The final canon end for chapter 12, if you replay that back you'll notice that to catch Hunter; were Sterling's actions bolder ? None of the women believed him till Lucia tagged along with Drew. To think Sterling would learn to maneuver all these plots that Hunter has set up since these are expected of Hunter, yet Sterling fails to do so even till the 2nd last update that tells us something about him, that he will never learn. It just shows that even when he had Hunter cornered he couldn't think through the Hunter may have a trick up his sleeve after bring through so much deception with the drugging and everything. It is his stupidity, not sure why you're defending it and not calling it as it is.
It's called
drama. Darkest-before-the-dawn stuff, it's
supposed to upset you a little. The protagonist is
supposed to struggle, it's classic storytelling to set up the payoff at the
end.
This game actually has a decently constructed plot, which might seem alien to you because so many adult games have stories that are absolute garbage that could've been written by 13-year-olds. Watching another alpha-chad in an easy-mode power fantasy would've been super boring, and I'm glad we didn't get that.
Just remember:
you have the privilege of knowing everything that's happening in the story, but Sterling does not, because he's only a character
within the story. Try to imagine his perspective, without the advantage of your meta knowledge.
... or, how about this: write some specific "
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" type scenarios for this game, so we can have fun discussing whether they would've worked. (Why
didn't they just ride the eagles all the way to Mordor?)