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[Negotiator101]

"In the case of Star Wars Outlaws, the reputation system described by Gerighty adds conditional values to which missions and areas you have access to at a given time. "A good reputation could lead to some of the most lucrative opportunities," Gerighty says, "and a bad reputation could result in [Kay Vess] facing a syndicate's wrath as they hunt her down."

This is always such a hollow promise in games, making it sound as if there are permanent consequences from choosing to do a mission for one NPC syndicate versus the other syndicate(s).

Meanwhile, the "conditional values" often just mean that if your reputation lowers -5 for one syndicate for choosing to do another syndicate's mission, you just have to grind out 5 mindless activities to restore the +5 you lost.

My problem with this is that it destroys the authenticity of a bad reputation. If you choose one syndicate over the other, it really should label you as the syndicate's enemy permanently.

The best example of this for me was way back in GTA III. Once you got on the wrong side of the mafia in Liberty City after betraying them in an early story mission, mafia members would shoot at your gas tank every time you drove through Little Italy. Every time you went into Little Italy, you were a target, and there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening (short of stealing/driving one of the mafia's bullet proof cars, which only helped because they wouldn't explode). It sucked to have your car blown up (especially if you were in a car chase or another mission), but it definitely felt like the mafia had a permanent vendetta because of your betrayal.

Which games actually achieved that though? The GTA example actually sounds bad for the player.

 

[DragonNCM]

Cant wait to get this game 3 months after launch at 40$

 

[Bluecondor]

Which games actually achieved that though? The GTA example actually sounds bad for the player.

Yes, exactly! It is bad for the player, a real consequence to you having fallen out with the mafia.

I find it so immersion breaking in video games that you can go from an intense shootout with a gang and kill one of their leaders in a mission, and then five minutes later, you can walk down the street in their neighborhood like nothing ever happened.

In GTA III, you had to be alert any time you went into the mafia neighborhoods, as they tried to shoot your gas tank. Sure, it created some frustrating deaths, but I still remember it after all these years. It really felt like you were now a target for the mafia and that they wanted you dead.

The reverse example is a game like Saboteur, where you cleared out the Nazis from neighborhoods in France by killing their snipers and blowing up all their surveillance towers and guard posts. While this was clearly an unrealistic representation of how this would go in real life, it was cool from a gameplay standpoint how you could change the way you experienced the game by doing this.

 

[Johnny Concrete]

"In the case of Star Wars Outlaws, the reputation system described by Gerighty adds conditional values to which missions and areas you have access to at a given time. "A good reputation could lead to some of the most lucrative opportunities," Gerighty says, "and a bad reputation could result in [Kay Vess] facing a syndicate's wrath as they hunt her down."

This is always such a hollow promise in games, making it sound as if there are permanent consequences from choosing to do a mission for one NPC syndicate versus the other syndicate(s).

Meanwhile, the "conditional values" often just mean that if your reputation lowers -5 for one syndicate for choosing to do another syndicate's mission, you just have to grind out 5 mindless activities to restore the +5 you lost.

My problem with this is that it destroys the authenticity of a bad reputation. If you choose one syndicate over the other, it really should label you as the syndicate's enemy permanently.

The best example of this for me was way back in GTA III. Once you got on the wrong side of the mafia in Liberty City after betraying them in an early story mission, mafia members would shoot at your gas tank every time you drove through Little Italy. Every time you went into Little Italy, you were a target, and there was nothing you could do to stop it from happening (short of stealing/driving one of the mafia's bullet proof cars, which only helped because they wouldn't explode). It sucked to have your car blown up (especially if you were in a car chase or another mission), but it definitely felt like the mafia had a permanent vendetta because of your betrayal.

Sadly, games are being focus tested to death nowadays by groups of people that represent the target audience (read: “everyone”). So every potential complaint will be ironed out, leaving you a modern AAA game that is a hollow experience.

So just follow the objective markers, enjoy the scenery and don’t ask too many questions.

Thank you for your money.

 

[NikuNashi]

Ma'am Solo + Ubi soft greed, easy pass for me.

This thing is going to underperform massively and Disney will want their big bite if the pie.