The Forbidden Flashbang | Midnight Mercs Finale

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Watch part 1 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhr2pA9zCYg&ab_channel=Rimmy-DownunderGaming

Well, finding out there’s nothing more to it does spoil my enjoyment of the ending a good bit as without an actual explanation for why anything happened it feels very reminiscent of an SCP article that just ‘redacts’ everything the writer couldn’t figure out. Without reason, the nuke feels less like a big reveal ala Hotline Miami 2 and more like the game was just trying to rush to mimic HL2’s ending. Regardless, the game was free and very fun, and I do honestly recommend giving it a go, I even replayed a few levels while editing.

Game is free on Game Jolt, try it out:
https://gamejolt.com/games/midnightmercenaries/375928
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#midnightmercenaries #hotlinemiami #teamfortress2

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34 thoughts on “The Forbidden Flashbang | Midnight Mercs Finale”

  2. It’s kinda disappointing that there’s no alternative ending or secrets in the game. The first Hotline Miami did well having a character who was just cannon fodder and one who questioned and got answers.

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  3. I'll be fair, if Engineer actually wasn't standing to continue talking with the contractor, he could have stopped the warhead. It didn't clearly have any form of anti-defusal, although it was still quite dangerous alone.
    And nobody would have had to die, in the first place.
    But, I at least like the story. And honestly, I love how they did everything, although yeah, if I was to be left in the dark what was going on exactly, and this was supposed to be a discreet disposal, "FUCKING NUKE THEM" would be way too loud and visible.

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  5. "questions are only fun if answers exist" ehhh gonna disagree there, or at least in some other contexts. Half the reasons why I hate modern media or un-needed sequels is because they over explain story elements that were meant to be mysterious in the original plots. I'd take an interesting mystery over a terrible explanation any day.

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  9. I'm really, really glad you enjoyed the game and got so much out of it. I know it has its flaws, and like I said, I might update it one day to fix some of them. But I also feel (based on what you and others have said), that it's already a pretty fun experience 🙂
    I want to clarify some things for the ending. As I already said, the characters in the game would have never been able to figure anything out. You might then wonder "Why not the player?", and my answer to that is that the player and the characters are one and the same. There is intentionally no disconnect between them, restarting/ respawning is canon in-universe, same as seeing everything from a top down view (which is why characters will look at each other through walls), and everything else too. The characters go everywhere the player goes, and the player can only go everywhere the characters go.
    The story itself isn't about uncovering a conspiracy. It's more about these characters, how they interact with each other, their hopes and dreams, as well as showing where living in a world of violence will get you. Because these are still flawed characters that killed a lot of people, and you can't expect to not suffer the same fate eventually if you do that.
    There are a lot of questions unanswered, but I don't think they need answers. Of course I do have answers for a lot of them, and a couple are even hinted at in the game itself if you pay close attention. But if you want them answered, then you have to do your own theorizing. I think that's a much more interesting way to engage with the story and lore of the game than me outright saying "Yeah it was X and Y and Z". The world is your oyster, basically.
    As for the "realism" angle at the end, I don't see the issue. The game has fantastical elements, but the universe still has its rules and those elements don't break them. Much like how a fictional world can have literal magic, and yet remain a grounded story with characters that have relatable problems. A big hint I'll give in regards to the nuke is that it was the only way for the woman behind the curtain to get rid of everyone (including whatever was going on at the science facility). As I said earlier, restarting is canon, and she KNOWS of Medic and Engie's abilities. Just leading them into a room and shooting them wouldn't have been possible. You can even restart during cutscenes, which you have experienced yourself when you fell down that hole as Engie. But a nuke? You can't get away from that. Engineer and you tried, restarting as many times as possible, but eventually, both you and him had to realize that the only way to progress was to move on. Because that was it.
    So basically, I wouldn't write off the story because of a lack of answers, since it was never about getting answers. It was about spending time with these people and their relationships. If you want more answers, you can try to do a little theorizing of your own. Whether that makes the character relationships any richer is up to you, but I doubt it.

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  12. I love how the game makes constant reference to Scout being Spy's son. From Spy almost calling him by his real name to the ending where he tries to comfort him. Very reminiscent of those few panels in the comics. Truly a masterpiece down to the simplest details.

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  24. This story has been so fun! And the creative mechanics were both hilarious and exciting. However, while the dev's reasoning behind it is understandable, the loose ends do feel frustrating. I get that the characters are clueless, that is entirely fair, but does that mean the player should be, too? After all, the player knows more than the characters already, simply by virtue of having witnessed their thoughts and experiences.

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  31. Long rant and reply to another comment, put here just in-case someone wants to read my rambling, it's up to you;

    If you've read fanfiction or any other reddit-type-comment-tryingtoexplain-shit, it seems people are always stuck between fiction and reality.
    (Note: It also seems it shares some… similarities with certain fanfics, Medic especially.)

    Really, the writers for Valve's games, and especially for TF2 have done such a tremendious job writing the games, imagining the characters, that most of this thought process is lost to the fans and perhaps nowadays, even themselves. (Personally I think the TF2 "official comic series" actually sucked, kind of. It was enjoyable, at parts.)

    They are such odd characters that just any kind of story or character arc doesn't just.. work on them. They are very hard to build. Almost all fanfics suffer from this. People don't and can't properly relate to these murderous killing machines without 'degrading' them to their own personal level. We don't get them. How do we actually view these people?

    Put though, persumably, even the Administrator/Announcer has her own story. Whilst cold-blooded because of her ultimate goal, It's hard to think that "TF2 mercs are just like any goons, they'll just be discarded off" is in any way viable, really.

    Even the idea that "They had aspirations and dreams, and all of them were kind of forced into this life" is just.. a little.. downgrading? It's hard for me to see it any other way.

    I did enjoy the story, just like any story can be enjoyed, but I hope people don't find it 100% a correct representation of TF2. Except the murder. And music. With the murder.

    Also, Engineer was awesome. And Pyro. Your voice-acting was also amazing. 🙂

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  34. honestly i defend germanpeters choice to make the game unanswerable, it can be thrown off as lazy writting but its also kind of the message of the game, its not a story about the world or what led to the nuke, its about the mercs, learning the why of their actions is the draw of the story and how they develop until the very end, only to be mercilessly cut off by the blast, being someone that has loved these characters for years it really fucking hurt watching them wash away after learning to deal with their mistakes, they just did it a bit too late

    in my opinion this game's story is an opposite of hotline miami, in that game the characters are basterds the why of itends up like it does, most of them are unredeemable and kill beacuse its the only thing they want to do, all driven by revenge/hatred/foolishness/admiration/extremism, the mercs arent hateful or just have a drive for blood,they all have complex reasons to do it that they recognize in the end but its too late to stop their demise, why do you need to know why it happened on the administrators side? its not like its gonna stop what comes at the end, and belive me, i tried, i combed every single part of every single level doing everythign i could to discover every last secret that could save them, but nothing will, as the same game promts you to, i had to let go, you have to let go.

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