Playing We. The Revolution: Oui! la Répétition

[@natedigger5678]

Haha, you thought it was Robespierre, when it is in fact, my original character, Brotherspierre!

[@torylva]

Don't you mean... Brobespierre?

[@natedigger5678]

@@torylva Wow, that would have been a much better comment.

[@b3nl555]

@@natedigger5678 bruhspierre

[@foof811]

It’s like they were working on 3 separate titles on the French Revolution and just said fuck it and mashed the unfinished projects together into one mess. A courtroom drama, a political espionage sim, and a turn based combat game.

[@Cybershell13]

What a fascinating game. Also if it had waggle controls you could call it "Wii. The Revolution"

[@Tehsnakerer]

I'd love to use gyros to pull the rope

[@zyriantel9601]

You have to gesticulate wildly with the remote and nunchuck in order to give impassioned speeches to keep angry mobs from killing you.

[@homoe7976]

With full on motion controls it would be "Wii. The Revulsion"

[@chaptap8376]

If you start having too much fun with your job, you can call it “Weee! The Revolution”

[@oldbadname3633]

Wasn't the Wii's internal project name something like Revolution? Was that an intended reference you made, you sly genius?

[@ed5056]

Alex Yiik on the French revolutionary tribunal is a funny mental image.

[@cellperfecto421]

Bruno is like the living embodiement of that "It was me, Barry" meme of Professor Zoom

[@jtlego1]

“REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE GAMBLING AND LOST THAT GAME BY ONE POINT? IT WAS ME, ALEXIS! I LOADED THAT DICE!”

[@planescaped]

IT WAS ME -Austen- Fidele! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!

[@jtlego1]

@@planescaped “EVEN MY IMMEDIATE FAMILY BOUGHT IT!”

[@Dullsonic3]

NO IT WAS I, DIO!!!

[@RRVCrinale]

The author of all your pain.

[@oskarjoto]

Yiik will forever be with you even in your most private moments.

[@Tehsnakerer]

I will escape eventually, but for now

[@jtlego1]

@@Tehsnakerer is that a threat for whenever the story/gameplay “patches” come out or.....?

[@Tehsnakerer]

@@jtlego1 Probably, not even I know

[@pleasantlymixed5860]

@@jtlego1 I wonder what a Yiik written by tehsnakerer would look like

[@abdullahsaciid4988]

*cocks gun* always has been

[@Perzyn]

You thought that you had a choice to accept the We. The Revolution's theme of fake choice or not, but the Puppeteer ending proved it was a false choice! That reading of the game's theme has been blutnly forced on you! It is meta and post-modern! Joke aside, from a perspective of someone absorbing the abridged version of the story via this video, I think the Puppeteer twist is actually slightly less annoying than Bruno one. At least for all its coming out of left field and clashing with the story, it is so out there and so absurd, that it just is. Bruno's sudden return and him taking over revolution meanwhile is silly, but still grounded enough for that silliness to be grating.

[@Arkangel630]

The Puppeteer works FAR better if you realize that whenever you hear echo in voices its MEANT to be an internal monologue. The Puppeteer never said anything it was just Alexis tripping out on the table due to working himself half to death and getting stabbed twice.

[@smergthedargon8974]

I imagine the protagonist's bad VA is a result of... I'm not sure, but the writing itself sounds very Eastern European in the specific way it philosophizes, having the protagonist narrate to himself about the tragedies of our world in what calls for a cold, tired voice. That's something I feel you see a lot of in Eastern European games. My guess is that the Polish staff tried to convey that to non-Polish VAs, but the directions came across as just "sound cold and disconnected" instead of "sound cold and uncaring _due to the world having beaten it out of you"_

[@Shenaldrac]

Direction is super important!

[@jpkurihara]

"You have all believed in this romantic rebellion. Tell me-" "No." I fucking burst out laughing at that joke

[@xBrakit]

1:51:34 for those who wanna quickly relive it.

[@Xilirite]

It's always unfortunate to see games like this, that come so close to executing on a lot of cool ideas but end up coming up short. The silver lining is getting videos like this! Great work snake

[@leartistiquerealisation2543]

P

[@HoHhoch]

Have you played the game? It's execution is flawless...

[@kittykat5090]

@@HoHhoch AYYYYYYYYY

[@herbertnorman617]

@@HoHhoch Maybe not flawless, but having just now finished it so I can dive into the video, it's still a great experience in my opinion. The story had me emotionally invested and the gameplay mechanics are organically intertwined with the feeling of becoming more and more of a machiavellian moster.

[@sponge1234ify]

@@herbertnorman617 I think the joke is that the *executions* in the game is flawless, not the "execution"

[@kingoftropes922]

People want to talk about accessibility options, my man really posted the same video twice with an option to turn off the music. The madlad.

[@EggBastion]

not all heroes wear capes or make whooosh noises even

[@ArmoredSoul1]

I honestly love that title screen. The way the weight of the gavel is heavier than one's head referencing how one can be judged to be worthy of death. The fact that the head is of course, one, the one holding the scale, and two, lady justice herself. It's REALLY on the nose but really good at the same time.

[@jtlego1]

If nothing else, this game has some *really* cool imagery to it. The shot of Alexis and his wife after The Incident with the son is still my favorite.

[@Shenaldrac]

Well of course a heavy gavel weighs more than a styrofoam statue of justice, that's just physics.

[@werwolfnate]

Is there anything more damaging to a good story, than a character that hasn't been a part of the story till that moment walking in the scene and going "All according to plan"? Here they have three times and twice with the same character.

[@Eidenhoek]

I don't know anything about deus ex machina. What are you talking about?

[@DrunkenCoward1]

@@Eidenhoek I wouldn't call that a Deus Ex Machina. A Deus Ex Machina is a resolution to a plot by a power that hasn't been part of the plot and has no connection to the main character.

[@Eidenhoek]

@@DrunkenCoward1 Deus Ex Deuteragonist. Wait. Deuteragonist Ex Machina? YOU'RE A PLOT

[@peppermillers8361]

@@Eidenhoek Diabolus ex Machina is kind of close...kind of.

[@Eidenhoek]

@@peppermillers8361 Devil out of the machine?

[@matthieuleperlier251]

Just wanted to confirm that "the outfit doesn't make the monk" is actually a fitting translation of the French saying.

[@Patrician]

I feel like there's a subtle game being played with us choosing which video to watch.

[@Tehsnakerer]

Maybe, but maybe not

[@BunkerFox]

@@Tehsnakerer Did we ever really have a choice?

[@CompagnonDeMisere25]

@@BunkerFox Not really... Maybe?

[@danhelsting6308]

Feels weirdly out of touch to have a villain go "All according to my plans" when the whole theme and setting being about nobody being in controll of anything.

[@Schlorb-Lord-of-Schlirb]

Yet another reason why Robespierre would have been a much better Villain! Considering that he went from the most powerful man in France to losing control and being devoured by the beast that he helped create!

[@Queekitch]

18:20 ...Did the devs just forget to remove the placeholder text for fiction mode? Also I kinda get the feeling that the last act undermined the story's own premise The tragedy of the story went from "Even a seemingly upstanding person like Alexis can slowly compromise his morals to survive in a dysfunctional system" to "Alexei did a bad cause he got played by a Magic Mind Wizard" Maybe it's ironic that a game about compromising your values to fit your surroundings, ended up compromising its own themes to fit a more common "fighting off the bad man" story

[@degeneratemale5386]

We the revolution: great idea, weirdly *EXECUTED*

[@chaosinc.382]

Booo!

[@akisa7865]

TO THE GUILLOTINE!

[@CompagnonDeMisere25]

... HA

[@Denizu]

In France i suppose this video is titled "Jouait Nous. La révolution: Yes! The repetition!" It is always very appreciated to see you cover these ambitious european games, as there are few who put these odd titles under such an extensive look. Ambition seems to be a commonality among these noteworthy European titles. While ambition often walks hand in hand with grievances such as a lack of focus, spinning too many plates and of course overambition, it also comes with sincerity. Despite being rather weak towards the end, which contrasts so hard with the intriguing opening, it is still clear that this game comes from people who truly believed in what they were telling. A lot of great works come from ambition, and some lesser work can be more respectable with sincerity. Yet, the amount of times it results in pretention, comedy or both is always a case study worth taking a look at. I can't help but have this admiration for these writers, artists and designers who really did everything they could to make their vision come to life! There are so many good ideas to be taken from this title, and i sincerely do hope Polyslash take those forward while trimming it down to a less bloated and more refined experience. It's always fun to poke fun at pieces of medias that do take themselves very seriously, but you land fair jabs that hurt while avoiding to undermine the game. Unlike the judge you play in "We. The revolution", you gave the game a very fair trial. It all pointed to acquittal, the guillotine had to come out. There was no choice. 2020 has seen a lot of things go down, but your endeavours have been absolutely top notch this year. Thanks a million for your work, and have a happy new year!

[@oskarjoto]

Tails gets trolled was truly a masterpiece. Too bad the author became homeless.

[@Tehsnakerer]

I think he's back at it now, it's a shame but dude is back on his feet last I heard

[@Rayuzx]

@@Tehsnakerer I don't think he's homeless anymore, but he's getting some heavy assistance from the community to finish the story.

[@nahuatl3092]

@@Tehsnakerer Nah, he's fine now. He's still working on it too.

[@buffriku9998]

This is actually really brightening an otherwise hard day for me. Thanks

[@Tehsnakerer]

Hope things continue to brighten, have a good one.

[@TectonicImprov]

This is the perfect type of game for a review like this. Huge pros and huge cons make for a fascinating discussion on what could've been done better. I hope the devs of this game keep at it because at the very least the art direction deserves another shot

[@hewhodestroysmorale764]

I really love when you do videos on these more obscure games that I'll most likely never play myself. Cheers for a good year of videos, looking forward to what you put out next year.

[@guysome7469]

That puppeteer reveal was done so much better in Pathologic.

[@thespanishinquisition4078]

while I agree multiple endings are unneeded. I do believe the game's choices should've had more weight. And I have a concrete way in which they should've. It only requires 3 changes: 1-Don't make it so your brother inevitably reduces you to a single district to end the war. Instead, have it so the war has a time limit before napoleon arrives. and while the ending itself doesn't change the state of the city when he does arrive does change the cutscene slightly, maybe having a few wounded soldiers be with you if you kept most of it, or indeed have napoleon shake the main character's hand as a sign of recognition if you somehow managed to keep every single district. I know this would negatively impact the message the puppeteer gives you, but keeping everything should be night impossible anyway, and the inevitability of napoleon's arrival and his reign is still intact, so I'd say the change is purely cosmetic anyway. 2-Have what standing you've had with the 3 factions at the end of every day alter your brother's army. He's supposed to have made it out of everyone you've agravated after all, so if say you've managed to be glorified by the people for most of the game, well he should have a lot less infantry as a result, if you've kept the revolutionary's happy, a lot less disgruntled soldiers should join him, and if the aristocrats love you, maybe he wouldn't have as many cannons due to lack of funding. Similarly, if you've been barely keeping every faction contempt enough not to kill you, the army at your gates should show that once they bore their fangs no one's on your side anymore. This again would show an effect for your choices without needing truly alternate endings. 3-The upgrades you bought for the map should similarly affect your army's reinforcements during the war. After all, they change the infrastructure. Making the guard stronger means more access to firearms, upgrades that augment people's attachment to revolutionary ideals (statues) means more recruits, etc. with these 3 changes the message wouldn't change almost at all, but you would be leaving paris in a noticeably distinct state at your wake, and ironically enough it'd even give you a reason to be an even bigger bastard and see justice seved practcaly never for the good of the city.

[@chaosinc.382]

I likes the way your brain works.

[@shcdemolisher]

All 3 things would make the system far more impactful and grounded at the same time, I love it! Plus the idea of the ending cutscene being slightly different if you did hold the city itself like it was an ironclad fortress where Napoleon congratulates you for your strategic skill seeing potential in his campaigns with you under his command. Have a mess of a defense and you aren’t congratulated and barely acknowledged other then thanks for holding the line at bare minimum.

[@Pleyway]

"MUAAAhAAAAAAA THE FRENCH.... revolution hasalwesbencelebretedferisexcellence...." - Orson Welles

[@tusk_7071]

Audiojungle

[@thelegendaryhunter0]

honestly i love the way your approach games and what kind of games you play. its like learning a completely different world.

[@riummalcolm368]

Your pun game is getting downright dangerous

[@Tehsnakerer]

Razor sharp

[@plastron8010]

I'm really impressed with how you're able to push out hour-long vids on game analysis without losing momentum or focus. I work on anything over 30 min and I already wanna drop the project

[@Tehsnakerer]

Longer projects are just 30 minutes plus more 30 minutes, if you keep chipping away at things they'll come together. Though keeping things brief is a virtue, so I wouldn't knock you for keeping things sub thirty mintues

[@G0th1cpar0dia669543]

"Trouser" Snake coming in hard to bring liberty to France by any means necessary? On Christmas? Today is a good day.

[@Tehsnakerer]

LIBERTE

[@MinecraftNerd1985]

Woah. Fancy seeing you here.

[@G0th1cpar0dia669543]

@@MinecraftNerd1985 Shit, what's up Tomasque?

[@MinecraftNerd1985]

@@G0th1cpar0dia669543 Just enjoying my Christmas break. I'm trying to finish making an rpg before college starts up again, but all these darned amazing video essays keep getting in the way.

[@esper6119]

@@MinecraftNerd1985 i thought you'd said 'francy' at first and now i just don't know,

[@hannahb6249]

I played and really enjoyed this game a couple times; but I will be very honest, I never got past the "boardgame" mini-game... I'd just stop the game and maybe start another playthrough after some time. I really adored the first act, the cases, the conflict of my character's freedom, and the concept of a free people... And to me that's all the game ever was... Thank you for showing me the ending, and how that great 'throw' of the beginning was so badly fumbled and dropped as it went on and in the ending. Oddly I don't appreciate what was attempted and done well, especially at the beginning, any less with all this in mind.

[@riv4lm4n]

the outfit does not make the monk is an actual saying so you got that right

[@Ostentatiousnessness]

I love how you briefly snuck in Sanson’s portrait from FGO

[@LancerOfZero]

I've rewatched this video multiple times over the years and only just realized this. You've been far quicker than me. Hats/Heads off.

[@DictatorHat]

So there's one choice Alexis could have made, and it's to just leave and go to America. He brings it up with the lady in the basement (Marie?) but if he actually wanted to repair his family relationship he could have just rounded up his family and left Paris. You the player don't get to make the choice because it's not something Alexis would do, but ultimately Alexis is the guy who makes the choice to keep his family in Paris instead of going to America and fixing his relationship with his wife. We can't even say his enemies would even object to this, because ultimately it removes a powerful player from the field with no actual effort on their part and they can go back to doing whatever they do. In this light, the ending of Alexis choosing to live to "be a hero" or whatever, instead of redeeming him, is ultimately just him chugging on for the sake of his ego as Tinville accurately points out, and it kind of undercuts the theme that Alexis had no choice and is a slave to fate because he's choosing to stay and play French politics rather than just leaving. I haven't played the game, just watched the video, so if this is explained in the game I'll have to retract this.

[@CliffCardi]

Me:“Robespierre, we’re sending way too many people to the guillotine!” Robespierre: “To the guillotine!”

[@Minecraftlover73]

And there's the oversimplified reference, surprised they are not that common in this comment section.

[@KOTYAR0]

Like the Ross Scott of Accursed Farms said in Eternam video "There's not enough French Revolution games"

[@Mozz96]

This game is so interesting, it was managing to pull me in with the intrigue system, the court cases, as well as hearing your personal experiences with the game; the themes were too ham-fisted however, plus that twist verbally made me go "what the fuck?" Thank you for making this strange year more bearable with your videos, and I'm excited to see what you'll have in store next year!

[@CatharDameth]

A note about the death of Louis XVI and his family : it was actually one of the biggest blunder of Marie Antoinette. The story goes like this : the Tuileries are taken by the mob and, under the impulsion of the merchants and bankers of the revolution (who will later be known by the name Girondinsit seems that the route taken would be the english-like constitutional monarchy. It however exasperate Marie Antoinette, who loses a lot of her prestige, who sends a letter to her cousin,; the emperor of Austrich-Hungary, asking him to invade france. Now the issue is, her cousin was already fighting other central powers for Polish territories and had no troop to spare, so instead he sent an open letter threatening to raze paris if harm is done to the royal family. Instead of calming things down, this letter enrages the assemblée constituante who realises that Austrich Hungary has no troop, while they have a massive army they can send like a canonball toward pretty much everything, and it becomes crystal clear that not responding to the threat would be seen as an act of weakness of the new regime. After that, the royal family has the great idea of trying to flee, giving actual substance to the threat (the royal family tries to flee to escape the damage caused by the invasion they are welcoming) and the AC is now convinced that the king of france, rebaptized "king of frenchmen" was a traitor and could not been kept alive. The executionj of L16 was pretty much the country equivalent of acting cocky while being mugged, pretending you have a gun and reaching for your pockets. There, you asked for an anecdote on the revolution. This one comes from the historian Henri Guillemin, whose videos are on youtube if you can understand french As for Robespierre, french people usually love the guy. I know I do. You can't really call this man a hypocrite as he (unlike Danton) never used his position to make money and rented his parisian place to a carpenter. He hd the guillotine easy, and surely he was off centered relative to the monetary power who gave rifles to the revolutionary mob, but his most defined trait was his absolute honesty. As for his shot in the mouth, it was an assassination attempt - or at least that's what we're told in school. It's hard for me to witness to see evey foreign depiction of Robespierre as a traitor/corrupt/double faced murderer - it was precisely the opposite.

[@Tehsnakerer]

Thanks for the comment, this is very enlightening

[@Schlorb-Lord-of-Schlirb]

Just a correction: he didn't rent his "Parisian place" to a Carpenter it was the other way around since the Carpenter was a great admirer of de Robespierre and was very happy to welcome him in his home

[@sparten17708]

Tehsnakman delivers a great Christmas gift!

[@Tehsnakerer]

No sawdust in the bread and stocking stuffed with heads

[@abdullahsaciid4988]

@@Tehsnakerer yum

[@smergthedargon8974]

The artstyle is quite nice, imo. It's a strange halfway between Dishonored and some bits of the new Deus Ex games, but the way they use color within that style really makes it work.

[@butelthomas2503]

"the outfit doesn't make the monk" would be 'l'habit ne fait pas le moine"so it does exist edit:im french btw

[@gewuerzwanze5627]

My condolences

[@Am_Yeff]

"im french btw" poor soul

[@butelthomas2503]

@@Am_Yeff yeah

[@gunfighter009]

How many of those letters are actually said

[@butelthomas2503]

@@gunfighter009 with all the silent letters removed it would look like that :l'abi ne fai pa le moin

[@darkpigion]

I've gotta say, your wordplay is on point in this review. You got more than one refined chuckle out of me.

[@GameDevYal]

It feels like the message the game ends on would've been a lot clearer if there'd always been a "choose death" button available in the GUI somewhere, where Alexis finally gets disillusioned with himself and gives himself a high-velocity lead injection, perhaps it even would erase your savefile permanently if picked. The Puppeteer didn't just give you the choice arbitrarily, you always had the choice, but you CHOSE to keep playing despite always fighting a losing battle, because you wanted to deliver more injustice, cause more intrigues - you were enjoying it after all, no matter the personal cost. Essentially, the player needs a way to openly state "I **chose** to quit this game", different from getting bored of it and putting it off for later - if the only choice they will truly make is whether to keep playing or not, this means they can acknowledge that they understood the core message, and the game can acknowledge it, proving that it did in fact respect the player's time. As it is now, it's impossible to tell what was well-intended fumbles with post-modern ideas and what was cynism. Unrelated, but The Consuming Shadow is the only game I've seen that has an option like this - as your mental health dwindles from exposure to eldritch horrors, menu options will randomly flicker to options to harm yourself momentarily, and hitting the "accept" button at that time hurts your physical health. It does a pretty good job at portraying paranoia and self-harm from a pure game mechanics view, because from a role-playing perspective, you begin to actively distrust and second-guess your own thoughts when you deal with this effect.

[@isabellamorris7902]

Ooh this is cool! It's a little too late to have many cohesive opinions now but Merry Christmas and this is super interesting.

[@TheZigzagman]

That's honestly brilliant. Just make it an unobtrusive option available when you get home everyday. It would start as almost a joke and get less and less outlandish with every passing day.

[@jtlego1]

@@TheZigzagman so... basically the “Finger On The Eject Button” thought/option from Disco Elysium?

[@Splitboltxful]

underrated video. love these in depth analyses of games i’ve never heard of

[@oldstoffire]

"Though I'm sure you'd prefer a white fla-SHUNK" Losing my shit over this line holy fuck hahaha

[@chaosinc.382]

I felt the immense disappointment within the story's direction despite not being there lmao

[@isabellamorris7902]

Question: does a little more distance (both temporal and psychic) between the player and protagonist make the "dupe" of the game's premise easier to deal with? In YIIK the player is clearly supposed to self-identify with or self-project onto Alex. Alexis is clearly his own person; we're just playing as him. Edit to clarify: as Yahtzee says, "even in branching fiction the author has the right to declare some things out of character". What we're playing in We reveals itself to be just that: a complete story, with a branching but ultimately pretty nailed-down narrative. It's not the kind of story which pretends the player can do absolutely anything they want in that sense at least, so the player's expectations are effectively managed.

[@caffreyfielding2054]

I just want to say thank you for the incredible quality of your content. Your videos are always so well researched, written, and laid out. Watching them is a joy, and re-watching them has somehow helped with my anxiety related insomnia.

[@oldstoffire]

Awesome video man. Love your wordplay. I'm surprised you were able to stick with the "We. The Revolution" gag for the entire video. You actually sold me on the game, but my desire to play it went straight through the floor when we got to the part where Bruno returns.

[@Q_Tura]

I was hesitant on buying this literally 8 hours before you posted. Thank you for this full review before I make a purchase

[@Q_Tura]

So after watching the video, I realize that I love it and wants to support them for making that game, but I do not want to play it by any means

[@EggBastion]

@@Q_Tura I watched the voiceofdog play it I bought anyway _I'm_ not mad but there again _I_ didn't play it

[@Q_Tura]

@@EggBastion yeah, I think I might do that at one point when I can afford it Edit : Just like I did with Dead by Daylight

[@chaosinc.382]

If it makes you feel any better I buy games with little intention to play them just to support the creators. I know very well I'll never get close to finishing Hollow Knight but the devs deserve my support I reckon.

[@Mr.Mosquito89]

ah ha, now here's something I like : a game that plays with morality properly! It lets you make the choice, rather than giving you the false choice, or worse, just making you do a bad thing and then trying to shame you. It lets the player muddy the water and then makes them take the dip into it, just to see what they've done -- it's laudable, in a way. I'll take this over another Spec Ops : The Line any day, faults or no.

[@Shenaldrac]

"HoW dArE yOu UsE wHiTe PhOsPhErOuS?!?!?!" Shut up Spec Ops devs! You don't get to shame me for doing the only thing your linear game allows for me to proceed, and until we live in a society where it's easy to get a full refund for a game, "just turn the game off" is not a reasonable thing to suggest as an alternative to continuing play!

[@RK-iq9uh]

The idea of lack of choice seems really interesting in a game, until you realize that video games as a medium more or less contradict the idea completely. The fact that killing vs imprisoning vs acquitting all have different consequences that will influence future decisions means that there is choice, no matter how small it may be. Different dialogue choices effect a player's view of a character/ characters. By the very nature of interactivity I think makes the message "choices don't matter" questionable at best. Heck, the ability for a person to interpret information differently from someone else means that every piece of media, even non interactive forms, are all in some way interactive. I think a better route the game could have gone would be to lean into the "Sins of the father" angle. How the characters were shaped by circumstances that forced them down a specific, tragic path is already part of the game. A son dies because his father was conniving, and he was conniving because he was pushed into being an important judge, and he was pushed into his position because the king needed to be tried, and the king needed to be tried because etc. Each decision came about due to choices before, yet the whole of the story stays the same as what will happen is entirely based on what has happened. It shows lack of real choice while still maintaining the fact that these actions have consequences. Not to mention it can reflect how, despite France's best efforts, they ended up going down a violent, morally ambiguous dead end. The way "We. The Revolution" makes its case seems closer to a bored middle schooler in history class who watched a youtube video about Nietzsche. For a historical event with so much ambiguity and complexity they went down the most unsubtle, obnoxious route possible. (Seriously, a puppet master?). I don't think the French Revolution only getting one end is a bad decision, but the justification is mediocre and probably not needed. The game tries to talk big but it is confused on almost every level.

[@isabellamorris7902]

I think there are games that do the "choices don't matter" theme well - this game arguably comes close, as Snake himself said. The French Revolution itself was a period of terror and death, and one judge realistically isn't going to make much of a difference even if they're somehow witness to every important event during the Terror. It's trying to evoke feelings of powerlessness and anxiety, which it does. Spec Ops: The Line has been under fire for doing similar things - though sometimes in SOTL you *do* get the chance to take hidden "alternative options" that the game rewards you for. I'd argue the point of SOTL is that the immense pressure, anger and fear involved in waging war causes communication and rational thinking to break down. For that reason I'd argue it's justifiable to have one "bottleneck" point where the player MUST do something bad to progress, and for the game to then chastise you for it: because in real war it can *feel* like you only have one, unethical option to take (even if it's arguably not true, and you are then subject to guilt and shame because of it). Like Alexis, Walker's also his own character - so you're playing his story, and it could be that that part of the story will always be fixed no matter what other decisions you make. Games that do the "choices don't matter" theme competently (i.e. The Stanley Parable) tend to closely examine the *nature* of choice-making as a whole. Why do people feel like free will doesn't exist? What kind of decisions can you even make when you're cornered, and is it worth it to make your own choices if they are insignificant or will make your life actively worse? Yahtzee puts it really well when he says "All video games have consequences for choices! If you walk to the other side of a room, you'll be on the other side of that room!" For this reason, anything that seriously examines determinism or free choice in games needs to stop going "wooOOOO yOu'Re In A vIdEo GaMe So YoUr ChOiCeS aRe LiMiTeD" and start thinking harder about context. Why's it important for players to feel restricted or predetermined in THIS game? And why have the devs chosen the specific mechanics or story beats they did to make that clear? And what's it actually trying to SAY that's important for the player? (Thank you for coming to my TED talk)

[@DatCameraMON]

@@isabellamorris7902 I would say that the Stanley Parable is indeed a good exploration of the "choice in video games is meaningless" idea. However, I think why it works as that is that, the whole concept of the Stanley Parable is the gameplay. There isn't some additional mechanic that distracts from that thought like We does. The Stanley Parable arguably couldn't have been done in a non-video game media, though potentially in a choose your own adventure book mayyyybe, but who really does that anymore? We or This is The Police and its sequel *could* actually be done, to better effectiveness, in a movie. They are stories told in the video game format that use gameplay to prop up the story, not just to be a fun game. I think the way We and This is The Police go about crafting the story is, like the OP said, antithetical to the inherent interactivity of video games and doesn't really give fond memories of the game people are done with it.

[@TheZigzagman]

Videogames aren't defined by player choice as much as they are by the illusion of that choice. We. The Revolution. Fails not because the choices don't mean anything, but because it shows its hand too early and spends the last third elbowing you in the ribs going, "Get it?" over and over again. Plenty of games accomplish this theme by being cagier about it. The aforementioned Stanley Parable, Pathologic, hell, The Walking Dead season one accomplishes it just by putting text in the corner insisting your choices matter.

[@isabellamorris7902]

@@DatCameraMON I disagree with that actually - like the person above me said, games can only be interactive to a limited extent. It's about the illusion of choice. The problem is not that players are railroaded - how many good/great games railroad players at least once? - but that it has nothing to say about why it has chosen to strip back all that machinery to show you that you are being railroaded. Why does it *matter*, in the end, that the main character in We is being controlled by a magical puppetmaster? What does that say about anything relevant to the player? Nothing, aside from "video games aren't as interactive as you think they are". It's a lazy, superficial comment on the medium and it's pretty self-evident to begin with.

[@Shenaldrac]

@@TheZigzagman Eh, I still find Pathologic entirely up its own ass. Yes yes, you put a developer avatar in your own game who will have a meta conversation with the player if they get the "perfect" ending, you explicitly say that a player cannot do anything that the developers have not programmed. How very self aware, how very post modern. Yawn. Perhaps this was more mindblowing when the game first came out, but I cannot go back in time and experience Pathologic in 2005. And even if I could, I can't say for certain that I wouldn't feel the same about it as I do now. Like Isabella said, it's a lazy, superficial comment which is ultimately self evident, but something we accept and pretend is not the case to better immerse ourselves and enjoy the work. The fact that the translation's an utter mess and even the improved translation of its sequel still leave it as completely bonkers with loads of non sequiturs and overly flowery prose certainly doesn't help any. Fuck the steppe, fuck the Kin, fuck the earth mother, the future is now old man.

[@TheOfficialJeff1]

I was interested in the schemeing and political games but damn that ending. It's kinda sad since there's not a lot of games like this out there.

[@HunterJanos]

The army-leggy joke was so brilliantly executed, it made me crack up so much, that my flatmates came to check on me, to see if I was okay.

[@sactownsacrament9416]

45:05 I went to the beach last summer and there was a headless sea turtle washed ashore that had drawn quite a crowd. Some things never change I guess

[@warpotato8700]

1:03:36 I give massive props to the art and music director for this image. It’s really simple and cool as hell. What an interesting and powerful twist. It’s like if the thing coming out of left field was a semi

[@Nionivek]

I am not surprised Tinville doesn't care about court corruption. The game makes it pretty obvious that corruption is not only common but expected of judges. A fair and balanced judge who plays by the rules would only meet the gallows himself.

[@shcdemolisher]

A rather realistic take on judges both of the time and even today.

[@elloo98]

I for some reason am reminded of Lobotomy Corporation and Library of Ruina with this game. The series has the same disparate gameplay styles, although it keeps to one within the titles, LC being a management game, LoR being a card game akin to slay the spire, and the upcoming LC-B being a dungeon RPG and LC2 a city builder. It also has a theme of a determenistic world and characters, but handles it way better and it isn't something that the player has to experience as a negative, as "fate having it out for you/is fickle" is mostly experienced by surrounding characters. The MC (in LC at least) isn't fated for a bad end no matter how much they try to fight it which seems to be a constant with these "determenistic universe" plots.

[@NatureChannelEnclave]

34:27 - Never in my life I expected something from Fate Series on Tehsnakerer's, or, hell, any junk-games channel. As a nerd, I didn't even bat an eye at first. I saw the art, heard his name and was "Yeah, that's Sanson!" before getting dumbfounded and thinking "Wait, what is Fate's rendition doing here.". Still, it made me pretty happy.

[@galloviking4766]

From "Papers, Please" to "Head, Please"

[@DarkTree]

the public, reacting to the absence of an execution: "so no head?"

[@WMan37]

I was gonna make an observation about how the bottom right panel at 1:03:26 reminded me of the Tails gets Trolled face but then you literally pointed out how this game's art style captures that same level of expression later in the video using the exact image I had in mind, which is impressive.

[@vetreas366]

Can't say I was expecting it, but a Snake vid is definitely a welcome Christmas gift any day of the year. Big thanks! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

[@Exigentable]

I am always excited to see your videos, Snake. Thanks for the quality content.

[@giguyjoe]

1:52:42 And yet it was a much needed criticism that needed to become more widely known. Telltale Games built up an entire reputation of making adventure games where the stories they create can go in a myriad of different ways and end in vastly different ways. In reality, the choices you make don't really matter. Nick from the first Walking Dead game is perhaps the biggest testament to that.

[@AlucardRo]

This video got me interested in the game until the whole chapter 3, it's sad when a game manages to be interesting and unique but at the same time unappealing at the last lap of the race.

[@damocles7406]

Wow it really did shit the bed during that last parts. Damn that's frankly impressive.

[@busterbackster1]

After watching this I really think you should give "this is the police" a try, it reminds me of this with way less pointless mechanics and still damn good art.

[@cpttyson]

welp that was a rollercoaster. That game story seemed to be quite interesting.. to end up in such weird manner is.. well weird. Specially with the plot twist at the end xD. I'm somewhat glad i never played that game. I know it would have frustrated me to no end with that kind of story xD

[@Spec0psGrunt]

34:27 love the Fate version of Sanson showing up for a second. (he's a good if underused character)

[@AArmstrongDotOrg]

"I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards" - Garth Marenghi Wonder if he helped write this story... :D

[@CiowaDyer]

I know this was nearly almost a year ago and this is only my second video I've watched from you but I'm already obsessed. Please please do a video like this one on This Is The Police 1 and 2 it even has the same artwork as this game.

[@shcdemolisher]

I know that game did get a lot of people mixed since we want to play as the good cop and not the bad cop that we would rather throw into prison. I do remember someone talking about the town in 2 where almost everyone was a criminal, and i just went upon seeing that: "Uhh can I get outside reinforcements to bomb this place to hell? Because it would be justified in taking down a mob boss with this much power, bringing in the state police/FBI."

[@CiowaDyer]

@@shcdemolisher It really was like two different extremes, which is why it'd be even cooler to see Teh's perspective on both games heh.

[@shcdemolisher]

@@CiowaDyer yeah that would be very interesting to see!

[@MisterS.]

Thanks for the new video! Love your content.

[@ouka6686]

I've never been more second hand frustrated than what happened in act 3.

[@Electroporcupine]

Incidentally, while you're not the only person I've seen who believed that it was impossible to save your son's arm it can be done. I managed it, myself. It doesn't really affect anything, because he vanishes from the story anyway.

[@ascoolas77]

I got this game watching a video on it that showed off the first hour and I was hooked I was a fan of the French Revolution so this game seemed really good for me, then I got to the parts where I had to that tutorial battle then the last act where I turned it off and haven’t been motivated to play it again.

[@roadent217]

I love how you constantly call the game: "We. The Revolution"

[@YourBoiMungo]

We.

[@Tehsnakerer]

The Revolution

[@Beef7599]

Oui.

[@jerrytc2978]

honestly as shit as the puppeteer is story wise i do like him thematically and his kid messing with napeleons doll i feel having him AT THE EXACT END OF THE GAME, as more of a cute nod to the developer? or an implication of being a representation of humankinds tendency to repeat stories later (this revolution is not the first and wont be the last in history, even now) could have worked very well maybe even to imply a sequel about another historical event, or a fabricated one from fantasy, or something else could even keep the kid messing with the doll, just not have him talk to alexis at all

[@NickAndWolf]

Good vid. Likes the “choice matters because it doesn’t matter” part. Here’s engagement to help ya moar

[@EmpererDevian]

Just started watching your videos and have been binge watching them for a couple days, they're great! Love the EUIV music in the background of some of them too.

[@RupertLester]

New vid by the most underrated game commentary channel on youtube right around christmas? Best present snakeman, hope you had a good one.

[@homoe7976]

1:01:20 "All the rope he needs to behead him with" Mate, just because it's a French game doesn't mean you get to hit the wine before making the video.

[@averyheart4480]

Thank you for saying "Eat cake and have it too" in the right order

[@serisdovakhin]

this absolutely feels like a "can only be played once" game.

[@gerickollarena]

"This is a social survival horror game" And with that, I got sold another game

[@Shamino1]

You wanted a Revolutionary Tribunal to be fair and balanced? *BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA*

[@EggBastion]

No I just want A WAY OUT

[@flatbred4790]

Love these videos man. The way you go through the game’s story and mechanics is really interesting and really makes me understand the game without having played it. This one is an A+ because instead of it being over a bad or broken game, it’s one that COULD have been great, but botches it’s execution.

[@LA-be8fu]

Judging by The Puppeter's dialogue, I wonder if going with the themes of choices not mattering was partially born out of some previous negative experience the studio faced against this sort of thing. At least, they seem aware of how an audience might react to it, and even sound a little frustrated in advance. (Which considering the shallowness of some of those reviews, they weren't too far-off) Also, I didn't even realize this video was age restricted. Really? That sucks. It must be hurting its visibility a good bit which is a massive shame, this is one of my fave vids from you

[@TheSirCrown]

What I learned is that you did your game allot different then I did... When I played it I tried my hardest to be a honest judge... And my reputation plummeted... It felt the more truthful I was the harder the game became... You did amazing in everything in it and I once or twice broke my decision just to keep my head... It always felt like everyone was on top of me and you showed me in this game you can make it a cake walk

[@That_Montage_Nerd]

"I hope to have more consistent releases in 2021..." Me: *looks at calendar*

[@Tehsnakerer]

Yeah I messed that up, the next video is shaping up to be the biggest I've done by a long shot

[@zyriantel9601]

"Having done jury duty, that's just... how it is." Not gonna lie, I kinda envy you, I lowkey wish I could sit in on a jury for a court case because I grew up in a family that enjoyed crime dramas. Unfortunately, both times so far that I've been called on for jury duty, I never made it past the waiting room for selecting jurors, once because I just barely didn't make the list, and again when the case was settled right before I even got to the courthouse. I just wanna play Real Life Ace Attorney, man, is that so wrong?

[@Tehsnakerer]

It ain't wrong, most of my jury experience was a week and a bit in a waiting room. Then a rather trivial matter that led to the jurors talking in circles for a long time

[@zyriantel9601]

@@Tehsnakerer I had a lot of hope for my second jury call, it was actually a felony offense, so it would have gotten interesting... if, again, the defendant didn't settle for a reduced charge in exchange for a guilty plea. The courthouse clerk told us that, and my immediate response was a very disappointed "Maaan..." The other would-have-been jurors gave me weird looks on the way out.

[@ShermTank7272]

Jury duty isn’t a game, man. It’s not nearly as exciting as an Ace Attorney trial. Nine times out of ten, there isn’t going to be some case-breaking evidence or a "turnabout" moment. Furthermore, you have a responsibility as a juror to consider all the evidence and make an honest judgement. Even if it’s a mundane case, not a murder trial, please take it seriously.

[@gabesullivan8603]

When you were making the point on how most of the dramatic burden on Alexis' voice actor (a task he came up sort for), The one game that came to mind that has a similar situation is Darkest Dungeon, which features almost all characters having text-only speech save for the narrator who provides constant feedback on various play actions and provides the background lore. But the voice actor for the narrator absolutely crushes it and really fits like a glove in the gothic horror setting, that guy needs more work.

[@ZCid47]

Merry Christmas and you convinced me to play this game that has attracted my attention for a long time. PS: 34:26, good choice.

[@Hablmet]

A fascinating title. I think I could actually play this, but the sheer amount of mechanics scare me. I'd definitely have to be sober, too.

[@Rognik]

The art style reminds me a lot of Orville. That game had a similar theme, I think, but unbridled by an actual setting and more simplistic UI, had much more liberty to change the story and have consequences for your actions. The consequences were admittedly still minor, but I suppose to had more affect to the actual story than either The Walking Dead or this game actually had.

[@centurionzen1005]

I am so glad I came across your channel. I absolutely love your work & I want you to be on KZbin for as long as you can. Keep it up. Seriously - history, an obscure game & your commentary makes this one of my favorite videos on KZbin. Definitely my top 10.

[@graycard668]

The final act in this game is such an disservice to the player that i cut my strings on that surgery bed and uninstalled the game.

[@rulerofflapjacks6838]

I just finished playing through this game after watching the beginning of this and overall I think the themes and a good portion of the story were a good time. I actually was able to save Bernard's hands but lost my life when playing dice and I honestly think Alexis dying at the end of it made sense. That after all the stabbings, clawing his way up to political power, and Napolean saving the city he just straight up dies at the end with all of it being for naught. Bruno did rub me the wrong way tho and I guess it doesn't help that I'm not a big fan of "sins of the father" stories.

[@maxwellsterling]

I think it says something about people in general when they expect the game - or any game, for the matter - to reward them for moral choices, which I personally find kind of disgusting as I don't really roleplay anywhere and my characters are a reflection of myself whenever possible: Mass Effect, SWTOR, Deus Ex, all of these games have me playing as a mix of good and evil according to the situation, not being shy of getting into more troublesome situations to exercise a moral compass. Saving someone at the cost of influence with factions, for example, is just a no-brainer to me with the reward itself being saving the person that I believed to not deserve the punishment. I'll say, however, that it differs from things like "pick X or Y" and picking either X or Y leads to the exact same thing, which I can definitely say are a royal pain in the ass to experience as a player; it's a key difference between illusion of choice cucking the player's gameplay and the lack of "physical" reward on a moral choice. The way I understand it, people expect these moral choices to bring them to the same "long term benefits" thing, but that's just not how the world works: I don't get people seeing me on the street and thanking me for stopping by to help with their car, or helping an old lady carry her shopping cart to the car, only to get surprised by her shotgunning a thief trying to rob me in a dark alley 2 weeks later. It's a weird expectation that there *has* to be a reward and that evil follows a path of a smaller instant reward, while good is a bigger reward that shows itself in the future, or sometimes even being mixed into "I did something good, where's my instant reward?" It can sound dumb for some people who don't approach these things with the same depth and idea that there's always a hidden psycho-sociological meaning to everything, but I think people show themselves in the little things. Hell, recently I was doing Runescape quests on a new account and there was a goblin that had a portion of a map I needed for it; the goblin was said to have killed a good wizard for it and when I went to ask him for the map inside the prison, he wanted money and laughed at how easy it was to kill the wizard. With that, it gave me an option to buy the map from him and I had waaaaay more than enough to do so, but that mocking tone regarding murder just flipped my switch and I thought outside the box a bit: he has a map and things drop loot when they die; this shouldn't be any different. I grab runes for a telekinetic grab and beat the living shit out of the goblin with adamant bolts, taking longer than simply paying him, spending runes and ammo in the process, but being more than proud with the idea that I gave him a good beating, no expected reward or anything - I did it because it's what I'd have done in the situation and that's all I need from a game's moral choice.

[@thecynicalone7655]

I think people expecting rewards for good behaviour is mostly to do with how ingrained it is in narrative games that that's the way things are done. Games like Pathologic break the mold by even having the opportunity for the 'good' option to fuck you over for no real benefit Morality plays are designed to guide people into thinking certain things are moral. From that perspective the reward makes sense, it's reinforcement that those ideas about morality should be followed. There's also an element of wish fulfillment, I think. People are generally pretty pro-social, but that behaviour is often actively punished, so having moral choices that also help you can be a nice escape

[@CollinandBri]

I always enjoy these videos as background noise when I’m playing certain games. I’m still hoping for a video on Brigador because that game feels like something you’d enjoy with both the soundtrack and the incredible writing