Hello everyone!
Hope you are keeping well and looking after yourselves!
The Those Who Remain launch is just around the corner, and we thought we'd give you all a little bit of an insight into the town of Dormont, the characters within, and a little behind the scenes information to get you ready for your trip into the darkness.
The main character of Those Who Remain is Edward Turner, and whilst we don't initially know much about him - we quickly come to the realisation that whilst he may be an ordinary man, he is definitely not of the standard hero mould.
When we are first introduced to Edward, he is home alone, slouched over a desk and suffering from a depressive episode brought on by his life choices up til that point.
On the one side we see a picture of him and his wife, on the other, a loaded gun - and a bottle that is way emptier than it has any right to be.
We quickly learn that he has been unfaithful to his wife, repeatedly. To the point he has a full blown affair going on the side with a woman known only to us as Diane, and find him musing the choice between taking a quick way out of responsibility via a bullet, or confronting his mistress and attempting to undo the harm that his choices have brought into his life.
Edward is not a perfect guy. Far from being the classic hero of video-games, he has his flaws and his inner demons, we made him this way to feel more believable.
Luckily for us Edward decides to arrange a meeting with Diane at a local motel, with the intent of breaking the whole thing off and claiming some control back over his conscience and rebuild his life - and it is at the start of this journey, that our story begins.
When the game starts, even as things begin to get strange he's not particularly interested in anything or overly shocked by his experiences.
Far from a display of bravado or confidence, Edward feels almost like it's deserved - withdrawn into his own mind and 'going with the flow' despite the mounting horror and responsibility on his shoulders.
Edwards past and whether a sin or action can ever be truly redeemed in the eyes of those that it harmed is a recurring touchpoint on both Edwards story and the tragedy in Dormont that he finds himself embroiled in.
We all have our flaws, we're all human - and we can all relate to someone who makes human if not entirely morally correct choices in the face of situations that are not entirely black and white.
Over the course of the game the player will learn about Edwards decisions and actions in the past, as they seek the same information around the other characters of Dormont, giving context and potentially salvation in the eyes of the player for his life path.
Even though this game is far from a 'Noir' type investigation - Edward was heavily inspired by noir characters: he’s conflicted, flawed, disillusioned and with a past.
This comes through in his dialogue, his reasoning and interactions with others, and his constant will to move forward and see things through despite the albatross around his own neck - and the conflicting judgement calls between his own actions - brought out brilliantly by the voice actor (Joe Bianco)
As a bonus small piece of trivia: the character reference that we gave to the American voice actor (Joe Bianco) who plays Edward, was Detective Hartigan from Sin City!
We hope you enjoy getting to know Edward, and try not to be too hard on him on May 28th!
