mannnnnnnnnnnnnn idkkkkkkkk rlly......if my nigga jeff couldn't save the whole "faction war" genre of CRPGs the whole sub genre might be done & dusted 4 me. made me appreciate how geneforge 1 is rlly tightly woven around the very --idea-- of the geneforge and the resulting question of control/power. (not just control over others but also control over self & environment e.g. "the geneforge will let me write my own destiny!", which makes for the ultimate irony that gene rewriting turns you into 2010s Orlando Bloom instead of God). even though there's various factions and unofficial subfactions in GF1, it never loses sight of its main appeal of being a quasi-sci-fi in concerns & motifs with a flair for some usual fantasy dramatics of faction politicking and will they/won't they betrayals. it's not pen to pad great writing or some life-changing shit but as an unassuming piece of genre fiction its really captivating.

GF2 just feels way sloppier. there's a rough beginning stretch until you meet the barzites where the narrative feels extremely repetitious coming off the prequel--forgivable in the original release considering GF2 was released as an unplanned sequel, less so in the context of a remake. meeting the barzites & the takers things pick up, using some of the minor floating concepts from Sucia Island (drayks as forbidden creations, shapers on the island before/during/after the protag's visit, etc.) and building compelling factions out of them--had a big pointing out at the screen "AT-ST!!!!" moment when Syros from the last game shows up as the de-jure Taker leader. the servile mindbreak & subsequent warcrimes the takers inspired in GF1 also balloons out into this drama of --everybody-- breaking Shaper law, & jeff is smart enough to upend the pro-freedom view players likely developed last game. one nigga you meet early on is like "hmm yea i started hearing voices in my head like randy orton after using the canisters and idk what to do about it" & you ask him "hey man u alright? are there certain things that help the voices go away?" thinking its a sidequest opportunity but then he's like "no you don't understand. the voices literally never stop" & then he just walks away. that's the whole NPC interaction. then like not even an hour earlier you see a created beholder go rogue & wipe out a whole outpost by mental projecting a 24 hour j. cole mix & its like.....maybe the wizard fascists were kinda cooking dawg idk. shits so unserious out here. its genuinely really smart stuff that after the trial by fire players go through in GF1 the sequel baits & festers a reactionary mindset towards shaper laws being relaxed. hard not to just hit the meanest unc headshake of all time when you see a local farmhand accidentally summon a creation that literally feasts on niggas' souls & promptly lose control of it. & then the farmhand will have the damn nerve to ask you clean up their mess. SMH nephew......

BUT it all comes crashing down hard when you get to the main quests endgame. the most succinct way i can explain it is that the stretch of midgame to credits in GF1 is about either going into business for yourself, striking a deal with the opps, or just blowing the whole island up and leaving the shitshow entirely. the stretch of midgame to ending in GF2 is you spinning the block on the other factions until you find out that there's a trio of drakkons (the thing on the cover) running the whole island and you need to kill them/make them gods almost immediately. & its like, ok??? the decision to kingmake or not feels distinctly impersonal to the roleplaying that happens in the majority of the game, & not in a 'subversive' way either. like there's just no build. hour 20 you ask me what an 'Eass' is and I woulda guessed an eastern european slur, hour 21 Eass is actually behind the Takers & p.s. he has an almost completed geneforge & p.s. he has the gloves always on him so he can't be tricked & p.s. he's creating another drakkon that's even better than him & p.s. when it slipped out she put back in & p.s. he tapped it on her tongue. like dawg nobody knew who this nigga is why does he have this much motion. i wish i can say more but i cant really state how abrupt shit is, even when allying with Eass's faction in the Takers, you don't know of his existence till maybe 90 minutes before credits in a 25 hour experience. & let me clear this isn't really treated as a shock twist either or an ozymandias situation jeff writes in Eass and his goof troop with a straight pen. just feels like an elementary & dare i say 'omg rushed 🤓' design flaw from a guy who goes beyond that usually.

just wished it was more man. i will say this game did two things i've never seen before in a CRPG. the first is that you can end the game 10 minutes into it by simply walking out of the whole mountain. GF1 also let you dip out the game early, but not like immediately after the tutorial cause like who tf does that LMAO. i hope he keeps including early exits their mere existence adds a lot of funny 'nah fuck this' moments of roleplay even if they all result in the same bad ending.

the second is that i have never seen a game setup a 1v3 final boss only it to turn into a 1v1 because two members of the trio just run out the boss room. and show back up after the fight is over like nothing happened. this is not a glitch. will leave as an exercise to the reader to investigate further on that one but man. some people will really just slime out you for no reason at all.