It’s easy to play retro games now and gloss over the challenges. With old stuff, we often have the best of both worlds – the challenges of the past can be overcome with modern features.
Save states help negate fake difficulty
Turbo/speedup and save editing help negate grinding, loading, and other time sinks
Digitization makes it easier to store and keep track of lots of game (no need to worry about someone losing a game you lent them!)
Modern storage capacities mean we can have as many save games as we want for free
Mods let us experience games (sometimes) even better than they were back in the day
Digital games are much more affordable now. Back in the day, if you wanted to play something other than your same handful of games, you’d have to borrow one from a friend, rent one, or pay at least 30 bucks or so for something that wasn’t trash. Or you want a brand new game? Might set you back $200 (both adjusted for inflation).
You said “I’ve learned” meaning it’s not common knowledge. This post also makes it sound like something you’ve recently learned. So you should have the source handy, no?
There’s a set story, but it’s discovered. The world is wide open, and the player can go anywhere right at the start of the game. There’s minimal railroading at any point.
Unless I misunderstood what you meant by emergent narrative. The progression through the game requires the player to learn what to do by interacting with aliens and also exploring a bit. There is an in-game hint system (an alien dialogue tree with prices), but there are often multiple solutions to each “problem”. The player can even get through the game being good or evil – whatever they choose!
The game plays very differently than ME, but you’ll probably find the dialogue trees very familiar. And I think SC2 actually does them better than ME.
I forgot to mention that part – yeah, the series is still alive, and fans have been waiting for that sequel from the original creators for what, 30 years now?
A game that meaningful should always be given a look, even if it can feel a bit “dated” in some ways.
Rock Band 2. Bladder of Steel achievement playing with a full band of 4 (locally).
It’s playing the entire setlist of 84 or so songs all the way through in one sitting. Without pausing or failing.
We did it with all instruments on Medium, but we did it! (I could pass anything on Expert, but maybe not all the way through. My friends were borderline Hard players at best, so Medium was the only way we’d ever be able to do it together)