Emphasis on good, open RPG gameplay.
Whether that means multiple solutions to quests, bringing back non-combat skills, meaningful customisation, enforcing the supremacy of the character system in all aspects of player-game interaction - things like skill checks, attributes having multiple effects outside of combat, quests that encourage creativity, logical puzzles, useful reputation mechanics, actual consequences to choices, whatever.
I personally am a fan of player driven narrative, in which you (the player) is given a goal, then given free reign on how to complete it without restricting the player in a reasonable degree. The last game to do this well in concept and execution
as a whole is probably Torment. Maybe Mask of the Betrayer. Games like Origins and New Vegas have moments here and there, but it's not consistent for the whole game. Origins has areas hamfisted because the plot demands it and New Vegas funnily enough has too many Fedex quests (your player character is called
The Courier).
An example of this in a recent BioWare game would probably be how to approach Landsmeet. While it was limited (your actions dealing with the Mages, Redcliffe, Elves, etc should definitely come into focus much more to help establish The Warden as both the character you have and what The Warden looks like to everyone else), it gave you a broad objective and then let you free reign on how to deal with it. Whether you decide to help the Nobles, what you decide to scheme with Anora and/or Alistair, how you present your arguments to Loghain and the Bannorn and how all of that affects the eventual outcome. Player driven.
Conversely, I felt like Dragon Age 2's Act 1 would've been much more enjoyable had those same principles been applied. Your goal is 50 Sovereigns? Well, how would you earn that? Your choices (Meeran v Athenril) ought to dictate what quests you get in Act 1, as well as various interactions and quests involving the Nobility, City Guard, Mages, Templars, Coterie, the Alienage, Darktown, etc.
An introductory to the city of Kirkwall whereupon you are given the opportunity to deal with and interact with all these factions and people in a meaningful way. This would have an impact on the main questline for the Act (Meeran/Athenril) depending on how you choose to deal with them. For example, dealing with corrupt Nobles could become apart of the quests where Meeran has you looking for/investigating/hunting them but Athenril has you defending them. How you manage to deal with those Nobles affects what Aveline thinks of you and how the Guards perceive you. Quests like the Magistrate's Son could really get you into trouble in the main questline as the Magistrate hires Coterie assassins to kill you depending on your choices there. If you help him however, you could be rewarded through monetary means or political power, which could help when dealing with other Nobles.
Things like that. Interconnected quests, tangible consequences to your actions and player driven, open ended gameplay.
I'm usually not blown away by video game stories, only a handful have so far. I care much more about a solid story and decent characters that supports good gameplay and that's what I saw with Origins for the most part. That completely evaporated in Dragon Age 2 and instead of the story/characters making up for restrictive gameplay, it just magnified the problem for me (since I didn't like most of the characters and hated the execution of an otherwise interesting premise). To be fair, it actually did have a little of this, but there was a lot less than what I would've liked.
Modifié par mrcrusty, 15 juillet 2011 - 02:12 .
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