Episode 5 - Could Jack interfere with player choices?
Sorry for the second new discussion today. Last one, I promise.
Browsing tumblr through Hyperion Trash Can, I found that they had looked at this. I thought people might like to see it.
**IMPORTANT NOTE: This theory/idea is not mine, it belongs to spark-note and it can be found here: http://spark-circuit.tumblr.com/post/127251464169/okay-so-i-was-rewatching-tales-from-the
If they find this and don't want me posting it or anything I'll take it down**
Okay, so I was rewatching Tales From The Borderlands: Episode 4 and I had a thought.
Under the cut because MAJOR ending choice spoilers.
So, if you end up rejecting the offer to rule Hyperion, Jack gets VERY annoyed. Granted, I wouldn’t have been quite as rude as Rhys was, because I could see Jack was being sincere about the whole idea, but that’s besides the point.
Jack takes control of Rhys’ cybernetics and forcefully plugs Rhys into the system so he can be uploaded. He’s basically Jack’s hostage.
Only thing is, this starts messing with our systems too.
Not just the choices, either. The credits show a little bit of corruption due to Jack’s interference.
So, what is this implying? Does that mean that we are technically connected to Rhys too? A little bit of The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect
You trope coming into play. I mean, Jack did also see the “Handsome Jack will remember that.” notification in Episode 3, too.
But one thing I really wanted to focus on was in relation to the choices.
Like the QTEs (Quick-Time Events) that happened before, it kinda had the idea that if you pressed the button at the right time, maybe you could alert Fiona that something was happening. (It’s a fluke, because Jack takes over your choice for you.)
What if Telltale Games actually did something like that, though?
What if, if you chose to reject Hyperion at the end of Episode 4, all choices in Episode 5 in relation to Rhys would be glitched, maybe even edited to the point where it was possible to mess up dialogue choices. I could see major, story-impacting choices being exempt of course, but this could change the way the player had to think as Rhys - you had to accept that Jack was gonna mess with the choices you can make and you need to fight against them in order to help Rhys notify the others of his situation, maybe even find a way for him to get free, possibly even resetting the choices back to the normal format, due to no more corruption.
TL;DR - If you reject joining Jack in Episode 4, what if, in Episode 5, he edits the player’s choices, and now YOU had to deal with him too?
Comments
That would be utter Nightmare Fuel.
Rubs hands
Yessss...
NOW I'M SCARED.
Pffffft... Why?
It's just your own game turning against you, what's not to love?
I think that if this was implemented well, it could be great. That being said, dialogue choices is the key aspect in Telltale Games, and taking this ability away could seriously impact how fun the epsiode is. However, if there was only a small section of the episode for this type of thing, I'd be all for it.
That would be awesome tbh. That's makes me want to start a second playthrough just in case.
Hmm, I see what you mean, especially if the timing was off and it was too tricky to select the right options.
Either long-ish openings, or short an sweet.
yes...yes...YES
That would be utterly AWESOME!
Jack vs. the player???
SIGN ME THE FUCK UP
Hell yeah! Maybe a fourth wall scene where Jack is literally threatening the actual player and not Rhys? Like the scene with the (?) Handsome Jack will remember that in ep3
That would be so awesome lol. If there was a game of Jack just insulting you for a few hours if gladly dish out 60 bucks for it lol.
I made your title a little more specific. "Episode 5 gameplay" could be a little misleading to some people.
YES YES AND YES! Dude. YES. I had this idea in my head for the finale that Jack was gonna take you over at some point or mess shit up for you, and there was gonna be a part in the story where you had to fight for control, and conversations with fiona and sasha and stuff would resort in things like what you pick, jack will make you say the oppersite, but it''ll give you three chances at this to realise what's going on, so you have to get used to this new dialouge system for a little bit.
Eh-yeah... "nightmare" feul...
Eheh.
It's from TV Tropes. I'm one of the many, many people who help edit the Tales page each day.
I was trying to hint that it wouldn't be "nightmare fuel" for me.
I'm unsure of what you're talking about, though.
As much as I love this idea it can't work, mainly because Jack is inside the system and not inside Rhys anymore which obviously means he can't control him anymore. Granted if Jack somehow could get back in Rhys' head maybe it could work but unless Jack can still control him without being in his head it can't work.
Oh man I love this idea. If Telltale does this I will give them all my money for whatever they put out until the end of time.
I'm a member of the TV Tropes wiki.
I got a question: Is Jack still in our body? I thought he left Rhys' body when he plugged in the overwrite board - you know Jack also disappears as a hologramm and reappears as a big window projection
so yeah i m wondering what you guys think
O...kay?
If you're...er...interested, you can check this page out:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands
If you see any missing bits, click on them or highlight them.
wha
Hard to say... I think he is no longer 'inside' Rhys' brain, but all things considered, Rhys' head-port is very much connected to the Helios network, and seeing as how Jack now is the network...
1) That would be amazing (-ly scary)
and 2) Well I already feel like Jack has been fucking with me past the fourth wall. He's the one telling Rhys (and more specifically, the player) not to tell anyone else about him. I fell for it, and didn't mention anything about him to Fiona & Sasha. We all know that in-universe Jack's a manipulative pyschopath. But in the final scene of Escape Plan Bravo, I realised he was manipulating me.
I was just looking out of curiosity, and stardustsprinkleshine (best user name ever!) since has done screen-grabs to show that Jack actually already does this in Ep. 4 finale. He glitches out the screen after you make a selection, and changes the option you selected.
Holy shit, Jack. Holy shit, Telltale.
Ok, sure
My friend theorized that Jack will be Borderlands's Skynet in BL3.
Both cool, and awesome. And terrifying.
I noticed that in my alternate playthrough when i rejected Hyperion but in my game i had three different choices rather than only having "Fiona, help!"
That would be so cool! Terrifying, but cool. I loved the glitching in the credits and his laugh, I almost expected him to jump out at my face at that point.
This would be so amazingly clever. One of the best things about the Borderlands' franchise (both the main games and Tales) is that a lot of the humour is based on the ways in which the games subvert their own mechanics.
Examples: 'joke' weapons like the bane, missions like Claptrap's Birthday Party/The TPS mission where the scientist opens the window, Telltale's subversions of the 'X will remember that' moments and, obviously, the weaponless 'gun' fight.
This would do exactly that. Think you know how to play the game? NOPE - ALL RULES ARE OFF, PUMPKIN!
Jack would make it so none of our choices really matter? So, he'd basically become Telltale Games?O_o
And his final defeat will be to download him into a Claptrap unit.
SHOTS FIRED
Well that happens in EP 4 if you go against Jack so i hope it happens again!
[removed]
Plot twist: AI Jack hacks TTGs computers and makes them his slaves. Episode 5 is released and when you download it HJ takes over your computer and spreads through the Internet like a virus, then takes over the world by hacking into all electric devices. Borderlands becomes reality.
More likely he'll die for good when Fiona blow ups Helios.
He almost definitely will be. He can say that he's going to make you kill Fiona, so I think that means that he'll take control of your body.