RPGs - Storyline vs Side Quests

Makhaira

Makhaira

Makhaira

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Lancashire, UK
Ok, so I've just completed Fallout 3, and have to say that it was great fun, and I found the transition to the FPS hybrid format to be much more engaging than the previous offerings.

One thing is blatantly obvious though, and that's the length (or lack thereof) of the central storyline campaign. My final playtime was a bit over 13 hours, and that includes all the usual getting lost, making mistakes etc that the first playthrough involves. Now, no doubt hardcore RPG fans will be running for the Reply button now to point out that I have no doubt missed out the myriad of side quests with this game, the extensive ingame trivia and back story, and of course the geographical exploration of the vast landscape.

And they'd be right.

I'm not sure why the length of the game has to be reduced in order to achieve this open world and freeform play though. Take for example Deus Ex, a classic RPG, generally regarded as one of the best games ever released. Whilst there were various side quests that the player could undertake, the core storyline of the game itself was very lengthy and involved, and kept you feeling like you were progressing at pretty much every moment of gameplay.

So, whilst there is no denying that games such as Fallout 3 have greatly expanded the horizons (pardon the pun) in terms of breadth of the game world, has that core storyline taken a back seat to the new kid on the block of what is effectively sandbox gameplay?

So, to summarise the above, is there a shift in focus now to breadth of gameplay over length? Is that good? Would there be any harm in terms of audience appeal to increasing the length of these games?

Personally I'd love to see a game with the breadth of Fallout 3 and the length of Deus Ex, but I suspect the additional time in developing something of that scale may mean I have to keep that as a dream rather than a purchase...

But enough rambling, what do you guys think?
 
I think this should be in the games section:p

but I'm the same I get distracted by sidequests and lose interest in the main plot too easily
 
Well, I completed Mass Effect the other day without doing any of the side quests... Don't know why, just got hooked into the main plot and forgot to explore.
 
It spans both PC and consoles, so wanted to stick it here since it's not a platform specific question :). That's not to say I'm right though! :P

Currently playing through Stalker/Mass Effect, so it'll be interesting to see what trend they follow. Stalker seems quite distracted so far, and Mass Effect very plot-centric.
 
I usually go for side quests. Morrowind and Oblivion being big examples of this.

I don't really care though as long as I enjoy it and have fun.
 
Developers and publishers throw huge amounts of money at games, but nearly every time the story and the writers get very little. Almost every game I have played recently has been way, way too short.

The most recent I played was Modern Warfare II. I am glad I only borrowed that because there is absolutely no way it is worth its RRP. Yes there is the multiplayer aspect which is supposedly huge, but then again Counter Strike probably has a much larger MP base and that is a fraction of the price - plus you get awesome HL2! :D

Most of the effort creating a game is the graphics/engine. Once you have that, the rest is "easy". Why spend all that time and money and only give the player a 5 hour story?

For RPGs like Fallout 3, Oblivion etc, they go to even greater lengths in creating vast worlds for you to explore, and only a short story. Oblivion has a TINY story line. Hell, I bet most of the Guild Quest chains are longer. They could have made the story so much more epic but noooo. Side quests should not make up for a lack of story, they should be there to do after you have worn you fingers to the knuckle playing the storyline.
 
I enjoy the side quests the most.

If I load up Morrowind, Oblivion or Fallout 3 etc after a break I can usually find something to do that I haven't done before.

I mostly leave the main quests until I have an epic character, although in Oblivion due to the levelling this is a bit sad since so many people die.
 
The most recent RPG I've played is ME2, and I did lots of the side quests mainly because you're forced too :p.

But it's same in any game I play - I'm often torn, I'll get so involved into a main story that I don't want to do the side quests as I want to find out whats going to happen. Then I'll play it through a second time and explore much more of the world.
 
Personally when i play a roleplay game, i roleplay my character. That means i act as my character would, answer questions as my character would and do things ingame as my character would.

As a result of this i miss a lot of side quests as my character realistically just wouldnt do them. If i am searching for some truth behind my fathers death or rushing to prevent the impending destruction of something , i am hardly likely to take the time out to deliver a letter for someone or collect 10 bottles of something they need, now am i.
 
What got me in to putting on my +5 speech trousers before conversations in Fallout 3 was, weirdly, the short main storyline. I didn't feel I'd got my moneys worth so went back and started again.
What annoys me about oblivion and FO3 is the lack of cinematic style set peices like you get in Half-life 2. Following the big shooty robot thingy along the bridge thingy in FO3 is the one exception.
When I payed through Half-life 2 again it seemed really wierd not being able to pick up the armour of the combine and getting their heart.
Combine the two plz!!1
 
I always get hooked by the story and main quests in RPGs. I like to a bit of exploration and a few side quests but they bore me after a point. I was really disappointed when Fallout 3 ended....I know there's a lot more to do (eg find alien spaceship) but I just wasn't into it by then.
 
FO3 for me was the biggest waste of money I've spent on a game for a while . I just found it boring and not much of an improvement (if not a step backwards) from Oblivion. Maybe however that maybe because I'm a veteran of the previous FO games which I found way more cohesive and more immersive

The same in a way goes for Oblivion compared with Morrowwind - Ob was extremely shallow MQ wise compared to morrowwind though there were things that were better (combat is an improvement on MW) which although not a step up gamewise made Ob playabl;e and enjoyable.

Finally another thing imho that made Oblivion better in long term than FO3 was the mod that have become available which have far more variety . With FO3 , themodding community for that game has not really grown to what was expected and tbh seems to have badly stalled with a lot of modders moving back to Ob
 
jimmy_lazers said:
What annoys me about oblivion and FO3 is the lack of cinematic style set peices like you get in Half-life 2. Following the big shooty robot thingy along the bridge thingy in FO3 is the one exception.
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Kavatch assault in Oblivion maybe? I know what you mean though, and the likes of Infinity Ward have basically made a living off of dramatic set pieces (something they pull off exceedingly well).

Anyway going back to the OP, I guess there are two schools of thought on this:

One says that it would be better to tie in more of the side quests into the main story, you know, chain them together a bit to pad out the main quest. That way people like you would be forced to play through that content and feel like the game is longer, also mean less 'wasted' content created by the developers that a lot players miss out on.

The other says that some gamers just like a focussed, high intensity game, where they can blast through the main quest in under 15hrs, obviously with the potential there to take detours should they so wish. Not everyone is that interested in collecting 30 Nuka-Cola Quantums for some bird in a shack, they just want to see the main storyline progressing.

Now personally what I love about FO3 is that the sidequests in themselves have some pretty great missions. I completed the game after around 30hrs playtime I think but then carried on playing the expansions to around 60hrs and then another 20hrs of sidequests after that. I've kinda got bored now, but I might revisit it someday, plus 80hrs is not to be sniffed at for game length.

Also as I posted in the main thread, I think FO3 has quite an accelerated endgame, there aren't so many obvious sidequests to distract you so I basically ploughed on through the majority of the storyline in the last 10hrs of that 30hrs completion time.

At the moment I'm playing Oblivion, about 65hrs in, I've literally just gone around doing different quests in random order for the most part, jumping between different story arcs. Just starting to focus a little more now, finished off the fighters guild quests, then Aid for Bruma, now doing thieves guild, but if I get to a mission I don't like then I'll go back onto something else.

As an aside I don't really like the Oblivion worlds, they are all a bit samey and I tend to have more fun on quests in the 'real world'.
 
Restarted Oblivion recently. I've put in 35 hours so far and not touched the main quest. I'm not actually that bothered that the main quest isn't some massive centrepiece to the game. It's the huge amount of side quests and how much they vary in scale that just makes the game that much bigger and richer. If they were all tied in to the main quest, the game would seem a lot more limited somehow. The main quest was still good though. I don't feel I have lost anything, being the size and scale it was compared to a much bigger main quest.
 
I think the 'ultimate' RPG for many people would be one which doesn't actually have any notion of a 'main quest', it would just be a seemless mix of quests which all contribute to the outcome of the game.

Obviously, that's no for everyone as there are also people who feel like they need some kind of (obvious) primary focus in a game in order for it to be compelling. That's one area that maybe lets Oblivion down a little compared to say Vampire Bloodlines, I rarely feel the urge to try and push on with the main story.
 
HangTime said:
I think the 'ultimate' RPG for many people would be one which doesn't actually have any notion of a 'main quest', it would just be a seemless mix of quests which all contribute to the outcome of the game.

Obviously, that's no for everyone as there are also people who feel like they need some kind of (obvious) primary focus in a game in order for it to be compelling. That's one area that maybe lets Oblivion down a little compared to say Vampire Bloodlines, I rarely feel the urge to try and push on with the main story.
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So... WoW?
 
Theres nothing more boring than lots of pointless sidequests that don't really do anything important for you or give you anything important when they're completed.

I like to get stuck into the story in a game but i also like the exploration and sidequests but only if they're interesting and are actually beneficial to do and say they involve unlocking extra powerful weapons/extremely hard dungeons/character backstory etc. The collect 10 of something and get a small item reward quests are just dull. playing through Tales of Veseria at the moment, ive only really done the sidequests that really give you something or are there to be challenging (optional bosses/weapons/character moments). The rest ive just skipped out of boredom. I don't want to spend hours collecting trinkets when i could be doing something allot more entertaining ingame.
 
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