So, after I recently watched a review of the Ultima series ( http://spoonyexperiment.com/category...retrospective/ for those interested), the mention on how in current games you're either a Paragon of compassion or a kitten murdering bastard, got me thinking.
Now the developer with the most intricate choice system would probably be BioWare (together with Obsidian who made many of their sequels) and while the games they made are made of pure awesome, the choice system always was a bit lacking.
There never were any reprecussions for being a good guy. You never got stabbed in the back by a guy whom you showed mercy to and a lord didn't break his promise to help you after you spared his life.
You know, stuff that would probably happen in real life. An asshole doesn't turn good suddenly only because you helped him and being betrayed even after showing goodwill isn't as rare as it seems.
Now I'm not saying that I want the good side to suffer all the time because it should be made harder, but how about trying to add a bit of excitment to it? So I'd have to actually think about sparing a bad guys life because he might actually doublecross me later.
Obsidian's Alpha Protocol went into a good direction since the choices weren't always as clear, you had a timelimit and had a generally more "real" touch to it
Here's to hoping that the games coming out by BioWare, Bethesda and Square will go a bit more into that direction
What's your opinion on this? Do you agree? Do you think other stuff is also missing? Or am I just a nogood pessimist?
Now the developer with the most intricate choice system would probably be BioWare (together with Obsidian who made many of their sequels) and while the games they made are made of pure awesome, the choice system always was a bit lacking.
There never were any reprecussions for being a good guy. You never got stabbed in the back by a guy whom you showed mercy to and a lord didn't break his promise to help you after you spared his life.
You know, stuff that would probably happen in real life. An asshole doesn't turn good suddenly only because you helped him and being betrayed even after showing goodwill isn't as rare as it seems.
Now I'm not saying that I want the good side to suffer all the time because it should be made harder, but how about trying to add a bit of excitment to it? So I'd have to actually think about sparing a bad guys life because he might actually doublecross me later.
Obsidian's Alpha Protocol went into a good direction since the choices weren't always as clear, you had a timelimit and had a generally more "real" touch to it
Here's to hoping that the games coming out by BioWare, Bethesda and Square will go a bit more into that direction
What's your opinion on this? Do you agree? Do you think other stuff is also missing? Or am I just a nogood pessimist?