Remember that whole "choice" thing?

Y'know, the whole morality and choice system that Paragon Studios went ga-ga over a little while back? The system that they released an entire third game (or kinda third game...Okay, more a third of a game...) based around? The system where you shape your storyline and effect the world around you based on who you work with and key decisions?

Yeah, I've made at most three decisions so far in First Ward, and none of them impacted squat. Oh, by the way, so far I've also unwillingly doomed someone to a living hell and am about to send another character to their death. Choice is great, isn't it!?

Look, I understand some things need to happen in order to have a cohesive story. I get it. But after all this and that about "choice" and Paragon totally missed the mark. So I killed some guy, and somebody mentioned it, and nobody spoke of it again. Some awe-inspiring choice. It's just...so much wasted potential, on top of shoe-horning the player into a certain role right after giving us the freedom to chose our own paths.

Maybe I'm alone in this, maybe I'm not, but to those of you who have played through the entire First Ward story (Note: I'm on DeVore right now, no spoilers bro) does it not bother you some of the things you're forced to do?

I played through the whole of the Praetoria content twice, choosing...er, some paths or other, (generally the 'trying to be a good person' ways) back when it was released, and now i can't remember it being much different to CoH progress in general lol. The end result was I got 2 lvl 20 Praetorian origin heroes in Paragon City.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

two words

combat phasing

I think one of the best progressions I've had making a character is working so far undercover as a Resistance fighter that I unwittingly had to take down Resistance members to keep my cover until my big move at the water treatment facility. I do remember that.

It was just a shame I went to lvl 20 almost solo so I wouldn't outlevel my contacts before the end of their arcs

I thought the First Ward story arcs were great.

They never promised that First Ward would offer moral choices or branching story arcs, and I never assumed those options would be there, so I wasn't disappointed to not find them.

Did I feel that some of the things my character had to do in these story arcs were out of character? Sure, but I feel that way about a lot of story arcs in the game. I think that's unavoidable unless they implement a system of choice-making far more advanced than anything we've seen so far in this game.

Yeah, I'm partway through First Ward right now and one of the biggest opportunities I thought was near the end of the... um... Anna's arc. You're speaking to the Hetman and he says something like "you know you could join up with me" and I'm thinking - that would be an awesome spot for a choice, what if I wanted to support the Hetman instead of this other girl. But no, you're not given a choice at all, you just keep going on that straight path towards completion.

Yeah, I'll echo that it's kind of a shame that, given First Ward is meant to be a continuation of Praetoria and by extension give praetorian characters 20-30 level content before shipping off to Primal Earth, it was kind of disappointing that alignment and moral choices was thrown out the door.

Don't get me wrong, the arc is good. I really don't see saving Katie as that bad, since she can be unplugged fairly easy, and Noble Savage did come out of it. Though it did seem to just kind of stop, it didn't really feel as complete as some other arcs for some reason.

But yeah, the only thing that Alignment does is offer up some generi-contacts per alignment, which is ok for just general dinking about First Ward I guess.

Though, as has been cited in prior threads, Villainside doesn't make a ton of sense since you're invited by the Carnival of War to First Ward and end up siding with the Carnival of Light, generally *against* CoW. I mean for story reasons it somewhat makes sense (to avoid getting dragged into the whole Vengeance clique) but it seems like there'd be a better integration for Villains.

The entire First Ward storyline just reinforces the notion that Primal Earth should deal with Praetoria by saturation-bombing.

Don't forget that the higher the Praetorian content is, the closer it has to be to the Incarnate storyline - First Ward takes players over halfway to 50, so loyalist/Villian options have to be more limited than they were in GR.

I saved some dude in Nadia's arc and he showed up later on in Noble Savage's story arc as a combat ally.

I'm playing through it on a second character and I killed him on that character. I haven't gotten to the appropriate mission yet on the second character, but I hope I get some flavor text in a nod to killing him - or maybe get a different combat ally, or something.

I really did do a double-take when my character stepped into the mission and the guy hailed me. "Hey! I remember that guy!" Loved it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

My arms got so tired from juggling idiot balls and various other unnecessary tropes that I ended up stopping First Ward halfway through.

Kind of glad I did too, because I don't think I could handle being Katie's errand boy. I know my character is supposed to be impressed by this loser (for some reason) even though he's never heard of her before, but there's no way I could go along with her attitude.

The finale of the arc would likely turn my character into a villain just so I could gleefully be rid of her.

Edit: I -DID- like the arcs up until Katie was introduced. While the character interjections were annoying, they were manageable. The finale of Noble Savage and the introduction to Katie was something I couldn't handwave away, however.

I loved the first ward, I was totally absorbed in to the storyline. I even felt absolutely horrible putting *spoiler* back in to the *spoiler* network.

I loved it through and through and I don't fault the writers for lack of branches or choice, however having allignment specific first ward arcs would have been cool.

I've wanted to run First Ward, but I just don't see my main (and hero) putting someone back into the network against their will. I'm pretty sure she'd let the one decide, even if that means the choice was "Never again!" and millions would die.

First ward is a grand place to... >_>

Oh look! A shiny!!

<_<

There are things my heroes wouldn't of done put *spoiler* back in the *spoiler*?

None of my heroes would do that, they'd punch *spoiler* out and then either knock her out when ever she woke up, or keep her sedated until the big threat had passed.

They really need a final mission where you go and fix what you did to *spoiler*.

I really like the First Ward story, for what it is.

Having said that, I was also disappointed that the first time I tried to play 'tough guy' against the D.U.S.T. soldiers, I had to, with no further choice or exception, follow through and kill the guy.

That was, frankly, disappointing to me. Playing the 'tough guy' or the 'nice fella' then lacking the ability to either changing at the last minute to 'I can't do that' or 'just kidding... thwack!!' just feels a bit out of place and shouldn't take that much more effort, with the 'Oh you let them live?' vs the 'Oh you killed them' options the same, while giving the player the feeling of more choice.

I just think it could have been done better. Once you commited to a course in the 'moral tree' you were resigned to see it all the way through regardless, and THAT, above all things was its failing, in my opinion.

There should have been a chance to go nihilistic or savior on them at each step in the tree. Such actions would further illuminate the 'illusion of choice' while still maintaining a binary resolution.

Just my $.02

Lyc~ the opinionated werewolf