Chapter 591: I'm Not a Psycho (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Inside the FOW office, Grayson's expression was quite complex.

If anyone had told him before that a game's expansion pack could be as rich in content as a full game, or even surpass the main game itself, he would have dismissed it completely.

But now, whether he believed it or not, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine had achieved just that.

He experienced the stories of Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine firsthand. They were completely different, even two extremes, yet both were exceptionally good. While Blood and Wine offered higher replayability, he personally preferred Hearts of Stone, as the atmosphere created by the Master Mirror and entering the painted world was simply artistic.

Both the script and the game's presentation were impeccable, leaving Grayson deeply impressed.

Similarly, as more and more players completed Blood and Wine and ended the conflicts in Toussaint, seeing Geralt raise his glass with a faint smile, and then the familiar faces in the White Raven Vineyard, all players who experienced the game couldn't help but tear up.

Finally, among Nebula Games' many characters, there was one who found a happy ending! The last one, if memory served, was Nathan Drake?

As for Ezio, although he passed away peacefully, he was still gone. When you count them, the number of protagonists who are still alive is incredibly small.

………………

While players online were filled with emotion, Chen Xu and his team had reached the final stop of their location scouting trip at a park in Salt Lake City.

“Mr. Chen, stop looking. The players don't feel guilty at all,” Ruan Ningxue said, looking at Chen Xu, who was scrolling on his phone in the park.

“She's right!” Yang Xin echoed.

“How can you say not at all? There's still a small portion,” Chen Xu coughed lightly, then showed them his phone screen.

They glanced at the phone screen he held out and pouted. How hard was it to find one post out of a hundred!

“But Mr. Chen, for the new project, are we going to destroy all these cities?” Meng Zuo asked curiously.

Through the journey, everyone in the team had some rough ideas for the upcoming project. Combining the keywords Chen Xu had previously revealed, it was clear that the cities they visited would be recreated in the game, much like Florence in Assassin's Creed.

The only difference was that Florence at that time aimed to restore the Renaissance era. This time, however, it would be a post-apocalyptic scene.

“Of course, we can't completely destroy them. If we completely destroyed them, why would I bring you here to experience them?” Chen Xu gently shook his head.

Looking at the team members gathered around, he thought for a moment and then briefly explained the upcoming requirements.

“A fungal outbreak catastrophe that swept through American civilization. Humans infected by the fungus will quickly lose their minds, becoming mutated entities. However, this infection is only effective against humans, and the fungus also promotes the spread of plants.”

“What we need to recreate is not these current metropolises, but metropolises after the fungal outbreak—a contrast between urban ruins and a burgeoning new nature.”

The people who accompanied Chen Xu on this trip were all elites in the industry. Although he hadn't explicitly stated it, through Chen Xu's description alone, everyone managed to grasp and analyze some unusual points.

“So, Mr. Chen, is your new project not a horror game?” Qin Yi asked curiously.

Before they set off, Chen Xu had mentioned three keywords: 'familial love,' 'zombies,' and 'apocalypse.' So, everyone subconsciously thought of Resident Evil. Although Chen Xu had said it wouldn't be a Resident Evil story, they still unconsciously leaned towards the horror genre.

But now, analyzing it based on the grand background Chen Xu mentioned, it seemed highly probable that the new project would not be a horror-themed game.

Because if it were a horror theme, Chen Xu wouldn't have specifically mentioned that the fungal infection would only affect humans. Also, the contrast between urban ruins and a burgeoning new natural environment wasn't very suitable for a horror game.

After all, if the fungal virus could infect animals, combined with eerie jungles, it would definitely provide players with a stronger sense of oppression. But now, based on Chen Xu's description, it was clear that these two settings had been abandoned in the new project.

“That's right. Although the new project has the zombie element, horror won't be the main theme. At most, there will be some thrilling elements. It will focus more on emotional connections,” Chen Xu nodded with a smile.

The Last of Us, that was Chen Xu's next planned project. Players lamented the regrets of Ethan and Rose's father-daughter relationship, didn't they? Then he would use Joel and Ellie to make up for the players' regrets.

If there was one game that could make players remember the father-daughter bond within it, The Last of Us would undoubtedly hold a prominent place.

Its most outstanding aspect was arguably pushing the immersive experience brought by game interaction to its extreme. Games have always been hailed as the ninth art, and if one had to choose a truly representative work, then without a doubt, The Last of Us in his previous life would be one of them.

What, you say there's a second part to this game?

Could a game made by a psycho be a sequel? Joel being golfed, Ellie letting Abby go—this only proves that a psycho developed a mutated product, but the 'psycho' element itself is what’s truly missing. And that 'psycho' part is what players found most unbearable.

That is, the game's mandatory moralizing and the personality fragmentation of its own characters. The Joel of the first game was cautious and decisive, but in the second, he seemed like a completely different person.

The same was true for Ellie. The transition from hatred to letting go of hatred requires an event to drive it, just like Yukishiro Tomoe in Rurouni Kenshin approached Kenshin for revenge but eventually turned her hatred into love. However, in the second game, Neil the psycho's approach was incredibly crude. First, Ellie, in her quest for revenge, caused the death of friends and killed a pregnant woman.

But what about Abby? The game heavily re-characterizes Abby, giving her a similar dramatic arc, solely to forcibly tell players that Ellie killed a pregnant woman in her revenge while Abby didn't, therefore Ellie is inferior to Abby. In short, it was to prove that Ellie's revenge was wrong.

Furthermore, there was the 'painstakingly crafted' tragic backstory for Abby, indicating how much her father loved Abby, and that Abby's revenge was justified. If viewed in isolation, this section seems to have no problems. However, the father in the story is also portrayed as 'selfish'; when confronted by the Firefly Queen, he states he is willing to sacrifice Ellie, but not his own daughter, Abby.

From the perspective of a father, Abby's father is well-portrayed, but such a portrayal paradoxically doesn't make players feel he's a tragic hero, but rather a legitimate enemy of Joel. If your daughter's life matters, then isn't his daughter Ellie's life just as important?

It could be said that the second game attempted a very ambitious story: to make players first hate a character, then turn around to accept and even love her. However, the final result was merely a carnival of a mentally fragmented psycho.

Therefore, for Chen Xu, the first game was already perfect, with its open-ended ending, leaving everything else for players to imagine. As for the second? He wasn't a psycho after all.

(End of Chapter) <>