The game got a lot of hate online, but I’ve generally found when a game is hated on, there’s usually something more. So I decided to actually play the game. I’m 5 hours in
Honestly I like it, for telltale like walking simulator, it sets up the story pretty well, it has some nice sci-fi beats. It’s good for what it is. It isn’t anything it promises not to be. I think it’s a good game, I’d recommend waiting until it goes on sale for $10 maybe. At that price point it’s about the cost of a movie and That’s where I put it in terms of value pricing.
Final thoughts after finishing
culture war drama
ahh, i do see the developers are inviting some of the drama themselves.
What’s really funny about this, in the universe they paint, is incredibly welcoming to all people. The governments pretty much leave everybody alone. Do whatever you want (but not drug selling). So this comment from one of the NPCs in game just doesn’t make sense in its own context. The only group discriminated against are the mutants…
thoughts after finishing the game
They never really conclusively discuss what the message event was, they hint it was from the JFK research center but that’s speculative.
The proto language appears to have complete powers over reality
The main focus of most of the end game narrative is about using powers to bend perceptions of reality.
I think the overall theme was the way to fight propaganda is with propaganda. I think that’s not the best messaging. Not even talking about dealing with people in a Socratic method, or meeting them in the middle. There was some speaking of empathy at the end, but not towards those who disagree with you. Just empathy with your friends.
The big McGuffin they talk about, but don’t actually do anything with, is giving the main character enough power that they can brainwash everyone on the planet to agree with them. I really think that’s a bad message, it’s not a resolution of the core problem. I want to point out the irony again, because it’s really important, the literal solution to all of their problems that they’re trying to do through the whole game is literally a woke mind virus…
The two major warring factions we talk about, the Puritans, and the Republic aren’t really flushed out. We don’t see why they’re evil. Yes they tried to leverage anomalies, or even separate anomalies from the general population. But other than that we don’t see the day-to-day life being such a horrible evil. They could have spent more story time flushing out why it’s such a bad thing instead of assuming we would believe it’s a bad thing. Quite frankly the Republic seemed very nice through all their interactions with the people
I think it’s a reasonable story game, I still think it’s worth about 5 to $10. I enjoyed the time I spend on it. I gave me time to think. I do wish they would have explored the sci-fi elements more towards the end.
why did they make this game?
I think the developers knew they were targeting extremely niche part of the market, and having played the game I can see they were signaling very strongly to that niche part of the market. In theory the point of video game development, is to make money.
Who is this game made for? Most people aren’t like me, and are going to play a game just to see if the controversy is warranted. So it’s probably people like me who account for the 50 people currently playing online.
I personally don’t think there’s anything tremendously wrong with this game, but the developers aren’t dumb, they knew what they were getting into, so why put themselves in this position? Is this just art? Like functionally I think this is a great game for your resume. But they (15 people) spent 5 years on it. That’s a long time for an art project
There are 309 people in the credits.
main character romance
So the main character female is in a on-again off-again situationship with the albino gender ambiguous person. The main character has a fling just before the start of the graphic novel, and gets pregnant. The pregnancy is a big slow reveal throughout the whole novel, but the hint out it very hard from the start.
At the end of the story, the main character and the albino have a reveal your emotions moment in the diner, and the main character reveals she’s pregnant via the fling, and the albino just accepts it, no discussion.
That is a huge missed opportunity for drama, that would be a great narrative space to explore these different characters and how they navigate the complications of relationships. And expectations. And communications. But the fact that it just slides by with barely a comment, it’s a wasted opportunity. I’ve watched eight season telenovelas about this single issue. For it to be glossed over in one sentence is just absolute waste of a script and set up
The stakes they do have set up, depending on how much you’ve invested into the albino gift-giving throughout the story, the albino might stay with the main character forever and raise the kid, or the albino leaves and goes to Hong Kong as soon as the game ends. But it has nothing to do with the fling or the child, it’s all about gift-giving.