To me it seems they have done a full checklist of things to make it matter, every lifepath has unique: items, dialogue options, quests and starter cutscenes.
What were people expecting of it?
To me it seems they have done a full checklist of things to make it matter, every lifepath has unique: items, dialogue options, quests and starter cutscenes.
What were people expecting of it?
28 Comments
You don’t get much
– You get different prologue
– Different starting outfit
– A very very very short custom quest mid game
– The ability to talk your way out of a single encounter
– and ultimately not a lot of dialog differences. Especially once you hit act 2
There’s not enough differences between the lifepaths imo.
It doesn’t change the story that much to chose a different lifepath.
No matter which one u pick u still end up doing the streetkid style path, only difference is dialogue options a few times throughout the game
I think they mean they want three completely different stories
Beside some flavor dialog lines with zero consequence and the intro, there’s no difference between life path.
Nomads get to have a crate of loot later if the follow the proper dialogs but that’s it. Other lifepath get nothing.
I feel like nomad has the most dialog choices, but doesn’t really matter.
Basically have them change more about the game. No matter what life path you choose, there’s almost no variation to the story, outside of some dialogue, clothes, and a singular side mission.
A good way to do it would be to change the starting location. Having your character choose a different place to live based on the life path would be a nice touch, and they could reasonabely be in the same district.
Another would be to have unique ways to handle quests depending on your life path, making some easier, and others harder.
Having multiple life paths isn’t as satisfying, if the game plays out the same no matter which one you choose.
Because they don’t matter. 99% of the lifepath dialogues are just flavor with zero consequences. Being able to use corpo dialogues with Meredith was cool sure but ultimately irrelevant.
The side quest exclusive to each lifepath is like 5 minutes long.
The lifepath choice is an exclusive role-play choice with zero mechanical or narrative relevance.
When we were told about lifepaths I was expecting something similar to Dragon Age Origins where your origin had major narrative relevance. They don’t change the story, but it does feel like your origin matter.
Shit, now I want to play DAO again.
For the next game, if they keep life paths, I’d like to have different contacts or different access to some places. Like if you are a corpo, you know how to deal with corpo neighborhood (how to enter in clubs…) or have access to some special stores.
Also, I’d like to have a significative difference in some gameplay aspects. For instance, if you are a street kid it is easier for you to know the city, if you are a Nomad you are a better driver… I don’t know if it must be a skill tree or something else but it would be cool.
It would be cool if fixer react according to our lifepath and choices in game. For instance we won’t have the same gigs if you are a corpo, media, techie, Nomad… And also if you have an agressive ou stealthy approach.
To me, I think the lifepath could have included some extra perk bonuses. Not strong enough to make it stupid to use different builds, but still stuff that leans into their past. Nomad V could have extra vehicle bonuses (especially weaponized) and other bonuses to survivability. Streetkid could see bonuses to melee combat and assault rifles. Corpo could get bonuses to stealth and quickhacks.
It’d also be nice if you had a longer side quest chain (about the length of the romance quest chains) related to your lifepath, perhaps bringing characters from it that are otherwise gone. It would let us experience more of V’s past. Idk where this information was obtained from, but streetkid V makes their first kill at 13 years old, where corpo V makes their first kill in the prologue we play. That information is neat and was probably just stuck on a datashard somewhere
The dialogue from the life paths are mostly just flavour, dont make much difference. The only one i remember actually affecting a quest was the street kid path during the random encounter when the cops were beating up that BD corpo.
Asides from that, the corpo life path’s unique item isnt even unique anymore because you can buy it from the stadium vendor.
Streetkid unique item is a shitty jacket that does nothing.
Nomad the only lifepath that gives you a decent item, but it has the weakest unique dialogue out of all the paths AND has the shittiest prologue.
They want Meredith to be mean to them throughout the game.
Back when they announced the lifepaths, before the game even launched, I originally thought that each would be a completely different play style for the whole game and have their own ending each.
Basically I thought it was 3 games in 1 lol.
But turns out the only difference is how you meet Jackie and then getting a few extra dialogue options.
That’s what I was disappointed about.
I wish the lifepaths dictated more about where the game went and how the story was.
But each lifepath leads to the same endings and story line.
The game is incredible, but minus a few RP head cannon ideas about who your V is, the lifepaths seem useless.
I think they should add perks per choice
streetkid V: quest where you recruit some thugs and in non-quest open world they can pull up to fight with you against a cyberpsycho. I think it’d be cool if you could edit their style and weapons and at the end of every in game week they deposit Eddie’s in V’s home dor him to pick up from their street activity.
Corpo V: Quest where V meet a supplier for unique gun and tech and can do special missions intercepting arasaka transports and get loot from the transport and the player can either choice to sell it off and make alot of Eddie’s or breakdown the materials for crafting parts. This mission can randomly spawn so its not happening every single game. But make is so it happens in different districts and V gets a text to his phone from a supplier saying there is a en route transport so the player will actually have to head over there and catch it before it makes it to the destination. Need to be the farthest about 2km away from player but not on the other side of the map
Nomad V: Nomad V is allowed to have a in game Mega garage in the wasteland, there is a quest from a famous car painter in night city that needs your help in killing his rival, if you manage to kill his rival in a heavily defended Tyger claw base then he will agree to work on one of your cars. The rewards should be 1 reactive skin on the vehicle that makes it like no other vehicle like dragon scales that glow a certain color depending on speed and also give you a new type of car weapons system called something dumb and funny like Big Bertha where you can call in a missile strike from your garage to hit a target that’s chasing you whether its a cop or something. Cool down needs to be like must be out of car for 1 in game day.
THIS WOULD BE A GREAT WAY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE CHOICES
Honestly, I think they did all that was feasible, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they dropped playable origins altogether next time. Dragon Age Origins is what people want, but there is a reason nobody else has done that in a game in the 16 years since. BG3 probably has the most reactivity based on player characteristics of any more recent game; however, it’s worth noting that this is almost entirely in Act 1, which spent years in early access. Act 2 and particularly Act 3 had almost no variation based on player characteristics.
Also worth noting that DAO and BG3 both had silent protagonists, which makes it vastly easier to do more reactivity. Doing it with a voiced protagonist is just much harder.
A lot of the optional dialogue doesn’t actually change how that quest completes. A big deal was made about life paths during marketing a couple different lines of dialogue wasn’t enough to satisfy the hype train
We wanted the main story quests to be tied to our life path more than just to the extent of dialogue choices (Corpo having high society people assassinated, nomad fighting on behalf of their clan, street kid getting into regular gang wars / NCPD altercations, etc)
Obviously what we have now is decent, but its nothing like what we were promised way back when :/
We all know tha
They mean it exactly as they mean it. They want them to matter more.
Aside from the different start, thematic clothing, and a couple unique dialogue options that are ultimately just flavor and don’t really add anything to the game, except in the case of Anna Hamill if you’re a Nomad, there really isn’t much to them.
They want them to ***mean*** something more than just flavor. To actually add to the game in a way that makes your choice matter and might even affect your gameplay.
–If I choose Streetkid, maybe I get Street Cred easier/faster and special perks only a Streetkid can get because of it. Maybe some of the gangs refuse to fight me. Specifically Valentino’s since Heywood is where Streetkid V is from. Maybe I get discounts from locals. Maybe they’re faster than normal and can move easier if they had added parkour.
–If I choose Nomad, maybe I can customize my vehicles more than normal. Maybe I could even build my vehicle from the ground up. Maybe I have unique actions when it comes vehicles. Maybe they are a little tougher than normal and can handle more tech.
–If I choose Corpo, maybe I can invest my eddies cause I know the market. Maybe I can actually start a small business or invest in places to get a steady passive stream of money. Maybe high end shops recognize and give me discounts. Maybe they are a little more intelligent, getting boosts to hacks.
While these are just a couple examples, it’s just to give a feel of how we want lifepaths to actually impact and affect the game depending on which one you choose. That’s what they mean when they say they want them to matter more. It doesn’t have to be huge, just more than only flavor.
This is rage bait
They need the life path to branch out different.
I understand if all roads lead to Rome, so to speak, and end up at the same story decision points, but there needs to be more consequential actions for life paths.
Dialogue needs to be more impact full than just another line that leads to the same outcome, npcs need to react differently to you if it would make sense for them to know it (fixers predominantly), and you need more than a 5 minute throwaway quest unique to the life path.
Besides the intro they basically don’t amount to anything beyond some dialogue choices in certain situations.
It feels like the life paths were going to mean more to the overall story, and be three completely different ways of playing the game (in amongst the Relic storyline).
I just wish each lifepath had more post prologue content rather than just “meet old friend, do a single mission, and never see them again.” Would be cool if each one had their own unique ending too for Don’t Fear the Reaper, because I doubt corpo or nomad V would wear that ridiculous outfit and still follow that “Just one more score!! Major leagues!!” mindset
outside of the couple different dialogue options which really dont’ change anything, it’s not that much different. I think people would like to have seen a more substantial, maybe nto main, but very large side quest unique to each path.
I think it’d be pretty interesting if V’s voice actor had different inflections based on their lifepath. The current V definitely sounds like a street kid but it’d be interesting to have a more formal V or a country V for corpo and nomad lifepaths.
Dragon Age Origins. I wanted Dragon Age Origins. Maybe it’s unfair for me to expect something like that in a game nowadays, but that’s really the vibe I got when they announced the lifepaths.
More than literally 1 of each.
Well that’s one of these self-inflicted wounds, because the advertisement prior to release of the game made it sound as if the whole game would barely resemble another playthrough, if the player had picked another lifepath. It was described as being so significant. So it’s mostly because of that, that people felt let down by only having a different starting location and different dialog options every now and then. Without that, most people would have been cool with this really just adding some flavor and little more.