This was an interesting experience

[Star Sage]

I must admit, I bought it years ago, but only played it after watching Floydson's movie on his 300 days with it, since it sounded like fun(and he leave some things out so playing the game still has some surprises).

That said, some of the reason I held off is because I was waiting for all the DLC. After buying it and the first two, the third suddenly got announced, and a fourth shortly afterwards. Learning that all the DLCs expanded the story, I wanted to wait for them to all be finished before playing, and they certainly do.

To be blunt, the main game is fun, but has some issues, each DLC has done something to address those issues though. Breaking Dead automates resource gathering and processing to some degree, Stranger Sins adds money generation constantly, allowing you to just buy stuff, and Better Save Soul adds the ability to maximize bodies, in order to create a 'perfect' one for a zombie or a grave. Game of Crone adds a final buff which is OP, though only one of three, and of them 2 are VERY much things you can max otherwise, so not as useful as I thought they'd be. Better if you DO keep the Camp operating, it becomes a free resource generator for some things, while also adding bags, which are helpful, as well as a vendor for some high level/high cost items.

Beyond that, the 'story' of the main game is very much set in the present, and doesn't explain much. You learn about some events, but the Keeper is himself very much not interested in this place in the main story. He's doing what he's doing to make his way back to his Sweetheart, and that's it. He helps people, but it's solely to get something in the main game, never even implied he's doing it for any other reason.

This leans into the morality at play in the game. Nothing in the main game requires you do something evil, save maybe that first sale of meat after getting the stamp. Everything else? Any use of 'human resources' can be gotten around via other means. Frogs for meat to cook, limestone for white powder, bat wings(and later paper press) to make paper. All of them are more expensive or time consuming than just making use of the 'free' resources offered by bodies, though.

Each DLC even expands on that bit, as Breaking Dead is very much a sort of evil leaning thing, as bring back the dead to work for you seems awfully suspect...the fact that you don't see any consequences negatively says maybe not, of course.

Better Save Soul adds another layer to processing bodies, namely letting their soul go free, so there's that too, but also gives the idea of healing sins, which winds up landing you in some hot water a time or two.

Stranger Sins has you do some small questionable things to get the items you need to run the machine, but nothing too terrible for this one, as the focus on the story is very much what was the beginning of all this, seeing the origin of...well everything, and how it went from a dull, but at least safe world, to the crudhole it has since become.

And Game of Crone. It offers the most moral choice and its rather direct, as you have one right at the end, which leads to your bonus power. I do wish it explained the powers in universe before you go for them, but even without that, you can look it up, and they ARE good powers, even if getting one of them in particular requires losing the camp, for a boost to a resource gain that is okay, but not gamebreaking.

Of course, the story of two of the DLCs is very...light to say the least. Breaking Dead has next to none, just the making of Zombies, and while Better Save Soul HAS a story, it's very much just a questline, nothing really big too it, and in fact, it doesn't provide any new info without the context of the other two DLCs.

Stranger Sins and Game of Crone do add that context, filling in the world's backstory, explaining why so many of the people you meet act so odd, like even they are convinced of the unreality of their world, but aren't quite. Better, if you have the DLCs installed from the start, their quests start the moment you'd be able to understand them, not right at the beginning, but a little ways in, so they don't muck up the main plot, which is, as I said, very much about the present.

Okay, I think that's enough words, to wrap up, I don't think I've ever had an experience quite like this one, and getting the platinum trophy(I'm playing on PS5) is still quite the feeling. I do wish it was more stable, this is the ONLY game to date that has managed to hard crash my PS5, and that is quite annoying, along with some of the DLC items simply not rendering properly(Graveyard items simply don't show up, and if you use the DLC colors on the bed then you're just a floating head when you go to sleep).

Still, even with those flaws, I can't say I'm not looking forward to seeing where this is going, and I hope for more of this world, as while we know now where this all started, literally, we don't know where this is going, as the main plot ends just after the point where things have really started to fall apart, with the DLC added epilogue answering one plot point, but raising a dozen more.