Well, for once, I have rather a "simple" reputation system than no real choice&consequence system at all. So rather Bioware than Bethesda...
But of course Karma is a tricky thing. The problem I see with it right now is that you get "bad karma" for gameplay decisions (soul gathering) and not only for story/narrative decisions. This mix-up between gameplay and narrative decisions can really bite you in the ass somewhere down the line, both the developer and the gamer. I mean, maybe I haven't understood the Karma system well enough yet, but from what I've seen there is no negative gameplay consequence to gathering souls, only a narrative one (although not shown, only mentioned). It's a general problem for game designers to balance such a system. An infamous example is the theft system in DOS. There was no negative gameplay consequence to it (not even a real negative narrative consequence) so people just stole everything everywhere since there was no real trade-off for it.
Another problem is that there is imo no narrative justification for karma. Why should people know that you gathered souls if there is no witness if it's used as a reputationt system? Of course you could see it as a character meter that only shows who you are and how you are on an abstract level and consequently restricts what you can do and say in dialouges (how many good/bad options you have, like it usually works in Star Wars) but that would of course restrict the roleplaying options and player freedom.
I'd really like to know how Larian envisioned that Karma system in detail.
