Pentiment

Pentiment

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Brian 7 Jun @ 12:39am
4
This trope needs to end.
I just entered Act 2 and now I’m realizing that I’m playing what amounts to Disney Star Wars (or Indiana Jones, or Picard, etc etc). Similar to how Han was turned into a pathetic dead-beat dad in a time jump and Luke was turned into a pathetic, depressed old man in a time jump, Andreas turned into a pathetic, loser that made all the wrong decisions…in a time jump. This is bad enough in a series of movies or TV shows but in a video game, where you actually inhabit a character and make decisions for him while you control him, this is damn near unforgivable. Maybe if I had been choosing a-hole options for all of act 1, this would have been acceptable but without that kind of reactivity, it’s extremely bad writing to just thrust me into an entirely different character (wearing the skin-suit of the previous character) for act 2. Especially an unlikable loser. I’m glad this kind of lazy writing is going to be thrown out over the next few years as we finally re-learn the lessons we shouldn’t have had to lose in the first place.
Last edited by Brian; 7 Jun @ 12:41am
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Hope you've finished act II and can take your words about bad writing?:)
Brian 21 Jun @ 10:12am 
Originally posted by Bone Chilling:
Hope you've finished act II and can take your words about bad writing?:)

Nope, the bad writing has totally killed my desire to play. And my points can't really change, they just are. It doesn't matter if the rest of the game has amazing writing, THAT bit of writing is objectively bad.
Well there's a very good reason why he's changed and is explained later in act II. Hit me in the feels and I could totally relate to it.
Brian 21 Jun @ 12:56pm 
Originally posted by Bone Chilling:
Well there's a very good reason why he's changed and is explained later in act II. Hit me in the feels and I could totally relate to it.

I got that far. It doesn't justify it. Show don't tell. And for video games, give control don't take control. These are cardinal rules.
Last edited by Brian; 21 Jun @ 12:57pm
There are valid reasons for that change, but since you evidently don't have the patience to discover them and prefer to criticize in advance (and *that* is a trend that need to end), then goodbye.
Brian 23 Jun @ 8:09am 
Originally posted by Smiley Magnus:
There are valid reasons for that change, but since you evidently don't have the patience to discover them and prefer to criticize in advance (and *that* is a trend that need to end), then goodbye.

I understand someone can have a justification for a bad choice. Most people have that. It doesn't make the choice good. Ever heard of a little game called The Last of Us 2? They had all kinds of reasons for the narrative decisions they made. Still turned out to be one of the worst stories in gaming history.
Last edited by Brian; 23 Jun @ 8:10am
No, this is absolutely the correct take by Brian, and what's more, it gets far worse.

Because you have no agency, no ability to change any significant outcome of the game, and even if you make the choices to try to send Andreas back on a more positive outcome the game won't let you. So he is completely ineffectual, nothing he does matters, and he ultimately betrays all of his stated ideals and what the game is telling you you are supposed to do.

It's loathsome. If you want bleak dystopian fiction, go read the Death of Ivan Ilyich. But I feel that I might as well have watched a youtube play of this game.

Because none of my choices matter at all, even who I want to play the character as.
Brian 29 Jun @ 8:37am 
Thanks for letting me know it doesn't improve. I just uninstalled it forever. I won't play games that are insultingly wasting my time.
Last edited by Brian; 29 Jun @ 8:38am
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