I wish there was a way to review this game saying that its fun and i loved playing it but i still wouldnt recommend it to my friends anymore. Ive LOVED playing this game, up to a certain questline later in the game.
The writing in the later Story that deals with sex trafficking of minors and/or teens is honestly atrocious. I am so disappointed by how that topic was handled/the main character spoke about it.
I want to write this review so that anyone else who's ears ring hearing that topic can get a heads up if they need it and decide if this game is still for them/they want to play until then (It starts with a quest called Amber Alert, for reference)
Light thematic Spoilers:
The writing in this questline is so bad. I am fine with goofy writing as usual, but if you discuss themes as heavy as sex trafficking that DIRECTLY MIMIC things that are currently happening irl, when real victims of these things exist, you REALLY need to be capable of writing about it in a decent way.
1: The main character refers to the victims sorrowfully as "they are someones daughters...". To those that may not understand why this is a problem, it essentially reduces women to objects in the sense that it reduces them to who they are in relation to you- not as individuals. it stems from not seeing them as individuals but needing to relate them to yourself/a man to make you care about them. you shouldnt need to equate someone to who they are to a man to care.
I know the main character is a father (which makes later stuff in this story worse) but it doesnt change the fact that the writing is such a typical way of speaking about victims that hurts victims and dehumanizes them. For example, instead of seeing a victim and writing that, it could say "they were so young" or "these poor girls" which focuses on them and not on who they are to YOU/men. he could also say "oh god theyre my daughters age" which would be more tactful way of him thinking about his own kid that doesnt *reduce* them to who they are in relation to someone else.
If youre reading this and you think this doesnt matter, im sorry , it does, it really does. When we speak about people who have been property to others, specifically men, how we speak about them is important.
2: When the victim goes on to hunt down further men that harmed her and her friends (and i want to be clear, harmed means killed, abused, sold. its quite descriptive in game)
the main character remarks that "this is going too far"/getting out of hand.
At that point, i really was stunned.
I was really hoping the main character, for the fact he has a daughter their age at least, would be a bit more...excited to help these girls clean up these rich mens remains?
Once again, all the story here is REALLY mirroring things that have happened in real life and are currently a really big topic.
To hear this man say that girl is going too far by hunting these men down just straight up made me close the game
I dont think i will play again.
Devs, if you are reading this, i really hope you improve how you talk about topics like this/writing about this. It matters, a lot.
