While I've enjoyed the game for the most part, I'm worried that the author is trying to spin too many plates here.
There's the story of Jensen's past as an experimental soldier, and his arch nemesis that comes back to haunt him. Then there's the main love interests in Victoria and her daughter. You also have all the other girls that are caught up in this mess and held captive. I think that would probably be enough material for a decent plot, but then there's a bunch more going on too. There's Jensen's sister and his niece, his ex-girlfriend and their daughter, the Yakuza, and the lady superspy Evaline. That just seems like too much stuff to develop all at once.
The fact that there are so many subplots going on prevents us from spending much time with the player character. We frequently sit back and just watch the other characters do things. Take a look at the scenes in Series 2 so far.
We only see Jensen in four out of the twenty scenes, and we only make one decision. And it's a rather underwhelming one, because I've basically already made this choice four or five times now. Every single time I've been asked to choose between Victoria and Nicky, I've chosen Victoria. Yet Jensen still keeps stringing this other poor girl along. It's starting to remind me of how frustrated I got when playing the game
Acting Lessons, because the main character kept saying stupid things about how he couldn't possibly choose between Megan and Melissa, even though I only had eyes for Melissa. While I liked Megan well enough at the beginning of that game, I resented her presence by the halfway mark just because of how hard she was forced on you.
We've got the same basic dynamic again here, where two women agree to pursue the same man, and I'm worried that this will also drag on for far too long. Truthfully, it already has for me, as I found myself rolling my eyes and groaning as the daughter jumped on Jensen when she saw him in the cabin and kissed him in front of Victoria. I suppose there's a lot of people hoping for a threesome or a harem or something of that nature, but I'm not one of them. I just want to choose Victoria, and the longer this gets dragged out, the less satisfying that choice will be.
We really should've been able to choose to avoid having sexual relations with some of these girls, especially since two of them are related. Seriously, what's Jensen going to say in the end if you choose Victoria? "Hey Vicky, I've finally decided that I like you a little bit more than everyone else. It was a tough choice, but after having your daughter suck me off in a movie theatre, I realized that you were the slightly better option."
That'll really sweep her off her feet, Eh?
I haven't played through the game while trying to pursue Nicky, so I don't know if her mother is similarly forced on you. However, I do know that you aren't allowed to reject the advances of Mei-Lin, and Nicky is heartbroken to see the two of you together on the couch, so I would assume that the players who only want Nicky have similar grievances with the lack of choices in the game. The main plot is entirely linear, so the limitations on the romance aspect of the game means we really don't have much to do in the game at all.
