Combat Free Zones

Uh most RPGS have areas like this. I don’t mind it though. And I liked Sam.

Especially since on the Citadel you could walk around in armour carrying five guns.

Well, ME1 had to work that way since combat could break out in the Wards.

IIRC a dev said that the later trilogy games strictly segregated combat and noncombat areas because they had problems fitting both the combat and noncombat animations into last-gen console RAM as they added more complexity. Doesn't explain ME:A, though. Perhaps they preferred to leave the Nexus feeling like a completely secure space?

Fallout. tes, most isometric RPGs you can murder and steal form whoever you want pretty much whenever you want.  Later TES games added unkillable PCs usually only remaining unkillable until their plot point was over. But if a guard mouths off to you, threatens random shop keep, is abusing somebody who didn't pay their dues, you can punch them, shoot them, something, the games don't take away your ability to act. Games where you can't usually don't have guards try and intimidate you or create a scene of abuse where you can't act.  I get cut scenes, there are a limited range of scene variants they are going to program in, but if random ass hat in a non cut scene conversation threatens a innocent, being in a safe zone shouldn't protect them.  You do have fists at the very least.  It's not about causing random havoc its about being allowed to appropriately respond to events unfolding in the world, though if someone wants to cause random havoc more power to them i guess. It is a pretty big limit on your ability to role play when you can't act when provoked.  In me 1-3 at least your dialogue options could actually handle the scene if you had enough persuasion points, you don't even have that in multiple scenes in MEA. Which is fine it can represent you are not quite the intimating force that Shepard was, but you should then allow violence as your words weren't up to the task but you still aren't going to stand by and let an abuse happen.

Right, but with DBH and Cyberpunk 2077 coming out, that had better be what ME is all about. Either that, or get left in the dustbin of history.

"Huh, that was a fun clump..." *tosses clump in trash*

What I'm telling you is that when ME first came out, it was one of the first of it's kind.

Other people took that, refined it. Made it more beautiful.

Now, if BioWare wants to come out with a clunky game that is showing its 2008 roots, hey more power to them.

Just realize that you'll be playing the same game as you were in 2008.

If by troll you mean have meaningful insights that you have not considered, then yes.

Oh, but you just toss that word about, not caring or giving a shit who gets plastered with that word. Mods don't seem to give a shit either, so I guess it's all good, amirite?

Right. Just their writers didn't evolve, and in fact had devolved (the opposite of evolution) by a massive amount into the massive fuckup that was MEA.

With the trilogy, I could understand it. 2008-2012. The same story, the same protagonist, plus... There wasn't much evolution going on in the industry. Only now, you have games coming out like DBH, that are fully voice acted, that have hundreds of endings.   Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that it is not there.

Look, I don't even own a PS4. But I have seen the game, and several (bout 5 different) endings on twitch. Trust me, there's room for more endings. It's a system mover, for sure. I almost bought one, just so I could play the game.

That's fine if you don't believe me. I mean, it's fine if you just wanna sit there like an ostrich with your head in the sand. Doesn't bother me any. *shrug*

Wait what are you talking about? I don’t recall that situation.