In this world corporations control even the most basic human necessities. Betrayed by the calculated cruelty of an evil corporation, Josephine finds herself homeless, jobless and without a heart. Believing she has nothing to lose, she joins a ragtag group of rebels seeking vengeance.
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my first kinetic novel and honestly I'm not sure I'm really into it as a medium, but like, still: vengeful heart rocks
the best element is the writing. it tackles topics that are huge, and it executes on them so well because it keeps them grounded—either in the characters or the surprisingly detailed world building
the characters in particular are great. all of them matter so much to both the immediate plot, and to the broader themes of the stories. the writing consistently takes great care in treating them as complex people, even unnamed characters who don't get their own sprite. amidst the mobs, the crowds, the boardrooms is a persistent reminder that these groups are still made up of individuals, and that matters despite the story's scale
the visual and musical art direction is sublime. even as experiencing this story got super (appropriately) dark and dismal, the aesthetic experience kept me focused and going. and like, none of us get to really choose our hellscapes, but if the one I'm assigned could develop this color palette, I would be into it
I initially had mixed feelings about the main crossroads moment in the experience, and though not all of them are resolved, ultimately I respect it. a story like this can never truly be tidy—any that is, is lying—and vengeful heart knows it
a strong recommend to anyone who looking for 1) really rich and nuanced character-driven narrative experiences and 2) sick vibes
the best element is the writing. it tackles topics that are huge, and it executes on them so well because it keeps them grounded—either in the characters or the surprisingly detailed world building
the characters in particular are great. all of them matter so much to both the immediate plot, and to the broader themes of the stories. the writing consistently takes great care in treating them as complex people, even unnamed characters who don't get their own sprite. amidst the mobs, the crowds, the boardrooms is a persistent reminder that these groups are still made up of individuals, and that matters despite the story's scale
the visual and musical art direction is sublime. even as experiencing this story got super (appropriately) dark and dismal, the aesthetic experience kept me focused and going. and like, none of us get to really choose our hellscapes, but if the one I'm assigned could develop this color palette, I would be into it
I initially had mixed feelings about the main crossroads moment in the experience, and though not all of them are resolved, ultimately I respect it. a story like this can never truly be tidy—any that is, is lying—and vengeful heart knows it
a strong recommend to anyone who looking for 1) really rich and nuanced character-driven narrative experiences and 2) sick vibes
Its hard to properly convey radicalization in fiction.
Most of this time, when portraying a character's switch from one personality to another, its a single incident. Anakin's intitial reluctance to the Sith before switching to killing kids without question. [spoilers] acting mild-mannered in Westworld before he transforms into the violent Man in Black after one bad vacation. Getting Jokerfied. Its all too tempting to lean into a big dramatic heel turn. Its a striking image, its hard to resist. But the slow path towards radicalization, towards a core change in your beliefs... that's harder to depict.
I don't quite recall how I was radicalized. Its hard to remember not believing all the things I currently believe. My switch wasn't very dramatic compared to close family or friends of mine. Liberal to leftist is (ideally) a short journey. I can't name any specific single factor compared to just the slow realization that things are Not Right.
What makes Vengeful Heart work so well is the slow depiction of how someone gets radicalized. Josephine Lace is an hydraulic engineer working for Nepthys, Inc. The company is buying out control of the water in town. An apartment, somewhere, will be knocked down to make room for new water systems. People will be evicted. Families will lose homes. And the price of water will increase. But these problems aren't real to Josephine yet. She's just excited for her promotion. The upcoming date with her boss.
When she returns home, she discovers her building has been selected as the one Nepthys is going to buy out and build over.
The first hour and a half focus on the initial struggle in elaborate detail. How the tenants join together to protest this buyout. How Nepthys tries to split up the strikers by offering better deals to other residents. Josephine regains access to her water because Nepthys assumes she's on their side. But now Josephine can see that the consequences of her plan doesn't impact vague strangers. It hurts people. But the radicalization is still slow. She remarks with bafflement that people are stealing or that Nepthys could do things that are clearly illegal. More world-weary apartment mates have to balance out Jo's leadership skills with their own awareness of how these things can go.
Ultimately, Nepthys chooses a cost saving measure. They send in a plant to rile up the violence, the police run in to take town "terrorists" and the entire building dies. Josephine is presumed dead, only saved at the hospital by the installation of a new, mechanical heart. She's lost her friends, her home, her job, and she's thousands in debt.
The prologue ends.
This slow journey of the first 1-2 hours goes into elaborate detail of how these protests work. How can join together, how they can be split apart, and the back and forth of strategy between a corporation and a group demanding their rightful essentials. The writing effort is so careful and polished, I fully expected this protest to be the entire game. When the game opens up to its greater story of revenge, I expected its careful plotting to lose focus to the wider ongoing conspiracy plot. But it never does.
What makes Vengeful Heart so compelling is how deeply it focuses on individuals trapped within these systems, but also the awareness of these systems. It would be so easy for the writing to fail these characters. For them to unite into the same basic characters repeating the same political points (even if they're all points I agree with). But there's such incredible care to establish how deep every character is into whatever system they occupy.
Take some incidental newscaster characters. They appear periodically through the plot to state the company propaganda being fed into the city. They're generic mouths for the Sauron of Nepthys. But during an infiltration mission, Jo gets to meet the news reporter and she's just... pleasant. Her fake smile is largely sincere. She's aware that Nepthys owns 30% of her network, but she considers it part of the gig. "You take the paycheck for the big jobs so you can put the real effort into the little ones." She fully believes that. And more than that, she likes Jo immediately. They get along easily. All the while, Jo knows they're only in the same building because Jo is here to assassinate the head of Nepthys.
Its that kind of nuance that I think the game excels at. It always takes note of how the average civilian feels about the revolutionary protagonists. There's a broader spectrum between thinking "those people are thugs" to "yeah life sucks but its not my business" than one might think. It makes the city feel alive. Like a real place, with complicated people. When the heroes hold a clerk hostage, they're able to slowly to talk him around by discussing how all they want to do is erase his water bill. Tying their grievances directly into his grievances.
The only "flat" characters are the Nepthys faction, but that's part of the nuance as well. They're flat because they're shallow people. They're at the top of the food chain. They don't have to think about anything. Whether its the corporate stooges or the violent police arm, their opinions are pretty set in stone. Even that simple characterization is measured in a solid foundation.
Among a lot of key moments, one of my favorites is when the villain monologues about societal apathy and how no one will care about the revolution and only his grand vision will survive etc etc. And Jo flips it around by pointing out something that drives him nuts. "That apathy means they don't care about you. No one cares about your vision. No one thinks about you. You don't matter to the everyday people that you think revolve around you." Its the only thing that breaks his smiling image in two different routes and it lands because the game earned that moment about the details of a person's life.
Just a beautiful, thoughtful little experience.
Most of this time, when portraying a character's switch from one personality to another, its a single incident. Anakin's intitial reluctance to the Sith before switching to killing kids without question. [spoilers] acting mild-mannered in Westworld before he transforms into the violent Man in Black after one bad vacation. Getting Jokerfied. Its all too tempting to lean into a big dramatic heel turn. Its a striking image, its hard to resist. But the slow path towards radicalization, towards a core change in your beliefs... that's harder to depict.
I don't quite recall how I was radicalized. Its hard to remember not believing all the things I currently believe. My switch wasn't very dramatic compared to close family or friends of mine. Liberal to leftist is (ideally) a short journey. I can't name any specific single factor compared to just the slow realization that things are Not Right.
What makes Vengeful Heart work so well is the slow depiction of how someone gets radicalized. Josephine Lace is an hydraulic engineer working for Nepthys, Inc. The company is buying out control of the water in town. An apartment, somewhere, will be knocked down to make room for new water systems. People will be evicted. Families will lose homes. And the price of water will increase. But these problems aren't real to Josephine yet. She's just excited for her promotion. The upcoming date with her boss.
When she returns home, she discovers her building has been selected as the one Nepthys is going to buy out and build over.
The first hour and a half focus on the initial struggle in elaborate detail. How the tenants join together to protest this buyout. How Nepthys tries to split up the strikers by offering better deals to other residents. Josephine regains access to her water because Nepthys assumes she's on their side. But now Josephine can see that the consequences of her plan doesn't impact vague strangers. It hurts people. But the radicalization is still slow. She remarks with bafflement that people are stealing or that Nepthys could do things that are clearly illegal. More world-weary apartment mates have to balance out Jo's leadership skills with their own awareness of how these things can go.
Ultimately, Nepthys chooses a cost saving measure. They send in a plant to rile up the violence, the police run in to take town "terrorists" and the entire building dies. Josephine is presumed dead, only saved at the hospital by the installation of a new, mechanical heart. She's lost her friends, her home, her job, and she's thousands in debt.
The prologue ends.
This slow journey of the first 1-2 hours goes into elaborate detail of how these protests work. How can join together, how they can be split apart, and the back and forth of strategy between a corporation and a group demanding their rightful essentials. The writing effort is so careful and polished, I fully expected this protest to be the entire game. When the game opens up to its greater story of revenge, I expected its careful plotting to lose focus to the wider ongoing conspiracy plot. But it never does.
What makes Vengeful Heart so compelling is how deeply it focuses on individuals trapped within these systems, but also the awareness of these systems. It would be so easy for the writing to fail these characters. For them to unite into the same basic characters repeating the same political points (even if they're all points I agree with). But there's such incredible care to establish how deep every character is into whatever system they occupy.
Take some incidental newscaster characters. They appear periodically through the plot to state the company propaganda being fed into the city. They're generic mouths for the Sauron of Nepthys. But during an infiltration mission, Jo gets to meet the news reporter and she's just... pleasant. Her fake smile is largely sincere. She's aware that Nepthys owns 30% of her network, but she considers it part of the gig. "You take the paycheck for the big jobs so you can put the real effort into the little ones." She fully believes that. And more than that, she likes Jo immediately. They get along easily. All the while, Jo knows they're only in the same building because Jo is here to assassinate the head of Nepthys.
Its that kind of nuance that I think the game excels at. It always takes note of how the average civilian feels about the revolutionary protagonists. There's a broader spectrum between thinking "those people are thugs" to "yeah life sucks but its not my business" than one might think. It makes the city feel alive. Like a real place, with complicated people. When the heroes hold a clerk hostage, they're able to slowly to talk him around by discussing how all they want to do is erase his water bill. Tying their grievances directly into his grievances.
The only "flat" characters are the Nepthys faction, but that's part of the nuance as well. They're flat because they're shallow people. They're at the top of the food chain. They don't have to think about anything. Whether its the corporate stooges or the violent police arm, their opinions are pretty set in stone. Even that simple characterization is measured in a solid foundation.
Among a lot of key moments, one of my favorites is when the villain monologues about societal apathy and how no one will care about the revolution and only his grand vision will survive etc etc. And Jo flips it around by pointing out something that drives him nuts. "That apathy means they don't care about you. No one cares about your vision. No one thinks about you. You don't matter to the everyday people that you think revolve around you." Its the only thing that breaks his smiling image in two different routes and it lands because the game earned that moment about the details of a person's life.
Just a beautiful, thoughtful little experience.