Phil McKraken
Registered User
I'm cool with that. I can see it being annoying on multiple playthroughs, but I rarely play games twice.
And regarding the script, that's all new stuff. There was little to no dialogue between npcs in the old school games.
This is a good example of flavour vs gameplay.
It makes much more sense (what I refer to as flavour) for things to happen even if you aren't there to witness/trigger them.
The flip side is it can be easier to exploit and lead to fragmented gameplay experience where the player missed out on a lot of important information and sometimes stumbles his or her to victory through sheer, dumb luck: both of these are things designers should aim to avoid at all costs. You don't get second chances to make a first impression.
As far as design goes I think gameplay should always trump flavour but the tension between the two is enhanced in a video game. Still, in this case having the player experience key events before being able to complete the level doesn't deter exploration which is clearly going to be a huge pillar this game relies on.
The only real downside I see is "it makes no sense", which is valid but ultimately meaningless and that speed runs are going to be lengthened. And even for speed runs, it's not that big of deal.
I can definitely buy that the developers want to give you a more cinematic experience where you are always at the center of things at the right time, and if you only play the game one or two times it's probably even more fun. In my case though it's a bad thing because what I like about the series above all other games is the replay value. It's so fun to discover new approaches in the old games and sometimes you feel like not even developers thought of doing what you did (though obviously they did). It just feels a bit too obvious now that you're following someone else's plan.