Give us real choiices.

[Mydogtogo]

I haven't tried all the options in MED or replayed it. I hope this isn't considered a spoiler, but just in case...

I don't think it matters if you team up with Kira or not.

If Nancy has to make a choice, then the game should reflect that. If she has to choose to work with someone or not, it should make a difference.

Some of the kinds of choices I'd like to see more of:

Decide who to ally with: In this case it really should be game changing. Much as this might be a programming headache for HER, I really want to see a difference in storyline if I decide to work with another character.

A decision like this should absolutely lead to things like changes in story line, puzzles that might be added or subtracted or given different potential outcomes, even a different ending.

What to say: (Yes - classic conversation choices!) Sometimes the kind and caring answer is the right one. Sometimes it's the sassy answer. Sometimes they're both right, but not always. Maybe a wrong answer only slows down your investigation, maybe it provides extra challenges, or sometimes you just have to wait until the other characters aren't mad at you anymore. And sometimes it just leads to the conversation going in a slightly different (and maybe even funny) direction.

Decide whether or not to spill the beans: I just replayed Kapu. In that game there are several points where you can choose to tell the other characters what's up. I'm not sure if the outcome is any different if you make choices other than the ones I did (the last time I played it was YEARS ago and I don't recall what I chose then) but there should certainly be extra outcomes from making the "wrong" choice om a situation like this. After all, you may just possibly have let the culprit know you're on to him/her. That might change what they do -- even on a small level.

So while I don't want to see choices that make a programming nightmare for our beloved folks at HER, I WOULD still like to feel like I have a choice, that my choices matter and that I'm not being entirely railroaded into the ending.

[SuperSonik]

I haven't tried all the options in MED or replayed it. I hope this isn't considered a spoiler, but just in case...

I don't think it matters if you team up with Kira or not.

If Nancy has to make a choice, then the game should reflect that. If she has to choose to work with someone or not, it should make a difference.

Some of the kinds of choices I'd like to see more of:

Decide who to ally with: In this case it really should be game changing. Much as this might be a programming headache for HER, I really want to see a difference in storyline if I decide to work with another character.

A decision like this should absolutely lead to things like changes in story line, puzzles that might be added or subtracted or given different potential outcomes, even a different ending.

What to say: (Yes - classic conversation choices!) Sometimes the kind and caring answer is the right one. Sometimes it's the sassy answer. Sometimes they're both right, but not always. Maybe a wrong answer only slows down your investigation, maybe it provides extra challenges, or sometimes you just have to wait until the other characters aren't mad at you anymore. And sometimes it just leads to the conversation going in a slightly different (and maybe even funny) direction.

Decide whether or not to spill the beans: I just replayed Kapu. In that game there are several points where you can choose to tell the other characters what's up. I'm not sure if the outcome is any different if you make choices other than the ones I did (the last time I played it was YEARS ago and I don't recall what I chose then) but there should certainly be extra outcomes from making the "wrong" choice om a situation like this. After all, you may just possibly have let the culprit know you're on to him/her. That might change what they do -- even on a small level.

So while I don't want to see choices that make a programming nightmare for our beloved folks at HER, I WOULD still like to feel like I have a choice, that my choices matter and that I'm not being entirely railroaded into the ending.

I see what you mean, I can think of Danger by Design where you can

chose to tell on heather to Minette or not and it would effect the end of the game

which was nice because your action did lead to a consequence.

A lot of the games have been lacking a meaningful choice of what you chose to say, because it doesn't really seem to have any real impact in the game or it's out come.

I would really like to see more consequences if you say something you shouldn't like a character refuses to talk to you - not for just 1 minute - or all characters start becoming suspicious of you and you have a suspicion meter and if you say too many wrong things characters will stop helping you and find out what you are doing or something

[Mydogtogo]

Yes exactly. Danger by Design is a great example.

But even if our choice isn't game changing...for instance in VEN there is a point where you can chose a normal or sassy answer to something. I replayed the scene both ways and both ways get you the same outcome but...the answer I got when I chose sassy was hysterical and made me laugh.

Even though that particular choice wasn't game changing, it DID change the game experience itself.

And that right there is reason enough to give us a choice. It made absolutely no game/outcome difference but the game "felt" different. The choice took probably about one line of code plus the resulting different line said by the character, but it absolutely made my day when I was sure that I'd made the "wrong" choice and yet got something fun out of it.

Sometimes the choices should make a difference. Sometimes the difference should only be your experience with the game. But IMO we should always HAVE a choice. Otherwise we're just following a preconceived plot and being railroaded towards a solution.

We should absolutely never know which it's going to be. Otherwise why would we care?

In the earlier games I remember sitting there and agonizing over which answer was the right one - and I totallly adore that!

[Kyokai]

I agree with all of your points! It was also misleading of MED's box to say choose your allies or something to that effect. You also said something about choosing how Nancy responds that I've been trying to say but haven't figured out how to word it as well as you have. Lately Nancy has been saying rude things that I think only should have been an option for players to test out new reactions from the suspects.

[Lost+Dreaming]

I agree. This is the biggest issue I have with the newer games. In SPY and MED, the conversations felt so choppy and unnatural. That's because we are no longer allowed to chose Nancy's responses, only what order to ask questions (not that it affects anything). I love how in the older games we could choose whether to give a neutral or sassy response. Sometimes it didn't affect the game (although I prefer when it does), but it made us as players feel that we were actually having a conversation, as opposed to listening to Nancy ask question after question. I do not know why this feature went away, as it is a trademark feature of the majority of the games. I suppose it is because it requires more work to incorporate, but I sincerely hope that LIE allows us to have control over the dialogue. It makes the game more fun, and not to mention it also increases gameplay.