Since I highly doubt anyone else will play this game, I thought it would be okay to discuss some of the game's story elements. But if you really don't want spoilers, just don't read anymore.




Hell's story is typical of what I said earlier about movie plots vs. video game plots. In the game, Hell has been proven to be real, and the Imperator who rules America uses Hell to scare people into serving her and following her orders. People who disobey are sent to Hell and tortured. But what you find out later is that Hell isn't really real at all - it's a computer-generated virtual reality program (and really, you can see that coming long before the game's characters figure it out.) The Imperator rose to power because by the year 2095, America was so full of crime and out-of-control, that people were tired of it and wanted a change. The Imperator used people's fear of Hell to restore some order. But aside from that, there are no shades of grey about it - The Imperator is bad. Hell is bad. We never see the Imperator do anything that isn't bad, and people are tortured very sadistically in the Hell program (even if it isn't real, the people trapped inside don't realize that it's not real, and they still feel the pain in their minds.) If a movie dealt with this subject, it might make us think that if it were possible to create a cyberspace Hell and scare people with it to make them obey the laws, would it be right to do such a thing? But in the game, nothing but bad comes of it, so we're left with nothing to think about.

I feel a little sad about the way the game ended, but I don't know if it's genuine sympathy for the characters, or if it's just depression. Because so much of the game is depressing, I would've hoped for a better outcome for the main characters. I'm reminded of the beginning of Alien 3...
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