So we've all done plenty of analysis of the Infinity story around here lately, but in the process of working on this new, updated diagram, a criticism occurred to me.
Aside from the prologues (both in the manual and Ne Cede Malis), there's only one short segment of four levels in Infinity where you're in a timeline that you're working with Durandal: the first half of the "Rage" chapter. That seems kind of out of place. The rest of the branches mesh nicely with each other: you work with Tycho down one timeline that ends in disaster, so you back up and do things a little differently, that ends in disaster further down the line so you back and do things still differently and that works out. Makes a nice, consistent story. But the segue to working with Durandal, which appears to end up taking us down the events of M2 again, just seems kind of out of place.
I put forth that it would have been better to either have the story take place entirely in the "Tycho" wing of the timey-wimey ball; or better still, to have elaborated further on variants of the "Durandal" wing. Begin with a Ne Cede Malis / AMS-variant immediately after "All Roads Lead To Sol", in the M2 timeline. Then rewind to a point near the end of M2, followed by something different, that still fails anyway. Then a rewind further toward the beginning of M2, followed by something even more different, that still fails. Followed by a rewind to before the start of M2, waking up earlier ("Rage" part 1), which STILL fails...
And then, the dramatic turning point... you know what, screw it, we're going back to the end of M1, staying behind, getting captured by the Pfhor, and working with Tycho. See how Durandal and his stupid plans-that-get-the-universe-destroyed like that. ("Despair") ...ok, that failed too, but lets try this... ("Rage" part 2). Goddamnit! But we're almost there... How about this one? ("Envy") At last! It works!
I suppose the two prologue timelines (the manual and Ne Cede Malis) could have even been repurposed/retooled to cover those first two attempts, and then "Rage" part 1 put before "Despair", and you'd pretty much have this without many major changes to the game. I kinda get the feeling they wanted to shock players with "zomg you work for Tycho now!" on the first real level, though.
