From exploring the Toronto at the beginning I’m already discovering a ton of backstory that I didn’t realize was available in the game! Just by talking to Herr Rainer Hofstedt, you can get a ton of information about who you work for, why you’re here and the history of human civilization up to where the game starts.
I was particularly surprised to realize that the Iskai weren’t the first extraterrestrial intelligence that humans had encountered – it had felt to me that finding alien species was a massive event for the characters, rather than just the latest in a series of them! But again from talking to Rainier, it sounds like there might only have been one before and they were all wiped out by a disease (at least, perhaps that’s just what DDT wants people to think). “At least we don’t have to listen to any whining like those flop-ears on Joshi!!” (I’m personally offended) I had no idea that the space humans in this story were in such a callous, megacolonial society – I thought the reason for covering up the true nature of Albion was just corporate desperation, but it sounds like it’s a common attitude not to really care about anything that isn’t human, even though to us these would be incredible discoveries.
People also seem to be a bit casual about Snoopy being distributed forcefully around the computer room! Is there no ship’s counsellor on board? Everyone seems to be momentarily shocked, then shrugs and says they might as well proceed anyway. Once again, it points towards the, uh, casual attitude to the value of life that this future society seems to have.
