maxernst wrote...
I don't see how having an interesting protagonist and making choices is affected by going to scripted sequences in place of cut scenes. The cut scenes are already scripted sequences written in the engine--why do they have to control the camera angle and character position to give you dialog choices. Maybe you wouldn't be able to have as much detail on animations if there was flexibility in the relative locations of the people, but they seem to be able to deal with you having different backgrounds and clothes etc.during dialog cut scenes with your companions without any difficulties. I don't think cinematics are worth the decreased immersion and completely surrendering control of your character...or their disorienting effect in the ME games.
Besides, there are lots of cut scenes where you aren't making choices at all--pretty much any cut scene involving darkspawn, undead, or other mindless monsters. I don't really care in regular conversations, but they rarely have complicated cut scenes anyway. It's the situations that pop up in dungeons where my rogue is scouting ahead and it's seriously immersion-breaking for me and totally destroys my tactical set-up to suddenly be striding forward to talk to somebody with the rest of party magically appearing at my side. It's not what my PC would do.
And after having played ME2, I can now see why people are worried that DA2 will be more like an interactive movie than a roleplaying game. While I have said elsewhere that Bioware has always tended toward the cinematic in their games, i think they took it too far in ME2.
Going back to Half-Life, there were some great scenes--like when you're in the office complex and you can see the scientist through the window on the door about to be eaten by the barnacle. There's another point where you first encounter the marines and what you see is the scientist thinking he's about to be rescued and then getting gunned down in front of you. Even just the opening--you're on a train and can't really do anything but look around, but the (for the time) realistic environments and the audiotape informing you of job opportunities in various fields and finishing with "Black Mesa is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer" really added to the feeling of really being there. I think the scenes are far more powerful because they don't stop the action and pull you out of the game to present them, they just happen in front of you, giving you the illusion that if you were just a little faster you could change things. Sure, Half-Life's a different genre but I don't really see why the same style of presentation couldn't work.
As far as the war council, they could surely script Duncan to give you a severe talking to, if you decided to get up and walk around during that.
From what your describing; I think you would be happier with an FPS. There are plenty of games out there that fit all your criteria (like Half-life) but this is a RPG. Just accept that not all genres have to be made exactly the same as each other, Mass Effect is fantastic the way it is. Quite frankly I don't understand the whole "I feel trapped, in the cut-scene" arguement; if I never left the first person perspective, I'd feel just as trapped if not more. Also considering the story is the biggest component of both ME and DA, I think it's utterly silly to think that cinematics aren't important. You think I play ME for the combat? Of course not. I play for the story, and cinematics play a big role in bringing that story to life.
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