92 réponses à ce sujet

[RoboticWater]

I've only played through Life Is Strange once so far, so I'm not sure how exactly the different choices will change the interpersonal relationships, but I think ME did move a little bit in this direction with the way Wrex's status, the outcomes of the loyalty missions and the Collector Base for Legion and Tali, and how Shepard gets along with the VS can open or close certain options in ME3.

Big spoiler for episode 2 of LiS:

Spoiler

There was one particular moment at the end of Chapter 2 that I really loved (in spite of the subject matter), when Kate is attempting suicide. On top of taking prior decisions into account, Kate asks the player "who even cares about me?" The answer to that question isn't readily apparent and can't actually be acertained through straight dialog (as far as I know), but the player could find the answer by exploring Kate's room at the beginning of the chapter. The caring player (or at least, the inquisitive player) should be able to reason through all the potential responses:
1. "Your mother;" It's fairly obvious from a letter in Kate's room that her mother is harsh and incredibly dissapointed by Kate.
2. "Your sisters;" I'm not sure what would happen with this one, but I never found any evidence that proved that they especially cared about Kate.
3. "Your brothers;" When searching Kate's room, you don't find any evidence that she even has brothers, so this will probably end in tears.
4. "Your father;" This is the one I immediately jumped to because I found a postcard from Kate's father that implied they were on good terms.

Suffice to say, I love this bit because the challenge posed by the question gives the player a real sense of accomplishment. The dialog not only referenced my actions, but also engaged my memory (and a few of my critical thinking skills).
 

What might improve it would be to add to the amount of available dialogue for companions (closer to what we usually get in DA games) and then also have some different outcomes for the companions themselves depending on how the relationship develops. For example, if there's a "loyalty mission" dynamic, maybe some of them don't unlock if you're consistently rude to the companion in question and/or you just ignore them. Or if you argue for one side of some controversial topic most of the time and then change your mind when there's a big decision to be made, the other characters ignore you and won't listen to your advice.
 
If a "wrong" dialogue choice causes you to lose the game altogether, however, it should be an immediate effect rather than a delayed one, e.g. somebody pulls a gun and shoots you in the head, as opposed to popping up to kill you in the second-to-last mission 30 hours later.

Any level of fail state would be a plus like:
-Completing the rest of the mission with a de-buff (max shields = 50% or something)
-Losing access to a squadmate's special ability
-Death (supposing, as you said, it were immediate)

However, I've always fantasized about the idea of having decisions that get you killed down the road if the game had a meta-game mechanic like Life is Strange that warped the player back in time, have them pick one of the correct decisions (so they're not repeatedly failing), and warp them back to the future recapping the events that changed.

I've thought all along that many of the combat sequences in ME would realistically lead to some of the enemies surrendering or just hightailing it away. I mean, do the Blue Suns really care so much about protecting Harkin's criminal operation to continue throwing themselves at Shepard's squad even after a dozen or so of their colleagues have been killed? And is there not a single merc in the Omega slums who might listen to reason if Shepard explained that they weren't there to spread a plague?

I wonder what would be an effective way of gauging fear/stress and the correct time to initiate a taunt/negotiation mid combat. unless there's a challenge to the non-lethal finish, it would basically be an insta-win when you yell "drop your weapons."

[afgncaap7]

It's half of the equation for me. Character interaction is what makes Mass Effect stand out but it is still a videogame, not a movie. The entire reason I never finished ME1 was because the gameplay in-between the excellent character interaction paled in comparison to 2 and 3.

[Malanek]

Very important, probably the most important part of the game. Games can get by on the strength of their story for me, but those that do usually have at least adequate game play.

[capn233]

It isn't a minority opinion really.  It might seem that way if you hang out in certain sub forums.

 

They are vital for the game to have a decent lifetime.

[Cyberstrike nTo]

Before I begin, let me first say that for me combat, class system, difficulty/challenge and game mechanics are pretty much at the top of my list but I realise based on observation that I am in a minority camp. At least on the BSN most people seem more concerned with romances than even story and plot, let alone combat so my question is; how important are combat and game mechanics to you?

 

1) Universe- don't have an universe I want to play in, then nothing will else will matter. 

 

2) Stories,Characters, and romances-A great story with interesting characters and great romances can make a mediocre game awesome.

 

3) Combat and game mechanics-Tight and simple controls not a combo button masher.  

[Helios969]

Story (well conceived and properly paced) and combat mechanics are 1a and 1b.

[Operator m1]

They're extremely important.

 

After playing multiplayer since demo, abilities that don't work, and cheating AI never fails to take a ****** on my experience. Crap like enemies becoming several times more accurate when I use tactical cloak, geth shooting while staggered, among other cases of AI bullshit manages to ****** me off.

[Sylvius the Mad]

A deep and complex ruleset would be wonderful.

We haven't seen that from BioWare in many years, however.

[Winterking]

For me it's pretty much the most important aspect in a video game. Part of the reason why ME1 is my least favorite of the trilogy.

[Kevinc62]

I prefer story and characters in Bioware games, honestly. That being said if gameplay and combat sucks, then I might as well check a LP or read its plot  

Just add ME3 combat with ME1 tone.

[Laughing_Man]

A deep and complex ruleset would be wonderful.

We haven't seen that from BioWare in many years, however.

 

How exactly would you implement something like this in a 3rd person cover shooter?

[SardaukarElite]

Mechanics are paramount, though they're interconnected with everything else.

 

Personally I don't think romance is the most important thing for very many people at all. I just think that several people find it more fun to talk about and speculate on romances. Talking abut game mechanics is boring, and talking about the over all story is very shot in the dark when we know so little. 

 

I like talking about game mechanics but it is a technical conversation. In my experience most people (here at least) can't engage with mechanics discussions beyond 'previous game did X and I did / didn't like it'.

 

Characters and romance are easy to talk about for most people.

[Lars10178]

I would say they are damn high on my list, if not at the top along side story and plot. 

[Hadeedak]

I have to say, how I can behave in combat has a lot of influence on how I view the player character.

 

I like Mass Effect 3's combat. A lot. There's plenty of options to play differently, both within and between classes, and if I want to play a brusque, aggressive Shepard, that can extend beyond dialogue into the game. I can't really explain it, but ME3 feels really flexible. That's probably part of the reason I like it so much.

 

I'd quite like some of that fluidity and visceral fun to pop up in MEA as one more tool for me to come to grips with my next protagonist. So yeah, it's important. I mean, I like story. A good story is probably the most important thing, that and solid, variable character relationships. But combat also matters a lot! Don't get me wrong: I've still fired up KOTOR on occasion, even though the combat is best described as a monotonous drone, so I can wade through boring combat... But fun gameplay makes a game fun.*

 

*Hadeedak, queen of controversial statements

[Killdren88]

Psh, I don't play for the combat or mechanics. I spend my 60 bucks on the 25-30 mins of romance content. Everything else is just annoying filler. /sarcasm.

[Sylvius the Mad]

How exactly would you implement something like this in a 3rd person cover shooter?

Lots of abilities.  Lots of damage types and defense types.  Interactive environments.

 

I didn't play any of ME3's combat like a traditional cover shooter.  There's no reason why MEA should require it either, when none of the earlier ME games have.

[Calinstel]

Combat means very, very little to me.

The story, the actual meat of the game, is what matters to me. 

 

The game could be in 8 bit graphics, or, heck, just text as the original adventure games were.  Would matter not to me at all as long as the story itself was engaging and well written.

 

Guess I'm a throwback in this. 

[Massa FX]

Answer to OP: 

 

 

I want it all.

[Fredward]

Psh, I don't play for the combat or mechanics. I spend my 60 bucks on the 25-30 mins of romance content. Everything else is just annoying filler. /sarcasm.

 

I read mins as hours there for a sec.

 

~wistful sigh~

 

If only.

[Catastrophy]

Important for multiplayer, not so much for single player.  I can adapt pretty well and enjoyed that aspect for each of the ME games.  Story and characters trump.

 

i will use one caveat, if they have one mechanic that totally annoys me it can be a big detriment.  I detested the combat in the Witcher one, didn't finish the game.  Hated the save game, recover from death mechanic in red dead redemption, didn't finish the game.

Same here. I also didn't finish Witcher 2. I loathe QTE and the stupid rigged boss fights. I played the last Deus Ex through once, but when I got to the first boss in my 2nd playthrough (vanilla obviously) I said F+++ it and uninstalled the crap.

[liclic]

Don't forget the personnality of people... If you have no interest on people and even on ennemies, why would you like following their stories ?

[PhroXenGold]

For me, it really depends on how much combat there is in the game. If the bulk of the game is dialogue, exploration etc. I can put up with rather uninteresting combat (e.g. PS:T). On the other hand, if a significant portion of the game is combat, then I expect the combat to be enjoyable to play, and should it not be, then I won't be getting that far into the game. As with a couple of other people in this thread, that is The Witcher's failing for me. I didn't mind combat in the first game - it wasn't good by any means, but it wasn't so unenjoyable to play that I couldn't put up with it - but the second game has some of the worst combat gameplay I've ever had the misfortune to experience, and as such I simply couldn't finish the game, as it involved spending a significant amount of time doing something I did not enjoy in any way. And given that the entire point of playing games is to have fun....

 

With regards ME:A, I fully expect combat to be a major part of the gameplay, and as such, I would consider it a major factor in how much I enjoy the game. Not the only factor by any means, story, characters, the setting and so on are also very important, but if the combat ain't fun, it's gonna be hard for me to enjoy those things (conversely, if those things are bad, good combat won't save the game for me). I would want the mechanics to be such that there is considerable depth and variety in gameplay, but not to the point where I have to spend a long time plotting out my every action in battle - this is a story centric game, not XCOM after all, and I never want the combat to actually get in the way of moving the story forward.

 

Personally, I'd prefer something somewhere between ME 2 and 3. ME3 did add a lot of pretty good stuff over its predeccessor, but at the same time, somewhat homogonised things with the proliferation of power combos and the reduced need to use specific attacks against specific enemies. I liked having to consider enemy vulnerabilities, defense stripping and so on, both in terms of my abilities, and in terms of which squadmates I'm bringing on the mission. ME3 turned power based classes into combo-combo-combo-combo-combo. It's like I'm playing Magic back in Urza's.

[Chealec]

If the game mechanics are crap - the game is crap, end of. I don't care how good the story is if it's no fun to traverse because of godawful mechanics.

 

If the combat mechanics are crap ... well, that depends on how combat-centric the game is really. If they're bad but a minor part of the game then I can live with it; you can't really argue that the combat mechanics in FF7 were amazing, combat by dropdown menu! However, if they're bad but integral to the gameplay... then no.

[Shechinah]

It'd also be interesting to see of BioWare could effectively merge combat and dialog. I don't know how well it would work, but I'm imagining a system where guns do physical damage while dialog can erode resolve.

 

Reminds me of this amusing bit from TvTropes' Knights of the Old Republic II: Sith Lords / Funny;

 

Sion: "You seek to erode my will. You will not succeed."

(You have eroded Sion's will, reducing his Will saves, Constitution, and Wisdom.) 

 

Always manages to make me chuckle. I'm in favor of such an implementation both for humorous reasons but also for immersive reasons.
 

[ManOfSteel]

If the game I'm playing is poorly made and it's gameplay mechanics are boring, I would have no desire to play further. Story is important, but it shouldn't carry a game that isn't fun to play.