Name a game series and how you would improve it.

[DaWaffledude]

Mass Effect. Keep in mind I'm still only about 3/4 through the second game, but...

ME2 would have (IMHO) been far more engaging, at least for me personally, if Cerberus didn't take the role they did. I'm fine with them having a bigger role. I'm fine with them beinga bit more morally grey.

What I'm not fine with is how they seem to have become this almost Mary-Sue-ish organisation with limitless resources, nigh omniscience and the blatant adoration of nearly anyone they come into contact with. ("They're just misunderstood!") And then forces me into being one of them.

Allow me to present my likely flawed vision of how the game should have gone (off the top of my head):


The game opens the same as before, Shepard dies, gets brought back to life by Cerberus, etc. Except here, Shepard actually escapes the Cerberus facility him/herself (maybe with the aid of some person who explains the situation and dies, Trask Ulgo style) and gets a shuttle that for some reason takes him/her to Freedom's Progress. From there, Shepard discovers the Collectors, and sets off to stop them, gathering old and new crew memers as he/she goes. Cerberus are still in the game, but take a much less central role. They still want Shepard to help them stop the Collectors, but you actually get a choice whether to join them or not. The Paragon option being to not join them given this is Cerberus we're talking about. They're pretty much "Renegade Shepard: The organisation".

And don't tell me it would take too much work to have joining Cerberus be an option. If they can pull off Virmire, then having Shepard reporting to the Alliance or Cerberus should be a piece of goddamned cake.

(Also, Assassin's Creed. More emphasis on stealth, bring combat back to how it was in the first game)

 

[Amaror]

Dragon Age: Origins: used as the baseline for the series.

Dragon Age II: first thing to do is give it a subtitle; Dragon Age: Champion would suffice. The first thing to change is the color pallet and lighting. This is a low fantasy story with a high fantasy aesthetic. From the looks of it, DA:I is keeping the pallet and lighting from DA:C instead of DA:O... poor choice. This game should look more like The Witcher or Planescape: Torment, but instead it has the lighting and palette of a sports game. The atmosphere is so thin, that I have found darker ones in comedies such as Dungeons of Dredmor.

The character's dialogue is a significant downgrade through the use of "the wheel" instead of numerous options and the addition of auto-dialogue. Adding snarkyHawke options just makes the paper thin atmosphere nonexistent. This is a dark story with serious overtones. A snark every so often is necessary to relieve tension, but when it's every line, the tension is nonexistent.

These characters are bad and you should feel bad. One of the biggest downgrades from the DA:O is the lack of interaction with the characters. This is the biggest strength in Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 as well as DA:O. This is one of the details that set them apart from other games. And it got taken out completely. Whoever made this decision should never have a job in the game industry again.

The story... just fix the 3rd act. I shouldn't have to expand on why or how.

Dragon Age: Inquisition: The Witcher series replaced you by this point, and there are few things that you can do to win me over.

I agree with this so much. This is supposed to be a dark fantasy game, why does it look like anime.
Although there's one thing i have to thank Dragon Age 2 for.
If DA 2 wouldn't have been such a horrible, horrible game i probably would have never forced myself through the third act of The Witcher game. I would most likely never played The Witcher 2 then, never had read the fantastic books and wouldn't be highly anticipating The Witcher 3.
So ... well done, bioware, i guess.