yes, alanah pearce's mission is only available if you go nomad so i have heard
Plus I dig the idea of a former corpo who's been burnt and has an axe to grind with Arasaka teaming up with Johnny to help finish what he started using his intricate knowledge of the inns and outs of corporations to their advantage.
I'm not sure I have a gripe. Never got to know my boss, the other woman I've never even met and they boot me in 10 minutes. So … whatever, I'm a samurai now and I could not care less. It felt like starting a part time job and quitting the next day because I got a better offer. I have no attachments or feelings towards the corporation. This was a big disappointment right there form the start for me. I never got to be the corporate man, so if they throw it in my face later it will be very weird and undeserved.
Plus the fact that there are no choices in the beginning. It all just happens. I personally could make a quick decision right there on the spot to betray my boss who is stupid enough to do what he did. Give me at least something that I actively do in my life path and thus actually make it matter to me.
Being on the streets, working for fixers, is an inevitability.
Which is fine, I mean that is the point of the story that you end up being a samurai. Just that the life path, at least for the time being, does not matter because you don't get to form an attachment to it. I remember the life path being present as small story by itself. As I said, right now it does not feel like I worked for the corporation, thus there is no turnaround in my life. V makes a fuzz about it in the bar, but I as the player did not feel it.
To draw a direct comparison the separation from previous life in Deus Ex Mankind Divided was much more impactful and you got a proper intro to setup the change. So I as I player felt it too.
As a corpo, you get to experience 10 minutes of life as a corpo, more if you choose to eaves drop on all your coworkers and talk to your old acquaintance Frank. You get to decide whether a possibly compromised agent at biotech is extracted or not after assessing the risks, your computer at your desk has access to different parts of the net you won't see on any other computer, you have an assistant bringing you the reports you asked for (you get the option to harry him for being late or to just send it to you because you're in a rush) and you even have the option to be truly nasty and entitled- demanding the Mox watch your illegally parked AV, beating up the rightfully angered basket ballers you nearly landed on top of in a horrifying fashion, etc. etc. etc.
The NPCs recognize your lifepath in dialog, but thats it. Im not seeing any functional effects.
"You're just a dirtgirl from Heywood who thought she could walk few blocks away from home."
- Johnny Silverhand