Well, yes. If you want to completely bypass the narrative sequence, you can't expect the story to accommodate that. The devs don't have unlimited resources. They're not going to have a completely new secret main quest where you didn't get shot and activate the chip, or where you and Jackie jumped into the sea and then sold the relic. Some games might allow more of that but their storytelling almost always suffers for it.
And i agree with this. Thing is, you entirely missed my point there, though.
The point is not that i want "another secret main story line". The point is that i want them to not fail with barriers which are placed to keep the player doing as intended.
As per above examples:
- since it must be impossible to jump off into the sea, then do NOT remove the insta-killing field few floors below until the end of the quest, yes?
- since it must be impossible to go via vertical ladder V and Jackie initially go towards, then prevent the player from being able to get back to it after jumping down, for example by adding an invisible wall above the spot where V and Jackie land after being shot, right after they go in, yes?
- since it must be impossible for V to avoid being knocked out by Dex's bodyguard and then shot dead by Dex, don't put the player in a situation where it seems one can avoid melee contact with the bodyguard: instead, for example have the quest to require V to go into the bathroom, have the door closed and then cutscene the punch as V exits the bathroom. And remove the possibility to never go into the bathroom while at it, of course.
Etc.
It's really widespread issue through the main story, not just the Heist quest and Meredith's ways as per 1st post in this topic. Like trying to drop all the attackers during Alt abduction scene. Like massive "walker" mech appearing outta thin air if the player is good enough to storm and overpower the four arasaka goons in Kompeki's hall during the escape. Like practical V's immortality during the chase scene right after V crawls outta the landfill, to the point it's possible to end up waking up in V's appartment with 0 health (and yet alive), with UI broken as a result in more than one way. The list goes on and on.
Oh and that said, in case of the Heist, i wouldn't actually be that much surprised if developers would actually implemented that "alternative way out" by jumping off the roof, with Jackie never shot, with the relic never damaged within Konpeki premises. It all could still easily be "wrapped back into" the following events by just one extra sequence in No Tell Motel, as follows:
- V and Jackie with intact relic come in;
- Dex is still pissed off about Soburo's death, and still tries to off V and Jackie with the help of his bodyguard;
- Jackie and V manage to win the fight, with Jackie suffering no major injury, but V suffering a bullet to the head;
- then Jackie calls Evelyn, asks what to do about seemingly dying V and dead Dex, to which Evelyn realises she'd never sell the relic with Dex and Soburo killed and Yorinobu involved in it all, and thus suggests plugging the relic to V, as a last resort try to maintain V's vitals.
There we go, everything would be the same, except Jackie would be not dead. By the time V is back in action after Viktor's care, then, Jackie is still alive but on the run: as we know, Arasaka is after him, after all they come to Viktor's and take Jackie's body if V tells Delamain to deliver his body to Viktor's (this is actually in the game, if you didn't know). So in this extra "Jackie survives" extra line, Jackie would be in hiding and outta Night City (arasaka's wasp nest). A few messages here and there from him as the story progresses wouldn't be too much extra effort to do, yes? After all, CDPR created one very special "voice mail" response if V ever calls Jackie's number after his death, as it is in the game already.
So it's all doable, you see. Not even oh so much effort, considering the Heist is effectively one of very two most important quests in the game (the other being, of course, endings).
Especially vanguards!
