Too me, it's almost like the main narrative of the story have three distinct parts in term of quality;
1. The first 30 min or so that is the most and only unique part that separates the different paths. You need to play them all to really get more of the beginning of story. Still rushed as I, the player, don't really get to know the people around me.
2. Pre-heist which is well done.
3. Post-heist, and everything feel apart. And since there's literally no difference in the dialogue/paths there isn't much point in replaying the game either.
Yes, even Skyrim had more to the game and enough to make it enticing to not only play it again differently, but even finish it the first time (also without mods).
I didn't mind that Johnny was a hardcore douche in the beginning that literally blocked you physically, but after a couple of hours he suddenly wanted to be your best pal because he thought hard about his own and Vs "situation". Imean, he WAS going to win. Personally I thought hat was cheap. O_o
Not sure if I ever want to even finish the game...
Gothfather: but hey has to be marketing and management to blame because we like the developers so they can't be at fault.
I agree with everything except this part. At the end of the day it's the upper managements/CEOs that has the final responsibility to put out a good product. If anything, this proves that they're lazy and incompetent, while directly lying to get more orders in. Further, if a lower developer doesn't do his/her job properly then, well, a leader should take care of it. So yes, it's basically an upper management problem either way(even if it's just a case of bad internal communication, which also is a poor excuse).
Doesn't matter if we root for the developers or not, and I'm not saying there aren't bad developers out there, however fact is, if I did a poor job then my boss would talk to me about it (if he was competent and did his job that is), and fire me eventually and hire someone else who can do the job if I couldn't relatively satisfactory.
Another thing, in the article you provided it is more or less stated the game is playable from start to finish. If that were true,
then the game clearly have been scrubbed to some degree. 2 years of polish is a lot, especially with overtime and delays.
Logically, I refuse to believe the amount of manpower and workhours used (even with crunchy overtime) for almost 8 years went into creating a product in this state, and that was supposed to be the "whole" game? That's not only inefficient use of manpower and money, but also, yet again, grossly incompetence by the upper managements.
1. Ether the developers where told to more or less fixate on the wrong things, and/or the game was poorly made by developers --> lead directors/upper managements fault for mishandling it.
2. Or the game really was rushed --> lead directors/upper managements fault for inefficient use of time, and/or changing too much too late, and/or pushing the game out too soon.
I think the phrase is "to lead by example", but clearly not here...
Even worse, the fact that this game was given 8-10/10 is just mindboggling...