Hi,

Just finished this GREAT game, but I have a question: As far as I understand, Morgan doesn't want to come out with the DNAV disease's cure just to make profit. Is this right?
And when Max really finds the cure, he boycotts his car to kill him? This is the plot or I missed something?

Thanks!

It has been too long since I played this one, don't remember, but what you say sounds right...
Love, Betty Lou

Morgan(the "bad" guy), has arranged to warehouse Max("you")in the asylum because you were a threat to blow the whistle on his unsavory research. The cover story was that you were a patient attempting to escape in a stolen car(one of the nurse's). You gradually become aware of the truth-that you are a doctor & colleague of Morgan. Morgan is the profiteer & scoundrel. You were the the dedicated doctor searching for a cure, but caught in a web of cover-ups. Just like real life!

But why didn't Morgan was eager to find the real cure of the disease? Moreso, what was the "Hive" Chapter about? Does Morgan conducted any experiments similar to Gromna's (nice anagramm by the way!)?
And what about the fire in the Tower? Who started it and why?

[all the sentences in this post have a questionmark in the end!]

The hive is a reference to the comix that Max read as a child. You see, he's been traumatized by the accident, and is getting memory back in bits and pieces(DC5). His sister's death(the little girl sequence), his feelings of guilt, etc. It's all played out in the game. Somewhat like Phantasmagoria 2, it's a delving into a blurred reality. As for Morgan, he can profit from a cure only if he can control it. Remember the rainy lab sequence & the old guy in the freezer? That was Morgan's experiments. I'd say using asylum inmates & derelicts qualifies as "Gromna-like". Like the oil industry, he profits only from exclusive control of an available technology. Research is a way to money for him. The moral(read: children's lives)necessity of a cure is irrelevant to him. And that's why you(Max)are going thru such revelations about your "friend"'s deception.
As for the tower, I never caught any hints as to who or why, but I naturally suspect Morgan(more cover-ups)GWB/WMD!!!!

It was my impression that the fire was also in Morgan's mind and metaphorical. I felt that he was 'putting out the fire' of his conscience by reinventing his involvement in these experiments.

Melanie

To avoid confusion: the player is MAX, not Morgan. All views you the player experience are Max's. All references to Morgan are in Max's(read: YOUR)head. The whole game takes place in Max's memory, with Morgan as antagonist-which Max(you)only realize late in the game.

Also, there are all of the children in the town with "Mother," and "Mother" is doing experiments with the children. All of the adults who could protect the children are dead. Those who tried to stop "Mother" are dead. "Mother" sees herself as doing a service to the children by mutating them and doing these experimental changes to them, but in reality she has no right to treat them this way and is harming them. I think Max is relating the children who are ill in real life to the children in this part of the story, and "Mother" is like Morgan, who is doing the experiments on the helpless people, and has no right to do the experiments.

Little by little, Max is working through his subconscious to remember the truth and regain his strength and motivation to fight the person who is doing the real harm (Morgan). As Max defeats each villain and completes each task in his mind (which are created from his own memory and subconscious and use symbolism from things he knew in childhood), he comes closer to remembering the truth of what his good friend, Morgan, is doing and that he must defeat him. Since his little sister died as a child (and this death and his failure to find a toy she wanted just before she died has haunted him), she figures predominantly in these tasks that were created in his subconscious. I felt that in Max's mind she ultimately symbolized all of the children who were dying, and memories of her gave him strength to fight his way back to reality and help save the children who needed his help.

Edited to add: I know you didn't ask any more questions about the game, but I just love to talk about it!! It's one of my top ten favorites of all time, with so much story to it. I've bought it twice--once early on with the big box, with the CD-ROMs that have had a problem with exploding in the drive, and once in the smaller budget version with the CD-ROMs that hopefully will stay in one piece!

Thank you for correcting me, Bleep. Of course, I meant Max. I don't think I made myself clear in my last post (along with using the wrong name). &

Melanie

Very interesting, freudian thought, guess it could fit easily into the plot and made it even "thicker" and powerful

Have any of you "played" (for it really isn't a game, per se) Tender Loving Care? It stars John Hurt(of "Elephant Man" & "1984", amongst many others). It's based on actual psychobabble techniques-it also gives you an "analysis" based on your answers. I found it to be amusing(especially if you lie!!!)

Thanks, Elven. It seemed to me like there was something more under the surface of the story which made me come up with all these hypothesis.

Bleep, I almost bought TLC but read about a lot of driver problems with it on new computers and that's one of the very few things I won't do for a game, change drivers.

Did you play it on a new computer and if so, did you have problems?

Melanie

I played it on a Pentium 3 800MHz, 127M RAM, WinME. I haven't tried it(or MANY others) on the Pentium 4 3.4GHZ, 512M WinXP SP2 Home, yet. But it's part of the mission. After seeing Infernos' site, I'm optimistic about being able to replay them all. We'll see after I sign off and I'll get back.
E-King: you can't watch too many psych movies! They're more involving than the current crop of recent entries(although "Vanilla Sky" WAS amazing)
edited 14 minutes later: It installed & ran fine(up to the first test-I'll finish it at a later date). Just remember, like Dark Eye & Bad Day at the Midway, it's not really a GAME so much as a virtual experience. You get to watch a brutal murder unfold with running commentary(Hurt)on the psych implications-and tests on YOUR answers to what's going on. Not exactly fun, but a bizarre concept(of course, that's why I like it!)

There is a DVD-only version of the game available (which is the version I own) that plays on a regular DVD player in addition to your PC. Thus, it'll work fine on any computer, as long as you have a DVD-ROM drive!

(Definitely worth it, too, in my opinion, as long as you aren't bothered by mature sexual content--it's a unique and intriguing game!)

Thanks Bleep & CBsection.

Unfortunately, I still haven't gotten around to getting a dvd drive but Bleep, did you just load it in a cd version on your xp?

I'm going to check out Inferno's setup.

BTW, I thought Vanilla Sky was a great movie too!

Melanie

With the exception of Myst IV and Conspiracies, all my games are CD-ROM. Which upset me when I got my new computer and it had a DVD drive only(turns out it's designed to play DVD & CD-whew!)But TLC is CD, installed in less than 5 minutes(on the DVD/CD). Reading your post, I uninstalled it & re-installed on my CD-writer(I kept it from my old system). No problems(up to the second TAT test)so far. And as CB says, it's not PG.

Bleep(with the exception of mother & daughters, the name co-workers, friends etc know me by!)

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"Reality is the only word in the English language that should ALWAYS be used in quotes"

Thanks, Bleep! I may just baag this one. It sounds interesting.

Melanie

Quite welcome, Melanie. I'm slowly coming out of the closet("a man your age playing video games...")If only they knew!!!

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Just finished: Legend of the Prophet
Just started: ...& the Assassin
On deck: Egyptian Prophecy

I know the feeling. It's amazing that it took me so long to discover adventure games! The people who say that are as clueless as I was about them not that many years ago.

Melanie

Folks, hi,

IIRC, TLC *only* comes on DVD. As with all DVDs, as mentioned above, it plays on a dedicated DVD player as well as your PC... and the last time I played it, was pretty sure it was on XP... and yes, mature sexual content, especially if you answer the questions... professionally

Cheers,
metzomagic

Haha, I remember the first time I played it, I was a little worried about the content, as I saw several people warn about it. After playing through the game, nothing was worse than PG-13 level stuff, so I wondered what everyone was talking about. I then played the game again, choosing different answers, and...wow. So it all depends on the answers you choose! Needless to say, I was a bit shocked at what it contained.

Hi Metzomagic!

TLC comes on a CD also according to GamePro and I also almost bought it on the trading post in cd version. I think you're mistaken? Maybe it's currently only published as dvd?

What does IIRC mean?

Melanie

Mel, hi,

Wow. Must be quite a few CDs then... it's a nearly feature length interactive film with multiple paths/endings!

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly. Just another way to say AFAIK

And, As Far As I Know:

1 CD :~ 650MB
1 DVD (2-layer) :~ 9GB = 9000MB

Of course, it all depends how much of the DVD Tender Loving Care actually uses...

Cheers,
metzomagic

Steve,

I don't remember how many cd's but you're right, it must be a lot of them. I would think about 6 or 7 would probably be needed. I don't know if it's a bad disc swapper or if they're used in order.

I like that one 'IIRC'. I learned a new one today. Thanks.

Melanie

Hi all, I played the TLC in CD version and I don't remember it being really bad with the Cd changes. I just looked and there is 4 CDs with the game. It can be an eye opener, however.