"Companions are never forced on the player. Players can explore the entire world and its story on their own if they so choose."

[LadyCrimson]

I often played 6-party rpgs with 3 or 4 in the party, because that was my personal "sweet spot" for the amount of challenge I wanted (6 was easier than I wanted, 2 harder than I like). The choice of more or less party members in the type of games like PE seems to be going for is, to me, akin to difficulty settings.

[Nivenus]

You either need a party or you don't.

That kind of stuff ****ed-up New Vegas' stealth gameplay(as having companions with you rendered stealth play impossible).

 

That's my opinion, anyway.

 

I think that the problem with (unmodded) New Vegas stealth gameplay using companions was more a factor of how the basic fundamentals of Bethesda's playstyle (which Obsidian inherited) are very much designed without companions in mind. You can't really manage companions in games like Skyrim or Fallout 3 and even with the options Obsidian presented in FO:NV, you're pretty limited in what you can do.

 

I'm guessing, given Obsidian's statements so far about this being an RPG with a heavy emphasis on tactics in combat, that you'll have a much greater degree of control, down to telling party members to wait in one location or go into stealth mode themselves. You know... like in Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights 2, or Dragon Age: Origins.

[Gurkog]

I did virtually all of BG2 solo on my paladin character. It was pretty easy to make paladins virtually immune to all attacks except the maze/imprison spell and the mindflayer instant death.

[Bill Gates' Son]

They probably did it for RPing reasons as well. I know I'm not the only one who hates getting a companion I hate forced into your party (why halo thar Neeshka).

Edited September 19, 2012 by Bill Gates' Son