Ugh. I don’t know what it is with game creators and stories with player choice. For whatever reason, it seems that the vast majority of devs who make them find it difficult to end them in a way that reflects player choice. But I don’t think that was the problem here. I think the problem with ending this particular game is the fact that it has a continuity that it has to fit into, because it’s a prequel to another game. And this game gave you the ability to completely break that continuity if you so chose. Which I did. I’m going insanely into spoilers, just a head’s-up. If you don’t like that, get out now. This episode had other problems too, which I am going to get into. Let’s talk about it.
Here is a big issue – the first two acts of this game are done with such a mastery that it really blows my mind. No joke, I was on the edge of my seat and feeling the feels in a big way. It goes along with the narrative that it was so perfectly crafting. Which makes the third act of this game and how far it dies that much more frustrating. But my frustration with the third act comes from other places as well.
This is where I get into spoilers. So anyone who doesn’t like that is advised to leave now. For starters, what is the deal with the confrontation with Eliot? That was bad! Some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen. It comes right the fuck out of nowhere! So I’m just supposed to believe that he is secretly a crazy stalker who has a domestic violence complex when all the events up to now have told me he’s the sad friendzoned guy, based on the choices I made? That makes no damn sense. It was conflict needlessly thrown in there to add tension. Or maybe to justify him not being in the game that follows this one. I don’t know. But that entire scene annoyed me to no end.
Next, why was the relationship I was cultivating with Rachel never acknowledged in the end? That bugged me. The previous game had Rachel and Chloe making out by my choices. Why does it not have any amount of emotional intimacy between them. It really doesn’t. You could easily make the argument that they are just good friends based on how their interactions go. Why? This episodes goes out of its way to not say anything definitive about how their relationship is. I know why – because of continuity.
And now we finally get into my biggest gripe with this episode – keeping the continuity. See, here’s the thing: I broke that. I broke the continuity of the game that follows it pretty damn hard. With the choices I made, after a genuinely touching scene of David trying to reach out to Chloe, I had her finally choosing to make peace with him and set up a legitimate relationship for the family. So they were on the path to becoming a real family, minus all the animosity. Thus helping to set up a psychological balance with Chloe to help her heal. Next, I put Nathan on the path to becoming a better person. He had a real friend who was kind to him and treating him like he wasn’t a piece of shit. That would set him on the path of becoming a better person and not needing Mr. Jefferson for his twisted fantasies. Lastly, at the very end, I lied to Rachel about what transpired and the truth about her father being a real piece of shit. That led her to having a very good relationship with her family that wouldn’t have had her and Chloe desperately looking to escape still. Not to mention, I had set up in the previous episode that they would be heading to New York and not LA. Since she wouldn’t have been self-destructive, there would be no reason for Rachel to be in Mr. Jefferson’s Dark Room. Not to mention, since I had built up the relationship with her and Chloe so strongly (at least I thought I had), she’d have no reason for fooling around with Frank. Unless she decided to cheat on her.
Do you see the problem? The developers decided that it was better to keep the continuity intact than to allow player choice to dictate how the game goes. Because, as I said, they had to keep to the continuity. That’s bullshit! If you are going to market a game as having player choice, respect their agency. Yeah, I retconned the lore of the game that chronologically follows this one. So what? The original game, ironically enough, is an iron ball around the ankle of this one. And that is unfortunate.
What’s even more ironic is that there is such an easy way around this! Just have the continuity errors be Max in the future changing the past. One of the bullshit endings to the game has it where Max goes back in time and lets Chloe die, ostensibly stopping all of the rest of the plot from happening. The idea is that if Chloe had died, Max would never have gotten her powers, and none of the events that followed would have happened. Even though, Max already fucking did that when she went back in time further than the events of the story and told David about Mr. Jefferson’s fucking Dark Room, which should have caused the same result! Ugh! I still hate the ending to the original game. So yeah, if the idea was to stop the events of what followed after Max saw Chloe die, then anything she would do back in time before then to stop the events should work. In other words, just have a bit where you see Max in Seattle having gone really far back and changing the timeline. Then you can fuck around wherever you like. A game with time travel allows for that. Or have it be an alternate timeline Max created in time travel. There are plenty of easy ways for this to work, and it doesn’t.
So, do I hate this episode? I hate the final act, but just like the one that came before, everything leading up to that was pretty great stuff. I guess you can make your own judgements on it from there.
Final Verdict
First two acts: 8 out of 10
Last act: 3 out of 10
Peace out,
Maverick
Advertisements Share this:
