 |
| Familiar. Even in Mandarin. |
My apparent confusion in culture aside, I'm very curious about what this game will be like and how different it would be, so I'm going to run off some questions I would like answered.
How big will the world be?
That's my first big question because this is a step up from the typical Borderlands game. I considered Borderlands the poor man's MMO, because you didn't have to pay a subscription to play it over the years, and the world was rather large and expansive. It felt like an MMO, gathering missions and completing them in your own time, and occasionally you would be shooting your way through a series of corridors, and they would always end in a big boss. So with it being an MMO how big an area would the Borderlands world be expanded out to?
Destiny comes to mind. What makes it unique is that it's regions are very intertwined. You can literally drive a circle around the Cosmodrome, though a little squiggly. I think the only dead end is where that Devil Walker sits, and there's a chance that will expand out into a another region someday. Will maps be designed similarly? That a player can explore and end up back where he started?
Will there be a crossover to old locations and characters, or will it be an entirely new environment?
While I can appreciate a tip of the hat to history, and maybe even a cameo appearance from someone like Lilith or Zero, I wouldn't expect them to be available for the player to approach at will. Especially in the environment of an MMO where there could be dozens of players crowded around her at one time in the Crimson Raiders Headquarters, trying to get a quest from her, or trying to dance with her.
In saying that though, I can appreciate if they decided to move the central focus to a completely different region of Pandora, where a new revolution was starting, or the Crimson Raiders have begun recruiting new Soldiers/Vault Hunters for the field of battle.
Will the players be able to side with a faction?
This is an interesting one. There has always been a Manufacturer that the player has been fighting against. Whether it's Bandits, Atlas, Hyperion or Dahl, they are all a faction the player has been shooting at. So why can't there be the option for players to unite under the same flag of a weapons Manufacturer? I'm sure a group of Torgue players would look outrageous.
What is this Mobile game thing?
Is it the same shooter on your iPad? Or is there a minigame you can play using alts to send on secret missions; or a home base you can build up and expand, which you can eventually visit and benefit from? There's gotta be a purpose to all the money you gain selling all the guns you retrieve, after all.
That's an issue of Borderlands: There's almost no point to money. You lose some each time you die, but you regain that in the guns you pickup. And it scales down based on how much money you actually have. Otherwise, you don't have any incentive to spend it at the vendors. You don't even need it for special events since there's the rare currency for that. So why not put it to actual use? Get some money in the shooter, then go on your Tablet and level up a base of some sort?
What comparisons will you have to other MMO games?
This is what I mean about building up a base. World of Warcraft just implemented "Garrisons" into their game, where a player has his own customisable base of operations to fight off the Iron Horde, a new enemy faction in the expansion. While this is only within World of Warcraft itself, why can't there be a Mobile Counterpart? Have your own Gunshop, where you can after market your rifle parts; get a barracks or something, where you can get other vault hunters to do your bidding; etc etc etc.
Then there's the superfluous skills. WoW has things like Cooking and Fishing, things like that which can be cool when leveled up and focused on, but ultimately aren't necessary. Will there be anything like that, where you can make your own guns, conveniently in your Gunshop you made in your base?
Will there be further characters?
This is an Obvious Question. Four different classes does not a long life make. Some people like a bit more variety to their game, changing up what toon they want to play as today to refresh their experience; or testing out new skills and abilities to learn their role in a fight; or finding an entirely different story in the game they could travel through. All very different reasons, and all give enough reason to add more characters.
How deeply will you be able to customise characters, on an RPG level and a on a visual level?
Borderlands visual customisations have always been pretty simple. First it was just three colours changing details on your character to make them a little more spiffy. Then they went to extremes and made Character Customisation a collectable thing, picking up patterns and headgear at random and making yourself look awesome or outrageous. Will BLO continue the tradition of Skins and Heads changing the look of your premade Character, or will you be able to have a uniqueness all of your own?
Then there's the RPG side. When it came to stats, the game was pretty straight forward. You didn't have Scores that affected your capabilities, you had Badass Points that gave you percentage bonuses, you had whatever your equipment gave you, and whatever effects your Skill Tree provided. So will it roll over just the same? Or will there be a new system in place? Will we still have Skill Trees? Will we even have stats on our guns? And even action skills, will they still remain a thing?
What differences will there be in Equipment and Weapons?
Borderlands has a tradition of having 8 pieces of equipment. Four Gun Slots, a Class Mod, a Grenade Mod, a Shield, and a Special. So what changes could be made? The Special is a miscellaneous item, so it can be whatever is appropriate to the story or region. But will shields remain as kinetic pushing bubbles? Will Class Mods and Grenade Mods be the same? What about weapons? Will it always be guns, or will Swords and Shields be brought into the mix?
Will there be more Manufacturers in the MMO release, or planned in the future?
This is a big one. With a new Manufacturer, you get a new style of weapon. If the series keeps with the Manufacturer distinctions, then they'll have to make a new consistency between the guns and stuff... It sounds like a hassle, and it very certainly is, but it would be worth it to start playing a little differently with new guns.
No comments:
Post a Comment