After finishing this game with each of the protagonists, I can say confidently that I really did just find more and more to appreciate on each playthrough. I know it's been said to death, but this game is something special, even if it's a complete slog to get through sometimes. If you have way too much time on your hands and have a high level of tolerance for jank, I think the game is worth playing.
It's true that the vast majority of this game is walking from place to place, but I think what's often glossed over is just how many things you have to manage while doing that walking; having to plan out the ideal route through town to get from place to place most efficiently, weighing the risks of walking through an infected district to get somewhere quicker or taking the long route to avoid danger, checking what roads are safe to go down using the plaguefinder, and doing all this while soaking up the thick-as-fuck texture of this town, which is, I think, genuinely interesting to exist in. It's true that it's mostly varying shades of brown, yellow and green, but it never got boring to look at; infected districts are always sickening and genuinely uncomfortable to be in, burned districts feel less immediately alien while still immediately presenting themselves as dangerous, and safe areas are, in their own way, haunting beautiful, made even more so later on in the game where they become small, precious pockets of breatheability surrounded by disease and danger. The way the visual danger of hazardous areas is accompanied by notably more sickly versions of those areas themes does a lot to make the world easier to get lost in, and I will fucking fight the guy in the comments section for the YouTube upload of Utroba Night who said that this game's soundtrack "is nothing compared to Akira Yamaoka's work on the Silent Hill games" after someone (kind of bizarrely?) invited that comparison. How fucking dare you even suggest that Most Main and Stone Yard aren't god-tier mood-setters.
I also implore you to not make the mistake I made on my initial playthrough of loading a save after getting infected. This game is at its most engaging when it's a desperate balancing act, and having to find or make antibiotics to keep the sickness at bay another night made my second play-through all the more interesting. I will be the first to admit that I initially played this game in Coward Mode but speaking as someone who has renounced my ways: catch the plague if you can't avoid it! When in Rome/The Town On Gorkhon do as the locals do ya know (slowly and agonizingly rotting from the inside out)
If you've heard someone say that this game isn't worth playing for yourself and that you'd be better off just not bothering and looking up a summary, I implore you to at least give it a try if it goes on sale for cheap. Maybe you won't like it, and that's fine, it's understandable. But I think you owe it to yourself to at least try it out.
It's true that the vast majority of this game is walking from place to place, but I think what's often glossed over is just how many things you have to manage while doing that walking; having to plan out the ideal route through town to get from place to place most efficiently, weighing the risks of walking through an infected district to get somewhere quicker or taking the long route to avoid danger, checking what roads are safe to go down using the plaguefinder, and doing all this while soaking up the thick-as-fuck texture of this town, which is, I think, genuinely interesting to exist in. It's true that it's mostly varying shades of brown, yellow and green, but it never got boring to look at; infected districts are always sickening and genuinely uncomfortable to be in, burned districts feel less immediately alien while still immediately presenting themselves as dangerous, and safe areas are, in their own way, haunting beautiful, made even more so later on in the game where they become small, precious pockets of breatheability surrounded by disease and danger. The way the visual danger of hazardous areas is accompanied by notably more sickly versions of those areas themes does a lot to make the world easier to get lost in, and I will fucking fight the guy in the comments section for the YouTube upload of Utroba Night who said that this game's soundtrack "is nothing compared to Akira Yamaoka's work on the Silent Hill games" after someone (kind of bizarrely?) invited that comparison. How fucking dare you even suggest that Most Main and Stone Yard aren't god-tier mood-setters.
I also implore you to not make the mistake I made on my initial playthrough of loading a save after getting infected. This game is at its most engaging when it's a desperate balancing act, and having to find or make antibiotics to keep the sickness at bay another night made my second play-through all the more interesting. I will be the first to admit that I initially played this game in Coward Mode but speaking as someone who has renounced my ways: catch the plague if you can't avoid it! When in Rome/The Town On Gorkhon do as the locals do ya know (slowly and agonizingly rotting from the inside out)
If you've heard someone say that this game isn't worth playing for yourself and that you'd be better off just not bothering and looking up a summary, I implore you to at least give it a try if it goes on sale for cheap. Maybe you won't like it, and that's fine, it's understandable. But I think you owe it to yourself to at least try it out.
saihara
2 years ago