Incline [Poll] The Best of the "Kinda Mediocre"

[Eyestabber]

For anyone who's been around long enough, it's easy to pick up that some games have a clear cut Kodex Kommunity Konsensus, either as really good (eg Fallout) or really bad (eg Oblivion). So threads about these games don't usually go very far. The REAL 100+ pages of discussion happen when the prestigious Kodex Kommunity discusses games that were: a) played by pretty much everyone and b) fall somewhere in the middle, with a rough 40-60/50-50 apologist-to-detractor-ratio. So I picked four options, two from each of our favorite bestest RPG companies: Bioware and Obsidian.

So, ITT we decide which of the "Four Great 'meh' RPGs of Biosidian" is the least 'meh'. Inb4 "where's muh 'they're all bad' option!?" => thread design doesn't allow for neutrality. Suppose someone puts a gun to your head and FORCES you to choose one of these four to replay. Which one would you pick?

 

[Bester]

DAO was conceived in the early 00s, around 2002-2003 I think, and its core concept never changed or deviated from original design, only graphics were overhauled a couple of times during development. So it's a game from "those times", when RPGs were still good.

It's the best of the 4 obviously.

 

[Nano]

Dragon Age: Origins is not mediocre. Neither is Mass Effect. NwN2 is just plain bad.

 

[King Crispy]

I feel like this thread is some sort of a trap.

 

[Falksi]

DA:O is awesome.

ME1 is an awesome action game with RPG elements.

POE is more shit than good. Has decent elements, but misses the mark with fuckloads. Absolutely 0 replayability at all.

NWN2 is a good game fighting to get out of a shit setup, and ultimately far too much effort & hard work to play through for too little reward.

 

[Trashos]

Both DAO and PoE1 are 7/10 games to me, but if I had to replay one of them I would probably replay DAO. And so I voted for DAO.

DAO could have easily been a much better game if the element resistances of the enemies were actually used, and if there were less trash fights. PoE1 needed a lot of work to be something more than 7/10.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

A great list of almost was, or should have been.

DA:O could have been great, but is MMO-lite mechanics and grim dark LotR generic plot made it terribly boring. PoE couldn't see the forest through the trees. They starting going down the right path mechanically, then died in vitro to Sawyer's awful class/spell/ability design and loathing of fun. The weak not-Forgotten Realms setting could have been tolerable, were it not for the failure of the mechanics. NWN2 was just unfocused and tried too hard to be epic. I'm in agreement with Falksi that ME1 was an excellent action/adventure game with some RPG elements. I liked ME1 a great deal, but calling it an RPG is a stretch.

 

[barghwata]

I think this list of games is best represented by "wasted potential" instead of "kinda medicore".

 

[gurugeorge]

Dragon Age: Origins is not mediocre. Neither is Mass Effect. NwN2 is just plain bad.

Yeah, I was gonna say. I loved both DA:O and ME, despite their flaws they were quite meaty and absorbing. I actually cried in a quest in DA:O (the one where if you thread the conversational needle just right, you can induce a powerful guy bent on vengeance and mass murder to a change of heart and forgiveness).

NWN2 was pretty bad, but I did get into the player-made content and multiplayer, which I'd missed out on with NWN - and I really enjoyed that. In fact, playing a game with a live DM who can (e.g.) take over a shopkeeper and talk to you in realtime, and tailor the adventure around your team, is almost the best gaming experience you can possibly have on a computer. Some team of devs really needs to update that idea with modern graphics and better tools.

PoE in retrospect is pretty bad, though at the time I remember being quite immersed until about 3/4 of the way through, when my interest suddenly dropped off a cliff. I tried playing it again recently and it felt like wading through pixellated graphics soup, with incomprehensible stats and stuff. (Deadfire is much better to "read," pretty good game all in all.)

 

[Erebus]

Dragon Age: Origins is not mediocre. Neither is Mass Effect. NwN2 is just plain bad.

DA:O is only very slightly better than NWN 2 OC, and it's definitely mediocre. It has a few good things (the Noble Dwarf beginning, for instance), but so does NWN 2. Many parts of the game are highly boring, and most fights are a dreadful chore.

I never played Mass Effect. Out of the three other games, I think that PoE 1 is the best the most enjoyable the least frustrating the one that allows you to control six characters as Mystra intended so that puts it slightly above the rest.

 

[Carrion]

Suppose someone puts a gun to your head and FORCES you to choose one of these four to replay. Which one would you pick?

Then it has to be ME1, since it's way shorter than any of these other games. I guess it's also the most enjoyable one as a whole.

I'd like to say NWN2, but the OC is just too bad, whereas PoE is so shallow and easy that I've never had any intention of going back to it despite all the patches and expansion packs that are supposed to make it ten times better. DA:O just blows, fuck that game.

 

[V_K]

PoE because of the bunch it has the least amount of cutscenes. Plus it's the only one where camera isn't pain in the ass.

 

[Ebonsword]

Put me in the camp that thinks Mass Effect is too good of a game to be on this list.

 

[Alex]

I've only played NWN2 for about two hours before giving up on it. And after trying Mass Effect at a friend's, I must say the game is mindnumbingly boring; can't see a reason to ever play it again. Didn't play the other two and I don't intend to, so I guess NWN2 takes the prize?

 

[Mortmal]

mass effect, sci fi is underused.

 

[Lady_Error]

NWN2 (OC) is shit, never played DAO or Mass Effect. So the obvious choice is Pillars of Eternity.

Though seriously, with the White March expansions and updates Pillars became quite a good game.

 

[Jvegi]

Out of all those games, Mass Effect is the only one that impressed me, kept me engaged and left me wanting more. The bad things were easy to swallow.

DA:O is infuriating. It's so good and so shit.

It's really sad that the two games by Obsidian actually lose to Bioware. But it's true.

 

[Bester]

Though seriously, with the White March expansions and updates Pillars became quite a good game.

Did it rewrite the entirety of the snooze fest of the main story? All characters, quests, replace all music, overhauled the entire magic system? I doubt it.

If you had minor qualms about combat, you may think it's now a good game. If you never saw anything good in the game to begin with, you can't fix it with some balancing patches.

 

[King Crispy]

There's only one thing that makes any of these games playable, and that is, of course...

Spoiler

ENCHANTMENT?

 

[None]

Put me in the camp that thinks Mass Effect is too good of a game to be on this list.

This.

The only real negative of Mass Effect is that it's success led to the degradation of the series starting in ME2 and culminating in ME3.

 

[Eyestabber]

I feel like this thread is some sort of a trap.

No, man, look:

(...) DAO is the best of the 4 obviously.

Dragon Age: Origins is not mediocre. Neither is Mass Effect. NwN2 is just plain bad.

I think that PoE 1 is the best the most enjoyable the least frustrating the one that allows you to control six characters as Mystra intended so that puts it slightly above the rest.

the obvious choice is Pillars of Eternity.

Then it has to be ME1, since it's way shorter than any of these other games. I guess it's also the most enjoyable one as a whole.

Mass Effect is the only one that impressed me, kept me engaged and left me wanting more.

I hit exactly where I was aiming: I had a gut feeling that these were the most "controversial" games and going by both replies and poll results so far (12-8-17-17), it looks like I was right. As usual.

Calling all four "mediocre" isn't really my opinion either, it was actually my perception of the KKK around these games. My personal preference goes as follow:

NWN 2 > DAO > ME > gettting shot > PoE

NWN 2: I just enjoy making D20 builds way too much.

DAO: best BG2 spiritual sucessor so far. Suffered from too much padding and trash mobs. And despite all the padding, the ending still manages to feel rushed. It is Bioware's magnum opus on the waifu department, tho.

ME: introduced dialogue wheels, recycling the same map ad nauseam, fully voiced cancer and probably another ten more decline-ish things I forgot to mention. ME wasn't a bad game, but it was a sign of what would happen soon afterwards.

PoE: No. Just...no. The first third of the game is actually not bad, but everything post defiance bay is simply garbage. The game system is also retarded crap and The Church of Muh Ballinse (Sawyerism) is fucking cancer.

 

[Nano]

Fuck off.

 

[Zer0wing]

Given that I give up on Bioware rpgs after playing for 30 minutes straight and not being too impressed by PoE either (BG wannabe after all), NWN2 of all in the list, subjectively, looked more alright.

 

[Falksi]

Dragon Age: Origins is not mediocre. Neither is Mass Effect. NwN2 is just plain bad.

Yeah, I was gonna say. I loved both DA:O and ME, despite their flaws they were quite meaty and absorbing. I actually cried in a quest in DA:O (the one where if you thread the conversational needle just right, you can induce a powerful guy bent on vengeance and mass murder to a change of heart and forgiveness).

NWN2 was pretty bad, but I did get into the player-made content and multiplayer, which I'd missed out on with NWN - and I really enjoyed that. In fact, playing a game with a live DM who can (e.g.) take over a shopkeeper and talk to you in realtime, and tailor the adventure around your team, is almost the best gaming experience you can possibly have on a computer. Some team of devs really needs to update that idea with modern graphics and better tools.

PoE in retrospect is pretty bad, though at the time I remember being quite immersed until about 3/4 of the way through, when my interest suddenly dropped off a cliff. I tried playing it again recently and it felt like wading through pixellated graphics soup, with incomprehensible stats and stuff. (Deadfire is much better to "read," pretty good game all in all.)

Top summary, you're PoE experience was exactly like mine. It lured me in rather well at first, and I was really enjoying it until 3/4's of the way through and then bang, it just nosedived.

When trying to start again it became really clear how 1) so few of the classes were actually any fun to play; 2) how it was essentially the same experience, even when you chose different options.

 

[barghwata]

PoE in retrospect is pretty bad, though at the time I remember being quite immersed until about 3/4 of the way through, when my interest suddenly dropped off a cliff. I tried playing it again recently and it felt like wading through pixellated graphics soup, with incomprehensible stats and stuff. (Deadfire is much better to "read," pretty good game all in all.)

Is deadfire really that much better? i constantly hear people saying that and wonder if i should try it or not, what did it do better then PoE1 exactly?