Too much RP, not enough G: A criticism of Bioware

I'm reminded of a Family Guy episode, where the family was stuck in a panic room and Peter tells everyone about his ancestors. At the end he tells his family his dark secret, that he hated the movie: The God Father and for the next few minutes they argue with him about how he is wrong. I have a feeling that we're going to have a similar interaction after this.

In keeping with my ongoing mission to have unpopular opinions about popular games, besides thinking that Bioshock was an overrated bad game; I have one about Bioware. I have yet to find a game from them that I thought was good and not overrated.

I've played the following games from them:  Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights and Dragon's Age.

I did not get into any of them and of that list I only finished Jade Empire, Baldur's Gate 1 and Kotor. The rest I play a few hours and my interest waned and I stopped playing. I can't help but feel that Bioware makes rpgs that are my antithesis.

1. Story: A while ago someone put up a flowchart showing how all of Bioware's games reuse the same plot elements. Some gamers may find it comforting to know how the plot plays out each time, I don't. I am sick and tired of playing a regular guy who just so happens to join a secret group who then discovers that he's the chosen one.

I have been spoiled by the Shin Megami Tensei series along with The Witcher. Each SMT has a different story that leaves the player guessing. With The Witcher, you are playing as an already established bad-ass who is not interested in saving the world, but stopping the group that attacked him.

2. Morality and writing: Another nail in the coffin for Bioware's games for me is the sense of morality. I just don't find having a dual morality system realistic or good game-play. I don't want to play my character as a naive fool or a complete jerk.

What was amazing about The Witcher was how it got away from this system and still delivered choices. Everything the player decided on had consequences to it, both immediate and down the line and there were no good or bad choices.

Another knock against choice in Bioware games is that the majority of them serve no purpose for the story. One detail I liked about Alpha Protocol was that everything I did was reference in the game at some point. For example people would comment on how stealthy I was or what I did on previous missions. That went a long way towards making the story feel personal. In Bioware's titles after I make a choice I never hear anything else about it again. Some choices will have an effect at the very end of the game but waiting 20+ hours for that to happen doesn't work for me.

The writing in the Bioware games also rubs me the wrong way. The issue I have is that none of it seems organic; it feels more like a bunch of conversations put in order by a computer. Characters ramble on in an unrealistic manner and with the morality system; my character goes from kind and sweet to a complete bully or vice versa at the drop of a hat. It breaks up the flow of conversations in my opinion and it is another example of why a dual morality system doesn't work.

This mechanical feeling also permeates into the team-mates you pick up. There doesn't seem to be any growth between the people who join you. I would assume after an epic quest that a rapport would happen between members.

In Alpha Protocol you had different options during conversations and even thought it had a similar three emotion system, it was more subtle then in a Bioware game. For example if I chose the professional option then the threatening, the character would still act similar but his tone would change. Many times you had more than three options depending on what Intel you have or what you did on previous missions further personalizing your actions.

3. Game-play: This is the deal breaker; the combat systems and general game-play in their rpgs have never hooked me in the same way as some of my favorite rpgs have done. There is no real growth in the mechanics outside the first area, nothing too really master and I'm not a fan of their UIs.

In Mass Effect, the controls and viewpoint clearly want the player to focus on one person, but at the same time if you want your AI team mates to be useful you have to control them too. While in Dragon's Age once I got a few players to control it never felt that I was able to control everyone effectively.

I tried replaying Dragon's Age the other night and to be fair Bioware has the right idea with the tactics system (which is basically an IF statement from programming). The problem is that it is too limited in my opinion; they first made the same mistake that the Final fantasy 12 designers did by restricting how many conditionals you can have from the start. Second with the types of spells and abilities available there should have been the ability to create nested if statements.

For those not familiar with programming that is creating an IF statement within an IF statement. For example if one of my team mates hits an enemy with a certain skill (and it is not resisted) I would like to set up another conditional for the AI to follow. With friendly fire on it would make it a lot easier to tell my teammates to get away from an enemy who is being targeted by skills that could hurt them.

In The Witcher, you can improve Geralt's fighting abilities and magical signs to improve your odds in combat. Integrated with the consequences of your decisions there are some upgrades that are only accessible if you make certain decisions in game. By the end of the game you have more abilities and utility then at the beginning and chaining attacks at the hardest difficulty required good timing to master.

What I love about the SMT series (and most of Atlus's rpg lineup) is that they challenge the player. Just pressing the attack button will not win fights in their games. The SMT series is known for unique boss fights with twists to mix up the regular fights. Their games reward players for learning and mastering the mechanics with better items and challenging fights. There is that sense of mastery when playing their games, when you reach the point that you fully understand the mechanics and get into a groove with winning fights.

That sense of challenge and reward is nowhere to be seen in the Bioware games I've played. Side quests require me to do the same thing I've done before and exploring with the only reward being experience points or morality points don't interest me. Battles don't offer variety and the only challenge is dealing with a stat difference. There is no sense of learning the game mechanics after the prerequisite tutorial and no growth of the established game mechanics. Which leads me to this: If a game doesn't have a compelling story or good game-play, what is left to keep me interested in playing?

Now in case everyone reading this wasn't ready to grab a torch and pitchfork I'm going to make the following comment: I think Square- Enix is more creative then Bioware with their games. Yes I know that we're up to the 13th game in the Final Fantasy series.

Success or failure I'm not counting, but how they mix things up with each game. Such as the MMO style of FF12, the unique characters of FF6 and even the spin off Final Fantasy Tactics series showcases originality. This is even coming from someone who is not a diehard Final Fantasy fan as well. Then there is The World Ends With You which is one of my favorite rpgs and one of the most original ones as well.

Currently I only buy their rpgs when they are on sale, that's how I bought Mass Effect for $5. I bought Mass Effect 2 on sale but have not played it yet. I was trying to get through the first one but I can feel my interest in the game declining. The poor combat already has my hand hovering over the uninstall button on Steam. Is ME2 better than one? Or more importantly can I just stop playing the first one and move on?

As you can guess I won't be buying Dragon's Age 2 on launch day, this means that you can look forward to my analysis of it maybe in the year 2014. On the other hand I just pre order the super collector's edition of The Witcher 2, so you can expect an analysis on that far sooner.

Josh