Poll: Would you play a Mass Effect-like game without any action sequences, only about talking to aliens?

[babinro]

I've not played the game yet, but if it were like an LA Noire style with gameplay revolving around how the player reads the actors in order to drive conversation sequences then I'd be interested. D&D style stats tied to conversations can make for some fun stories...but it doesn't make for a fun game.

All told, I'd still prefer a traditional game like ME2 though, despite being a game that does nothing particularly different or new.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Not really no ... Sorry, one of the things I love about Mass Effect is the action and the shooting people ... Sure I bet some die-hard RPG fans would like it, but it's just not for me :/

 

[AngryBritishAce]

Only if it was a Indie game and if it had really exciting cuttscenes. One of the best bits for Mass Effect 2 was the bits towards the end, when Joker was escaping the oculuses and destroying the Collector ship, and when the Normandy gets over-run, and when you're escaping the Collector Base before it explodes. Coupled with Tough decisions and the gasping for what comes next, that made me love mass effect. It was 10 times better than any of the battles within the game play secions.

Now I wouldn't trust a full priced game with only cutscenes to work on, unless I was completely won over in E3 or something along those lines. And I would only trust the Indie game if it contained all of the above, including the first paragraph and including a Fighting-Fantasy style "free roam" where you choose which way to go, ect.

So, yes, but I would be very suspicious about it first.

 

[Pearwood]

At that point you may as well have a Mass Effect movie but I'd certainly watch that.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

I play Mass Effect for the character progression, combat, and story. I actually don't care too much for the dialogue, except for key story moments obviously.

 

[GothmogII]

I'm wondering if it's some kind of sad commentary on gaming that a reason not to play this type of game starts with the thought 'but where's the action?'.

For that matter, when that thought is referring specifically to the shooty explosion death variety, and never stopping to realize for a millisecond that so many games today and to be honest, games in general pander to this exact thinking.

'Action' does not have to revolve around destruction, or death, and while I understand these are powerful, exciting and emotive forces, ones that are fairly easy to represent within the confines of a game they should not be the only games in town so to speak. The OP's idea is a fine one, a game I for one would love to play. But it's depressing to think in the world of big releases the only word that you can attach to it is 'niche'.

 

[Vonnis]

As long as the dialogue is well done and the story is compelling, I'd play the shit out of such a game. To be honest, when playing ME I always considered the action bits as a side dish, with the main course being character interaction.

 

[Nickompoop]

If you could excuse me for a moment as I clean up my nerdgasm.

My thoughts on your proposed game:
Politics? Sweet
Possibly some detective work? Awesome
No chance of shoddy combat mechanics? Fantastic
Personality meters? Always fun
Conversation trees? Wonderful
All this, but in space? FUCK YEAH!

 

[SulfuricDonut]

Yes I would play that. Without a doubt.
In fact that is a kind of game I have always wished for.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

No, but not because I'm only into Mass Effect for the action, but because the thing that makes Mass Effect so good is that it has everything in reasonable quantities. The fact that the dialouge is broken up by action sequences, and vice-visa, makes both elements more refreshing and interesting than they would be just on their own, so trying to make a full game based around just one would be vastly less interesting. In the same way that a Mass Effect game with all the dialouge removed would be inferior to most other TPS's that have been designed to focus solely on action, a Mass Effect game with all the action removed would be inferior to most books, comics, and films.

 

[TetsuoKaneda]

Yup.

Except there is an easier way of accomplishing a similar goal. All you need to do is speed up the combat dramatically. Have only a handful of enemies (or less) in each encounter, no respawning, arenas or impenetrable cover. Make people die from one to three shots.

Gunfights would last less than a minute and you could get back to the dialogue and exploration without sacrificing the urgency of the story.

But I would play your idea as well. With my FemShep, it would be like Embric of Wulfhammer's SPACESHIP.

I would so play that. Well, as long as this time it wasn't in RPGM

 

[Goofguy]

Sorry, my crappy attention span requires quick action and brutal combat. I do like the space concept though, it is pretty original in this context. I mean, any game that's ever been set in space always has combat because space battles are sweet.

But what would Star Wars be like if you focused on the daily goings-on in the Galactic Senate? If the extent of your involvement with Jedi is the occasional Jedi Master coming to watch political proceedings in that big ass senate chamber? Or if the most exciting thing that happens to you while on a political envoy mission from Coruscant to Corellia is a random part malfunction that forces you to land on a nearby uninhabited planet to wait out for 'space side' assistance?

 

[ThisIsSnake]

That sounds intensely boring, Mass Effect's characters never seemed too strong to me and the aliens aren't anything groundbreaking when it comes to sci fi.

 

[Choppaduel]

This is exactly what I was thinking while I was being tortured by the tedious gear of war & planet scanning gameplay of ME2. The game would have been much better if it was just running around, talking, and doing all the action in cut-scenes. Although, the overarching story would still have been absurd. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8868-Experienced-Points-What-s-Wrong-with-Mass-Effect-2]

[hr]

That sounds intensely boring, Mass Effect's characters never seemed too strong to me and the aliens aren't anything groundbreaking when it comes to sci fi.

Interesting... because I found the flip side (the gameplay) to be intensely boring & repetitive, in other words, not too strong.

 

[spectrenihlus]

Mass Effect Noire. Calling it now.

I was actually thinking of a open world sandbox style game set in on the Citadel. I think it would work

and be awesome.

Imagine playing as a C-sec officer on the citadel fighting crime and what not and teaming up with spectres all on the Citadel. Fly from the Presidium to the wards in a flying car or gunship if you can snag one.