Hi all.
Something I've been discussing with my friends (and cringing about) is the poor quality of the NPCs who chatter at us during missions. It seems like they've been made horribly two-dimensional, wasting chances to pepper in realistic commentary and story cues. Two of the worst offenders are found in the early game: Marion and JB. Both are JTF soldiers who ask you to take care of various side quests, and both seem to have been trapped in a realm of lazy character development and writing.
I know this is coming off harsh already, but I love The Division and want to see it molded into a game which earns some respect to the developers outside of "good shooter-looter." The setting is a refreshing change from zombies and monsters and aliens. It's realistic. It's scary because it could happen. It deserves some weight and edge to the dialogue and characters. Sadly, every single person I've spoken to in the game sounds like they're just snarkily reviewing Amazon products. Nobody feels like they're standing in the diseased wasteland that used to be New York. Nobody is coping with things realistically in the least. It's grating and frustrating and a wasted opportunity to draw players into the setting and plot. As it is, I mostly tune it out and skip whatever I can.
That's awful. I play games for storyline foremost, but this one has me grinding my teeth far too often.
For specifics, Marion is probably the one people will already be hating from the get-go. She's the JTF soldier in Hudson who gives you all the low-level side quests. I assume someone named her, wrote "like a doting old mom" for personality, and the writers had to shoe-horn it into every single thing she says. Her voice actor didn't get any notes about the character outside of that same blurb, so every line she delivers has the exact same lack of weight or personality. Every mission, she's forcing a comment about her husband, mentioning baking or likening you to some lovable scamp. It pulls me out of the game so, so hard.
Marion could've been an interesting quest-giver by just lightly hinting at qualities like these. An offhand mention of her husband is one thing, but constantly complaining about how he couldn't fix an antenna (one guarded by murderous thugs on a rooftop?) is crazy. Please, tone it down and let the voice actor subtly act. They don't have to win awards for it, but why phone it in? The voice sounds faked and exaggerated to BE some dottering old wife. Let her ease up.
JB. Oh my god, JB. I want to murder him. JB is the mission handler for the level 12-14ish zones. His character blurb was probably, "used to act, doesn't now." Every single line mentions it. From the moment you meet him until the very last bit of audio, he's mentioning how he was acting in movies and tv. It's infuriating. It's psychotic. It's terrible writing that should've been edited and rethought from day one. It's absolutely maddening to have someone like this asking you to handle important, city-saving situations where you're being shot at and could die. Why did you make a character that feels like William Shatner hosting a charity fund? We have no connection to JB at all as characters or players, so it's like the game constantly needs to remind us of what his SINGLE defining trait is. Every. Single. Time.
Please don't do this! It's god-awful writing. JB could've been an interesting character by, again, approaching it subtly. His initial meeting with you could've mentioned how he used to be in films and television, but put it all aside to tackle the massive disaster. It'd show him as a complex, deep character capable of human thought like weighing fame against human lives and morals. During quests, DON'T have him liken every single thing to his career. Have him exasperated at the notion that people are still asking for autographs in a time like this. Even some derpy celebrity like Snooki wouldn't behave like JB does.
Hell, if you really want to impress players, actually hire a B-level star for that position. It'd be absurdly amusing and fascinating to see someone like Billy Crudup or John Stamos turning out to be the mission handler. As a player, we'd recognize him and actually understand why JB was supposed to be interesting. A celebrity sleeper agent or volunteer dropping everything and getting his hands dirty to save New York, spurning his own value for the sake of the many? Awesome! Unique! Engaging!
No-name JB barking in your ear with unfunny Hollywood mentions nonstop? Dreadful.
Kandel is a bit better, but her in-mission dialogue is pretty cringey as well, because as an NPC, her whole gimmick is supposed to be that she's a tough-as-nails lesbian doctor who can't find any good help, so every single time she goes on my comms, she's telling me not to screw up or pointing out how I probably will. It's not interesting or helpful as an agent or player, so why have it? Leave it on the cutting room floor and trim down the amount of voices in my ear while gunfire is flying around me.
So yeah. Again, I realize this is harsh, but I'm writing it because I'm frustrated that a game I love is plagued with glaring oversights and eye-rolling, groan-inducing characters. Everything about the advertisement of the game has shown a serious, dark, emotionally deep tone. The Agent Origins videos did a fantastic job showing that. But the game itself has all these flat throw-away characters taking me out of the experience with their dry deadpan 'humor' and 'zany personalities.' Please go back and do a re-write and a re-record. The game deserves more quality than it has!
I actually like the Mission Givers.
they add a spark of lightheartedness in the middle of a game that is nothing but doom, gloom, and shooting people.
it's refreshing.
in fact, the only one so far I don't like is the one in the BoO who keeps telling me, in excruciating detail, how I am going to die. she doesn't seem to realize that I have Plot Armor.
also, I won't tolerate anyone dissing JTF Grandma. she makes the best tuna sandwiches.
as for JB, it's a coping mechanism. the world's gone to crap, and this is how he chooses to stay sane through it all, by likening everything to his acting career.
But there's no doom and gloom. EVERY mission handler is just a single goofy personality trait. I haven't met any of them who feel realistic at all, so the only reminder I have that this isn't a cartoony WoW side area is walking outside and seeing how devastated it is. I'm cleaning up side missions right now, and one handler is the "new age guru" guy. So all he does is mention it. Other handler is "I have allergies guy" and just repeatedly points it out. None of these feel like actual JTF members capable of organizing agents and soldiers in a fallen New York.
It's all just goofy and bizarre. I wish the game had some guts to play it straight and give me real empathy with characters and the setting, rather than just go, "HIYA I AM ZANY QUEST NPC #20! I LIKE PUTTING ERASERS IN MY NOSE! IT'S MY THING! I'LL REMIND YOU EVERY TIME! DUR-HURR!"
I'm fully expecting a mission handler who turns out to be some tween girl obsessed with Twitter posts and Facebook and speaks with a valley girl accent. Belts out cliches and says "OMG" out loud. It'd be just as fitting as these others.
EDIT: Just met the "Italian Mobster Stereotype" handler. Seriously? A guy who's telling me he was running an extortion racket is my military law enforcement handler? Bad enough he's belting out every cliche an Italian can have, but over recorded government comms, he's admitting to crimes and referencing his prison connections? Seriously, this kind of stuff is such a negative point for The Division.
Why not do another pass of the game where you have one genuinely interesting handler covering all the antenna missions, so he can specialize in a type of mission as a slight character trait, then you can give him a bit of complexity as we work with him all over the city? A tech who understands the importance of having the signals being broadcast and can explain the effects they're having overall as you're progressing from level 1 to level 30.
Then do the same for all the hostage missions. A single negotiator type handler who is managing missions related to her field of expertise, suggesting how best to handle things? She'd be bringing you in when negotiations have failed, and can reference past successes or failures for filler dialogue or something.
It'd be much, much better than these random cardboard cut-out cartoon handlers arbitrarily giving me the same types of missions. They barely seem to understand why they're assigning me to do it, and I certainly couldn't care less about them OR the missions outside of wanting supplies/loot/credits. Hostage missions from the "Italian Mobster" have nothing to do with saving civilians and everything to do with him reminding me that his mama makes a great pasta dish. WHY? It's so un-funny and immersion-breaking.![]()
Why? Does she sound like your EX??Originally Posted by johnstonwlt Go to original post
+1 Locke!
They could have done a better job with dialogue and I feel that all their effort went into that opening cut-scene. The whole game could have been as good, that opening deal was quite powerful actually. So was their early trailer with the Christmas music playing. Then the game hits and everything within the game falls a bit short. The dialogue could be better, there could be more cut-scenes and lore. A rich story well told brings a game out just as much as the game-play. That's OK. They've time to up the ante, plenty of room for expansions and tweaks.
It does feel as if they rushed it out. COD: Black Ops has things nailed down pretty solidly in the story department. You get to see it during every cut-scene and there are plenty of them. Even voice over radio chatter could use improvement in Division. But like I said, they can do this still. It's not a failure by any means.
And how about JTF? They're morons! They can never identify the enemy and are completely worthless in a fight. In fact, I'd rather they not be there if they're just going to get in the way. I found myself stuck in a corner once and died as a result because a JTF decided that standing in the open, in front of me, was the way to go. In real life most soldiers are pretty intelligent and even those that aren't can identify their target LOL. If I was a soldier in NYC during such a scenario, I'd be not only scared as hell, but deeply affected by those events and what I see around me.
Then there's the Handlers who have varying personality, that's good, but they fall flat. There's no real depth to them at all, although Faye Lau does get into how she's glad her parents were too dead to see how things turned out in the arena. But that's all you get. And how about her sister? You go and find her, then that's it. Nothing more.
And why is the player-character mute? Do they have nothing to say? It's OK, it can be glossed over if there is strong development and dialogue with the NPC's. They all act as if the virus has brought about summer camp. We'll make ya a tuna sammich when you get back, ok? You're so sweet.. There are ways to have that grandma feel and make sure the character is believable. You're in the middle of an apocalyptic event for crying out loud, she's got to have something better to say than how her husband couldn't fix an antennae. Kandle was OK but she annoyed me too.
So there are lots of things to improve on as the expansions come about. Overall the game was awesome, even if the acting left much to be desired.
I like JTF Grandma when I first heard her. I was like, this is funny-because I wasn't expecting anything like her in the game. But it wore on me after a few missions-I agree with OP-her lines are all based around a single trait. And the other handlers just got worse.
I like that there are many types of people in JTF. But I don't like that their lines were so shallow.
Also, I didn't realized at all that the Italian dude is my handler. That's stupid. I thought I was listening in on one of the local gang and basically wrecking their rival-usurper gangs' activity or something. Now that I know that he IS my handler.. well, now I REALLY hate him.