It isn’t that nuanced in its portrayal of fascism (or for that matter hustlegrind Ultra mindset or pretentious ironic detachment cynicism for that matter) but in my personal subjective opinion that’s fairly accurate because those lines of thinking don’t require much thinking to maintain and analysis of those beliefs threatens them fundamentally, so it’s rarely done.
If you pursue the fascist path in dedicated fashion it actually does get quite nuanced. I won't elaborate more on what I mean by any of that.
As far as I know though Ultraliberal is only ever a caricature because that's exactly what it is and what it deserves.
No details but
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it's incredibly depressing. Because that's all it could ever really hope to be.
However it does genuinely have one of my favorite moments in the entire game.
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You: I know I can get history back on the right track.
René: The "right track"? This is the right track! The only track. (he gets visibly annoyed) This is the world we shaped, a reflection of what we are: cowardly, ugly, and numb. And there are no second chances. We don't deserve them! You just can't go back and restart — that would make everything MEANINGLESS! (a shadow of pain comes over his face)
Empathy: There's something substantial moving in him, trying to get out.
Volition: He would sooner die than let it surface.
You: What is it?
Empathy: Regret.
You: Regret about what?
Pain Threshold: (as the camera zooms in on Gaston) Him.
You: Him?
Pain Threshold: There's tenderness in the carabineer's look. Tenderness that's curdled into pain or something darker.
You: Ex-love, ex-tenderness...
Pain Threshold: Even worse, a love aborted and smothered, stamped beneath his brilliant boot heel.
René: (you catch the old carabineer's gaze slowly leaving his opponent's wrinkled face as his dark eyes meet yours — whatever turmoil raged in him a moment ago is quelled for now)
Conceptualization: Like the last rays of the evening sun gently kissing the day goodbye, before giving way to unfathomable darkness.
Volition: Willed back into the darkest unexplored depths of his mind — never meant to be shared, seen or confronted.
Composure: A true master of his emotions.
Inland Empire: Hopelessly alone behind the unbreakable walls he spent a lifetime erecting. No one will ever know him.
Honestly, the writing is so good I found the addition of voice acting for all lines to be almost distracting from the text.
There's so much fun stuff hidden away in that game, it's incredible.
The sheer amount of text is definitely up there and then they are not afraid to hide most of it away in weirdly derailed conversations you don't even have to have.
This was so, so much fun to read. Please do another writeup when you have some time ok?
Oh yeah it’s incredible. I’m replaying for the first time in quite a while. You’ll love the ending tbh
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I used to think I was just getting unlucky, because the game tells you you have a good chance of passing this check, but I have become convinced it is hard-coded to fail no matter what.
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You can totally pass it, I did once even with pretty bad odds. That said, it's much more fun to not pass it lol
the ending spoilers
You’ll love the ending tbh
I didn't do the cryptozoology quest to the end and I felt that the ending let down the whole game.
You go to the island and you meet a character who has never been seen and barely hinted at before, who confesses to the murder without you needing to use the skills you've developed on your character over the course of the game. I don't like that writing. You could say something about "not having a satisfying ending makes sense for a game set in a cruel hopeless world", but that doesn't change though fact that it's still unsatisfying. Having not done cryptozoology and quit drugs, I don't have enough luck to read (what I've been told is) the very important rest of the game's ending, so that's it. Didn't like that.
When I first played it I did the cryptozoology quest so that probably impacted why I enjoyed the ending more.
I enjoyed
The kid recording sounds outside, that was written with so much empathy.
I enjoyed
The the degree of loving details put into the church and the dice / game development spaces. Also the ambivalence of the former.
I enjoyed
The solidarity of the woman living in a precarious village
The writing is dazzling to me.
I think it's completely unquestionable that it is the best writing in any videogame to date. But not just the best writing in a videogame but writing that is just exceptional even outside of videogames. In terms of videogame writing it is several orders of magnitude better than anything else and to be quite frank it hurts the entirety of gaming because very little will ever come close to it.
