Once again, all of the would-be protagonists are in dire financial straights due to their own dumb choices, yet this is somehow capitalisms fault for not giving them free money to
troon out self-actualize.
Speaking of, the next eighty or so pages of
Hard Wired Island describe some of the various neighborhoods of Grand Cross in a few paragraphs of detail. While superficially they aren't all that different from, say, Night City or any other cyberpunk city, a few things stood out. First, there's an awful lot of video game arcades and anime stores up here.
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Second, all of the focus is on fairly upper and middle class things to do. Grittier places like abandoned subway platforms and hideout slums are only mentioned in passing. The sorts of things that tend to be relevant in a cyberpunk game. It's barely even explained as to why such places would exist at all in a planned city. Instead we get pages and pages full of law firms, museums, tourist traps, and even parks; things that cater to upper-middle class sensibilities.
Which brings me to my main gripe:
why does this city exist? How could a massive, self-sufficient metropolis be constructed 250,000 miles in space in ten years by a world still reeling from a massive ecological disaster that killed millions? (Maybe Ettin goes to the
AOC school of urban planning.)
And even if you could do such a thing, to what purpose? Where is all the scientific equipment? Where are the factories? How you do get power/air/water? Where are the resource-processing plants? What resources are there at all at the L5 point? What does this city do that couldn't be done many times cheaper back on Earth? Ettin says that corporations are pouring money in to control Grand Cross, but again, to what end? What is there worth controlling?
I know Ettin designed Space Portland as some kind of playground for the rich so the oppressed underclasses could rebel against it, but keep in mind that it was designed and built by the UN. The corps didn't come until later. How are they getting a return on their investment on this place, besides maybe housing speculation? There's gotta be an easier way to make money.
The rest of the section is full of people who you might meet in Space Portland, and have very little to do with any sort of self-respecting cyberpunk protagonist.
The rest of the book describes the more practical aspects of playing. I sure hope it comes through, because right now I have no idea what the PCs are supposed to do.
