Trying The Crust, a space basebuilder.
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Trying The Crust, a space basebuilder. It's got some generic AI characters and really, really boring, offputting tutorial writing where rather than tell you what to do, they spend minutes bickering and being sexist at each other. The voice acting sounds real, which is astonishing, because the writing sounds fake.
It seems like it might be a fun game, but I'm just gonna play it in sandbox. This story mode seems like a real trainwreck.
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But it was funny: when I hit alt-F4, AI-bot-waifu-2948 (1993 strong independent woman model) said "WAIT-"
... Which I think was going to be the next line of the tutorial story, presumably something like "WAIT, ROBERT YOU SEXIST ASS I AM A STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN" followed by Robert saying "WELL WELL WELL A WOOOOMAN YOU REMIND ME OF MY EX WIFE SHE WAS ALSO AN INCOMPETENT GIRL-GIRL WITH COOTIES"
But it was very fun to hear the game squawk as if panicked about me quitting.
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I wish more people understood that a tutorial needs a very light touch on the character bickering shit.
Characterization works fine when I'm playing, when it's in the background.
But when characterization is literally forcing me to do nothing in the desperate hope that eventually you'll say "W moves the camera up. Press W to move the camera up three times. Good. S moves the camera down. Press S-"
Gotta say, not a fan.
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I do like the idea of the game. It seems you run two simultaneous bases - one on the surface, and one in a cave deep underground. That seems like it could lead to a lot of fun things.
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I remember Robert's name and not the AI-bot-waifu's name because he's Robert the Construction Manager.
Get it. har har har. sigh.
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OHHHH. Apparently the next line was "WAIT, WHAT'S THAT-"
Followed by an asteroid impact that kills everyone!
Hahahah, but I cared soooo muuuuuch about those chaaaaracters, hah.
OK, fine, I'll try story mode a bit.
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AWWW mfer. It turns out AI-Bot-Waifu didn't die. Sigh...
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Yeah, fuck you too AI-bot.
The human response might be something like "that took a bit, were you injured? Is your equipment OK?"
But no, AI-Bot-Waifu 0734217047 Strong Independent Women (1993 model) is not programmed to do anything that could be mistaken for nonhostile.
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Sigh... I really, honestly thought she died too. That would have been so nice. Just building in peace.
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... Yeah, this script seems AI generated. But I swear they got humans to read these nonsense lines.
"Much more data would be needed to reach the conclusions."
"The conclusions"? What? What the fuck are you talking about? Nobody talks like that.
"A" conclusion, sure. "Any" conclusions, sure. "Solid" conclusions, definitely. "THE" conclusions?
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It has been THREE MINUTES since the moon was hit by a meteor. How are people already out of resources? It's not even like "debris rained down on earth", it's like "we panicked and ate all our batteries when the moon flashed."
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How the fuck is one guy and one - well, she's presumably intended to be a gal - on the moon supposed to supply EARTH? Sane writing would definitely have us just struggling to survive until earth sends us supplies.
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The voice actress KEEPS SAYING SILICONE.
It's silicon. Not silicone. How did the director not point this out? She keeps saying it wrong. Over and over.
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And this voice actor said "assign mining drones to the EVACUATION"
This is definitely human voice acting, at least.
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... "EARTH IS IN TROUBLE! PEOPLE ARE OUT OF SUPPLIES! dedicate your entire facility to manufacturing steel for an aerospace corporation, that will maximize ROI."
This seems like a really... soulless game. Like, everyone bickers and nobody thinks of anything besides optimizing profits.
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OHHHH, there's a kind of stone that you can't excavate. They don't tell you that, though. They just tell you to excavate 90 stone and then won't tell you why no stone is being excavated.
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NPC: "OUR SPACE SHIP EXPLODED! OH MY GOD! WE'RE GONNA CRASH!"
NPC: "Save those people, we'll give you the resources. They'll make GREAT slave miners."
Only available button: "I have some questions."
AI-Bot Waifu: "I DON'T SHARE YOUR DOUBTS BECAUSE I AM A STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN (1993 MODEL) BUILD THAT SHIT ASSHOLE!"
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...? Did the writing just... forget that CRUST literally said they'd cover the entire bill and give us slave miners? Why does this guy think it's a bad idea?
And he wants us to ship metal to an aerospace corporation. I don't think that will even reach earth, presumably they've got a space presence...
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Oh, good, the other 915 people that magically survived on the moon where everyone died are now each independently chiming in to bicker about whether we should save the people in exchange for money, resources, slave miners, and technology, or if we should... uh, not? Because we are against... al...truism?
You know, the altruism of being paid an enormous amount and getting a free workforce.
The writing is SO BAD.
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Wait, holy shit, they are giving me the choice. And the choice is literally "unlock the concept of research and gain a workforce" vs "get some money".
???? Who... would choose money? WHAT USE IS MONEY? WE'RE STRANDED ON THE FUCKING MOON.