The death cutscenes were absolutely gratitudous in the first entry, but honestly, if you can get past that the whole series is quite good and it's really great storytelling and acting watching Laura arc from terrified recent college graduate put into unthinkable situations that she must find a way to survive all the way to cocky know-it-all who must literally nearly end the entire world and accidentally kill many countless innocent people to finally find hubris and actually start being a decent human being

[–] LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I did watch someone else play it (they cut out a lot of the death scenes). I liked the evolution of the character, as she grew despite being put in situations that were wilder than what any normal college graduate would face in the real world. Learning from her decisions, and not being broken by them, is something that I admire about the character building of Laura. I hope any future games won't have those gratuitous as fuck death scenes or that lead dev dude who wanted players to feel 'protective' over Laura (dude was a weirdo).

[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

lead dev dude who wanted players to feel ‘protective’ over Laura (dude was a weirdo).

Oh yuck!

The good news is past the first game the death cutscenes are far less gratuitous, and honestly as long as you've got decent enough reactions you don't see very many of them. The third game in particular puts a ton of effort into being respectful, including for example, actually having NPCs speak in local languages with English subtitles rather than a crowd in Mexico City all speaking English for example

[–] LostWanderer@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 13 hours ago

That's another detail that I loved, natural spoken language felt like an immersive choice, which served to make me feel like I was part of the game (even though I was watching someone else play). It sucks that more games don't do this, especially if they are set in foreign places.