Mass Effect

[CaptHawkeye]

I played the game for 3 hours last night. This is quite easily one of the best video games i've played in a long time. The combat is fun, the leveling system is simple yet well thought out. I feel the game could benefit from more weapon types. (rocket launchers, machine guns, carbines as stated)

I've managed to get out of the Citadel and start exploring the galaxy. I like to take my time with a game. What's the fun in beating it ASAP?

Also, BioWare's voice acting department knows what it's doing. All other developers should take note.

[DPDarkPrimus]

This game definitely has the best voice talent of any time I can remember.

The last game that even came close was Persona 3, and it suffered from a couple really weak performances.

Even the bit characters in Mass Effect are awesome.

[Stark]

I think much of the human VA is bland, but it's not appalling like most games. It's very even, so there aren't any characters that sound completely retarded.

And DP, you could have told me there's a buyback tab. I woulda had rich like, yesterday. Bah.

The loot scaling is pretty retarded. You start off getting level 1-2 stuff, worth literally 20 bucks, and by the time you're going anywhere interesting every box contains 3-4 level 5-6 items. You ain't NEVER going to run out of money, you're going to hit your 150 item limit all the time because the shop UI sucks so hard (what's stacking lol), and just gelling the level 1-3 stuff gives you more omnigel than you'll ever need unless you suck at the laughably easy 'hacking' minigame. And if you're really unlucky you'll never find any heat sinks beyond level 2.

[Xon]

Even using auto-hack on everthing, repairing the Mako if it takes an bit of damage I'm still swimming in omni-gel, and have more many than I know what todo with (3 million in cash, another 1.5-2 million in pickups to sell).

And I still enough weapons and good mods to kit up all 7 members to the best standards I can get.

Sure, combat often has either two settings; stunningly easily or WTFpwned. But the game is still fairly easy, I could make the game harder by switching the AI members to be stupid and not use thier biotics at all instead of offensively but that would make them even more worthless.

As it is, the only reason I bring any squad members is for the opening 5 seconds of Biotics use of a fight and to shoot those fucking Geth which leap around like fucking ping-pong balls.

And "combat" in the Mako makes me feel like I'm beating up small children. Jump-jets, scope and a cannon make it hopelessly trivial.

[CaptHawkeye]

So the game eventually hits you with the same problem Bioshock and STALKER had? A SURPLUS of survival supplies? That's bad, but not atrocious considering Mass Effect does a far better job at applying the FPS/RPG hybrid gameplay than either of those two did.

I haven't had a chance to test out the Mako yet. Personally, i've always felt the whole Mako concept was kind of tacked on from what i'd seen in development records. It would be nice if they had increased the scope and relevance of vehicles in the game and not just left us stuck with the Mako mini game. But on the other hand, it's better that they chose to concentrate on the player combat system. I'd love more leet tanx, but it should not become more important that the core gameplay.

[Stark]

The idea of 'survival supplies' in a game like Mass Effect is *utterly retarded*. Stalker's problem was everyone (and every box) had too many consumables: in Mass Effect there are *NO* consumables. You just end up with 50,000 proton 7 bullets and 10 medical structure 8s etc. They might as well just deposit 20k in your bank every time you open a box. I've never bought anything aside from licences (now that I know what they're for, I won't be buying them either) and medi/nade expansions.

The Mako is a fine idea (Traveller ATV ftw) but it's stupid. It's incredibly light (bounces around regardless of local gravity, which is irrelevant), it's indestructible to falls and can't be rolled, it can scale near-sheer rock walls by going sideways, and there's no indication of whether the gun can bear on your current target. As Xon says, you're in no danger (unless you're like me on Feros and playing 'whee jumpjets' and fall off the skyway). I also got a Geth battlesuit dude stuck inside the Mako so it couldn't rest level on the ground (ie no escape) and constantly took damage and bounced so I couldn't shoot. Go physics!

Comparing Stalker to Mass Effect is ridiculous. Whee, Mass Effect's attempt to create lifelike AI over huge open areas with player-driven gameplay... oh wait, the AI is almost non-existent and it plays like KoToR. Like Xon, I use my squadmates as lures for badguys and that's it. I've been considering turning off their abilities use since they're so bad at it (ie, using shield boost when they lose 10% shields) but I decided I just don't care enough about their lives to bother.

[CaptHawkeye]

I guess by survival supplies, I meant something more or less comparable to "whatever the game deems you need to survive". Less than an hour into the game I already felt my inventory was swamped. KotoR had that problem too. Doing something like that just makes it obvious to the player that he might as well sell the shit out of everything he finds. The problem is further compounded when the retailers sell everything at OBSCENE prices. Fuck buying. They might as well rename the planets shit like "Wal-martia".

As the game goes along the AI's utter stupidity is becoming more and more apparent to me. Paticularly on the part of my allies. God DAMNET Kaiden, what the fuck do you have against taking cover? What? Why are you trying to throw that Geth Stalker into a wall when their's a Krogan Soldier 3 feet away who's about to rape you up the ass? No more self controlled biotics for you!

[Stark]

Oh, yeah I totally agree. It's made worse by the unsortable, unstacked, poorly-named inventory that's so crap items with long names don't fit their 'mark number' on the screen. Rememebr, every time you pick something you want to go back to the top of your 150-item list, right?

I had the same experience with Kaiden, which led me to just use the Krogan and the Soldier all the time. They live the longest, you see. The pathfinding is so bad npcs get stuck on terrain... in what's basically an FPS. That's pretty bad.

It says something about the rest of the game that this stuff is all niggles: I really like the game and have played like 12h of it the last few days. The UI just sucks and there are some flaws elsewhere, but nothing game-breaking I think.

Also, the options screen says 'go to marketplace and get downloadable content' but if I go there it's all trailers etc. I dont want trailers, I own the damn game! Do I have to do something special or isn't there any actual ingame content available?

Hawkeye, RE prices: once you get to level 16 or so, those prices aren't that great. You'll already have levl 4 items and you'll be able to sell shit for 3-7k per item. It's only at the start where items are worth 100 bucks that the prices seem big.

[loomer]

Damn it and it's 360 only status.

[Stark]

If it was anything other than a 360 game, I'd say the PC port would fix most of the issues (like load times, texture popup, terrible inventory UI etc).

But I played Oblivion.

[Rightous Fist Of Heaven]

Sooo, despite the issues its still worth it? It's going to retail here this Friday and Im going to get it, but seeing this many complaints about several important aspects of the game reduce my interest a bit.

[DPDarkPrimus]

The issues are actually rather minor, and are easily overlooked when compared to the polish and shine on the vast majority of the game.

Stark: They might be able to do a downloadable patch to fix some of the stuff, though things like the textures are complicated enough that they won't be able to address them until the next game.

[Stark]

Sooo, despite the issues its still worth it? It's going to retail here this Friday and Im going to get it, but seeing this many complaints about several important aspects of the game reduce my interest a bit.

It's totally worth it. This is nitpicking Stark who hated KotoR and all of it's drooling fans saying 'it has some niggles but it's still a great game'.

DP, I'd have thought given the dev time put into tex streaming optimisation that they'd be near the hardware limits for 360. Didn't they go through and fill levels with 'get ready with these textures now' flags to smooth out the popup ingame? I remember dev builds previewed months ago had much, much worse popup. I rarely notice it, myself, so it's pretty swish for poor old 360 and the four-five textures everything in the game has.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Well, as a person from BioWare said on the PA boards, it's more noticable in Mass Effect because it's a lot more close-up in the dialouge shots than the normal combat bits in, say Gears of War.

[Rightous Fist Of Heaven]

Sooo, despite the issues its still worth it? It's going to retail here this Friday and Im going to get it, but seeing this many complaints about several important aspects of the game reduce my interest a bit.

It's totally worth it. This is nitpicking Stark who hated KotoR and all of it's drooling fans saying 'it has some niggles but it's still a great game'.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Guess I'll be wasting more of my precioussss euros and less precious time on the game this Friday

[SylasGaunt]

I just finished it. Glad to see they took a cue from a lot of JRPGs and included a New Game + option that should be fun to play with later. For now I wanna try a game as a biotic (especially since I can get a bonus perk and use ARs with anyone now).

Spectre grade weapons are stupidly awesome.

"I am a leaf on the wind." Is an appropriate way to describe how I feel about Joker after watching those last few cutscenes.

[SylasGaunt]

And I justed watched the ending again because I love that bit that plays when Joker is doing his Wash/Stuka impression.

Why do I have to wait until christmas eve for the soundtrack to come out? Why!?

[Stark]

The game has music? When the credits tune is more interesting than the entire soundtrack (except the standard tension music) that's not good.

It's a shame the entire end sequence has some of the most drama-free cutscenes I've ever seen. I noticed it earlier in the game (with the NPC stuff and the general lack of any real give-a-shit about the impending doom) but the stuff with Saren and Shepard was fine and sometimes quite good. The space battle was just a great pile of meh with people and things we don't care about happening in a boring fashion. Frankly, the killshot would have been more dramatic if they'd dubbed on some guy saying 'too much debris, no clear shot' and Joker doing his 'I can doooo iiiiiit' silliness. Joker's previous character moment was also poorly handled (the landing on Virmire) - I mean, from 100m to *ten meters* yet it's flat. And yet the Saren/Shepard stuff was really quite good.

Turns out when they said 'Sovereign couldn't take on the Citadel fleet alone' they meant 'he could totally do that any time he wanted but didn't because... something'. How'd they even GET there, since they'd have had to pass through piles of allied mass relays, explicitly described as heavily guarded?

Estimates of the game's length are also overstated - I finished my first playthrough, including every side mission except the last Cerberus one (and even all the laughably repeditive scavenger hunts) in 22h. I could probably just do the main story in 10h or less. That's not so great, when between Eden Prime and Virmire the plot and writing is kind of forgettable.

I have a few questions, though. How do you get the class ally achievements? I used soldier/krogan almost 100%, except a few times I traded out for the Asari for additional bio cheese. I didn't get any. Is it possible to NOT get tactician? Aren't you always going to have more shield than health points? Amusingly when I got to 'zomg who diez', I hadn't even seen Kaidan since the start of the game, and yet it was supposed to be dramatic. I think FF games handle the 'ensemble does stuff even if they're not in the team' thing better. I cared more about Captain Anderson than half my team.

Is there any situation ever where choosing the 'good' option fails you? To my knowledge, picking a 'red' or 'blue' option = instant success, to the point where Saren is defeated by me saying 'no really man, chill'. The renegade/paragon thing seems pretty useless when me with 90% paragon points (I never returned to citadel after the boring second act) got accosted TO SUPPLY SMACK. Yeah, Mr Idealist HonorMan is going to give you smack. Nevermind, choosing the blue option means you're going to quit! It's that easy! Having sold the game with ads about choices and yet having very few actual choices with consequences (beyond varying paragon/renegade points and money) is weak. Witcher does this sort of thing in a much better way.

The combat is still enjoyable (much moreso on Hardcore, where it's actually hard) but the melee geth and self-resurrecting Krogan being the most dangerous badguys is kind of lame. The Spectre shit (which you'll get around level 15 at the latest) being better than even level 8 gear (ie, level 30+) in every respect is a shame.

So having finished it, I'll revise it to a short, fun game with surprisingly poor writing. There are some strong moments, but much of what should be powerful drama is quite meh due to writing, framing and music choices. Anything with Saren in it is gold, for some reason. And the Krogan has some good moments (of course, choosing a blue option convinces him to doom his race to extinction again, but at least he showed emotion).

[SylasGaunt]

Turns out when they said 'Sovereign couldn't take on the Citadel fleet alone' they meant 'he could totally do that any time he wanted but didn't because... something'. How'd they even GET there, since they'd have had to pass through piles of allied mass relays, explicitly described as heavily guarded?

Maybe not alone he couldn't since he had a whole mess of Geth ships helping him punch his way in after Saren got to get in and start screwing with Citadel C&C.

Sovereign himself seemed for the most part invulnerable up until his kinetic barriers went down, at which point he got fried. If he'd gone in without the Geth he'd have probably ended up getting a faceful of disruption torpedoes to knock out his screens followed by oodles of kineticy death. I didn't notice him having much in the way of PD, though he did have a number of beam cannons o' doom that could one-shot human cap ships.

Estimates of the game's length are also overstated - I finished my first playthrough, including every side mission except the last Cerberus one (and even all the laughably repeditive scavenger hunts) in 22h. I could probably just do the main story in 10h or less. That's not so great, when between Eden Prime and Virmire the plot and writing is kind of forgettable.

Not much I can comment on here since it took me 27 to finish without doing all the side quests. Guess you're just faster at it than I am.

I have a few questions, though. How do you get the class ally achievements? I used soldier/krogan almost 100%, except a few times I traded out for the Asari for additional bio cheese.

Apparently side quests and what not tie into that to. I typically hear it's not a time thing but a game content thing, like you have to go through 75% of the side quests and what not with them.. but I've yet to hear a solid statement from anywhere official so that can be taken with a grain of salt.

Aren't you always going to have more shield than health points?

Possibly if you don't use any of the shield boosting armor mods I suppose.. I know I tend to pile those on though so I doubt I'll have a playthrough where I won't get it. It might also be possible if you go with an armor that has a low shield rating in favor some something else like higher damage reduction or biotic/tech protection.

Amusingly when I got to 'zomg who diez', I hadn't even seen Kaidan since the start of the game, and yet it was supposed to be dramatic. I think FF games handle the 'ensemble does stuff even if they're not in the team' thing better. I cared more about Captain Anderson than half my team.

I'd barely used either of them on my first play through, opting instead for the Garrus/Wrex combo to give me tech and biotic support that can actually handle themselves well in a firefight.

Is there any situation ever where choosing the 'good' option fails you? To my knowledge, picking a 'red' or 'blue' option = instant success, to the point where Saren is defeated by me saying 'no really man, chill'. The renegade/paragon thing seems pretty useless when me with 90% paragon points (I never returned to citadel after the boring second act) got accosted TO SUPPLY SMACK. Yeah, Mr Idealist HonorMan is going to give you smack.

Was that the bit with the trade negotiator? And yes they are instant success, however they aren't available as choices unless your charm or intimidate skill is high enough for them to work.

The combat is still enjoyable (much moreso on Hardcore, where it's actually hard) but the melee geth and self-resurrecting Krogan being the most dangerous badguys is kind of lame. The Spectre shit (which you'll get around level 15 at the latest) being better than even level 8 gear (ie, level 30+) in every respect is a shame.

Yeah the Spectre gear really should have been harder to get considering how awesome it is. It gets worse to since if you get a char to level 50 it unlocks Level 10 spectre weapons.

And the Krogan has some good moments (of course, choosing a blue option convinces him to doom his race to extinction again, but at least he showed emotion).

To be fair on that option he seemed of the opinion that them being dead was better than being Saren's mooks.

Of course Wrex seems to have decided most of his race were a bunch of idiots who deserved what they got a long time ago.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Wrex is an intelligent motherfucker. Don't write him off as brawn and not brains.

[SylasGaunt]

I didn't, and I personally agree with him and see why he's so fed up with his own people. They've been reduced to a 1/1000 successful pregnancy rate and most of them still carry on wandering around and getting themselves shot instead of really throwing themselves into trying to solve the problem.

Then we've got the lab Saren had set up which was basically going to save his race.. at least until the reapers showed up and massacred them all along with everyone else. All the Krogran in the meantime would be born to serve as additional muscle and probably get about the same lot as the clone troopers from SW.

[Stark]

The Virimire scene with Wrex was one of the more effective ones, but Shepard's argument wasn't very convincing: Wrex is angry, everyone is 'oh shit the Krogan's going to go nuts', and you say 'no really Wrex' and he's fine with it. It worked because he'd been pretty disgusted with his people since you met him, but that's an emotional decision that he was emotional about (thus more interesting than any other NPC lol) and Shepard just says 'chill' and it's fine.

I was disappointed that there were no actual decisions in what tack to take. Particularly at the start, the renegade options are just 'be a dick for no reason' - at least later you get renegade options that make sense to choose. Also, without importing equipment, Hardcore mode is fucking hard.

I only used Garrus once near the start, and he died pretty quick and I was a techy guy anyway. Once you get about level 20, your tech powers recycle at a ridiculous rate, so it's only the guys who go melee that are any danger. Did I mention how fucking annoying those guys are?

Oh has anyone else had spotting looting? Particularly with armour/ammo upgrades, I've totally missed a certain type for hundreds of drops (as I'm sure everyone else does, I've had to gellify and sell due to full inventory a dozen times) and missed 'the cooling one' from level2 to level8.

Level 10 Spectre weapons you say? I had noticed that the better highlevel items were getting close to Spectre shit: it amuses me that there is *even better* Spectre shit.

Actually, did anyone hit level 50 on one playthrough? I got to level 48 or 49, but aside from that one quest there's nothing else to kill and no respawning areas that I know of.

[CaptHawkeye]

I didn't, and I personally agree with him and see why he's so fed up with his own people. They've been reduced to a 1/1000 successful pregnancy rate and most of them still carry on wandering around and getting themselves shot instead of really throwing themselves into trying to solve the problem.

Does anyone else get the feeling the Krogans are a big stab at the sci fi "hurr warrior race/space vikings" cliche? Wrex was quick to point at that their nature as warriors is one of the main reasons they are dieing.

The game has music? When the credits tune is more interesting than the entire soundtrack (except the standard tension music) that's not good.

I strongly agree. I keep hearing people brag about the soundtrack, but i've been wholy unimpressed by it through the whole game. It wasn't powerfull or identifiable like say, Halo's or Crysis' soundtracks. Granted those games may have very pretentious soundtracks. But i'll take a pretentious soundtrack over a quiet or generally uninspired soundtrack anyday.

Once you get about level 20, your tech powers recycle at a ridiculous rate, so it's only the guys who go melee that are any danger. Did I mention how fucking annoying those guys are?

It's funny your character's melee attack is the equivalent of a slap in the face from a pillow. Until you realize just how often those fucking Krogan Battlemasters/Geth Juggernauts try to get within arm's reach of you.

I guess I shouldn't be too critical though. I mean, come on. Does anyone really expect a human to be able to punch out an 8 foot tall armored battle android? That being said, it is still annoying.

[Stark]

I'm more frustrated by the 'melee mode' they go into, where they run/sprint as far as they want (far longer than you can), ignore everyone else, and do nothing but beat you to death. There is often no escape, as your team will be shooting at the other guy, you can't go fast enough to get away, and you're melee attack sucks and he refuses to SHOOT at close targets. Wrex's throw was pretty much my 'save me from that bastard Krogan' move.

The music really surprised me: it's quiet genericness is I think a big part of why so much of the drama in the game falls flat. Once I got to Virimire, I started noticing the music, which I hadn't done for the last 16h of clearing the same mine map and bunker map of geth/biotic rebels/secret agents. That Salarian captain was more interesting to me than people who'd been on my team for the whole game, almost entirely because HIS dramatic speeches actually seemed dramatic, much like Saren's.

I expected an overblown Halo-esque soundtrack.

The thing with the classes irritates me. If it's by mission-completion, not time-based, does it carry over, or do I have to play the whole damn game again and this time not swap the soldier out half a dozen times for the biotic? Considering how easy it is to get almost all the other achievements it seems extremely time-consuming.

[Crazy_Vasey]

Actually, did anyone hit level 50 on one playthrough? I got to level 48 or 49, but aside from that one quest there's nothing else to kill and no respawning areas that I know of.

I don't think I hit 35, nevermind 50. I just couldn't be arsed with all those identikit side quests. If I wanted to do the exact same thing over and over and over again I'd play an MMORPG.