I really thought I would enjoy this game.
From the opening this has an interesting story, albeit pulled right from 1984 with hints of Brave New World. To have those worlds of dystopian fiction become an interactive video game is exciting! The combat is very impressive and has a great balance of defense and offense in it. The look and feel of this game reminds me of Bioshock, and I was here for it.
However, it's not just marred by some pretty excessive bugs but also some design choices.
I absolutely get the idea of the public disguise: wear the "right" clothes for the neighbourhood you're in, walk don't run, take your Joy drugs, and try to fit in. Otherwise, people become suspicious and will turn on you, alerting the nearby police. It's Foucault's panopticon, but in a video game!
Except fitting in with the public spaces of cities are absolutely infuriating and disappointing. There's limited character and building models, so you'll be walking past the same few people and shops constantly, which is absolutely boring. Your dialogue with NPCs is funny and neat, but very limited and repetitive. You'll be walking past people floating a meter above a bench, breaking the immersion and showing off one of the many bugs in the game. Then you'll suddenly trip on an invisible object, jump, and trigger the NPC aggro - which does not stop or slow down.
There's also crafting in this game, which can be amazing or frustrating depending on how its implemented. For a very slow, boring and repetitive game, the looting and crafting simply slows the game down more. I have to do inventory management constantly, as weapons break down and I need parts for new ones, and I'm carrying too much weight from all of the trash cans I looted from. I understand how a player's digital hoarding can impact gameplay - I play MMORPGs - but it is designed in a way where I am encouraged to loot in order to find interesting story beats, find crafting materials to prepare for a mission or to actually progress through a mission. I'm constantly returning to safehouses to put my loot away, craft replacement gear and consider what to take on the next mission while not encumbering myself.
Then, there is so much walking that it should have a tag for a walking simulator. I'm walking from safehouses where I dropped off my loot to the mission, then that mission directs me to walk to another area very far away. The walking isn't interesting, as I wrote earlier - everything looks the same, the level designs are incredibly boring and there's not enough variety to assets. You can't even run to get to where you want to be or else you'll trigger the NPC aggro into a forever loop of being chased and defending yourself from a hoarde. I couldn't finish the first chapter, as I ended up replaying the same missions that didn't save properly due to bugs and became too bored and irritated to continue playing.
There's also some UI choices that were disappointing. As an example, you pick up music in this game that you can't listen to without being in the menu screen. I want this music around me in the game to make it a little bit more interesting!
What kept me going was the story and dialogue and humour thrown into this game, with some exceptions. It is a very interesting story, and I'm very curious how they connect governmental misinformation campaigns and the forced drugging of a population with political resistance beyond individualism. Except, I'm playing as one of the worst characters on the side of the opposition, who's snarky criticism just shows how terrible their own personality and attitudes are.
I may give it another shot, because I am curious about the story's ending and I did hear other playable characters are more interesting than this first one.
From the opening this has an interesting story, albeit pulled right from 1984 with hints of Brave New World. To have those worlds of dystopian fiction become an interactive video game is exciting! The combat is very impressive and has a great balance of defense and offense in it. The look and feel of this game reminds me of Bioshock, and I was here for it.
However, it's not just marred by some pretty excessive bugs but also some design choices.
I absolutely get the idea of the public disguise: wear the "right" clothes for the neighbourhood you're in, walk don't run, take your Joy drugs, and try to fit in. Otherwise, people become suspicious and will turn on you, alerting the nearby police. It's Foucault's panopticon, but in a video game!
Except fitting in with the public spaces of cities are absolutely infuriating and disappointing. There's limited character and building models, so you'll be walking past the same few people and shops constantly, which is absolutely boring. Your dialogue with NPCs is funny and neat, but very limited and repetitive. You'll be walking past people floating a meter above a bench, breaking the immersion and showing off one of the many bugs in the game. Then you'll suddenly trip on an invisible object, jump, and trigger the NPC aggro - which does not stop or slow down.
There's also crafting in this game, which can be amazing or frustrating depending on how its implemented. For a very slow, boring and repetitive game, the looting and crafting simply slows the game down more. I have to do inventory management constantly, as weapons break down and I need parts for new ones, and I'm carrying too much weight from all of the trash cans I looted from. I understand how a player's digital hoarding can impact gameplay - I play MMORPGs - but it is designed in a way where I am encouraged to loot in order to find interesting story beats, find crafting materials to prepare for a mission or to actually progress through a mission. I'm constantly returning to safehouses to put my loot away, craft replacement gear and consider what to take on the next mission while not encumbering myself.
Then, there is so much walking that it should have a tag for a walking simulator. I'm walking from safehouses where I dropped off my loot to the mission, then that mission directs me to walk to another area very far away. The walking isn't interesting, as I wrote earlier - everything looks the same, the level designs are incredibly boring and there's not enough variety to assets. You can't even run to get to where you want to be or else you'll trigger the NPC aggro into a forever loop of being chased and defending yourself from a hoarde. I couldn't finish the first chapter, as I ended up replaying the same missions that didn't save properly due to bugs and became too bored and irritated to continue playing.
There's also some UI choices that were disappointing. As an example, you pick up music in this game that you can't listen to without being in the menu screen. I want this music around me in the game to make it a little bit more interesting!
What kept me going was the story and dialogue and humour thrown into this game, with some exceptions. It is a very interesting story, and I'm very curious how they connect governmental misinformation campaigns and the forced drugging of a population with political resistance beyond individualism. Except, I'm playing as one of the worst characters on the side of the opposition, who's snarky criticism just shows how terrible their own personality and attitudes are.
I may give it another shot, because I am curious about the story's ending and I did hear other playable characters are more interesting than this first one.