full voice acting was beautiful i can’t imagine it any other way
i think me and @digs kind of got the best of both worlds by watching most of the playthrough by a youtuber Pat Stares At (up to just before the confrontation in the Feld Building) and then me starting up a new save to explore alternate dialogue options while still playing the way I wanted to play.
was glorious to get this reveal with the added bonus of kim saying “so that’s why you’re so obsessed with FALN sportswear!”
other favorite moments: harry going into full verbal loop over “mr. evrart is helping me find my gun”; whenever cuno starts overusing the descriptor “____ shit”, his whole rant about the locust city; harry going “yeah no i’m fine” while continuing to melt and slide down the union boss’ chair; etc etc. the quality of writing was just amazingly witty throughout
my blorbos = EGG HEAD (HARDCORE TO THE MEGA!), jules pideau (tired precinct 41 radio guy), judit minot my darling, most of the kids in the game, and of course my fictional boyfriend kim
100% agreed
lengthy thoughts about politics and the game:
the writing about communism and the spirit of revolution / radical change is incredibly dear to my heart already. the idea of Le Retour / The Return and Cindy’s aerograffito, La Revacholiere’s dialogue, Esprit de Corps’ Nix and Pryce dialogue in the ending about the change to come in spring, etc, is very adam curtis in its concpet that things can be different. to quote curtis (from his chapo appearance some years back)
ADAM CURTIS: You ask what real change might look like, and I think that’s a really interesting question for liberals and radicals, because there is a hunger for change, out there - millions of people who feel sort of insecure, uncertain about the future who DO want something to change. I think that change only comes though a big imaginative idea. A sort of picture of another kind of future which gives people - which connects with that fearfulness in the back of people’s minds. And offers them a release from it. That’s the key thing. But I think the question for liberals and radicals is - they are always suspicious of big ideas. That’s what lurks underneath the liberal mindset. And the reason is - and they are quite right in a way - is look what happened last time when millions of people got swept up in a big idea! Look up the last hundred years - what happened in Russia, and then in Germany. The point is , Is that Political change is frightening. It’s scary — it’s thrilling because it is dynamic and is doing something to change the world but it is scary because it can change things in ways where nothing to secure. Its like being in an earthquake. Even the solid ground beneath you begins to move. And things dissolve that you think are solid and real. And I think the question liberals are left have to face at the moment is a really sort of difficult question which is: “do you really want change? do you really want it?”…
… So in answer to your question, what you need is a powerful vision of the future. With all its dangers. But it is also quite thrilling. It will be an escape from the staticness of the world we have today. And to do that, you’ve got to engage with the giant forces of power that now run the world, at the moment. And the key thing is that in confronting those powers, and trying to transform the world you might lose a lot. This is a sort of forgotten idea. Is that actually you surrender yourself up to a big idea and in the the process you might lose something but you’d actually gain a bigger sense, because you change the world for the better. I know it sounds soppy, But this is the forgotten thing about politics. Is that you give up some of your individualism to something bigger than yourself. You surrender yourself - and it’s a lost idea. And I think really in answer to your question: You can spot real change happening when you see people from the liberal middle classes, beginning to give themselves up to something. Surrender themselves for something bigger.
the ravers had some really interesting dialogue about this especially Noid - one of the best parts of the game.
also of course the poking fun at communists was just cutting satire all around, we all know a homie who unironically believes in Posadism, runs a reading group with 2 people in it, is so pissed off at the bourgeiosie he’s actually just a misanthrope, thinks unions are bourgeois, etc. all it needed was some proper party-splitters to really paint the picture of communist organizing - but of course i guess the communards were so wiped out there’s no more parties to split.
my only real beef is that it doesn’t hold up to critique the idea that humanity is special and different from everything else that exists. this is an idea i’m deeply skeptical of and meanwhile the game seems to uncritically support (although there is one character in noid who actually criticizes this, Harry seems to believe it himself - see for example his Encyclopedia dialogue about Dolores Dei when looking at the stained glass window, and it’s corroborated by late game encounter with the phasmid, of all things, who says humanity is chosen by the “god of hosts” or some such christian thing. i mean i’m a little surprised the game isn’t harder on this point. I don’t think the Innocentic system really comes together as a fully formed idea in the game, to be honest. “It’s all we had money for” as Kurvitz says.
the other thing I didn’t like is Harry’s attitude towards his ex-fiancee and pathetic manipulative groveling etc but I think that’s punctured a bit by Jean Vicquemare’s cutting dialogue about it. it does raise some questions about the type of dude Robert Kurvitz is around women tho. like we all get that Harry is supposed to be a pathetic character but we are clearly still supposed to sympathize with him, including about this, so.
