Sorry, it’s been years and I don’t really remember any details. I just picked somewhere that looked interesting found out some info. Then in subsequent runs I opted to head in different directions and they kept revealing information that pointed me back to where I had been the first time.

I totally agree with the exception of the music. I know what you mean because there is minimal music in the “open world” parts of the game, but the actual songs made for the actually interesting places are bangers.

I agree, but I would go beyond just “a game I don’t like” to a much more controversial “this game is actually terribly designed”.

Because of the way it’s designed it’s possible to randomly end up with a completely awful experience that ruins its “one time” playability for forever. I know this because it’s what happened to me. In my very first time out I ended up at like a 70% progression point to the final answer. Not because I’m “smart” or “good” mind you, I just got “lucky”. But it’s not actually lucky, because it now means 70% of the game is useless to me. It won’t help me get closer to the answer and it will (very frustratingly) take me back to where I’ve already been.

I think most people would counter saying the world itself is interesting/worth exploring on its own. But in one run I didn’t at all become engaged with the world itself (which is very reasonable). Certainly not enough to give a fuck about trying to go out and learn about it for its own sake. If it had taken me more runs to actually make progress then maybe I would’ve become engaged tangentially while working towards my goals. But alas. And FWIW, I did more than one run. I think overall I played the game for 3ish hours before getting fed up with going in circles.

If random chance can render most of your game not worth exploring, that’s bad design. Flat out.

Nope, youre right, playbook is the right term. Got it mixed up with chef.

Since no one has mentioned it yet -

If you haven’t tried setting Synapse up with the ansible playbook you should. It’s almost push-button and has 1:1 voice calls by default. Setting up group voice from there is a bit challenging, but the playbook has a section for it as well if you’re willing to try.

Edit: cookbook - > playbook

Just to emphasize, this is the correct answer

For those interested in the etymology of the party names at the top:

The democrat side uses the characters “the people”, “lord”, and “party”. My interpretation is “the people are in charge party”, which makes sense because democracy is “the rule of the people”.

The republican side uses the characters “share”, “peace”, and “party”. To me, this one doesn’t have an interpretation that obviously links to republicanism.