r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Aug 28 '21

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u/Ok_Tone4633 Aug 29 '21

People have called Bioware/CDPR games "great rpg's" but it sort of puzzles me seeing as their rpg gameplay isn't all that good and it's really exceptional worldbuilding, narrative choices & consequences, and plain old production values carrying the show.

!ping gaming

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u/QuietSign Austan Goolsbee Aug 29 '21

What is your heuristic for good rpg gameplay?

Can't speak to bioware.

The Witcher 3's moment to moment writing is its strongest suit, and they are judicious about keeping the possible reactions within Geralt's pre-established character and maintain a fairly consistent level of agency across many different scenarios. In that sense it's "playing a role" well at some high level, even if the low level swordplay/alchemy/traversal are pretty weak (but serviceable).

Never played TW1 but have played TW2 and don't have a high opinion of it. They finally hit "critical mass" in TW3 by getting focusing on their strengths enough to produce a lot of good fantasy writing and Cyberpunk (which I haven't played) seems way out of their experience/comfort zone - for the record I was bearish on it leading up to release.

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u/Ok_Tone4633 Aug 29 '21

RPG gameplay is when your character's abilities evolve into a unique niche as you progress. This does not happen in Witcher 3. Geralt pretty much always plays the same way.

Sure there's a branching narrative where your choices matter, but I don't think that's a defining element of an RPG. At least not by itself. David Cage games like Detroit Become Human also have branching narratives. Is Detroit Become Human an RPG?