The problem with Bioware...
First of all, a PSA: The Left 4 Dead 2 demo should be out for everyone today. So if you haven't preordered it and haven't already been playing it, go out and download it. I think it's worth your time.
Dragon Age Origins is out today. My copy should be arriving tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. A lot of my friends are excited for this one but I'm kind of...undecided. Bioware is like Valve, in that their fans are very devoted and outspoken. So, I feel like I'm kind of jogging a narrow cliff when I say this, but...in some ways, Bioware is a one trick pony.
Don't get me wrong, they do that trick very well. But once you peal away the trick, the game's always feel a bit empty to me. When I look back at KOTOR and Mass Effect, for instance, I find two games that share the same exact structure. There's some kind of inciting event, then the world opens up (or in this case, the Galaxy opens up) and presents you with three different worlds to go to, in any order you want. Once you've exhausted the content in these worlds, something "epic" happens and then you're facing a linear story that ends with a climax. Mass Effect tried to hide this by presenting side quests and a multitude of planets you could either explore physically or get information from, but when you look at it, it had the exact same structure as KOTOR. This is a common thread between all of their games.
The one thing that has annoyed me from day one, playing Baldur's Gate, is the dialogue system. It's so boring. Up until Mass Effect, you simply select a response and then watch as the two characters converse in stationary, stilted talking head fashion. One will go on for forever in a monologue, followed by the second character's super long monologue, and so on until you reach the end of the conversation. And instead of being a dynamic cut scene, it's two people, gesticulating with their arms, flabbing their mouths and basically having a conversation like those you'd see in a news program. Not exactly thrilling. Mass Effect threw some complications and changes to this conversation system, with you picking more moods and ideas and then watching the cut scene play out. Bioware did a better job of making the conversations feel like real conversations and not like those you read in a novel.
Unfortunately, it still resulted in talking heads and gesticulating hands. Boring and not cinematic at all. With a good dozenish games under their belts, Bioware hasn't really done anything to truly evolve, outside of adding beautiful graphics.
I was extremely disappointed to hear that the dialogue system in Dragon Age was going back to the "see your response, choose your response, watch the long ass monologues" way of conversation. Conversation is extremely important in Bioware games because, when you're not killing monsters or looting, you're usually talking to someone. And in this day of interactive fiction, seeing "novel dialogue" and not "movie dialogue" is really unpleasant to me. It feels like developers aren't trying hard enough. They're just coasting by.
Before grabbing your pitchforks and torches and google-mapping me, know that I enjoy Bioware games for the most part. I think they usually tell an epic story filled with memorable characters. I still love Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster, Boo. I just feel that, recently, Bioware has been resting on their laurels, so to speak. They haven't really done anything completely revolutionary for a time. I was hoping that Dragon Age would spark their creative juices, but some of the reviews I'm seeing are pointing out the things I've been thinking and saying for awhile now. Like Bit Tech. I got excited when I learned that Bioware was taking influence from the gritty, realistic fantasy fiction by George R.R. Martin. Things like political intrigue, truly mature themes (unlike the puerile and juvenile things I've seen associated with Dragon Age), sudden, often violent, plot twists and lots of gray areas are the tenants of A Game of Thrones and so I was looking forward to playing through a similar thematic game...but from what I've seen, the story is fairly pedestrian with its demon army in the distance and having a lowly hero rising above his origin to become the savior of the world. Tried and true. But safe. Too safe.
I'm sure I'll enjoy Dragon Age for what it is, but I don't think I'll be completely satisfied. In the meantime, I'm going to change my address.
Dragon Age Origins is out today. My copy should be arriving tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. A lot of my friends are excited for this one but I'm kind of...undecided. Bioware is like Valve, in that their fans are very devoted and outspoken. So, I feel like I'm kind of jogging a narrow cliff when I say this, but...in some ways, Bioware is a one trick pony.
Don't get me wrong, they do that trick very well. But once you peal away the trick, the game's always feel a bit empty to me. When I look back at KOTOR and Mass Effect, for instance, I find two games that share the same exact structure. There's some kind of inciting event, then the world opens up (or in this case, the Galaxy opens up) and presents you with three different worlds to go to, in any order you want. Once you've exhausted the content in these worlds, something "epic" happens and then you're facing a linear story that ends with a climax. Mass Effect tried to hide this by presenting side quests and a multitude of planets you could either explore physically or get information from, but when you look at it, it had the exact same structure as KOTOR. This is a common thread between all of their games.
The one thing that has annoyed me from day one, playing Baldur's Gate, is the dialogue system. It's so boring. Up until Mass Effect, you simply select a response and then watch as the two characters converse in stationary, stilted talking head fashion. One will go on for forever in a monologue, followed by the second character's super long monologue, and so on until you reach the end of the conversation. And instead of being a dynamic cut scene, it's two people, gesticulating with their arms, flabbing their mouths and basically having a conversation like those you'd see in a news program. Not exactly thrilling. Mass Effect threw some complications and changes to this conversation system, with you picking more moods and ideas and then watching the cut scene play out. Bioware did a better job of making the conversations feel like real conversations and not like those you read in a novel.
Unfortunately, it still resulted in talking heads and gesticulating hands. Boring and not cinematic at all. With a good dozenish games under their belts, Bioware hasn't really done anything to truly evolve, outside of adding beautiful graphics.
I was extremely disappointed to hear that the dialogue system in Dragon Age was going back to the "see your response, choose your response, watch the long ass monologues" way of conversation. Conversation is extremely important in Bioware games because, when you're not killing monsters or looting, you're usually talking to someone. And in this day of interactive fiction, seeing "novel dialogue" and not "movie dialogue" is really unpleasant to me. It feels like developers aren't trying hard enough. They're just coasting by.
Before grabbing your pitchforks and torches and google-mapping me, know that I enjoy Bioware games for the most part. I think they usually tell an epic story filled with memorable characters. I still love Minsc and his miniature giant space hamster, Boo. I just feel that, recently, Bioware has been resting on their laurels, so to speak. They haven't really done anything completely revolutionary for a time. I was hoping that Dragon Age would spark their creative juices, but some of the reviews I'm seeing are pointing out the things I've been thinking and saying for awhile now. Like Bit Tech. I got excited when I learned that Bioware was taking influence from the gritty, realistic fantasy fiction by George R.R. Martin. Things like political intrigue, truly mature themes (unlike the puerile and juvenile things I've seen associated with Dragon Age), sudden, often violent, plot twists and lots of gray areas are the tenants of A Game of Thrones and so I was looking forward to playing through a similar thematic game...but from what I've seen, the story is fairly pedestrian with its demon army in the distance and having a lowly hero rising above his origin to become the savior of the world. Tried and true. But safe. Too safe.
I'm sure I'll enjoy Dragon Age for what it is, but I don't think I'll be completely satisfied. In the meantime, I'm going to change my address.