As ever, I really adore the world Failbetter has built and I find their house writing style delightful. So it was with no small measure of disappointment that I quickly realized that their newest entry wasn't landing for me the way I had eagerly hoped it would. It seemed set up to succeed: the focus on story plays to the studio's strengths, the setting (far earlier in the timeline than Fallen London or the Sunless games) was intriguing, and the modular-narrative is a particular fascination of mine.
But it just doesn't quite cohere. The game's triggers feel a little off-kilter, giving me options to ask or construct stories about things I haven't seen while preventing access to what seem like obvious next steps or conclusions to draw. I'd frequently end up with quests emblazoned with portraits of character who were never available, or that seemed to peter out with no real conclusion. The game's promise of pursuing whatever relationship you wanted with any character clearly stretched its resources thin: each individual interaction (romantic or platonic) is too brief to convey real character either of the protagonist or their prospective partner.
The whole of the game feels like it tries to give the player so much choice in what they do, who they talk to, and in what manner, that it's unable to keep up with itself. Because almost anything is possible, nothing that actually happens has any weight behind it. If the game were a little more mechanical it might feel like I was writing my own stories with the game pieces, but it's too invested in getting actual words in front of the player to commit to that line. It could also be less mechanical and push the player onto fewer, more well-defined quest lines in a moderately-open framework and bring more focus to the writing, but it's too ambitious for that.
All this said, it's still release week for this game and I know content patches are in the pipes. I'm going to put it aside for now and come back later, and I'm holding out hope that it'll see much improvement by then.
But it just doesn't quite cohere. The game's triggers feel a little off-kilter, giving me options to ask or construct stories about things I haven't seen while preventing access to what seem like obvious next steps or conclusions to draw. I'd frequently end up with quests emblazoned with portraits of character who were never available, or that seemed to peter out with no real conclusion. The game's promise of pursuing whatever relationship you wanted with any character clearly stretched its resources thin: each individual interaction (romantic or platonic) is too brief to convey real character either of the protagonist or their prospective partner.
The whole of the game feels like it tries to give the player so much choice in what they do, who they talk to, and in what manner, that it's unable to keep up with itself. Because almost anything is possible, nothing that actually happens has any weight behind it. If the game were a little more mechanical it might feel like I was writing my own stories with the game pieces, but it's too invested in getting actual words in front of the player to commit to that line. It could also be less mechanical and push the player onto fewer, more well-defined quest lines in a moderately-open framework and bring more focus to the writing, but it's too ambitious for that.
All this said, it's still release week for this game and I know content patches are in the pipes. I'm going to put it aside for now and come back later, and I'm holding out hope that it'll see much improvement by then.