Oh man, so blame @sam-giddings completely for this, but ever since last night all Iāve been able to think of is my least favourite part whenever I play Until Dawn: that bit in chapter 9 when youāre playing as Ashley and your walking underneath the lodge.
That entire bit makes no sense character wise to me and I hate it. If you play it and you choose to leave Chris behind and walk on without him, then I get it. Itās a choice you made as Ashley, so thatās what she does in that instance. Whatever. Itās the bit right after when you decide that āhell no, I aināt letting none of you out of my sight are you kidding me????ā that makes me so angry. You know, the one where Ashley stays behind to close the manhole in case a wendigo tries to follow them. And then Chris just leaves her behind too.
LIke are you kidding me? You expect me to believe that shit???? You expect me to believe that Chris, who up until that point has made it very clear that thereās no way heās gonna be able to choose Ash in the gun choice or that he canāt stand the thought that he went and left Josh behind in the shed to die, is just gonna go on without her? Especially after she just told him that theyāre not leaving anyone behind and that theyāre all sticking together? You expect me to believe that Chris just up and leaves her behind after all that? Oh hell fucking no. No matter what your feelings on Ashley are, Chris deciding to go on without her isnāt even in-character for him at that point. It makes absolutely no sense and I hate it.
And I know Iāve mentioned once or twice that I find it real rude that Chris doesnāt even try to give her his sweater after the whole shed incident (itās not even romantic at that point, sheās covered in blood and likely freezing!) but I can excuse it because of the extra amount of work that would have went intoĀ character models to make it a reality. But the bit under the lodge isnāt even that, that was so Ash can hear Jessicaās voice and investigate the trap door and lazily writing Chris out so she can do it alone. And you know what? Fuck that, Iām fixing it and itās super easy too. You donāt even have to change a whole lot.
Chris waits for her to close the manhole and then the two of them try to catch up to Sam (and Emily). They hear Jessās voice as they get closer to the fork in the tunnel and you get the same choice of investigating or not. If you donāt investigate then you meet up with the others and thereās no change. But if you do, then Chris tries to maybe talk Ash out of it but sheās already moving ahead so he follows her because heās not leaving her behind. You go on, pick up the totem, and then the two of them come to the trap door. Maybe you walk past it and catch it, or maybe you open it. If Ash opens the trap door, then Hanndigo comes out same as always.
Now this is where it can get fun. I think it would be fun to give Ashley a choice here: you can either RUN or DISTRACT.
RUN is exactly what it says on the tin. Ashley grabs Chris and tries to run but they both get caught and die for very obvious reasons, plus the fact that Chris is having problems even staying upright right now, much less walking or running. Plus it continues with the opening of the trap door being an absolutely stupid move where you deserve your death.
DISTRACT though? We know that Ashley has some roots in self-preservation, itās shown when she doesnāt let Chris back in after he tries to shoot her and when she tries to force Emily out the safe room after finding the bite. Or when sheās screaming at Chris to save her when in the shed. She doesnāt want to die, and who can blame her? Not me thatās for sure. So in order to try and distract Hanndigo and try to get away Ashley inadvertently (or on purpose if thatās how you want to see it) pushes Chris towards her. Chris is dead no matter what here really, he has a bum leg and canāt run after all. And since he can die here anyways nothing changes either.
And then while Hanndigo is busy decapitating Chris as is her modus operandi, Ashley tries to make a break for it and hide. This gives the player a chance for a DONāT MOVE segment as well (and now that I think of it, I donāt think she gets one anyway? I think she and the nigh unplayable Washington sibs are the only one who donāt get one so this even fixes that lol!). If you fail, then Ash dies obviously. You opened the trap door like a moron so you can deal with the consequences of your actions. But if you pass, then Ash lives to see another day (well, an hour if you donāt mess up in the lodge with Sam lol) and she rejoins the group filled with the lovely knowledge and horrible guilt that she killed Chris. And while people can continue to cry that Ashley is even more horrible for killing Chris knowingly here, guess what bucko? YOU made the choice to distract after opening the trap door and sealing at least one of their fates. It was obvious that there was gonna be no way out of this one, but you decided to see if you could maybe survive it anyways.
(The rest of the game goes as normal, except with a maybe even more inconsolable Ashley in the rangerās station then if Chris died outside. The same scene would easily work though.)
And THATāS how supermassive should have played the tunnel bit in my opinion.
