The music is often great and can really hit you at times. Probably the best part. Almost everything else is such a massive mixed bag. I'll avoid spoilers.
1: I have no idea how the morality system was supposed to work.
Often times a blue flash in the top left happened when making positive/wholesome choices while a red flash accompanied negative/angry choices. Yet there were a bunch of outliers. For example one time I called my parents and that had a red flash. It's definitely a karma system but I learned to reject it and ignore it.
Even more baffling was the dialogue system that split conversations into selfish, idealistic, and extremist options. At first I thought this system was fine since it helped me understand what each response was going for. However after a while the game started really hammering home that these choices had consequences far beyond your local conversation. By the end of the game I felt like I always had to just pick the same type in order to make sure I got the ending I was working towards. It wasn't about convincing the person I was talking to, it was just adding more points to a meter. I don't know if this is really how the game worked, but it worsened my experience from that point on.
2: You are a nobody and have absolutely no say in things, yet simultaneously you're the most important person in the word.
They lampshade this with repeated jokes about how people just ignore what you say, yet it still sucks. The strongest unintended political message in the game is that nothing you do can change things. Almost all branching in the game felt superficial.
Simultaneously even though you're a nobody and not part of the main cast, you just happen to be involved in every important event. The most extreme in my playthrough was near the end. One of the main characters literally sees me for the first time in a flipped car and shouts that he needs my help. There are dozens of other people around, including people from his own group, yet he picks the injured stranger for the most critical moment in the entire game.
3: The political landscape is just so stupid. It's often purposefully stupid.
The game takes place in a fictional country in 1996. It tries to tell the tale of a brutal government cracking down on teens trying to flee the country, while simultaneously being a kids version of politics. There are just so many mind-numbingly stupid people in the game and nothing is believable or interesting. The game is fine when you view these characters as obstacles/allies on your way to the border but it falls apart as the country's fate becomes the primary focus of the game.
4: The game structure is broken.
Because the game is dynamic and events happen in a random order, I felt like I missed a lot of things. For example there was one creepy moment with a man in the shadows that never came up again. Was that the whole story, or was I supposed to get a follow up? No way to know without googling.
Mild spoiler of a game mechanic: you play multiple random people escaping North. Once I was forced to die after spawning in as a new person because I didn't have enough stamina. You only get 8 lives total so this was a significant loss. Otherwise my only other deaths in the game were on purpose.
Additionally the game gets way too easy towards the end. Once you understand the road it's pretty easy to reach the border and on top of that you have upgrades. Playing the game stopped being interesting or fun. I only continued because the game had a definitive ending after 8 lives. I think the game would have been much better if it was an honest escape simulator like the trailers imply. Have the political world as the backdrop and keep all the main characters as people you can bump into, but focus just on your own personal struggles. Make it harder too so that it'll probably take more runs to escape, like a mini roguelike. I felt pretty great on my first life and if that was the entire game, it'd be a 4/5.
Instead it's a 1/5.
1: I have no idea how the morality system was supposed to work.
Often times a blue flash in the top left happened when making positive/wholesome choices while a red flash accompanied negative/angry choices. Yet there were a bunch of outliers. For example one time I called my parents and that had a red flash. It's definitely a karma system but I learned to reject it and ignore it.
Even more baffling was the dialogue system that split conversations into selfish, idealistic, and extremist options. At first I thought this system was fine since it helped me understand what each response was going for. However after a while the game started really hammering home that these choices had consequences far beyond your local conversation. By the end of the game I felt like I always had to just pick the same type in order to make sure I got the ending I was working towards. It wasn't about convincing the person I was talking to, it was just adding more points to a meter. I don't know if this is really how the game worked, but it worsened my experience from that point on.
2: You are a nobody and have absolutely no say in things, yet simultaneously you're the most important person in the word.
They lampshade this with repeated jokes about how people just ignore what you say, yet it still sucks. The strongest unintended political message in the game is that nothing you do can change things. Almost all branching in the game felt superficial.
Simultaneously even though you're a nobody and not part of the main cast, you just happen to be involved in every important event. The most extreme in my playthrough was near the end. One of the main characters literally sees me for the first time in a flipped car and shouts that he needs my help. There are dozens of other people around, including people from his own group, yet he picks the injured stranger for the most critical moment in the entire game.
3: The political landscape is just so stupid. It's often purposefully stupid.
The game takes place in a fictional country in 1996. It tries to tell the tale of a brutal government cracking down on teens trying to flee the country, while simultaneously being a kids version of politics. There are just so many mind-numbingly stupid people in the game and nothing is believable or interesting. The game is fine when you view these characters as obstacles/allies on your way to the border but it falls apart as the country's fate becomes the primary focus of the game.
4: The game structure is broken.
Because the game is dynamic and events happen in a random order, I felt like I missed a lot of things. For example there was one creepy moment with a man in the shadows that never came up again. Was that the whole story, or was I supposed to get a follow up? No way to know without googling.
Mild spoiler of a game mechanic: you play multiple random people escaping North. Once I was forced to die after spawning in as a new person because I didn't have enough stamina. You only get 8 lives total so this was a significant loss. Otherwise my only other deaths in the game were on purpose.
Additionally the game gets way too easy towards the end. Once you understand the road it's pretty easy to reach the border and on top of that you have upgrades. Playing the game stopped being interesting or fun. I only continued because the game had a definitive ending after 8 lives. I think the game would have been much better if it was an honest escape simulator like the trailers imply. Have the political world as the backdrop and keep all the main characters as people you can bump into, but focus just on your own personal struggles. Make it harder too so that it'll probably take more runs to escape, like a mini roguelike. I felt pretty great on my first life and if that was the entire game, it'd be a 4/5.
Instead it's a 1/5.
