14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare, one of the most famous role-playing game developers of all time, has shared its views on the genre as a whole and how it needs to incorporate elements from other titles, like shooters or hack and slash ones, in order to stay relevant in this day and age.
BioWare became famous for deep RPGs like Baldur's Gate, but also for slowly combining such titles with other elements from genres like hack and slash, resulting in Jade Empire, or the first-person shooter one, with Mass Effect.
Now, with Mass Effect 3 slowly taking shape, the studio's co-founder and label vice president, Dr. Greg Zeschuk, talked with VG247 about the state of the role-playing game in today's gaming industry.
"RPGs are and always have been our bread and butter, our heart is there," he said. "We had the conversation about ‘what is an RPG’ and it’s a blend. The genres are blending right now, you’re getting lots and lots of progression and RPG elements in shooters – online persistence and so on."
Sadly, many games that stick closely to the age-old RPG recipe aren't so relevant, according to Zeschuk, as people are expecting other elements to be thrown into the experience.
"The RPG in the context of the current world is – well, it’s not specifically irrelevant, but it’s becoming less relevant in and of itself. It’s more a function of ‘hey, this game has a great story’. For us having that emotion but also having other great features like combat and persistence of character progression and stuff."
While Mass Effect 1 had quite a lot of RPG elements, its sequel disposed of quite a few in order to make it more similar to traditional third-person, cover-based shooters. Mass Effect 3, on the other hand, will see some elements make a comeback, in order to provide a deeper experience than regular shooters, like Gears of War, for example.
Mass Effect 3 is scheduled to appear on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 6, 2012.