>>3829453
>What's left is a game that is effectively the greatest CRPG ever made. The fact that it's so reactive that you can legitimately play it on honor mode with no savescumming allowed despite the fact that the outcome of your nearly immeasurably choices can vary by dice roll is an insane feat in of itself.
I strongly disagree. The reactivity is a paper-thin illusion that disappears on a second playthrough, or even reloading and going through the same conversation a second time. I’ve never felt that a cRPG so blatantly ignored my choices as a player. There’s tons of railroaded shit that pretends to give you a choice, and then the DM either goes “lol no” and ignores it, or flips the table and ends the game. Try to avoid recruiting Shadowtart. Whoops, she teleports to you in a goofy cutscene, because there’s no plot without the MacGuffin. Try to kill the red dragon in act 1 with barrelmancy, nope not allowed. Or in act 2, try to storm the Absolutes army camp for a sweet battle. Nope, not allowed! You can even sit next to it lobbing fireballs at the enemies and it does nothing. Or try to kill the Emperor upon reveal, nope game over kiddo. Try to storm the bridge to the big bad in act 3, noooo you can’t do that yet. Etc. shits goofy as hell. And then after all that, the game has like three endings that come down to a choice at the very end of the game, no different than Deus ex or the widely panned mass effect.
I’d far rather have the game simply make things needed for the plot happen, rather than pretending to give you a choice and then ignoring it. “But thou must!” Is far more immersion breaking imo than just it’s a cutscene deal with it.
