Hello, first time poster but I’ve been following the series for a while. I normally try to find unique combinations and secrets when I’m playing, and though I have one run I consider ‘main’ (a 4.2, too cautious to meet HG without armor) I’ve got literally a dozen tied for second place. I’ll be coming at it a little bit with that perspective.
1.2.1: I like the variation in the path based on what Mortum has been told, whether he knows Sidestep was using Ace as a puppet, or who Ace was to begin with. I do wish we’d been able to interact with Sky-Raider himself some, he seems like a fun villain from what we’ve heard. I know all variables aren’t implemented yet, but a conversation about the regenerator feels like it would be one of the things Sidestep would want to talk about even with the need for rest - even if it’s just an offhand comment when discussing the regene tattoos. Based on the epilogue of retribution, Mortum should have had some time to at least tell us more about what it could do or what kind of technology it’s using that got it banned.
1.2.2: Possibly my favorite of the 1.2 paths, Dove and Armadillo are some fun characters, especially if your villain is a thief (and even extra bonus content for Rosie getting jealous Dove broke you out instead of her!). It feels like they’re going to become even more significant when the SD comes to town, hopefully we can get a good working relationship with them by then.
1.2.3: Drama and arguments in the middle of a breakout scene, what’s not to love? I haven’t checked all the paths in the demo, but I don’t recall seeing special text for if Ortega has different dialogue depending on whether the villain is frightening/suspicious/nemesis. When Ortega insists you’ll talk later, it would be interesting to be able to choose to say something like “Once my legs are healed, I’ll be targeting X location,” so you two can have a fight or a “fight” while exchanging banter and possibly flipping Ortega to your side if you’ve got enough doubt planted.
1.2.4: Love the interactions between Danny and Boris, in general not a lot of comments about what’s present. Something I’d think of adding is the option to try try to train him in mental shields - after all, even if he doesn’t know where your base is, he knows a lot you don’t want getting out. Especially a hero hunter (prepare them) or anyone working as his coach might be paranoid enough to want Herald to have some defense against any SD telepaths, or Hollow Ground (not that normal mental discipline seems like it would be enough, since Steel was threaded, but it might give some level of psychological comfort).
1.2.5: Again, this path seems like it could have the option for a conversation about the regenerator, depending on where it’s at and who has it. Other than that, a lot of fun banter.
1.2.6: Interesting content with Rosie and Boris both here, and Chen with a lot of doubt seems surprisingly like the one to possibly flip sides first. I’d like an option to notice the red thread in his mind - if you’ve seen it in Jake and/or when shaking Hollow Ground’s hand, you’d know what to look for, and when you talk about Ortega during the car ride that might let a puppetmaster/high subtle Sidestep notice that Chen still thinks HG’s a boogeyman. Even if you don’t have the time to remove it right away safely, knowing it’s there early on might change how you go about things.
4.2: A lot of different options for this, overall I really like the ability to hop into the plot and get an infiltration/action sequence in addition to the dialogue. I don’t think there’s an option to not destroy the dampeners, which, if your villain persona isn’t known as a telepath, would out them to Hollow Ground. I get that most people would want them destroyed anyway, but maybe add an option for the villain who wants to keep their mental abilities as an ace up their sleeve - forcing HG to hop in a car and driving out of their range, disguising the damage as some general property vandalism, or even just leaving them on and dealing with being head-blind and trying to coax HG out of the bedroom via some other means.
Speculation and wishlisting: I don’t think something’s ‘in’ the puppet/our body, I instead think the puppeting process doesn’t work how Sidestep thinks it does. The different flavors of imposter seem to correspond with our mental state, I think spending so long in the body essentially allowed it to rebuild its neural pathways, but they’re a mixture of Ace’s and our own. I’m looking forward to the potential drama, especially for my mirror image Sidestep/Ace who are each romancing Ortega. For the 1.1 paths, one of my villains is an anarchist called Anathema with enhanced armor (for the invulnerability) and telepathic boosters (but not known as a telepath, to use the nanovores more and have disintegration touch), and I get captured at the auction and escape with the rat king piloting the armor. I would love to be able to lie to Ortega and say that it’s totally Anathema back from the grave, even if a minute of thinking about it would unravel it. I’m looking forward to learning more about Sky-Raider, Dove, and Armadillo; it also sounds like we’re going to get some Mortum reveals. I’m guessing our base’s defenses (rangers’ homes if innocent) will be tested, maybe by the Special Directive, maybe by Lord Ember. Hope the mob boss’ gang will keep Marcia safe. It also seems like we’re going to get a Guardians and Rangers team-up against us, which might be the fight all the doubts we’ve sown can get some (all?) of them to join us; that’s going to be a fun climax.
Overall, looking forward to more, I’ll probably become a patron if I can scrounge up the spare cash.
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Will it include all the endings where MC got stuck in the puppet?
