Mass Effect

[Tale]

I never figured that out. I never much paid attention to whether or not I got a Paragon or Renegade points for it. But I am definitely noticing it in my second run.

[Volourn]

They tell you about this stuff in the manual, as well as in previews, reviews, message boards, etc. before the game was released.

 

While I'm not 100% in favor of the method, BIo made that design choice so those who didn't want to read chocies could just click on the most likely response for their character and get on with the 'cinematic story' or the killing.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Making the dialogue more compact and worthwhile would have worked too.

[Volourn]

The dialogue was awesome. And, couldn't be more 'compact' depending what you actually mean by that.

[Llyranor]

who is more socially awkward than Sand/Hades.

Don't go there.

And now I get the joke:

You're right.

I'll stop him.

Not if I can help it!

Those were the best lines in the game, man!

[~Di]

The game was fun. Though, it only makes me even more against character romance threads. At least until they can do it right. It's either Ashley, the cheesy poetry quoting religious girl who feels the need to prove herself (she lost me at poetry), and who looks like a stroke victim (though everyone in the game has lazy eye, that just makes it more creepy) or tentacle haired girl with a baby face who is more socially awkward than Sand/Hades.

 

Some of the dialogue was unintentionally hilarious. "Relax... EMBRACE ETERNITY"

 

But the gameplay was tons of fun. The AI was slightly dissapointing. They have these interestingly laid out areas with traps and choke points, but the main tactic of enemies is to rush towards you, so you're rarely fighting beyond the front door. Though the mini-expansion was much better about that.

 

The ending was undeniably awesome. And I look forward to the sequel.

 

And now I get the joke:

You're right.

I'll stop him.

Not if I can help it!

 

That's some deep choice right there. The way the game treated your dialogue "choices" has me wondering if the different choices actually result in different responses 3/4 of the time.

 

Yeah, I really love this game! I loved the character romance with Kaidan too. Thought it was well done, and Kaidan is definitely a cutie! I can see why the dialog was clipped, since the entire game was VO'd. It would have been an expensive nightmare to VO (twice, no less!) long lines of more expansive dialog.

 

Anyway, I can't wait for Mass Effect 2. I loved almost everything about this game... even my sweet little Mako!

Edited October 4, 2008 by ~Di

[Nick_i_am]

Yeah, flawed, but easily bios strongest work.

[Moatilliatta]

Careful or Wrath of Dagon will come and yell at you for being idiots.

 

Personally I found the combat too lacking for it to be Bioware's strongest work.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Hey, I say some bad stuff about this game but it was really damn good. And fun. You DO get sucked in, even with its flaws.

[Moatilliatta]

Until you enter combat.

Edited October 5, 2008 by Moatilliatta

[Volourn]

Nah. Combat is awesome.

[Deraldin]

I enjoyed the combat. The weakest part of the game was by far the side quest design. The main planets were all good to great, anything beyond that was really a big step down.

[Moatilliatta]

Context you guys.

 

I enjoyed the combat too but that is still far away from making it Bio's best work.

[Volourn]

Beats KOTOR combat which is the closest game in terms of style. ME's combat is 3rd place place behind NWN, and BG2.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Careful or Wrath of Dagon will come and yell at you for being idiots.

 

Personally I found the combat too lacking for it to be Bioware's strongest work.

Hey, I don't yell, I just don't understand how so many people miss the lousy quality of this game. Does repeating the same barren planet 35 times and claiming you're exploring the galaxy give no one a clue?

[Gorth]

Guys... this is the spoiler section

 

If you want to beat the dead horse of which Bio game is better/worser/other compared to other bio/non-bio games, I am sure that there is plenty of rooms in other threads.

[thepixiesrock]

What if I say that the fact that it turns out that the ship was controlling Saren and was actually a reaper makes this Biowares best game?

[qt3.14159]

Meh, I don't know, I was expecting something bigger. I mean, really... the idea that our reality isn't what we think it is and we're really just part of a big organics farm for machines... hrmm... where have I heard that plot before?

 

Someone should call Neo. He'd fix everything.

[Nick_i_am]

[ending impressions of the game, assuming this is okay for this thread since it contains spoilers]

 

Man, just finished the game, pretty epic. Very high hopes for Mass Effect 2 if they learn from this re:gameplay and presintation.

 

There's really no reason why the whole game shouldn't have been to the same quality of the ending but I still found there to be too much 'CRPG convention' for my liking. Still congrats to Bioware for taking a risk with a new direction and having it pay off.

 

The plot was cheesy sure, aliens harvesting all life every 50,000 years, or whatever, but almost all scifi is cheesy on paper, and the same goes for fantasy. I mean, it's not like KotoR1 was any better, or any of the other bio games for that matter. Time traveling lizards? hahahahaha.

 

The fact that Sovreign turned out to be a reaper himself was a nice suprise in that I was expecting an endgame flood of crappy 'they destroy the universe but are really easy to kill!' badguys. Likewise, the fact that they actually explained why Serin was being a dork rather than him just being a racist jerk that i'd expected throughout the game. Getting him to kill himself, while easy, was actually quite satisfying despite the fact that i'd been robbed (I assume) of a boss fight.

 

There's still too much weakness heldover from previous biogames though. I spent most of the game with Wrex and Garrus, but not because they were sparkling personalities, just because they comlimented the parts with biotic/tech will still weilding rifles. That and the fact that they were the 'cool aliens'.

I mean, when it came to choosing which party member I was willing to let die I couldn't really have cared less, just like i've never cared less about any bioware henchie in the past.

That's not to say they're horrible, their writing/presintation is still high compared to the other bio games, and I never felt like any of them were there 'just because' (though only just), but even still, there simply wasn't enough character development/diologue to really justify their existance or my caring for their lives.

Actually, it says enough that I cared more about joker than I did about either of my actual human henchies and is a case in point for characters not *needing* to actually justify themselves with reems of pointless diologue (not that backstory is a bad thing) as long as they've got actual personalities and play a real role more than just 'I follow you and shoot things!'. Other members did this, sure, but again, not in any way that really made me care about their existance for the most part.

 

Roleplaying options were limited to standard biocrap (good/evil-lightside/darkside-paragon/renegade) but it's the 'quantity' which seems to really annoy the oldschool biofans who are used to massive sprawling cities and instead end up with about one 'large' town and not much else, which is slightly suspect, even just on the citidel, a spacestation which houses 'millions' and yet is contained within about two areas.

I can't say I would have wanted more wondering around though, and idealy they would have allowed me to use the run outside of combat to save me wasting time going from place to place (though I appresiated the rapid transport system).

 

 

If you want better combat, play Half-Life 2. If you want a better RPG, play just about anything.

 

Yeah, that nulifies the fact that I enjoyed the game, having played HL2, Gears of War, Deus Ex, KotoR1/2, BG1/2, Fallout1/2 and Icewind Dale1/2 before it. There's just no way I could play all those games and still enjoy Mass Effect for what it is.

 

Fact is, this is the ONLY bio game that I havn't had to force myself to finish, which is a massive step up on its own. If you didn't like it then judge all you want, but trying to force your 'you should have just done this' opinons are kind of irrelivent to someone who's already finished and enjoyed the game.

 

That's because it is an Action RPG; not a shooter or in the 'shooting genre'.

 

Thanks for restating my point!

 

Thing is, I expected the gameplay to be weaker because of that, and while it's still not up to the level of the dedicated shooting game it's emulating (on that level) it's still very competent.

[Volourn]

"Meh, I don't know, I was expecting something bigger. I mean, really... the idea that our reality isn't what we think it is and we're really just part of a big organics farm for machines... hrmm... where have I heard that plot before?

 

Someone should call Neo. He'd fix everything."

 

Matrix is far from the first example of this kind of plot. And, at least i didn't fall asleep withjin the first 30 minutes of ME. L0L

 

 

"The fact that Sovreign turned out to be a reaper himself was a nice suprise"

 

I'm surprised that you are surprised because BIo gave away ME's main sotory in previews and stuff. As soon as Sorveign was introduced, and it was obvious it was a 'special' ship; I know it was one of those Big bad Evil Ships tm...

[Nick_i_am]

That kinda sucks, guess i'm lucky I completely missed all the previews.

[Pidesco]

I fail to understand how ME's plot is any better than time traveling lizards. They start off with the whole "Ancient Race Behind It All" schtick, and then suddenly reveal that it isn't an ancient race that's responsible for everything, but rather an ancienter race...

 

 

awesome

 

 

 

Also, character development is still the same forced, mechanical crap they've done in previous games.

[Wrath of Dagon]

Time travelling lizards?

[Rosbjerg]

I guess they are refering to Nwn.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Heh, they even recycled the jedi order into spectres.