I found the most powerful scene was the entirety of the Homeless chapter. I also really liked the creepier turn some of the early child stuff had like My Imaginary Friend, or the various popups of Nathan's daughter/wife. I found the Embassy mission and The Dinner stuff fun to play and wish there was more exploration of that segment of her life. More sorta laid back missions or normal world stuff with Jodie and Aiden.
I'm surprised the earliest the game went is with Jodie already calling him Aiden and being aware of him. Is there ever an explanation on where the name came from? If so I must have missed it.
The Navajo segment is weird. I get why it's here but it really took awhile, and even at the very end(I chose Life) I didn't actually remember who Jay was at first. I never felt like Jodie really interacted much with the boys there. Overall it stands out a lot in the whole line of her life as some sort of crazy ministory, and I'm not surprised to see such mixed opinions on it.
The Mission itself was my least favorite to play. Most involved mechanically but considering all you can do it overstayed its welcome and I personally had a lot of kooky camera angles seemingly directing me somewhere then swinging around. This is the main time in the game the whole "you can't die" thing detracted for me, when in contrast to the Embassy thing which is more being stealthy using Aiden to mess around, being directly in the line of danger yet not really being in danger stands out. I saw her killing the kid's dad from a mile away when he was introduced/left, though the overall message of it traumatizing her was fine. But Ryan...
Ryan's character could have been done a lot better to me. He is introduced as basically an asshole to you, but during the Dinner she likes him. okay, time passed and they interacted more, but the player has no reason to like him. Then that scene after her mission where she hears about who she really killed, where he again acts like an asshole about it instead of being more understanding and talking it out.
After this stuff, I gave him the cold shoulder every time. Even during the dinner I didn't clean, ordered pizza, used Aiden to fuck it all up. The talk when they are reintroduced to take out the next rift, I was threatening towards him. Didn't talk during the interrogation and he lost an eye. The scene itself where you both escape and are nearly freezing, however, actually made me feel really bad for him. He asked if I was still mad, said of course, then he confessed his love. I still said no(and why does he love her?). Then he tries AGAIN later and I had her think about it this time. But then Cole/Ryan help her out of the room and during the run to the end he gives her the belt to protect her, he really did a lot around that point and in the end I actually ended up picking him during the ending. It felt the most right for her character imo...but goddayum. The initial CIA pickup is one thing, but the helicopter scene that ends up being the pivotal moment of Jodie's life is basically because of him handling things like an asshole. And I don't think it was really intended that way, as the game pushes you towards him a lot and during the later stuff makes you outright pity him. Now, someone might say "well if you picked him at the end they did an alright job", but it's partially because the other options seemed odd in the context of all that happened.
Nathan also, I am not super happy with. Once they started dabbling into what happened to his family I had a bad feeling he was going to be messing with the rift to bring them back and it was practically dead on. Now, is that a bad thing by itself? Not really. It started to lose me when he channeled Jodie in his ofifce, and you hear them screaming LET ME DIE, and he instead snaps and accuses Jodie of just saying that. This is after he saw firsthand how badly this stuff goes with the Conductor chapter, and his entire plan was completely moronic. I don't know how many options there are for what happens to him, but as Jodie I was always truthful to him and understanding, and he ended up committing suicide. I'm fine with that--but he was a smart guy and even if he was totally devastated by it, it didn't seem to fit with how he acted previously.
So my main issue with the writing is some character motivation/consistency stuff. I think the birthday party and homeless chapter have super exaggerated moments of this as well, as the whole idea of the guys who beat up Stan to then, apparently, follow them to this abandoned building, set it on fire, wait around at the scene, and then attacking her as she escaped is insane. Reading about her just outright getting knocked out in the building makes a lot more sense to me. The birthday party seemed to send a message about how fickle teenagers are with the guy playing you, but the pacing of the segment was ramped too extremely. They all just lash out after she gets a book as a gift, after just being shown and SCARED by the entity Jodie has. So let's burn a cigarette on her and lock her in a closet!
All that said, I was actually really surprised at the final twist. I didn't see the twin being stillborn at birth explanation coming at all. The overarching plotline to me was fine even if I suppose looking back I guess I would have preferred a more simple personal story instead of it going in a more epic direction, but I totally see why they did it all. Especially when it all loops around to her actual birth and why her mother was taken away. She was always being watched, even in her early home, was always destined to be the CIA's bitch to use Aiden and help them, then being tossed out when no longer useful. Not a huge fan of the very final epilogue scene, but eh.
