/me writhes.
The Great Horror of Night City is not that it moves, but that it writhes. Take a good hard look at Night City and you'll see a city that never moves. Not truly. It's always stapled in place. They use their illusion to the fullest extent and there can be no doubt in their design, but when you get on a motorcycle and ride you'll find the highways and byways are yours alone. There are no other motorcycles on night city. There are no other traveling gun fights.
In other words the City is passive. It's body is ready. It's not only that there's no motorcycles on the road at any given time it's the fact that nobody ever hunts you down, nobody ever initiates combat without your express choice. *You* have to take an action resulting in combat. V's super power is informed consent. A talent she hordes for herself.
The cops seem surprisingly leery about chasing you down regardless of any crimes you commit. You're telling me I can break into a factory, steal plans worth millions, and the cops won't even show up to say hi? There's not even a "payoff" mechanic where Wakako has to pay the police to not show up? You're telling me I can annihilate dozens of unbelievably brutal criminals and nobody will put a hit out on me? Not the Tyger Claws, not Maelstrom, nobody?
Is the City so passive I don't even warrant a drive by?
Night City is the villain of the story and it's a city that cannot be saved, but people never see that *because the city never fights back*. It writhes at you with as much menace as it can muster but always waits for you to throw that first punch. Before that it feeds you, overstuffs you even, ensures that you latch and never pulls away no matter how hard you bite.
Night City should be a leather mother that brandishes a stabbing utensil just waiting, just waiting, for you to open your milky newborn eyes. Why? Because she wants you to see. She wants you to *know* what's about to happen and she wants you to know who did it. That's Night City. Night City wants you to know.
Instead what we got was a coddling god who punishes others but never you. A passive city that takes what you'll give it, no matter how hard, and will make sure you get a second helping of your favorite sugar gob-smacked meaty-Os cereal with aphid lactate enhancement. Because it's your favorite.
Night City needs to fight back. It needs to do things to your sister. In front of your mother. It needs to be as personal as an unfinished ocular implant. No, seriously, imagine if (as a random event) during anesthesia, someone showed up and shot out Victor Vektor's upper jaw and he bled out all over you. That's what you wake up to. You would *enjoy* that.
Night City needs fellow motorcycle riders is all I'm saying.
The Great Horror of Night City is not that it moves, but that it writhes. Take a good hard look at Night City and you'll see a city that never moves. Not truly. It's always stapled in place. They use their illusion to the fullest extent and there can be no doubt in their design, but when you get on a motorcycle and ride you'll find the highways and byways are yours alone. There are no other motorcycles on night city. There are no other traveling gun fights.
In other words the City is passive. It's body is ready. It's not only that there's no motorcycles on the road at any given time it's the fact that nobody ever hunts you down, nobody ever initiates combat without your express choice. *You* have to take an action resulting in combat. V's super power is informed consent. A talent she hordes for herself.
The cops seem surprisingly leery about chasing you down regardless of any crimes you commit. You're telling me I can break into a factory, steal plans worth millions, and the cops won't even show up to say hi? There's not even a "payoff" mechanic where Wakako has to pay the police to not show up? You're telling me I can annihilate dozens of unbelievably brutal criminals and nobody will put a hit out on me? Not the Tyger Claws, not Maelstrom, nobody?
Is the City so passive I don't even warrant a drive by?
Night City is the villain of the story and it's a city that cannot be saved, but people never see that *because the city never fights back*. It writhes at you with as much menace as it can muster but always waits for you to throw that first punch. Before that it feeds you, overstuffs you even, ensures that you latch and never pulls away no matter how hard you bite.
Night City should be a leather mother that brandishes a stabbing utensil just waiting, just waiting, for you to open your milky newborn eyes. Why? Because she wants you to see. She wants you to *know* what's about to happen and she wants you to know who did it. That's Night City. Night City wants you to know.
Instead what we got was a coddling god who punishes others but never you. A passive city that takes what you'll give it, no matter how hard, and will make sure you get a second helping of your favorite sugar gob-smacked meaty-Os cereal with aphid lactate enhancement. Because it's your favorite.
Night City needs to fight back. It needs to do things to your sister. In front of your mother. It needs to be as personal as an unfinished ocular implant. No, seriously, imagine if (as a random event) during anesthesia, someone showed up and shot out Victor Vektor's upper jaw and he bled out all over you. That's what you wake up to. You would *enjoy* that.
Night City needs fellow motorcycle riders is all I'm saying.