See, like the other interactive horror stories Supermassive have made, Little Hope has a twist. And the twist left me with a few, very specific questions. I am going to discuss those questions in this supporter post, but that means you should only venture past the cut if you either do not care about spoilers, or have already played the game and can help me tease through them. Alright. Ready?
Why was that police officer so irresponsible??
I think that the twist ending was actually fairly obvious, even without Pip Torrens’ slightly pervy librarian character lampshading everything happening in the story. And one of the most obvious tells was that the bus at the start was very obviously empty. We all saw it. There was nobody on it. Know who else saw it was empty? That goddamn cop. As soon as he diverted the bus through Little Hope, I was suspicious of him. Just ‘cos some dude in a uniform says he’s a cop, thought I, doesn’t mean he is a cop. Why, he didn’t even show ID. His car looks well old. Probably picked it up at an auction. Well, no, turned out he actually was a cop. He was just also a total dumbass and a jobsworth. Like, I feel like if your whole job is being a traffic cop and you come across a totally empty bus, but the driver says “Just want to get these folks where they’re going” (or whatever it is Anthony says) you wouldn’t make a quip about how they can stand a delay. Because they don’t exist, get it? Wouldn’t you at least, I dunno, ask the driver to step down and walk in a straight line. Touch the tip of his finger to the end of his nose. That kind of thing. Wouldn’t you? Or is that just me? It’s not like this cop had fuck all else to do anyway.
What was Anthony doing while hallucinating the adventures of Daniel and Taylor?
So obviously anything that happens to any character while in the presence of Anthony/Andrew is fine and can be explained as him having his extended guilt-ridden breakdown of terror. But for large, very drawn out sections of the game, Daniel and Taylor are off doing their own thing, a long way from Anthony/Andrew. Sooooo… is Anthony bothering to maintain detailed imaginings of what they’re doing while they’re off without him? Is he doing this at the same time as he’s hallucinating having conversations with John and Angela? Because that is some impressive multitasking. Or is he taking half an hour to sit down while he sort of does a “meanwhile…” transition but in his own head? I think it is safe to say that this isn’t the most nuanced of depictions of mental health.
WHY ARE DANIEL AND TAYLOR SECRETLY GOING OUT??
Like, you never actually see them kiss or anything, which is good. Although there is a really funny bit where they have just walked the Witch Trail through the woods, and a hideous demon monster that is a past version of Taylor who was burned at the stake is stalking them with the intention of killing her, and Taylor does a sort of “… and then what? ;)” at Daniel. But the point is. These two are metaphorical hallucinations of Anthony’s dead older brother and sister. What is he doing?
Why is Vince so cryptic?
Obviously Vince is there to put flowers on Tanya’s grave, although I’m not entirely sure why he has to then cycle around the town in the dead of night. But my beef with Vince is the conversations you have with him. I suppose technically what he says works if you know that from his point of view he’s just talking to Anthony the bus driver, a man he knows and has history with. But only just. It’s a real stretch. Because it also still works if he is being a creepy and mysterious loner in a rotting bar talking to a group of people, and really, he can’t be both. Those two characters would have completely different things to say. I know I’m being a Cinema Sins dickhead here, as with my question about the cop, but surely Vince would be like “Dude, what are you doing here, why are you going on about mist, you should probably sit down,” and not going on about how Little Hope isn’t what it used to be.
I feel like the fact they are all creative writing students is some sort of dig at someone but I’m not sure who
I guess this one isn’t really a question, is it?
