Despite an interesting and engaging opener, some comedic and quirky humor (some lands and some doesn't) and mechanics that are arguably in depth and unique(ish?) to other RPGs, I would NOT classify this as a TRUE fully open ended RPG as it is so often touted and also not a great one for escapism from the real world. I will explain exactly why. The positives of this are at this point well known and often repeated by others in other reviews so I won't repeat them myself and agree with most of them which makes it all the much more of a shame for me to recommend against it. So what are the negatives?

-The first is that there is just an EXCESSIVE amount of filler dialogue and text to go through and one will inevitably skip it if they have a life and job outside of videogames as the time sink for just that alone can be utterly brutal. It's not just dialogue but FILLER dialogue as well and some of which is just circular word salad for the sake of appearing intellectual when it really isn't, and in fact is a bit pretentious. I'm not against an engaging thought provoking story but much of this leads me to believe that the writer/s seem to be trying (and failing) to come off as so much smarter and holier then thou but anyone can use big words and interject needless and excessive snails-pace self-important college professor commentary when the point can be made much more succinctly. And much of the dialogue is often personally biased (not for the characters but the writers themselves) which leads into my next complaint.

-Another (and perhaps the most egregious) flaw here is the forceful nature of injecting the writers personal closed-minded politics into a so called 'open-ended RPG' game touting freedom of choice. I won't get into what side they are very clearly skewed to but at one point you are forced to do a quest for someone with hard-line politics that the player may disagree with. If you do anything to a different side you are forced to be metaphorically crippled and have less to work with for the remainder of the game and labeled as bad or wrongthink not just by characters but also by the game itself. It does feel at times as if it's forcing an agenda down the players throat. Regardless of what political alignment you fall on this is a negative for this kind of game. You cannot truly be exactly the type of character you want to be in this.

-The third complaint I have which may be arguably more minor but still a factor in my opinion is the dour and depressing atmosphere, lack of variety in set pieces and tone, and the game sticking to only one particular setting and theme which can get old at times in combination with all the filler and political nonsense.

In conclusion, the sad thing is that I very much WOULD like to have a game which does have the positive and engaging and unique aspects that this one has perhaps with a different theme and setting (the cop/detective theme is cool for a bit but I'm more into fantasy type stuff for RPGs maybe with more combat as well to spice it up) and obviously without the negatives I described above. If you took out all the filler and politics and left in the humor and player choice it would be miles better but then there would be barely any of the game left at that point. I feel this is EXTREMELY overrated and cannot recommend it despite it's recent popularity. Overall a disappointment.

Despite an interesting and engaging opener, some comedic and quirky humor (some lands and some doesn't) and mechanics that are arguably in depth and unique(ish?) to other RPGs, I would NOT classify this as a TRUE fully open ended RPG as it is so often touted and also not a great one for escapism from the real world. I will explain exactly why. The positives of this are at this point well known and often repeated by others in other reviews so I won't repeat them myself and agree with most of them which makes it all the much more of a shame for me to recommend against it. So what are the negatives? -The first is that there is just an EXCESSIVE amount of filler dialogue and text to go through and one will inevitably skip it if they have a life and job outside of videogames as the time sink for just that alone can be utterly brutal. It's not just dialogue but FILLER dialogue as well and some of which is just circular word salad for the sake of appearing intellectual when it really isn't, and in fact is a bit pretentious. I'm not against an engaging thought provoking story but much of this leads me to believe that the writer/s seem to be trying (and failing) to come off as so much smarter and holier then thou but anyone can use big words and interject needless and excessive snails-pace self-important college professor commentary when the point can be made much more succinctly. And much of the dialogue is often personally biased (not for the characters but the writers themselves) which leads into my next complaint. -Another (and perhaps the most egregious) flaw here is the forceful nature of injecting the writers personal closed-minded politics into a so called 'open-ended RPG' game touting freedom of choice. I won't get into what side they are very clearly skewed to but at one point you are forced to do a quest for someone with hard-line politics that the player may disagree with. If you do anything to a different side you are forced to be metaphorically crippled and have less to work with for the remainder of the game and labeled as bad or wrongthink not just by characters but also by the game itself. It does feel at times as if it's forcing an agenda down the players throat. Regardless of what political alignment you fall on this is a negative for this kind of game. You cannot truly be exactly the type of character you want to be in this. -The third complaint I have which may be arguably more minor but still a factor in my opinion is the dour and depressing atmosphere, lack of variety in set pieces and tone, and the game sticking to only one particular setting and theme which can get old at times in combination with all the filler and political nonsense. In conclusion, the sad thing is that I very much WOULD like to have a game which does have the positive and engaging and unique aspects that this one has perhaps with a different theme and setting (the cop/detective theme is cool for a bit but I'm more into fantasy type stuff for RPGs maybe with more combat as well to spice it up) and obviously without the negatives I described above. If you took out all the filler and politics and left in the humor and player choice it would be miles better but then there would be barely any of the game left at that point. I feel this is EXTREMELY overrated and cannot recommend it despite it's recent popularity. Overall a disappointment.