Recent reviews by solardelton

UPDATED REVIEW:
TLDR: None of your decisions really matter, the game-play has no effect on the story, and there's some wonky story choices made at the end of the game.
But for now? Just Youtube the "Full Movie" of the game, and you won't loose much outside of some inconsequential banter in the gameplay.

If this was a TV show or movie, 8/10.
As a game, 1/10.

Good:
- I still love the characters, they are extremely charismatic and the dialogue is fantastic.
- The animation is very stylized and very emotive, the world feels full this way.

Medium:
- Not a huge gripe, but the story is kind of predictable and by the books. The way the story is told makes it passable.

The Bad:
(General Spoiler Warning:)
- The only decisions that really seem to matter are who you're going to cut, who you're going to hire, and who you're going to f-ck. The game is basically a dating sim on rails. (Albeit, there is a "no romance" option, which is what I ended up with. I didn't really care for the romantic plot or romantic interests. But even than, it's obvious through the dialogue that romance is a hard focus in the game.) The "[Name] will remember that," seems to have virtually no effect on anything other than the romance interests (and even than, it's dubious.)
- I did a little digging and found out that the gameplay - Both Dispatching (the thing the game is actually TITLED), as well as the QTE events - seem to have no external effect on the story in any way, shape, or form. You can just ignore and fail all your dispatches and the game will still give you the option to prop your team up like heros. I WOULD had given the game-play a much higher score, if it actually mattered. But since you can cut it and loose nothing at all, 1/10.
- The ending sequence animations are amazing, HOWEVER, there's one part that frustrates me greatly. Somehow Shroud manages to pull the MC's dog out of his ass in a hostage scenario. Hand over the Astral Pulse and he'll let the dog live. This scene is handled HORRIBLY. You ARE NOT given the option to say no. It's a dog's life vs the fate of the literal, actual, entire city. You can trick him and give him the fake Astral Pulse, but the notion is moot since Shroud knows it's fake, and just tosses it aside, and the MC just hands him the real one, anyways. HOWEVER- you can also give him both Astral Pulse in another option, in which case, Shroud has no clue which is the fake and which is the real one???
Not to mention there's a character in the game that can travel basically at light-speed, and has a power up that boosts basically all his stats AND can make him fly. The bad guy even acknowledges this, yet still insists on holding the dog out in an outstretched arm, by the collar. (There's also other plot holes that come up in the ending, but these seemed like some major ones.)
The game IS a comedy- don't get me wrong - But - they also have a lot of heart-fealt and genuinely serious moments, a whole chapter is basically just depression. I kinda just feels like the writers decided to take the piss at the end. Just a massive fumble at the finish line.
- The game has some subtle finger-wagging/ side glancing if you decide to kill Shroud. It seems to lean heavily on the "Batman morality" system, but the option was still given beguilingly just so you had an option.

Generally speaking, if you add all the cut scenes together you'll get mayyyyyybe 1 Hour and 10 min of your story's play-through. Again, keeping in mind the QTE and actual gameplay doesn't actually matter in the end. The game maybe totals to 6-7 hours in 8 chapters. It erks me greatly that the thing you spend the vast majority of the time in has no effect on the story or your choices at all. If you cobble together all of the alternative routs and cut all the repeated scenes, you maybeeeee get 1 Hour and 40 min.

Generally speaking, the character and dialogue are hulling this game's ass up by the bootstraps. I kinda wish this was just a tv series or movie, at least that way, we could had gotten to spend more time with the 'games' most strongest elements.

Is it worth $30? Depends on what you're expecting and how much character personality means to you in a story. For me, I'd say half the price seems better given how the GAME was implemented, total play time, and ACTUAL Story - length. I think the reason the game is so heavily revered is because of all of the internet personalities behind it. Take that way and I think you end up with a mid-tier game and an above average story.

Can't get past the 5th year before ending up in a desync loop in Multiplayer. Can't get far into single player before the game starts lagging out. Wait for them to fix the 4.0 Update, than -maybe- consider buying. (That is, if you're looking to support yet another company that releases (unplayable) "content" before it's finished. :) )