No, it lacks a story. RPGs have a story driven gameplay. Gear and character progression doesn't make a rpg. Long Dark isn't a rpg either. It's a survival game. With progression elements. The presence of RPG elements doesn't make a game a RPG. Elite Dangerous is a space sim lite in MMO environment. With gear progression. Crappy gear progression.
After playing cyberunk, and watching the Odyssey reveal, I'm now concerned about Odyssey...
- Thread starter VR Jay Le Chardon
- Start date
I hate to break this to you, but there is a story in Elite Dangerous. Maybe you haven't been paying attention.
It's not all that often that @Alien and I are quorate on matters on here, but this is one where she has nailed it!
In Elite, there are two ways to play, one is to simply play it as a space shooter like Everspace, t'other is the "immersionis2 / "roleplay" mode, I firmly subscribe to the latter, and roleplay as being an "imperial renegade". Odyssey will give me the opportunity to experience life as an imerpial renegade outside of the pilots seat of the three types of vessels we can control just now. Although there is no way in damnation that Odyssey can be compared to a more traditional RPG like skyrim, as I'm not a "dungeons and dragons" kind of guy, that isn't any skin off my nose. I do, however, hope for something closer to "GTA-V in space" / "Cyberpunk in space" - what is up for debate, or more realistically already finalised but the outcome of those decisions is something we are awaiting clarification from FDev, is whether Odyssey will be a "shooter" - think "Call of Duty in space" like "Infinite Warfare" was, or whether it will be broader, deeper, and more nuanced and meaningful, "Space/sci-fi RPG" - somewhat more akin to GTA-V or Cyberpunk, albeit in space. I really hope for the latter.
As I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077, I've grown fond of certain characters like Judy Alvarez, experienced hatred towards and revelled in the death of others like Dexter Deshawn, and by contrast mourned others like Jackie Welles and Takamura. Odyssey can have similarly "rich" NPC's who get under the players skin and give the galaxy a soul, or it can have mindless insignificant bullet stoppers like any CoD/MoH/BF shooter.
As for the "measured progression" requirement of being an RPG, Elite has the player start with a grand in hand, running about in a borrowed ship, naebody trusts or respects the CMDR (Player) so the missions on offer are pretty sucky, neither superpower's military would trust you to haul their biowaste let alone do anything of significance or be granted access to their ranks and privileges such as specific ship access, and the loaner ship is woefully underequipped.s time passes, the CMDR gains reputation, which may include military ranks with either or both superpowers navies, through this "personal narrative", viewed until now purely from the pilots seat, the player amasses credits, stockpiles ships and equipment. As the CMDR continues to spread their wings, almost literally as their Pilots Federation rank insignia's will be growing more wing elements as the CMDR proves adept/accomplished in various disciplines, opportunities are afforded to network with certain recluse naught point naught naught one percenters who can take some basic chemicals, some data files and or debris and use them to vastly improve the performance of various "modules", the machinery behind your ships systems. Loosely, collectively, these people are known as "the engineers", and if they deem you worthy, after you have passed their initiation - (hello ms. ryder - where do you want your landmines) - they only ask for the materials to make the upgrades, not a dime changes hands. Similarly there are more commercial, almost retail, opportunities to acquire special equipment, there are various "tech brokers" who will, upon receiving an admission fee of certain hard to come by materials, give you access to buy their wares, which are inherently not available to the masses. But you've got to jump through quite a few hoops to get on their good list, and oftentimes progression towards being on their "good list", or gaining access to an associate of an engineer you've already wooed will require you to step away from your chosen role/play-styles.
Some of the tech broker modules are just avantgarde / alternative applications of existing technology, others have their origins in tech reverse-engineered from one of two known alien civilisations we share(d) the galaxy with. We believe one species, the guardians, to be extinct, the other, the Thargoids, are very much alive and assuming the role of a phantom menace, occasionally skirmishing with us in our borders and colonies, erstwhile lurking in the shadows somewhere out there in the 400 billion star systems. Interactions with both species are almost mandatory to gain access to vast swathes of, but not all of the technical uplifts on offer from the tech brokers and engineers. And it would be simple remiss of me to omit the ultimate spaceship CMDR's can get, the 5 billion + options (say 6.5 billion) 25,000t cargo capacity, mobile space station known as a fleet carrier #ultimatepowerprojection (for the record I have the credits for a carrier but choose not to buy one)
The culmination of the accrued rank/rep/wealth/equipment allows the CMDR to become more of an influential part in the unfolding story of the galaxy, whereby a determined and knowledgeable lone CMDR can overthrow a government, and do so easily if they have the right tools for the job and aren't directly opposed by similar CMDR's. Thus influencing one aspect of the narrative, however, as th this galaxy we fly in is one laced with political intrigue, there are many facets/layers to the narative. Local "factions" vie for power/control of "their" star systems, in a convoluted multilayered game involving politics, business, crime, and war. This happens in each and every one fo the ~100,000+ human populated systems, spread over four disparate "bubbles", in which there is the constant spectre of a thawing coldwar between two ideologically opposed interstellar superpowers. And while the superpowers themselves are standoffish, more flamboyantly overt, proxy wars are a constant thing amongst the fiefdoms of iconic figureheads, under the banner of "powerplay". The list of participants ranges from a utopian cult leader to a pirate king, through to a renegade admiral, and a mega-corporation CEO, on to federal politicians from both sides of the isle, including the current president, and numerous imperial dignitaries - from senators to a princess, and even the emperor herself indeed! Between the three layers of politics, including a potential all-out war with two superpowers, and the machinations of mega-corporations, there is definitely narative there. And if we don't wipe ourselves out with all this in-fighting, remember there is one and a half alien species lurking in the shadows waiting to play their hands/tentacles. Some might even say two and a half, as there are reportedly two waring "dynasties" within the "thargoid" species...But be they one or two dynasties, they seem united against us having burned hundreds of our starports and slain thousands of our ships in recent skirmishes.
So yeah, Elite CAN BE taken as an RPG, but it's also somewhat of a sandbox, and it could also be played through as a shallow space shooter. It certainly doesn't necessarily fulfil the typical railroaded narrative of a typical RPG (do this quest, get this item, use it to enchant this weapon, use the enchanted weapon to slay the monster in a "boss battle", do tougher quest etc...) And much of the RPG stuff is there waiting to be found, and thus overlooked, especially as you don't fail/lose if you don't fully explore the depths of many aspects of the game... But being able to ignore those RPG elements does not negate their existence / presence, ergo I think it would be fair to say hat Elite is a game that can be an RPG if you want it to be one.
In Elite, there are two ways to play, one is to simply play it as a space shooter like Everspace, t'other is the "immersionis2 / "roleplay" mode, I firmly subscribe to the latter, and roleplay as being an "imperial renegade". Odyssey will give me the opportunity to experience life as an imerpial renegade outside of the pilots seat of the three types of vessels we can control just now. Although there is no way in damnation that Odyssey can be compared to a more traditional RPG like skyrim, as I'm not a "dungeons and dragons" kind of guy, that isn't any skin off my nose. I do, however, hope for something closer to "GTA-V in space" / "Cyberpunk in space" - what is up for debate, or more realistically already finalised but the outcome of those decisions is something we are awaiting clarification from FDev, is whether Odyssey will be a "shooter" - think "Call of Duty in space" like "Infinite Warfare" was, or whether it will be broader, deeper, and more nuanced and meaningful, "Space/sci-fi RPG" - somewhat more akin to GTA-V or Cyberpunk, albeit in space. I really hope for the latter.
As I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077, I've grown fond of certain characters like Judy Alvarez, experienced hatred towards and revelled in the death of others like Dexter Deshawn, and by contrast mourned others like Jackie Welles and Takamura. Odyssey can have similarly "rich" NPC's who get under the players skin and give the galaxy a soul, or it can have mindless insignificant bullet stoppers like any CoD/MoH/BF shooter.
As for the "measured progression" requirement of being an RPG, Elite has the player start with a grand in hand, running about in a borrowed ship, naebody trusts or respects the CMDR (Player) so the missions on offer are pretty sucky, neither superpower's military would trust you to haul their biowaste let alone do anything of significance or be granted access to their ranks and privileges such as specific ship access, and the loaner ship is woefully underequipped.s time passes, the CMDR gains reputation, which may include military ranks with either or both superpowers navies, through this "personal narrative", viewed until now purely from the pilots seat, the player amasses credits, stockpiles ships and equipment. As the CMDR continues to spread their wings, almost literally as their Pilots Federation rank insignia's will be growing more wing elements as the CMDR proves adept/accomplished in various disciplines, opportunities are afforded to network with certain recluse naught point naught naught one percenters who can take some basic chemicals, some data files and or debris and use them to vastly improve the performance of various "modules", the machinery behind your ships systems. Loosely, collectively, these people are known as "the engineers", and if they deem you worthy, after you have passed their initiation - (hello ms. ryder - where do you want your landmines) - they only ask for the materials to make the upgrades, not a dime changes hands. Similarly there are more commercial, almost retail, opportunities to acquire special equipment, there are various "tech brokers" who will, upon receiving an admission fee of certain hard to come by materials, give you access to buy their wares, which are inherently not available to the masses. But you've got to jump through quite a few hoops to get on their good list, and oftentimes progression towards being on their "good list", or gaining access to an associate of an engineer you've already wooed will require you to step away from your chosen role/play-styles.
Some of the tech broker modules are just avantgarde / alternative applications of existing technology, others have their origins in tech reverse-engineered from one of two known alien civilisations we share(d) the galaxy with. We believe one species, the guardians, to be extinct, the other, the Thargoids, are very much alive and assuming the role of a phantom menace, occasionally skirmishing with us in our borders and colonies, erstwhile lurking in the shadows somewhere out there in the 400 billion star systems. Interactions with both species are almost mandatory to gain access to vast swathes of, but not all of the technical uplifts on offer from the tech brokers and engineers. And it would be simple remiss of me to omit the ultimate spaceship CMDR's can get, the 5 billion + options (say 6.5 billion) 25,000t cargo capacity, mobile space station known as a fleet carrier #ultimatepowerprojection (for the record I have the credits for a carrier but choose not to buy one)
The culmination of the accrued rank/rep/wealth/equipment allows the CMDR to become more of an influential part in the unfolding story of the galaxy, whereby a determined and knowledgeable lone CMDR can overthrow a government, and do so easily if they have the right tools for the job and aren't directly opposed by similar CMDR's. Thus influencing one aspect of the narrative, however, as th this galaxy we fly in is one laced with political intrigue, there are many facets/layers to the narative. Local "factions" vie for power/control of "their" star systems, in a convoluted multilayered game involving politics, business, crime, and war. This happens in each and every one fo the ~100,000+ human populated systems, spread over four disparate "bubbles", in which there is the constant spectre of a thawing coldwar between two ideologically opposed interstellar superpowers. And while the superpowers themselves are standoffish, more flamboyantly overt, proxy wars are a constant thing amongst the fiefdoms of iconic figureheads, under the banner of "powerplay". The list of participants ranges from a utopian cult leader to a pirate king, through to a renegade admiral, and a mega-corporation CEO, on to federal politicians from both sides of the isle, including the current president, and numerous imperial dignitaries - from senators to a princess, and even the emperor herself indeed! Between the three layers of politics, including a potential all-out war with two superpowers, and the machinations of mega-corporations, there is definitely narative there. And if we don't wipe ourselves out with all this in-fighting, remember there is one and a half alien species lurking in the shadows waiting to play their hands/tentacles. Some might even say two and a half, as there are reportedly two waring "dynasties" within the "thargoid" species...But be they one or two dynasties, they seem united against us having burned hundreds of our starports and slain thousands of our ships in recent skirmishes.
So yeah, Elite CAN BE taken as an RPG, but it's also somewhat of a sandbox, and it could also be played through as a shallow space shooter. It certainly doesn't necessarily fulfil the typical railroaded narrative of a typical RPG (do this quest, get this item, use it to enchant this weapon, use the enchanted weapon to slay the monster in a "boss battle", do tougher quest etc...) And much of the RPG stuff is there waiting to be found, and thus overlooked, especially as you don't fail/lose if you don't fully explore the depths of many aspects of the game... But being able to ignore those RPG elements does not negate their existence / presence, ergo I think it would be fair to say hat Elite is a game that can be an RPG if you want it to be one.
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I've always hated those credit-leeching, sun dried zombies called "NPC crew", but now that you've mentioned Judy, I think I could make an exception in her case.
Sadly I doubt that we'll get a diving spacesuit.
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