What offended me first is that the eastern side, along with the player, was represented as stupid lying spying sonnova bitches with zero morality, no spine to speak of, and no chance at outsmarting the system. If you acted other than told by the system, it was Game Over. Always.
There is no way to be smart, or realistic about it. Took one bribe? you're dead in prison. Moved up to better apartment because you were good at your job? Poof, sent to the mines, family executed.
While it gets some things right, and most of the "game over" scenarios are true, that is not how it worked. It is missing the "subtle" difference between an outsiders view and someone who knows what it was like. Or at least researched it for more then 2 minutes.
Imagine making a game about life in the USA by basing it on a single viewing of FOX NEWS.
From that, I would see that every single person in the USA is a moron, elected a muppet who most likely commited high treason; think that the moon landing is a conspiracy and the Earth is flat; want nothing but to turn every 7/11 into a full on gun shop, and to have a special line of Disney themed '45 automatic handguns for Christmas so your child can have fun at school next year.
This is obviously not true, but you get my point.
This is the case with this game. It paints a very one-sided picture of a much more complicated situation, and misses the point entirely. It has ZERO DEPTH. As someone who was born and raised under these circumstances, I should fucking know...
(hell, we are in the process of going back to those days with the "elections" coming up, but that's another story)
In reality, if you wanted to progress in life, or even just survive, you not only could, but had to be smart about it!
Your daily life was either slaving away, doing little "smart" things like "acquiring" stuff from your workplace to stay at the level you were, and hoping for the best. And 99% of the time, nothing significantly bad would happen. At least they got this part kinda right.
Or you spent the day trying to outsmart the system to get ahead, which Everyone did! Obviously, this was risky, but everyone had different methods, and it worked out for a lot of people. Of course, it didn't work out so well for a lot of others...
This out-thinking of the system is the whole point of life on the eastern side, something that the game blatantly punishes and makes impossible on every turn.
In the real world, you had to take the bribes, but not too much. Never show wealth, but don't be afraid to show the money when you have enough to rise above your level and pay off those who could oppose you. Get to know the right people, decent people with morality and a fucking spine, cos they probably have the means and would protect you from the oppressors.
Be good to others around you, help them out, and in turn they would help your out, like save you from your 3/3 agent neighbor, which would often mean the difference between life, or a life breaking stone in a slave camp in north eastern Russia.
Take pride in what you do and don't be afraid to show it so you get noticed instead of others, just don't boast about being smarter then anyone around you, and it could lead to significant advantages in the long run. Know the boundaries so you can step over them, without tripping. Know how to navigate around the system... These are the bare essentials to survival under that regime. You could live on a very comfortable "edge" and have a much better life, as many many people did.
NOTHING of the above is present in this "thoughtful, inspiring indie game".
The game goes to no ends to tell you how you have no chance to win, which is stupid, but then at least it should have the decency to add some gameplay into it!
Show the Black Car driving by or stopping at your house, depending on your choices, in the middle of night when you sit scared at window, while your family tries to sleep in the freezing cold. Just one idea for many small touches that could have made the difference between pure ignorance and actual "commentary" on that system.
(explanation: Black Car's were for the Secret Police or high ranking official, or very rarely some special individuals, no one else was allowed one. So if a black car stopped in front of the house, someone living there was getting taken away for interrogation at best, and later sent to the prison or simply executed. Lots of ppl taken away like this were never heard of again)
Anyways, the thing that upset me most was the outpouring of love and overwhelmingly positive reviews for such a simple and blatantly "racist" game. Cos it was an indie game so it must be amazing. Ooooh look, it's not all happy jumpy, or VR shooty , this must be something really really special! Let's praise the shit out of it, even though we have absolutely no fucking clue what it's about. Especially from "top gaming sites" like IGN, Kotaku, and Gamespot, whose editors have only ever lived in California, and are too "special" and "individual" with "forward thinking" views to have ever seen, or even thought about the true meaning of being oppressed, hunger, cold, or fear. Or to have ever thought about anyone else but themselves really...
It's fucking disgusting.
(no offense decent Californian ppl)