17 réponses à ce sujet

[TMA LIVE]

I think Action mode should be dropped from future Mass Effect games. I played an entire playthrough using it to see if they could make a 40 hour Uncharted experience, but it didn't happen. I never got attached to the characters, because Action mode Shepard was always distant to them, and there's no romance subplot. So I didn't care about anybody. Action Mode Shepard never made choices I was happy with (all renegade), and she never really felt bad about it. Despite making a lot of the exposition trimmed, I felt like I wasn't given all the details I should've gotten from a story perspective. And when it is given to me, because I'm not picking the choices, I noticed a lot of scenes are really exposition dumps. The important part is that making choices is a gameplay mechanic. I get attached to the characters or not attached because that dialogue wheel makes me stop and think, and choose to learn more before I make a final choice. When you take that away, I'm just watching a one note character who cares for no one but many Anderson, make bad choices that get people killed, while also listening to exposition dumps from the other characters for 40 hours.

 

If the cutscenes were on the same level as Uncharted or Last of Us, with their camera direction, mo-cap, and dialogue, maybe Action Mode might've worked. But I imagine it can't, because the game by design is also created around stop and go dialogue scenes for those who make choices. You can tell they "tired" making it work by having a lot of those scenes have auto dialogue, and less choices, but in the end, they just hurt the choice making version of the game, instead of making Action Mode actually work.

 

So my feedback is, if you can't do it right, don't do it at all.

[Nitrocuban]

I agree that action mode is not the way ME3 is meant to be played.

But complain about action mode not having enough story is ... kinda like ... I don't know.

[Vazgen]

Have you ever played with skipping dialogue and pushing from one combat section to another? I did and Action Mode is more fun while still showing some story.

Although I do think its inclusion had an impact on the removal of neutral option.

 

                       Paragon Response (Boolean variable = 1)

Question

                       Renegade Response (Boolean variable = 0)

 

If ActionMode = TRUE play the option with Boolean variable equal to 0. Put this line for every dialogue.

 

The problem is that Boolean variables can have only two values - 0 or 1. No capability for a neutral option. To include that they need to use another type of the variable, integer, real or whatever all of which require more memory space than Boolean ones. Usually it's not much noticeable but with the sheer amount of dialogue in the game and hardware limitations of the old gen consoles it may've made an impact. 

That said, even if it attributed to the autodialogue and Action mode inclusion, then only marginally. Those aren't decisions that can be based solely on these technical reasons. 

[TMA LIVE]

I agree that action mode is not the way ME3 is meant to be played.

But complain about action mode not having enough story is ... kinda like ... I don't know.

 

I'm not complaining about not enough story. It's not enough story details, since they skip a lot of the investigative options and just have Shepard get to the shooting faster, without really knowing why.

[TMA LIVE]

Have you ever played with skipping dialogue and pushing from one combat section to another? I did and Action Mode is more fun while still showing some story.

Although I do think its inclusion had an impact on the removal of neutral option.

 

                       Paragon Response (Boolean variable = 1)

Question

                       Renegade Response (Boolean variable = 0)

 

If ActionMode = TRUE play the option with Boolean variable equal to 0. Put this line for every dialogue.

 

The problem is that Boolean variables can have only two values - 0 or 1. No capability for a neutral option. To include that they need to use another type of the variable, integer, real or whatever all of which require more memory space than Boolean ones. Usually it's not much noticeable but with the sheer amount of dialogue in the game and hardware limitations of the old gen consoles it may've made an impact. 

That said, even if it attributed to the autodialogue and Action mode inclusion, then only marginally. Those aren't decisions that can be based solely on these technical reasons. 

 

I didn't find it fun, because the Action Mode character they created wasn't a character I cared about, nor the characters around her because the interactions were always short, to the point, and more on the renegade side of things. And I had 40 hours of watching just that. It made the game very boring.

[Vazgen]

I didn't find it fun, because the Action Mode character they created wasn't a character I cared about, nor the characters around her because the interactions were always short, to the point, and more on the renegade side of things. And I had 40 hours of watching just that. It made the game very boring.

That's a problem with the lack of a neutral option. If I were to make an Action Mode, I'd limit it to the neutral options only with a token Renegade choices where that option is not present. So the personality will still left mostly undefined since the player can roleplay different intent for the spoken lines. But overall, you should not expect to grow attached to the characters (yes, even Shepard) when choosing Action Mode and neither should you expect for that character to be close to what you expect from the game. Action Mode's purpose is to ditch the story, leaving only the barebones, and focus on combat.

[TMA LIVE]

That's a problem with the lack of a neutral option. If I were to make an Action Mode, I'd limit it to the neutral options only with a token Renegade choices where that option is not present. So the personality will still left mostly undefined since the player can roleplay different intent for the spoken lines. But overall, you should not expect to grow attached to the characters (yes, even Shepard) when choosing Action Mode and neither should you expect for that character to be close to what you expect from the game. Action Mode's purpose is to ditch the story, leaving only the barebones, and focus on combat.

 

But I don't think that was the point. I think Action Mode was meant to give players who do not like making choices, but enjoy the storytelling to get a movie experience, like with Last of Us or Uncharted. And in those games you do care about the characters. I doubt the Call of Duty audience is willing to go with a 40 hour single player with cutscenes they don't care about. Besides, that crowd was more for the Multiplayer.

[Arkalezth]

I'm not complaining about not enough story. It's not enough story details, since they skip a lot of the investigative options and just have Shepard get to the shooting faster, without really knowing why.

Why? Because it's ACTION Mode. I also like making my own decisions and I wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough, but if you've played several times and just feel like playing for the combat, Action Mode may be a way to get over with the dialogue scenes faster. I think you should still be able to choose your class, though (but that's fixed by choosing RP Mode and then setting dialogue to automatic in the options... which is the same thing).

Anyway, what's the point of removing it? I don't think it took a tremendous effort by the developers to include it, and it's optional. Just don't play the game in that mode and let other people keep their freedom too.

[Nitrocuban]

I think action mode is clearly a way to attain to certain players that just like to shoot stuff and watch a short cutscene once in a while.

And maybe a part of these players will do a Insanity New Game Plus without action mode and finally fall in love with the ME universe.

Action mode isn't the game the devs want you to play, it's just a bait to start ME3 at all.

With this in mind, Action mode is good enough and not really worth more effort imho.

[TMA LIVE]

Why? Because it's ACTION Mode. I also like making my own decisions and I wouldn't recommend it for a first playthrough, but if you've played several times and just feel like playing for the combat, Action Mode may be a way to get over with the dialogue scenes faster. I think you should still be able to choose your class, though (but that's fixed by choosing RP Mode and then setting dialogue to automatic in the options... which is the same thing).

Anyway, what's the point of removing it? I don't think it took a tremendous effort by the developers to include it, and it's optional. Just don't play the game in that mode and let other people keep their freedom too.

 

The point in removing it is the same reason they removed loot in ME2, and vehicles in ME3. If you can't do it right don't do it at all. Because 40 hours of action mode was boring, and pretty much making the game less of a good game. And for the audience that would want to have a mode where choices were made for them, the story and character told in that mode wasn't good.

 

If someone really doesn't care about the story, or how it's told, and just want to just shoot stuff, there's a skip button for a reason, like all those other games have. Or Press X to make a choice for you like in the other ME games. So there's no point in an Action Mode, since pressing X already does that for you.

[TMA LIVE]

I think action mode is clearly a way to attain to certain players that just like to shoot stuff and watch a short cutscene once in a while.

And maybe a part of these players will do a Insanity New Game Plus without action mode and finally fall in love with the ME universe.

Action mode isn't the game the devs want you to play, it's just a bait to start ME3 at all.

With this in mind, Action mode is good enough and not really worth more effort imho.

 

The thing is, I doubt people bought Mass Effect more for the shooting. Maybe for the Multiplayer, but for the single player shooting? I doubt it. Even with ME3, many don't consider it on pare with other games within that genre. So Action Mode seems more for a phantom audience, that's not even interested in this kind of game.

 

And I do think it had an impact. I think making Action Mode was another reason why we got the auto dialogue, so dialogue scenes would flow more like cutscenes without the stop and go for choices. And less choices for programming reasons (Kinect might've also played a part in that).

[Arkalezth]

I was going to reply to several quotes, but the answers to most of them were more or less the same, so I'll be brief.
 

I think making Action Mode was another reason why we got the auto dialogue, so dialogue scenes would flow more like cutscenes without the stop and go for choices.

To each their own, but I don't think those two things are related. I actually see it the other way around: the more auto-dialogue, the less difference between RP and Action modes, and thus, the less point in having any mode selection at all.

To sum up:

• Don't like it, don't use it. It's optional (loot and vehicles weren't, unless you just chose to skip some missions/planets).
• Story and characters are not the focus of Action mode. Action is. It's like complaining about combat being too easy on Narrative mode.
• If your real issue is with auto-dialogue on other modes, just make a thread about -that-.

[wright1978]

Yep not a fan of toggles for fundamental features such as dialogue.

[Linkenski]

I agree. I would've understood action-mode if there was the amount of dialogue options like in ME1 where the cutscene action is constantly paused to await our input (note that every fan liked this!) but it isn't like that because ME3 already has autodialogue.

 

Imagine my confusion when I booted up the game the first time and there was barely any player input in dialogue, so I turn to the 'Narrative' settings and see "oh, you can toggle the amount of conversation options" and then it's only to realize it's on "full conversation options" and there's no way to toggle even more.

 

So alienating and it feels like a slap in the face when "full options" leaves you with 50% less dialogue options than if it would've been ME2 and the only other option is "no conversation choices" where it's just full-on autodialogue for the whole game.

 

And like OP points out, the fact that Shepard is a mean dick in every instance of Action mode just makes the "movie" version Bioware created for ME3 all the more unattractive.

 

Also, imagine you're a newcomer for ME3 and you're like "huh, 'action mode', 'RPG mode' and 'Story Mode'" and then you pick action mode without paying attention to the information given, just thinking tha "action mode" means most shooter-focused version of the game but unaware that there won't be dialogue options and getting an inferior version of the game because you don't even know dialogue choices used to be a pillair of Mass Effect. I'm pretty sure a friend of mine who mainly plays GTA and Far Cry selected Action Mode because he just wanted some "action", but he has nothing against dialogue options and he enjoyed those in Deus Ex Human Revolution and Bethesda's open-world RPGs.

 

Just spare us that nonsense for ME4 please. DA:I had the perfect amount of player agency.

[RVallant]

I thought action mode was made specifically for those who don't give a hoot about the story and just want to shoot stuff. The dudebro CoD crowd who would eventually filter over to MP and 'pwn stuff for phat lewt'.

 

I'm PRETTY sure that an EA bigwig said the above quote word for word when he was pitching Action mode.

 

Personally I'd want Action mode at the bottom of the priority list and only given resources as a last resort. The fans its targeting isn't and shouldn't be the core crowd for that type of game imho.

[Linkenski]

Well, according to Mac it was his own initiative so with him being completely in charge now, I bet it's there to stay.

[KonguZya]

I forgot that there even was an action mode. I would never play in it, it's the complete opposite of what Bioware games are to me.