Can you be a evil or good wizard?

[KFCBUCKETS9000]

That's the one thing Iv'e wanted to know since they first showed the game off.

[Moga CMDR]

I don't think that is really a concept. You can do what you want and everything is all the same.

It's all in your head if you are good or evil.

Are there "unforgivable" spells, sure. Is that concept mentioned a bit. Sure. Does that mean you are good or evil, nope. Does anyone in the game care? Nopers.

Frankly the ancient magic is just as evil :)

[TyresTyco]

You can. It just has absolutely zero effect on the world. It's a fake RPG. They lied to cash in the RPG fans.

[rservello]

yeah I was hoping for more a dark/light system like Mass Effect or Jedi

[Bassilth]

Not really. You can be a prick to others in dialogues and learn unforgivable spells but no matter what you do... It will not affect the game. NPCs will not react to anything, it changes very little dialogue, stealing is apparently okay as well. Basically nonexistent.

You can pretend if you have a good enough imagination.

[Celery]

Outside of minor dialogue it seems your actions have no consequence.

[Kaynos]

Some of the conversation options allow you to be either good or bad, absolutely.

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰:

idk when i blasted a baby mooncalf in the face i felt pretty evil

Yeah, I did some of that on accident, darn controller mapping. But after a few seconds I went along feeding it and collecting its resources.

Felt bad, but not really evil.

[Kinzuko]

short answer: no
long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[lazarusblack]

Devs are damned if the do, damned if they don't.

For every voice that calls out for a structured and meaningful morality system, there is another that curses they even exist. You can search out articles on the very subject with journalists arguing in favour or against. No shortage at all.

Thing is, once you introduce a morality system, it immediately increases the complexity of narrative story telling. necessitating branching narratives and alternative dialogue, doubling the workload on those fronts.

I can't say I blame Avalanche for steering clear tbh. They clearly had a story they wanted to tell and they've told it well with some flair. I think expecting much more from a dev who is pretty new to this genre, is not wise.

As to my own opinions on morality systems. I like them when they have meaningful consequences. When the evil isn't childish and silly evil or self destructive evil (like a lot of Star Wars interpretations... mwuhahaha, I torture you cus it tickles my funny bone, twirl moustache, flourish cape )

Few devs and fewer publishers will risk a genuine evil narrative and last time anyone felt the waters in this regard (Obsidian - Tyranny) the vast majority of players clearly expressed no desire to play genuinely evil characters. :shrug:

The closest any games came to making a good morality system imho, is SW:KOTOR 2 it just fell short as while you could influence your companions and turn them to the dark side (silly evil included, but some mature expressions of it too) they would still object if you did something evil???

I don't really regard Mass Effect as a morality system. It was more of a hugs and cuddles or any means necessary, system. Was there morality in there? Only in the most superficial way and it didn't really have an impact on gameplay, rather than flavour.

So, all that is why I don't mind that Avalanche skimmed over the concept a little ( a lot)

[mr pottuh]

You can be a good wizard/witch with very naughty dialogue responses. That's it.

For example, you can help this little girl collect all of her gobstones, when you go back to her after you've got them all, you do have the option to say sorry, they're mine now.

[Eviltoy]

Im a evil wizzard. I give always the evil anthwer.

[MaxVonDayGlow]

Good vs Evil is rarely done well in any RPG game, and HL is really no better or worse than any other typical game in the genre.

It is rare for an RPG to have completely divergent experiences and outcomes and other than minor differences (cosmetic, companions/cinematics/dialog/etc.) since they are dependent on heavily scripted story arcs/beats leading to the same finale (with multiple endings at best).

"Good" is usually portrayed by being "nice" and refusing rewards, while "Evil" is always being a jerk that is rude and demands payment (or additional payment) in dialog choices. Sometimes they get really spicy and let you kill ("evil") or let an enemy live ("good") when completing a quest. This trope is pretty lame in my opinion and used as a crutch way too much.

You as a player have to roleplay what "good" or "evil" means in your mind and with your gameplay choices. Expecting the developers to do it for you just leads to "nice" vs "jerk" gameplay since they have a specific story to tell and can't have game breaking choices made by players.

[lazarusblack]

Originally posted by Eviltoy:

Im a evil wizzard. I give always the evil anthwer.

You mean the snarky answer?

[KFCBUCKETS9000]

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

I don't think that is really a concept. You can do what you want and everything is all the same.

It's all in your head if you are good or evil.

Are there "unforgivable" spells, sure. Is that concept mentioned a bit. Sure. Does that mean you are good or evil, nope. Does anyone in the game care? Nopers.

Frankly the ancient magic is just as evil :)

That's a little disappointing because I was comparing it to kotor a bit to much, but I'm still getting it because I've really only heard positive things about it.

[lazarusblack]

Originally posted by DOOMGUY64:

Originally posted by Moga CMDR:

I don't think that is really a concept. You can do what you want and everything is all the same.

It's all in your head if you are good or evil.

Are there "unforgivable" spells, sure. Is that concept mentioned a bit. Sure. Does that mean you are good or evil, nope. Does anyone in the game care? Nopers.

Frankly the ancient magic is just as evil :)

That's a little disappointing because I was comparing it to kotor a bit to much, but I'm still getting it because I've really only heard positive things about it.

If you go in knowing your aren't getting a meaningful morality system you might find things to like. There is an interesting dark wizard storyline to engage with in the companion quest of Sebastien Sallow and best boi Ominis. But measure your expectations on that front for sure.