Featuring: Cyberpunk 2077, Anno: Mutationem
FULL SPOILERS: Basic story knowledge is assumed
Still on that Cyberpunk grind, for the most part. I finally got around to paying Rogue and kicking off the Badlands quest line, but not before knocking out most of the level one fixer jobs. I like the Badlands as an area, and I like the activities that take place there - especially since I'm playing a Nomad - but I'm not such a big fan of Panam as a character. I know, I know. People love her. I think she's the most popular romance option. And I don't dislike her. I like that she and V become friends, especially at a time when V really needs them. But - aside from not really liking a lot of her line delivery - Panam is pretty ... needy. You know what I mean. I'm sent to approach her with a way to help both of us and she immediately wrangles me into an additional revenge mission. Okay, fair enough. In Night City revenge isn't a dish best served cold, it's more like fast food. Helping a friend get even is like helping them move or picking them up from the airport. A bit of a pain in the ass? Sure, but usually not too bad of a time, and you know they'd do it for you. But then once the main path Badlands missions are wrapped up and you head home to the city, she starts calling in favors she hasn't earned with alarming frequency. Within 24 hours of our last meeting she calls asking me to help rescue her clans leader. Once that's done I'm barely back in the city before I get a call from her clan mate Mitch inviting me to his friends funeral - not strictly Panam's fault, but I feel obligated to attend to it immediately since I know this mission will disappear if I don't handle it before the next time Panam calls - which is imminent.
On top of that I've got side missions coming out of my ears - Elizabeth Peralez cold calls, asking me to solve the Mayor's murder. A day after that's dealt with the Detective I worked with calls me up begging for help finding his missing nephew. One of my Fixer contacts calls me with a hit job, then the Peralez's need more help investigating a break in. My favorite sentient Taxi driver Delamain loses control of his subroutines so I have to go deal with that. Unfortunately, because I've triggered this mission earlier than I usually do and I haven't levelled up Intelligence enough, I have to choose between destroying him or his AI offspring, a choice I genuinely agonized over before ultimately deciding to set his kids free. All of this - including the Panam stuff - takes place over the course of about three days, in game.
I knew that finishing the Badlands main questline was a trigger for multiple side quests, but I'm never quite prepared for the deluge that opens up. Now that that's all behind me the main story is at a standstill, waiting for me to call Mr. Hands and move things along. Takemura's next mission to infiltrate the parade is also available, I think that's something new since the Phantom Liberty expansion came out. Before that I'm pretty sure he didn't call until you've wrapped up the other two questlines - Pacifica and the Badlands - in their entirety. Since it ends with him kidnapping Hanako Arasaka I'm going to wait until I'm good and ready before starting it, yet again requiring me to head canon my way through in order to make sense of why this massive parade is politely waiting until I'm ready before it starts. This is what I was complaining about when I mentioned all the progression issues this game has.
Aside from Cyberpunk I've also been playing a game called Anno: Mutationem, which is also in the cyberpunk genre. Weird name. Not really sure where the "em" comes in. When I google 'Mutationem' this game is the first result so I guess they just made it up for some reason. It's made by a Chinese developer so it's possible it's just a translation thing. Hell, maybe it's an SEO scam. If so it certainly worked on me.
Pretty fun so far. It's a small indie team - AA, if that - but there's quality there. The art is a mix of 2D pixel and 3D environments and is actually pretty nice. The combat is solid. It's a 2D side scroller which isn't what I normally go for but there's some semi-open world exploration in there too. I'm about four hours in, not sure how much more of it I'll play but for now it's holding my interest.
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