I haven’t even cooled down yet, literally just finished it… I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a piece of art so carefully intentional, so cleverly crazy, or so painfully human. I’ve only done one playthrough, but I could guess the multitude of paths and forks, the complexity of it all, simply staggering.
My friend recommended it to me a couple weeks ago, and I went “yeah yeah, sure I’ll play it”. Oh, boy. I got hooked a few days ago and played through the entire last night -I think I didn’t blink once during the last four or five hours. I was nearly brought to tears when I met the phasmid on the island. I was hoping so hard that holding onto that belief would pay off… and it did ! it appeared at the apex of the story, the moment of resolution, and suddenly… nothing else mattered.
So much conscientious artistry went into that world, it feels incredibly tangible. That writing was unbelievable. The art style is fantastic too of course. Perfectly wraps the whole package.
For the record, I played a mostly communist Harrier, with artsy tendencies and a logician/analytical brain, but also a strangely developed sense of authority. 😂 Gotta admit I was kinda trying to throw off the game, but it… totally rolled with my weird build.
So yea I just needed to share. Peace !
It’s absolutely punk by any metric, yea. I haven’t even thought of drawing parallels with other works, yet, but the mention of Dead Kennedys seems apt. I haven’t seen Blue Velvet. I guess part of the appeal, to me, is that it felt utterly fresh, distanced from pretty much anything I’ve ever read, watched or played.
The inland empire stat was apparently based on David Lynch film style. Really such an intelligent piece of art.