The lessons of Black Isle

[Ivan the Terrible]

Black Isle made some great games in their time, but like all games, they had their strengths and faults. For the CRPG Fanatics out there who have played most or all of Black Isles games, what lessons do you think they should take from each game to make KOTORII more enjoyable?

 

I'll start with Fallout and post more tommorow; feel free to add your own for whatever Black Isle game

 

Fallout

 

- Balancing is a good thing, and no one likes to spend the last part of a game effortlessly killing everything in sight

 

- It sucks when one has just done something to drastically change the game world and no NPCs acknowledge it

 

- Time Limits = bad

 

- Small game world = bad

 

- Having intelligence change your dialogue options = good

 

- Many people, including myself, LOVED the idea that the game could be completed without harming a single thing (errr....directly.) This is Star Wars, of course, so I'd wager that's not probable this time around....but being able to convince the 'Big Bad Guy' that his plan won't work and thereby avoiding the final fight is a PLUS, make no mistake about it.

 

That's off the top of my head. Be back tommorow.

[Gorth]

Black Isle made some great games in their time, but like all games, they had their strengths and faults. For the CRPG Fanatics out there who have played most or all of Black Isles games, what lessons do you think they should take from each game to make KOTORII more enjoyable?

 

I'll start with Fallout and post more tommorow; feel free to add your own for whatever Black Isle game

 

Fallout

 

- Balancing is a good thing, and no one likes to spend the last part of a game effortlessly killing everything in sight

 

[The Situationist]

No matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never EVER feed Feargus after midnight.

[Gorth]

No matter how much he cries, no matter how much he begs, never EVER feed Feargus after midnight.

makes you wonder what would have happened to Yoda, if Luke had offered him his Cereal Bar (or whatever that was) after midnight on Dagobah... :ph34r:

[Ivan the Terrible]

Ok, lessons to be learned from Fallout 2 (as I see it):

 

- Pop culture references can make for great comic relief. However, if you do 'em too often and they make no sense outside of the context of the game world, they're distracting and annoying. For the love of god please don't turn the final base of the last Sith boss into a parody of the Bush administration, however easy it might be. Thank you.

 

- BUGS! Bugs are bad. Is that a little too obvious to have been stated? Well, I thought the car trunk appearing in locations without the car attached was a little too obvious to overlook.

 

- Freedom of movement = good. I liked the fact that you could wander wherever you pleased, with only a minimum of order. I doubt KOTORII will be as free as all that, but at least try for something resembling it.

 

- NPCs that everyone loves to hate can be as good as NPCs everyone loves to....errrm....love. If you throw in a Myron-like NPC, who has a personality or some trait that everyone loathes, and then give us a chance to eventually kill him.....That's a good thing.

 

- Gamers are not just kids anymore. Many people, including myself, grew up surrounded by video and computer games. We appreciate having a game that isn't afraid to deal with 'mature material.' Again, this is Star Wars, so I'm not expecting prostitutes to line the streets and the Sith to make crude remarks about my grandmother and a well-endowed donkey, but an emphasis on a darker feeling ala Empire Strikes Back isn't likely to backfire on you.

 

- Gamers like to feel like they've had an effect on the world. When KOTOR ended with no mention whatsoever as to what happend on the worlds you visited and changed, it annoyed a lot of people. Give us a Fallout-style scrolling ending describing your character's effect on the world at large, and people will be appreciative.

 

Errrr....that's what comes to mind right now.

[Shdy314]

THE SLIDESHOW ENDING. Which was great because it was nice to have a wrap up for the places you'd visited and things you'd done and really see how the way you did quests changed the entire area. Made me feel more than any other game that I'd changed the world. I would say this is probably the best ending of any RPG I've ever played. And I've never seen it repeated anywhere. Why?

 

Which is similar to the epilogues of Throne of Bhaal. Which was great because you got to know where the NPCs you traveled with went after traveling with you and reaching such epic levels. So they got some closure to their lives and things that couldn't be addressed in the game were at least wrapped up in the end. Like Minsc making it into the Berserker lodge. If you like the NPCs then you'll like knowing how they ended up.