The 'classic format' I always appreciated the most was games that ran well and were finished on release.
Any chance bioware will will make any games like that?
this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023
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Mass Effect
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Did the original trilogy even do that?
The first game ran like shit and suffered from a crappy PC port. The second game had day one DLC with that Cerberus Pack thing. And the last game had the DLC baked onto the disk.
Love me some Mass Effect, but none of these games did what you are describing.
The second game had day one DLC with that Cerberus Pack thing.
Not to mention the additional crew members.
And the last game had the DLC baked onto the disk.
And really needed the free Extended Cut DLC to make a halfway decent ending...and the Citadel DLC to have a proper send-off to the cast...and fucking Javik.
ME has done a whole lot really well, but "finished on release" is nowhere on that list.
Not to mention the additional crew members
Crew members, skins, additional weapons and missions... just too much DLC to call that complete on release.
Do you remember having to log on each play session to allow the game to check if the DLC was valid, and if it failed you just didn't get the content you paid for; The good ole days.
Open world is just a medium, ultimately. It may be a recent trend in gaming, but it is false to apply some kind of teleology to it. Some of the best RPGs in gaming history managed to allow for meaningful decision-making and deep storytelling without open worlds, and it is laudable of this developer not to follow industry trends that don't serve their vision.
It's odd to me that open world games are often considered "better", or more "advanced" than linear games by default. It's just a framing device that can accommodate slightly different mechanics better. Or worse.
Good, everyone copying the Ubisoft model is exactly why games have started all being identical. You could even argue that the main issues with Andromeda are grounded in the choice to try and move that direction. I'd prefer small hub worlds and actual missions again, maybe pull an ME2 with the N7 missions and have side quests narratively build off of one another like the Jarrahe station VI -> Mech facility plotline or the MSV Strontium Mule.
At the end of the day not every place needs going back to, and the world will always feel more alive when you have well crafted small hubs and one shot missions set in unique locations. Imagine how boring Thane's recruitment would have been if it was just reusing the same area and enemies from LotSB's Vasir fight, cause that's what open world gets you.
In general, people have this strange idea that the bigger the ground you can personally traverse, and the ability for that to be retraversed, makes the world "bigger." I disagree, I believe that the larger number of diverse small environments with focused efforts on art direction is what gets you there and ME1/2 really understood that.
Honestly, bit of a shame. MEA's open world was literally its only redeeming quality.
Really? It was mostly just boring, empty space with collectibles and other standard open-world nonsense to make the game seem longer than it was. The combat was easily a more worthwhile quality, imo.
Combat and class variety was the redeeming quality, the open world made it feel like it was "The Division: Andromeda."