This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
Absolutely incredible. Didn't run the best on my laptop. Had a couple of soft locks, but I can't tell if that's due to something with the game or if it's just my laptop. If it's worth anything, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary before the soft locks and it didn't happen at the same part once I rebooted the game.
[SPOILER TERRITORY]
The story is fairly well written. It can be a little iffy at times when it comes to the grand scheme of things, but if you hold your suspension of disbelief, mainly the idea that someone could rise through the ranks like that and that you are pretty much the lynch pin for everything that happens in the story, it works well. I do wish that there were more outs from the story as time goes by, but you can only put so many options into a game before you start over-writing it.
While I'm talking about endings, I'll bring up probably my least favorite one. One of the final endings is just one or two sentences and then it boots you back to the main menu. I get that they weren't trying to take a side in the underlying debate in the game, but it does seem a little strange when you have dialogue choices mean almost the exact same thing multiple times in the story.
I love how the characters are implemented into the story. On Day 2 meet someone who has your back. And that same person is with you until the final major decision. He's well developed and seems almost human with the way he's written, having real motivations behind his actions that are very relatable to many people. Almost every main character you interact with has an effect on the story if they don't straight up give you a way out of the story. For those that don't give you a way out, they still plant seeds into your mind. What those seeds may be will vary and what they grow into is up to you, but the fact still remains that they have really thought the writing out.
The mechanics of the game have also been very thought out. It may look like dots on a map when you first start out, but it quickly expands when you hover over that dot. A name and a picture along with a general location does enough to put meaning into a character that will be on your screen for about a minute. And then there's more information on the person once you click on them, information that will almost never have an impact on the case at hand. As you go through their data, it plants more seeds of doubt in the system. And then you have to click one of two buttons. Do they go free, or do they not go free? No matter what button you click, there will be text that pops up. That text tells you what happens to that person. Solely because of what you decided to do. The weight behind all that is monumental at times. It makes you question your decisions at times. And it is absolutely well done.
The commentary on the security/liberty debate is where this game really shines. By establishing a connection with someone who will be on your side until the end of the game, it ensures that the line for most people will be blurred. It's story is written well enough to have it come out to you at points and ask you if what you are doing is right and warns you that it's a dangerous path that lies ahead if you continue down it. As you keep climbing the ladder at the DoL, it's not just the people around you that starts to make you question the morality of everything that happens here. That's before you start to notice that the decisions are starting to become less and less mundane as time goes by. And as it all comes to a head, there's one question in your mind:
How much are you willing to sacrifice for security?
This question meshes in well with other subplots in the story, whether it be surviving though nepotism or just trying to live a normal life. You see people early in the game have moral dilemmas when they have to do things like authorize a new technology early or have to decide on where to take their career. Adds a nice bit of background to the characters you meet along the way.
[END SPOILER TERRITORY]
All in all, this is a fantastic game. It's entertaining, has a well-written story, and has a lot of deep questions that you have to ask yourself as technology advances in today's world. Takes a bit of time to complete. It took me about 16 hours to do my first full run of it. And it was 16 hours well spent.
Story: 8/10
Need a little bit of suspension of disbelief to get the ball rolling, but once the ball does get rolling it's hard to stop it. Excellent twist that you can just straight up miss if you're not paying attention.
UI: 6/10
Some of the UI overlaps itself, but it can be fixed by just moving the map a little bit to access the POI.
Music: 7/10
Can get a little repetitive with some of the longer levels, but it's pretty well written. It's electronic style fits well with the setting of the game. Musical cues also help out in some scenarios.
Commentary: 10/10
See above paragraphs.
Overall: 8/10
It's fun. You should play it.… Expand
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