History VideoGame / AlwaysSometimesMonsters

** Hailey's so desperate to get some 'Happy Pills' that she'll point your protag towards her dealer if you agree to help. Find the dealer, and he'll drive home that he's bad news by offering you a deal for [[spoiler:cheaper pills made from 'Eco-Friendly Toxins]].

** Averted: [[spoiler: Belinda has been asking for a divorce for a while, and in some endings, Larry decides to grant her request.]]

** In the game proper, the person hiring the hitman is randomized, and their roles may be reversed: the hitman's trying to walk away from an aggressive client who wants to hire him to kill other people. In these cases, it's the client who gives the "You already committed to this" speech.

* YouCantFightFate: Although the game offers a great deal of choice [[spoiler:either the protagonist or Sam has to end up as a suicidal hobo.]]

** Averted: Belinda has been asking for a divorce for a while, and in some endings, Larry decides to grant her request.

* AwwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: For all that he complains about his wife, Larry really does love Belinda. Enough that he's choosing to stay with her despite [[spoiler:their growing financial difficulties]].

* FullBodyDisguise: The stranger in the alleyway is bundled up in thick winter wear, and what little of their face might be visible is instead [[HiddenEyes cast in shadow]]. The hitman initially mistakes them for a bum.

** The FramingDevice for the prerelease build is a MexicanStandoff between a hired hitman and a MysteriousStranger, who wants to recount the main story.

** The FramingDevice is a MexicanStandoff between a hired hitman and a MysteriousStranger, who wants to recount the main story.

* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: {{Invoked}}: One of the conditions your agent establishes when offering to help your protag is that, at the end of the month, they want you to turn over your personal journal. Regardless of what happens, they think they can turn what you've written about your experiences into a good story.

** [[spoiler:Sam sees the protagonist as this, no matter what the player does.]]

* ButThouMust: During the opening sequence, your choices are to run away, listen to the MysteriousStranger, or shoot them. Only one lets you continue the game.

* DevelopersRoom: Vagabond Dog Studios, next door to the protagonist's apartment building. You can even open their safe and steal their $50 game development budget. [[spoiler: Doing so resets the game.]] [[ThoseTwoGuys The developers themselves]] are always hanging out at the local coffee shop(s).

* [[spoiler: DownerEnding: While there are MultipleEndings, EVERY one is a downer in it's own way. Whether you tried to be a good person on did whatever it took to get ahead in the life, at the end of the game, you're still just a monster who gets what he deserves.]]

* FalseFriend: [[spoiler: Sam was stealing the protagonist's work throughout college, planned to steal the protagonist's manuscript (probably twice), and won over the protagonist's love interest just so s/he could invite him/her to their wedding and rub their faces in it.]]

* HourglassPlot: Darkeff views his relationship with Viper like this, and describes it as such [[spoiler:if she OD's]]:

* IronicEcho: If Larry kicks you out of his house for walking out on the warehouse job, the protagonist will despondently repeat the toast they gave at the party. Particularly poignant if you chose "To Great Partners".
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: {{Invoked}}: one of the conditions your agent establishes when offering to help your protag is that, at the end of the month, they want you to turn over your personal journal. Regardless of what happens, they think they can turn what you've written about your experiences into a good story.

* MeaningfulName: The hitman is revealed to be named [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov]].

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: [[spoiler: Jack the ad exec has a nervous breakdown over his career choice and will commit suicide or murder if the protagonist doesn't intervene - and intervene correctly.]]

** Not necessarily. What [[spoiler:sam]] does depends on your choices. [[spoiler:Saying you helped Sam for his/her sake and demanding nothing in return ends up with him/her being genuinely grateful.]]

* {{Plagiarism}}: [[spoiler:Sam's entire career is so based on stealing your work, something that's almost hinted at in most playthorughs that his/her first instinct when he needs a manuscript is to rummage through the protagonist's luggage.]]

* SmugSnake: Your crankly landlord loves to rub in your protag's face how their life's gone down the tubes. If you spend a night out on the streets, expect him to be waiting by the mailboxes the next morning to taunt you about that.

-->"''Choice is an evaluation of cost and benefit... Circumstance dictates the evaluation... Consequences take care of the rest... In this system there can be no right or wrong.''"

* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis: {{Invoked}}: one of the conditions your agent establishes when offering to help your protag is that, at the end of the month, they want you to turn over your personal journal. Regardless of what happens, they think they can turn what you've written about your experiences into a good story.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: In the opening sequence, the hired hitman's dialogue is colored red, the woman with him has pink text, and the Mysterious Stranger has green.

* EstablishingSeriesMoment: The very first exchange in the game is between a man who appears to be a hitman and the woman who hired him, who's having second thoughts. The man bluntly informs her that she already made her choice the moment she paid him and can't go back now.

** During the main game, {{Flashback}}s are used to fill in what happened in the past. If the MysteriousStranger is relating these as well, we've got [[FlashbackWithAFlashback Flashbacks Within a Flashback]] going on.

''Always Sometimes Monsters'' will be released on {{Steam}} on May 21st, 2014. It can also be preordered [[http://www.alwayssometimesmonsters.com/ over here]].

* SmugSmake: Your crankly landlord loves to rub in your protag's face how their life's gone down the tubes. If you spend a night out on the streets, expect him to be waiting by the mailboxes the next morning to taunt you about that.

* CentralTheme: The importance of choices.

** The FramingDevice is a MexicanStandoff between two unnamed characters.
** {{Flashback}}s are also used to recount events prior to the main story, resulting in [[FlashbackWithinAFlashback Flashbacks Within a Flashback]].

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: At times, you can overhear conversations between two {{Author Avatar}}s about a game they're working on.
* LoserProtagonist: At the start of the game proper, your hero's completely down on their luck, seperated from their love interest, about to be kicked out of their shabby apartment

* SmugSnake: Your cranky landlord loves to rub in your protag's face how their life's gone down the tubes.

* VideogameCaringPotential: You can get to know some of the characters really well, and help them out...
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: ...or screw them over for your own personal gain. (Or even just to be a {{Jerkass}}.)
* YankTheDogsChain: At the start, your protagonist, an up-and-coming artist, is chosen by a publisher who's interested in their work. [[TimeSkip One year later]], when the game proper begins, you're a month behind on your rent and about to get kicked out of your apartment, your significant other broke up with you, and everything generally sucks hard.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: ...or screw them over for your own personal gain. (Or even just to be a {{Jerkass}}.

* ProtogonistCenteredMorality: Exploring this is one of the game's themes. What are you willing to do to try and secure a happy ending for your protagonist? What lines are you willing to cross? Who are you willing to screw over?

-->"Choice is an evaluation of cost and benefit... Circumstance dictates the evaluation... Consequences take care of the rest... In this system there can be no right or wrong."

* MysteriousStranger

* YankTheDogsChain: At the start, your protagonist, an up-and-coming artist, is chosen by a publisher who's interested in their work. [[TimeSkip One year later]], the game proper begins, you're a month behind on your rent and about to get kicked out of your apartment, your significant other broke up with you, and everything generally sucks hard.