Some random thoughts from my playthrough, which I wrote up weeks ago and didn’t have the courage to post. I will be spoiling things maybe.
This game is conspicuously Not Gay, or at least it was when I played it. I unlocked the Undercover Homo Cop perk or what the fuck ever and it really didn’t change things much. Seemed very 90s “let’s mildly poke fun at the homophobes but also don’t do anything that’s actually gay.” And maybe this is cuz I made the wrong choices at the wrong times but I think if I unlock the gay skill I should get the chance to actually be gay…to be gay and like it.
I liked Cuno and I will confess I laughed at him dropping that censored slur but wasn’t quite so comfortable when other characters started using it cuz like…if you’re using it this often and you know it’s bad enough that you have to censor it maybe you just shouldn’t use it at all. Maybe the writers should choose between Pissf----- and Cuno taunting me for wanting to suck my partner’s cock. Maybe don’t need both.
I feel similarly about the whole cop angle. Maybe if you gotta write a bunch of text elaborating on how these cops are effectively powerless and maybe not that bad…maybe don’t make your game about cops? Maybe do something else. This is maybe a dumb opinion cuz I have spent years whining about how there should be more games about detectives and mysteries but maybe there’s a way to do this shit without being a cop. Maybe.
There’s a good chunk in the, I dunno, “mid-game”? that had me feeling a similar discomfort. Did anyone explore any of the uh…bigoted options? I did not, because I was loving this game. I did not want to see anything that turned me off it. I was a coward. I have some faith that they don’t veer off and start doing some South Park-ish “maybe both sides are bad!” shit, especially since no one on here has griped about it but…eh! Eh! I do not want art that reflects my worldview at all times but I’m still curious if the more rightwing choices are treated with, like…respect?
Just started veering dangerously close to like…a 20 year old Vertigo comic at times.
Did not care for the much of the music. There is no disco in this game. I thought maybe the title was the first thing they came up with and they never bothered changing it but then I remembered years ago when I logged on tigsource to promote my cool game and immediately backed out cuz everything was so shitty it made me wanna die. Except for this game. Which had a different title. Didn’t mention disco at all. So gonna knock off a few fun points for stealing disco valour.
Anyway this was the first game I’ve played in years that held my attention all the way through and (almost) never had me tempted to look at my phone so that’s high praise. It also made me feel way less alone. In this world. As a “game developer”. Though it did strengthen my resolve and I have vowed to make a way shorter, way weirder, way gayer game. One with zero walking animations. The only times I was tempted to look at my phone was during all that damn walking.
I thought the smoking man and his sunday friend were pretty obviously gay, but yeah the main character’s like a 1.5 on the kinsey scale
There was one other place where you could outright declare (to yourself) “I prefer men” but I went with “hugging is socialist” instead because all video game characters are volcel
Oh yeah he definitely is but I think I mostly interacted with them after unlocking my Gay Persona and most of the dialogue choices were played for laughs. Which I guess works, since the player character maybe only learned about boys kissing half a day earlier. But it did arrive later in the game than I would have liked. Like I’d rather not have the option to go gay than have it pop up dozens of hours in and mostly treated as a joke.
But that is me nitpicking and I really loved this game and there are like three-million words in it so who knows, maybe lots of wild shit is possible and I couldn’t access it cuz I’m such a huge prude. Who knows!
I had a slow start with this game, but I finally built a character I was happy with and got far enough to learn its rhythms. I’m now completely hooked and I keep staying up way later than intended because I can’t stop playing it. Managed to become a communist, but I’m hoping it might let me eventually become an anarchist. Like, I love roleplaying a hardcore leftist, but I don’t like that the game wants me to sign on to mass killings in order to prove my commie credentials. Let me be a nonviolent social ecologist!!
I love the way skill checks work in this so much. I like that you can accrue secret little bonuses to tough checks by having weird side conversations or learning about the world. It’s cool that you can retry failed checks after leveling up the relevant skills. I get so pumped whenever I get to up a skill. The way this thing gamifies conversation trees is so engaging!
Oh, also, I’m still learning about the game’s world, but regarding its treatment of its cops as not so bad:
The stuff about them being basically a directly democratic citizen’s militia that faithfully represents its community… I actually really like that the game presents a vision of a better kind of police force. How can a society police itself in a way that isn’t monstrous? How can cops actually serve their communities instead of acting as brutal, despotic servants of capital? It’s rare that you see an alternative system pictured this vividly.
Of course, like I said, I’m not very far into the game at all, and later developments may make this all sound super naive. Especially since my understanding of the RCM’s place in this world comes mostly from explanations given to me by a rich “ultraliberal”.
Finally got back to this the last couple days. Been meandering through in large swathes and think? I’m nearing the end, not sure when/if I’ll get around to a big replay so I’ve covered as much ground as possible. Mega curious to see how many threads actually have a place in “the final narrative”.
The intersection of ravers starting a club, a fallen dev programmer, and nature of the church/hole itself wove so many exchanges hilarious and dissonant, I couldn’t stop laughing during an almost cathartic dance hype…then proceeded to get shook by sounds hardcorest. Really vibe those sines, dig that Noid.
The irritating pulse of that song, toned to a fit trance
Communal rhythmic energies
Inches from the void and still sanct
Things ain’t really that disparate
And just the way you defeat a hole in the universe created from too much history by filling it with new music, hardcore music, the ultrahardcore. its a game about finding a way out from the spectre of the past before it consumes everything.
Pretty much its a game about @american2004’s liberatory acid communism
I overlooked coming back to a failed check on the furnace yell for quite some time, so encountering/conversation with the Dicemaker was also a real nice surprise, fav moment. The beauty of her workshop-home, an already otherwordly, meta-ish moment sweetly elevated by this excellent song.
