@Thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:
But if you have to create a system with fast-travel, then you're saying that travel is boring after you reach the destination, which implies some negatives to this design decision.
Whether you find it boring or not is subjective. In an attempt to be objective, I will say this:
A lot of open-world games have a lot of side quests that don't mean shit to the world. In FF15, for instance, there's a lot of these monster quests which appear to simply be XP and loot grabs. In DA:I, it is mostly the same. And this is boring as shit to me too.
The Witcher 3, however, has side quests that meaningfully break off into a story. In many cases, you have to figure out what the monster is and how to defeat it, meaning it is somewhat less of a gut-and-kill. In other cases, no one really needs to die, and you can finesse your way through. This is not boring to me.
So far in ME:A, the side quests have positive effects on my ability to create a settlement. Granted, I'm in Eos, but I've enjoyed the game so far. Except for going into that gravity well; that bit, as pretty as it was, can bite my ass.