Metacritic's next victim

[Alby_da_Wolf]

LordTheNightKnight said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

[...]

Old mechanics aren't necessarily a barrier, almost always it only takes to improve the interface to make them more accessible. Removing deeper options because not everybody uses them changes the game's target and often it just piss the genre's fans off without really giving anything to more casual gamers. There are already tons of simplified RPGs available for those that don't like complications, and there are also good and deep RPGs that allow to learn them without excessive efforts, or at least with a gradual learning curve, ideal for those that after starting from the simpler ones want to get more challenges as they become more dedicated fans of the genre, but oversimplifying, dumbing down, deeper series to make them compete with the simpler ones is not the right thing to do, it will make the fans of the series mad and it won't make the casuals happier than playing games that were designed from the start to be simpler and appeal them. And let's not forget we are talking about RPGs: how many RPGs elements can be removed before the games aren't RPGs anymore? Trying to change RPGs so much that they aren't RPGs anymore to make those that aren't fans of the genre like them doesn't make much sense, and in fact up until now it never worked, or when it partially did, the result was so bland on every aspect that the new fans attracted were less than the old ones lost.

Change "RPG" to "adventure shooter", and you've described perfectly what a lot of us feel about Other M.

As for this game, the score is a bit too close for each version considering the disparity in the number of reviews.

There might be something here that apparently pleases reviewers, but turns off actual gamers (yeah, I'm basically claiming reviewers aren't actual gamers).

IDK elsewhere, but I noticed that at least in Italy, even the strictest reviewers, after initially ranting against dumbing down, are now like resigned to it (but the last issue of a gaming mag I read gave scores depressingly low, so it looks like they aren't willing yet to totally accept it). I guess publishers bring pressure on them through advertising, but they also use marketing to persuade as many people as possible that they chose the right way... Luckily we gamers aren't willing to accept it and we can vote with our money, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth knowing that most probably the additional marketing money spent to persuade inexperienced gamers to buy a dumbed down game could have been spent instead to develop it better and not crippled.