A tragic, unfortunate case of wasted potential. (For now.) This game is fantastic, and we'll probably never, ever, see anything like it again. Which is a CRIME, because seeing a similar game in this setting with similar mechanics would be go batshit bananas in the current RAGE engine that runs all of Rockstar's other games.
This game is goofy, down-right ridiculous. It takes one of the most mundane things about our lives, highschool, and shakes it up to be actually enjoyable. It's set in the fantasy land of NEW ENGLAND and pumps so much blended style into one little town, with a very stylized original soundtrack full of medley beats to boot.
It's open-world, but it's not massive which I think works so much better with the fact that you're a teenager. You're not held back by this choice of protagonist either. What would be considered the guns of this game are replaced with slingshots and firecrackers. Most problems are still solved with violence but not straight up murder and bloodshed. It gives the game this air of unique silliness to it where you could beat the snot out of Jeffrey on Monday, but then say "Hi" to him in math class the day after. Should that be expanded on in a potential sequel? YES, but for now we got what we got.
Classes are "mandatory" in the sense that you are expected to go to them, but they're pretty brief mini-games that reward you for doing well. They're really good breaks in-between the constant onslaught of GTA-style missions and really sell the setting. It's honestly such a shame because there is so much you could do with the foundation of this game and it's left untapped.
Jimmy is a more than capable underdog with a very intriguing plot progression, albeit one that sways his moral compass back and forth a bit too crazy at times and at a break neck pace. His foil in Gary is relatively unseen after Chapter 1, and you kinda forget about him until the very end. Had he had more of a presence, I think the plot would have hit way harder, as well as the themes they were going for with Jimmy's arc.
Saying that this game has aged well would be a total lie, in both the way it functions and some of it's missions. The game is sensory overload with the same handful of characters repeating their lines constantly and showing up in two seconds in front of you when you just saw them in a completely different area down the hall. I'm not going to delve too much into the humor of this game, it's very, very mid-2,000's and I don't necessarily mind that at all. But, where the plot loses me is during the Paparazzi mission where Jimmy.... breaks into the girls dorm and photographs a minor in the shower, then helps distribute it around town. The mission itself could get it's own review so I won't go too crazy, but I find it to be the most out of place mission in the whole game that just randomly throws a dirt stain on Jimmy's character near the end of his arc for no real reason other than for the player to acquire another girlfriend to randomly kiss whenever they want. It's just aged incredibly poorly.
SO, with that mind, imagine a sequel of this game involving everything that has happened in the last 20 or so years since it's released. The satire basically writes itself and I do think Rockstar's writers could pull it off. I just wish they'd give it a chance. Maybe one day.
I also have to mention that this PC port is ATROCIOUS. Constantly crashes and the lack of auto-save can make for a very frustrating experience. Play it on console, for the love of God.
Edit: Used to be a 4.5 star rating, but I stopped doing halfsies.
This game is goofy, down-right ridiculous. It takes one of the most mundane things about our lives, highschool, and shakes it up to be actually enjoyable. It's set in the fantasy land of NEW ENGLAND and pumps so much blended style into one little town, with a very stylized original soundtrack full of medley beats to boot.
It's open-world, but it's not massive which I think works so much better with the fact that you're a teenager. You're not held back by this choice of protagonist either. What would be considered the guns of this game are replaced with slingshots and firecrackers. Most problems are still solved with violence but not straight up murder and bloodshed. It gives the game this air of unique silliness to it where you could beat the snot out of Jeffrey on Monday, but then say "Hi" to him in math class the day after. Should that be expanded on in a potential sequel? YES, but for now we got what we got.
Classes are "mandatory" in the sense that you are expected to go to them, but they're pretty brief mini-games that reward you for doing well. They're really good breaks in-between the constant onslaught of GTA-style missions and really sell the setting. It's honestly such a shame because there is so much you could do with the foundation of this game and it's left untapped.
Jimmy is a more than capable underdog with a very intriguing plot progression, albeit one that sways his moral compass back and forth a bit too crazy at times and at a break neck pace. His foil in Gary is relatively unseen after Chapter 1, and you kinda forget about him until the very end. Had he had more of a presence, I think the plot would have hit way harder, as well as the themes they were going for with Jimmy's arc.
Saying that this game has aged well would be a total lie, in both the way it functions and some of it's missions. The game is sensory overload with the same handful of characters repeating their lines constantly and showing up in two seconds in front of you when you just saw them in a completely different area down the hall. I'm not going to delve too much into the humor of this game, it's very, very mid-2,000's and I don't necessarily mind that at all. But, where the plot loses me is during the Paparazzi mission where Jimmy.... breaks into the girls dorm and photographs a minor in the shower, then helps distribute it around town. The mission itself could get it's own review so I won't go too crazy, but I find it to be the most out of place mission in the whole game that just randomly throws a dirt stain on Jimmy's character near the end of his arc for no real reason other than for the player to acquire another girlfriend to randomly kiss whenever they want. It's just aged incredibly poorly.
SO, with that mind, imagine a sequel of this game involving everything that has happened in the last 20 or so years since it's released. The satire basically writes itself and I do think Rockstar's writers could pull it off. I just wish they'd give it a chance. Maybe one day.
I also have to mention that this PC port is ATROCIOUS. Constantly crashes and the lack of auto-save can make for a very frustrating experience. Play it on console, for the love of God.
Edit: Used to be a 4.5 star rating, but I stopped doing halfsies.