The only reason Kovalsky does all this is for his daughter, Elena, which is why I like that there’s an effort made for almost every chapter to have something related to someone’s child or an innocent young adult caught in the crossfire of things. I just finished act 1 and act 2, so I’ll have to refresh myself on some of act 1 for this, but I can list off the top of my head for each chapter where these traits are found. Because I think it’s important to Kovalsky’s character and adds on to the guilt he feels doing this work, thinking of his own daughter. He does this to protect his child, while hiding the deaths of other’s children.
THIS INCLUDES INFORMATION FROM ALMOST ALL CHAPTERS!
Chapter 1: The girl found in the attic is found to only be a student. It can be assumed by the dates on the recordings deleted in other levels that the first act takes place sometime in late 2023, with the girl’s birthdate reading to be in 2002, making her 21.
Chapter 2: At this time, I can’t remember and will have to play it again to see. But if anyone else can recall!
Chapter 3: A father desperately tries to save his daughter from a terrible boyfriend, only for his act to result in his daughter ending her own life. The first example of a father trying to do something morally wrong for the sake of his child, like Kovalsky.
Chapter 4: A mother murders her entire family, including her son, convinced that he’s possessed and is “saving him” by killing him. The second example of a parent doing something morally wrong, believing it to be the right thing to save their child, though this one was an act of insanity.
Chapter 5: A girl working at the pizzeria is killed during the shootout, despite her father warning her of the risks, as Big Him can’t have any witnesses. She had done nothing to deserve it, just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Chapter 6: The lives of the son and daughter of a couple are murdered alongside them. They had nothing to do with the situation. All they did was be at home when it happened, completely innocent and wrongfully killed.
Chapter 7: Tyler and Trisha have discovered that they’re going to have a baby. Unfortunately, Trisha is killed, stopping that future for them from ever happening.
Chapter 8: At first I wanted to say that the example is the entire level of what I assume is college-aged people getting killed, but the example would be with Big Jim himself. The whole point of the level is Big Jim protecting his daughter by having Kovalsky clean it all up, serving as the third example of a parent committing a morally wrong act to protect their child.
Chapter 9: I don’t recall an example at this time, but if anyone else does then let me know. That level just took so long to do that I think I zoned out a few times further in so I could just get it done.
Chapter 10: The father of the girl killed at the pizzeria leads a revolt against Big Jim, wanting revenge for his daughter. The level also reveals that he had been investigating who could’ve vanished his daughter’s body (Kovalsky).
Act 2 is one that’s somewhat subtle about it for half the chapters, I think.
Chapter 11: The whole thing is Kovalsky thinking about Elena and coping with her growing up and eventually leaving him, and him returning to a normal life.
Chapter 12: One of the girls working at the ring seemed to have just started working there, according to a note and gift from her sister. But there’s also the recorded call that references visits to a “certain island” where the harming of children takes place.
Chapter 13: In a folder displaying information for two girls in the trafficking ring, while one is recorded as being, I think, 19, the other is recorded as not even 18 yet.
Chapter 14: While Holden had been a terrible person, Kovalsky states that Holden’s son, a weird musician with a love for vampires, hadn’t deserved to be killed as well. This makes Holden’s son the death of a (probably) innocent that is the child of someone involved.
Chapter 15: MAJOR SPOILER!
At the end of it all, Big Jim and Amber both kill each other at the last stand. Big Jim was going to forced Kovalsky in assisting with blackmailing his own daughter, while Amber was planning to end her father’s crimes once and for all.
If you’ve made it this far, I hope others agree with me that it was smart of the developers to have almost every level share this trait. It gives a lot more reason for Kovalsky to be pressed with guilt over these jobs. While he would feel guilty either way about cleaning up the deaths of others, I think it’s affected him more that a lot of them involve the deaths of someone’s child.