Try uninstalling it and reinstalling it. worked for mine.
Been waiting for this to release for a long time and finally got around to playing through the final version.
I’ve already stated how much I love this story, the main character is extremely relateable to me, the doubt, hatred of herself and everyone around here, and fear of getting close to others hits particularly close to home. The writing is excellent, and the character relationships feels very deep and developed, it truly feels like these are characters who’s known each other for a long time and have a long and complex history together.
As for the final version, I really like how you’ve expanded the roles of Herald and Chen a bit, making them feel a lot deeper and more rounded. I particularly enjoyed Herald getting pissed at me for daring to sully Sidestep’s memory by taking her name 
I also enjoyed the inclusion of the extra scenes with Bo and Mortum, letting us get to know these characters a little better as well. I also noticed quite a bit more information and hints about the MCs backstory, which I’m pretty much taking as confirmation that my theory about her origin as a special prototype sort of command/infiltrator type re-gene is more or less correct. 
Thank you so much for this amazing story, I’ve already recommended it to most of my friends, and I’m really looking forward to the continuation. ^.^
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Just to add to what @Ventura said about the Re-Gene theory (yes again, I’m sorry) I also found something interesting.
During the last flashback scene, where our MC enters the room where the Heart Break villain is if you choose to guard your mind this comes up:
You’ve fought to become who you are today. You. Not someone else. Not someone they wanted you to be. Your own life. Your own mind.
It’s a skill you had to hone in secret for so long, making a small, secure area in your mind you could retreat to when needed. At first, it was nothing but a notion, a quiet corner of resolve. But little by little, you expanded its borders until you had created enough space to come into your own.
To be someone
It actually makes me think that the MC was an AI-prototype that somehow defied their original programming. They slowly develop a personality, goals, and aspirations and finally decided to get the hell away from the Farm. So I think they know who they are - or at least know who they wanted to be.
They build Sidestep and decided to kill them. And now they’re set on this new person, this villain because they think they have no other choice.
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Definitely with you on the hug the MC part (even though they probably wouldn’t like it 
)
But the MC did age, so organic body, but potential AI mind? Btw from the nightmare about the heartbreak incident it kind of seemed like the memories might not have completely their own.
Oh Dr. Mortum
*if (not(trans))
“Do things have to change?” You leisurely run a finger over ${mhis} skin. Strange how familiar it feels. You’re entitled to run your hands over ${mhim} at will now, to trace the scars, if not quite ask where they came from.
*if (trans)
“Do things have to change?” You leisurely run a finger over ${mhis} skin. Strange how familiar it feels. You’re entitled to run your hands over ${mhim} at will now, to trace the scars.Familiar patterns. Patterns that make you guess. Make you speculate. Maybe ${mhe} is more like you than you thought. One day you’ll ask. Or perhaps ${mhe}'ll tell. That’s not the sort of change you want to pry into uninvited.
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There is a very strong possibility that the original Sidestep might have died along with the others in the Heartbreak incident. It is consistent with the slight episodes of dissociation that is sprinkled throughout the narrative. That, and the fact that the Farm might have been successful at memory transplantation. Either way, I am interested in experiencing the perspective of a rogue Replicant, assuming that’s what the MC is.
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Bought this last night around 10pm on impulse, not really knowing much about it, thinking the demo was decent and so the game was probably worth playing tomorrow.
Played for a bit anyway and before I knew it was 5am and I’d finished the game in one sitting. I was utterly enthralled. My character’s quasi-platonic will they or won’t they unstable relationship with Ortega was absolutely charming. I honestly think it’s my favourite romance in a CoG. It’s just done so well.
My MC ended the game in the awkward position of romancing Ortega in his puppet John while having an “It’s complicated” relationship with Ortega where anytime she tries to get too close my MC pushed her away hard, because I was roleplaying as being extremely avoidant while being absolutely obsessed with Ortega as the only human being he’s ever trusted while at the same time utterly detesting how he always felt inferior to her. Maybe, just a little. In a very tsundere way.
I kind of hope they get a serious Joker/Batman vibe going on in the future. If The Joker was secretly romancing Batman in two other alternate identities.
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“It’s not like I like you or anything. Baka!”
Honestly that about sums up the romance with Ortega with the mc.
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“Charge, I want absolutely nothing to do with you anymore. Not like this John guy, he seems like a swell, well-adjusted individual who you won’t end up having to kill in battle, probably won’t fake his death to get away from you and can form a stable relationship with. Also, Mastermind, that creepy guy in the mirrored mask who obsessively hates you, is totally not either of us. Honest.”
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“So yeah remember how I used to like volunteer to help you save lives and risk life and limb for little to no pay without actually getting the benefit of being a team member ,and even followed you into a suicide mission where I inevitably died in a horrific way and disappeared for about a decade?”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah the reason I didn’t call or anything was because I couldn’t stand being a hero,it just wasn’t for me. Yup, settled for a career change. Yeah, just ignore any obvious signs of abuse and trauma around Re-Genes, doctors, the thought of wearing revealing clothes, or anything that smells like rubber and disinfectant. Completely unrelated.”
“Sounds good! Let’s get cake .”
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I might not have the lore of the setting right so salt may be needed but I honestly believe Sidestep was always a highly advanced, sentient Re-gene trained by The Farm to be used as a sleeper agent to infiltrate the Rangers. You somehow got befriended by two of them and that made things complicated, it also made you feel human for the first time.
The dissociation comes from the fact that they’re an artificial human being that’s never been allowed an identity of their own beyond the one they were assigned. Their abysmal self-esteem comes from a childhood of being taught that they were a disposable tool. Depressingly, their super villain persona was probably the only identity they’ve ever had that was truly their own. Also, their connection to Prime Directive. They never showed their face or became a full ranger because The Farm probably hoped to use the MC for future missions.
When they found the opportunity to fake their own death and truly escape The Farm, they took it. Years of social isolation, their past trauma and their newfound powers from their seemingly symbiotic bond with the possessing entity has turned them into an supervillain.
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Basically that’s what I get out of it as well.
Oh sorry, I thought it was you who said something along the lines of the MC being the actual entity encountered in the suicide mission that’s just stolen Sidestep’s body early in the thread, must’ve been someone else.
Personally, I think the entity and the MC were in a constant battle for control. Maybe being a Re-gene and/or a telepath made them difficult to possess and so the entity just gave up and decided to use them as an ally.
I now realize it was @CyberFox and it was posted not long before this. My bad!
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It would be weird though, I mean if the MC died then why do the heroes recognize their body? Besides the MC said they were uncomfortable with their body in the time they were Sidestep too so they were probably Re-Genes all along, so the only way they would die is if the farm made an exact re-gene replica of the old body.
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Nope, guess I just have one of those faces(icons?) But I feel that theory doesn’t work due to how the MC reacts to the world around them.It seems too personal to be just another ride along.
I feel like there is a connection between heartbreak and sidestep. Maybe they absorbed some of their power or something like that.
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Yeah the theory dosnt really hold up. Plus let’s face it…no one wants a dead all along thing…
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Yeah, I don’t believe the MC died either. I think we have always been a re-gene with an original organic body and an AI mind.
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Hearkbreak: telepathically touches my MC’s hand
MC:“What are we?”
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I think the “AI mind” is PR bullshit. I think Re-Genes are genetically engineered but brainwashed and conditioned to conformity.
Re-Gene teams come in units of five and I’d bet that the telepaths are trained to direct the teams as a sort of central consciousness.
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Seems to be all fine now, thanks 
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