This is an imaginative and ambitious module of alternate history speculative fiction, exploring life in a collectivist future that escapes the totalitarianism that the USSR collapsed into. The USSR *and* the USA are both presented as antagonists, and the setting is an interesting place for characters to grow.
My only complaint is minor and largely stylistic: the game features a sidebar discussing the atrocities committed under theoretically-leftwing totalitarianism. I'd have preferred to also see a comparative sidebar about the numbers of people who are killed and displaced under capitalism and the 'normal' totalitarianism of the present day, precisely because we as the audience have more practice understanding collectivism as Bad than we do evaluating how Bad the capitalist status quo is. Given that power differential in representation, having both would potentially give this module even more impact.
I'm a million years late but I agree, a sidebar about capitalism would have been welcome. Sure, they're the bad guys in the game, but that's one layer too removed considering the other bad guys have an IRL sidebar about them.
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This is an imaginative and ambitious module of alternate history speculative fiction, exploring life in a collectivist future that escapes the totalitarianism that the USSR collapsed into. The USSR *and* the USA are both presented as antagonists, and the setting is an interesting place for characters to grow.
My only complaint is minor and largely stylistic: the game features a sidebar discussing the atrocities committed under theoretically-leftwing totalitarianism. I'd have preferred to also see a comparative sidebar about the numbers of people who are killed and displaced under capitalism and the 'normal' totalitarianism of the present day, precisely because we as the audience have more practice understanding collectivism as Bad than we do evaluating how Bad the capitalist status quo is. Given that power differential in representation, having both would potentially give this module even more impact.
I'm a million years late but I agree, a sidebar about capitalism would have been welcome. Sure, they're the bad guys in the game, but that's one layer too removed considering the other bad guys have an IRL sidebar about them.
Other than that, hot damn do I LOVE this setting.