Poll: Could Bioware actually pull off a good Warhammer 40k game?

[O maestre]

Bioware is not quite what I imagine in being able to deliver the kind of action required of a WH40K game. I also have sincere doubts about any Bioware project since they began flying the EA banner

 

[vallorn]

Now ask me if obsidian or inXile entertainment could make a decent WH40k game and I will give you a real answer.

And now my brain is melting from the thought of Obsidian making a Warhammer 40k game and how amazing that would be.

On topic. Warhammer 40,000 is grimdark action brutality set up to the point of humor (Orks mostly) And I don't think Bioware could pull off that kind of dark humor.

Also I tend to have another test for people who make 40k licenses. "Are they British in any way?" No? Ok they probably wont make a good 40k game. Unless they have a reputation for dark humor like Inexile or Obsidian in which case they stand a good chance of "Getting it"

 

[irok]

I'm not that huge of a fan of the francize, but I've read some books and played some games and I don't think they could, its too big for them to handle without ripping large chunks out and simplifying things to reach a larger audience rather then focus on the actual demographic and source materials, I think it would be a money making exercise and not a lot more.

 

[veloper]

I can envision the Bio40K game now: romances between space marines and eldar, space orcs with unresolved daddy issues and repenting chaos marines with hearts of gold.
It would almost be worth giving the franchise to Bioware/EA just for the massive rage it would cause.

 

[Darks63]

Likely they couldn't Make a good one. The 40k universe is all about large scale conflict across a galactic war front. While Bioware excels at developing a small cadre of characters rather than a large cast that a 40k game would likely need.

 

[Patrick Hayes]

You guys are missing one vital, VITAL component that would make for an awesome Warhammer 40k RPG.

THE MOTHERFUCKING INQUISITION.

Dude, an RPG can totally be done if your were to play an Inquisitorial agent. Let's not forget. Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy...c'mon fellas. Think outside the box!

 

[JBGigas]

Inquisitor RPG, where you gather a team of acolytes and investigate a chaos conspiracy.
MAKE IT HAPPEN! BIOWARE IS PERFECT FOR THAT TYPE OF GAME!

 

[MagunBFP]

I actually liked the writing for TOR and think Bioware could make a decent KOTOR-style RPG based around a System's Adeptus Arbites or a semi covert Inquisitor retinue. Although in the 40K they'd need to keep in mind that the light side ending would pretty much be... "And Chaos/Xeno's/Heresy steam rolled the Inquisitor's niceness and resulted in the deaths of the entire system" while the dark side ending would be "The Inquisitor's faith/heresy and ruthlessness allowed for no questions, his actions ensured everyone in the system remained faithful and oppressed by the Imperium slowly crushing the life from it's citizens" or "A few people were corrupt but it was impossible to determine how many, so everyone was wiped out as a precaution"

 

[Patrick Hayes]

I actually liked the writing for TOR and think Bioware could make a decent KOTOR-style RPG based around a System's Adeptus Arbites or a semi covert Inquisitor retinue. Although in the 40K they'd need to keep in mind that the light side ending would pretty much be... "And Chaos/Xeno's/Heresy steam rolled the Inquisitor's niceness and resulted in the deaths of the entire system" while the dark side ending would be "The Inquisitor's faith/heresy and ruthlessness allowed for no questions, his actions ensured everyone in the system remained faithful and oppressed by the Imperium slowly crushing the life from it's citizens" or "A few people were corrupt but it was impossible to determine how many, so everyone was wiped out as a precaution"

One name. Ravenor.

 

[Syzygy23]

Heh, no.

40k is at it's core brutal and unrelenting war on a ridiculous scale. Yeah, in DA:O and ME3 there is this sort of thing going on, in the background, but in 40k it's always at the forefront, it's taken above 11 and there's very little room for anything else. No romance or anything resembling romanticism, no space opera, no great questing around the land/galaxy, no single universe shaping individual, no neatly solving every problem you come across without blowing it's head off, Bio's typical character archetypes would not fit without heavy alteration.
None of Bioware's tried and true elements will even remotely fit into this setting.

And from the gameplay side of things Bioware has never done fast-paced combat particularly well, which is absolutely essential for anything that aims to do 40k justice.

Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchel.

Your argument is invalid.

 

[MagunBFP]

One name. Ravenor.

You Sir are correct, I would also have accepted Eisenhorn, or Colonel Schaffer and the Last Chancers.

 

[Syzygy23]

Inquisitor RPG, where you gather a team of acolytes and investigate a chaos conspiracy.
MAKE IT HAPPEN! BIOWARE IS PERFECT FOR THAT TYPE OF GAME!

No, better yet! Dark Heresy Ascension setting where you play an Inquisitor who hires Acolytes and sends them on missions around the galaxy to save mankind from all threats. Gameplay would pretty much be XCOM only with Techpriests, Guardsmen, Sororitas and Psykers comprising your teams instead of stock soldiers.

Still just as expendable though. That's the fun part!

 

[EXos]

I missed the option.

"Not anymore."

 

[Patrick Hayes]

Inquisitor RPG, where you gather a team of acolytes and investigate a chaos conspiracy.
MAKE IT HAPPEN! BIOWARE IS PERFECT FOR THAT TYPE OF GAME!

No, better yet! Dark Heresy Ascension setting where you play an Inquisitor who hires Acolytes and sends them on missions around the galaxy to save mankind from all threats. Gameplay would pretty much be XCOM only with Techpriests, Guardsmen, Sororitas and Psykers comprising your teams instead of stock soldiers.

Still just as expendable though. That's the fun part!

Even better, play as a Vanus Acolyte in charge of a group of Officio Assasinorum killers. Difficulty = FUCK.

 

[jim1398]

Replace 'Shepard' with 'Inquistor, 'Reapers' with 'Chaos/Orks/Eldar/etc', add in a large helping of Grimdark and you've just turned Mass Effect into a decent 40K game.

If they would get Dan Abnett to write it, you'd have a (potentially) great 40k game.

 

[Megalodon]

Could they pull off the atmosphere, work with the lore,

Given the mess they made of ME3 with tonal shift in the ending, combined with thier lore changes across ME, I'm skeptical of their writer's ability to work within thier own lore, let alone someone elses. Best case scenario here, don't let Bioware writer anywhere near it. Instead bring in the better class of BL author to write the script, Dan Abnett, Gav Thorpe, Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Sandy Mitchell, Andy Chambers. Some combination of these could deliver a solid plot to hang a game on.

Of course, at that point, does it matter which dev makes the game?

avoid pissing off the fans,

Nope, because trying to work in all factions would be an impractical bad idea, and so fans that like the absent factions wouldn't be happy.

and of course, make it fun?

Depends on the kind of gameplay they go for, Xcom syle tactical squad command would be nice, or modifiying the Space Marine engine to work with non-marines, because that did the ranged/melee switching really well, which you need in a 40k game.

 

[Lieju]

I can envision the Bio40K game now: romances between space marines and eldar, space orcs with unresolved daddy issues and repenting chaos marines with hearts of gold.
It would almost be worth giving the franchise to Bioware/EA just for the massive rage it would cause.

Oh, I'd love to see that.

DA:O was sunshine and lollipops compared to the "best" day in the 40k universe.

No, Bioware doesn't have what it takes to do a 40k game.

But a lot of people are saying how 'dark' Warhammer 40K is, but what makes it so dark? My knowledge of the IP comes from the game (and even so I don't know much about it.) Where's the lore and the stories that makes it dark and gives it emotional impact?

What I mean is, just saying 'these people are all totally ruthless and everything is war and depressing' doesn't really have any emotional impact.

For something to truly be 'dark' (for me anyway) it would need to make me care about what's going on in a some kind of personal level. Have there be humanity and good things in there as well, otherwise it's just caricatures killing each other.
Bioware could do that, but I'm not sure Warhammer is about that.

It always stroke me more as a teenagers idea of dark and mature, but like I said, my knowledge of the franchise is lacking, so feel free to enlighten me.

What stories does it tell?

 

[Megalodon]

But a lot of people are saying how 'dark' Warhammer 40K is, but what makes it so dark? My knowledge of the IP comes from the game (and even so I don't know much about it.) Where's the lore and the stories that makes it dark and gives it emotional impact?

What I mean is, just saying 'these people are all totally ruthless and everything is war and depressing' doesn't really have any emotional impact.

For something to truly be 'dark' (for me anyway) it would need to make me care about what's going on in a some kind of personal level. Have there be humanity and good things in there as well, otherwise it's just caricatures killing each other.
Bioware could do that, but I'm not sure Warhammer is about that.

It always stroke me more as a teenagers idea of dark and mature, but like I said, my knowledge of the franchise is lacking, so feel free to enlighten me.

What stories does it tell?

Essentially, whatever kind of story the auhtoer wants to tell, the setting is big enough to fit almost anything in the hands of a skilled writer.

The thing with 40k is that it's a bit of a mess, thanks to 25 years of history and hundreds of writers, some very good,some beyond awful. It started off distictly black comedy, then gradually became more straight faced, but on ocasion the comedy manages to creep back in, especially when it comes to Orks. It is fundametally a ridiculous, over the top setting, some people like that, other don't.

As far as stories, the fluff in the codecies is usually borderline acceptable/fucking awful. On the other hand, the novels can vary from absolute trash (CS Goto), to solid pulp sci-fi, to actually rather good stories. See my previous post for a bunch of the better authors.

A couple of specific examples, the Path of the Eldar (Thorpe) trilogy is a really interesting look at a very alien species, ultimately about how the perils of trying to change the future. The Soul Hunter trilogy (Dembski-Bowden) does a really good job with the Night Lords, showcasing that the legion isn't just a bunch of clones in it for the evulz, they are most definetely characters rather than caricatures. On the complete other end of the spectrum the Ciaphas Cain (Mitchell) books are essentially light-hearted comedies.

 

[Auberon]

As much as Rogue Traders can pull "fuck off Arbiter, Ima Rogue Trader", Bioware can't do the grimderp. And would insert obligatory Xeno romance. Although they could try pulling a Freebooterz game as rampaging around the galaxy.