Felt the same way about CO33 as I did about Fleabag and most of the Cyberpunk 2077 endings: a beautifully-crafted opportunity for sincere moralistic commentary that stumbles at the last hurdle because of the writers desire to indulge in some sort of pseudo-homiletical nihilism that totally fails to understand its own format. As you have noted, this is all very easily blamed on the fact that the writers are French.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I just finished the game and also found myself dissatisfied with the endings - less in terms of storytelling quality and more in regards to the values and overall meaning they seek to establish. And while you included a theological aspect in your critique and I think mine is rooted in leftist thought, in a certain sense we're annoyed by the same thing.
Verso's ending is indeed fed to us as the good one, but I find the entire scene of Dessendre family's reconcilation disturbing and callous in it's implications. We're compelled to derive some catharsis from their sense of closure, even though none of them confronts in any meaningful manner the devastating ethical implications of creating an entire race of feeling, thinking things that have agency and then letting them perish. They exist in a bubble of godlike privilege, where only their suffering and healing matter, we the players are compelled to validate it and empathize. All of that after hours and hours of embracing the ethos of not just 33, but the countless nameless expeditioners before them: "we continue" and "for those that come after us". But it's actually all bullshit: the "real" people, people with privilege and power, will just erase all of that, hug, and deal with their grief, receiving no punishment and understanding nothing. It is nihilism of a magnitude that would make Lovecraft and his elder gods blush. All one can do is stare daggers at this betrayal like Lune through the portal and wonder if this deep sense of despair and unease is something that the writers wanted - or if indeed they just failed to grasp the implications.
Friend, I have not yet played it, but your review gave me good reason to at least wait for a better price. As I read your vision, I thought I saw some kind of gnosticism cosmology in the game. Do you see it too? And you think the developers knew something about the metaphysical consequences and questions implied in their choices, or was it pure ignorance?
I liked the game a lot overall but ending was indeed a huge disappointment, especially as I'd heard great things about the story from people I respect when it comes to Video Games.
Felt the same way about CO33 as I did about Fleabag and most of the Cyberpunk 2077 endings: a beautifully-crafted opportunity for sincere moralistic commentary that stumbles at the last hurdle because of the writers desire to indulge in some sort of pseudo-homiletical nihilism that totally fails to understand its own format. As you have noted, this is all very easily blamed on the fact that the writers are French.
so glad someone smart knows what the fuck im talking about
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I just finished the game and also found myself dissatisfied with the endings - less in terms of storytelling quality and more in regards to the values and overall meaning they seek to establish. And while you included a theological aspect in your critique and I think mine is rooted in leftist thought, in a certain sense we're annoyed by the same thing.
Verso's ending is indeed fed to us as the good one, but I find the entire scene of Dessendre family's reconcilation disturbing and callous in it's implications. We're compelled to derive some catharsis from their sense of closure, even though none of them confronts in any meaningful manner the devastating ethical implications of creating an entire race of feeling, thinking things that have agency and then letting them perish. They exist in a bubble of godlike privilege, where only their suffering and healing matter, we the players are compelled to validate it and empathize. All of that after hours and hours of embracing the ethos of not just 33, but the countless nameless expeditioners before them: "we continue" and "for those that come after us". But it's actually all bullshit: the "real" people, people with privilege and power, will just erase all of that, hug, and deal with their grief, receiving no punishment and understanding nothing. It is nihilism of a magnitude that would make Lovecraft and his elder gods blush. All one can do is stare daggers at this betrayal like Lune through the portal and wonder if this deep sense of despair and unease is something that the writers wanted - or if indeed they just failed to grasp the implications.
Friend, I have not yet played it, but your review gave me good reason to at least wait for a better price. As I read your vision, I thought I saw some kind of gnosticism cosmology in the game. Do you see it too? And you think the developers knew something about the metaphysical consequences and questions implied in their choices, or was it pure ignorance?
I liked the game a lot overall but ending was indeed a huge disappointment, especially as I'd heard great things about the story from people I respect when it comes to Video Games.