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Thursday 27 September, 2018
After a difficult fight with a naked man possessing no genitals, I ran through the sewers of the abandoned ruins and came upon an “Amusement Park.” All of the robots in this vicinity were enjoying themselves by throwing balloons and confetti all over the place. Despite what the resistance has explained to me, I decided to try and not kill as many as I could, as they didn’t seem to annoy me much.
A major criticism I have of this general area is the level design. As a regular player, it’s expected that, as soon as you enter the gates of the park, you are to simply follow the main path and proceed to the next general section, yes? Wrong. The entrance to the other area is hidden in a tiny crevice after a left turn into an alley, something that wouldn’t be expected. In this case, the ideal level design choice would be to implement the area of further progression in a manner that’s not so hidden, like a larger entrance to the side. Another problematic design choice arose in the form of a large carousel. After small dialogue as to how 9S and I were going to get over a large gate, I ran in a circle for about 5 minutes. I couldn’t figure out what would be the right ground path to travel. Then, after jumping for no reason whatsoever, 2B caught onto a section of a carousel. There was absolutely no indication that the player had to jump atop this. An ideal design choice would be to actually give the player an indication that they should jump on the carousel, whether it be by dialogue or some visual aspect.
The end of the run came in the form of a boss: a large robot obsessed with their beauty. A new mechanic was introduced with this fight that took the form of hacking. Once the player collides with a circular projectile, the player suddenly turns into a small, black arrow, and must shoot anything that is black in order to successfully hack into the giant robot’s system. This action wasn’t explicitly stated, however, but this isn’t too much of a problem as the black objects are visually accentuated in these scenarios.
In relation to moral frameworks being discussed in class, we can frame the inhabitants of the Amusement Park within Kantianism, which aims to determine ethical actions through deciding whether an action should quantify as a universal rule. Within the Park, all robots are very clearly displaying happiness constantly, and as such, they presume that the universal rule (within the Park, at least) is that everyone must have fun. This is exemplified strongly through all robots being dressed up in joyous gear, and screaming in joy. A dilemma presents itself, however, in the player’s decision to eliminate these robots or let them be. 2B and 9S’ “universal rules” are very, very different than the beliefs of these robots. They were given the objective, from YoRHa and the resistance, of clearing the Earth of robots, and as such, they are expected to do so. If the player chooses to let the robots be, they are breaking their universal rule. However, instead, it could be said that they are simply making an exception to their rule, as their new universal rule could be to eliminate all robots on Earth EXCEPT those who appear peaceful.
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