Reasons Your RPG is Disappointing @ Blend Games

You do know that you can skip the tuturial in BG games? don't you? You can just decide not to do the tutorial at all.

As far the as start of NWN2 game goes, I like it. It is far from the standard rpg stuff where you get 'oh, you're the chosen one - you must save our world - because it is written'. Well´, maybe then, they shouldn't have written so much.

Edit:

I like the way the Gothic games start - you're just thrown in the middle of something and then it is up to you to deal with it.

I have to agree with the pointless tasks. I simply hate "hand this item to someone" without a good reason. Inventory system is also one I have to agree with -- since I'm one of the biggest pack rat. Sometimes I spend hours organising and deciding on which items to keep/sell and that is a pain in the butt if inventory system is horrible.

Slow travel I partly agree -- I hate walking back and forth and getting lost. Good example is Morrowind. But then I also hate too easy travel systems like Oblivion. If travel systems are too easy, I tend to get tempted to not travel through lands where it's not close to easy travel system.

I think slow beginning is neccessary but would be nice if it's more interesting somehow. I say this because I remember my first time playing BG2. Because it was my first RPG game experience ever, I wasn't familiar with lots of things and needed time to get used to things. I know many of you would have played BG1 before BG2, but I didn't and I absolutely needed the background to know why the heck these 3 ppl (Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc) are locked up in the cell with me. But now that I'm more familiar with RPG (especially D&D), I do get bored of long beginning quick enough. But hey, there are always new gamers. I think I will endure long beginnings for new players if it is not dragged on for too long or horribly boring.

Gothic 3 certainly started off with a bang, throwing you in the middle of a revolt. i think it's a preference of the gamer as the devs can't win either way, tutorial approach or early action involvement.

I think I haven't played a single game that actually had the cliché "farm-boys village attacked by evil foozles" beginning...

Um... NWN2 OC?

Prime Junta said:

Um... NWN2 OC?

Click to expand...

Haven't played it Neither DS, which had that too, I think.

And Fable. BG1 is sort of similar, although the main character is not a "farmer in a village".

Luke Skywalker ?

If you add movies and books, the list is fairly long (you'd have to add Lotr (Frodo), Eragon, Wheel of Time, Elminster, etc).

It's a fairly common start though, to make sure the main character has a reason to leave everything behind. Leaving loved ones to fend for themselves is not very heroic, so it's easier to start out with a tragedy that gives the hero a strong motivation to go forth in the name of justice, revenge, or what not.

Personally I prefer other beginnings, such as beginnings shrouded in mystery (The Nameless One in PS:T comes to mind), but that's a matter of personal taste. However, I can't deny that the whole "a tragedy kills his/her family and friends" works very well.

Good points IMHO and I especially find inventory (where I'd add that a limited inventory that makes you go back to town to sell loot and rings that take up as much space as a full plate armour akin to BG can be so annoying that I've come to prefer unlimited inventory space) and slow travel to already visited destinations (Baldurs Gate or Arcanum spring to mind) stand out. I find that the travelling system of Oblivion worked extremely well for me (even though I dislike most about the game) and that fast-travel/teleporting makes for a vast improvement of the fun to play time ratio.

Regarding beginnings I find that slow beginnings are more annoying in non-linear, multiple paths type games that otherwise beg to be replayed. Repeatedly playing through Chateau Irenicus in BG2, Peragus in Kotor 2, or that first stupid planet in Kotor 1 gets quite old. The best solution is IMHO to allow for a quick start option that allows you to skip the linear intro, possibly after playing through it once.

aries100 said:

You do know that you can skip the tuturial in BG games? don't you? You can just decide not to do the tutorial at all.

Click to expand...

The BG1 tutorial in Candlekeep can more or less be skipped (I usually go straight out into the wilderness and edit my char to start at level 2 so that I wont die from a sneezing gibberling), but Chateau Irenicus in BG2 (which isnt the tutorial per se but still what I assume the complaints are about) cant be avoided without modding the game and is not amusing at all after a while...