I’m enjoying the game so far, but some of the animation is indeed jerky. I also think the music falls flat compared to the orginal trilogy. Combat doesn’t feel as viseral either. But enough of the original concepts are intact to keep me playing. I hope they release a remastered version of the first three.
The price too high for me is the unskippable cutscene before each retry. Seems like it’s been a while before a game pulled that on me. Well, there was the issue with having to go through a minor battle each time before I got to the tricky one.
Generally, I hate to go Casual in a game I paid full retail price for. On the first playthrough, at least. For games I picked up cheap, I generally want to bludgeon my way through them because I’m getting old for Chrissake. I have responsibilities. I don’t have time to dick around being “challenged” by the huge queue of games I’ve got on Steam and GoG.
Well, I think it’s really good, especially for an action RPG. Context.
Also, don’t play it like a standard cover shooter. Use your jetpack and dash ability to flank, get vertical, etc.
Mind you, removing the tacticla aspect all together is definitely a downgrade.
You basically have to equip at least one detonating and once priming ability yourself, 'cause trying to time things with your idiot AI team mates can be frustrating.
I don’t need to do any of that stuff. None of the enemies are a huge threat and I haven’t set up a single combo at all. The guns are powerful enough that simply shooting things works just fine.
And I don’t think the combat is remarkable for an Action RPG either. It’s serviceable, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s nothing special either.
I was playing on hardcore, might be why the different experiences so far.
I agree a bit with the comments that the praise for the combat seems a bit misplaced because it’s seems average rather than amazing. Then again, I am just playing a straight soldier… I might be having more fun playing a charge-in Vanguard (which is what I played in ME2 and 3). Biggest knock for me is that, so far, there’s very little enemy variation - 99% of the combat so far has been Kett or Remnant. Kett have the basic grunts, the bigger grunts, and the guys who cloak. And the attack dogs, I suppose, but other than the bosses that’s it. Remnant have the floating ones, the two-legged ones, and the grabbers, plus bosses. I guess you could also add in the local fauna but they’re usually pretty easy to kill (and heck, all the big blue guys on Voeld just bugged out and froze in place). I know I’ve only completed two planets so far but having only 6-7 types of enemies (which only spawn in two different groups of 3) gets old fast.
The foes all seem to have the same general scheme: mooks, heavy gunners and cover-busters. For all I know, that’s pretty standard in FPS games. I generally snipe, with an ambiguous relationship to cover. The cover is often not great, so I do kind of end up sniping in the middle of a hail of bullets and then cloaking and sneaking off to find cover when I get in trouble.
But the game did allow me to combine Biotic Slam with Nova and Tactical Cloak, so I feel like I can switch tactics pretty easily using the Cryo Gauntlet and shooting the Black Widow from the hip (this gun used to be much more of a beast, now it shoots more or less like the Viper).
I have been saving augmentations and weapons that are listed as Ultra Rare. I expect to eventually craft a Black Widow X with extra slots and whatever else looks good. In the meantime, nothing seems worth blowing resources not knowing how much will be handed out to me. Speaking of which, sometimes I just find or can buy a weapon it would cost me a bunch of resources to manufacture. The same thing happened in Inquisition. Generally, it wasn’t worth crafting until you had dragon parts to play with, and then you’re pretty much done. And likely there’ll be DLC soon where even the best schematics will just be handed to you instead of making you keep spawning randoms from merchants.
I’m interested in what Bioware has to say on Tuesday (April 4th) with regards to the future of the game. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8H9a88UwAAytSZ.jpg
I’ve been enjoying the game quite a bit. It’s definitely a Mass Effect game. I feel bad for those who aren’t enjoying it, but in some cases I can’t help but think that the bad press (regarding character looks and animations, graphical glitches, occasionally goofy dialogue) has cast a sour note and unfairly ruined some people’s opinions of the game. Yeah, a modern AAA game should have been cleaner, but IMO it’s really no worse than any other Bioware game has been. It’s just that we remember the quirks of the first series fondly, and this game hasn’t had the opportunity to grow on us.
On the other hand, I don’t think any of the characters in this game will ever be as beloved as was Garrus and Wrex. And Mordin. And Thane. and Legion. and Tali.
And there certainly are legitimate gripes to be had, but, for me, they detract little from the enjoyment.
To echo a comment above, the game does get better as you get deeper into the story. I also found that FemRyder’s voice actress is a lot more interesting and less bored-sounding if you choose “casual” frequently. She can be pretty funny.
One thing I really enjoy about the setting of this game is that it’s moved away from the military theme and is joyfully embracing space exploration. It’s the scifi game I’ve always wanted to play.
And the Mako’s got nuthin’ on the Nomad.
While I’m at it, I’m looking for some multiplayer advice. I never really played much of it at all in ME3, but I’m having fun with it this time around.
The problem is, I suck. And I may be impatient about it, but so far my attempts to bootstrap myself to get gud has been fruitless. I’m hoping someone here has had some experience with it and can help me out, because the game is too new for much worthwhile information to turn up on the 'net yet.
I feel like I’m pretty stuck playing a soldier, because I’ve never really gotten experienced at the other “classes”. I mean, I played some of them once through each campaign, but the soldier was always just more effective so I stuck with it.
But my best assault rifle in multiplayer so far is the Avenger, and I keep seeing guys half my level (altho comparable or better APEX score) blast through enemies while I’m in a slow-motion life or death struggle against a couple of wraiths.
Is there a better gun (available early) that would be stronger, even if I only have a lvl I vs. my lvl V Avenger? Is there a more effective class that would also fit my shoot-at-range-from-cover style? Any other tips?
the issues go way beyond animations and faces though, although those certainly don’t help.
What does that matter if the end result is the same. You’re going to strange new worlds to… shoot at new civilizations. To blow up every mother that gets in your way. These are not the voyages you’ve been looking for.
Edit: I think I might have mixed my references. I think I did so in a way that might get me executed in some circles…
In general, the multiplayer seems tougher than the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Obviously, its meant to entice you into spending money on upgrades. I also have the problem that I probably suck too hard. The mixing with the single player games has not gone well for me so far, since it is implied that those are story missions, but they’re actually the normal multiplayer missions with a few verbiage tags. I’ve been sending out strike teams both in-game and with their little app, but when they win the rewards they bring back don’t translate to any benefits I can find in game our out. Does it just get piled onto my in-game loot? Because I’m making so much more money than I ever spend as it is. I wouldn’t hardly notice even more. It certainly don’t get me multiplayer loot packs, which I could actually use.
Unfortunately, weapon balance is atrocious in multiplayer currently. All we can hope for is an update to address the numerous balance problems. There are very few weapons that can be considered good. For common weapons, the Charger and the Viper are usable. The Avenger, and pretty much all other assault rifles, are almost completely useless. You could try to get lucky and get one of the good rare weapons, like the Vanquisher, which is statistically far better than every other weapon in the game, but you’re much more likely to get one of the other terrible rare weapons instead.
Here are the rare and uncommon weapons I’ve found to be decent: Vanquisher, Equalizer, Scorpion, Falcon, Talon, and Raptor. A few ultra rares that are good but even less likely to be gotten: Piranha, Valiant, Hurricane, Black Widow (which gets outclassed by the Vanquisher in every way).
The other route would be to play a melee centered build, such as a Vanguard, which is less dependent on the weapon.
Yeah, it gets piled into the in-game loot (campaign). To collect the loot you have to go to the APEX terminal on your ship or on the Nexus, and select the tab that looks like a box. You’ll then be able to open up rewards that give you cash, research, and consumables for single-player. The only rewards that are multiplayer applicable are the mission funds, which you can spend at the item store for multiplayer consumables (or, in single-player, to recruit more teams or give them upgrades).
Ahh, that’s bad news for me. I am atrocious at melee, across games in any genre. Something about how I’m wired allows me to excel at pointy-shooty (I was ranked in UT back in the day), but I just can’t seem to hack the, er, hacking and slashing type games.
Thanks for the list; that should at least help me mitigate my issues until such time as balance is addressed.
I too suck with the melee. Also, at aiming shotguns at least in Mass Effect 3, which is odd because I don’t do so badly hip firing the sniper rifle. The Asari Vanguard was one of my favorite characters in the previous multiplayer because not only was it a kick to dash across the battle field, but my deficiencies at close-quarters fighting were made up for by being able to do my strong melee 360-degrees. That’s why I’ve added Nova to my Ryder, to make up for this. But, checkez vous: when you biotic slam, you are generally already pointed at the enemy and it’s often worth it to fire off a jab with my Cryo Gauntlet before Nova.
One thing that keeps bugging me is that the timeline in this game makes no damned sense. Fourteen months is what it took to have a desperate population turn to revolt, get put down, exiled, the Krogan who helped suppress them also exiled, and they managed to establish colonies from what seems like an unlikely amount of stolen gear within what must have been less than a year. Also, the number of apparently psychopathic, nihilistic assholes that got through whatever screening they used to fill up just The Nexus is astonishing. I suppose that may later be explained when the mystery of the Initiative’s origins is fully unwound. I’m guessing the secret benefactor will turn out to be Vault Tec.
I agree there’s definitely some inconsistencies in the setup - like when you first encounter the Angara there’s this whole “OMG sentient aliens who aren’t trying to kill us!” thing and how everyone on the Nexus will want to know about this incredible discovery, but then it turns out the Angara know all about the Milky Way species because the exiles and other randoms from the Nexus have been wandering around for the past year or so anyway.
Also, for a setup which is critically low on everything from food to people, they seem to have a lot of inter-solar system capable shuttles and people with nothing else to do besides borrowing them…
Well, these people did sign up for a one way, 600 year trip to another Galaxy on untested technology.
I’m surprised they aren’t all just a bunch of Criminals. Nihilistic and crazy sounds right. This is the Australia of the Mass Effect Universe.
It’s true that I have deep suspicions about the kind of people who would volunteer for Mars One mission - already a little unhinged before years of confinement have had a chance to really drive them over the edge. I would not be surprised if the whole project went to hell because people went Lord of the Flies on us or resorted to canibalism out of boredom.
There has been some suggestion that some of the people suffer from a mental disorder caused by the cryogenic freezing, but they make out that this is kind of rare. I mean, I know the real reason there are just such a huge lot of assholes to shoot – because they spawn as encounters so you can soak up XP. Just like in Inquisition, my God the fanatical mages you kill just exploring the map outnumber normal people by legions. Just the massive amount of food it takes to feed them all must be staggering the economy. The problem isn’t so much that they summon demons as that they all vote in a bloc.
Have you read Seveneves by any chance?