u/ARC_Trooper_Echo

Flaired for v1 but the question applies to both.

So I know this game has its fans and enjoyers, but it doesn’t have the same level of love as the first 3 games. On paper, this seems like it should be a winning formula. The gameplay is mostly Chaos Theory with some new moves. The story adds some new mechanics around the trust system and branching story points based on player decisions. The levels take you to some interesting new locations that are different from what came before. So why couldn’t this game capture the magic of the originals?

My personal theory is that a big reason is the lack of usual Third Echelon characters. The charm of the first 3 games had a lot to do with the banter between Sam and the crew over his comms. In Double Agent, Lambert is still around but can’t talk to Sam directly most of the time. There’s no Grim, no Redding, just the JBA crew.

Then there’s also the release of two different versions which change the gameplay and story between them and don’t always run smoothly. That’s probably also a big part. But what do y’all think? What other issues held this game back compared to the classic trilogy?

I’m currently looking into building an Elementalist to drop into my ongoing game since my previous character died. One thing I’ve noticed is that all of the ability choices are clearly geared towards different subclasses with the keywords, but yet any Elementalist can mix and match them as they choose. That got me wondering why they made that design choice. I do appreciate the idea of customization, but it leaves the obvious fact that the subclasses feel more like suggestions that don’t end up being all that thematically resonant. Like, you could choose the Fire subclass but not have a single heroic ability involving fire. It just seems a little dissonant to me.