drfruitloop

If they don't expect me to care what reason do I have to spend 40 hours playing it? I could finish Planescape: Torment twice in that time. Even with the ability to turn on the rangers I never cared about the world and its people enough to want to see would happen. Also the only games I think have genuinely good stories are Torment, Spec-Ops: The Line, Shadow of the Colossus and maybe Metal Gear Solid 2. I don't regret it because I got to see what the people making Tides of Numenera (which I backed) are doing. I'm still optimistic though, my narrative problems will likely go away with a stand-alone story. I personally loathe cinematic storytelling in games, as it runs contrary to the idea of an interactive medium (The Last of Us is the worst example of this). What made Planescape work for me was that it got me personally invested in the characters and world, and particularly in my own story (who I was, why I couldn't die, why the shadows were chasing me etc).

One thing that can be learned from Wasteland 2 is not to assume the players already care about the story. I was never given any reason to care about the world or the Desert Rangers or whatever the **** that 'Cochise' thing everyone kept talking about was. The game ran entirely on assumed empathy and it killed any investment in the story for me which combined with the mind-numbing gameplay almost made me regret my purchase.