I’ve always heard this is a super good game and I finally started playing it and I enjoyed the first little bit (heavily eyerolling at the, uh, “evil soviet” aesthetics), but that was ok, not enough to ruin it for me.
And then the day rolled around when you have to use a scanner on people. It’s basically a creepier version of the TSA body scanners, and I must say I’m really not into that. Also, and this could have just been RNG, but all except one of the people I was supposed to scan were women, and I found that a bit off-putting, honestly. But anyway, I finished the day, and was like, well, maybe I’ll get used to this, it’s only a game, these aren’t real people I’m creeping on.
But then, the next day, the second person to come up to my window “looked like a man”, but their passport said their sex was female. Now on an earlier day, I had gotten a violation for mismatched sex marker, which should have been a hint I was going to be in for a bad time later.
Well, the bad time was here, because I decided to flag the sex marker discrepancy, and wouldn’t you know it, the option to scan them came up. So I guess I get to decide on whether someone’s sex marker is correct based on their genitals.
I quit the game right then and there. I’d like to ask all of you whether you’ve played it, and whether it’s worth pushing through this very serious discomfort I feel. I’m a little worried that all the “tough moral choices” are just going to feel contrived and shitty, what with the “evil soviet” aesthetic and the pretty massive oversight on gender. Not to mention we’ve already an as introduction to a plot about a brothel, which I’m kind of also not into, unless it’s done well, but at this point, I don’t trust the game to do it well.
So what do you think? Anyone played it? Is it actually worth playing?
Yea, exactly. So many popular indie games during the “Golden Age” were just little gimmick games all wrapped up in some weird auteur cult of personality shit. Like you’d feel bad about pirating because it’s not like it’s Activision or something, but it’s still ridiculous to charge $20 for a game that would have been free on Newgrounds if it would have come out 5 years prior.
Ultimately I do think the Indie Game Revolution or whatever was a good thing as there were some genuine gems that came out of it. Stardew Valley, Celeste, Bastion, and Shovel Knight are all bangers.
Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers
I’ll give Binding of Isaac a pass since its gameplay was pretty fun despite the art really not being my thing
I think Castle Crashers was long enough as a multiplayer party game that it was worth the price. But yeah, Alien Hominid was egregiously priced. Isaac is fine, but not really my thing either.
Castle Crashers was really well done for what it was and Binding of Isaac was very innovative in a number of ways, along with fixing up the artstyle some years ago to at least age a little better.
What kind of changes did they make? I doubt I’ll play it since I can’t handle the dead baby joke aesthetic as a parent, but I’m honestly curious.
The whole game was redone to resemble ~32 bit pixel art. It’s fake and sprite scaling from certain items can muddle the aesthetic, but without meddling it’s surprisingly imo where before it just looked like an ugly flash game (because it was).