huh. when Volition said this story is maybe more grounded or something along those lines, well that is definitely grounded. but it really doesn't make for a very fun or engaging enemy from the sounds of it - beneath all the idiot clown costumes and laser weapons and hover bikes and stuff, the writing in this game sounds so damn mundane and that might be the problem. student loans are mundane. waffle makers are mundane. the main characters sound like stupid mundane assholes and that seems to extend to everyone and everything else in this game. there's not a hint of satire from what i've seen, it's just boring depressing real life in a flashy srtt paintjob.
there is something interesting to be said about how this series has handled the concept of... idk the mundanity of contemporary life i guess, across the several iterations it has had. i like to think of the Stilwater era as an era of ridiculous mundanity - all the weird shit you get to do is weaved as an organic part of the world, rather than treating the world as a static backdrop like a movie set à la srtt. that is just how Playa/Boss' world functions, it's fucked up and not really like our own, but its strong internal consistency makes it feel real, as subjective as that is to say. this is a big reason for why Stilwater is so fun and interesting to me. i think someone definitely tried to take some lessons from the original games and what made them so good here (and where the Steelport games failed in the eyes of people like me) but i don't think those were quite the right lessons. i guess i'll have a more comprehensive opinion on it once i actually play the game though.
also maybe something about how sriv took the whole power fantasy aspect to such a stupid level that the whole game just felt really condescending towards the player and this might be going for the other extreme, because this series can only function in extremes anymore. i dunno.
Exactly. Hell, even GTA understands how to mix the mundane with the wacky weirdness. Granted the whole franchise is basically
American Stereotypes: The Game Series but there were enough randomness and activities to make the cities feel real and enjoyable, even in the darkest plot lines like in
GTA V.
The thing is, paramilitary groups
do exist. And in GTA V, they pose a very real threat to your characters — they even almost kill Michael DeSanta’s whole family because he pissed off the wrong people. There isn’t a credible threat with the Marshalls or Atticus Finch. If anything,
they’re a threat to themselves than the city. At no point do we see them attempt to lock the whole city down, or oppress anyone. At no point does Finch order a hit on our friends. Hell, even a segment where they, I dunno, brainwash Eli into serving them would’ve been enough because
holy shit these people can actually do some damage.
Sure, the Idols kidnap Kevin and threaten to blow up a monument, but what are the Collectives. How long have they known Kevin? What do they think killing him will accomplish? That scene where Kevin wrestles between us and the Idols could’ve fit better in the end after a whole arc where Kevin teeters with his loyalty between his former gang and friends. He could even relapse and join the Idols for a bit to show how difficult it is to throw down your flag and abandon your former crew. And his arc is about him realizing the hypocrisy of the Idols that culminates in a big decision where he has to either shoot either Eli or Neenah or die.
Sergio? I covered him already but basically: how is he a threat? Oh, he smashed up Neenah’s car. OK, wow, what a monster. Neenah even says it herself that she can just rebuild the damn thing given time and money so even the threat of ‘I’ll never see my mom’s car again’ is gone. Now if we had known how important her car was to her from the get-go (ala flashbacks, Neenah has fond memories of her time with her family on car trips), and we grew to understand the whole ‘car=me’ thing, and then Sergio either blows it up or drives it into a lake, that would’ve been more of a gut-punch. I literally played the whole mission like, ‘Neenah, we can literally just grab another car of that model, what are you complaining about? And you just told me you can rebuild your mom’s car. We still have the pieces.’
THERE WAS POTENTIAL HERE! A story about loyalty, brotherhood, companionship, and wrestling with your inner demons.
….I’m honestly psyching myself up for a game that doesn’t exist.
Well, y’know what they say: If there’s a story you want to read, but it doesn’t exist, you must write it.