I was falling off of this a bit because of the writing but then the protagonist was introduced to a vegan vampire discussing the ethics of Werewolves doing BDSM and i got right back on the goofy ass ride. The mercurial and often silly bits of bartop philosophizing with both regulars and strangers you absorb/participate in is one of the main things I miss about working in the service industry, and Coffee Talk captures that decently enough.

Overall, though, this weakly attempts to grasp at so many different themes and too little time and thoughtfulness is given to each, with no way to really weave them together cohesively/coherently.

Also, the fact that Rachel’s manager is named Morris Lester (“Mo” Lester) made my eyes roll 360 degrees in my skull.

A playfully clever treatise on the predominant psychological mechanization of The Player’s approach to games in the 21st century as primarily dictated via AAA structural and ideological hegemony. What an interesting central subject to take on in a game functioning around a core experimental question of how far someone will go to see a story with even the slightest illusion of choice through to the end.

Prompts a few crucial questions: Does narrative choice necessarily always equal autonomy for The Player in games? Is “autonomy” ever a feasible goal in a product fundamentally bound to and by the static (if sometimes imperfect) code of its very base ability to exist? Bound by the (oft unfortunate) limits of its writers? How much emotional and intellectual manipulation can you stand during the course of any title? We know that so many of the AAA ilk attempt to obscure observation or discussion of these ever-tenuous dynamics in their games with various self-indulgent sentiments, but this game laughs in the face of all of these efforts.

I respect this game a lot, and I’d like to think it truly respects me and all the rest of its audience, too.

A little bit of a slog, I’ll be honest. Yet another “open world” game marred by uninteresting emptiness. I saw right away that this was supposed to be “New Vegas in space” but it fails at that on multiple fronts. Still, a gorgeous game, love that there are some threads of Anarchism here, but definitely not fleshed our nor validated enough. The writers obviously severely misunderstand it, and this is primarily shown through the character of Felix (who I love and desperately wanted more of!). Combat was fucking horrific. Companions ALWAYS got in the way of my shot. It was truly, insanely frustrating. Very short, and supremely lacking in narrative development. Skill tree is extremely low-effort. Decent enough new IP entry for obsidian, but I just wanted more. A lot more. Also, why even have planets on the map if they’re locked and inaccessible?????