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Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Posts 2,961 to 2,980 of 3,212

themcnoisy

@Ralizah You would enjoy it Rali. 😀. Go in with an open mind and its easy to love.

@kyleforrester87 it would be even better on the switch. You can save pretty much anywhere and drop 20 minutes on your lunch break.

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

ShogunRok

@themcnoisy The unfortunate truth is that it just released at a bad time, right before the Christmas break. I simply didn't have time to play through it, so the original plan was to get stuck in over the holidays and publish a review in January... But that never happened.

The review schedule has been so hectic since that I've never had a chance to go back, even though I've had loads of people tell me it's an amazing RPG. A very disappointing situation!

You never know, though. I might finally get to it one day and write something up if it meets my now sky high expectations!

ShogunRok

Twitter:

themcnoisy

@ShogunRok Fair enough bro. Reviewing RPGs is time consuming for sure. Well worth putting on though Rob! It's a breath of fresh air I highly recommend to all RPG aficionados.

Edited on by themcnoisy

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

RogerRoger

@LtSarge Yikes, sorry to hear that Bowser Jr's Journey ended up being so obstinate. Funnily enough, I was thinking of this discussion earlier, as I was finishing a Naruto game which dragged out its final chapters to a frustrating degree. I was literally wishing for it to be over! Anyway, well done for walking away. It's definitely the best course of action (life's too short an' all that) but you're right, it never feels good to abandon a game before you've seen the story's credits roll, at the very least.

***

@themcnoisy Great to see you back, buddy, and glad you enjoyed Chained Echoes so much! Seems like it made one heck of an impression on you! Knowing that you're an old-school JRPG fan, I'm not surprised but still, it's awesome that folks out there are still making these kinds of games. Here's hoping that you're keeping well in general, and that you're able to catch up on all that lost sleep soon!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

themcnoisy

@RogerRoger yeah boy. Thanks Rog. I read through the thread last night before posting and it's good to see you are keeping it alive. Hope life is treating you well.

In fact I think the developer of Chained echoes should reach out to you, for assistance with the writing!

With you replaying MGS5, chained echoes is the opposite. MGS5 is fabulous, however there is a lot of running around and filler, superficially increasing the length. Chained echoes is the opposite, it has so much going on and respects your time. Pointing out optional quests and extras and you get an airship, mech suit and world map to help with traversal around 16-18 hours in. You can literally jump from quest to quest without worrying about collecting crap. There is even a trophy / achievement for selling a piece of crap.

And as an edit to my review, the developer is working on an update to the crystal system. Hopefully so you can swap in weapon and armour crystals without the added faff of crystal quality, which I still don't understand.

Great game. With a couple of upgrades to the graphics and a more cohesive writing style, the sequel could be huge!

Forum Best Game of All Time Awards

PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7

PSN: mc_noisy

RogerRoger

@themcnoisy Aww, cheers! Right back at'cha, buddy!

That's kind of you to say, but I'm not sure how effective I'd be at writing pure fantasy! Besides, I do tend to waffle, and it sounds like Chained Echoes is better for being kept tight. I really do appreciate games that are as long as they need to be, though. Back when I was playing the original FFVII there'd be moments where I felt lost, or trapped by superfluous busywork, and it helped reinforce the stereotype that JRPGs pad themselves out, telling a six-hour story in quadruple the time. Which is probably why I haven't gone anywhere near the sub-genre since, so maybe I'll keep Chained Echoes in mind, then! Especially after that update to the crystal system drops; here's hoping it fixes your issue with the whole mechanic!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

CuteBoyMnM

Cyberpunk 2077 (Vers. 1.61) Review
Played on PS5
{Warning: Spoilers Ahead}
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Cyberpunk 2077. A game I wanted to talk about since it was released in 2020. I had strong feelings back then but after 2 years, I wanted to see if anything has changed. Maybe I was wrong or maybe I’m more of a Shadowrun guy.

Story

Where do we start? V has three background options from Corpo, Nomad, and Street kid that determine the prologue as well as V’s dialogue options. Regardless of how you start, we end up as a merc in Night City with dreams of being a legend with our best bud Jackie Welles after a montage. Thus we are thrust into the world where we learn our most important lesson; Night City does what California does best, be a bad place to live.

I’m annoyed about this decision to time-skip because it denies me MY character development for V and any choices for that matter. This is reinforced further when you talk to Dexter DeShawn who asks you whether you want to die a legend or live a quiet life. V is determined to be a legend so we can’t answer any other way. Evelyn wants you to betray Dex where you can respond with NO or MAYBE. It's truly wonderful for this ‘Next-Gen’ RPG to give me the freedom in choosing my backstory just to railroad my story choices, but it’s fine. NO THIS IS TOTALLY FINE!!!

The heist is the main catalyst for all the game’s story problems. First, Yorinobu kills his father Saburo Arasaka because of his daddy issues then claims he was assassinated. This is presumably why we would be hunted by Arasaka for Saburo’s death and for stealing the relic but Arasaka doesn’t do anything about it. V gets picked up by Takemura in a landfill and then we get ambushed by Arasaka. It’s never explained why we were attacked and they never show up again during the story. Second, why is Johnny Silverhand on the relic? Serious question because he’s a nobody that bombed Arasaka Tower but also didn’t do anything to affect Arasaka in the slightest.

Then we have Jackie’s death. It's very sad but I feel it's lacking. Don’t get me wrong the scene itself is great in concept with the first-person perspective used to create an uncomfortable closeup of watching someone’s life fade from their eyes as a traumatic event for V. It’s just that this moment and Dex’s betrayal is spoiled verbatim from their 2019 cinematic trailer. And on top of that, what do we know about Jackie up to this point? We had a montage that skipped this part of developing our relationship so how am I supposed to care about his death in any meaningful way?

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In Act 2 we get to mingle with our lord and savior Keanu Ree… I mean Johnny Silverhand. I’m sorry but Keanu isn’t a good fit for this character. Now before you shove a knife into my eye let me explain. Keanu is more of a ‘reserved’ actor in that he isn’t overly expressive. It works in some of his roles where he has to play an action-hero character like John Wick or Neo and even parts of Silverhand where he is more reflective of his past actions. However, whenever he has to show extreme emotion like when Silverhand threatens people he comes off as an awkward teenager trying to be cool, and his rants of anarchy against the corporate system are given in the same cadence as his performance in Johnny Mnemonic raging over room service. I don’t think Keanu is a good enough actor to portray Johnny as an egotistical narcissist rockstar with a hard-on for corporate terrorism. There now you can stab me.

Unfortunately, we are given the terrible news that we’re dying and are stuck with Johhny Silverhand to make unpleasant conversation with us. Our best bet is to find Anders Hellman, the creator of the relic, and talk to Evelyn.

Evelyn gets it rough after the heist especially when we save her from her dungeon and the unfortunate aftermath that occurs in Judy’s house. It sucks to see someone go through something horrible but I’ll refer to Jackie's death in how I feel about it. It hurts but it doesn’t hold much weight to me because of how little I know about her.

However, we get to meet with the Voodoo Boys through Evelyn’s contact and they want the relic to talk with Alt about the Blackwall. The Voodoo Boys know that Netwatch is closing in on their plan and needs us to deal with them.

We get to decide if we want to side with Netwatch or Voodoo. If you side with Netwatch, Placide gets angry and you fight the gang after Alts meetup. If you don’t, Placide tries to fry your brain, goes ‘oops, sorry lol’ and you leave with Placide sending you a very threatening text message. Whatever side you pick, the Voodoo Boys and Netwatch never show up and are never mentioned again. Imagine I’m angrily pointing at the E3 demo talking about how your choices will shape the story and how it will branch out in a multitude of ways. Anyway, Alt tells us she can separate Johnny from our mind if we implant her into Mikoshi’s servers so we have a plan.

Hellman on the other hand says it is impossible to remove Johnny without us dying. So who do we believe, the creator of the relic who says no or some AI that says yes? We are the first of a kind to use an engram in this way so Hellman might be wrong but Alt would say anything to get us to do her plan so anything goes at this point.

Coincidentally, Takemura needs us to capture Hanako during the Arasaka parade. After the hassle of capturing her, we learn a shocking revelation. Hanako knew Yorinobu killed their dad. OH MY GO wait how and why? Apparently, Saburo had his consciousness uploaded to an engram that told her what really transpired. So on top of this being a huge coincidence, why isn’t Yorinobu charged for patricide? I know Arasaka has this thing for ‘family’ but I would think Saburo’s engram’s testimony would be enough evidence.

And ultimately I want to ask what the point of all this was because so far, nothing is building up to a finale for V or Arasaka. I mean V has interval blackouts/Johnny attacks but nothing is pushing us to the end. Only when we talk to Hanako does the game feel like it needs to end.

Untitled

At this point, we’re in the endgame. V is on borrowed time now and we need to decide on a plan to attack Arasaka. However, the game hits us with an unforeseeable realization. Johnny was influencing us the whole time. All those times you thought you were in control, NOPE Silverhand was there guiding your hand even when you disagreed with him. It completely undermines any approach in making V YOUR character because it never was to begin with.

Upon further investigation, this is Johnny’s story so it’s only fair to recap HIS story. Johnny was deployed to fight in a war he didn’t believe in which caused him to devote an eternal vendetta against Arasaka by becoming a rockerboy. Upon hitting the major leagues in album sales he got together with Alt Cunningham, super hacker extraordinaire, who unfortunately died in 2013 when Arasaka placed her into cyberspace or something. Then in 2023 during his farewell tour, he assaulted Arasaka tower with a nuclear bomb so he had to be stopped by Adam Smasher TWICE (this is before he becomes THE Adam Smasher so he’s more like Baby Smasher, wait that doesn’t sound right). In short, I guess Johnny nuked a building because his girlfriend died. That is incredibly lame and shallow for Keanu to do I mean I get it but seriously, just write a ballad like every other rockstar and make bank. It's probably easier.

The endings for the game are varied with different finales except the outcome is always the same, V will die in 6 months. Although the other constant is we get to fight our Arch-nemesis. Smash’em Adam. It culminates in a true battle of power level like when Adam did uh… and how he… yeah. So Bash’em Adam is a 3 stage boss battle and I’m a little disappointed in how he fights. The most he does is use AOE missiles to force you out of cover and send minions/use sentry turrets to keep the pressure up. However, I have the ultimate technique up my sleeve, it’s called “My Bullets to Your Face”. Never fails.

So, after all this mayhem and drama what are we left with? Nothing. V’s story was so pointless that Johnny took over and Arasaka crumbled because Yorinobu intended to destroy his father's legacy. Even our journey culminates in a 6-month pity party where we should feel bad because why? I didn’t get a choice in the story. I got more of a choice in whether my V drinks beer or lemonade and if they smoke or not rather than any narrative options.

Quests

The best part of this game is the Maelstrom quest. I know this quest is brought up the most and for good reason. This was the centerpiece of the E3 demo because of its variety of choices in how you interact with it.

1) You can show up and buy the flathead bot with your own cash and walk out with no problem
2) Walk up to Royce and shoot him in the face to skip his boss phase then fight the rest of his gang
3) You can contract with Militech and pay with an infected shard leading to a shootout with Royce as a mecha boss and walk out to Militech controlling the scene
4) You can hack the Militech shard, pay for the flathead and get a stealthy approach for the next couple of fights and
5) You can hack the Militech shard and inform Maelstrom that Militech is on to them resulting in you and the Maelstrom fighting together against Militech
0.5) You can save Brick and depending on whether Royce (and DumDum) lives or dies will affect an Act 3 side quest (Second Conflict)

This quest alone is great and clearly shows potential for what we can expect in quality from the upcoming quests right? Nope. No quest in the main story comes close to this in terms of variety in both gameplay and narrative which is a shame.

Side quests vary in quality but a shining example is Dream On for me. Aside from being an Aerosmith fan, It perfectly encapsulated the existential dread of having your mind warped by outside forces and you being none the wiser.

A terrible quest is Lizzy Wizzy’s which, apart from having Grime’s awful voice acting, ends ‘off-screen’ and we get caught up via text messages. A large chunk of this game is told through text logs and it takes away from my enjoyment.

Cyberpsychos are mini-bosses and suffer the same complaint of being text-based. Cyberpsychosis is wasted in this game but gets brought into discussion more so because of the Edgerunners anime for better or for worse.

Gigs are sub-side quests and involve more gameplay variety with some encouraging you to talk through situations for a better outcome, but most come down to go here and shoot some people or find an item.

NCPD hustles are simply small skirmishes with a loot reward. Sometimes they’ll have some journal entries about “lore” but it's inconsequential.

Braindance

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Braindances (BDs) are cool in concept as well as the in-universe explanation for how people make/distribute them but in execution, they’re just so BORING. They play like the detective parts from Batman: Arkham Origins with worse visuals. Seriously, looking through the vision layer in these parts is unpleasantly ugly.

The first BD mission is when you scope out Yorinobu’s penthouse suite to find Silverhand’s relic. It’s detailed with tons of minor things to scan for information through vision, audio, and thermal layers alongside an optional objective to scan Yorinobu’s security systems (which doesn’t amount to anything but is still something to do). This is the most fleshed-out BD the game has to offer and every subsequent BD we encounter pales in comparison. I’m starting to notice a pattern about the front-loaded quality put forth here.

Music

Cyberpunk wears its musical influences on its sleeve proudly. Every main and side quest is named after song titles reflecting that story’s theme. “Heroes” by David Bowie is used for Jackie’s ofrenda matching the bond V had with him (minus the lovers' allegory) to “Dream On” by Aerosmith reflecting Peralez losing his mind as it's altered by an unseen force to use him as a puppet for unknown ulterior motives to “Sinnerman” by Nina Simone showcasing a serial killer using himself as a martyr with crucifixion to escape his judgment through atonement yet being taken advantage of as a brain dance.

This rings especially true for Judy’s final quest “Pyramid Song” by Radiohead (of course its Radiohead) mirroring her feelings after losing everything close to her in Night City with Evelyn, Maiko, Tom, and Roxanne dead as you explore her hometown underwater reminiscing on her past (also her having lyrics from “Parallel Universe” by Red Hot Chili Peppers tattooed on her arm, “Underwater where thoughts can breathe easily…”).

It also extends to the endings of The Devil – “Where is my Mind?” by Pixies (better known as the song at the end of Fight Club), The Star – “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix/Bob Dylan, The Sun – “Path to Glory” by Plasmatics, and Temperance – “New Dawn Fades” by Joy Division where just reading the lyrics of the song defines the emotion/tone of the ending with Temperance being the best point of reference.

CDPR got Refused to write Samurai’s tracks and I think they were perfect for the job. My exposure to the band was from “New Noise” which encapsulates Samurai’s punk roots. As for the radio and original soundtrack, I didn’t care for much of it since they don’t appeal to my awful taste in music except for the addition of “I Really Want to Stay at Your House” from the anime which I don’t like.

Combat

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The player has a tremendous number of options to experiment with from sprinting around with a shotgun and double jumping like it's Doom, creeping in and out of a hideout stealthily without alerting anyone/popping headshots with a silenced pistol and optical camo, sitting in your car while using quick hacks through cameras to melt brains and convert turrets to your side as well as sniping through walls from afar with a tech rifle. Cyberpunk offers a healthy amount of variety in how you want to approach combat your way and encourages personal flair for a playthrough.

I’m concerned with the enemy AI and how they’re meant to challenge the player in working around certain resistances and tactics. It's not necessarily fair to say that the AI is dumb per se but more in how the player has too many options to be countered. More often than not they’ll just stand around and clip into vehicles.

My biggest disappointment with combat outside of cyber ware abilities is net runners. has and cool hats. Can you guess what they have? 2 QUICK HACKS! Ping and Overheat. Meanwhile, my net runner can jam guns, blind eyes, drop grenades, turn knees weak, arms heavy, and make brain spaghetti. I was hoping that enemies would at least use Reboot Optics, Weapon Glitch, and Cripple Movement on me to encourage taking out net runners first but are instead outclassed by a cyber ware mod that negates fire damage.

Driving

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You can’t do a wheelie on a motorcycle 0/10.

On a serious note, driving is a mixed bag where some vehicles can turn on a dime while others can struggle to make a right turn under 5 mph. My rule of thumb for a game’s driving quality is by easy it is to make a right turn. I often test via handbrake, slow down to 0 mph or let off the accelerator at high speed before I turn.

This varies from car to car like supercars, sedans, muscle cars, and bikes but there is a factor that slights against me. Steering. The default driving setting for most cars is to oversteer like Johnny’s Porsche. The sensitivity can be adjusted from an update but some cars understeer like V’s starting car so it can’t be evenly distributed on a car-to-car basis (that and I’m far too lazy to test every variable to make driving bearable).

The same can’t be said for motorcycles. I tried. I have tried every variation of motorcycles to try and make it work but they JUST WON’T TURN. It doesn’t matter if I slow to a crawl or drift, the bike either understeers off the road or oversteers the drift to mess up the angle of my turn. Maybe it’s due to the god-awful physics where cars can fly into the air off the slightest bump in the road and how often I can just barrel through other vehicles at full speed without slowing down.

The best thing about the vehicles is their interior design. Every car has its layout filled with detail from where the speedometer is located to the display of your current radio station to looking at all the buttons and knobs gives you the thematic difference between luxury cars and nomad cars.

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Let’s shift over to the racing side quest. It’s bad. How bad? The AI has absolutely no feasible way to chase you or fight you in this manner, I mean gangs and police already can’t chase you in the overworld so what should I have expected? If you’re too far ahead of your competitors, they’ll rubber band so close to you that the minimap has a seizure trying to keep up. Enemy cars can shoot you, but Claire pretty much guns them down before you’ll even notice unless you pick a car with wing doors (like the Caliburn) then you’re screwed since you can’t fight back and blow up.

Gear

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I like loot. I enjoy games like Borderlands and Nioh so there’s clearly something wrong with me. A part of me likes to see numbers go up to prove how much better I think I am at the game, and it appeals to my love of number crunching in making various builds based on my stats/perks. The problem is that this game wants to be a looter shooter without the commitment to its own system.

Weapons will have a variation in their damage type (fire, shock, poison, bleed) and sometimes have an exceptional trait like the pistol shown in the picture above. Weapon stats are negligible even when going into rarity tiers as the only difference is a slight increase in damage. Special traits have the potential to add some variety with some guns removing vertical recoil, reducing charge time, increasing ricochet chance/amount, etc. except they aren’t something you can reliably obtain.

However, a really cool thing is that every gun has like 6 different reload animations (3 for partial reload, 3 for empty reload). It’s something I hope more games would start doing considering how often players reload in an FPS and it adds some flair.

Iconic weapons are the exception to my complaints about weapon variety/traits. They’re reskins of existing weapons but have variants that make them unique like Problem Solver which takes an SMG and gives it an 80-round mag with an absurd fire rate, Chaos is a tech pistol that cycles between fire/poison/shock damage during reloads, Plan B which uses your money as ammo and my boy Skippy who lovingly sings Rhianna’s “Disturbia” and thanks me for reloading. He is the best and no one shall dare talk smack about him or else I’ll… cry in the corner so beware.

Weapon mods are simple stat increases to damage, fire rate, and crit chance/damage as well as adding muzzles and sights for most weapons. The only muzzle you had were suppressors until it took them around 6 months to add a muzzle brake to the roster. Sights are your standard red dot/ACOG scopes with a bizarre caveat that gives you a -0.01 to ADS time which is such an insignificant modifier I’m not even sure it’s worth explaining why this is dumb. Also, am I the only one that thinks it's weird to not have any way to increase your ammo capacity both for reserves and/or apply an extended magazine for a weapon in an FPS?

Clothing is just as worthless in terms of stats as you only need to look at the armor stat. Some gear will have a trait like more damage to enemies at a lower level than you and small cooldown reductions, but they only serve for defense alone. There's a commonality with RPGs like this where you’ll wear a hodgepodge of ugly clothes for the stats and this game is no exception to how stupid I’ll look.

They did add transmog to alleviate this problem however it took them 2 years to do this and they already had this system in place at launch. Outfits functioned the same way except you only had 3 outfits, a militech suit (used once for the heist), Big Boss’s MGS5 hospital attire, and a hazmat suit. Transmog also reduced clothing stores to a place where you want to buy a specific jacket or shirt for your costume making the entire function of buying gear worthless.

Stores are available to purchase weapons and clothing to upgrade yourself which would be fine if their stock wasn’t randomized. There have been updates to make each store more consistent in what they have to sell but their convenience is undercut by simply going to an NPC, fighting them, and looting them for gear roughly scaled to your level rather than paying for an overpriced item that gets outpaced relatively quickly. Consumables like med kits and food are EVERYWHERE so why bother with medic/food shops?

Crafting is a flawed mess of a system but it's only useful when you’re at max level and you want to play with iconic weapons consistently. Sure you can craft grenades, med kits, and gear but you can find them easily by looting so you’re better off just crafting ammo. Upgrading gear is pointless since you can find always find better gear for free.

Alternatively crafting quick hacks breaks the rule about gear because it scales through level/attribute rather than gear score so I can craft a legendary Contagion at level 8 and it’ll carry me through the entire game. Cyberware is technically an exception but they affect your playstyle with attachments to your arms and legs. Double jump, mantis blades, and mono wire are the most popular because who doesn’t want to double jump while smacking people with machetes taped to their arms or with a light-up jump rope? However, I want to mention the PLS cyberware as it doesn’t get much attention.

The Projectile Launch System is the equivalent of having a grenade launcher in your arm so why isn’t that as cool as it sounds? Because it doesn’t have any damage scaling, damage output sucks and it requires a smart link but doesn’t lock on. The only reason to use it is if you give it non-lethal rounds which knock out enemies with one shot no matter what. Be aware that the explosive radius can dismember and kill them so it’s not 100% safe. I still find it funny how it's nonlethal to blast a rocket at someone’s face. Batman would be so proud.

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Finally, I’ll talk about inventory bloat. It’s a similar complaint that I have for The Witcher 3 where there are so many items that share the same effect. The picture above shows roughly 96 consumables with different art assets. All food heals the same amount and all drinks increase stamina the same amount so why bother giving me all these options?

TL; DR My Stupid Opinion
I don’t understand Cyberpunk 2077. It wants to be everything at once but nothing feels finished or fully developed. Some side quests start and end abruptly, we have a 4 mission-long racing and fist-fighting tournament but no shooting tournament. The police spawn directly behind you and can't chase you when you’re in a vehicle but can also be negated by driving less than half a block to remove your wanted level. This is supposed to be a Next-Gen RPG yet it took CDPR 2 YEARS to meet the standard other games have achieved in less than half the time. I still vehemently disagree about how this game is ambitious, it's just an unfocused mess, as I hold Red Dead Redemption 2 as a more ambitious game.

Edited on by CuteBoyMnM

CuteBoyMnM

PSN: m48blueteam

Ralizah

@CuteBoyMnM Extremely thorough breakdown of Cyberpunk 2077! I've not played it myself (YET), but your analysis seems to echo other assessments of the game I've read, which judge that nearly every aspect of the experience features questionable design choices that might have been ironed out had the game featured a longer development time, and that even the scenario and character writing broadly disappoint, which is a shame coming from The Witcher 3 devs. The devs have managed to patch it up a bit, but there's no mistaking the 'rushed homework' quality the game has, and it would have benefitted from being allowed to remain in development until the people making it were satisfied with the end result.

Which is sad, ultimately, since you acknowledge that hints of a much greater experience can be seen. Especially in the quest design.

It's a real pity that CDPR's writers got one shot to work on this amazing RPG world, and the greed of the higher-ups at the company forced them to produce an ultimately substandard product in comparison to what they were capable of making.

Haven't played RDR2 yet, either. Should I bump that up my list?

Strong use of screenshots in your piece, too. Great submission!

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

@CuteBoyMnM Very entertaining review, thoroughly enjoyed reading it! Can tell a lot of time and talent went into crafting it, and you made me laugh more than once! Huge thanks for sharing!

I feel your pain about the opening's lack of choice. Whilst I haven't played Cyberpunk for myself, I'm very aware of its marketing promises and, without wanting to unpack that whole sorry mess all over again, it's always a shame when a game built around player choice, freedom and agency fails to deliver, at least in its introductory chapters. It's even worse when it's a new I.P. as I'll forgive a sequel for knowing what came before and making a few tidy assumptions, but here? That sounds frustrating as heck. Even in service of an endgame rug-pull, which surely would've had more impact if you'd have had more input early on?

I'd also agree that Keanu Reeves was cast for cool points, not because he was necessarily the best choice for the character as scripted. Again, I'm saying this as an observer and not a player, but I've seen some of his scenes on YouTube and yay, it's Keanu, we all love Keanu, but I can't help thinking that an established voice / mo-cap actor would've been a better choice.

The way you describe the combat (yay!) and driving (boo!) makes me wonder whether the developers should've just made a linear shooter soaked in the game's effective cyberpunk aesthetic, rather than try and live up to everybody's post-Witcher expectations. All those E3 highlights you mention just serve to expose the rest of the game's shortcomings. I suppose those ridiculously strong pre-order sales wouldn't have been generated without trading on the goodwill generated by a past success. Wasn't it the case that Cyberpunk was already profitable before it launched or something? It was crazy numbers, at any rate.

And hey, given gaming's general direction of late, I'd say that there's nothing wrong with you for liking loot; in fact, it probably means you're able to enjoy your hobby in far more ways than others! It's interesting to see a breakdown of a loot system from a fan of loot systems, as so often the discourse around such mechanics gets drowned out by wider complaints. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I universally love loot, but I have enjoyed engaging with simple loot-based systems on occasion, and understand how watching stats stack up can trigger a "Cool, I'm progressing!" buzz, so I appreciated the deep dive. There'll always be somebody who decries a reward as unrewarding, but it's neat to read that you managed to find something to work towards in Cyberpunk. Skippy sounds adorable (and very polite for a gun, too) but yes, it's very strange not to have any kind of ammo / mag capacity increase in a shooter nowadays!

Good grief, that inventory screenshot gives me a headache, though. Rest assured that your gameplay shots are stunning as always but yeah, nobody needs all that consumable artwork! Well, at least the art asset team kept itself busy during the game's endless delays and post-release polishing, I guess!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

MatthewJP

@CuteBoyMnM I know you warn of spoilers, but you really need to spoilertag the first half of that as you literally tell the whole story of the game

PSN: mpquikster

CuteBoyMnM

@Ralizah Thanks for reading. I always feel bad about being harsh on CDPR and their games because they are clearly passionate about the source material they take from. Their art design on all their games is always striking to me and Cyberpunk is no exception when it comes to the style of Night City and its characters.

However, I will defend Takemura as my favorite character because of how he is the complete antithesis of V. Learning more about him was genuinely interesting as it helped give context to why someone would want to live opposite of V and Jackie, not to place right or wrong but share perspectives.

Alternatively, I do wish Vik and Misty had more involvement in the plot since they're supposed to be our anchor to Night City outside of Jackie. Misty especially considering she's into mysticism which feels totally out of place in this super future techno dystopia but that's why I want to know more about her. She reminds me of the female pilot in Mass Effect Andromeda who chats with you about believing in god in a world with space travel and aliens. The concept alone is a fun discussion with the character that I was hoping V and Misty could've shared something similar.

As for Red Dead 2, Rockstar games are a SLOW burn both in gameplay and in character writing. I'd definitely say to give it a try but I understand it's not something everyone can get into especially with the gameplay. I feel like they tried to implement some bits from Max Payne 3 with how Arthur controls and shoots as best they could to add run and gun play-styles although it's still a cover shooter with auto-aim as a fallback.

@Rogerroger Thanks, glad I got someone to laugh. I always try to take marketing hype (especially E3 demos) with a grain of salt and try to hold any game on its own merits. If I held every game accountable for what they did or didn't promise I'd be an unhinged individual and I wouldn't be able to enjoy anything. I remember reading that CDPR broke even on preorders alone at launch but their stocks went down I think by like 40% that same week.

I guess it's becoming a bigger problem that games are becoming "pseudo" RPGs and are implementing these kinds of loot systems because it's getting more and more difficult to find suitable rewards for progression. Loot isn't something you can just tack onto a game and expect it to work, I feel like we had the same thing happen years ago when every game decided to add crafting to their game. Look at Ghost Recon Breakpoint for example, the game launched as a looter shooter, bombed pretty hard and got an update 6 months later to add a separate mode removing loot. Same mechanics, same gameplay but with no gear score. Not trying to discredit the work Ubisoft did but that kinda speaks volumes about how pointless the system was if it could be taken out with no changes to the core experience.

@MatthewJP Fair enough, shame on me for not thinking about that. Sorry.

Edited on by CuteBoyMnM

CuteBoyMnM

PSN: m48blueteam

RogerRoger

@CuteBoyMnM Yeah, I've developed a similar caution towards pre-release promises, but it's a lesson I think everybody needs to learn for themselves. There's always that one massive disappointment that'll sting the longest, and I reckon Cyberpunk will be that for a lot of folks going forward.

That's a good point about loot systems. Feels like most modern games are almost expected to have some kind of loot and / or crafting mechanic, regardless of whether they need one or not. Perhaps it seems like a simple feature to implement, or it's a mandate from corporate box-tickers... either way, quite a few have fallen short in recent years. That example from Breakpoint rings a tragic bell. As with most trends, folks'll get tired with the bandwagon-jumpers and things should eventually balance back out, but it's a shame for fans because they'll ultimately be left with the handful of original success stories (which won't last forever) and a bunch of hollow swing-and-miss experiences that came and went in the interim.

Urgh, that feels like such a negative point to end on. Here's hoping there'll be another success story before that day, implemented in a game you find interesting, compelling and rewarding!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Pizzamorg

I didn't do a review of True Colors because it is a game that I find hard to talk about, but replaying Life is Strange really gave me a device to put a lot of my thoughts into a context I could process. So this following thing you are about to read is kind of a review of Life is Strange, through the lens of a review of True Colors. Or maybe the other way around. Hopefully it'll make sense once read. If not to you, then at least to me.

So, firstly, it is important to note that True Colors is a game I love, one which resonates with me so deeply I’d argue it is one of my favourite games of all time. But replaying Life is Strange made me realise that maybe it isn’t very good? Like by conventional metrics at least?

Maybe?

Look, by my own definition, conventional metrics don’t matter to me a whole lot when it comes to how much something makes me feel and that is why I am able to love True Colors with no reservations, but for the purposes of a review… let us talk more about those warts.

Firstly, let us talk about pacing. True Colors is in far too much of a rush to get to a climax that honestly just isn't very good. Had the game basically made the first two chapters the entire game I feel like it would have made for a far more powerful experience - even if I think the experience we have is plenty powerful already.

With the context of The Storm, which looms large over the whole of Life is Strange and brought the whole experience to a cathartic, satisfying, crescendo which is reminiscent of the original Last of Us ending (depending on the choice you make) before Part 2 fiddled with it. True Colors just has no comparison, it isn't even competing in the same league.

Life is Strange's problem is the opposite though, in that it is in absolutely no rush to get to an ending which absolutely slaps. In True Colors, you want to savour every moment with these characters, in Life is Strange, I am often trapped in a cage with uninteresting or unlikeable characters I'm forced to engage with to progress. And yes, at least in part, this seems to be somewhat intentional, but knowing the intent doesn't remove the friction.

And even if it did, it doesn't solve just how ***** tedious Life is Strange is in the moment to moment. I really wonder how many sequences here were mandated, rather than there to truly give the player anything interesting to do. And I mean, if the intent really was to give the player something interesting to do... my word, you failed about as hard as one can fail. Life is Strange would have been an immeasurably better of an experience had they taken those sequences out of the game entirely or just turned them into cutscenes. At least in my books.

To put this into perspective, two thorough playthroughs of True Colors clocked me just under 20 hours, I was only a couple of hours shy of that in just one play through Life is Strange, and based on my journal I missed a bucket load of stuff in that game.

So on measure, both have their evils, but I’d argue Life is Strange’s evil the greater one, as if I must choose, I’d rather it rushed than boring.

A big part of the problem with the pacing is Life is Strange does seem to be trying harder to be more “gamey” (by conventional standards). You get excruciating stealth sections, insta fail puzzle things, maddening boss battles, tedious memory games and other rubbish. All of it is clearly there to be used as pacing mechanisms, but it doesn’t help pace the experience, so much as it grinds it to a complete halt as you either seethe at the unnecessary frustration of some sequences due to the general clunkiness of this whole thing, or simply struggle to even keep your intention on the game at all for how utterly bored you are.

For as much as people complained about True Colors “walking sim” elements, as you mostly walk around and click on things until the next conversation starts, Life is Strange again is the greater evil for me. I actually am not surprised now replaying this as to why True Colors basically removed this stuff entirely, if Alex needed to convince Ryan her power was real by telling him what action figure he got for his 4th Birthday, what type of cake it was, how many candles were on the cake and what shoes he had on, and you fail this until you remember all four things in an exact sequence, then I might not have ever finished that game.

And yeah, those characters, man. There are a lot of throughlines between the two casts, everyone has their unique flaws, but the True Colors is just the better version for me, I'm sorry. Despite how fleeting the whole thing was, I felt like I formed quick connections with all of the core cast and cared for them deeply by the end of it all. Despite the heavy themes, just hanging out with your pals and vibing in Haven was its own reward there, no matter how fleeting these moments are.

Yet in Life is Strange I spent twice as long with everyone and liked them all an absolute fraction of the amount I liked the True Colors cast. Life is Strange is a cast defined by their flaws, rather than simply given dimension by them, which makes for a generally unpleasant bunch.

Part of this, admittedly, may be down to Life is Strange’s technical limitations and heavily stylised visuals. Whereas True Colors felt truly vibrant and alive with its rich facial animations, and excellent mocapping of the physical performances of the actors, to accompany the vocal performances, Life is Strange feels like a Gerry Anderson production by comparison. (Will any non-Brit get that reference?)

In Life is Strange, everyone stands around awkwardly cycling through those weird movements that only make sense in video games (like who in real life keeps touching the back of their neck over and over again during a conversation?) as crazy looking eyes dart around inside of almost entirely static faces, devoid of almost all detail entirely.

And I mean static literally, too. I dunno if it was a bug, or just bad animation, but there were a bunch of really pivotal exchanges that were ruined for me because the lips just literally weren’t moving at all and the actor was making some emotional declaration and it was coming out of this: (._.).

Not to mention you can mostly tell people are just reading a script in isolation in Life is Strange and it translates to the conversations, which often lack a natural cadence and flow. True Colors got the actors in to do their scenes together and act them out, and it has an immeasurably positive impact on how conversations feel.

I also just think the Life is Strange artstyle in general is just kinda ugly, ya’know? Like Arcadia Bay can be gorgeous, there are some nice cinematic moments with the framing and lighting etc but I dunno, why in a game so obsessed with photography, is so much of this seemingly all done in Microsoft paint? It makes me laugh every time they remark on how great a piece of artwork or whatever is and it's just a scribbly stickman that looks like a placeholder. And this might be some kind of deliberate device because we see Max’s photos normally, but Max’s photos, despite what the game tells us, are also awful, even in proper detail. What is an everyday hero about a self shot of the back of someone’s head?

I will say, along the course of the journey, Life is Strange’s smoke and mirrors game is definitely the stronger of the two. It manages to make choices feel meaningful and impactful, and when they don’t feel like that, there is probably a narrative device already built to explain that away.

True Colors, on the other hand, is almost devoid of meaningful choice entirely, except for key choices and even with the key choices, these choices aren’t weighted by any other actions taken, so they feel hollow and isolated. No matter what you have done up until this point, if you press X in this exchange you are always going to get Y every time. Maybe Life is Strange works in the same way, but it tricks me into thinking it doesn’t, by referencing and calling back to smaller choices I made along the way, rather than just being built around a few key ones.

This does, however, ignore the elephant in the room which is the time travel mechanic in Life is Strange. Which, even by the very poor record of good time travel narrative devices, still somehow seems like one of the worst. It establishes rules, quickly dashes them whenever it becomes too inconvenient for the writers and then by the end you can barely follow how anything works at all.

At least in the early chapters, I do like how we explore Max’s abilities and how her abilities are directly interwoven with the core narrative. And for as utterly off the rails it comes by the end, my goodness does it make for a ***** spectacular final stretch. Although along the way, you will become baffled by how limiting this mechanic actually is in reality and will be ripping your hair out at times when there is such an obvious solution to something using your power that the game just doesn't let you do. Maybe that is also part of the reason I didn't like Max too much, as at times she just comes across as so ***** stupid and you are practically screaming at your screen for her to do something.

By comparison, you can’t help but think of how much of the potential of Alex’s powers in True Colors is ultimately wasted. Sure Alex can't mess with time and space, but we brief explore the idea of how Alex's power allows her to manipulate people or the potential damage that can be done should Alex take away someone's emotions entirely with her power. There was definitely an opportunity for a Chapter 3 and 4 in Life is Strange style moment where Alex uses her power with good intentions to make a massive change, and has to face extreme consequences for those actions. But no moment really comes, at least not in quite the way Life is Strange presents these moments.

No, in True Colors the power is just sorta… there, it doesn’t have any real direct effect on the game and it is clearly an inconvenience for the narrative to bring people up to speed, so people just don’t even blink when Alex says she has powers. It kinda makes me wonder if they felt like they had to include something because it is a Life is Strange game, but the entire game was built to work without it and it was added later.

My tl;dr is that I liked True Colors more on a pound for pound basis for how much True Colors made me feel, for the excellent characters, visuals and performances. Life is Strange also gave me newfound appreciation for True Colors in how it had the smarts to do away with almost all of the gameplay that makes Life is Strange so tedious to play in the moment to moment.

But on the flip of that… damn if Life is Strange isn’t just simply a better story, in the end. Messy and full of plotholes maybe, but my word this narrative goes to some places. Maybe it didn't emotionally resonate me like True Colors did, but I still appreciate what Life is Strange did with its ideas. True Colors ultimately leaves so much on the table, this really makes the most of every beat and I respect Life is Strange for giving me a bunch of choices which I genuinely struggled with in my personal life over making.

So yeah, there is kind of… a lot here. But I hope this made for a good read, anyway.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Th3solution

@Pizzamorg That’s a really interesting comparison of the original LiS and True Colors. Some of what you’ve said has resonated with me and it has motivated me to get back to this series and pull the sequels out of the backlog.

First off, I haven’t yet played True Colors, so I can’t speak to anything about that game. But I really liked LiS and Before the Storm, both more than they probably deserve. All that you said about the graphical jank and awkward storytelling and even more awkward gameplay, it’s all true. I think when I went into LiS I wasn’t expecting much, and so it was a pleasant surprise when I actually ended up getting along with it. Yet, it’s almost indefensible when analyzed from any objective measure.

When I read this: “All of it is clearly there to be used as pacing mechanisms, but it doesn’t help pace the experience, so much as it grinds it to a complete halt as you either seethe at the unnecessary frustration of some sequences due to the general clunkiness of this whole thing, or simply struggle to even keep your intention on the game at all for how utterly bored you are.”
This sounded like my experience with the LiS2 demo/free prequel “Captain Spirit” which is what ultimately sapped all my enthusiasm for the franchise and why I haven’t been able to muster the energy to play LiS2 or True Colors. That Captain Spirit demo was just, for lack of a better term, so boring. I’ve been told many times that the Captain Spirit prologue was not representative of the LiS2 game itself and in fact not an important part of the narrative at all, so I needn’t worry and it can be completely ignored in the context of the LiS universe. But the gameplay too was just so tedious, which I don’t remember feeling that way on my (one and only) LiS playthrough.

Anyways, as I said, if nothing else your impression piece has motivated me to get back to the franchise. I’ve always planned to do them in release order so I want to do LiS2 before True Colors, even though the latter is likely to be the most polished and best experience.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Ralizah

@Pizzamorg Being totally unfamiliar with the IP, I can't offer any of my own feelings on it, but it does sound like both games are fundamentally flawed in different ways, with the sequel improving on various aspects of the experience but failing to deliver the sort of compelling narrative that the original game succeeded in.

I'm actually surprised to hear how gamey Life is Strange is, as I actually had the impression that it was more of a Western-focused spin on adventure game or visual novel, with a limited amount of interactivity, but it sounds like that isn't true at all. Interesting.

Out of interest, do these games need to be played in order, or can they be played in either order?

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

Pizzamorg

Ralizah wrote:

I'm actually surprised to hear how gamey Life is Strange is, as I actually had the impression that it was more of a Western-focused spin on adventure game or visual novel, with a limited amount of interactivity, but it sounds like that isn't true at all. Interesting.

Out of interest, do these games need to be played in order, or can they be played in either order?

The gameyness surprised me too, honestly, as I remembered it being more walking simish like True Colors was, but they really do go out of their way to make time travel a gameplay mechanic in Life is Strange... sadly in a way that is mostly poorly executed.

In terms of the games, none of them have to really be played in order as far as I know. Don't Nod did Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2, Deck Nine did Before The Storm and True Colors. I've never played Life is Strange 2, but as far as I know it is a completely different set of characters/story to the first game. Before the Storm is a direct prequel to Life is Strange, but also full of continuity errors, possibly because it was managed by a different studio, which is maybe why many don't consider it canon at all (I plan to review this next). Before the Storm does introduce one of True Colors best characters, but meeting her in Before the Storm isn't necessary to enjoying her character in True Colors, based on my experience.

Th3solution wrote:

Anyways, as I said, if nothing else your impression piece has motivated me to get back to the franchise. I’ve always planned to do them in release order so I want to do LiS2 before True Colors, even though the latter is likely to be the most polished and best experience.

I'm glad I could motivate you to check them out again!

Life is Strange 2 is the one I haven't ever played before, so once I finish Before The Storm, I plan to jump into that one. I know it has really polarised the fanbase, so I'll be interested to see where I land. Hopefully you'll share your thoughts too!

Edited on by Pizzamorg

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Th3solution

@Pizzamorg I’ll be interested in your Before the Storm thoughts, as I actually liked it more than the original LiS. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think the Chloe character made a lot more sense in BtS than whatever was going on with Max in LiS. Like you say, the ending of LiS makes all the clumsy storytelling and poor character development worthwhile, but in BtS it seemed like the narrative was more evenly balanced throughout. I don’t know. It’s been a while since I played them.

As for LiS2, I was initially concerned by what appeared to be not-so-subtle political jabs at US race relations, but of course since the game came out, reality has turned out to be stranger than fiction in that regard, so I doubt it will be any more disconcerting than the actual news has been. And several users here have confirmed it’s a well done storyline that focuses more on sibling relationships than anything. I suspect I will like it if I can ever get around to it. I’m caught in a 2023 release schedule vortex right now, scared that I will be held hostage by a flurry of awesome AAA games that take 100 hours to complete. 😅 Nevertheless, the LiS games make for really good palate cleansers between large open world action RPGs.

Edited on by Th3solution

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

Pizzamorg

Th3solution wrote:

@Pizzamorg I’ll be interested in your Before the Storm thoughts, as I actually liked it more than the original LiS. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think the Chloe character made a lot more sense in BtS than whatever was going on with Max in LiS. Like you say, the ending of LiS makes all the clumsy storytelling and poor character development worthwhile, but in BtS it seemed like the narrative was more evenly balanced throughout. I don’t know. It’s been a while since I played them.

Funnily enough, I am one chapter down on Before the Storm and have more appreciation for Chloe in that one episode than I did through the entire of Life is Strange, even with a noticeable voice actress change. I think Deck Nine are just better at doing characters than Don't Nod. In Life is Strange, Chloe is Max's Manic Pixie Dream Girl, but to me Chloe came across more of a brat than charming, that constantly dragged Max into the mud with her. Chloe had her motivations for being a brat in Life is Strange... kinda, but I feel like a lot of that really wasn't meaningfully explored in that game to properly give me sympathy.

Here, straight away, we get all of Chloe's dimension pencilled in properly. A lonely, grieving, vulnerable, teenager lashing out at the world which has done her so much wrong. I think if I ever replay Life is Strange again, it'll be really enriched by what they have done here.

I also think that opening chapter does a really interesting thing with Rachel and her characterisation, given everything we knew about her was third hand information, it is nice that the reality is a lot more complicated than the black and white, binary, renditions of her memory given via various characters in the first game.

It probably helps, as it looks like Deck Nine properly mocapped the performances, so now even with their limited detail, faces actually move! We get to see people express with their eyes, eyebrows and their mouths. It sounds like such a simple thing, but it does so much to bring these characters to life, versus the mannequins they are in that first game.

Also holy crap that ending to episode one of Before the Storm? Completely made me rethink the entire Life is Strange core game.

That first chapter also seemed generally better paced than the core game, too, with the only mechanic being Chloe's argument thing (which is actually pretty fun). No stupid rewind puzzles to grind everything to a halt this time.

I've still got two chapters to go though, so who knows, they may blow it all.

Edited on by Pizzamorg

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Pizzamorg

It is me again, back with another Life is Strange Review. This time for Before The Storm, I bet you are all so excited 😂 I am just so glad I have this space to get my emotions out so I'm not jus crying myself to sleep. 😂

Life is Strange is a special game to a dedicated core group of superfans, however, the original LiS didn’t resonate with me in the way it has with others, not on the first playthrough all those years ago, or through any subsequent playthroughs like my most recent one. In fact, the franchise in general general wouldn't reach that mythic status with me like it has done with so many others until years later when I played True Colors for the first time and experienced more emotion in that ten or so hour runtime than I might have experienced in my whole life up until that point. Sort of only half joking.

I start there, because I get why Before the Storm divided the fanbase and still does to this day. Square Enix took something that is basically held sacred by people and handed it to a completely different studio. There are those who out of principle were always destined to hate Before the Storm before even the first line of story was written, and while I think that is unfair, Deck Nine do themselves few favours with BtS, especially when it comes to continuity. The mistakes in that regard are almost too numerous to list, creating plot holes for the core game it is meant to be a prequel to and is just simply not the way a new studio goes about endearing existing fans.

That being said, when all was said and done, I loved Before The Storm and in fact I would even go as far as to say I like it more than the core game. It is a fallacy, maybe, but as much as I am irked by it's continuity failings and unnecessary plotholes, it makes decisions which enrich the core LiS game, in ways often so obvious you wonder why Don’t Nod didn’t do it themselves.

Chloe, a once somewhat flat and abrasive manic pixie dream girl twinkling in Max’s eye is brought to life in dazzling technicolour here, giving her all the depth, charm and charisma the core game often told me about, but rarely showed. And so in turn I now have the emotional connective tissue and sympathy for her that I sorely needed throughout the core game.

Rachel, at least in the core game, is far more of a concept than she is a person. We learn things about her during the course of the game, there are developments, twists and turns, but they are all held at arm's length away from us, because everything we know about Rachel is third hand, we never truly knew her. And by design, accounts of her are disparate depending on the source, angel or demon, so we are never able to truly know her based on these accounts, either.

Deck Nine were given a seemingly impossible task here because of this, to turn all those disparate third hand accounts of Rachel and combine them together into a flesh and blood cohesive human being. One who feels real and tangible. One whose gravitational pull can have a profound effect on those around her, like we were always told it did. One who could give the impression of angel, or demon, equally depending on the audience. And honestly, I think they ***** nailed it. Rachel is all of these things, and more.

It has a profound affect both on this game in the immediate sense, but now in the core game all those developments, twists and turns which once meant nothing to me as a player, now they mean everything. There are many scenes in the core Life is Strange game that fell flat for me, because they assumed a level of connection with Chloe and Rachel, but I hadn’t much of a connection to either. Rachel, as already explained, was as real as Santa Clause to me, and Chloe was barely any more tangible. We saw an idealised Chloe through Max’s lens, never Chloe the real human being, not really. So as she mourned her friend, or learned of her betrayal, or other such things, why should I care, when I know next to nothing about either person involved? Well, now I have a reason to.

Before The Storm has fun playing with parallels, too. Chloe is as much of a concept, rather than a real person, to Max, as Rachel is to Chloe here. And Rachel offers Chloe much of the same liberation she would in turn go on to offer Max. You also can't help but think about the betrayal, and ultimate end, Rachel will go on to commit, in contrast to at least one of the choices Max ends up making to close out the core game. Is Rachel the storm? Or is the storm just the toxic spiral these broken, *****, people find themselves in as they drag one another through their orbits?

Either way, I appreciate Before the Storm for this. Now if I ever replay the core game, when scenes once fell flat, my heart will now break, not once, but twice. For the Chloe I have grown a deep connection with and the Rachel I now know just as deeply. When people recount the Rachel they knew in the core game, I can share those experiences, because now I knew her too.

Miss her too.

Most of the time when people try to explain a mystery, it only loses all of its magic, but the character writing by Deck Nine is so strong, the more the mystique is replaced by reality, the more the magic itself grows.

My feelings towards Rachel and Chloe by the end of the first episode alone, felt stronger than anything did for me in the entire of the core game, this is that rich emotional tapestry Deck Nine so masterfully crafted in True Colors, and its absence in the core game is made so obvious because of this.

In fact, in many ways, BtS is as much a spiritual prequel to True Colors as it is a direct prequel to the core game. The lead writer here would go on to become the director of True Colors I believe, and it can be felt. TC and BtS are both Life is Strange games, but they have a subtly different feeling to them.

The supernatural and grand poetic narratives take a backseat here to mostly the more mundane moments of life that happen between those grander moments games tend to focus on. The supernatural is here, but only ever implied, never cemented. You can read this game in one way, but in others that have a transformative effect on the core game in the process. I appreciate the game leaves this to my interpretation.

Under Zak Garriss you make far less meaningful choices than you did in that core game, but it is far more focused on the characters and how you express yourselves through them with your choices that way. Garriss also seems far less preoccupied on trying to make things conventionally “gamey”, which for BtS has an immeasurably positive impact on the overall pacing of the game, versus the core one.

I know when listed like that it sounds like Deck Nine’s formula is far worse, and if you liked the formula of the first Life is Strange, I can understand why BtS’s shift in focus may not be appreciated, but I find Deck Nine’s character writing so strong, it overrides any other faults with their approach. Again, to me, being able to feel something is more important to me than anything else, and Deck Nine knows how to make me feel every emotion in life like detail.

The elephant in the room this time is definitely the voice actor changes, apparently there were some strikes with voice actors around the time this was made? Weirdly, I’ve never heard about this before and don’t think I’ve ever had this impact on any other media I’ve consumed, but as a result basically everyone in this game has been recast. Again, if you feel a deep sense of love for the original, this is going to hurt and it was definitely noticeable for me to begin with as I went straight from the original into this. However, I actually pretty quickly stopped noticing after a while, if I am being honest.

As I said in my last review, while I know it is somewhat of a controversial opinion, I actually don’t think the voice acting in the original LiS is that great, a lot of it is really flat and just sounds like people reading scripts, rather than having genuine conversations. That is mostly true of BtS as well if I am being honest, but people seem to act like the acting in BtS is comparatively garbage compared to the core game, and I just do not agree.

What elevates Deck Nine’s acting beyond the really strong character writing though is Deck Nine properly mocapped the performances, so its now no longer flat acting combined with weird Gerry Anderson puppet character models stiffly touching their neck over and over. Deck Nine is still held back by LiS’s ugly art style, but now people act with their faces and their bodies, it feels as natural and real as the artstyle allows, it really does so much for the performances when they aren’t being carried entirely by the voices alone.

To close, I would say maybe the greatest crime of this game is we don't get to spend even more time with Rachel than we do, but like Chloe, I feel as a player that even a fleeting moment with Rachel Amber is better than none at all.

I feel truly grateful for being able to have experienced this.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Th3solution

@Pizzamorg I do very much agree with your assessment. Although it sounds like I enjoyed the original game more than you did, Before the Storm felt like a step up in character development and overall narrative flow. I also remember having a similar response to the voice acting — initial disappointment, followed by gradual acclimation, and in the end, maybe even a preference for the BtS crew.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

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