The Suicide of Rachel Foster

You know what I hate? This game! I cannot put into words the amount of seething frustration I have for the 5.7 hours of time I wasted playing this game, but I'm going to try, because anyone who is contemplating playing this game needs to know the facts. Spoilers ahead. [spoiler] So, I dare to disappoint you dear gamer, that if you have spent any amount of time in the reading world, and have a knack for solving puzzles, the "twist" if you could call it that is pretty figureoutable from the opening sequence. The opening sequence features a letter from Nicole's mother, Claire, presumably from her death bed being seemingly cryptic about her final wishes, which aren't so much cryptic as they are revealing of a woman who has very clearly committed murder. Now, I know what you're thinking, because I thought it too. I thought, 'Noo, surely they wouldn't be THAT obvious to disclose their 'twist'" Yes...yes they were. And to some, maybe that creates some full circle moment, but due to the way the story unfolds, circling back to that just pissed me off. Anyway, this letter is interspersed with this umbrella show of who we can only believe is Nicole, walking through the rain and pushing passed on her way to a casket, is it her father's? is it her mother's? Honestly who knows, I don't even think we would find out about it next time on Dragon Ball Z. Shortly after, Nicole is making her way to her family's hotel, which has been vacant for the last 4 years, with the urgent desire to get in, get out, talk to her family lawyer about getting rid of it and wash her hands of the bad memories. For the next 9 days, we players go on a journey with Nicole being snowed in this ski lodge hotel thing, chatting with this dude on the phone named Irving, as she uncovers the clues of her family's dark past. And all I gotta say is, what the flipflop mop?! First, let's talk about the way the days are set up. Depending on how quickly you decide to move about the hotel, which has tons of rooms and objects...most which you can't even interact with. Your day could take as little as a couple of minutes to complete to wondering around this place for 25 minutes doing basically nothing except for the occasional chat with Irving (just you wait, we will get to Mr. Irving) Some of these days only require you to do one or two things, then you get a black screen introducing you to the NEXT day. And you're left with the feeling of "well, okay then." And you know, this wouldn't be a terrible problem, IF you were doing ANYTHING interesting. By day 4 we are robbed of arguably one of what could have been the most interesting parts of the game....finding clues....but, when the day loads, Nicole has already done all that for you...with the exception of the lipstick....we WERE allowed to find that together. Some of the other "clues" I suppose could have sorta been "found" but, much of the time when you find things or when information is fed to you through the conversation with Irving, Nicole has a non reaction, so, if you did see something somewhere, she doesn't even react to it until day 4 loads up and there we are having been ROBBED of discovering them for ourselves...yay. Now, you could argue that because this was all pre-game bs, that because Nicole already knew a bunch of this stuff, then OF COURSE she wouldn't have a reaction to any of it, because she already knew it....however, it is revealed VERY early game, that her disgusting father Leonard groomed the pastor's daughter when she was 16, him being 49...and then according the the initial reporting, she unalived herself along with the unborn baby that Pedo Daddy put in her. (In case you didn't already figure it out, the Mom offed her.) Now, you would think that THIS theme in and of itself would be the reason Nicole hates her dad, JUSTIFIABLY so....buuuut, no. So, you're left thinking okay, maybe there is more to the story...I guess??? Maybe Colonial Mustard did it...in the study with a candlestick????? But....no, there is no deeper mystery....Nicole's dad is a pedo, she never acknowledges it... in FACT, the opposite happens, she hated Rachel for what SHE did??? Um....my sweet summer child....THAT'S A WEIRD WAY TO BLAME YOUR DAD FOR HIS CRIMES... Girl....are you okay? Have you sought therapy....because your resolve to hate your dad's literal victim is concerning.... and then somehow the game frames this as LOVE???? As an AFFAIR??? Is it the hotel mold??? Its gotta be the hotel mold right.....? She never shames her Dad in her memory, she somehow is actually jealous of the attention Rachel got because she was perfect....she has some choice words about the pastor (Rachel's Dad btw)....but never for her dad..... Well, that's a choice. So, while you're navigating that nonsense, you're chatting with Irving who, eventually hits on you only from the sound of your voice going from a bubbling idiot to a confident speaker in like three seconds, and fun fact, Day 2, you got a spooky phone call on the hotel's "disconnected" line from a "stranger" telling you that Rachel is still alive, in the hotel, and you better not sell it. It was very clear to ME, that this was Irving, dudes got problems. Because you see dudes and dudettes, Rachel is in fact dead, Irving is her little brother who disappeared into the background, and has been yanking you around this entire time because he needs closure that she didn't yeet herself off a cliff, and apparently you're supposed to have the memory locked up in your mind, buuuuut, it's only a guess because he didn't have real proof that your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries.... No Nancy Drew, he needed you to remember that your mother yeeted Rachel so that he could have the closure he needed, and you could find....forgiveness and try an unalive yourself in the garage at the end.... Yes...that is a thing that almost happens. Nicole, is in her car...where she found her cars keys no one knows, not even the game. Irving walked off into the white abyss and she is fantasizing about a picnic with her parents him and Rachel and taking herself out too.....because, yes that is EXACTLY what I would be wanting to do after remembering that Mom killed the child that my Dad groomed...who was preggers.... I mean...what?! Meanwhile, MEANWHILE for some weird reason el daddio was into some weird occult ♥♥♥♥ and read a lot of esoteric crap, also seemed to be interested in formulas that appeared of the quantum persuasion, and you would THINK this had anything to do with anything.... it doesn't, not even a little bit, save for the weird dream Nicole has where she is imagining herself as a child, walking toward a red flame very very slowly talking to her Dad....who always loved her (yeah, I BET YOU DID!!!) and she wakes up when he says "I love you, Rachel..." *VOMIT* Now, this line here comes from his weird quantum poetry journal, so clearly she glommed on to that sentence...but why honey face???? WHY? Idk man, it seems like the deeper story here is that, Nicole was more outraged that her Dad was in love with a child that wasn't her....which, I mean, based on part of the last conversation she has with Irving where he says "Nicole. he loved you too." HE DID WHAT?? Um....OH, and get this. Irving spent a LOT of time with Leonard during his last days alive. Because, yes, that is exactly what every brother wants to do, hang out with the pedo that led to their sister's death....because as Irving put it "Your father was a lovely man." [/spoiler] EXCUSE ME??? So, here is what should have happened....literally none that!! I hate it here! I had hopes that there would be a deeper story here, you know maybe even some sort of time travel where you could you know....go back in time and undo all whatever that was, you know be part of some sort of justice, but nah. Instead we got this f all of story. And now I've played it, so you don't have to. You're welcome.