Editorial Might & Magic vs Dragon Age

[Roguey]

Curse of the Azure Bonds - as you confront each of the conspirators who have placed these azure bonds on your flesh, you actually advance the regional wars. In the end, though you have freed yourself, the player is directly responsible for creating a civil war in one city and allowing another city to be overran by an hostile army.

Nice plot, but it doesn't seem like it gives you any choice in the matter (except to stop playing).

Fallout - no matter what you do, Hub gets shafted, one way or another.

The Wiki says there's a cut ending where Harold brings equality to the Hub. And it looks like New Vegas considers this canon since the Hub's still around.

Furthermore, it is extremely easy to fuck Necropolis over as well.

Read a repair book, repair the pump. Free experience, why would you not do it? I think the mutant attack only applies if you re-enter the place for whatever reason after enough time's passed.

And even in the places where you can solve their problems and bring peace, temporarily at least, you still need to fuck up some folks. Regulators in Boneyard, Khans near Shady Sands.

Purging the wasteland of bad guys improves the quality of life, no surprises there.

 

[GarfunkeL]

The Wiki says there's a cut ending where Harold brings equality to the Hub. And it looks like New Vegas considers this canon since the Hub's still around.

Le fuck? I've never gotten that slide. Wonder what the requirements are.

As to Necropolis - unless you have already invested in repair you cannot repair the pump. The book alone doesn't make it. Plus there's a strong chance that you get into a fight with the ghouls in the church as their leader is an obnoxious asshole. Finally, unless my memory is playing tricks, Necropolis is the first place to be overrun by mutants so its somewhat easy to waste enough time so that that happens.

This is a contrast against the fact that in DAO you can get the happy ending for both the elves and the werewolves and Mages&Templars and finally help Redcliffe without killing either son or mother. Or have I misunderstood?

 

[Xor]

It's not cut, it's bugged. Like pretty much all the endings in Fallout. IIRC you get the "hub killed by mutants" ending no matter what, even if you never go there.

 

[Sceptic]

This is a contrast against the fact that in DAO you can get the happy ending for both the elves and the werewolves and Mages&Templars and finally help Redcliffe without killing either son or mother. Or have I misunderstood?

You haven't, but that's not the problem (for me). The problem is that the game constantly INSISTS that there is no ultimately good option, it keeps ramming down your throat that you have to pick the lesser evil, or that there is no good or bad option... and in every single instance except Orzammar it is LYING and there is one optimal solution, and due to lazy design and mediocre writing there is no reason to pick the non-optimal solution, ever. In terms of plot (damn you Deep Roads) Orzammar was actually my favorite hub precisely because there was no ultimate option, because it's done well enough that it doesn't feel like the binary choice is forced on you for no reason whatsoever, and especially because the design is clever enough that it becomes obvious relatively early on that while Harrowmont seems like a nice guy he's actually as underhanded as Bhelen, and while Bhelen is a psychopathic powermonger he also does truly care about improving things in Orzammar. Now I'm not asking that every hub be like this, indeed I'm not even asking that getting the Circle not be an optimal solution; it is perfectly fine for having one solution be better than the others; but at least have some negativity, no matter how small, happen as a result, say the inability to coerce the demon into leaving and giving you the bonus, or losing out on the bonus for good, or SOMETHING.

 

[mondblut]

Sure, if I were looking for a dungeon crawler then M&M is one of the best possibilities, still it's not good cRPG.

"Good dungeon crawler" fucking equals "good CRPG", you sperm-gobbling larper faggot.

 

[mondblut]

obsessive fanfic reading and mention of Alistair
...
my character the way I was role-playing her.
...
someone who likes story (or role-playing!)

Helpful hint: I'm female.

That much is obvious. Females cannot into RPGs other than for larping.

 

[Jasede]

"Good dungeon crawler" = "good CRPG"

I swear, I only come here now to quote Mondblut so I don't have to think or write for myself anymore.