I have the same definition of roleplaying as you Sylvius. I just think its absurd to say that it exists in this game, and I most certainly take issue with the idea that it does this better than was done in the previous games.
And the story being less tightly woven as you put it, is in no way a plus point IMO. If it was on the level of the Bethesda games, where the game is all about exploration of a large world, where the main quest is not really any more important than anything else in the game, then that would be one thing. But that isn't how it is here. The world is empty, the quests have no substance, its all just c0llection and planting flags. Not that Bethesda are in any way the masters of this kind of thing that some like to portray them as, but they do it better than this game! This game has the main story, and a huge amount of utterly trivial and completely joyless, grindy filler. There is no substance to any of it, no fun to be had dragging yourself through it.
And again, where is this playing a character with a distinct personality in all this? Who are displaying this personality to exactly? The NPCs out in the world, who almost without exception have no dialogue options beyond 'Yes, I'll take the quest' and 'No, I'm too busy' (if you even get that much). Or the main quests, where you do get some dialogue choices, with your utterly charisma and nuance free blockhead of a character? And this is an improvement over the previous games roleplaying?! And the party banter is also inferior. Because whilst there may be more of it, it is of less significance. Its all played for laughs, and it doesn't get under the skin of the characters, who have little enough connection with each other as it is. Even after near 1oo hours, I still felt like my characters could just drop everything, seperate and never give each other a second thought, because the game had not sold any of the connections (on the rare occasions it tried to do that at all). It just felt like my party didn't know or care about each other.
And this was considering that most of them considered me their bestest pal ever, even though I felt like I'd barely spoken to any of them, let alone forged a close bond with them. The last time I felt this removed from my party and felt such apahthy towards them was Jade Empire. And I feel much the same about that game as I do about this one. A world, characters and story where I never felt like I got past the surface, where I saw it all happen but didn't really 'feel' any of it.
And as for the party control and customisation etc, whatever. The combat system isn't deep enough (or competant enough, with the frequently uselss Tactical camera and limited skill options compared to the library of skills ans spells that the previous games had) that you need to do anything flashy. The game is routinely and entirely justifiably mocked for the fact that you can just hold down R1 and you'll win. Even if by some miracle your party members do fall, you can revive them for no cost. There is so much combat and so little of it requires any strategy or deeper thinking than just piling in, that the idea of trying to obstain and craft specific gear is utterly hilarious. Why on earth would you bother?
Oh right, because its fun... apparently. I freely admit that I hate crafting in all games, so I don't bother with it. Its a personal choice, so I won't say much more about it. I will say that I am a practical sort of guy. Even when I don't care for a certain mechanic (stealth for example has crept into many genres of games, and I despise it utterly), if the game is either difficult enough or is clearly meant to be played with that mechanic in mind, then I won't swim against the tide just to be bloody minded. I try to work with a game, to get the experience it is offering and see what I make of it. But the game has to meet me halfway on this - if there is no reason to do it, then why should I? The game was shallow and easy, never requiring me to think about upgrading gear. For that to be a consideration, the pace would have to be slower, the encounters and enemies more tightly controlled to give the AI a fighting chance against the player's overhwhelming advantage (i.e that they are sentient, and want to win, whereas the CPU is not sentient and is merely programmed to be *able* to win - it doesn't want anything, and human ingenuity moment to moment will always find a way to outfox it, unless the odds are very heavily stacked in its favour).
In conclusion, I couldn't agree more that roleplaying, playing your character and your own personality is the key ingredient to these games. The differeance is that by using this defintion, I consider it the final nail in the coffin, because IMO this game is about as awful at executing this as you could ever dread from a WRPG. A huge step back from practically all their other games. You are railroaded into the ridiculous main plot, and if you think this game where you are named Herald of Andraste, and made de facto leader of a religious organisation, accepts and honours the *grave* misgivings and outright hostility to such a scenario, that a huge number of players and their characters feel, then we really do have no chance of seeing eye to eye on this. We are both looking at an object, you are seeing a ball and I'm seeing a pole.
It was the same in ME2 (and I had exactly the same adverse reaction there) where they bent and twisted and folded and kneaded the story to get you to be a part of an organisation that your character, played the way you want according to them, could hate them and would never work them in a thousand years no matter what the circumstances. The fact that they completely fumbled that explanation so it made no sense at all, and was utterly contrived (as they have done again here) made it even worse. The saving grace of ME2 after losing me completely with regard to my connection and engagement with my character, my sense of ownership of that character, my sense of the continuity of the story I was (supposedly) telling etc, was that it was in most other regards, a thoroughly excellent game. As I've discussed, this never made up for the fact that the things I really care about, were fumbled so badly I just couldn't form a connection to the game,no matter how high the quality of the product and overall experience was. To do that, I had to make a completely new character and give them a personality more receptive to what the game's narrative and premise was telling me must happen.
And hey, I tried to do that here too, but it didn't work. Because the premise and storytelling are awful and distant and the connection between the characters is terribly disappointing, no matter what you do, no matter how you try to work with the game. You can get to a place where your character feels like they belong, which does help a lot. But it doesn't improve the overall quality of the storytelling, its pacing and development, the complete lack of Esprit de Corps amongst your team (or even antipathy - they just feel like a bunch of people who've barely ever spoken to each other, beyond making awkward small talk on long hikes in the wilderness). And unlike ME2, the rest of the game as I've gone over many, many times Just Sucks. Underneath all the issues, all the different ways in which it didn't satisfy, it comes down to that simple assessment that this just isn't a good game. At all.
Other people feel differently, and that's fine. They don't need or want my approval to like or love the game, but for little its worthy, they have it anyway. I am simply stating my reaction to the game, as is my right, as is everyone's right. Because again, our own opinions are the only ones that truly matter to us in the end. We each know how we truly feel in our heart of hearts, and its up to each person whether they listen to that. Whether they like it more than they admit, or dislike some things more than they admit, whether they are actually quite disappointed with it in the end etc etc. We can only take each other's word on these things, and try to reconcule that with our own differing views.
This is simply an extreme example. Its rare for me to take such an absolute stance on a game. I don't buy into hype and I haven't believed a word the gaming press and critics have said for decades. Its hard for me to disappointed in a game, because I don't let myself get hyped, I avoid preview material, I never play demos or watch preview videos, interviews etc (or at least I never take them seriously anyway). And since genuinely great games are extremely rare, I don't usually go shouting and singing a game's praises either, unless I genuinely feel they deserve it (in which case, I'm absolutely delighted to do so).
So its very rare for me to feel quite as passionately against a game as I am here. And its one of those bizarre Emperor's New Clothes scenarios, where what I (and many others as this thread has shown) am seeing is apparently not even close to what others seem to be seeing. How they can think this game is excellent and strong step in the right direction, and I who love the series but would rather cut my hair blindfolded with a rusty chainsaw than play this 'game' again.
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