Vendetta: Rise of a Gangster -- Reinvented

Well, I suppose you know what i will.vote I don’t like at all Hellions, and I normally skip all because is a direct conflict with what i do and what i think my character is . It is well written don’t get me wrong, it could be wonderful for a tv script or a traditional nobel. However, for a game as interactive and based upon create your character is something i don’t want to read due it will damage my head canon and is not mater that really matters in the game like i will play it. (I don’t ask you to remove it because it is commercially a great idea for most of people who loves have a preset character.)

And the non hellion The tail scene is just annoying and harms my patience.

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The confrontation with the tail is kind of abrupt and lacks the same weight and impact that most of the other options possess. I don’t dislike the scene, but I don’t know if it adds much besides an opportunity for some quick cash, or in the case of more…paranoid MCs, disproportionate violence.

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This is a tough one and the game is generally engrossing enough that I don’t really dislike any of it.

In the current demo the barbershop scene always felt a bit shoehorned and superfluous to me. But then in the current demo the newspaper is always the same, if the newspaper actually shows some of the mc’s deeds, particularly related to the revenge for Billy scenes it would be a much better scene for those of us who don’t like beating up obnoxious old guys just for being obnoxious.

As for the Flashback, I already said in the original beta I didn’t much like the forced and implied heterosexual fumbling it has the character do, just because it comes before we can set our mc as gay.

The Truck hijacking just was the least engrossing demo chapter plot-line for me. There’s nothing wrong with it per se other then that I found it less engrossing compared to all the other alternatives. But that is likely due to my own idiosyncratic tastes.

I suppose if you don’t like clothes or cute guys in general you’d need to date Adamo to really see how cute and awesome he is. :thinking:
It seems likely one of the other gay ro’s may be more to your liking then.

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I am not gay and i found Adamo cool and that but i love clothing so maybe that’s reason. And he is cute

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Same as me, i hate to cover for and accept that substance from Dino, and sometimes he even shots me…what ???

and @Vendetta , i also hate the drunken sailor alley scene He almost falls into your arms and you instinctively reach out to steady him, only to be rewarded with the stench of stale gin and tooth rot as he belches mightily in your face. “Pard’n,” he mutters gruffly, swaying on his feet, then his eyes roll up in his head and he topples over backwards, ending up spread-eagled among the garbage in the alleyway, out cold.

I was hoping i can had a more interesting encounter in the alley …but this was demotivating :slight_smile:

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I really like the barbershop scene. There’s tons of opportunities for good roleplay. Mainly, it cemented how important respect is to Benny Luciano. He respects old customs by letting his facial hair grow wild during the mourning period, and he balks at disrespecting a proprietor in his own shop by picking a fight with Smelly Guy. But once they’re out on the street, he’s more than happy to drag Smelly Guy into an alley and beat the living daylights out of him for the insult.

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The options during The Tail’s scene are to me either a bit too extreme or too nothing. Id prefer a more middle ground option or the possibility to try to learn a bit more, be it with interrogation or any other way.

It’s similar with the conversation with Nick, you have to decide to take revenge right now or not at all. My MCs usually would want to think a bit more on it, decide if the payback must be of the lethal kind or not necessarily so, do it now or wait a while, since they are just settling back on the neighborhood and don’twant to have it screw up the investigation on Ginas murder. I end up mostly choosing to abandon revenge or enlisting Rosie’s help.

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Hmmm…maybe that’s true, but it is for the sorts of characters I don’t like to play that much, so having a more immersive newspaper would make that scene fun for me too, instead of being something I have to skim forward through on repeat playthroughs to get to the fun stuff. None of my mc’s ever take the bait from smelly guy, though Union Organizer and Political Bagman do leave the mourning beard. My college boy is or at least has become less in touch with his roots, after having spend at least five years away from the neighbourhood. Plus he never was a traditionalist and he mourns Gina in his own way and regularly goes to place fresh flowers on her grave at least once a week himself.
Of the three he is also the most dedicated in pursuing Gina’s case.

To my College boy and Union Organizer she’s simply and employee, not a friend. While none of them have any objections to meeting her parents they also wouldn’t go out of their way to do so.
My main, college boy mc in particular is quite careful about who lets in close. Those people are likely to consist of Adamo, Rosie and maybe eventually Felipe, Louis and/or Nick. This becomes even more of an issue in the redesign where the people sufficiently close to the mc know them for who they really are courtesy of the new mentality stat. Having too many people too close is an unacceptable weakness, though everybody needs some friends.

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If our MC successfully gives Carina a job, can we meet her thankful family?

Also, if we have high benevolence and high business, can we gain respect for helping young girls and women find “respectable” employment by hiring them for our businesses (or adding them to our gang)?

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Actually, and this is from the old demo, if you were dating her and were serious, you would actually speak with her father for her hand in marriage.

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I just played through the WIP for the first time in several years. It’s shorter than I remember, so I must not have played it since it was cut down to a demo. Nevertheless it’s still as fun as ever, with the same dark, gritty feel I always loved. I’ve only played it once through so far, but it seemed kind of odd at the end when despite meeting Lucinda at the bathhouse, discussing Gina with her over a meal afterward, and paying off her debt with the loanshark, the game acts as if I’m meeting her for the first time at the funeral. I also wondered why instead of just giving her the money to pay off Joey DeGrazio, you couldn’t hire her, or at least offer to hire her, the same way you could Carina.

One thing that struck me as a little odd was the $20 cover-charge past 10pm at The Kitten Club when McGeeghan sends you over. This is the 1920’s and $20 as a cover charge seems astronomical for that period. Or is it more than just a cover-charge? Another thing that stood out to me is that Chuck only attends your sister’s funeral if you’ve met him. He was aware of her death before you met him, so it seems surprising that he skips his own niece’s funeral unless he’s spoken to you. Finally, the text blurb along with the fact that it has the highest rewards of all the options makes me much more suspicious that Nick Morello was hiding something with respect to Gina’s death, than I otherwise would have been.

I’ll answer the poll questions after a few more play-throughs when I’ve fully refamiliarized myself with all of the scenes in question.

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I could be wrong, cause I never pick Chuck often, but I’m pretty sure they’re not related by blood. Think he goes out of courtesy more so.

Again; I could be wrong, but I believe Lucinda has bigger ambitions then just working at a bar. If I’m correct, she tells you she wanted to be a singer.

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The Barbershop:

This seems… unnecessary. Is there a benefit to having a haircut and shave? Having a haircut lets us deal wtih Smelly Guy, and not visiting gives an increase of intimidation.

Dream-memory flashback:

The MC was younger then, but I sometimes half-wished for an option to retreat instead. Like when Jimmy Russo asks for our opinion, can’t we hand-signal a retreat? (Of course, Jimmy would disagree and I think Intimidation would decrease). Perhaps this should be available for cowardly MCs?

The Dino interactions:

In this scene, we don’t exactly have a choice: Dino kills us if we say no. Can’t there be an option to fight him off, at least long enough for the cops to arrive?

Encountering Vinnie Mangano:

I don’t like how being in the Diner but not going with him doesn’t allow us to make the choice between Spider MacGeeghan and Furio Rossi. Also, not sure if it’s intentional, but suspicion increases by quite a bit.

The Diner/Donna:

Not all MCs have this scene. Was it your intention to make one, and only one RO on a single playthrough?

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First you (as the MC) acknowledge that he is somehow related to your mother, but you’re not sure how because Gina wouldn’t let him anywhere near you. Then he calls her his niece when you speak to him. After that you acknowledge her as his niece in your thoughts. So I suppose it’s possible he’s simplifying the family connection and making it sound more direct than it is (eg. 3rd cousin once removed), but he could also be her and the MC’s actual uncle whom she wanted nothing to do with and would not allow to visit because of his criminal ways. The story isn’t clear on this.

She does have bigger ambitions, and her dream is to be a famous dancer. But she needs money badly, that’s why she took a second job at the bathhouse, a job she seriously does not like, but it’s better than having her kneecaps broken by DeGrazio. Given her natural gregariousness, I’m certain she’d enjoy being a barmaid or hostess more than her demeaning job at the bathhouse. The only two real issues are how the pay compares, and the fact that it would probably only be temporary, until she pays her loan off. Still, until her dancing career really takes off, if it ever does, she might be willing to stay on at least on a part-time basis for when Carina is off or things are especially busy. (This assumes the MC will get to meet and hire Carina even if you don’t pick both the VIP treatment and select her as your masseuse at the bathhouse.)

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Well, as @Vendetta said, we’ll run into her in the future so who knows :man_shrugging:t5:

Vendetta more or less has confirmed that for the new demo, especially for female MC.

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Yes, the mc looks presentable. Still for my mc’s getting a new haircut for the funeral could have been mentioned in a throwaway line as it stands, as other then the mourning beard for my Political Bagman and Union organizer the current barbershop scene is perhaps the least significant in the demo for me. I understand that in the new demo the newspaper may be more dynamic and cover some of our mc’s exploits, such as in my case O’Hara getting arrested and jailed again as well as the factory payroll heist. Since reading in-game news about my mc’s exploits always feels like a reward of sorts too that is what is probably what is going to make the barbershop scene relevant and worthwhile for my mc’s in the new version.
Sadly that one isn’t here yet and therefore the current scene still feels lackluster in comparison with most of the rest of the demo to me.

It also makes me wonder why a cutie like Felipe is there too? :thinking: Since “Big Jim” does not seem to be a very good or even decent employer.

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Maybe Felipe is there because he needs the money and didn’t want to/ couldn’t work in a factory or have an apprenticeship/ join a family business?

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That sounds about right.

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while it’s not listed the bit at the beginning the life philosophy scene has always bothered me a bit. It’s weird that having more sympathy for your fellow man also changes your sexuality.

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Massive thanks, guys – lots of thoughtful (and thought-provoking) stuff to bear in mind there. While some of the issues raised have already been dealt with in the new version during the rewrite earlier this year – as a result of older feedback – some niggling bits mentioned are however still present and I’ll definitely have another think about those.

The poll itself is also beginning to show some useful results and will be open for a few more days yet, so if you haven’t already participated, or have any further thoughts to share, please don’t hesitate.

In the meanwhile, I’ll answer the queries to date and elaborate on some points:

Yep, one of those early harsh “object lessons” which seemed such a good idea back then, but which has since been toned down a little. An early death may still be on the cards – that short fuse of his! – but is now a little more avoidable (to correct this type of “one right option” noob design error found in some early scenes written back in 2012, of which this particular Dino scene is a prime example).

Still, as a general rule, the only way to really avoid actually dying from “dumb decisions” more often than not will be to toggle the new Game Difficulty level from Bite the Bullet down to Take it Easy.

It is now possible to decide straight away that the whole Hellions / past history / Billy the Nose thing means virtually nothing to your current MC. If you choose this option, you won’t that night suffer the Hellions flashback nightmare, and you don’t awaken feeling the need to avenge Billy. It naturally makes Chapter One quite a bit shorter, but I have at least made sure that you don’t suffer too unfairly in terms of stats. In particular, Nick Morello is especially pleased with your decision to leave the past behind you, and that closer relationship boost can be a considerable advantage as the story unfolds – especially in particular situations which previously required both extremely high Persuasion ability and a very good Awareness, which is quite a rare combination to achieve without specifically aiming for it.

Very perceptive. In Vendetta there’s no such thing as a free lunch. You do still, however, have freedom of choice – any obligation you may (or may not) feel will be entirely down to how you play your MC.

This is one of those minor “roleplaying” scenes – to help determine the type of character you’ve playing – although originally more in your own mind than anything. With the new Morality stat it of course becomes a little more important in the longer-term, but is still deserving of some tweaks in the narrative. It feels… rushed, even to me (and probably was, when originally written!).

Very much another “roleplaying” scene (as others have mentioned), and again, something to help guide early Morality changes in an appropriate direction, so useful for cumulative extremes. The newspaper now forms more of a kinda mid-Chapter “Reflections” piece rather than just highlight the growing local booze war.

A tricky one, but I do have one or two ideas about this, so let’s see how it goes…

That’s a tough one as it’s a clearly contrived introduction for a later significant advantage. There is of course always the option not to go to his rescue, but to actually assist in his mugging… Maybe I should also just allow you to rob him yourself, in disgust, when he passes out – and just leave him there? Open to suggestions, but that scene is too important in the game (in terms of later consequences, one way or the other) to simply remove.

At present, only if you pursue her romantically. Being an old-fashioned girl, you have the opportunity to approach her father and seek his approval / blessing to date her. If successful, and if you stay together, this ultimately leads on to the real benefit of Carina as an RO – her working for you at the Pool Hall is just an early bonus, and is now available to all regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Lucinda is not specifically mentioned in the funeral scene unless you actually met her earlier (same for Chuck) but granted, she doesn’t seek to intrude on that very private moment regardless. More to the point, her own grief is genuine – unlike most of the other Kittens, perhaps – and as kind as you may have been to her, just then the only thing on her mind is Gina.

Chuck doesn’t even attend the funeral unless you saw him earlier at his place. I’ll leave you guys to draw your own conclusions.

This should become clearer a little later (when you have cause to revisit the Club in a different capacity to that of a simple patron) but in brief, it’s a deliberate excessive charge to clear the place in readiness to make room for the late night, regular rich clientele “down from the river wards” – to whom $20 is a small price to pay for not having to rub elbows with ordinary folk. Pete Rossi knows his business well.

Hmm. Too much of a giveaway - thanks. :wink:

Yes, the option was never made available because she would have refused… but on reflection, perhaps either the option should be there anyway, or at least the MC be blessed with that particular insight in the actual narrative, otherwise it does seem like an oversight.

Yes. Sorry, I can’t elaborate – too much of a spoiler, but if you really think about it you can probably figure it out. There are very few actual “totally meaningless” options in Vendetta, no matter how inconsequential they may appear to be!

Hmm. Under the circumstances, it might not be a bad option. Sure, there would be some negative stats involved, but also some positive ones to balance out. There is no “right” or “wrong” decision in those particular circumstances, just different ways of looking at things… Thanks.

On the subjects you mention regarding Dino and Vinnie Mangano, things have changed slightly in the new version.

Yes, in terms of actual ROs, at this stage in Chapter One it’s basically a choice between one or the other. There are however other ROs later in the game – at present, fifteen in total, of different genders and orientations, but you will only ever meet them all through multiple replays, by heading down different paths / choosing different options.

It doesn’t actually change your sexuality, but it was taken by the game as one possible “hint” in that direction. For example, it caused Adamo to ‘try his luck’ even if you never approached Felipe at the Bathhouse – so also allowing for a bisexual MC…

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