BlueMooner: So you play different people in 1 and 2?
Psyringe: Yes. Also, I agree 100% with AFnord. The main character of BM1 isn't the most likeable chap either, but there it worked. In BM2 and BM3, the main character is simply a brat - often rude and cynical towards others, without any redeeming qualities. He's simply annoying. The game is still pretty good though, especially towards the end.
Wow. Considering how odious I found the main character in BM1, I have a hard time imagining the one in the sequels being worse. I may have to play them now just to see that.
The main character in 1 wasn't so bad outwardly (though he was a bit bland and condescending), but if you stop and think about it, he pretty much acts like a sociopathic asshole throughout the entire game. (
SPOILERS AHEAD!)
-He fakes up an important reagent in a chemist's experiments rather than just walk to town and buy some, because he's too impatient to get what he needs from the guy, and apparently doesn't care if the guy dies in an explosion. And then there is
in fact an explosion, ruining years of research and God knows how much expensive equipment, and possibly sending the chemist down the wrong path and causing him to waste his few remaining years of life trying to figure out what went wrong. Asshole.
-He electrocutes an orderly into unconsciousness just to steal his keys. And this wasn't some evil orderly; he was just some guy doing his job who was in our hero's way. That electroshock could have killed him; certainly he's going to have some nasty burns on his hands when he wakes up. Asshole.
-Ditto for that poor bastard in the boiler room. First our hero drugs him into unconsciousness when he has no idea what an appropriate or safe dose of the drug is, and then he endangers the guy's life by throwing toxic materials into the boiler and filling the room with poisonous smoke. Just because he needs to sneak past the guy. That dude probably lost his job and had lung problems for the rest of his life. Asshole.
-He constantly refuses to help the police, despite having game-changing evidence, because
he wants to be the one to figure out this mystery and how dare some buttinsky copper move in on his turf and try to "solve crimes"? In fact, on several occasions he actively
hinders the cop by feeding him misinformation or concealing or tampering with crime-scene evidence. I mean, the guy knows where to find a dumpster full of
human bodies, but does he say anything? Nah, then the police might waste his precious time with more of their annoying "questions". Asshole.
-He locks the gravedigger in a tomb
after the guy just went out of his way to help him! And then he walks away without even telling anyone. Hopefully the padre heard his screaming and let him out, but it's entirely possible that he starved to death in there.
Asshole.
All of this wouldn't be so bad if it were even remotely justified by the circumstances, like if the hero were trying to avert the end of the world or something. But for most of the game, he's just satisfying his private curiosity. There were honestly times when I couldn't figure out how to solve a puzzle, simply because it didn't occur to me that the hero would do something so horrible just to bypass a comparatively trivial obstacle.
