At the risk of writing a review for a two-year-old game, which I really wanted to do, I think I'll just make a comment on the state of RPGs as I see them today. But to put this in context: I recently borrowed a copy of Fable II from my cousin. I had actually done this once before last year at some point, but that year belonged to BioWare and Bethesda in the form of Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age: Origins, each of which I spent no less than forty hours with. And because I spent so much time with those marvelous game, the hack 'n' slash, collect-your-exp-in-the-form-of-glowing-orbs aspect put me off.But I eventually gave that game one more try - and I'm very glad I did. It's like I found the third piece of the Triforce, because each of my most favorite game studios brings something to the table that I wish would crossover into each other's games. Lemme 'splain.
1) BioWare, without question, provide the best stories and production values out of the three companies. Hell, at this point, the Mass Effect series is pretty much an interactive movie, and a believable one at that. But what I love about their games, and the reason why I keep coming back to them no matter what, is that I actually feel as though I'm traveling through their worlds, affecting them, and interacting with their occupants. The romances and friendships feel true and dynamic, giving it all the more realism. Case and point (in the current generation): Dragon Age: Origins.
DA:O had a lot of problems. It was relying on the formula and production values from the last generation. It was striking just how accurate the KotOR comparisons were, with its small-ass zones, frequent loading times, and how I couldn't walk over a ledge if it was slightly higher than my ankle. But the story came through for me. It was well-written, engaging, entertaining, funny, sad, aggravating: all the good emotions wrapped up in one experience. And the ending to it all felt genuinely unique, like I had just spent forty hours crafting my own personalized adventure, and it still one of the greatest gaming moments of my life.
2) Bethesda is a different kind of beast with its focus on a different aspect of the genre. Their philosophy is that if you're gonna make an adventure game, give the player some room to roam around (to put it lightly). They offer the most seamless of RPG experiences, for my money. Their games are made so that you can literally walk for hours without encountering a loading screen. And this is where the comparisons kick in.
Bethesda games have still not delivered a story on par with anything cranked out of BioWare's camp (well, except for Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening, just to take another shot at it). I think this is safely evidenced by the fact that they completely blanked out the ending of Fallout 3 with the introduction of the Broken Steel DLC (but don't get me wrong, I loved that I was able to take my character back into the world, but how it happened was a bit of a cop out). That's not to say that their stories are terrible, only that they aren't so deep. It's the sidequests that they excel at, and I find myself frequently putting the main quest aside in favor of freeing slaves, exploring long lost Vaults, and curing Aleswell of its curse of invisibility.
In this regard, Bethesda are better at world-building. You can go anywhere in the sandboxes they create almost immediately, and you typically can't walk ten yards without seeing something interesting and unique. Most of the time I spent playing Fallout 3 was just wandering around! It felt like a proper adventure, where there was stuff that you might never see even if you've played it three times through. Where you have an inflamed sense of freedom to the point where it can feel like the world belongs to you. For instance: Oasis. Three-Dog talks about this place at length during the game, but you're never told exactly where it is. You've got to find it. You're not missing out on anything quest-wise if you don't; it's just there for you to discover at your leisure, which I loved. And it made it all the more rewarding when I actually found it.
And to go back to BioWare: they have nothing on Bethesda's world-building. Most of their zones are too small for my liking, or they're designed like labyrinths to give the illusion of distance and scale. Even Mass Effect 2 was not immune to this, since there was a loading screen between every deck on the Normandy. And Dragon Age was the worst of all. An example being the forest outside of Ostagar near the beginning of the game. When I looked at the mini-map for it, I swear it looked like a maze you'd find in the Sunday paper, and it wasn't limited to just this forest, either.
To make my first point, this is where I could do with some overlapping. If there was only an RPG with the story and dialogue of a BioWare game and the epic world-building and sidequests of a Bethesda game. This is what I was getting around to, because that's what I've always effing wanted. It doesn't have to be completely free-roaming, but just big enough so that the loading screens aren't so intrusive. I died a little inside whenever I hit one of these bastards in the game, which was like every couple of minutes. To reenact this experience, watch one of your most favorite movies, then pause it every two minutes, and watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0guyWFIl0
3) Okay, now here comes Lionhead Studios, the makers of a game that I only semi-liked, Fable, and a game that's quickly becoming one of my favorites, Fable II. The funny thing is that this game had a lot of the problems from the other games. Lots of loading screens, a disjointed feeling about it, and a story that was pretty much Zelda: OoT but with "heroes" instead of spiritual stones. But what Fable II did absolutely right was to give you the option of making a home for yourself within that world, no matter where it was. Your reputation follows you everywhere, and people even know if you're living within their town. People stop to sing your praises and talk about your family or dog or exploits.
Whereas the stories from BioWare felt dynamic, the entire WORLD felt dynamic in Fable II. You can get married, have kids, and start multiple families if you're feeling a bit Mormo...I mean, in the mood for polygamy. People react to your decisions, spread gossip about you, and even blackmail you! The bastards. You can buy almost every building in the game, redecorate them, resell them, rent them out to get a steady cash flow going, even when you're not playing the game, giving me the feeling that the world kept going when my Xbox was switched off. I loved that aspect; it made me feel as though I had some control over the world itself. It felt a part of that world, because I could prove it! I had a house and an address.
And a job!
That's what I want in a game:
-The story and production values of a BioWare game
-The free-roaming, expansive and detailed world of a Bethesda game
-And the dynamic (i.e. home/job/a place to call your own in the world) feeling of a Lionhead game
This, I think, would equal the perfect western RPG. Each of these companies are slowly trending toward that outcome, with Mass Effect 2 giving you captain's quarters and Fallout 3 giving you a house or apartment as a reward for a quest, but it just wasn't as cool as in Fable II, where I could find my favorite spot in the game and choose my house accordingly. It made the difference between playing a game and feeling immersed.
That's what I wanted to say. Took awhile to get that out there but, yeah. To that end we have many sequels on the way for each of these properties. Fable III might make an appearance this year, Fallout: New Vegas is coming out this Fall, Mass Effect 3 might be released as early as NEXT year, and Dragon Age 2 has a release date in February of next year, or so Dragon Age - Awakening told be, but I don't trust that thing at all these days.
Also THIS.
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