For future Mass Effect, what are deal breakers for you

Imo any side quests are fine if they come with an interesting story and some unique sequences. If they're only fetch quests which reward you with experience and some kind of currency and items, yeah let's just skip on that.

I have such low expectations by this point I don't think anything is a deal breaker. Besides, games with fully customizable characters are so rare these days I'll take what I can get.

Edit:

Thought of one.

ME: Andromeda style character creator. It was so limited. Ughhh.

Honestly, there’s very few details we’d have right off the bat that would necessarily break the deal for me. I guess if it was a fixed character with no customization options, that would be an outright no from me, but that’s obviously never going to happen. Always online? I’d sooner pour a forty and move on forever than ever play a fucking MEMMO. Heck even the Synthesis ending MIGHT intrigue me enough to dive in to see what the fuss is about, albeit very begrudgingly.

The things that would be a deal breaker for me are as follows:

1) Multiplayer only game with no single player campaign.

2) 'Pay to win' game featuring microtransaction upgrades, with all decent armour, weapons and items locked behind a paywall.

3) Lack of in-game saves relying purely upon checkpoint saving.

4) All missions and content reliant upon timers or other kinds of 'race against the clock' mechanics forcing me to rush through the missions at breakneck speed... or I fail.

5) Any kind of 'Fallout 1-style' timer in which, after completing the intro I have limited time to complete main story arc and I am forced to skip many optional missions and side quests out of fear that I will run out of time, resulting in either mission failed or a bad ending.

7) Consoles only, no PC version.

And while possibly not a deal breaker, if it's another pseudo-open world, with huge empty spaces containing MMO-style fetch quests, padding, filler content, make work, collectibles etc. I'd be very dubious about playing it. What I want is a linear, or at least semi-linear, tightly-plotted story-focussed RPG.

I also play The Sims 4. They have developed microtransactions in the form of "kits" for $5.00. And people are eating it up. First kit literally created dustballs and allowed you to clean them. For $5. I can't believe people fall for such transparent tactics. Worse, it shows EA that they can screw everyone and they'll take it with smiles on their faces.

I'm concerned that this sort of thing is the model for all games going forward.

Yeah no MEA tone please.
I never loved the citadel quest but built on top of 3 games of solid largely serious character foundations it was tolerable.
Of course funny side moments can be great. I loved quests like TW3 'Equine phantoms' where Geralt's horse helps him solve a quest because its a funny bit of side fun around what is a generally more serious character story.

Dealbreaker?

A shitty PC port.

(Looks at Elden Ring...)

The humor in the Citadel dlc was lame. I understand they need some r&r, but the party was overkill. Having to deal with the crap 6 clowns was.....whatever. The funny part about the dlc is getting war assets for team spirit for having the crew and squad rested. Imagine if all that were seen heading to earth had some r&r? The player would have enough assets to drop kick the reapers back to darkspace. I remember a thread created asking what people would like the dlc to be before Citadel was announced. I mentioned I like a crucible dlc.

The humor in MEA was.....yeah, sure. Whatever. I recall a poster saying shortly after the game released the game was like a bunch of kids on spring break.

Simple - fan feedback.

If it is bad, no buy.

If it is good, buy on first sale at discount.

Moral of the story?

BioWare lost my pre-order with DAI and never getting it back. This is good, I applied this to all gaming companies and haven't felt any FOMO while saving some money and frustration.

Turns out, when you buy a game at discount and it turns out to be meh, you don't get as mad about it because it was bought with awareness and at a reasonable price for the risk.

I agree with all previous users about not wanting the next game to have MEA caliber tone and humor. The writing was all over the place in that game - and there was way too much chatter and autodialogue by Ryder and SAM which was annoying and distracting. Add to that the unmeaningful dialogue choices (it's usually just the same thing said slightly differently) and it's probably why I've yet to finish that game, even once.

Other deal breakers for me would be making certain choices canon like the Destroy Ending or curing the genophage. My canon Shep chose Control and sabotaged the cure so if Bioware intends to override that player agency then I won't be buying the next game (I can understand why synthesis and refuse might be impossible to implement in future games, but that same excuse doesn't work for control).

Hes a hero.

Honestly after playing so many games that a "ultra serious grimdark with and make me feel so depressed that I hope I die in my sleep" tone so pardon me if I prefer the tone of MEA over the MET.