One Chance is an interactive narrative adventure game where you literally only get once chance to save the day, and seems to be developer AwkwardSilenceGames's attempt to live up to his name. You play a scientist who is part of a team who discovers a revolutionary cure for cancer, but the celebration is short lived when you realise the cure is actually a death sentence for the entire planet... a gas-based drug that rampages through all living things. You have six days before life as everyone knows it ends, and it's up to you to figure out how you want to spend them. Use the left and right [arrow] keys to move, and the [spacebar] to interact with people or objects. Be careful about the choices you make, since you can usually only choose to do one thing each day, such as work.
When the game says you have one chance, it means it. There is no replay button. If you fail, you fail for good. Once the game ends, you cannot play it again, unless you're particularly savvy and "cheat" by disallowing cookies to be stored on your computer, or clearing all your temporary internet files from your browser. To say this has caused a polarised reaction from its players is a mild understatement. The developer has said he wanted to explore the concept of permanency in games, and to get players to really think about their choices. Guilt and responsibility often go hand in hand, but it's entirely up to people as individuals how they react to their mistakes; whether they decide to do everything they can at the cost of themselves to try and make things right, or simply accept things as they are and shrug their shoulders.
It's an ambitious attempt at connecting with the player, but for some its attempt to try something new with its mechanics may wind up being a nail in the coffin. While it's acceptable that shirking work results in a lost day, why in the world does walking up onto the roof of the building to have a short conversation with your boss take an entire day? Five seconds of conversation should not count as wasted time when you can literally spin on your heel and be back down at the labs hard at work in just as long. For me personally, things like this acted as blocks that kept me from ever really connecting with the story emotionally. Which is kind of a shame, since the story here is intended to be some pretty grim, introspective stuff even though it's only told through short pieces of dialogue.
Structurally, One Chance will probably remind some gamers a lot of Every Day the Same Dream, which the developer admits was an inspiration (along with Babies Dream of Dead Worlds); the area design in almost identical in a lot of cases, although the stories are completely different. Seeing the way the world changes around you as the days roll by is a little alarming; some differences are subtle, such as the trees that slowly begin to wither, while others like the rioting protesters who begin to appear on your way to work are harder to ignore. There are multiple endings depending on your actions, but as we've discussed, you're probably only going to see one of them unless you take other measures (or play on another computer). I wouldn't call One Chance an "art game", but rather an experimental one. Whether you think that experiment was a success or simply a questionable design choice is entirely up to you.
It's really original! Me Likey!
Original idea, cool story and cool graphics.
There was a platformer called "You Only Live Once" where you only had one life. Even if you tried to play it on another site, it would know if you died and not let you play. The developer also made a sequel that was different if you had won the first game or died.
I guess we can share our endings and see what we have?
I played it so I went to work on the 1st day, went on the roof and saw a colleague suicide on the 2nd day (and hence couldn't work...maybe I should have just gone to work...), and went to work on all subsequent days. My ending was that I was able to find a cure, but seem to only have it available for myself and my (already pretty sick) daughter. So we end up sitting in the park and watch everything die around us. D: Also, my wife suicided when I returned home on the third day...
It's an interesting idea but I had a hard time suspending disbelief due to the reasons outlined in the review.
more choices like the ones toward the end would have made it better. The locked doors and day wasting conversations really killed it for me.
Found the happy ending on my first go! If you want to save the world:
Go to work every single day that you can.(You might be forced to skip one day as the office is locked, I think; the next time, a colleague gives you the key after you return from speaking with your boss on the roof.) On the final day, you will find the cure. This ends with you and Molly happily sitting on a bench in a park.
Has anyone tried
skipping work on the 3rd day to be with your family to stop your wife
ending up in the bathtub
?
Just tried it myself - doesnt help
I've found a few different endings, and a few interesting "cut scene" equivalents. You can play again if...
...you delete the flash cookie or its parent folder. I'm running Windows 7 and found it here:
C:\Users\(username)\Application Data\Macromedia
\Flash Player\#SharedObjects\JFHER73S
\flash.games.o.fizzlebot.com
\One_Chance_NEWGROUND.swf\onechance.sol
I'd like to try this but nothing is clickable. It opens to a completely static page with a guy standing in a room, there are no "hot spots" and nothing I click does anything. What's the trick to getting started?
It's keyboard controlled, dsrtrosy. :)
From the review: "Use the left and right [arrow] keys to move, and the [spacebar] to interact with people or objects."
Ah! I didn't read the whole review (obviously)! Perhaps there should be something in the game that says that--I am too long with the mouse in my hand, I don't even think about keyboard control.
Woah. That's depressing.
Yeah, got the bad ending. :)
However I think the reviewer got one thing wrong:
Talking with your boss on the roof does not "eat up" the whole day, you can actually go back and "work" after that. However witnessing your colleague's suicide on the roof will make the day go away. Which I guess is acceptable, you cannot expect everybody to shrug such a thing off and keep working.
However this opens up another problem:
That guy would have probably jumped regardless of you picking the "roof" instead of "lab", you didn't cause the suicide by going up there. In fact, it would have more sense that picking the roof should be a positive choice (you end up talking him out of it) and picking the lab negative one (dude kills himself, you lose the chance to work on the cure).
So yeah.. I dig the concept, but giving the player more control instead of randomly hurling him toward one limited happy/sad ending would be much better.
The one-chance mechanism reminds me of, "You Only Live Once".
Sorry but this remind me of that "Life is a Dream" or whatever it was called game. The art and the playing style was too close which I guess made this game seem dull.
The idea of only being able to play once was somewhat ok but the story and the game was lacking so much. The story seem like something someone thought of in one day and just gone with it.
I had fun had drinks with Coworker first day things did not go well after that no cure ! One day I ended with me and my daughter sitting in park with snow falling . One day me dead in Lab.
Oh I found if you right click screen at the end It brings up Macromedia flash settings I then reduced the amount the game could save to 0 and it said all data from game would be erased I think thats right .
I did this:
I went to work as much as I could. On the final day, it said "Everyone will die today. You had one chance." or something like that, but I went to work anyway and found the cure and used it on myself. It ended with me in the park with my daughter. Is this the good ending? Because it doesn't say anything... I think... Maybe it just takes a while?
PS: Sentinel was right about the right-clicking and setting Flash's "store how much data on my computer?" to 0. It does enable you to play again.
If you want to try again...
...just go into your browser's private/incognito mode.
this would be a cool concept, but I have the same critique as the review. I really have a problem with the second day, if you go to work you
are stuck there unless you go to the roof and witness the suicide. It is the only way to end the day once you go to work
Its very annoying.
NICCEEEE ending with Brand New's "Tautou"
I got a REALLY bad ending.
I went out for drinks the first day, the second day was the roof suicide, and then I decided that I would do the "right thing" by spending every day with my family.
But on the fifth day the game forced me to go to work. A man with a bloody knife was there and said something like "You! This is all your fault!" and rushed at me with the knife. An option popped up to "defend," so I hit space bar, grabbed the knife from him and he ran away.
There was nothing else to do at work so I went home.
My wife was in a pool of blood on the living room floor, my daughter was killed in her bed, and the crazy man had hung himself in my bedroom. There is a cutscene of me burying them.
On the last day, I have the choice of going to the park or to work. I go to the park, sit on the bench, and die.
Very interesting yet depressing game, I might try the Flash wipe thing to replay it.
I erm... cheated a lot... and I thing I got through all options, but there's on thing that still bugs me...
On the first day, just outside your house, is that an UFO flying over the mountains?
So the game is a protestant "you have to work, work, work" idealogy?
I would've found it more poetic if the mechanics were more like its over in 6 days whatever you do - spent the time with the ones you love at least.
My first play I worked until the wife took suicide, then I spent at least the remaining days with the daughter in the park.
Morale of the story, DON'T SKIP WORK eeevaaa!!
Okay, so I've played it through a couple times by not allowing it to store any cookies. Here's what I did and found (spoileriffic obviously):
Attempt 1:
Day 1: Skip party, go to work.
Day 2: Witness suicide.
Day 3: Talk to boss on rooftop, then go to work.
Day 4: Go to work. Refuse woman. When I come home, my wife is dead in the tub.
Day 5: Take Molly to work.
Day 6: Take Molly to work. Discover a cure that saves us... but only us.
Attempt 2:
Day 1: Skip work, go to party.
Day 2: Witness suicide. There doesn't seem to be a way to avoid this.
Day 3: Talk to boss on rooftop, go home.
Day 4: Ignore people outside, stay home.
Day 5: With no other options, go to work. A man tries to stab me. Admittedly the first time I played, I died and the game ended... but I dodged him the second time. Then I worked. When I came home, the man had gone to my house and killed my family, then hanged himself. (Traumatic day!)
Day 6: Go to the park. I sat down on a bench and died.
Attempt 3:
Day 1: Skip party, go to work.
Day 2: Witness suicide again. For variety, I talked to my wife and kid first.
Day 3: Talked to boss, then worked.
Day 4: Go to work. Sleep with woman. When I come home, wife is dead (and I have to say, it's a lot sadder this way).
Day 5: Take Molly to the park. She dies there.
Day 6: Go to work. Died in the lab. Interestingly, the option to "give up" is present on the roof, but I didn't do that because I know what'd happen.
I'm beginning to think there is no happy end.
Well, not when your work is finding a cure to save all life on the planet. I think the "moral" is more about not giving up, and sacrifice for the greater good, than about zealous workaholism.
My thoughts exactly.
My (first) play I just went with my guts...
not going out to party, I just found the cure to cancer. There's probably lots to study on it still... and never giving up... wife's gone but little daughter is still there... so there was still anything left to fight for.
@ottoman it could be a bit worser still...
after finding the crazy guy hanging, you could go to work on the next day, climb the roof and give it all up...
...In the park with it snowing. It's the day everyone is supposed to die, I took my daughter to the park, we sat on the bench, my eyes closed with hers, and now what?
Tried clicking, pressing space, moving the arrows. Nothing. Refreshed the browser... took me back to the park. Does it end here?
My favourite day was when...
I skipped work to have an affair and came back to find my wife dead in the bath
Awesome.
Of course, the somewhat disturbing thing with the "good" ending is that:
Great, you survived with your daughter after finding the cure. But everyone else is dead. There's no time to distribute the cure to any remaining survivors. Mankind's hope is now in a father and his daughter to repopulate the species and take back the planet. But what planet is left? The ecosystem and all other life is dead or dying too, so it seems their days are numbered.
Meh.
Tried taking the path where
you choose to "be with" your female colleague
This made this happen:
My wife left me, taking Molly to her mother's, and the following day I jumped from the roof.
The game says "In xxx days, every single living cell on Planet Earth will be dead. You have one chance."
What I figured out was that you have one chance...only one chance to stop every single living cell on Planet Earth from being dead. However,
that tagline is tricky, because the only cells you are able to save are your daughter and yours... that way every single cell don't die, just almost all of them...
I love how the concept of "You only have a shot at it and that's it" resulted on many people replaying the game out of spite. Evil plan, maybe?
Is there any possible way to make it so that your wife ends up alive?
@FanIQ You and your daughter died in the park. So yeah, the game is over.
@ Cormack
She can survive Day 3, but then she dies on the last day because you don't manage to find a cure in time.
@ Lokath
Figured. So how do I start a new game? I exited my browser, deleted my cookies, and when I join back in, I'm still at the park.
What am I supposed to press? Because I swear I clicked and pressed every button I can. At least within the letters, numbers, and the space, alt, tab, ctrl, shift, delete, home, end area.
well this game did not work i could not interact with anything (yes i used the arrow keys and space bar)
i am on a mac so i don't know
and i am using a beta of fire fox
@ Cormack
if you have an affair w/ your colleague on one of the days, your wife leaves you when you get back home that night.
whether she's alive or not, it doesn't say, but at least you don't have to see her dead!
So another game message is, you can circumvent responsibility given enough hacking skills? :-)
@Voodoo Smile I suppose the UFO is the an applicance that spreads the anti-cancer gas to get rid of cancer on the world.
since the newspaper said they discovered it the day before another message is well known in medical science. Test your stuff better before you try it!
Rasheed, she is gone too without message if you do what IMHO is the most responsible way - go back to familiy the day the boss tells you so, but go to work when they say they are up to something. IMHO in this case the game glitches as also on last day daughter is in work, but vanishes if you walk by her.
I played through the game and got the 'good" ending.
At first I thought that it was still a bad ending, since the guy and his daughter would be the only living things on the planet, and they couldn't survive long like that. However, when you refresh the page, it shows the park quite a bit greener. The guy must have been able to disperse the cure somehow.
I loved this. Not only does the "one chance" really make you consider your actions, it makes the ending that you get that much more emotionally moving... A brilliant idea that I hope gets executed as beautifully as this more often.
Sorry yet another comment from me.
@ViciousChicken, No KingfisherEyes has the crazy morale of this game right it is: DON'T SKIP WORK eeevaaa!!
Because If you skip work on the very first - the celebration day - you gonna die as well. I mean its celebration day, you just cured cancer! The player knows in 6 days something bad happens, but the caracter doesn't. What stupid kind of workaholic works on such a celebration day and never goes out with his friends/coworkers for a drink? What is he working on anyway? He can't work on the cure since he doesn't know yet. And why does such a crazy guy that works on celebration day sit in the park on the end? He should be working for gods sake, since he doesnt seem to do it for anything else.
Secondly to the doc surviving be a lunatic workholic that works on celebration day (all others are understandable would to the same), he seems to be either very constrained on daily routine. If I knew I had 6 days to find a cure or else, I'd go home tell my family the story, and ask the wife what she want to do these days. I'd ask he however to join me to live in the lab for the week, also in case I find a cure to be close. Then I'd take my matress and go there and not waste time driving home and there and sleep right within the lab.
Maybe I'm putting too much tought into "just a game", but at this situations I wished the author would've put a bit more thought into it.
Wow, a game I'm not going to play until I'm ready and so reading the posts here really shows AwkwardSilence (developer)'s success in their exploration of the medium ignoring what sounds like a deep and rather harrowing story to boot.
Well done!!
I have played this once and now whenever i try to play it again it loads at the scene of where i finished. I've tried deleting cookies, deleted history and still no joy in starting again! I'm using Firefox (and have also tried again with IE which i didn't use first time) and no luck. Does anyone a bit more tech-savvy have any suggestions?
Btw..
when I come back to this game in a month or so, will the guy start to decompose or something?
@baba
How would he decompose if ALL CELLS are dead, including the ones that brake down bodies?
Wow, the ending really had me, I used the last day to take my daughter to the park and i just started crying.
This games is incredibly frustrating IF you look at it like you are supposed to save the world before the end of the time limit.
If you think about it, it says that all the cells on earth will die in X days
You have on chance.
It doesn't say, one chance to save the world, it just says one chance. What that one chance is for is up to you. Do you use that once chance to work all day and celebrate? Or do you spend your last days being happy with your family? Or do you spend your last days doing whatever you want?
The face that your choices are permanent is kinda cool and made more feasible by the fact that there really is no "Good" ending, instead, you play through once and share your experience with others, which was kinda destroyed by people who cheated it to "get the good ending". I think the people who stay with their family and die with them all together got a decent ending. The one I got was kinda futile and would result in them dying anyway. But it's up to you what you think I guess.
The game is more of just an experience, rather than a test to see if you do it right.
@ TeeGee:
Wow, I never thought of that. I guess what you said makes complete sense, as no one ever forced you to find a cure, and the game doesn't read "you have one chance to save mankind".
In my game, I gave up, took my daughter to the park, and both died in peace...I felt happy that I never let go of my daughter.
*Blows nose* ;_;
I dont believe there is a happy ending.
I think molly died, he didn't appear to use the cure on her. She never opened her eyes. I think he sits in the park alone with her body as everything dies.
After playing through a couple times:
I hate the limited choices you get, esp. in the early days. I totally agree with whomever said going back to work once they're on to something ought to pay off. Sad that there's no possible way to save the wife.
It's definitely a different kind of game experience. TeeGee, nice interpretation!
@teegee Not quite. The game makes it frustrating even when you decide you spent the week with your family. On day 4 or 5 it forces you to go to work, otherwise it doesn't advance, then your coworkers kills your family if you didn't work the day before / the day your wife would suicide if you go to work. Nevaaaa skipping work is the only value or option in this universe.
not to be pessimistic but i agree with pessimist...molly doesn't seem to make it, or else she's very sleepy. like never-ever-wake-up sleepy...
@fuzzyface,
I agree. I showed this game to my friend on a different computer (I am respecting to the author's intent and accept the finality of my own experience with the game :) ). Anyway, my friend said that he wants to spend time with the family as much as he can. Sadly,
The game simply does not provide that option. As you said, on the fourth day you simply have to get to work, and the game doesn't even allow you to go back home after you avoid the insane guy. Unfair.
However the "shocking" bit has great music. I don't think other parts of the game have singing bits.
I played this game a while ago, and it is fairly enjoyable. However, that enjoyability is ruined by two things.
1. Would they really inject everyone with a cure for cancer before making sure it doesn't kill everyone first? Seriously, this is the biggest plot hole in the game and I can't enjoy it(the game) with such a gaping plot hole.
2. If you take the "good" ending(working every single day even on the celebration day where you have nothing to work on), it's kinda implied that the guy is probably going to have to repopulate the Earth with his daughter...unless he wants all that work he did to end up being for nothing.
They didn't "inject" anyone, they sprayed around the cure.
Read the first newspaper more closely and check out the "ship" flying in the distance on Day 1. Oh wait, you can't since you already played it through. :p
Am I the only one who thought Molly was a doll for the longest while? I was wondering where this Molly person was until I realized it was that "girl" barely bigger than her teddy bear. lol
When I played it, I never saw my family die.
First day, I worked without going to the party.
Second day, I witnessed the suicide, (couldn't so anything else)
Third day, I went to the roof and talked to my boss, then I went back home to my family.
Fourth day, I went in and worked, I didn't leave with that other girl.
Fifth day, I noticed that molly had disappeared but my wife was still there. So I went in and worked. (couldn't do anything else)
On the Sixth day, both molly and my wife had disappeared. (all rooms were empty, no dead bodies, no blood anywhere, not even any graves near the tree) So I drove the car and thought I'd go to the park to see if they were there. But the park was empty so I just sat down and died...
I guess it's not a bad ending. Everyone was going to die anyway and this way they died peacefully.
I also found some glitches in the game...
Glitch #1: When you go up to the roof to witness Matthew's suicide, instead of walking up to him you can walk the other way and it doesn't make you go down the stairs. Instead, you walk off-screen and as far as I know, you can just walk that way forever.
Glitch #2: After talking to your boss on the roof and then going back down to the building's entrance, if you go back right instead of going outside, the level resets and you have to go and talk to your boss again.
Glitch #3: If molly dies or disappears before you have her on your back, she appears on your back the next day if you go to work or the park, but then she disappears when you move.
That's all I've found.
I played the game twice on two different computers, I admit. On my second go, however, I've encountered the same problem as above, I think it might actually be a glitch:
First Molly then my wife dissapeared, without leaving any body or explanation.
These were my choices:
First day, I skipped work.
Second day, I witnessed suicide.
Third day, I went to work.
Fourth day, I stayed with my family.
Fifth day, Molly had dissapeared. I went to work.
Sixth day, my wife had dissapeared. I went to park to sit down and die...
Honestly, I couldn't entirely get into this game because the explanation was SO shoddy - a cancer drug that they just decide to spray everyone with with or without consent, that then somehow turns out to kill people? How would you invent a cure for cancer and never once think to try it out on just ONE person/animal/whatever before you sprayed the entire planet with it? It'd be so easy to come up with a slightly better explanation for why everyone is going to die in six days.. the fact that this one was so bad just ruined the entire game for me. That aside, the lack of choice earlier on was also dissapointing. I'd like to see this done again with more options, something that still leaves an air of mystery as to whether or not everyone's gotten all of them yet.
Hmm. I didn't like how it's all supposed to be all about your choices, yet there are few choices you can actually make. It seemed illogical.
I got the best possible ending.
The way I interpreted it, though, was that my daughter died as I entered the office on the last day, I saved myself, and then I sat with her corpse in the park, knowing I was the last man on Earth. My success only allowed me to more clearly see my failure.
Very sad and depressing game for me. I did the ending where
no one was saved, everyone died with my wife committing suicide and me and Molly on the bench, dying.
Visiting back the page made me feel weird because they were still sitting there. Artistic expression or not, the fact that you can't replay it without a workaround agitates me. I understand where it's like "if this were real life, this would be your punishment for not making the right choices (work, work, work)." But it's a game. With different endings. It's completely unfair to sit here and just take what we got in a computer game.
Actually, "one chance" does refer to saving the world. Copied and pasted from the version on Newgrounds: "You only have ONE CHANCE to save the world. One. uno. 1. And you bastards will have to pry this game out of my cold dead hands before I put a replay feature in."
So in other words the very premise is a lie, as you never have the chance to do that. Something about that annoys me.
I got the good ending, and John seems to be the last person on Earth. He probably carried molly to the park and sat there with her. They disappeared after u refresh. Did John bury her or did they both die or something?
Also
If I was in a situation like this, I would spend time with my family. As it would be the last i'd see of them :'(
AND ALSO
Does anyone notice that the mail disappears after a few days? I guess the mail man died as well.
And I always have a problem with game devs calling their users names.
I don't know if anyone else did this, but I got one of the more morbid endings...
I skipped work the first day and then stayed home whenever possible, attempting to stop my wife from committing suicide. At one point my only option was to go to work where I encountered Jim who tried to kill me. I went straight home to find both my wife and Molly in pools of blood and Jim hanging from a noose in the bedroom.
I'm a sucker for experimental games, and this was no exception. I made full use of
Ctrl+shift+N
to see all the endings. Great game!
Grrr. This game never loads completely. It gets about 80% done and nothing more happens. I gave it a full hour after the loading bar hit 3/4 and nothing!
[SkylerF: The game just loaded for me in less than 3 seconds. Try emptying your browser cache and reload. Your initial download must have been corrupted somehow. -Jay]
I've tried over the course of several days. All the other games on JIG load almost instantly.
[Hmm. Then it must be something else that's interfering with the loading. Try updating your Flash Player, and disable any browser extensions you have. What browser, OS, and Flash Player versions are you using? I'll try to reproduce the issue myself if I can. -Jay]
Firefox, a modified Windows XP, Adobe Flash Player 10
[I've no issues loading the game in XP, Firefox 3.6.10 (no extensions), and Flash Player 10.1.85.3. Have you tried a different browser? -Jay]
Internet Explorer worked, but had a long loading time.
It must be Firefox. I couldn't play even on other sites.
Filefolders, I'm pretty sure Molly lived with that ending.
On the last day, you move slowly and you look grey. So does Molly. But after the cure, your skin looks normal. In the park, Molly also looks normal now.
I got that one by working every single day.
Is it possible to
save your wife?
save the world?
I tried to do something different this time.
Skip work to party.
Go to work. Only option is to watch the suicide.
Stayed home. Wife said she was glad I stayed.
Go to work and be with woman. Wife is still alive when I get home, but VERY mad. She takes Molly to her mother's house.
Go to work. Everyone there is dead.
"You had one chance." So did I fail to save the Earth?
Went to work, but could have gone to the park.
A minor bug: when I got to work, Molly was hanging on my back. I moved and then she disappeared.
Failed to get the cure and died in the lab.
Guess it worked.
Well that was... dreary. I got a bad ending. Honestly, the "only play once" gimmick seems like a terrible idea to me. Are there movies that you can only watch once? Books you can only read once?
Also, this completely broke the immersion for me, so... X'P
I on the other hand dig the idea. In life quite often mistakes cannot be unmade, choices cannot be unchosen. But we take it as granted that computer games are infinitely replayable so playing them is always "safe": you can always "try again' and only time/effort/skill stand in your way when it comes to experiencing all it has to offer.
If there's a game you only get to play once the experience of playing it suddenly becomes pressing, stressful, strangely important. I think it's fascinating.
And if we are at movies/books? Wouldn't the experience or reading a book or watching the movie be much more intense if you knew that you will never be able to read/watch it again?
@baba44713 If something becomes "pressing, stressful, strangely important" I will quickly close the window and do real work instead, which has these traits! Dunno why I one would want to simulate what we try to escape?
Also it is hard to define what a game is. One thing that is game in a stricter sense - is that you get a seperated time and space where you actions do not interfer greatly with your life - where you can experiment. (there is also game-like for which this does not hold true, like professional football, or speculation in shares.
About this game, you create a universe, you provide mechanics which conceal a message. You give the user a chance play with your universe. this "only once" denies this.
your daughter and you surviving is a good ending. its like an "adam and eve" ending, because there is a chance for humankind
The game's premise: save yo kid, save yo wife, and save the world 'cuz it's killing everybody out there?
I liked this game, though I wish there could have been... more variation with the endings. Even one where you managed to save everyone (or at least more people) would have been cool.
I admit that I cheat, but do recall getting the "good" ending first spin-I guess I'm a workaholic. While the Newgrounds description somewhere above this post suggests that the one chance is to save the world, as an art game and as it appears on this site, it is intentionally vague on the specifics of meaning, so your mind inserts its own thoughts into the depicted actions, and then reinterprets the output as inferred meaning, and as such the game almost functions as a targetted mirror, by making you self-analyze your thoughts in a context outside of your normal parameters. Indeed, the family disappearing in certain cases seems to suggest that the author didn't fully plan the choice tree for people who don't polarize to work, fun, or family under the circumstances, but it can still provide an interesting chance to think on the implications in relation to reality, where you can't cheat around life with technological trickery alone. Art isn't truly art if it isn't capable of passively drawing thought or emotion into the psyche, and this is what this game does. The big kicker is that not everyone will partake in the same level and depth of analysis as others.
Remember when everyday starts the game always say,"In X days, every single living cell on Planet Earth will be dead. You have one chance.",right?
When the final day starts,it said
you HAD one chance.
What does that mean?Does it the world cannot be saved regardless of what you do during the final day?
the description is wrong. I played this game on newgrounds, failed. played it again today, worked.
I decided to work every single day except for the final day. I figured I had missed something and vowed to spend that final day with my daughter.. We went to the park, sat down, and soon died..
Afterwards, I cried myself to sleep. :(
Yes, like others have said
There is a gaping plot hole in that somehow this cancer cure is everywhere, without proper testing to see if it won't kill us all.
Surely people in say, remote - or even pretty populated - Africa etc could still be alive? And there's always at least one person who develops some sort of immunity to these things.
Also, choosing between work and family?
For another occupation the choice would be obvious, but as a scientist who could cure cancer?
If you can't choose both for some reason, then surely you're meant to sacrifice your last days with your family in the hopes of saving the world?
Or at least to punish yourself for killing the whole world in the first place, find out what went wrong.
Guess what my future career is.
Maybe I was hoping for some sort of Hancock ending.
I gave up and went to the park on the last day though. I kind of just stood around not doing anything all those other days anyway.
if anybody needs help come to me or leeksoup he's my homie, my bro,my brotha from anotha motha, he's my tight gangster buddy, dude i dont know if you still remember me but i remember you from somewhere well anyways i actually found two ways to win i accidentally knocked my laptop off my table because my cousin pushed my arm and well, i found two molly's, i also found a button next to the wall that say's sorry in blood i didnt know what to do at first, but then i walked over to the second molly and my molly got off my back and pulled out a knife it looked exactly like the knife that one guy had (the one that tryed to kill me) anyways, i was starting to be freaked out so i clicked the button and it showed a cutscene,: in park, grass green, snow falling, sun shining, molly playing with dog, and me holding a needle i walked over to molly (it made me) and it froze......whoever created this.....i just have to say......dude!!!!!! wtf!?!?!? that was kinda scary is that a hack? a glitch? a bug? a messed up...thingy...mabob...what is that everyone try it it is freeky....
I got the ending where
You and your kid survive. Some say the daughter is dead but as someone else mentioned, her skin gets brighter. I worked every day but the day the co-worker committed suicide.
BUT
When i went back to the game, refreshed, i wasn't in the park anymore ,and the trees seemed...greener? Maybe i did get the cure dispersed somehow? At least we didn't sit in that park forever.
I really enjoyed that, no matter what.
i think a lot of people missed it but
when you and your daughter go to the park, you sit on the bench together and die
My wife died, I took my daughter to the park on the second to last day. She didn't feel good. She died. Last day I just sat on the park bench and died...I'm a failure
For those of you got the happy ending, refresh the page and click the play button. The picture you see has changed. This may happen with all endings, but I am not sure.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure
Molly's skin looks brighter in the "good" ending... so I think she's just sleeping when you sit in the park.
Not that this is terribly comforting... although the trees do look greener when you refresh the game.
Also... I realize that suspension of disbelief is pretty heavy with this game, so I shouldn't apply real-world rules and moralizing, but... why do cancer cures get such a bad rap? It's like, every movie or book or game that opens with scientists finding a cure for cancer winds up with that cure being a plague that nearly kills everyone.
Is the "moral" that we shouldn't ever try to fight cancer?
Then again... http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1162
Guys there's one good ending and its like a really good one its where you skip work on one of the days and then work the rest and you get an ending where everyone is alive I've only heard about it though
It's not that he's aimlessly working or wanting to earn money instead of spending time with his family. Think about it, you can spend time with your family and die together, OR, go to work to find the cure and save the world, including your family. Obviously it's the second choice, you aren't doing them any good by staying home. I mean it's nice to be together during such a crisis and spend as much time together (until the end of the world) but sometimes you have to be logical as well. Remember: the goal is to find the cure and save the world, not staying at home and losing all hope and dying.
While this game is certainly littered with bugs, it was my understanding that Molly appearing on your back when you went to work on the last day was not a glitch at all, but an intentional bit of sentimentality. Perhaps Dr. Pilgrim is losing his mind at this point? Either way, when I saw her there, it upset me...
in the flash plugin settings (cmd-click on my mac) I deny permission to store files, and I can play all the times I want.
but I won't, because I'm happy with the ending I had the first time: dying with my daughter at the park the last day.
hmmm. which is better? some people having cancer, or every single cell in the world getting destroyed?
- epic jiguest
I almost cried when I see the ending where
John & Molly sitting on the park after getting cured
Because it's lonely...all people died, even his wife...it's so sad when you found a cure, but when you want to told everybody, you noticed that they're already dead...it's so lonely...it's just lonely...
My ending...
I went to work every day except the last day because I did'nt find a cure. On the last day me and molly were the only people left and we died together in the park. (I almost cried on that last part, this game is so sad!)
I'm really starting to wonder what would've happened if I said yes to that woman at work who asked me to run off with her. I felt really gulity when I saw her at work dead and sorry written in blood on the walls. It really is a shame that there's no restart button.
It's real obnoxious to read that some of you think it's "unfair that I can't play it again." Fair has nothing to do with it, it's the artists vision for the game, if anything it's unfair to complain about it.
I got the "good ending."
I think most people are forgetting that if you refresh the game and hit play again, the entire park is green. I think that means that you did save the world... even if you didn't save humanity.
I cured nothing, everyone died.
I went to work, got drinks. Next day, went to work, watched a suicide, went home. Next day, went to work, came home to a dead wife in the bathtub. I take the daughter to work the following day, then go home. The last day i go to work the daughter dies in the lobby, and I die in the lab.
Did anyone else get this ending?
Went to work the first day.
Watched suicide on the second day.
Third day I think I saw my boss on the roof then I went to work.
Fourth day my colleagues were all outside my house and said they needed me but that I could stay with my family if I wanted. I went with them and came home to my dead wife.
Fifth day Molly was in my room and asked where her mom was, then she crawled on my back and I left with her.
I was given the option to take her to work or to the park. I took her to the park.
I walked past the first screen of the park and the second screen looked like a blank canvas. If I walked off either edge I just disappeared without the screen changing but if I held the opposite arrow key I could walk back onto the screen again. After that nothing changed. I was stuck on the blank canvas screen.
Glitch? Ending? What?
It might have been a glitch because when I refreshed the page I could play the game again. I was playing on Kongregate, if that makes a difference.
Brilliant.
When the final day starts...
"Everyone on earth will die today"
"You *Had* one chance"
Went to work anyway, made cure, game finished with Molly sitting beside me at the park
Seriously, would You ever give up?
I got a glitch...
First day went to work.
Second day watched coworker commit suicide.
Third day went back home.
Fourth day cheated on wife with coworker.
Went back home and wife was mad, she left me and took Molly with her (to her mother's house).
But fifth day, Jim tried to kill me and I defended.
When I went back home, my wife and Molly were dead there. How is that possible? They left the house last day!
I also 'cheated' to at least find a way so that my in game wife and child do not die (not to the 'cure' anyway).
I thought that I found a logical order to do things but I can't finish it because the game seems to become stuck.
This is what I did:
Day 1: Work
Day 2: Suicide
Day 3: Talk to boss and go home (wife didn't wanted me to go in the first place)
Day 4: Wife happy, colleagues are on to something, I go to work
Evening: I return home, find everybody asleep and that's it. Can't do anything...
BTW: The first time I tried I ended up with:
My wife and child being murdered...so much for choosing my family over work -sigh-
Found another glitch
Played it trough to get the 'good' ending but on the last day I go to work to find Molly dead on the floor while ALSO carrying her on my back.
I die alone when I start work...
Annoys me a bit that a game with such an emotional message (and only a few places to visit) contains so many atmosphere breaking bugs.
Am I the only one that noticed that John never gives Molly the cure, and that she just sits there with her eyes closed afterward? I'm pretty sure that she died. John then took her to the park. Also explains why he never leaves the park; his mind is broken from all of the death. Just my two cents. Surprised nobody else thinks she's dead like me.
Wow, that was really sad!
1st try:
I died in the park with Molly
2nd try:
Jim stabbed me lmao
everybody died i died every body died ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Just gonna go ahead and slap a spoiler over all of this speculation, just in case.
They didn't spray everyone with it, as far as my interpretation goes. It's administered to patients via injection, as the picture in day 2's newspaper shows. However, it also apparently vaporizes at room temperature, and can be absorbed into the body in gaseous form. Granted, you have a point in that it should've been tested (despite the suicide guy saying he'd run thousands of tests) and found to be incredibly dangerous, but once it got out, I would think it would act much like it does. In killing, apparently the chemical still exists; it isn't used up. So once the cells are destroyed, it's free to re-enter the atmosphere and disperse further. Since almost(?) all living things respirate in one way or another, they'd inhale the gas, and succumb to destruction.
In a nutshell, the chemical got distributed and got some use, it was found to be dangerous as sh**, but was already escaping into the atmosphere and killing others (in the process of what would no doubt be an incredibly painful death, I could see the accidental breaking of canisters of the chemical, leading to further release), and by the time anyone with any possible impact found out about this, it was already too late.
Basically, my point is that they didn't "spray everyone with or without consent," but that a few people were treated which ultimately caused the gas to spread. It's like the zombie apocalypse.
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