So I was prepared to have absolutely no interest in this game AT ALL. It was marketed to people clearly in another demographic from me, and I didn't like the first game all that much (which I suppose was most people). The only thing I was curious about was the concept of a virtual San Francisco/Oakland. Having grown up around there and worked there for 28 years, it was an interesting curiosity.
Well, I ended up buying the game during a bout of extreme homesickness. I watched some of the Giant Bomb Quick Look and was like ... hey, I actually recognize some of the landscape and architecture! I kinda wanted to see firsthand just how much they did or didn't do. And with all the heaviness of late, given current political events and the slow deathmarch of our democracy down the path of corporate control, surveillance, and privacy invasion, I needed something a little hopeful and lighthearted on that subject, even if it's just a dumb hacker fantasy. Which this totally is.
But while the game definitely leans into its millennial-ness a little hard, I'm actually having a great time with it. The characters are less two-dimensional than I thought they'd be, and the social commentary isn't even as hamfisted (thus far) as expected. It's actually a little spooky how close a lot of this stuff is to actual current events, even though there's plenty of stretching, obviously goofy stuff, and things the game seems unwilling to come out and say. Still, it's interesting to see a mainstream video game attempt to touch on some of this stuff in a more concrete way. No idea how any of that holds up in the long run, but I'm pleasantly surprised for now.
Gameplay is about what you'd expect. It's an open world game, with all the stuff that comes with that, though it emphasizes stealth and gives a lot more in the way of non-violent options, which I appreciate. It's kind of weird that it doesn't force more of that. You can still just run around doing the usual weird open world psychopath stuff just for the hell of it, which is completely at odds with the motives of the characters (and you can steal from people's bank accounts, steal cars, sick the cops or gangs on people, all that kind of stuff, which doesn't really seem to jive with their story motives either). But of course you can just choose to avoid doing that, so I'm playing it straight, especially since I generally feel like combat is far and away the weakest part of games like this.
But all that aside, the coolest part for me is the world itself. They did a fantastic job recreating a virtual version of the Bay Area. It doesn't try to be totally real, of course, but they really put in work trying to get lots of recognizable stuff in there. San Francisco landmarks are definitely in full effect (Transamerica building, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, probably lots of stuff I haven't seen yet), and the approaches to various places often look about right (bridges especially), but they even got a lot of the little Oakland details in there, which I really didn't expect. Some of the views from the freeway look surprisingly accurate, they recreated the Federal Building downtown almost exactly, there's a good copy of the Tribune Building, and one of the Grand Lake Theater (plus the lake itself). I used to work down there for years, and I even found the city center where there are a bunch of shops and restaurants. It doesn't look 100% like the real thing, and has some embellishments and alterations, but it was recognizable to me just by sight due to the shape and layout. They even recreated the fountain where I used to have lunch all the time with the two chicks I was friends with at that job, and if you head up the stairs from there, there's a little plaza that looks about like the real thing, and then if you keep going you're straight on into the Federal Building. They recreated Jack London Square too, where I took my first girlfriend on one of our first dates, and I walked past an underground parking garage where I used to park, and a big structure taking the place of the Barnes and Noble where I bought my first full nice set of the LOTR books as a kid. They've got the big blue building across from that, which looks more or less just like I remember, and there's a not-quite representation of a restaurant my family has used for years. My aunt had both an engagement party and a major birthday party there.
I used to go to a jazz club around there too, and while I'm sure they didn't include a detail THAT small, it's still surprising how much they did manage to include. And it was such an interesting experience seeing all this stuff. Driving over the bridge to the city, walking around Sausalito (not especially geographically accurate from what I know of the place, but they got the vibe down ... I had friends who lived there, and took my ex-wife there for dinner several times back in the day), taking the San Rafael bridge back toward Oakland and seeing the oil refineries on the way back in. It was really something. It made me simultaneously horribly homesick and comforted at feeling—on some small level—like I was home.
Anyway, it's a hell of a thing. I'm enjoying the game quite a bit, but am more than a little impressed by the work that went into building the world. It looks gorgeous on PC, and as ashamed as I am to admit it, I'm having a little too much fun taking selfies in front of places I know. I already have like 25 or something.
