No.8403
Alright, I finished the game a few weeks ago and let it sit for a bit. Here is my review of it. In general, I really enjoyed it. The claims of it being a graphical novel are in some ways correct. The only "real" gameplay here is managing your stats, time and moving around. However I wouldn't say it doesn't deserve being called a game for it. It reminded me a lot of Torment: Tides of Numenera, which also had practically no gameplay, as, at least in my case, I only had 3 short combats in that game, while everything else was dialogue. But back to DE. So, if the gameplay is practically unexistant, how is the writing and story? Well, it delivers in spades. The universe is very well fleshed out, showing that there is a massive and well developed world beyond the tiny district that you get to explore. It has a unique geopolitical situation, which seems like a mix between the interwar period and modern day, its own cultures, history, mythology, different technology from that of the real world while still looking like 1956, and even a unique world, which isn't necessarily a planet. The main plot is great too. Quite early on a phrase gets dropped in a dialogue: "everything is connected with everything". This really is the case. I am pretty sure that almost every little tidbit of information you encounter in the game will eventually get tied up neatly, even small, at first thought not really important, bits of dialogue. Writing it self is wonderful, with the many internal conversations with your different personalities being the best of it. I fully recommend this game to everyone who can be bothered to basically spend 40-60 hours reading the game. With all of that however, I do have one big criticism of the game. I am spoilering this part. It is the main character, or rather the fact that there is a main character. Let me explain. Towards the end of the game I found out that I was playing, well, more correctly RP'ing, completely wrong. When I first started playing, I thought that I was intended to be my real self, stuck in a strange situation: finding myself in a body of another, someone who was quite definitely fucked up, even insane, with his mind fractured into many different personalities. Now, he died, and for some reason I came into his place, with none of his memories, but all of his problems and his fractured mind being the only thing that can assist me in this strange situation. Hence I went on as myself, tried to make the best that I can of this situation and maybe understand what is going on. However I was completely wrong. The man didn't go away, and I was not supposed to be playing as myself, I was supposed to be playing as him. However, I didn't feel no connection to him. Whatever that happened, what he did in the past, no longer exists, it was wiped of by the memory loss. So when the game wants to pull my heart strings with the story of Harry's life it falls flat, I don't care about his wife, it is in the past, and it should stay there. Then the game starts pulling shit like "ooh, you talk in dialogue trees because your character is actually autistic and that is how he talks" or trying to imply that you picked your ideology, be it communist, fascist, centrist or whatever only as a coping mechanism after splitting up with the one you love. I can only roll my eyes, since it was ME that chose these options, not Harry. /rant