Well, after just having finished it a couple of hours ago, it's in some ways better than HR, and Fahrenheit, and in some ways worse.
Cage is probably one of the most frustrating designers out there. In each of his games he reaches for the stars, and in each of his games he comes crashing to the earth, HARD.
I think the thing is, he is actually GREAT at his gaming cinematography, and he is also really good at setting a mood, and he can even get some real emotion out of me at times. Particular chapters of this game are paced beautifully, the acting from Paige and Defoe was quite good, sometimes even amazing, and he is one of the masters of inserting quiet moments into a narrative gaming experience.
He just can't write his way out of a paper bag. He has passion, he has heart, he has a technical knowledge of how to frame a scene, make it interactive, and make me care. But he just can't escape horrible horrible cliche's. I feel like I am watching an amazing gymnast pull off the best series of flips I have ever seen only to shatter their femur on the landing.
Some examples:
-The party scene. It started off great, with a girl who is awkward from lack of social interaction trying to fit in. It then just goes into the absolutely silly with over the top villain kids who exists only to have her get a one up on them carrie style, or leave, crying. Either one of those two scenarios has been done to death, and because the game ties itself to film and TV so much, I couldn't stop myself from feeling that it was done better elsewhere. It felt just plain obvious.
-The bar scene. HOO BOY! While the freak outs, and the escape weren't bad. The second I entered the bar I knew exactly where the scene was going, and lingered in the vain hope that the clearly obvious rapists, weren't. The scene felt so forced it was almost laughable.
-The cliche minority usage. Yowza. Ok so we have the African nation of notrealia, the central asian nation of notrealistan, and the Navajo. Each one of these is so damned on the nose in its portrayal that it feels like someone got all of their knowledge about these cultures from the movies. The Navajo sequence was one of the best paced chapters in the game on my initial playthrough, but even it couldn't escape the pungent aroma of cheese. I am rarely one to talk about something feeling exploitive, but these did. Hell only worse example I can think of is in Fahrenheit when you have the black partner who was possibly the most stereotypical character this side of Punch-Out.
-The heavy sci-fi. It's ironic that Cage never quite seems to know how much is enough when it comes to sci-fi/supernatural. Both this and Fahrenheit had the issue of TOO much sci-fi while Heavy Rain's plot got ruined by its removal. Suspension of disbelief was hurt early on by just how big the DPA was, big enough that it had an entire TOWN devoted to it. But by the end, holy crap, that facility was ridiculous.
-The cliche majority usage. Yeah, the US government is evil, as are white dudes. WHEE! We send psychic agents to kill democratically elected presidents, we rip holes in reality for shits and giggles, we will eventually be responsible for the apocalypse. And if you are a white guy, you are either a company yes man, a asshole teenager, a bum-killing douchebag, a crazed scientist, an abusive father, or a hick rapist. Unless you are homeless. Then you're good.
-The need to be EPIC. Last one I will touch on is the same issue that Fahrenheit had at the end. This is a personal story, or at least it tries to be. The story didn't need to be about averting an apocalypse. AT ALL. But as the stakes kept getting increased it turned from Jodie running from the law, to Jodie saving the world. Eventually we know she will have to do it again, in a post apocalyptic setting. My question is why is this necessary? The scope felt forced, we care about Jodie already, we don't need to see her save the world.
Still, I did enjoy the game overall. And I still pray that one day we will get a mix of Cage's directing and scene setting, with Telltale or ND's writing. I'll keep playing QD's stuff to see their evolution, and one day, maybe they will finally get the story to work.
