AHA-Lambda
Member
I'm convinced now that David Cage can only write half of a great story. Fahrenheit was really good until it got up it's own arse with the internet being a villain and such. Heavy Rain would have been great if it wasn't for the massive plot holes you could drive a tank through. And now this. I've almost finished this now, and my god what a hot fucking mess this turned out to be .
Story:
It's a mess, no, it's literally a mess; as it is told out of order and so it results in being hard to engage on any meaningful level with what is going on or with many of the characters. What I will say to the games credit is, I have so far really enjoyed the sections with young Jodie growing up pre CIA, learning to live with Aiden. I felt the best chapter of the game was the birthday party and was very reminiscent of Carrie (even though no one would act like that in real life, and I'm putting that on David Cage again). The problems then come with anything after that.
Pretty much all of the game's sections with present day Jodie are either uninteresting or laughable, especially in the particular case of the Navajo chapter, which was both tedious and utterly ridicuous.
David Cage constantly talks about how he wants to write games of emotion and people and is tired of action games, so why the hell did he make Ellen Page a psychic super soldier for the CIA off to assassinate people?!
Gameplay:
Again, credit where it is due, QD seem to have taken on board the criticism of not making "real games", this game is more "gamey" than Heavy Rain. But, it controls terribly, Jodie is like a tank whilst Aiden is akin to a drunk shopping trolley, much of his controls especially feel awkward and never natural nor comfortable. OTOH, Heavy Rain lay it's hand on how choice mattered, in this game choice seems to have very little impact in the overall plot, and I'm guessing that is to do with the non chronological nature of the story.
I've found the worst part of the gameplay however to be much of the scripting. The game will never give a clear indication of what to do on many occassions and just wants you to explore the space you are in, interacting with objects until someone says something or a cutscene happens.
E.g. On a train avoiding the cops Aiden wakes Jodie, and she ignores him, after which you can't interact with her and the game won't let you until Aiden messes with all of the other passengers stuff for no discernible reason.
The worst case I had though was on The Mission, where the game would not let me progress until I specifically put myself into one particular piece of cover before Jodie would tell Aiden what to do. I spent ages wondering what I was supposed to do, with no indication and invisible walls blocking me. It was this chapter more than any other that made me want to post about it.
I'm almost done now, and am just wanting to see how this all ends now, I can't believe QD made a game worse than Heavy Rain, even though they seemingly fixed it's most fatal flaw. And it's a damn shame because some of the story is good.
*sigh*
Story:
It's a mess, no, it's literally a mess; as it is told out of order and so it results in being hard to engage on any meaningful level with what is going on or with many of the characters. What I will say to the games credit is, I have so far really enjoyed the sections with young Jodie growing up pre CIA, learning to live with Aiden. I felt the best chapter of the game was the birthday party and was very reminiscent of Carrie (even though no one would act like that in real life, and I'm putting that on David Cage again). The problems then come with anything after that.
Pretty much all of the game's sections with present day Jodie are either uninteresting or laughable, especially in the particular case of the Navajo chapter, which was both tedious and utterly ridicuous.
David Cage constantly talks about how he wants to write games of emotion and people and is tired of action games, so why the hell did he make Ellen Page a psychic super soldier for the CIA off to assassinate people?!
Gameplay:
Again, credit where it is due, QD seem to have taken on board the criticism of not making "real games", this game is more "gamey" than Heavy Rain. But, it controls terribly, Jodie is like a tank whilst Aiden is akin to a drunk shopping trolley, much of his controls especially feel awkward and never natural nor comfortable. OTOH, Heavy Rain lay it's hand on how choice mattered, in this game choice seems to have very little impact in the overall plot, and I'm guessing that is to do with the non chronological nature of the story.
I've found the worst part of the gameplay however to be much of the scripting. The game will never give a clear indication of what to do on many occassions and just wants you to explore the space you are in, interacting with objects until someone says something or a cutscene happens.
E.g. On a train avoiding the cops Aiden wakes Jodie, and she ignores him, after which you can't interact with her and the game won't let you until Aiden messes with all of the other passengers stuff for no discernible reason.
The worst case I had though was on The Mission, where the game would not let me progress until I specifically put myself into one particular piece of cover before Jodie would tell Aiden what to do. I spent ages wondering what I was supposed to do, with no indication and invisible walls blocking me. It was this chapter more than any other that made me want to post about it.
I'm almost done now, and am just wanting to see how this all ends now, I can't believe QD made a game worse than Heavy Rain, even though they seemingly fixed it's most fatal flaw. And it's a damn shame because some of the story is good.
*sigh*