Well,
A) Torment and BG2 didn't spend a lot of wordages on descriptions - they had plenty of imagery. More so, you might argue, than modern 3D games. Did Not Lack For Atmosphere, especially PST.
B) Bloodlines had good dialogue,but I'd say not a lot better than Witcher 3. More options in terms of Seduce/Intimidate/Dominate, etc. The dialogue doesn't have to -change- things, that's the point. It's that it lets you flavour your character. NPCs usually responded but, yeah, their responses were pretty similar.
Cosmetic is important in terms of role-play. Seducing someone in VBL is different than Intimidate - and will typically net you a different result. But it's really important in terms of how you play your character, which later informs important decisions, like which of the sisters to save or how you respond to Damsel and Nines vs Lacroix, for example.
In true role-playing, dialogue is nearly infinite in choice, of course. And that is what leads to some truly hilarious and also character defining moments.
CDPR got a pass with Witcher, because Geralt is so clearly defined. With Cpunk, no such pass. They'll need a LOT of dialogue options if they want you to be able to play Sleazy Corporate, Clever Corporate, Cowardly Corporate, Soulless Corporate and/or Moral Corporate ( ahahaha!). All easily done in PnP - moderately well done in Bloodlines - and verr little in Witcher.
1. I was talking about descriptions of characters, characters behaviour , facial changes and specific details in location. Something you can just show instead these days.
2. Whats the point of your flavoured sentence if its completely ignored by npc. Thats the biggest problems with many options,, usually there is few main options and flavoured variations of that same sentences, Npc's seems to just move on without acknowledging that variation. Im not talking about huge decisions, just changing attitude of an npc etc.
3. It doesn't matter how many options you will gonna get, you will never be able to fully execute a personality that you have created through them. Personality is something much more nuanced than a few general conversation options (even if you have 7 or 8 of them, you still covering the basics,) Besides the irony is, that introducing more options can create less deep experience for you that you would potentially had with less options. Look at W3 for a second from a class perspective. Witcher is basically a class like warrior, mage etc. Because you are playing as a predefined class, the developer can tailor that game to that specific class, the whole gameplay is designed around the fact that you are a witcher, (monster hunting etc.) That allows for more greater detail and thus greater dept with playing this game. Now imagine playing CP as a predefined corporate character. There is no doubt that concept would allow you to have much deeper experience as a corporate than in a game where you have few roles to chose from. While i am not advocating that approach with CP, my point is that sometimes to many options can dilute your experience. That is one of the reasons i prefer less options that really count than more options that just add a bit of flavour.
4. Things like seductions, persuasion , threats are thing that you will probably have in a game regardless of that decision (voiced, silent). In fact, i know that seduction was something Cd Projekt talked about few years ago with regards to CP.
5. I do believe CP needs more dialog options that Witcher just because character won't be as predefined but it does not need huge amount of options. I would like to see something like in telltale game where a character have some sort of personality but you can still heavily define your attitude, opinions and make decisions (even though those don't matter that much in telltale games but that a story for anothe conversation). You can be polite, you can be a dick and so on while maintaining a cohesive personality. I think generally 3/4 options would be ok plus ones that can come from skills and abilities from time to time.
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Fallout 3 wasn't that good either, poor characters, poor writing, poor quests, and a lot of chore killings
