I can see why they're called "bullies" now. Shoutout to the one rocky fellow who killed 4 of his allies and still survived the episode.
A few things I realized about Sanford's eye gouge: A. The callback to Anamnesis.fla B. his glasses went along for the ride and are now presumably hanging around in his eye sockets C. presumably he is entirely blind now, though it doesn't seem to slow him down for the rest of the episode. Considering his massive number of accumulated injuries and his blood turning to black goo, I feel like the main reason Sanford is still alive is that he refuses to accept that he should have died a long time ago, like Homer Simpson in denial over the state of his pig roast. In his struggle to retain his mortality he's gone from a skilled but relatively "normal" fighter, to a combat monster with Hank-like strength, and now finally far beyond (I doubt he'd have any problems one-handing that Bren Gun by the end of this episode).
I'm also enjoy seeing the Auditors facade of control continue to fracture: from his seeming triumph at the end of Episode 11 to his continuous frustration at his inability to squash one bug with a pouty lip. It seems those body cracks are more than just aesthetic (I'd say his weakened grasp could explain the 1337 Crew's regression to dimmer shades, but they were the same in 9.5 so I have no clue).

It's cool to see Hank take such a beating from the rank and file. I also dig the Bunnykill influences on the choreography (and the ending roll call).

Now this is a mindfuck.

Really enjoyed the return of Hank's propensity for impaling people with thrown bludgeoning weapons (all three bats he used ended up stabbing someone), and Tricky's temporary return to Monofoot.

Presumably the Antipathy Hank we follow is from one of his two deaths, introducing some time shenanigans to the Other Place. It does raise the question of how much of these little forays into the afterlife Hank remembers, considering his Antipathy self encountered many Soldats while his Consternation form was still surprised by their single eye. The ending also makes me wonder if Doc got the wrong Hank, and the soul of MC6 Hank was the one put into Mag Hank. If so what will become of MC7 Hank. Will be resurrected back into his own body at the start of MC7 in place of MC6 Hank, forming an endless loop? If so no wonder he exclaims "knock it off" at the beginning.

There are also some lingering questions remaining from the first part. What separates Deimos and the handful of other damned souls in his subsidies, who bleed black ichor and bear their previous wounds, from Hank, Tricky, and the AAHW units seen here, who retain their normal blood colors and seem to get new bodies when their older ones get too damaged (Its those cigarettes isn't it)? I also remain curious about the new tinted glasses and how they relate to the solid red ones seen from Consternation to Expurgation, particularly since this explicitly takes place within the era when the latter was standard, and despite being in the afterlife they aren't the basic black they were in Deimos' little corner of hell. Is the new tint meant to retcon the pure red shades, like with the more detailed AAHW uniforms, or is it a quirk of this specific chunk of purgatory and the Auditor decided to slightly tone down the agent upgrades to a similar level in the wake of MC11?

The return of the "do what comes natural" note alongside its implied meaning highlighted something about Hank's character only emphasized by the ending fight. Hank murdered 30 people over a boombox and has only escalated from there. The last time he had a concrete goal was MC3 and he seems to have been mostly just going with the flow since at least MC6. Sanford had a nervous breakdown after getting sucked into hell and punted the length of several football fields by a skeleton clown. Here the same is just another day for Hank in slightly stranger surroundings, because while Sanford has a life beyond conflict all Hank seems to know is killing, to the point where when he meets his past/future self his first and only response is to try to kill them too. It makes me wonder if when Sanford and Deimos beat a hasty retreat directly into the path of the Flying Party, it was because they were scared of Tricky, or of their own ally. Magnification almost seems to have helped Hank grow as a character, despite the supposed loss in intelligence: he starts to develop an almost nurturing side towards Sanford and tries to keep him out of harms way.

Tricky's motives are also pretty noteworthy in this one. Disturbing body warping aside, he seems to be attempting form a temporary alliance with the earlier Hank to get the more current one out of retainment, but just as Hank only knows killing, the only way Tricky can express himself anymore is through Monster Clown Shenanigans, and the friction between these two approaches causes him to go through multiple bodies trying get Hank to do what he wants.

SPOILERS

The atmosphere at the beginning of this game is superb, one of the creepiest experiences I've ever had in a game, instantly hooking me with eerie forest watched over by a malevolent spirit. The wolf jumpscare is also pretty effective. However, once you get across the lake the game begins to lose its effectiveness, with the evil eyes peeking out of the forest and keypad to get into the cave taking away from the more subtle feeling the game had had before. It also moves far more quickly than I feel served the atmosphere properly. You get across the river, go in the cave, get up to the top, and after a bear fight summon the Elk King. When I first started this game I thought the atmosphere would steadily ramp up over a prolonged period of time as you hike through the woods to the top of the mountain, your character gradually spiraling into madness as the forest claims them. Having the Elk King summoned by a random magical orb also seems to conflict with the atmosphere: it gives too much control to your character and shatters the illusion that they may come across it at any point while venturing into the unknown, that once they crossed the lake there was no escaping its domain alive. It would have been better to have the Elk King show up unexpectedly, not necessarily as a jumpscare, but in a similar manner to your first glimpse of once you exit the cave. The Elk King's appearance was also a letdown: a deer with red eyes and a painted face. A more etherial, shadowy presence, possibly only seen from a distance, may have fit better with the buildup. An alternative to make the Elk King something totally unearthly/bizarre, a nightmare creature with only the vaguest likeness of an Elk. Such an appearance might better fit with the otherworldly presence it was established as at the beginning of the game.

Sweet

Nice remix of one of chesyre's best.

lolk

every song gets the techno and or remix treatment

Single Black Coffee...

Aww... I liked the old honeycomb hive.

Its... well... good?

Just promise to never draw a realistic Madness Hands again. That thing is scaring me.