2023 is spoiling gamers

[Mnementh]

GoOnKid said:

Mnementh said:

Why afraid?

As I said, Hogwarts is simply good not great. But something is cool about playing a learner in a magic school. I mean this is pretty old theme including books long before Rowling. But it is visible how much the dev cared for the world, which can be seen in small details like the moving paintings (which must have been a lot of work animating hundreds of pictures), als the small items of interest or that are funny added to the grounds. Even a moving bush in form of a dragon, that spits somethign red - which are leaves. All these details make for a good experience if you just simply want to wander the floors with eyes full of wonder.

Baldur's Gate 3 is all about allowing the player to do everything. Similar to a real DM the game just rolls with your decisions. And adds a lot of stuff. A squirrel that fiercely defends it's tree and if you cast speak with animal you can hear it threaten and intimidate you. While being a squirrel. The absolutely crazy stuff you can pull. Like convincing the gnoll boss of a group that attacks you to first eat it's fellow gnolls and then itself. A lot of what you think you want to do you actually can. Fights are demanding and tactical, something I miss in many other games that seem to assume all players only want to be challenged on twitch reflexes, not deep planning and decision making. BG3 makes a battle a chess match, but again as said above with allowing for crazy moves.

Well, all of this sounds nice and all but I feel like these games still mostly benefit from buzz and being the next hot thing that everyone and their mother is talking about. I'm not trying to downplay them, though. Just not my cup of tea I guess.

Both are open world games like we've seen a million times already and both have high levels of detail. But both have their issues nevertheless. I've watched an explanation about the magic system in BG3 and apparantly it is just like Final Fantasy I on the NES where spells can only be used a certain amount of times until you need to sleep in a camp. That is so archaic. I would have a hard time liking this in a modern game.

Well, you can like what you want obviously. But also you seem to not even try these games. And yes, you need to sleep to refresh spell slots - as it is always in D&D. That actually can inform your gameplay choices. Kinda comparable to weapon breaking in BOTW, some people hate it, some argue that it will push you towards experimentation. I can see both points and it is similar for the spell slots in D&D. So I wouldn't say it is an 'archaic' gameplay design, it is just a choice of design that can result in different experiences. Personally I am more and more hating cooldown based abilities and spells. Putting a timer on it feels - well archaic for me. But game designers these days seem to love it.

Last edited by Mnementh - on 18 August 2023