spoiler
Overall I fucking loved it but there was a few parts of the ending that felt a bit anti-climatic. I get they wanted to structure the story is such a way that even players who fucked the investigation up could find the killer, but it is weird that there’s really no way to really solve the case before shit goes down and then you just, find the guy. But I guess that feeds into the narrative that no single person is really in control of much outside of themselves.
Also didn’t like there wasn’t a “I’m turning I my badge” option for Harry (if there was one I didn’t see it). That seemed to fit the best into my RP. But idk maybe Harry wants to sober up entirely before he makes such a decision. I did get Kim to agree to be my partner tho which made me happy. I also also expecting as sort of “trial” at the end where my psyche makes an analysis of what kind of cop I turned out to be, but we just got in the motor carriage and left.
Kinda tempted to reload a save from before I encountered Ruby cuz I’m pretty sure there’s shit I missed, I was playing things kinda safe cuz I was sorta RP Harry as trying not to fuck things up and I think that bit me. Also I’m bummed I never got to meet with Steban again, don’t think I timed that right.
Anyway I’ll probably do a fash play through in a month or so.
super spoilers
I think the real climax of the game is the showdown with the mercs. I could feel it was coming and I prepared accordingly with all of the armor (as an aside I was proud to have found all of it.) I really thought I could resolve it without anyone dying, but nope. Super intense moment in the game where everything came to a head just before I was ready. I'd even guessed that the real culprit was on the island, but it didn't matter at that point, everyone was ready for blood. The die was cast at that point and afterward all that was left was to create a giant, burning message in the street, go through the motions of solving the case, and reflect on what I'd learned and what was coming next. I think the ending act was mostly a denouement and really coming to terms with reality.
However, the scene with the phasmid was truly unexpected and magical. I think I cried a little and got pretty breathless. It was the perfect thing to inject a little hope and sense of possibility as everything else sort of fell apart, or fell into its next stage. The confrontation with your old team felt pretty perfunctory at that point, just continuing to check off boxes as the future began take shape around you.
Still sort of think it was a weaker part of the game, but by that point I was well satisfied and sort of just enjoying the refractory period.
spoiler
I think they did a good job of making the cryptid seem far fetched while still leaving room for weird "supernatural" stuff like that to exist, with other stuff I can't remember the name of being pretty out there. I think the crypid was even in the game's trailer but I had forgotten about that by the time I got to that part.
spoiler
I went as heavy as I could into the shivers skill after having it trigger a couple times. That shit was very much my kind of supernatural. The city having a ghostly consciousness the connected everything or was constructed from everyone in it and the physical manifestations of their thoughts and actions was seriously rad.