10 Greatest Innovations of 2007
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 989
Reinventing the Wheel Mass Effect
I can't remember the last time I saw a dialogue tree in a major release game...but you know what I can remember? I can remember having a conversation with a group of game designers who said that dialogue trees were dead, that a modern audience wouldn't sit through that amount of reading. Bioware blew this line of reasoning out of the water with the dialogue wheel in Mass Effect.
Moreover they did it on a console...
The dialogue wheel not only allows players to quickly assimilate their choices but also adds an intriguing uncertainty to the game play. The wheel allows the player to choose the tenor of their responses but not the responses themselves. Surprisingly this leads to a feeling of greater choice rather than a restrictive gimmick thus earning Mass Effect its place at number three.
