[Spoilers]Jack Driver is a wasted opportunity

[Malidictus]

During the course of the Forgotten Kingdom DLC, players can find and meet private Jack Driver - an old decrepit soldier who came to Yesha with Andrew Ford before the Root invasion and got stuck there for over a century. The man is a living relic of the old world, just yearning to go home. The player is talked into promising to help Jack get back to Earth.

Now, this is probably me setting my own expectations too high, but I honestly thought we'd bring Jack Driver back with us, turning him into a permanent resident of Ward 13. You know, kind of like how we did with Cass, or the Thaen tree. He doesn't have to do much - doesn't need to be a vendor or anything. But he could serve the role of another Mudtooth. You know, telling stories of the old world, adapting to life in the Ward, lamenting the loss, reminiscing on the love of his life.

Instead, he just dies, and there's no way to prevent that. Well, that was a waste. I mean sure - Remnant has always been a depressing game at the best of times. We explore dead worlds and typically make them worse, good people suffer unfair loss all the time, etc. But to introduce an old world survivor and then just... discard him feels like being depressing for the sake of being depressing. An avenue for world-building just cast aside like a nuisance.

If the issue was technical - can't meet Jack Driver if Jack Driver is already in the Ward. So just don't spawn him once the players get him home. His hovel would still be there, just no Jack. Have him give the player his Dog Tags in the Ward, as oppose to finding them on his corpse. Just... do SOMETHING with him, FFS...

[hey_buddy]

It's dumb, he survived alone like 50 years or so, had to die the 1 day someone came to help. A shame since he's such a likeable character. I knew he was going to die. Thinking about the in-game logistics of getting him to Ward 13 made me anticipate the devs would just kill him to save programming work, and my hunch was right. This DLC adds great gameplay content, but the story feels like it builds good things up just to fall flat at the end. That on top of recycling Yaesha a third time makes it underwhelming. Well at least they gave Yaesha a beautiful coat of paint, it does look very pretty TBF.

Edit: Since this DLC is adding content to base game and DLC1, I wish they add a way to save Jack Driver in DLC3. At least if we give up his gear.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by hey_buddy:

It's dumb, he survived alone like 50 years or so, had to die the 1 day someone came to help. A shame since he's such a likeable character.

Agreed, though he's been there for well over a century. He's probably only a little younger than Andrew Ford himself, being that they travelled to Yesha together before the Root invasion. Him looking up to Ford like he did as a fresh-faced 18-year-old rookie is both charming and sad, given how Ford treats those close to him.

Not to mention: Jack Driver dying has pretty complex implications about the the game's fiction. For one thing, we ourselves don't get older from dying and reviving at the stone, so bringing that story beat from Chronos is... odd. Yes, Ford is old as sin, I'd argue that's on account of him being over 100 years old himself. Guy just aged. If anything, the Worldstone seems to have kept him from dying of old age. And if anyone's died the most, it would be Ford. He's still alive.

The way Jack describes it, are we to expect our player character to just die and stay dead if we happen to get killed, say, 1000 times? Are we to expect Ford to die? Introducing this element just feels unnecessary.

Originally posted by hey_buddy:

I knew he was going to die. Thinking about the in-game logistics of getting him to Ward 13 made me anticipate the devs would just kill him to save programming work, and my hunch was right.

Yeah, I had the same suspicion, but "hope springs eternal" and all that. Honestly, adding a new NPC to the Ward shouldn't be such a crushing technical limitation. After all, both Ford and Clem are both in the Ward after the intro, but disappear afterwards. Adding an extra NPC shouldn't have been that much extra effort. And Jack doesn't even need to actually do anything. There are plenty of NPCs around the Ward who just loop through a few lines - like the guy complaining how Brabus' guns are meant for killing, not for hunting.

As to the logistics of getting him there... After speaking with Jack, have the player tell him where the Worldstone they used is. Once the main Yesha story is concluded, Jack will show up at the stone and wait for the player to speak with him. If the player doesn't turn up in the next, say, 10 hours then Jack can be found dead near the crustal - same story as now. If the player does show up soon after, then Jack can be taken to the Ward, where we'll sit around doing nothing. Or maybe fire guns at the range or some such.

Originally posted by hey_buddy:

Edit: Since this DLC is adding content to base game and DLC1, I wish they add a way to save Jack Driver in DLC3. At least if we give up his gear.

Certainly possible, yeah. I don't think they will, but you do have a point. Would be nice to resolve his story in a bit more of a compelling way than just "Yeah, dead. Nothing mattered."

[Zefar]

Googling the age of Ford you get about 120 years to several hundred years. So him being there from the very first trip. Bit hard to accept.

Googling around on events.

First trip to Yeasha was done in 1995.
It is now 2089 in Remnant 2.

That alone would put the guy at 94 years old. If it wasn't for the fact that he been enlisted in the army before this so add 20 years onto the time line.

Yet he looks like he's around 65 to 75 years old. Still wearing the same clothes which is amazing considering he's been using them for his whole life.

He should have been wearing hand made clothes or clothes from the Yeasha tribes and been close to a hermit. He should have been absolutely shocked to see a human face. Well if we didn't hide it but it should still have caused a bigger reaction than "I must be dreaming" in a normal tone.

He certainly should been in much worse state that he is now. Being alone for your entire life should affect you.

[Malidictus]

Originally posted by Zefar:

Googling the age of Ford you get about 120 years to several hundred years. So him being there from the very first trip. Bit hard to accept.

Agreed, but it is the story we're given. If you read the journal Jack leaves behind, he talks about getting recruited for the Yesha expedition straight out of boot camp, and it being very hush-hush. Might not necessarily be the first expedition to another world, but it certainly happened prior to the Root invasion.

That actually makes his death all the more perplexing. Ford is technically older than him, being that he must have been somewhere in his 40s at least by the time of the invasion. Ford has also undoubtedly died more times, given that he was actively involved the Yesha rebellion and was generally out adventuring in a similar way we are. Jach, in contrast, was holed up and trying to survive. Sure, the Yesha jungle is dangerous to be sure, but enough to run through the life of a younger man? Seems unlikely to me.

This is why I don't like him dying. It introduces an "end of immortality" element to the narrative which has a significant impact on both of the Remnant games.

Originally posted by Zefar:

He certainly should been in much worse state that he is now. Being alone for your entire life should affect you.

Right, but exploring that would have taken more screen time than Jack got. As it stands, he's a throwaway character with relatively little depth. There's some to be found in his diary, but it would really have taken time to really get that across. People can be tough, able to hide serious trauma in the short term. Jack settling back into some semblance of a peacful life and dealing with that lingering trauma is how you'd communicate that. But we'll never get the chance to know.

Honestly, a survivor from the old world should have been a main storyline, not an optional throwaway side character. Walt gets more development and screen time than Jack, and that's just a cryin' shame. Imagine if Clementine were an optional dungeon in Ward Prime and then died at the end. That's about what Jack Driver represents.

[Brick]

I agree, but the theme is horror. Some people like horror. We can't all be trekkies.