Mass effect Andromeda does away with 'classes', thoughts?

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

And honestly, I don't care if it removes a progression/leveling system altogether. I think so called RPG-fans put too much weight in these archaic systems.

Just let me make choices, let it effect the story and let it have tangible consequences, or at least a pretty damn good illusion of it. Isn't that in essence what an RPG should be about? Aren't stats and all that jazz just remnants from the tabletop era where you needed to simulate your actions? We got the videogame to do that for us now.

I couldn't agree more. Video game RPGs have lost their way. I don't consider many video game RPGs to actually be RPGs because very very few actually focus on role-playing. I would not even consider Witcher 3 to be an RPG. Most RPGs are merely bad combat games that get a pass because they're RPGs, and RPGs don't have good combat so it's OK to have bad combat for whatever reason even though you spend more time fighting than you do in Bayonetta.

 

[votemarvel]

I'm disappointed by the loss of the set classes. People aren't going to have to stop and think how their class of character can approach a situation, they'll just switch to the most effective one (5 will get you 10 that it'll be the soldier in 99% of the situations.)

 

[Darth Rosenberg]

I don't like it, but then again so far absolutely nothing about the game is getting me interested, bar 'it's a new BioWare game/Mass Effect'. The gameplay is secondary for me with BioWare, and ME's always been a rather ho-hum actioner. I'd rather proper classes stuck around, sure (the jack-of-all-trades design ethic is lazy and clearly designed more for casual players/non-RP'ers), but so long as the writing and character narratives are good, they can do whatever crap they want.

They've been doing the same thing with Dragon Age. Having recently replayed through Origins and II to have a full World State for Inquisition, the amount of retconning and redundant lore piled up in each entry. With the full on erasure of certain major choices from Origins and Awakenings in the canon, Bioware have come to show their own lore is as malleable as they need it to be.

As an aside, was that your first time playing DA:I? If not, there was really no need to generate any continuity given the Keep.

As for malleable lore in the DA 'verse: nothing really major has changed, and the core ideas and themes - the things that, I'd argue, most matter - have stayed. DA:I brought a few lore changes I'm--- iffy on, let's say, but I need to see where BioWare take it to really judge.

I don't consider many video game RPGs to actually be RPGs because very very few actually focus on role-playing. I would not even consider Witcher 3 to be an RPG.

Whilst I'd tend to agree, that is a very purist bordering on elitist perspective. That, and unavoidably subjective...

I never saw Mass Effect as a true role-player whatsoever - it was, fittingly for this thread, a class-playing game (I guess now it really is just an shooter with a story and some variously cosmetic choices. we'll have to play ME:A to see how it fares on that count).