01: Prologue

01: Prologue

Character: Ethan Mars

Ethan draws

Note: This WT follows a narrative style but can include specific quoted information from the game.

You literally wake up in your bed as part of the tutorial for game play.  If you thought you might be dead, I forgive you - the images did sort of have a crime-scene like quality to them as the prologue opened, but of course you are not dead - yet.  Just follow the prompts on screen to issue the correct commands - and head for the bathroom.

If you want to stop along the way to check out the photo that's alright - then check out the note from your wife - good!  We now know that we slept in, the wife is running errands with Shaun and Jason - safe to assume that these are our kids - and one of them is having his birthday today! 

As you exit the bedroom you are prompted on how to learn what your character is thinking - which is actually a significant facet of play in the game as it is useful in several ways.  The first way is that it gives you pointers to what you need to do next or what your options are if you get confused or lost, and the second is that it adds an element of depth to the story, as it gives each character a chance to tell you what they are thinking that includes audible clues to their emotional state!

Now to use this the first time, simply hold L2 and hit the corresponding button - in this case X - and you learn that you need to go downstairs and take a shower.  Before you do that though, why not explore a little up here?

The room directly ahead and on your characters right (your left) is your kid's room - head on in to check that out and you will notice that they did not make their beds before they went to school, and they have a pretty spiffy Indian Tepee in their room!   On the shelf in the corner are some hacky-sack balls that you can use to juggle with.  Go ahead and do that now, because it teaches you the prompted button response system - and this would be a good time to get down cold right away as it becomes important later.  Yeah it took me two tries to do the full juggle session too, but hey, cool!  I can juggle!

As you return to the hall check out the first door on the right - the toilet!  Excellent, I needed that room bad.  Go ahead and facilitate your deposit, and then exit and check the room in the far right which turns out to be the bathroom.   Now before you take care of your morning ablutions, you did remember to flush the toilet when you were done, right?  No?  Awe come on!  Go do that - no one likes to find the toilet un-flushed mate!

Right, so we are back in the bathroom - the first logical step is to take a shower, so head in the corner and strip down.  He takes a much shorter shower than I do, but then his shower is way nicer than mine...  Go figure.  So now we get to move the entire controller to complete drying off, which shows us the motion-sensing aspect of the controller and that the game uses it. 

Head over to the sink and move the RS to the right to shave - well, sort of.  This guy subscribes to the Don Johnson Miami Vice school of shaving, so all we are really doing is tweaking our five-o'clock shadow, but it is all good!  Push the RS up and we check out ourselves in the mirror, and to the left, and we brush our teeth - another full controller experience.  And now that we have completed our morning ablutions, it is time to head back into our room and get dressed.

On the way back to our room we learn how to change the camera, and then we learn a more complicated RS motion that allows us to open the armoire and go through the process of dressing - and let me tell you, if that guy had pulled on a white suit with a coral shirt I would have had serious questions about his Miami Vice fanboy status - but fortunately he pulled on a typical slacker uniform, whew!

If you check his "thoughts" he tells himself that he has some time before his wife Grace and the kids get back, so he better get some work done.  Hmm was my response.  On your way out, if you have not done so earlier, go ahead and check on the bird near the door.  How cool is that?

As you head down the stairs you will see that Grace got a head start on the decorations, and your thoughts include maybe doing a little gardening - man I wish I had this guys life!  In the kitchen you can open the fridge to check out the birthday nosh, then hit the espresso machine on the counter for a slug of morning juice.   Remember what I said about this game starting out slow?

The bookshelf on the other side of the room has a book on architecture you can check out on your way to your home studio, where you sit at your drafting board and, using the prompting system, craft an interesting architectural drawing!  Dood!  You are an architect!   That book makes sense now!

So you go through all of that and then do the special move to sign the piece - only to learn that you are nowhere near done, and are probably going to have to work through the weekend to complete this project!  Bummer.  But hey, stand up and  check your thought - you have a lot of them. 

Basically these thoughts are suggestions for possible activities - you already know he wants to do some work in the garden - he also wants to watch TV, drink some orange juice, and chill.  I went with the OJ but as I left the studio Grace and the kids got home.

Meet the Family

After you help Grace with the groceries she starts some small talk - catching up on the day, that sort of thing.  You need to pay attention to the screen in order to see the replies you can make - and it is a really good idea to pay attention here and try to interact promptly as this will get you familiar with how the conversation system works in the game.  If you fail to reply in a timely fashion she may decide that you are in a bad mood and react to you accordingly - the point being that even though you did not mean to send that message, your silence was interpreted as having meaning in the game, and that is something to remember for those times when you do not like any of the possible replies or you want to put the person you are talking to on-edge... 

Whether you fail to reply or you do reply, she will eventually ask you to give her a hand - which you should - so listen to the woman and then head over to the cupboard and grab the plates!  You may be tempted to stop and fiddle with some of the other environment items on the way - there is a radio controlled truck, TV, and other things - but if you do she nags at you, so maybe it is best to get the chore she assigned to you done before you play around, right?

One thing that I found rather odd - she says that the plates are in the living room cupboard - but they are in the dining room, not the living room!  This is the second mistake in dialogue I have noticed in the game so far - weird.  So anyway, the cupboard you want is next to the table - the one with the gifts on it.  Open the drawer and grab the place settings and put them on the table - then if you like you can go pick up the RC Car controller on the other side of the table and play with the car.

Either way when you are finished head into the kitchen and get some face time with your wife - but only a little because she has work to do!  After you hug her you get some floating conversation options - go ahead and cycle through those, as this will get you some more back story.  Now head on out back and say hello to your kids and have your first chance to interact with them.

You give one a shoulder ride and the other you do the helicopter with - and they seem to enjoy that a lot.  Man you are a good dad!  Now you get to show how strong you are by lifting them both - one on each arm - and then you have the obligatory sword fight, followed by the necessary death scene, after which mom calls you all in for dinner. 

When you come into the house Grace calls for Shaun to come to lunch - but he is mysteriously missing and so you volunteer to go upstairs to get him.  When you get up there you discover that his bird - remember the bird? - is dead.  He is sitting on the floor by the cage crying, and you go to comfort him, and maybe get a little foreshadowing of things to come...