Recent reviews by doglikesparky

Fantastic gameplay- cleaning is satisfying, I have fun, I really enjoy the process and the system. I could do this all day. I likely will 100% this, and if the next three quarters of this review is meaningless to you, then you should absolutely play this game.
HOWEVER... this game consistently fails to have a good story. The bones are there- a moral dilemna exploring rising healthcare costs and how these systems lead to lives of crime, how far a father will go for the life of his daughter, the repeating nature of the business, how you can never really escape- but this game's incredibly brave attempt to have their main character speak in Marvel quips means all of this is completely lost. There's no reason given to actually care about anything. He doesn't mourn his daughter, he jokes from the very start, he shows zero struggle with the morality of his actions save for the occassional 'What kind of murdery hijinks did I get myself into!'-style comment. His voice never wavers, his attitude never changes, and I have zero reason to consider this a 'bad' decision. He never sympathizes with anyone, even when he absolutely should have- he makes a vague comment once regarding a murdered daughter, but forms no relation between her and his own, and is still unaffected despite his ENTIRE MOTIVATION being that he's only doing this because he's backed into a corner.
Additionally- the daughter is almost never elaborated on. Sometimes you get a few emails from her regarding universal elementary experiences (in ways that tell me the developers know very little about disease care, though I'm letting it slide because I have experience with it that most people don't have.), but she has no real personality beyond 'sick daughter' and even then she's yet to actually mention being sick at all. I don't even know the severity of what she has- long term expensive care like this could be anything from 'broke an ankle weird' to 'stage 4 brain cancer'. The life of a single father is exceptionally easy, it turns out.

Friendly Fire is what pushed me to make this review negative, though. I barely knew who Tyler was up until this point (ex-student, I assume, considering he's basically Jesse Pinkman), but I'm supposed to watch this guy joke around his apartment and... feel something? There's no heaviness. Nobody cares. These aren't characters, they're just quest objectives.
If I have to make up the main conflict of the game, then I might as well ask to be paid for my effort. Conflict is a fundamental part of storytelling, ESPECIALLY in a genre like this. If it's supposed to be a lighthearted jaunt through the mob, that's fine! I have loved characters that behave exactly like this before. My issue is the fact this game portrays itself as something it's not- there is zero moral dilemna here. There is zero engaging story. It's a cleaning sim with some extra steps, but nothing more than that.

So... are you a bad guy? Who cares?

i have 300 hours logged and i still havent finished the game