Another Modern RPG, please

[Mirage]

I absotutely love the modern theme in the RPG genre, though it is severely under-used. Loved VTMB (RIP Troika), and thought AP was one of the more interesting games I've played.

 

Despite the mediocre success of AP, I really hope Obsidian decides to do another Modern day RPG, just prioritize things a little better. So, if this does transpire, what would you want this RPG to incorporate? (story elements, gameplay concepts, etc). For me, I'd like to see it have some fantastical elements, gives the game a little more freedom in storytelling IMO.

[mkreku]

I don't understand why it's so difficult to make interesting games set in contemporary times. I mean, we have thousands of movies that manage the feat, so why not games? Why do games always have to have paranormal activities, magic and other assorted mumbo-jumbo to make them more 'interesting'?

 

I don't want fantastical elements! I want a game with a story so interesting that it carries itself over and beyond the need for "fantastical elements", a story that deals with mature issues and topics and makes the player feel something other than bloodlust or that weird empty feeling you get when you play the latest collect-a-thon.

 

I thought Alpha Protocol would be that game, but it turned out to be a type of RPG I'm not very fond of (linear, small levels, etc.). I have not played it yet though, but I have noticed that I have a lot more fun when playing sandbox type of games. In fact, I almost exclusively sandbox games nowadays.

[Mirage]

Yeah, I know what you mean. If Obsidian can create a classic story in the modern day setting w/o fantastical elements, that'd be amazing also.

[LadyCrimson]

Maybe it's not so much difficult to make, so much as difficult to appeal to (majority) gamers. To be clear, I'd be all for a rpg set in modern day times, with non-fantastical enemies & weapons. But perhaps if you make it too non-fantastical, even with a good story, it's not compelling enough to play thru (vs. just sit & watch like a film).

 

ie, not escapist enough.

 

I also wouldn't mind a RPG where the main focus didn't have to be on ratatat combat for progressing through a storyline. Some combat, yes, but not every single encounter being solved/reached by fighting thru hordes of dudes/almost everything is an enemy worlds. A mystery type RPG might be interesting.

[sorophx]

to hell with modern day RPGs, I want my cyberpunk games, so tired of playing Syndicate Wars over and over...

[Hurlshort]

I thought Alpha Protocol would be that game, but it turned out to be a type of RPG I'm not very fond of (linear, small levels, etc.). I have not played it yet though, but I have noticed that I have a lot more fun when playing sandbox type of games. In fact, I almost exclusively sandbox games nowadays.

 

I really think you should play AP. I'm not saying you are going to love it, but I think you might be a bit surprised by it.

[Kaftan Barlast]

...surpised by how terrible it is! *BADUM-TISCH!*

[mkreku]

Another thing I don't understand is why all RPG's revolve around killing things. In most of them the main way to gain experience points is to kill other people! Why am I learning how to forge armour by killing other people?! For those rare games that don't hand out experience points for murder, you still usually have to murder tons and tons of people, but with the difference being that the murders now feel even more meaningless since you're not even getting any experience points for them (Bloodlines comes to mind)..

 

I once played a CaRPG (lame name, I know) called Road Trip. In it, you were actually a small, talking car.. But that wasn't the genius (hrmm) of it, it was the way you levelled up and 'battled'. You had this huge open world where you could move freely (as long as your car could take you there), and you could drive from town to town and race various other cars. If you won the race, you gained experience points (money). When you had enough experience points you could go to a store and buy more expensive parts for your car, thus making you faster and able to win tougher races. Otherwise you solved quests and explored as usual. By the end of it you were a F1 contender. Great little game!

 

I've often wondered why no other games dared take this approach? Why must every game revolve around killing when there are so many other activities that you could do? How about a football RPG? One that plays like FIFA (or a slightly simpler version of it), where you have control of ONE character in a persistent world (and series). You'd have to win matches (or at least play well in the matches you lose) to level up your character so you can run faster for longer, be more accurate with your shots, become stronger etc. Then you'd advance from division 8 in the countryside all the way up to international level and Premier League or something, all the while managing your life and finances/sponsorships.

 

I'm just so sick of always having to kill things.

[Llyranor]

This game was practically made for mkreku

 

And there is a football RPG out in Japan on DS (Europe is supposed to get it localized at some point), which sold craploads in Japan. I know how much mkreku likes his anime

[Orogun01]

Maybe it's not so much difficult to make, so much as difficult to appeal to (majority) gamers. To be clear, I'd be all for a rpg set in modern day times, with non-fantastical enemies & weapons. But perhaps if you make it too non-fantastical, even with a good story, it's not compelling enough to play thru (vs. just sit & watch like a film).

 

ie, not escapist enough.

 

I also wouldn't mind a RPG where the main focus didn't have to be on ratatat combat for progressing through a storyline. Some combat, yes, but not every single encounter being solved/reached by fighting thru hordes of dudes/almost everything is an enemy worlds. A mystery type RPG might be interesting.

Funny you want that, me and my buddies have been talking about making a game like that. Although to be fair is not entirely modern, more like 1920.

[Tale]

I'm currently on a sci-fi kick. I'm sick of futurist games that are nothing but space opera or fantasy IN SPACE. Where's my scientific basis, slower than light travel, invisible lasers, and non-human aliens? Instead it's all psychic powers, FTL, fanwank about how the lasers are actually plasma, and sexy aliens. I consider myself lucky when they're not using swords.

 

I'd settle for modern games, though.

Edited August 9, 2010 by Tale

[sorophx]

mkreku just made me go look for Road Trip.

 

and OMG Desert Bus...

[Monte Carlo]

I'm like that with movies: I prefer them to have car chases and gunfights. If they don't I generally don't dig them.

 

Same with games. They need tanks, explosions, tunnels, fighting in tunnels, treasure, more tanks and blowing stuff up.

 

A game where you blew up tunnels in a treasure-harvesting fighting vehicle would be the best.

[GhostofAnakin]

I thought Alpha Protocol would be that game, but it turned out to be a type of RPG I'm not very fond of (linear, small levels, etc.). I have not played it yet though, but I have noticed that I have a lot more fun when playing sandbox type of games. In fact, I almost exclusively sandbox games nowadays.

 

I think you should give AP a chance. I'm not sure where you got the idea it was linear, at least any more so than 95% of RPGs out there. AP certainly has its flaws, but I don't think linearity is one of them.

[Tale]

It's not sandbox, though. I seem to recall mkreku is a gigantic fan of Gothic.

[Starwars]

Yeah, even though the game has a lot of freedom of choice it's very restricted when it comes to moving around in a gameworld.

 

That said, I'm totally in agreement in that we need more modern day RPGs. Alpha Protocol doesn't have the most amazing story in itself but just the fact that you can *somehow* relate it to today even with its super-villains feels incredibly... fresh I suppose?

 

Also, on violence... I'm far from being "preachy" and all that but sometimes it amazes me how much focus there is on violence in games and how much it's just... taken for granted. It's pretty crazy when you think about it.

[LadyCrimson]

Another thing I don't understand is why all RPG's revolve around killing things. In most of them the main way to gain experience points is to kill other people! Why am I learning how to forge armour by killing other people?! For those rare games that don't hand out experience points for murder, you still usually have to murder tons and tons of people, but with the difference being that the murders now feel even more meaningless since you're not even getting any experience points for them (Bloodlines comes to mind)..

[...snip/condensed]

I'm just so sick of always having to kill things.

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say...same here. I don't mind some combat/conflict (a few bosses, say) but after years & years it's really old when that's all there is. You don't walk through a forest and have every single creature you encounter try to kill you-every 5 feet, no less-either. I don't like action/shooters because without something else to go with it - unique item hunting, alchemy tweaking, raising skills or whatever - to occupy my mind, I get bored very fast of killkillkill.

 

On the other hand tho, for me at least, a RPG that's too sandboxy/open is difficult for me to story-progress because I'll spend so much time on the sandboxy-tinkering aspects that I'll get sick of the game long before I've gotten very far in the actual plot-quests.

 

Experience could be gained in a lot of other ways...or even, perhaps, get rid of the whole experience-bar thing altogether. Skills via schooling (that costs lots of gold or reputation or something else more complex) instead. Edit:the obsession with stat points gained -"I can now wear this armor because I finally have 210 in strength!" - in videogames is boring too, imo. I know it's tradition in rpg's but...

Edited August 9, 2010 by LadyCrimson

[Monte Carlo]

^ That's one of the few things I liked about GTA --- you decide when to steal cars and there are consequences.

[Orogun01]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say...same here. I don't mind some combat/conflict (a few bosses, say) but after years & years it's really old when that's all there is. You don't walk through a forest and have every single creature you encounter try to kill you-every 5 feet, no less-either. I don't like action/shooters because without something else to go with it - unique item hunting, alchemy tweaking, raising skills or whatever - to occupy my mind, I get bored very fast of killkillkill.

 

On the other hand tho, for me at least, a RPG that's too sandboxy/open is difficult for me to story-progress because I'll spend so much time on the sandboxy-tinkering aspects that I'll get sick of the game long before I've gotten very far in the actual plot-quests.

 

Experience could be gained in a lot of other ways...or even, perhaps, get rid of the whole experience-bar thing altogether. Skills via schooling (that costs lots of gold or reputation or something else more complex) instead. Edit:the obsession with stat points gained -"I can now wear this armor because I finally have 210 in strength!" - in videogames is boring too, imo. I know it's tradition in rpg's but...

A game like that should had been made a long time ago, is it so hard to mix RPG, Adventure and Puzzles to make an interesting fightless experience.

[LadyCrimson]

Yeah, I'm sure it's tough to try to do all of those things/all those changes from the norm. Stats/level ups/points give a sense of satisfaction that's probably hard to replace, as far as character building goes, for example. Sigh. I'd be happy enough if it just had some elements/areas that deviated away, combined with some of the average methods, but prominent enough to make things feel different.

[Purkake]

Having a variety of different conflicts/problems/tasks and different ways to solve them is always good.

 

I don't know why everyone is so hung up on the "modern". While it may not be all that common in RPGs, it is pretty common in other genres. It is mundane, with concrete limits and still prone to a billion cliches. Why not take an existing setting and turn it on it's head ala Planescape? Why not explore some less used time period in a globetrotting adventure? Why not go crazy and make the setting dynamic in a choice-driven narrative?

[entrerix]

I want a good horror rpg.

[Purkake]

I want a pony.

[entrerix]

i knew you were gonna say something like that and i just walked right into it...

[Purkake]

It's just that RPG and horror aren't exactly a natural mix. You might be better of with a mystery RPG with horror elements in the story...