2007 has been a phenomenal year for games. I have had a chance to play and beat all of my most anticipated titles for the year and I have to say I have been pleased with most of them. I'd like to share my thoughts and feelings on all of them but I'm to lazy to type up six game at once so I'll just cover the RPG's in this post. My must play list for 2007 was:
- Mass Effect
- The Witcher
- Assassins Creed
- Bioshock
- HL2 Episode 2
- Halo 3
Mass Effect
What it did right:
Story:The most engaging cinematic storytelling system I've ever seen with the best Sci-Fi game storyline ever. Its worth a play for the story alone. The Renegaed/Paragon(nice guy/unmitigated ass) choices ought to be enough for most player to contemplate a second playthrough. The conversation menu, charm/intimidate options, myriad of choices all flowed together really well. All the voice acting was top notch with the exception of the Human Ambassador(who sucked) and Seth Green who is just irritating although he was a good casting choice for a smart ass. I do wish they would have at least greyed out completed dialog options or added a nice audible cue like a charater saying irritatedly "how many time are you going to ask me about that?"
Gameplay:I have to say I expected combat to be mediocre from gameplay videos but its actually really fun and engaging. I've come to love any game that uses some sort of cover mechanic and Mass Effect's is simple intuitive and works well. I played as an Infiltrator and enjoyed most of the tech abilities but did not use them much till the last half of the game as thety are not nessacary or particularly useful at lower levels. I also didnt care for the biotic abilities till the end of the game then I really enjoyed singularity and lift although sigulatiy was done better in the darkness. I was also pleased with the skill trees althought the game felt more like a cinematic shooter than RPG. AI was OK but felt dated if it were a pure shooter I would have been dissapointed.
Charater Models: Some of the most beautiful charaters in any game. Some of the best aliens I've seen(Wrex) and some really bad knock offs of film aliens. The face gen software is an improvement over Oblivion. I found the artstyle of the environments to be a bit bland.
What it did wrong:
Environment: Bioware tried too hard to make the universe feel massive and as a result the environments all feel empty and lifeless. Most NPC's are cardboard cutouts that just stand there with very little animation. Pull a gun on them in the citedel and you cant shoot them your gun is lowered automatically shoot by their feet no reaction. later in the game on other worlds you can shoot them directly and it does nothing. That was a real let down for a RPG. The only environments worth a damn were in the main storyline missions. I found the rest of the filler side missions not very compelling.
Graphical Glitches: Frame rate drop was there but never enough to be bothersome. Texture pop in was irritating and constant. I disliked a lot of the lens flare and lighting effects. All of that is still a minor annoyace and does not detract to much from the experience.
Exploration: I'm sure a lot of you will disagree with me here. I was not impressed with the exploration aspects of the game. It felt like privater without the fun stuff in between.(planetary environments were a lot better devloped in Privateer BTW) I'll admit I did not play many of the side missions. The first few were fun but the more I played of them the more they felt like Grind filler. I feel they were a detration that prevented developers from really fleshing out the game. I wouild have much prefered them spending more time on the main story arc. Its sandbox play without the fun elements of sandbox play.
Lenght: I expected the main story arc to be much longer. I clocked just over 20 hrs of Gameplay and about 4 of that was spent on exploration. I was not ready for the main storyline to be over.
Squad AI: Abysmal and lazy. Its a good thing they cant damage you or each other. If they could it would be a game breaker.
The Witcher
What It did Right:
Story: A well devloped, rich, engaging, adult oriented storyline with multiple paths that are all different shades of gray. There are few clear ethical right and wrong choices. Your choices have consequences that come about much later in the game. The world and backstory are very well developed thanks to the game drawing on a large body of fiction. I think its a plus that most in the US and English speaking Europe have not had a chance to read the fiction yet as only the first book is translated from Polish to English and its not yet available in the US. That way the game has a well fleshed out and developed world without being judged by fans of the books. This game is most comparable to Betral at Krondor and to a lesser extent Planescape: Torment. I have not done a Second playthrough yet but it looks like this game does a better job thatn most at providing different storylines for different choices. Voice acting ranges from some goo most fair to some bad but does not detract from the game. I think most of it is quite good for a game translated from Polish.
Gameplay: The combo system is a welome addition to the traditional click to kill mechanic of most isometric RPG's and Diabloesqe games. It makes you feel much more involved in the combat. All the added flourishis as you level up and finishing moves if you stun or knock someone down really make Geralt feel like a bad ass. The talent skill tree is very well done with several different ways to approach building your charater.
Artstyle: This game is just beautiful. They have done amazing things with a very dated Bioware Aroura engine. The worlds looks lived in and belivable. Architecture is very nice.
A Living, Breathing, Beliveable, Beautiful World: Day and night cycles that matter to gameplay. NPC's that react to weather. If its raining they will find shelter. Commentary by the populace thats not excessively repeated about you, the weather, ect. Comentary may chage depending on your standing with factions. Dialog trees are grayed out once completed. NPCs roam. Time of day matters. One of the most beliveable gameworlds Ive played in. Best use if Alchol in game ever. Fighting drunk can be fun and can give bonuses to fisfighting.
What it did Wrong:
Dated Engine: Althogh CDProjecktRed did amazing things with the aroura engine it use resulted in some presentation problems. Chapter transitions feel modulesque and there are some scripting bugs that if you have ever tried to create a module in NWN or NWN2 you will be all too familar with. Load times from interiors to exteriors are long.
Compatability:This game has a few bugs in XP but nothing that will brake the experience. In Vista it downright unplayable and crashed about every 15 minutes for me.
Reuse of Charater Models: This made me kinda sad. The chater modles in the game were quite good but unfourtunaly all the mechants used the same model, all the whores used the same model, Ect. They really needed to take the time to create some more face meshes.
Assassins Creed
Ok I know its not an RPG but it does have a lot of RPG elements and many things I'd like to see other devs implement in future games. Its hard to Pigeon hole this game into a single genre as it combines the elements of so many.
What it did Right:
A Living, Breathing, Beliveable, Beautiful World: The best most belivable city environment in any game I have ever seen bar none. They nailed crowd mechanics and behavior. Crowd reactions to your actions are very well done. Crowd interation with itself was a beautiful thing to behold. While a lot of the face meshes were not up to par I cant say I saw many if any repeats. One of the most immersive game worlds Ive seen.
Gameplay Mechanics: Free running is brilant and exilerating.I never thought I would like a game that had a 3d platforming mechanic which I ussually find frustrating. Free runnings ease of use and fluidity make it fun to do and beautiful to look at. Chase AI is exceptional and I enjoyed the line of sight mechanic The stealth aspects of the game are fun but not very belivable. Hard to blend in as a monk with a ton of weapons hanging off of you. Best use of horses in game ever. The game conveys a wonderful sense of freedom.
Artstyle: I found this game to be Gorgeous with an amazing level of detail.
What it Did Wrong:
Gameplay Mechanics: Complexity of the combat control scheme.I found the way things were maped to the controler to be unwieldly and confusing. I still enjoyed combat but it needed a different scheme to actually be fun/addictive. Vauge tutorials. It took me a long time to figure out pickpocketing.
Story: Frankly, I did not find it very compelling. I did not care for the VR twist either. Thats ussually is enough to kill a game for me but so many other elements shined enough to keep me playing.
Voice Acting Repititon: Major imersion breakers. Constant looped dialog was really irritating. They should have used a proximity trigger to start the confrontations between the citizens and gaurds and it should not have looped after. You should have been able to decide not to help them and have the encounter go away after that. A game that had production values as high as this one should not have had so much repitition of dialog.
What were your best games of the year and what did you like about them?
