Monster Road Trip: End Of The Road

[olivermoss]

I watched an LP of the new content and I'm glad I did. The one I watched was from Jesse Cox and his friends who know the devs and some of them did voices. So, they knew how to trigger/force the content. I played Roadtrip when it came out. They added achievements, but they weren't retro-active so I played again to unlock stuff. They added more destinations and I played a bit more. They added a BIG content update that I really wanted to see and... I couldn't do it. Just, no. I couldn't keep doing the same gameplay loop.

I love the characters, the vibe, the art, but I tend to hate the actual gameplay of this series.

Then they did another big content update, their biggest drop ever, one that shipped with several warnings including one to not expect such massive updates for upcoming games. This was a one-off. Also, you need to have played the game a certain amount and then go into settings and review the content warnings to enable the new content. But, yeah, when End Of The Road dropped there was no way I could replay the same content again, especially since new content destinations are random and I may or may not even get them.

Anyway, massive spoilers...

If you trigger the content the gameplay loop starts to break down. At first, it all seems very conventional and there are a few fake-outs that it's going in some very conventional directions: characters realize they are characters, general creepyiness and horror, backrooms, etc. But that is not where it heads.

The story of End Of The Road has two plot points. One is that characters break when you replay or rewatch a canon too often, you see the cracks, you view them differently and in meta ways, they sort of become something else. The other is that there is the version of the character that 'stays in the loop' and never changes or grows and there is the version that leaves the story, the effect the character has on the player / viewer. They go off into the world and change and grow, part of the memories of the real people who are the audience.

How it was done and how much nuance there was to the ideas, it just hit surprisingly hard. I've never seen a story go meta in this way and I imagine if I had seen another canon do this it wouldn't have worked so well. There are definite signs that the main writer was Going Through Something when this was written.

I am glad Jesse & co did such a good LP of it because, ironically, I could not take the gameplay loop again. I was actually deeply fucking annoyed at how much post-launch content the game got. Adding achievements later is always annoying.

So, I'll continue to have a love/hate relationship with the series because I love the vibes and it's thoughtful about queer and alt experiences in ways media almost never is, etc. But I also find the gameplay grindy and intuitive. And I can't wait for the next game and Hazel better be in it.

Comments

WoW

[disgruntledgirl]

That IS some serious writing - especially when you take into account all the work that goes into a game. Triggers for the player to trip so such-and-such becomes activated further down the line.

Re: WoW

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it was an impressive update. I am glad I took the time to watch it. Really well done and it sort of felt like the head writer kinda needed to do the project.

[mistressofmuses]

That sounds quite interesting! That sort of meta stuff, when it works well, can be my SHIT. I'm really glad that it sounds like this one was done very well!

Though at the same time... oof, not sure how I feel about having to go through repetitive parts while having some of the triggers for things being random, because that sounds like it would be VERY frustrating if you happened to be unlucky.

(I like timeloops as a trope, but sometimes it can get VERY grating to go through the same thing too many times. The payoff better work hard to make it worthwhile, ha.)

[olivermoss]

Yeah, it's a meta with a good awareness of the audience and people fans really interact with media. I was impressed.

I think a lot of the core fandom do replay it a lot and are fine with the core game mechanics, I just super am not. I think I'd like it more if I had it on Switch and it was a 'lay back and poke' type experience as opposed to sitting upright at my computer.

[mistressofmuses]

Oh, I can definitely see that being a difference. Some games just work better on a handheld system.