I had a lot of trouble trying to play through this game. I'm a big fan of Fallout 1 and New Vegas, so one would think I'd like the one that builds directly off of the initial game that had a profound impact on my tastes. And there are many things about this game that inspire and speak to my sense of wonderment and light, while properly expressing the darkness of the world, of people. But the thing that kept me off this game so much was that the game..

Okay, I understand that in gritty futures, there are rapists and slavers. They were present in the first game, they were present in New Vegas too. But this game takes it to such an indulgent level, that it really just feels disgusting. It has a lot of player rape options, player being a slaver, opportunities to be roofied. And it wasn't used with salient purpose. It was used to be fetishistic and gross, in my opinion.

It's a god damned shame. I like the idea of living in a more naturalistic society at the start of the game, coming into a world growing and trying to revive the vestiges of industrial society, and the ways this causes such uniquely contrasting viewpoints and compelling problems. It's great that this culminates in a faction more or less presenting itself as a direct continuation of the fascistic spirit of America. It's great that the game in general takes the time to express plurality and multitudes in the world.

I just.. feel like there's too many gross things about this game to where I can't even just enjoy the great things about it. And I badly want to.. I want to have fun building out a character and seeing my attempts at a lucky melee crit build work out. I want to roam around the desert and see what ways the sequel compounded on the dungeon and combat design. The more rich aesthetic influence trickled into the game, new locations and lore.

Its rapey, its got stank vibes