This review contains spoilers
Oh boy, where to begin? How about: This game's identity is as empty and superficial as its writing.
Actually, let me start with the positives. Chapter 1 is good. It's not amazing, it's not groundbreaking, but it's good. It has a lot of potential, begins introducing you to characters that seem fleshed out, allows you to explore a small town, and has some great music choices including a cover of Radiohead's Creep. So far so good. The protagonist's brother then dies in an avoidable accident at the end of chapter 1, and it all goes downhill from there.
Alex's power of empathy (chortle) is wildly inconsistent, and mutates with no explanation or foundation, but rather simply based on what the story needs at the time. In Chapter 1 she's afraid to get too close to anyone that feels strongly, else she absorbs the power and goes ballistic. Other times, she willingly absorbs the power and walks around making observations as if she weren't consumed by the emotion. Then she suddenly can "take" that person's emotion away from them. There's also her in Chapter 1 telling Gabe "it doesn't work like that" when he asks her what he's thinking, but in Chapter 3 she reads Steph's mind on the spot to prove her power. In fact she goes around town reading everyone's mind even when they're not feeling a strong emotion. A fact, by the way, that I take offense at, as it's incredibly invasive and questionable, and I'd argue that it contradicts the "empathy" these writers claim that Alex has.
The relationship between Steph and Ryan is incredibly rushed, and is clearly shoehorned in just to be inclusive and have a bisexual protagonist and give you the choice of whom to romance. I was on board with the idea, but the execution was terrible. After choosing Steph she just casually announces that she's leaving town in a "Finally I'm leaving this shithole" way without meaningfully addressing the fact that Alex just professed her love for her. After their first kiss, she just awkwardly leaves Alex alone on the rooftop. After ripping up the bus ticket in Chapter 5, she also just casually leaves Alex alone in her apartment. Wow, talk about chemistry.
The main mystery of the evil corporation taking over a small town went absolutely nowhere. It was completely generic and the fact that they went to such elaborate measures to cover up the death of a few miners is laughable. If Typhon can invent a story where these people are forgotten by residents of a small town, they can certainly make up a story where their death was caused by an accident and not by negligence. The latter certainly sounds like an easier and more feasible set up. 12 years after the fact, before an investigation, they need to bury the bodies of miners. Was this seriously not done before? Was arranging two explosions the only way to dispose of these bodies? Considering that investigations and audits are scheduled months in advance, did they really have to schedule these explosions last minute with no contingency plan? Given that Haven has hiking trails and people spend time in the mountains, wouldn't there be security guarding the premises/blast radius to ensure that there are no people in the area? This isn't an evil corporation, it's a badly managed one.
Speaking of Typhon and the mines, chapter 5 is just a complete clusterfuck. Alex fell, what, one-hundred feet deep into a mine and she's walking? Let's say that Jed's bullet just grazed her, okay, but that fall would have concussed her and twisted her body beyond recognition. How in the Hell did the writers expect us to believe that she could walk all the way back to Haven, and have a 10 minute monologue in the bar while standing upright. The members of the council were just sulking in their chairs while she was covered in blood and confronting Jed. I was insulted when I realized that the townspeople either defended me or defended Jed, just based on previous decisions I made that were completely irrelevant to the current situation. Is no-one really going to question why Alex is injured? Why the fuck was no-one genuinely alarmed at Alex's life-threatening injuries?
There is no message or moral to the story. In an attempt to give you some minor decisions to make, the game acts like your choices matter at the end with having Alex choose between "I learned that I want a home" or "I learned that I'm comfortable with my emotions" as if that had any bearing on the story. Even major decisions are complete bullshit. If you keep Ethan's secret in Chapter 1 about going to the mines, Alex ends up telling Gabe later anyways. The chapter 4 decision of signing the cease & desist or not goes nowhere since you end up getting shot by Jed 2 hours later anyways. The overall lack of decisions in the game is more evidence of a lack of budget, and of the highway robbery Square Enix committed by charging full price for this incomplete game.
Speaking of, how about that performance? Nothing like loading screens between every scene change on the PS5's SSD, and sub-30 FPS even in indoor settings. This game is so poorly optimized, and the bugs are inexcusable, ranging from hard crashes to T-posing in pivotal scenes. The ending montage had a loading screen between each new location for Christ's sake, with the quicksave icon in the bottom left corner to boot. 100% inexcusable in a narrative-driven game in 2021.
I could keep ranting about the characters, writing, exploration, gameplay, ending... but this game isn't worth any more of my time. I enjoyed all previous LIS games including the Captain Spirit prequel and Decknine's own Before the Storm, but this game dropped the ball entirely.
Actually, let me start with the positives. Chapter 1 is good. It's not amazing, it's not groundbreaking, but it's good. It has a lot of potential, begins introducing you to characters that seem fleshed out, allows you to explore a small town, and has some great music choices including a cover of Radiohead's Creep. So far so good. The protagonist's brother then dies in an avoidable accident at the end of chapter 1, and it all goes downhill from there.
Alex's power of empathy (chortle) is wildly inconsistent, and mutates with no explanation or foundation, but rather simply based on what the story needs at the time. In Chapter 1 she's afraid to get too close to anyone that feels strongly, else she absorbs the power and goes ballistic. Other times, she willingly absorbs the power and walks around making observations as if she weren't consumed by the emotion. Then she suddenly can "take" that person's emotion away from them. There's also her in Chapter 1 telling Gabe "it doesn't work like that" when he asks her what he's thinking, but in Chapter 3 she reads Steph's mind on the spot to prove her power. In fact she goes around town reading everyone's mind even when they're not feeling a strong emotion. A fact, by the way, that I take offense at, as it's incredibly invasive and questionable, and I'd argue that it contradicts the "empathy" these writers claim that Alex has.
The relationship between Steph and Ryan is incredibly rushed, and is clearly shoehorned in just to be inclusive and have a bisexual protagonist and give you the choice of whom to romance. I was on board with the idea, but the execution was terrible. After choosing Steph she just casually announces that she's leaving town in a "Finally I'm leaving this shithole" way without meaningfully addressing the fact that Alex just professed her love for her. After their first kiss, she just awkwardly leaves Alex alone on the rooftop. After ripping up the bus ticket in Chapter 5, she also just casually leaves Alex alone in her apartment. Wow, talk about chemistry.
The main mystery of the evil corporation taking over a small town went absolutely nowhere. It was completely generic and the fact that they went to such elaborate measures to cover up the death of a few miners is laughable. If Typhon can invent a story where these people are forgotten by residents of a small town, they can certainly make up a story where their death was caused by an accident and not by negligence. The latter certainly sounds like an easier and more feasible set up. 12 years after the fact, before an investigation, they need to bury the bodies of miners. Was this seriously not done before? Was arranging two explosions the only way to dispose of these bodies? Considering that investigations and audits are scheduled months in advance, did they really have to schedule these explosions last minute with no contingency plan? Given that Haven has hiking trails and people spend time in the mountains, wouldn't there be security guarding the premises/blast radius to ensure that there are no people in the area? This isn't an evil corporation, it's a badly managed one.
Speaking of Typhon and the mines, chapter 5 is just a complete clusterfuck. Alex fell, what, one-hundred feet deep into a mine and she's walking? Let's say that Jed's bullet just grazed her, okay, but that fall would have concussed her and twisted her body beyond recognition. How in the Hell did the writers expect us to believe that she could walk all the way back to Haven, and have a 10 minute monologue in the bar while standing upright. The members of the council were just sulking in their chairs while she was covered in blood and confronting Jed. I was insulted when I realized that the townspeople either defended me or defended Jed, just based on previous decisions I made that were completely irrelevant to the current situation. Is no-one really going to question why Alex is injured? Why the fuck was no-one genuinely alarmed at Alex's life-threatening injuries?
There is no message or moral to the story. In an attempt to give you some minor decisions to make, the game acts like your choices matter at the end with having Alex choose between "I learned that I want a home" or "I learned that I'm comfortable with my emotions" as if that had any bearing on the story. Even major decisions are complete bullshit. If you keep Ethan's secret in Chapter 1 about going to the mines, Alex ends up telling Gabe later anyways. The chapter 4 decision of signing the cease & desist or not goes nowhere since you end up getting shot by Jed 2 hours later anyways. The overall lack of decisions in the game is more evidence of a lack of budget, and of the highway robbery Square Enix committed by charging full price for this incomplete game.
Speaking of, how about that performance? Nothing like loading screens between every scene change on the PS5's SSD, and sub-30 FPS even in indoor settings. This game is so poorly optimized, and the bugs are inexcusable, ranging from hard crashes to T-posing in pivotal scenes. The ending montage had a loading screen between each new location for Christ's sake, with the quicksave icon in the bottom left corner to boot. 100% inexcusable in a narrative-driven game in 2021.
I could keep ranting about the characters, writing, exploration, gameplay, ending... but this game isn't worth any more of my time. I enjoyed all previous LIS games including the Captain Spirit prequel and Decknine's own Before the Storm, but this game dropped the ball entirely.