The art standard isn't that high. It's good, but far from being a high standard. Which isn't something to be held against it.
I mispoke, I meant being able the reproduce the art, one of the biggest "jarring" moments is when the art suddenly changes halfway through, like when an established actor is replaced in a TV series, it doesn't matter if the new actor is better, the first one establishes the character (anything else feels wrong atleast for a time).
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When it comes to the "spirit" of the game, only Saddog can successfully maintain that, or someone we don't know of who's been closely working with him on the game.
I feels like you are confusing the word "spirit" for "vision", Nobody knows Saddogs vision for the game (maybe not even Saddog), and since he has chosen not to continue, nobody ever will. As such there is nothing stopping a fan from presenting their own vision in it's place.
The spirit (concept) of the game is not complicated, The MC infitrates a gang that has a special sex drug, and has the chance to pretend to be a badguy or be one for real.
There is no;
- complicated writing style,
- no comic styling,
- no witty repartee,
that needs to be replicated. even from a coding perpective there isn't a complex web of decision trees/interactions, it was a straight get "x" score to see "x" scene.
No offense intended to Saddog but comparing him the Kubrick and the others is just silly, he's not fit to fetch Kubricks coffee ( none of us are! maybe not even Speilberg) Stanley Kubrick was a genius with sophisticated vision, who's style was grounded in insane attention to detail which is almost impossible to replicate.
(Don't speak to me about Starwars, I've come to the conclusion that the original trilogy was a fluke or stolen from some unnamed person, Lucas is a senile old shit. Han shot first!)
And talking about sequels/prequels, most don't suck because some new director/producer took over, they suck because they are shameless cash grabs exploiting fan bases without any respect for established cannon.
There very little established cannon in this game, so there is a mostly clean slate for a new Dev to forge ahead as they see fit.
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As for Saz's "darker paths mod", that's literally only a single aspect of his mod, not its defining feature. Might as well call it "Saz's Twisted Mod", or "Saz's Cleaner Interface Mod".
Dude I said "darker paths" mod because that is the setting I used it on, "twisteds paths" works too, the main point I was making is that those options IMPROVED on what saddog had started, I hope a new dev takes over and creates something that has multiple ways of being experienced.
As it stands, Saz's mod itself doesn't maintain the spirit of the base game, mainly because of the alternative choices/options from the darker path/twisted versions of what's available in vanilla.
SAZ mod doesn't maintian Saddogs "vision" for the game, but thats a good thing Saddogs vision as it was implimented was very limited, Saz's mod expanded the options while holding the Spirit
(sorry to keep harping semantics, as though you have had an opportunity to dispute/repudiate them)
