My only complaint is that if they were gonna treat the story this bad, they shoulda cut it! Everything else is perfect, and the actual writing/VO in the levels is frequently very amusing, and very carefully utilized… this team has a great sense of humor. I wish it had translated to the cutscenes lmao
I was introduced to Hitmaps by a friend last week… I’m curious if there are any sites which have diagrammed the various states and walking loops that key NPCs have in different levels? I find this scheduling so fascinating. A lot of the states in the first game in this collection are fully triggered by player interaction, so it was fascinating to start the Miami level and to see how Sierra doesn’t actually enter the fan/backstage areas until after her race has concluded. Hoping this team gets even more creative with how the target characters move through these spaces and how they react to player behavior.
I played Paris 4x and gradually realized which conversations and events were triggered entirely by passive player proximity… a lot of stuff in the first game really only happens if you are looking for it to happen. Fun to see the next game growing a little more complex.