

Lauren: It was cold. And wet. And slimey.
Joey: *snrk*
Lauren: It wasn't FUNNY.

At this point, Joey is cracking up.

Joey: You should have seen the look on your face. The way you jumped up and down and ran in circles squealing.
Lauren: Hmph. Still wasn't funny.
Joey: If you say so.



Unlike Rosa, who tends to stew for a while after an argument with Joey, Lauren seems to use these arguments as a way of blowing off steam. She takes one last puff of her cigarette and disposes of the stub in a pot that serves as yet another ashtray.

Lauren: Okay. I'm finished. Let's get on with this.
Joey: There's a few things we haven't checked, right?
Lauren: Yes. I've got the list right here.
Joey: Well, let's check it. Every other case today has been a false alarm. Maybe this will be an easy night.

As I mentioned before, no ghosts have been sent on their way so far this evening. Lauren and Joey seem to get their cases by reading through local newspapers and listening to news reports, looking for anything out of the ordinary, and simply following it up. Sometimes it turns up ghosts, but most of the time it just leads to dead ends.

Lauren's Theme (Alternative)

The actual in-game theme doesn't change here, but I wanted to show off the original theme that was designed for Lauren's apartment, which is actually quite a lovely piece of music. I personally prefer it to Lauren's actual theme. However, as beta testers pointed out, it's quite a happy little ditty, which contrasts fairly sharply with Lauren's character who could never really be described as happy. In the end it was taken out altogether and replaced with Lauren's main theme that I linked above.

I will try to show off all the alternative themes (there are six of them) throughout the game, and if we revisit locations I will link to both so you can choose which you want to listen to.



Before looking at the case list, Lauren decides to have a brief chat with Joey.

Lauren: I want to talk to you, Joey.
Joey: Uh huh?
Lauren: I have no idea where we're supposed to go.
Joey: You're asking me? You're the one carrying the list. Why don't you take a closer look at it? It should refresh your memory.

Of course, we can just as easily switch over to Joey and have him speak with Lauren as well.

Joey: I got something to say.
Lauren: Yeah?
Joey: Hey, have you done something different with your hair?
Lauren: What do you mean?
Joey: I dunno. Something's different.
Lauren: I washed it this morning.
Joey: With shampoo?
Lauren: Yeah.
Joey: That's what threw me. So are we going to futz around here all night? We got stuff to do.
Lauren: Yeah.

Whenever both have something interesting to say, I will try to merge the two conversations together in a natural way. Again, we see here that Joey and Lauren are much more comfortable teasing each other or just shooting the shit than Rosa and Joey were, primarily because of the amount of time they've spent together. In the later games, Rosa and Joey will have developed their own chemistry in the time that passes between the games.



This tiny little blob of pixels is a dictophone. Of course, Unbound being set in the early 70s, technology is a little outdated. There are no computers, the TV is ancient, and the camera is huge.

Lauren: It's a dictator machine. I've been trying to keep a record of my dreams by recording what I remember. I guess I could take this along.



Lauren: Does my voice really sound like that? Gotta cut back on the cigarettes. Anyway. I've been having some extreme dreams lately, but I don't remember any of them. I get the strangest feeling that they are important, but I can't put my finger on why. I'm keeping this recorder next to my pillow, so I can record what I remember as soon as I wake up.

The dictophone is a required object for a later puzzle, but we can also hear about Lauren's dreams, which are fairly intense and seem more like premonitions than dreams. There are eleven dreams in all.

Lauren: First entry, February... 21st? Is it? God, my head. I dreamed tonight. It's already fading away. I saw my mother. She was calling out to me and waving. She was smiling. Her face was bright. So bright.

Presumably Lauren still struggles emotionally with what happened to her mother, and how similar a path her own life has taken.

Lauren: I see a child. Seven or eight years old. She's surrounded by other children, but she's all alone. I call out to her, but she doesn't hear. Something is wrong. With me? With her? It's fading.

I guess this could refer to Rosa, but it's hard to say. Some of the dreams are just kind of mysterious.

Lauren: I see a man in tattered clothes. He looks at me, and screams. I look in a mirror, and see a huge, horned demon. For some reason, I'm not surprised.


While others are kind of creepy


Lauren: I'm on the Brooklyn Bridge, staring at the seaport. I'm all alone. Strangely at peace. The water, it looks so cool and inviting. Suddenly, I'm in the water. Floating.
Lauren: I dreamt I was in a strange room. The walls are a deep pink, and there are books and papers everywhere. Joey is behind me. Trying to get my attention. I ignore him. I feel strangely good about it.
Lauren: I see Jack and Maria. They are far away, but I know it's them. I see his glasses, and her bright red hair. I want to join them. I run to catch up. I almost get there, but I trip and fall. Maria turns to help me up, but it's not Maria. She's got red hair like Maria, but it's someone else. She says she is sorry. Then I wake up.

Most of these just add flavour, though the occasional dream references future events from Rosa's experiences (both in Legacy, and in the later games). The next dream should sound familiar.

Lauren: I'm in a hospital room. There's a chinese girl lying on the bed. I want to help her, but she doesn't want to be helped. Suddenly, I say a magic word, and her eyes widen with trust. I've made a friend, and yet I don't want her friendship. I run away.
Lauren: I'm on a fire escape. I'm talking with a man who wants to be my friend. Suddenly, his face turns blue. He can't breathe. He dies. It's my fault. I could have stopped it.
Lauren: I'm in a huge house. I see gas lamps, and electric lights. I look into a mirror and see an old woman. She reaches out of the mirror to grab me. I take her hand, and hold it tight. Then I wake up.
Lauren: I'm on a train. Speeding away into the night. Next to me is a man. I know nothing about him, yet I trust him. I think I love him. Then he disappears. What did I do wrong?

The final dream is very eerie.

Lauren: I'm trapped. Trapped somewhere bright. I see my mother, and a woman I don't recognize. I see Joey, far away. Calling out for me. We are fighting for our lives, but it's too late. The world goes dark.



This is the last dream on the dictophone. I'm not sure whether to assume that Lauren had this dream recently, or if the dream bothered her so much that she stopped recording her thoughts altogether. I assume this dream refers to Lauren's eventual passing away at Bellevue.



Continuing the theme of lack of technology, Lauren uses a phonebook to look up numbers throughout the game. In the later games, Rosa will use her computer, and eventually a mobile phone for this task.



There are a couple of minor easter eggs if you search for developer names, and you can even search for Rosa, who of course is yet to be born at this point in time.

Lauren: Nope. No entry.
Joey: Who the heck is Rosa Blackwell?
Lauren: I have no idea.

Normally Lauren will simply say there is no entry, but here Joey adds a tiny bit extra.



Lauren: Move away a bit, will you Joey?
Joey: What, you wanna watch TV now?
Lauren: Just for a minute.
Joey: You can relax later, sweetheart. Let's finish up these cases, first.
Lauren: Yeah, you're right.

Again we see that Joey blocks airborne signals. This is handled a little bit strangely throughout the series. It seems that Joey blocks TV signals from afar, only sometimes blocks phone signals, and to block radio (or later, wireless modem) signals he has to be right up next to the transmitter or antenna.



Lauren: I put some money in here whenever I think of it. It's a trick I learned from my mother. There's around 60 dollars in here now.

Of course, any good Adventure Game player knows that you must take any money you possibly can from your starting location, but apparently somebody forgot to pass the message onto Lauren.

Lauren: I'll save it for when I really need it.

Sure enough, we'll get that $60 later, but for now it's staying in the jar.



Joey: Right behind you.

Tired of hanging around her apartment, Lauren decides to head outside to focus on some more cases.



However, since we haven't looked at the case list yet, there is nowhere to go other than back home again.

This screen functions as the world map in Unbound. Gilbert decided to scrap the street map style world-map in this game in favour of a generic skyline. Note that the twin towers still hover above everything else, this game being set well before 2001. Apparently Gilbert really debated with himself whether he should include them, since they are still an emotional topic for many people, particularly as 2007 wasn't that long after 2001. In the end he decided to put them in, and I think some dialogue even refers to them at one point.



With nowhere else to go, Lauren and Joey return back home.



One last thing to grab before we get to the case list, Lauren has a big clunky camera. Again, much like the dictophone, it is a required object for a puzzle, but it also serves a separate purpose.



Specifically, it can be used to unlock hidden content. There are four characters you can photograph in the game, Joey being the first, and each unlocks a separate section of the hidden features in the game. The most interesting of the hidden features are the alternative themes, but there is some other good stuff in there as well.



Alright, let's get to the case list. I can't help but notice that Lauren's handwriting is different here from the gorgeous script we saw in Legacy, though it's still very nice.

Lauren: Ugh. Every one of these leads has been a dead end. Just two more to go and we can call it a night.

Let's check these out.



Lauren: I read about a grocer who was complaining about his stock mysteriously disappearing. Turned out to be a bunch of rats. Joey scared them half to death.
Joey: Most fun I've had all year.

Hahaha, beautiful. The series is very consistent with it's "animals can see Joey" thing.



Lauren: Now THAT was a waste of time. Didn't find any ghosts, and I got soaked.

I guess these were the exploding water pipes Lauren and Joey were arguing about earlier.



Lauren: That woman was old, drunk and senile. A total waste of time.

Lauren doesn't even try to hide the distaste in her voice here.



Now we arrive at the two cases Lauren and Joey have yet to investigate. As you would probably expect, both will lead to ghosts.

Lauren: This one looks promising. Residents have reported strange music on the promenade late at night. Nobody knows where it comes from.



Lauren: A development corporation has halted construction after a series of accidents. Probably nothing, but worth checking out.



With the case list perused, two new locations have opened up on the world map.


We'll get started investigating these cases tomorrow! Welcome to Blackwell Unbound, guys Strap yourselves in, it's going to be a bumpy ride!