Recent reviews by DanyiFri

Quite enjoyable! The two stories dive into different themes of corruption - one's about exposing the misdeeds of an evil mayor, another is more about shady tactics countries at war would resort to destroy each other. The game is pretty political and I would rather not talk about that, and I was even more surprised after finding out this was Chinese game, which made a lot of sense considering its themes. Gameplay wise is a mix of Disco Elysium and The Escapists, and the joy of the game for me is learning about the stories of your inmates and how they ended up in prison, some of them are pretty heartbreaking, but be ready for lots of dialogue.

Spoiler-free (and also my first) review:

The game is split into two "books".

Book 1 is great, absolutely nerve-wracking, and terrifying throughout considering this happens in real life. The characters feel extremely relatable, and feel real because of it, even the supposed villains. Every choice I make always feel like the wrong choice, and when I unfortunately get a character killed, I hang my mouth open in shock, feeling like I actually just killed someone. It's just great.

The story kind of takes a wrong turn after Book 1 (the first half of the game) and slows down to a monotonous pace in Book 2 (the second half). Boring new characters are introduced that barely serves a purpose than being convenient for the plot (looking at you Ash), and they go when their job is done. Not only that, action-packed scenes don't hit as hard considering the stakes aren't as high. There's no risk of death, maybe until the very end. It becomes an entirely new game, and a boring one to sit through at that.

If you expect the same level as stress-inducing conflict and deep characterization throughout the game, lower your expectations a few. They could sell the two books as individual DLCs and I would only buy the first. Coming from someone who only knew this game from TGA for winning Games For Impact in 2022, I came in with high hopes, and was left disappointed exactly half-way through.

It's a shame, because as said the first part was extremely well-written and can even serve as an action movie to watch with the family with great characters, while the second... It hurts, almost the writer handed their quill to their child or something.