The larger issue I think becomes one of how do you make players feel in someone's power in a game
that is otherwise solidly power fantasy in it's mechanics and has extremely high dev requirements?
This is an excellent point and one I think a lot about as it pertains to narrative design. As I mentioned above, and I think you agree, there are a lot of potential landmines along the path of removing player agency. When you give the player only one choice, and that choice leads to a bad outcome for the player, it feels bad. Like the player got punished for doing something they didn't want to do, that you made them do.
Someone else brought up the difference in the promotional cutscene where Dex shoots V, versus what happens in the game. That's a nice example too. Imagine that you had a cutscene in the trailer that was what happens in the game. V walks out of the bathroom, gets hit on the head, then lays on the floor looks up at Dex and says "Fuck you" while Dex casually shoots V in the head.
The cut scene doesn't look like that, because V would look like a careless punk who got thugged by a bodyguard and then let someone shoot them without even trying to fight back. Nobody would be excited to buy a game and play that character based on a scene like that. But that's the play experience.
But in the promotional cutscene V puts up a huge fight, dismembers the bodyguard, and is only taken down by someone who is clearly a skilled netrunner, who barely manages to hold V long enough for Dex to shoot them. V was a badass fighting to the last second.
That's a huge difference.
When you're going to defeat the player, it really helps to make the player feel like they were competent but overwhelmed, rather than a dummy who should have seen it coming.
Militech is definitely supposed to be a heavy hitter that steps on bugs like you.
See, that's not what's happening in this scene though. This isn't you vs Militech. This is you vs Meredith operating outside the system on some shit she should not be doing, with just the people she can trust to keep their mouths shut. She is isolated and vulnerable, which I assumed is why she's so angry and aggressive--she's scared.
As an addition, it's funny how players want more freedom but not consequences - the logical response to "I'll snipe her guards" is "get in the truck and bail, flag V for violent demise at a later date", not "stick around for cool plot options that do the same thing but make my V feel like a bigger badass." Cake and eating I suppose.
I don't disagree with you about the possible outcome of attacking the guards. I would be 100% fine with the outcome of attacking the guards being that Meredith bails and you cut off that storyline. Because then you'd have the chance to choose to walk into the lion's mouth in order to pursue that storyline, and you'd know you could have beat these guys up if you wanted to, but you've decided to let Meredith have the upper hand and see where this goes.
That's a meaningful choice and it feels very different to the player.
Do I wish we had better interactions with NPCs? Oh, absolutely. I also realize that is no small ask. But to my mind we need far more cases where the player is put in their place through a variety of tools in those conversations, and not an expanded way to be even more badass.
I really don't play games to have the experience of "being put in my place"
However, as I said, I think it is fine for players to be put in a position where they can't succeed. It's a vital part of the three act structure for the character to be down and out at some point.
What I object to is the way it is executed at places in this narrative, where you are forced into choices you know are wrong, that V should know are wrong. It's like watching someone in a film make an obviously stupid decision that gets them killed. You don't want to be that person. You don't even feel bad for them. That person is a dummy who walked into a bullet everyone in the audience could see coming.
So if the designer is going to force V to lose, the player/audience should be able to see how the situation wasn't winnable, or why V couldn't have seen that coming. It preserves (IMHO) the player's ability to identify with V.
These have gotten pretty long, but I appreciate the points you've made and thanks for taking the time to do so.