Out of my personal recent experiences with RPGs, Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous spring to mind when I think about the games that have successfully put timers on missions. In both having some sort of pressure put onto me by the game prevented me from optimizing the fun out of those games, to immerse myself in their worlds and to have the open world exploration flow better.
However in KCD you can almost never fail a quest in that manner, the circumstances simply change, usually for the worse, if you are faffing about too much despite being told to hurry - still leaving you with enough information/resources/NPC good will to finish the quest in an imperfect manner. Meanwhile PWTOR only ever works with timers that are tied directly into its Acts system, with all of such quests clearly labeled. Moreover the Act shifts are rarely tied to the passage of in-game time (as opposed to player actions), and when they do they are is incredibly generous.
Now that I think about it, one of the most universally requested changes between the two Pathfinder games was the removal of separate and often hidden or vague in-game timers on quests and certain events. So it seems that even are far less casual audience of nerds looking specifically for an old-school RPG experience by and large hated the idea of racing against the clock.
I hope you aren't impugning the honor of GTA 4? It is only a slightly less heinous crime than disrespecting HoMM3, and I will be obligated to 1v1 you on de_dust at dawn.
Last edited:
