The game begins with the character sitting at a desk in his room. Marilyn Manson is playing from a stereo in the background and the character mentions that he admired how bold Manson was in doing what he wanted despite a strict society. The character looks over to a small T.V in his room, displaying the daily doses of kidnaps, murders, and other vicious crimes common for news channels. He looks to his desk, showing failing grades in the required classes, but great grades in the chosen electives, and several letters from teachers saying that he'll fail in life and will amount to nothing after highschool if this keeps up.
The character's parents are gone, working throughout the day as most parents do, and the character uses this to his advantage. The character interaction begins now, starting with the tutorial. The movement controls are explained through simple mechanics of moving around the room and examining a few things, including the various media and decorations within the room including several band posters, some video games, and a stash of pornography which upon viewing, the character comments on how everyone says he is too weird for a girlfriend.
The next objective to walk the character down the stairs, where things change a bit. The voices of the character's parents fighting are heard, while the character mentions that not only that he forgot to take his medication but also that his parents didn't understand that nothing was wrong with him to begin with and the pills were causing him to hallucinate. The only reason he continued to take them was because if he were caught, his parents would punish him.
You are then given the objective of breaking into the character's dad's gun cabinet which involves a minigame that comes into play later on when the character is required to break into rooms. With the several guns and the few bullets kept in the cabinet, the character goes outside and practices shooting. This serves as a weapon's tutorial. This is a common occurrence, though he has always asked permission before and this is the first time he's done it alone. This is mentioned through dialogue and flashback - hallucinations.
The character mentions that he is late to school but doesn't feel like going. On this train of thought, he becomes angered by a specific bully who harassed him commonly. The few times the character did anything about it, his complaints were never taken seriously and school board ignored him.
Through the influence of the skipped medication and more hallucinations, the character becomes so enraged that he decides to take care of this bully; not just for himself but for everyone that was ever picked on. He talks to himself and becomes quite convincing in the fact that he will be a hero. He's a nobody and will never amount to anything. It's not fair that some jerk gets so much praise and fame for hurting and harassing others.
Taking the guns and hiding them in the car he drives to school, the character then drives to the nearby Walmart. He goes to the sports and hunting section, buying as many rounds of ammunition as possible. He then drives to the local bowling alley, where his first class; an elective he loved takes place. Bowling.
He took the class for a gym credit and ended up loving the class, often doing very well in most of the games. Heading into the bowling alley unarmed, he plays a single perfect game. The character leaves, now driving to his highschool. He pulls up into the parking lot, removes the guns from the trunk and loads them, and then the game truly begins.
This section of the game is very often interrupted by 9-11 calls, some created in the game studio and others from real school shootings.
The player now leads the character to carefully hide his weapons and sneak throughout the school in search of the bully. Upon finding the bully, the player uses basic controls to shoot the gun and kill this person. The class around them becomes alarmed and several people attempt to stop the character, and the player must stop them to progress. The character remarks about not wanting to kill them but being forced to.
If the character was caught, instead of the game ending, it takes an interesting turns. The killing spree begins, and the player kills who ever had caught the killer.
The rest of the game consists of the player leading the character floor by floor, where the few friends he had and even what he considered innocent people are being warped into representation's of his parents, the school administration, and people who bullied him. The character's favorite music plays in his head as he shoots everyone in sight.
At several points, the character realizes what he is doing. The faces of several friends shift back to normal and they plead for him to stop. The character says he is sorry, then tells his friends that he is releasing them from a world of hate and evil. He kills them and moves on.
With each floor, the hallucinations get worse and the killing more violent. Eventually, the player is left with one bullet and is faced with a single officer who is already wounded in one of the school's bathrooms. By this point, the character looks at his face in the mirror several times and he sees himself dressed in white with a halo above his head. However, the officer commonly warps into a visual representation of everything the character has come to hate The player is given two options. Kill the officer or kill the character?
In either case, the character is killed. If they fire at the officer, he plants a bullet in the character's chest. If they kill themselves, they use the final bullet to shoot themselves. As this happens, the character catches another glimpse at himself in the mirror. Instead of seeing the angelic version of themselves like before, they see what really happened. They are covered in the blood of the innocent people around them.
The game ends from the officer's perspective, regardless of what happened. He holds his wounds and stumbles toward the character, demanding an answer to the question, "Why did you do it!?"
The character responds, "I just wanted my life to mean something. I wanted to be free". The visuals fade to black. The credits roll. The audio and final words of Michael Moore's interview with Marilyn Manson from Bowling For Columbine plays. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYApo2d8o_A)
"If you could go back, what would you say to him?"
"I wouldn't of said anything. I would of listened to what they had to say."
That would be my attempt to bring some understanding to such awful tragedies. I dunno, I may just be a pretentious douche trying to be artsy.
