Well to first describe the specific types of copouts, so many amazing story missions eventually boil down to "kill everyone who is in the way of pulling the switch that achieves our goal". Or "here is a complex social build up describing conflicting morales, with multiple possible solutions socially/mechanically... kill the person you disagree with."
What if instead the majority of the gameplay was unique game mechanics that actually achieve the goal. Instead of "oh no it's full of monsters who are in the way of the buttons", why not having to scavenge the parts, solve some mechanical and electrical puzzles. Maybe find a person and get the right dialogue options to get information you need out of them, that actually applies to the puzzles, etc... this is all in existing games already of course, but hopefully that illustrates what I am getting at.
Cyberpunk 2077 had this issue in spades, as all the storylines were so interesting, and could have had such interesting game mechanics tied to them. But it was mostly combat.
I am not saying that makes it a bad game, just that there is so much room for other mechanics.
Well that is interesting, but I was referring to the wording of the phrase "chasm of possibilities." A chasm is not something I would metaphorically associate with "great potential." A chasm is usually a bad thing, its a hole, a gap, you fall in and the only possibilities are that you are heroically saved, or you die.
The Chasm of Possibilities sounds like a comedic juxtaposition, like something from The Phantom Tollbooth or Hitchhiker's Guide.
Oh! Yes a chasm in the sense that, all possibilities have vanished into it, rather than being implemented.
That is funny though, English is my first language and I am reasonably well read, but for whatever reason, common turns of phrase are entirely missing, so I fill in the blanks, and don't always hit the mark.
