The game is set in an island nation called Yara. Yara is very clearly meant to be a stand-in for Cuba. The reserve history of Yara goes something like this. Yara underwent a war of liberation. I don’t remember if they explicitly say that it was to overthrow Yanqui colonialism but it seems to be implied. This is similar to what happened in Cuba. But from here, the world veers into the realm of alternate timelines.

This war of liberation results in someone called Anton Castillo becoming the sole dictator of Yara. Yara is under American blockade (like Cuba). Yara has developed a drug that stops cancer cells from metastasising. Cuba has also made some progress against cancer coincidentally. Thia drug is Yara’s chief export. The problem is that it is produced by using a poisonous fertiliser on tobacco plantations. (Cuba is also heavily reliant on its tobacco export.) So Anton Castillo’s regime forces the poor to work on the fields despite the deleterious effects of this poisonous fertilizer. They also perform brutal human experimentation on the underpriviliged. Yara sells this drug to everyone except the US because the US has embargoed them.

So you play as a guerilla who is a member of a liberation movement trying to overthrow Castillo. You are supposed to form a coalition with other guerilla groups to achieve this end. There isn’t much ideology to these movements. Sometimes they talk about the important of free elections but that’s it.

My question is… why? Why do all this? Why not just let me liberate Yara from Yanquis and their stooges which would be far less confusing?

  • Piecemakers
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    1 year ago

    All good points for the most part, so do yourself a huge favor and read the books that The Expanse is based on. I’m a diehard fan of both the series and the books, even with their differences, and the questions you seem to have about the OPA (among other things) will be answered in reading them, for sure.

    Oh, and the “anarchist” Spider-Man is an amalgam of Brit-punk, to be clear. 🤓🤘🏼

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      They aren’t very different in the books. Some are ok, most are very tribal, some are just deranged cultists who srtike the Earth and kill the poor when the rich escape anyways. Their only decent sounding organization which might be socialist is barely mentioned and handwaved as extremists (apparently more extremist that the guys kiling billions with asteroids). Ultimately they all become the Spacing Guild and most just lick Duarte boot.

      • Piecemakers
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        21 year ago

        Frankly, that’s kinda the point: no one is squeaky clean, and every faction/demographic is a slight variation on the same self-centered scheme, after the layers are peeled back. Humanity itself is the squealing, tantrum-prone problem, slithering through the void in a race against itself in a futile attempt to outpace existential consequences of its actions as a species. 🤷🏼‍♂️