Zero Parades For Dead Spies – Part 6-3
We’re so close. One last deal, and everything will be in place.
Streamed on my Twitch.
You can find Andre on his Twitch channel.
As I sit in from of my computer to type up this post, it occurs to me that CASCADE feels similar to Aiden Pearce from the original Watch_Dogs. Back when I was Let’s Playing that game as part of Interactive Friction, I remember talking about how the game seemed to want us to think Aiden Pearce was an amazing badass, someone to root for and cheer on as he enacted unimaginable cruelty.
CASCADE almost comes across as a deconstruction of that same concept. She enacts cruel and horrific behaviors upon others, manipulating and using them as she sees fit and then discarding them when they are no longer useful, all in accordance with her mission, much as Aiden Pearce did. We’re often rewarded for this. In fact, the best ending can only come from inflicting the worse possible scenario upon an unsuspecting crowd.
However, we see the stress and toll this takes on her mechanically. She is a disaster barely holding on through numerous chemical addictions. When other characters are confronted with what they enabled by working with us, they’re horrified.
And yet, I don’t know if it goes far enough. I can see the design team attempting to tug at my heartstrings and make a point, but it never lands for me.
I don’t leave this game with strong feelings about it the way I did with ZA/UM’s last game.
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