I had a great time with D:OS, when I played it for the first time with my friend. I finished the game later by myself, and enjoyed it quite a bit less, and when attempting to play D:OS2 singleplayer, I found it insufferably unengaging and tedious. That’s not necessarly bad – I am fine with relegating D:OSs to “with friend only†category – they do that very well. However, I feel that when attaching oneself to legendary singleplayer IP, it would be nice to support that kind of playstyle to a fuller extend.
I am writing not to complain, but because I think there is something which would made BG3 much more appealing to me, and perhaps to others who don’t plan to play the game with a friend or three.
A proper Single-Player Mode.
What I found the most jarring in D:OS2 was the lack of proper companions. This role was filled by discarded “origin storiesâ€. Neat idea, but what didn’t work for me was, that rather than acting like NPCs, they were fully player controlled.
I find it really jarring to have that much control over someone who isn’t my character. I think it is neat to be able to initiate conversation via a party member, and not have the conversation happen between an NPC and our character who may, or may not be in the vicinity (as it is the case in most of other singleplayer RPGs). However, having full control over what they say is jarring.
There is precedent for this kind of party wide interactions (Icewind Dales, Wasteland2) but in those games you create and control parties, not your hero and companions. Having such hands-on control over what a companion says and does, confuses whom I play as, and underlines that I don’t play the game the intended way – I am clearly filling a role, that someone else should have filled.
What I would like to see, is companions acting by themselves, according to their personality. I could initiate a conversation with a companion, but what would be picked would be decided by AI, rather than myself. Something of that nature took place in
Dragon Age: Origins: while the player can shorten and lengthen the conversation, he does not have full control over them, in the way he has over his character.
Now, there are obviously some big problems here. Creating such system using what is already on offer, should be doable if things were fully voiced but as it is: not really. Still, something to not make me feel like I am playing Left4Dead by myself, would be greatly appreciated.
