Ah, see, I love the game. I’ve been replaying it, actually. I think the endings, yeah, they’re all pretty sad. Even the one ending where

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You actually get the cure, it’s a massive, massive bummer. Life moves on without V, and they are stuck. They try to go back to their life, and they realized it’s all gone when they got what they were trying for the whole time. Every ending but one is genuinely sad.

And that’s super duper rare, it feels like. I truly appreciate that everything was a gut punch. I really like my V, and when I’ve replayed it I make them the same way (looks-wise, I have made different builds). The male voice actor was not for me. I think he sounded like a douchebag and I couldn’t root for my own character. And that first play through I was honestly a little disappointed with the game. But when I found “my” V, I was much more invested.

I love the difficult choices they saddle you with. It was a big part of the game for me because they really made you feel like there were no right options, or two right options, and you weren’t just choosing black or white, you were choosing moral grayness or moral grayness. And you had to sit with those choices and, as OP pointed out, watch the consequences unfold for the—I feel, very well-written and acted—NPCs.

I really love the game. It and RDR2 are my favorites. I was never a gamer growing up. In my thirties I started playing games, but I am a huge story person—books, movies, tv shows—and I think the stories and the characters made it. So when I found games that let me really get a sense of these characters, even if there is a lot of dialogue, it’s like I’m playing a really long movie. That’s ideal for me. I could see how some people who game heavily wouldn’t like it though. But I fuckin love that game and its spiritual twin (IMO), RDR2. Both maybe “limited” for true gamers, but for some filthy cazh like me, fuckin excellent and highly enjoyable.