Ashtray

Just wanted to say that

I just did.

Hitler came by and asked: „Who are you looking for?“

First things first:

This is a long-ish one but I think it is important that we address this issue. Part of why this post is so long, is that establishing the problem and what is at stake just takes a bit of time. And because this is a bit cathartic. Tldr is of course at the bottom.

So what's up with that pretentious title?

I don’t think I have ever played a game that I wanted to love this much and that I put such an effort into being immersed. And when it works, it works so brilliantly that anything else, even the whole of Mass Effect, pales in comparison. The first time I sat down with Dex in the Afterlife to discuss the upcoming events, the anticipatory tension of the scene made me actively anxious. After talking through some basic preparations, the music suddenly but slowly begins to rise, Dex leans forward intently, Jackie starts nervously wagging his leg, and I am utterly transfixed to the screen. The entire scene, its setup, blocking, animations and the voice acting, transcends anything I have ever seen or played. This is exactly what I (and V) came here for.

But there is one major problem that continuously undermines or outright destroys any kind of emotional, narrative, or simply immersive import these scenes could hold. I am not talking about bugs, crashes, ridiculous outfits, crouch/skip binding, or the fact that there is no dedicated ‘walk’ button on PC, causing V to constantly jog when you’re supposed to do the walk-n-talk thing. These things will be fixed or adjusted, there’s no doubt about it. No, what I’m talking about is the god damn loot system of all things.

An elaborate example (or tangent) from someone who gets way too much into the R of RPG:

My female V has had a rough life as a street kid, causing her to grow up fast and grow up hard. It is not that she doesn’t have a moral compass or compassion, but rather that these represent a luxury you can seldom afford when the city is constantly out to take your stuff or your life. As a result, V is emotionally attuned to the world around her but also emotionally closed off from it, so as to protect herself and the few people she cares about. Correspondingly, V is well aware that these chats with Vic, drinks with Jackie, adopted cats, or all the meaningless hook-ups of Night City simply can not fix that, at her core, V is incredibly lonely.

Marx would call this alienation and Night City does a great job of conveying just how isolating life in a crowded city can be. It is a dy

Thanks in advance