C&C
My aren't you a curious one. Alright, here we go: I despise C&C that doesn't emerge organically from the gameplay. Basically, choices that are presented to you via dialogue and you have to pick one out of two or three scripted options. Even when they have more than just cosmetic effects, they are so damn boring.
Interesting C&C that is purely gameplay-driven (provided the gameplay is good enough that these things make a noticable difference): party composition, character build, combat strategy, resource management, in which order to handle missions, and so on.
Here's a more specific example: killing Kingpin in JA2. You can do it at any point, you never have to do it, the reward is substantial early on but can lock you out of some minor events later on, and the game never grinds to a halt to lecture you about what choices you have and forcing one of them on you. Deus Ex also has a few nice ones, like running away from Walton Simons means you'll encounter him in a later mission. Or in a keyword-based dialogue system you can try out various unlisted keywords and discover surprising things. I'll take just about anything that involves more agency than a CYOA.
Interesting C&C that is purely gameplay-driven (provided the gameplay is good enough that these things make a noticable difference): party composition, character build, combat strategy, resource management, in which order to handle missions, and so on.
Here's a more specific example: killing Kingpin in JA2. You can do it at any point, you never have to do it, the reward is substantial early on but can lock you out of some minor events later on, and the game never grinds to a halt to lecture you about what choices you have and forcing one of them on you. Deus Ex also has a few nice ones, like running away from Walton Simons means you'll encounter him in a later mission. Or in a keyword-based dialogue system you can try out various unlisted keywords and discover surprising things. I'll take just about anything that involves more agency than a CYOA.
