Saturation

"Holy crap, not another stupid magical sword!"

This is the sort of reaction I have when playing games like Sacred and Dungeon Siege.

I remember as a high school kid playing Baldur's Gate instead of doing homework, where a magical sword was something rare and special. Heck, upgrading from a simple short sword to a long sword, and then to a bastard sword was a fairly big achievement back then! Even though I haven't played Baldur's Gate for ages, I can tell you that I finished the game wielding the two handed sword 'Spider's Bane' wearing Ankheg Plate Mail and Boots of the Cheetah.

That makes me seem like a real nerd, right? But hey, everyone knows that King Arthur's sword is called Excalibur. Imagine if everyone in those old stories had a special sword with a name. You'd never be able to remember what any of them were called because there'd be way too many strange names to remember. Excalibur would become just another boring magical sword.

This is how I feel about modern RPGs. Developers are so desperate to cram as many 'cool' items into their games that none of them feel memorable anymore. I can remember my weapons in Baldur's Gate, which is fairly old, whereas I wouldn't have a clue what my weapons were in Sacred or Dungeon Siege (which are much more recent) because they changed every 15 minutes. I don't even know what all these numbers and stats on the sword's description mean - when I want to know which is the best, I go to the shop in the game and see which one will give me the most gold if I sell it. Then I use that one!

The same goes for spells, skill and feats. I have more fun in the much more limited scope of the older games, where a basic heal spell added as a special ability really makes your character stand out. And sometimes there were items or abilities that only one single character in the game can use, so you either keep that person with you or miss out!

When playing the original Baldur's Gate, I remember getting to level 3 being a real achievement. By the time I was halfway through the last game in the series, leveling up seemed quite dull, because I had done it too many times.

I wish for the days when levelling up was a special experience that only happend 6-7 times by the end of the game. I want a game where magical items are found so seldom that they are memorable, as opposed to tripping over 8 magical axes every time I kill a low level bandit. I want going into a rage to be a special ability of a single character. I know this probably won't ever be the case again, but a man can dream.

Oh, and recently I was playing Neverwinter Nights 2, and found an Elven Court Bow (One of the most special and memorable items from BG2 for me) for sale in a shop where it was described as a commonplace item. Thanks, NWN2, for ruining my perception of one facet of one of my favourite games forever :).

Man, I'm a freakin geek!