The Spoony Experiment

Let’s Riff on Ripper – Finale

by Spoony on January 27, 2010 · View Comments

Witness the stunning conclusion to this chilling cyber-murder mystery! Have you figured out who the Ripper is? Find out!

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{ 185 comments }

eaglefalcon February 1, 2010 at 9:22 am

the game is supposed to randomise the ripper each time as well as place slightly different clues each time. I do have to say that these endings would've made me rage. interesting game overall with a few bad quirks. great review spoony

Earthbound_X February 1, 2010 at 9:50 pm

Wow, such an anticlimactic ending.

It's just like the new Alone's in the Dark's endings, pretty epic game is scope, then it just ends.

david86 February 2, 2010 at 12:44 pm

if the ripper and clues are random each time then the real question is “just how many times did spoony end up playing threw this game?”

flow_hoe February 2, 2010 at 1:55 pm

Only one time!

The first CD of the game includes a movie player with which you can see any of the FMV movies without having to play the game itself.
I also watched the alternative endings with this when I finished Ripper many years ago.

nightcobra February 2, 2010 at 5:15 pm

being a bit off-topic here, but i found something i haven't seen in a while and i'm surprised spoony him being a wrestling “fan” hasn't mentioned, praised/bashed this series yet. it would make a funny thing to review, i warn you the following may scar you for life and if by chance you've seen it before i am sorry to re-open old wounds and rubbing them with salt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SetiBP3WCZ0

you have been warned…

klibble February 3, 2010 at 1:47 pm

Dear Spoony, does it depress you that so many of your fans are BLOODY IDIOTS? This is better than the confusion the ending to your Dirty Harry video caused.

The Ripper is NOT whoever you want it to be. Seriously, people.

klibble February 3, 2010 at 6:47 pm

Dear Spoony, does it depress you that so many of your fans are BLOODY IDIOTS? This is better than the confusion the ending to your Dirty Harry video caused.

The Ripper is NOT whoever you want it to be. Seriously, people.

HoZKiNZ February 5, 2010 at 11:13 am

cheers you commentors, else I wouldnt have had a clue about what was happening at the end.

THE_CONNERY February 7, 2010 at 3:03 pm

Aww, this sucks. This game could have been cool, but the multiple endings kinda ruin it. Yeah, there's a specific Ripper each time, but the fact that it's not any particular person makes playing this game kinda useless. I really wanted to know who it was. My money was on Catherine.

THE_CONNERY February 7, 2010 at 3:03 pm

Aww, this sucks. This game could have been cool, but the multiple endings kinda ruin it. Yeah, there's a specific Ripper each time, but the fact that it's not any particular person makes playing this game kinda useless. I really wanted to know who it was. My money was on Catherine.

THE_CONNERY February 7, 2010 at 3:04 pm

Aww, this sucks. This game could have been cool, but the multiple endings kinda ruin it. Yeah, there's a specific Ripper each time, but the fact that it's not any particular person makes playing this game kinda useless. I really wanted to know who it was. My money was on Catherine.

Vandell February 9, 2010 at 5:04 am

GOD DAMNIT QUINN, STOP CHICKEN PECKING YOUR KEYBOARD! Annoys the hell out of me. >w<

megafat February 14, 2010 at 8:25 am

It was going to be pretty anticlimactic regardless of which killer you get. I also like the reference to the movie Clue, i love that movie. Can anyone tell me what movie that spoony showed clips from where Scott Cohen played that crazy psychopath? That was so hilarious that now i need to get myself a copy of that movie just to see the whole thing.

bastafari February 15, 2010 at 10:35 pm

Hey Spooney, did you know that at the dos prompt if you type riper.exe instead of ripper.exe you'll get a little cinematic about a gross apple? Now you know.

phoenixcrochet February 16, 2010 at 8:47 pm

The Scott Cohen clip is from “The Tenth Kingdom” which aired on cable as a mini-series. That's also the source of the “Mr. Wolf” joke spoony made. I think it aired in 2001, it all takes place in fairy-tale land and Cohen plays a wolf. Sort of a cross between the big bad wolf and Pepe LePeu.

megafat February 16, 2010 at 8:58 pm

Thankyou,

spacerpg February 26, 2010 at 2:54 am

Oh, SHIT yeah!

Nick Vossen March 1, 2010 at 5:45 pm

This game is worth jack shit. but the presence of Christopher Walken and the Blue öyster Cult puts it up to a solid 7/10!

sure as hell enjoyed your playthrough! moar please :D how about The 11th Hour?

NixieGirl March 19, 2010 at 5:33 am

You put clips from the 10th kingdom in there. Spoony you are my hero! I haven't seen that movie in ages!

A wonderful review as always. Hahaha Witty till the very end. I didn't put the main character as Wolf though till I saw him pepperin' up the old lady. FFFFF shows was a damn ass I am.

Too bad you don't have any cheats like the ones in this game for Bloodwings, eh?

ninjaboyz101 April 6, 2010 at 4:56 pm

i don't think i completely under stand. the murderer could have been any one of them? a game with so many intriguing and stimulating puzzles and the most important decision of the game and you can't make the wrong answer?

ninjaboyz101 April 6, 2010 at 4:58 pm

i don't think i completely understand. the murderer could have been any one of them? the most important decision of the game and you can't make the wrong choice?

The_Hyphenator April 13, 2010 at 11:34 pm

I…love…that…SONG!

Hysterical as always, Spoony. With regard to the game itself, for the time and the genre, actually not too bad. A damn sight better than Phantasmagoria 2 at any rate, and the awesome cast and theme song definitely lend cool points. The story was kind of silly, but not too shabby. I think I may steal them for a cyberpunk-themed GURPS campaign I'm working on. The non-specific multiple killer ending was a real cop-out though. If they had actually provided a Scooby-Doo-esque recap outlining why each one could have been the killer, it would have been a lot more fun. Oh, well. Can't win them all.

I love these playthrough riffs. Keep making 'em, Spoony, and I'll keep watching.

BassForever April 19, 2010 at 7:57 pm

Depending on who the “correct” Ripper is on your play though, Act 3 will change and different characters will or will not show up. John Rhys Davies only appears if Catherine or Burton is the ripper for example. Most people have come to the general consensus that the “canon” ending is the one where Catherine is the Ripper considering it gets the longest monologue and makes the most sense for a twist ending.

Caitlyn Conboy June 1, 2010 at 12:08 am

Fantastic Mini-Series. I'd recommend it to anyone who missed it (saw the original airing when I was about 12, liked it then, and it holds up about a decade later)

Scott Cohen completely steals the show.

Great review, although I do feel rather gypped by the ending.

theherald1 June 8, 2010 at 12:49 am

Quinlan was infected with the crazy talking monkey virus! That's why he's so feral at the end!

Man the tie in to the 10th Kingdom was awesome. As was Clue. As a reviewer I know you don't much like being asked to do a movie, but you've gotta do Clue just cuz of that. Or the 10th Kingdom, but that wasn't bad so there's not much point. You also always mention Krull, maybe you should review that one too.

bryanpe June 10, 2010 at 10:27 pm

Did anyone else have fond memories stirred of ReBoot based on the “futuristic” graphics they used for parts of cyberspace?

Matthew Gebara July 5, 2010 at 9:18 am

I think it was Falcon Eddi for this playthrough.

Lik Chan July 11, 2010 at 6:08 pm

WTF, no definitive suspect is the Ripper? I hate that. thanks for the video, it was entertaining. and once again, that girl from the intro of the game is damn hawt.

and WTH with those random clips of that actor? lol

Tor Sognelien July 24, 2010 at 10:08 pm

Think I saw almost all the “FMV – Hell” -reviews, riffs and rants from this site before the horrible truth of my stupid marvelicity dawned on me. FMV is short for Full Motion Video… Before the taunting and name-calling begins; I did recognize when the frenzy in releases from this concept started that it would fail in 99% of the titles and never bought a single title! So if you own any copies, even for nostalgic purposes, I revoke your right to belittle my stunningly late realization.

Although, feel free to trash me being 19(!, actual fact) before I realized that birds wont actively aim to shit on your tongue if you stick it out too much. Stupid grown-up scare tactic! I could have stretched my tongue to match Gene Simmons from a much younger age if I realized that sooner!

Nicol Bolas August 8, 2010 at 10:09 pm

The real fundamental flaw with this game is this. It's not a good mystery.

It does start off very well, as far as mysteries go. But it looses the plot with the 3 main suspects + Catherine. The problem boils down to one simple thing: motive.

Of the 4 potential Rippers, only *one* has an honest-to-God motive: Catherine. Revenge for her mother's death. The other 3 have motives, but those motives are only for killing *each other*. Killing the rest of the WebRunners just doesn't make sense, motive-wise.

That's why the ending voiceover for the other 3 don't go into motive, simply saying they're insane: because it flat-out doesn't make sense for them to be doing it. Only Catherine has a legitimate motive, and only in Catherine's ending voiceover is that motive discussed.

I get the distinct impression that the developers originally intended the main 3 to be false and Catherine to be the real Ripper all along. But then someone decided that they could shoot a little extra footage and change a couple of things to make any of them were the Ripper. So they decided to do this random Ripper thing, which ultimately doesn't make sense.

David Solheim August 10, 2010 at 5:53 pm

Alas, as previously mentioned, her brain activity spiked on the day of the killings. That would somehow mean she could have killed them. But what about the letters and stuff? The audio message thingies? And well, to at all prepare for all that some brain activity must have occured. I can understand later on though, when some is restored, but it still bothers me. Another thing with the Katherine ripper thing is… well, she's Quinlan's assistant… how in the world did she get the high-tech stuff to execute the murders? They stated that the killer would have to be seriously rich to obtain such tools… I might have missed something, but it kind of bugs me

Bloodstained6 August 11, 2010 at 11:11 am

They did talk about having timers when referring to the way the Ripper killed, and if the Ripper was such a genius like everyone said it might boil down to knowing how people would act and react and plan accordingly-making it so they could prerecord some audio, have it triggered at a certain point, and make it seem even less plausible it was Catherine. She did know a lot, and even looking at her apartment is saying something for her funds. As Spoony said, she went through a lot of trouble just for a few simple puzzles. Now, of course, those could just be taken as simple puzzles that don't really connect to the story and go along with the puzzle aspect of the game, which they mostly do.

However, I am biased. I thought it was Catherine, and went along with it because she seems the most likely suspect, and because they even go far as to not include her as a suspect and play down her role so much it would make sense if she turned out to be the killer. That is a main reason I'm disappointed they'd cheapen the ending by having whoever it was you chose be the “killer” be the killer, not even going on to have more murders to show you were wrong or anything. It totally defeats the purpose of even putting a mystery there, in my own opinion.

Anonymous August 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm

They did talk about having timers when referring to the way the Ripper killed, and if the Ripper was such a genius like everyone said it might boil down to knowing how people would act and react and plan accordingly-making it so they could prerecord some audio, have it triggered at a certain point, and make it seem even less plausible it was Catherine. She did know a lot, and even looking at her apartment is saying something for her funds. As Spoony said, she went through a lot of trouble just for a few simple puzzles. Now, of course, those could just be taken as simple puzzles that don’t really connect to the story and go along with the puzzle aspect of the game, which they mostly do.

However, I am biased. I thought it was Catherine, and went along with it because she seems the most likely suspect, and because they even go far as to not include her as a suspect and play down her role so much it would make sense if she turned out to be the killer. That is a main reason I’m disappointed they’d cheapen the ending by having whoever it was you chose be the “killer” be the killer, not even going on to have more murders to show you were wrong or anything. It totally defeats the purpose of even putting a mystery there, in my own opinion.

Cody Ward August 17, 2010 at 5:43 pm

I’m going to have to agree with you on this one. Besides, it’s always alluded to that the first death – Cathrine’s mother – was done by the same guy that did the rest of the killings. That then brings up the question of why would Cathrine kill her own mother and then seek revenge for it? Personally, I always thought of Magnotta as being the one with motive. The fact that he obviously had control issues and psychological disturbances, coupled with the way Claire and Eddie shot him down could easily of sent him over the edge. The other WebRunners were good targets to perfect his method, and they would’ve had insight into his own personal psychosis and obsessions.

Still, even in Spoony’s playthrough, I don’t get what evidence was the damning nail in Burton’s coffin. Going into Whitechapel, it seemed everyone was as likely.

CherZ September 2, 2010 at 6:06 pm

What a horrible gip of an ending.

You know who it should have been? The horny night nurse who was coming on to our hero while his girlfriend lay in a coma.

Horny night nurse = ripper. That would have been pure awesomeness.

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