This review contains spoilers
at one point, while playing this, i described myself as "pleasantly bored", and that's probably the most apropos way to describe TC as a whole. it's aesthetically vibrant, down-to-earth, and boy does very little happen in it. going into this game, i think i was most excited to see what a LIS game would look like when released all at once instead of episodically. i think this whole "write as you go" habit that the series got itself into with episodic releases has hurt its propensity to tell emotionally gripping stories that stay consistent in tone and characterization. it's a relief that we don't necessarily see any of that here, but we trade that for an essential lack of plotting.
the absolute best illustration of what i mean when i say "lack of plotting" is the doubleshot of chapter 3 and 4. chapter 3 is this wonderfully hyped up LARP chapter that puts the entire plot on brakes so that you, as the player, can spend your time enjoying this little town and its inhabitants all engaging in this activity to cheer up a local despondent boy. it's cute and really endearing, if also fairly mundane from a gameplay perspective. then we enter chapter 4 and. . . hey look, it's the spring festival. it's just a big party where you don't really do much and little to no plot advances until the last like 5 minutes of the chapter. and, immediately, what was once a fun concept turns into padding.
the chapters in this game are already fairly short as it is. i don't think LIS games need to be densely packed with replayability or several layers of foreshadowing to justify short play times. if anything, TC takes the right step in that player choice is fairly minimized and every playthrough is going to see the exact same major beats occur with roughly the same outcomes, give or take some flavor. the problem is that this is a simple story stretched out for much longer than it needed to be. like, this is a story you could tell in probably 5-6 hours stretched out to double that length. not much happens, not enough intrigue lasts to keep me hooked, and here is where we enter "pleasantly bored" territory.
the best and most damning thing i can say about this game is that it is consistent. it lacks the extremely high highs of LIS1 and 2, but it fortunately manages to sidestep most of the very low lows of those same games. i think the actual worst part of the game ends up being the beginning of chapter 5, because a bunch of flashback/nightmare sequences that could've been peppered throughout the game are all crammed into the beginning of a chapter where we're not even sure if alex is alive (side note: the fact that she gets shot and manages to survive a like 30-40 foot fall without dying or bleeding out is um. wild to say the least but w/e). but the fact that this game is so safe is a curse as much as it is a relief. there's not a lot i'm going to remember about this game in a month. there won't be any moments that really stick out in my brain or resonate with me in the way that LIS1 and 2 did.
and it's not even like the plot of the game or the structure was devoid of these possibilities. there's hints of complexity in the morality of this game with alex playing therapist to a lot of people both uninvited and out of her depth. i think there's a great illustration of this when she interacts with charlotte and the better choice there is to just leave her alone. when i saw that, i wondered if this game was going to start commenting on how you can only talk through problems so much, that mental health is more complex than what the game has demonstrated so far, etc. etc., but she ends up being the outlier and that type of scenario isn't ever presented again. and then there's just the general idea of alex having this complete control over emotions and being able to probe into other peoples' psyche like they're playthings. . . at times, the way she talks gives sociopath, and not necessarily in a condemning way, more in a "she's lost touch with what it means to have normal emotional regulation and the boundaries of emotions have become all too fuzzy for her". that is also a really fascinating concept you could explore with a character like alex in a setting like this. but, TC ultimately plays the plot very straight and deprives me of the depth i want from a narrative with concepts this thought-provoking.
i wouldn't say this is a misstep or anything along those lines, i think this is just potentially a growing pain for Deck Nine. now that they've dipped their toes in the water of less episodic choice-based narratives they can start to explore other possibilities like what was seen here. i ultimately believe this is a game that will lead to fruit bearing more juice. whether or not said fruit lies in the LIS series or elsewhere is hard to say. this is just a transitory period.
edit as of 1/7/23: actually, i think i'll bump this up half a star. alex is honestly a very well defined character and i think the town hall meeting where everyone announces (or doesn't) their support for you based on the choices you've made up to this point is a great moment. i think it'd work without the player-dependency, but it helps give a lot of flavor and credence to the resolution. it reminds me a bit of how a game that i will not mention by name because it massively spoils it does something similar with how it tracks your compassion and empathy to characters and judges you for it without warning at the very end. if nothing else, upon replay, it's still a really strong moment, so i think i may have undersold this game a small bit.
the absolute best illustration of what i mean when i say "lack of plotting" is the doubleshot of chapter 3 and 4. chapter 3 is this wonderfully hyped up LARP chapter that puts the entire plot on brakes so that you, as the player, can spend your time enjoying this little town and its inhabitants all engaging in this activity to cheer up a local despondent boy. it's cute and really endearing, if also fairly mundane from a gameplay perspective. then we enter chapter 4 and. . . hey look, it's the spring festival. it's just a big party where you don't really do much and little to no plot advances until the last like 5 minutes of the chapter. and, immediately, what was once a fun concept turns into padding.
the chapters in this game are already fairly short as it is. i don't think LIS games need to be densely packed with replayability or several layers of foreshadowing to justify short play times. if anything, TC takes the right step in that player choice is fairly minimized and every playthrough is going to see the exact same major beats occur with roughly the same outcomes, give or take some flavor. the problem is that this is a simple story stretched out for much longer than it needed to be. like, this is a story you could tell in probably 5-6 hours stretched out to double that length. not much happens, not enough intrigue lasts to keep me hooked, and here is where we enter "pleasantly bored" territory.
the best and most damning thing i can say about this game is that it is consistent. it lacks the extremely high highs of LIS1 and 2, but it fortunately manages to sidestep most of the very low lows of those same games. i think the actual worst part of the game ends up being the beginning of chapter 5, because a bunch of flashback/nightmare sequences that could've been peppered throughout the game are all crammed into the beginning of a chapter where we're not even sure if alex is alive (side note: the fact that she gets shot and manages to survive a like 30-40 foot fall without dying or bleeding out is um. wild to say the least but w/e). but the fact that this game is so safe is a curse as much as it is a relief. there's not a lot i'm going to remember about this game in a month. there won't be any moments that really stick out in my brain or resonate with me in the way that LIS1 and 2 did.
and it's not even like the plot of the game or the structure was devoid of these possibilities. there's hints of complexity in the morality of this game with alex playing therapist to a lot of people both uninvited and out of her depth. i think there's a great illustration of this when she interacts with charlotte and the better choice there is to just leave her alone. when i saw that, i wondered if this game was going to start commenting on how you can only talk through problems so much, that mental health is more complex than what the game has demonstrated so far, etc. etc., but she ends up being the outlier and that type of scenario isn't ever presented again. and then there's just the general idea of alex having this complete control over emotions and being able to probe into other peoples' psyche like they're playthings. . . at times, the way she talks gives sociopath, and not necessarily in a condemning way, more in a "she's lost touch with what it means to have normal emotional regulation and the boundaries of emotions have become all too fuzzy for her". that is also a really fascinating concept you could explore with a character like alex in a setting like this. but, TC ultimately plays the plot very straight and deprives me of the depth i want from a narrative with concepts this thought-provoking.
i wouldn't say this is a misstep or anything along those lines, i think this is just potentially a growing pain for Deck Nine. now that they've dipped their toes in the water of less episodic choice-based narratives they can start to explore other possibilities like what was seen here. i ultimately believe this is a game that will lead to fruit bearing more juice. whether or not said fruit lies in the LIS series or elsewhere is hard to say. this is just a transitory period.
edit as of 1/7/23: actually, i think i'll bump this up half a star. alex is honestly a very well defined character and i think the town hall meeting where everyone announces (or doesn't) their support for you based on the choices you've made up to this point is a great moment. i think it'd work without the player-dependency, but it helps give a lot of flavor and credence to the resolution. it reminds me a bit of how a game that i will not mention by name because it massively spoils it does something similar with how it tracks your compassion and empathy to characters and judges you for it without warning at the very end. if nothing else, upon replay, it's still a really strong moment, so i think i may have undersold this game a small bit.