On replayability

[IndiraLightfoot]

This is a subject I really care about, and I'm curious of what you guys think about it. How would you like PE to be with regard to replayability?

 

Being a devoted fan of BG II & II as well as of NWN 2, I've honestly replayed those games dozens of times and I'm still enjoying it. At this very moment, I'm playing NWN 2 + MotB all over again, and it is quite fun, even though I've modded it and know most of the alternatives and possible events and outcomes of choices.

 

So, why do I keep enjoying it? That is the key question, a matter of replayability. Obviously, I do like Dungeons & Dragons, since I grow up with it, pen & paper and all. But that is far from the same thing as explaining why I enjoy playing a CRPG repeatedly. There must be other incentives at work. Here are some of them:

-The overall story must be of high quality. I mean like Tolkien's epic tale, I've read Lord of the Rings several times and watched the films like five times.

-In my case, for me to play a game over and over, I need to love all the choices you have as far as dialogue goes. Both NWN 2 and BG series have lots of that, and they are very well written in that sense.

-The party bantering should be good and recurring, I just enjoy characters like Sand who you can love and hate under the same breath.

-Varied combat mechanics and party dynamics make me want to replay things a lot, I just love meddling with that kind of thing. In BG series and Storm of Zehir I went crazy with such "party freedom".

-And lastly, the first pc you make should be unique enough, so youäre basically encouraaged to roll several new ones just to test it out. A warlock in NWN 2 is something quite different from a druid, for instance.

 

Finally, I've tried to think of what's been missing from these games that Iove to play so many times. And one thing I came up with is a bit more freedom in the evil/violence department. I know that the story and quests hinge a lot on NPCs, so they cannot be assassinated or fried by mistake, since then those questlines are severed, but still, it would be nice to be able to go on killing sprees in a mature game (that is very rarely my choice, but it should be an option). Im Skyrim, for instance, I went into Riften with my evil Kahjit assassin and almost immediately got a chance of shooting down her down with barely no witnesses. Well, I set about my mission stealthily and effectively, and down the guards and that lady went. I was proud of my achievement as I snuck into an alley. Suddenly, however, I saw in the corner of my eye that the lady rose from the dead. I was so annoyed that I took a long break from Skyrim. Obviously, it takes quite some thinking to make a game that allows for that kind of freedom. Dishonored has been designed that way, each NPC has a role in the game and you can kill them, but then that is the end of those interesting quest strands. However, that makes for some interesting replays. So instead of NPCs as empty waypoint automata, Obsidian could opt for fleshed-out NPCs all the way, but they can be taken out as well. It's all a matter of a choice, fun that is, not murder!

Edited October 7, 2012 by IndiraLightfoot

[Monte Carlo]

My answer is quite simple: Fun gameplay, rich content, epic scale and the ability to do the same stuff in different ways.

[DocDoomII]

This may be thinking too far ahead, but...

 

Replayability? Don't make a sequel like Mass Effect 3. It killed all my will to play the previous chapters, even though I played ME at least a dozen of times and ME2 at least ten times.

[Osvir]

This may be thinking too far ahead, but...

 

Replayability? Don't make a sequel like Mass Effect 3. It killed all my will to play the previous chapters, even though I played ME at least a dozen of times and ME2 at least ten times.

 

Did you also feel that the game was ending too soon, too sudden? I thought the entire ending section was absurd on so many levels, but then again I had spoiled myself before hand (So I knew what I was expecting). Does the "No spoilers" in the General Discussion imply no spoilers at all or only for Project: Eternity? Anyways~

 

Topic! Replayability is best done, I think, at character creation. Let me explain: People are talking about that in Dragon Age: Origins "If you were a Fighter compared to a Rogue there's no difference!" and I'm looking at Baldur's Gate and chuckling thinking the exact same thing. Okay, tactically it is a completely different thing. Stay awhile and listen:

Everything that matters in Baldur's Gate for building a character are the statistics; in order, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, Charisma (Did I miss one?). That's what keeps me replaying it, same with Planescape: Torment. Why?

 

Because it had such an impact. Or at least it felt like it. Fallout 2 is a perfect, and a much better example of this, having low Intelligence impacted your entire game. Variety in character customization, both in appearance and statistics, makes the game replayable in my opinion. This is given that the story and world my character(s) travel through is great but I am just pre-assuming that is going to be the case for Project: Eternity so I'll not even discuss it.

 

BUT! The most important thing above all is statistics "It is what is inside that counts" after all.