I think this game gets a bad rap because it's a David Cage game, and I think a lot of people who haven't played the game have maybe seen the first couple of chapters and decided that its lack of subtlety is a detriment to the narrative as a whole. The overbearing nature of its politics does not serve the story in any unique way past a surface level allegory for racism and slavery, but I don't necessarily think that that is a bad thing.

Regardless, the status as the "antiracism for gamers 101" video game has likely soiled the image of what is a decent narrative in the culture atmosphere. It's inconsistent - Connor's story has incredible highs, with tense QTE sequences. However, I think that Markus' story has some really low lows, including but not limited to uninteresting parkour sequencing and investigation. Kara's story has a decent mix of both, and the original crossroads between Connor and Kara is one of the best chapters in the game upfront.

The QTEs have been labeled as a negative to some, but I think they really work in this game. The QTE fight sequences are exhilarating, and some QTEs using the controller are engaging and fun. Some are certainly goofy, and some get repetitive, but all things have improper applications in excess.

I won't go into spoiler territory, but I do think the game fumbles trying to tie up the game at the end without a good ending. I would almost recommend using a guide for near the end of the game in order to get a satisfying end to the game. Otherwise, the cut to credits at the end of the game will be extremely jolting. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's worth mentioning that the reason I might suggest a guide in the first place is because the amount of choices and branching options in the game is immense. It's impressive, and the game's strongest selling point.

Unfortunately, I would also say that one of the reasons for this guide is because a lot of the choices in this game are obscured by insufficient dialogue options. For example, there's a choice about halfway through the game between a "peaceful" approach to the humans, or a "determined" approach. Maybe it should have been clear to me since it was in opposition to "peaceful," but I think a better word could have been used to convey that my character was going to state that they were ready to wage war. There are some other options like this.

The game has performance issues, which is disappointing being that I'm playing on a PS5. (I know there's no PS5 update, but it feels weird playing a 6 yr old game like this). I considered not mentioning it, but I was disappointed that it made me miss a few QTEs during tense moments. The frame drops were unforgiving, not to mention a couple of crashes/game-restarting bugs.

The game is good, but it has its share of issues. I think the game gets a bad rap, but if you meet it at its level, it attempts to tell a very genuine story. At the very least, since it is a visual novel at its core, maybe try playing it with friends or watching a playthrough of a content creator you like - maybe one that tries to genuinely engage with the game and its contexts.