Izzy_C
Well-known member
My thoughts and feelings on this game are sort of complicated. Slight spoilers to the first few hours of the game ahead. This is for those who have at least played that much of the game.
I really want to like it. The advertised preface is that it's a slightly political, space-themed Western RPG.
It sort of hits some of those marks.
It's very pretty, that is for sure. Obsidian did the best they could with a dated engine. The Fallout games were never that visually impressive. Combat and movement is clunky, which is very Fallout-y. I feel like this is a pretty big detractor from the game. RPG purists will say "combat doesn't matter, it's an RPG. I disagree however, combat is a huge part of the game, it should play/feel better.
The game implies there's moral choices to be made that have great consequence. The companion characters writing doesn't always make the decisions you make feel that important. Parvati has some brief one way dialog about her concerns related to routing the power (away from the town, or to the deserters). She never pulls the player aside to truly give an opinion. Her character is implied to be a nerdy, awkward, engineer with (poor?) social skills. Her family was however, torn apart, by Spacers Choice corporation.
With that said, you'd make the assumption she would firmly be an anti-capitalist. She should have an agenda, which is "fuck the man".
Her character just kinda of going "meh" and throwing her hands up (after diverting power away from the town of Edgewater) is bad writing. You'd think if the corporate run town had all these bad memories for her (like her father being worked to death) she'd be okay with supporting the deserters. Her angst towards the town is also visible in her eagerness to board your ship and leave.
Her character has such well defined and laid out sexual preferences, but a poorly defined political stance? This is part of my issue with the game... I feel like the premise is you are liberating people enslaved by evil corporations, a class issue at its core. Why is one of the main companions character defined by who she likes? Wouldn't a female class hero be about as empowering as a female character gets?
If her characters sexual preferences were muddled and her political stance was defined, it would make her much more interesting. One of the next quests for her companion character is to fetch items for her date. Imagine if instead she wanted to avenger her fathers death? Wouldn't that be a way more empowering companion quest? Kill some corporate jerks?
This mirrors the current political scene quite a bit. It would be an easier thumbs up from corporate at Obsidian if the game dug into easier to digest (for most) identity politics over class issues. Rich white guys wouldn't make a game where the rich white guy is truly the enemy... right?
A unifying feeling of corralling the comrades against the corporate overlords is really what this game is missing. It fails to take a political stance and feels shallow, and light. This combined with the Fallout-style busy-work and fetch quests make for a bland game set in a very pretty world.
Don't get me wrong, seeing LGBT characters in games is great. I want more diversity in gaming, but I really think it felt super shoe-horned in in TOW. Which is a bummer.
I really want to like it. The advertised preface is that it's a slightly political, space-themed Western RPG.
It sort of hits some of those marks.
It's very pretty, that is for sure. Obsidian did the best they could with a dated engine. The Fallout games were never that visually impressive. Combat and movement is clunky, which is very Fallout-y. I feel like this is a pretty big detractor from the game. RPG purists will say "combat doesn't matter, it's an RPG. I disagree however, combat is a huge part of the game, it should play/feel better.
The game implies there's moral choices to be made that have great consequence. The companion characters writing doesn't always make the decisions you make feel that important. Parvati has some brief one way dialog about her concerns related to routing the power (away from the town, or to the deserters). She never pulls the player aside to truly give an opinion. Her character is implied to be a nerdy, awkward, engineer with (poor?) social skills. Her family was however, torn apart, by Spacers Choice corporation.
With that said, you'd make the assumption she would firmly be an anti-capitalist. She should have an agenda, which is "fuck the man".
Her character just kinda of going "meh" and throwing her hands up (after diverting power away from the town of Edgewater) is bad writing. You'd think if the corporate run town had all these bad memories for her (like her father being worked to death) she'd be okay with supporting the deserters. Her angst towards the town is also visible in her eagerness to board your ship and leave.
Her character has such well defined and laid out sexual preferences, but a poorly defined political stance? This is part of my issue with the game... I feel like the premise is you are liberating people enslaved by evil corporations, a class issue at its core. Why is one of the main companions character defined by who she likes? Wouldn't a female class hero be about as empowering as a female character gets?
If her characters sexual preferences were muddled and her political stance was defined, it would make her much more interesting. One of the next quests for her companion character is to fetch items for her date. Imagine if instead she wanted to avenger her fathers death? Wouldn't that be a way more empowering companion quest? Kill some corporate jerks?
This mirrors the current political scene quite a bit. It would be an easier thumbs up from corporate at Obsidian if the game dug into easier to digest (for most) identity politics over class issues. Rich white guys wouldn't make a game where the rich white guy is truly the enemy... right?
A unifying feeling of corralling the comrades against the corporate overlords is really what this game is missing. It fails to take a political stance and feels shallow, and light. This combined with the Fallout-style busy-work and fetch quests make for a bland game set in a very pretty world.
Don't get me wrong, seeing LGBT characters in games is great. I want more diversity in gaming, but I really think it felt super shoe-horned in in TOW. Which is a bummer.
