Sfdebris.net

AKA How the poorly-thought-out, tangle of rotting branches, false depth, and noncommittal racism metaphors that believes having cool ideas is all you need to have a good story even if they're executed like the governor sign the stay of... Is exactly that, but still has it's moments. So much wasted potential.

Spoilers, by the by.


youtu.be/efBBjIK3b8I

I mean, it's a pretty boring game with some rather...questionable choices.

I will say it gets at least some credit for the fact the rebel leader isn't just another white dude.

By funny coincidence, I actually finished this game for the first time yesterday after finding it for a fiver in a second hand shop. This is all very fresh in my mind right now.

The story concept itself I like and I would go as far as to call realistic: the androids are stealing human jobs and that has bred resentment among the humans. The humans are treating the machines like tools and that has bred resentment among the machines.

The problem I have with this story is that its far more linear than it makes it out to be. You get all of these branching paths with multiple endings; but it gets obvious very, VERY quickly that the script has decided that the machine side is ''good'' and the human side is ''bad''.
99% of the humans in this game are assholes. They literally get off on torturing machines or they are just slime in general. In addition, if you try and join the human side to suppress the rebellion, you will lose respect with the few sympathetic human characters. The game treats it as obvious that the only correct side is the machine side and any attempt to fight against them is wrong.

The thing is though that the main story conflict that I noted in my second paragraph? Doesn't get resolved. The androids are literally replacing us because they are faster, smarter, stronger and just flat out better than us in every way. They are even exploring space whilst we are stuck on Earth because they are better suited to it. And yet the game seems to be making out that such concerns are stupid. That the humans are just Luddites who cannot accept progress even though said progress is leading to the destruction of society as we know it.

War is inevitable no matter how many Jesus or civil rights metaphors you try and jam in.

PS, the controls suck ass. This whole ''shake the controller to open a door'' bit got old fast. It took 3 times longer to do anything in this game than it should have done.

If the androids are truly better than humans at everything, why continue to have humans? We're redundant.

We might at least have the good grace to go gracefully.

Frustration wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:03 pm If the androids are truly better than humans at everything, why continue to have humans? We're redundant.

We might at least have the good grace to go gracefully.

And why do you worship efficiency so much? What is so important to carry it that far so as to be suicidal.

I thought years ago anticipating this sort of misanthropy that I was just being cynical, but then I see it being freely expressed...

The problem I have with this story is that its far more linear than it makes it out to be. You get all of these branching paths with multiple endings; but it gets obvious very, VERY quickly that the script has decided that the machine side is ''good'' and the human side is ''bad''.

It's a slavery allegory, clearspira. Of fucking course it's "machines good, people bad."

How the hell can you do a slavery allegory where it's not the case?

CharlesPhipps wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:46 am How the hell can you do a slavery allegory where it's not the case?

Hm... "Machines and Union Soldiers Good, Confederates Bad"?

TGLS wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 3:13 am

CharlesPhipps wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:46 am How the hell can you do a slavery allegory where it's not the case?

Hm... "Machines and Union Soldiers Good, Confederates Bad"?

I actually grew up in a part of the Deep South where they taught the Civil War wasn't about slavery.

The internet (and common sense) was an eyeopener.

CharlesPhipps wrote: ↑Tue Sep 21, 2021 2:46 am

The problem I have with this story is that its far more linear than it makes it out to be. You get all of these branching paths with multiple endings; but it gets obvious very, VERY quickly that the script has decided that the machine side is ''good'' and the human side is ''bad''.

It's a slavery allegory, clearspira. Of fucking course it's "machines good, people bad."

How the hell can you do a slavery allegory where it's not the case?

Not all allegories are created equal, clearly.
By making the black people into perfect androids who are superior not just to white people but to black people as well completely destroys the comparison because the fear of giving them rights has now become completely legitimate. So much so that it becomes a false equivalence.
X-Men is exactly the same. Being afraid of someone who is gay/black/whatever is stupid. Being afraid of someone who can melt your brain with a thought from the other side of the planet is legitimate.

Frustration wrote: ↑Mon Sep 20, 2021 8:03 pm If the androids are truly better than humans at everything, why continue to have humans? We're redundant.

We might at least have the good grace to go gracefully.

You wouldn't be a sock puppet of Yukaphile by any chance?