Mass Effect: flawed, but good.

Cafe Society
1

Assuming the reason there’s no thread yet is that we’re all too busy playing it to post (/eat/sleep), how do you feel about it so far? Does it live up to the hype? How do you think it compares to KotOR & Jade Empire?

I’m on the fence, a little. The game is cool, and I have every intention of playing it to the end, but IMO it’s got some major downfalls.

I started out, got dumped on that first planet and right into combat (no tutorial, wtf!). I didn’t like it. I hate FPSes, and that’s what it felt like. Real aiming takes time, which I don’t have when I’m getting blasted by the enemy. I gradually got better at it, though, and now I’m ok with it, but still missing melee like crazy. Stupid decision not to include some sort of physical ass-beating (or the ability to JUMP). Biotics are integrated like an afterthought, making them more of a pain than they’re even worth-- the powers they give you are pretty lame in the first place, and then they make you pause to use them! Not to mention combat in the Mako is clunky and frustrating as all hell.

The graphics are a definite high point. It takes a few seconds to load all the textures sometimes, even after the picture’s there, so that’s annoying, but a small price to pay. The voice acting is pretty stellar, too-- the only glaring exception I can think of is Liara, and I can’t figure out if it’s because she’s an alien and is supposed to sound strange, or if the chick who voiced her just has no concept of inflection. (That one is pretty irritating, though, because I’m trying to romance her, which means I have to listen to her a LOT.)

I’m not sure how I feel about the “conversation wheel”. It’s supposed to be this great groundbreaking dynamic thing of awesomeness, but to me it’s just like… oh. My dialogue is on a circle instead of a list. I’m alternately annoyed and amused by the fact that I choose my dialogue based on a general feeling rather than the exact words. Makes it feel a little more like an interactive movie, since I don’t know for sure what to expect, which I guess is a good thing.

Another thing I really like is the characters. I think they did a nice job of making the squadmates different and interesting. The non-romanceables don’t feel nearly as one-dimensional as the party members in previous BioWare console efforts, to me-- I actually genuinely enjoy conversations with people I’m not trying to shack up with.

All in all, I think it’s very comparable to KotOR and Jade Empire in its gameplay, and the biggest advantage it has over them is its highly cinematic feel. I don’t think that it’s groundbreaking or incredible, but it is a fun and fairly immersive way to pass the time. My feelings may change as I get further into the game, but for now, that’s where I’m at.

How 'bout y’all?

2

Oh god now I’m buying this game this week. I have finals you asshole! Why’d you make this thread?

:smiley:

3

I beat the game on Monday. Easily the best BioWare game since Baldur’s Gate II. All of the characters were interest and fully fleshed out. Voice acting was spectacular across the board. The plot was engaging and original, and built to a fantastic climax. I’ve got a few complaints, but they’re very much overwhelmed by how much the game got right.

My first character was an engineer, so I didn’t use biotics much, but from what I can see, engineering and biotics are essentially the same, just with a different suite of powers. At first, I was annoyed by having to pause the game to use them, but as I got further into the game, I started to appreciate it more. It’s not a true pause: you can still look around in game and choose your targets, so the end effect was that it gave you a little breathing space in the middle of hectic firefights to come up with some tactics.

I think the conversation wheel was actually a nice little innovation. The type of response is connected to its position on the wheel: paragon responses are always on the top right, renegade responses on the bottom right, with a neutral response in the middle, and general inquiries on the left side of the wheel. Which means that, if you’re on your second playthrough (or are having the same conversation for the second time because you forgot to save after you talked to the guy) you can hold the thumbstick in the proper direction, and just power through the dialogue using the X button, and not accidentally get a bunch of renegade points when you’re trying to play a paragon character.

Also, if you play your cards right, you can get a full-on lesbian sex cutscene. For my next playthrough, I’m playing a guy, and I’m going to try to nail Kaiden. I doubt they’ll be half as explicit, but who knows? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Like I said, I do have a few complaints, but they’re really nitpicky. The hacking “minigame” is dopey, and gets boring super quick. The planetary sidemissions are pretty repetitive, and while the buggy is fun to drive (and a neat little homage to the classic Atari game Moon Patrol) bouncing over mountains trying to get to another damned “anomaly” gets tired after a while. There’s a lot of loading, too. Gabe from Penny Arcade laid the blame for this on MicroSoft’s refusal to allow games to install to the 360’s hard drive. This would probably have helped with all the texture popping, which was also annoying. Except that the graphics are so good, even the fuzzy pseudo-textures look okay, so it’s not as much of a distraction as it was in Halo 2. Lastly, I got robbed on one of the achievments. I played almost the entire game with Ashley and Garrus in my party, but by the end of the game, I’d only received the achievement for having Garrus for “most” of the game, and not the one for Ashley.

Overall, this is one of the best games I’ve seen yet for the 360, and I’m genuinely looking forward to replaying it.

4

First and foremost, Miller: you can’t nail Kaidan as a dude. The only homo action you get is the swingin’ alien chick. It really sucks for gay male gamers, who (like you) undoubtedly got their hopes up knowing about the lesbian thing (especially after Jade Empire!), but in BioWare’s defense, I think I might know where they’re going with it. They’re planning to make it a trilogy, and I have this sneaking suspicion that the main character having a child may be instrumental to the continuation of the series. Think about it: every single pairing allowed could result in a child (since Asari can reproduce with any gender). That’s the only reason I can think of that they wouldn’t include a male-male romance as well. I really hope that’s the reason, or I’ll just be very disappointed in BioWare.

I agree that the side mission planets are all pretty repetitive. I’ve yet to get tired of bouncing around in the Mako, though-- that thing is FUN to drive. The only thing that bugs me about it is fucking combat. I can’t take 4 missiles before I’m bleeping red & about to die, yet they throw six or seven armatures after me at once! And why is it that the fucking enemy can hit me 5 times before they’re even visible on my damn screen? That shit pisses me off. The least they could do is let me upgrade the weaponry on the Mako every once in awhile or something.

I see your point about the conversation wheel. If you’re just trying to do quick playthroughs, it’d be pretty useful.

I think you’re right about it being the best game they’ve put out since BG2. NWN was pretty good, but not nearly as compelling, and I think the reason for that is the character depth. You can tell they put a lot of effort into creating realistic, believable characters, and that’s what really makes for a good story, because that’s what makes you care.

5

Well, darn. I doubt the “having a kid” angle explains it, as you can completely skip the romance subplots altogether, if you want. Plus, it’s the future. If your gay Spectre wanted a kid, he could probably just go and clone one. I’m not really all that disappointed with BioWare, though. It’s a videogame, and videogames as a medium do not have a target audience that is particularly gay friendly. Despite the fact that they included the lesbian relationship as, essentially, fanservice, they still pulled it off with taste and believability, which is pretty rare for any sort of videogame romance.

Have you figured out that you have a missile launcher on that thing yet? I was on (IIRC) the second to last side mission when I accidentally hit one of the bumpers, and blew the fuck out of a cluster of Geth. Drove me nuts that I’d had that all along, and never even realized it. Makes killing armatures vastly easier.

I like NWN alot, but the problem with it is that it’s a toolset first, and a RPG second. They don’t do anything with the official campaigns that you couldn’t do in a homebrew adventure, with the unfortunate result that the official campaigns feel like a really good fan mod.

6

Does anyone know if this will ever be released for the PC? KOTOR and Jade Empire both came out on the Xbox first then later on the PC and I am wondering if this will follow the same pattern.

Come on BioWare, don’t make me buy an Xbox…

7

So far we’ve heard nothing. But since Jade Empire was eventually released on PC, we’ll probably see one. Maybe they’ll fix the lockpicking mini-game!

8

Texture pop-in, stupidly long loading times, and overly repetitive side quests with bland uncharted worlds – these are the game’s only negatives, and I want to get them out of the way so I can rave about everything else.

The characters are incredibly deep and well developed; even most of the very out-of-the-way, optional characters have magnificent voice acting and dialogue. Conversation and interaction is a cinematic joy.

Being able to customize my character to such a high degree AND then seeing my dude’s face throughout the game was totally awesome.

The combat was just fine, if a little floaty. Tali seemed to get a kick out of shooting crates near enemies instead of the enemies themselves, but she was just so cute that it didn’t bother me. I wish she had been romanceable instead of Liara.

All in all, as soon as I finished my first playthrough I started over immediately – not something I frequently do. Great game, so so great. 9.5 out of 10

9

I think it depends on the success of the console version, and as it went gold even before the official release date, I’m fairly sure it’ll happen. Probably 6 months down the line, and it’ll require some significant hardware, but I’d put money on it.

Guess you’re right. It just never occurs to me to skip them, 'cause I’m a big fat girl and I love them, so I didn’t think about that.

I’m kinda noticing what you’re saying about the lesbian relationship being essentially fanservice… I didn’t feel that way about the Silk Fox romance in Jade Empire, so I wasn’t really expecting it for Mass Effect. Either way, it just seems kinda rushed and underdeveloped-- I’m only on the second “talk” with this chick and she’s already telling me how special I am to her but she’s not ready for sex. :confused: :dubious:

Yep, I knew that… how the hell did you survive so long without it?? Jesus.

10

I know what you mean, but it’s not just Liara who’s like that. They seem to have written all of the character interactions as if you’d had that character in your party for most of the game, even if you never actually adventured with them. I got the same sort of reactions from Tali. I never once had her in my party, she just spent the entire game hanging out in the Normandy’s engine room, but she keeps talking about how I’ve inspired her. Er, if you say so, lady. Who are you again? Anyway, Liara signals her interest pretty early, but it takes her a looooong time until she’s ready to do something about it.

Pure talent, baby.

11

I just finished my first playthrough a few hours ago. Holy crap, what an awesome ending. There are some pretty harsh plot developments towards the end, but that just makes the resolution even more awesome. It’s very rare to see a game with this kind of emotional power.

I disagree with the OP’s comments on combat. First of all, if you didn’t know it was a shooter-RPG hybrid before you bought it, you must not have been following the gaming press much lately. If you are having a hard time aiming, you can turn on target assist in the options. Also, this is not a run-and-gun game; you need to learn to use cover to your advantage. Biotic and tech attacks are weak in the beginning, but once you level them up enough you can kill groups of enemies in one hit.

As for the Mako, the trick is to use the “hull down” position whenever possible. Park behind a rise in the ground, use the turret zoom, inch foward until you can just see the enemy, and blast away. If you do it right, when they fire back they just hit the ground. If you’re fighting thresher maws (I hate those things), start turning in large circles when it disappears under the ground. If you go straight it pops out directly under you and can kill you instantly.

12

This was my technique, along with a good amount of just driving like fuck and hopping over them when there was a large amount in a row (Noveria, f’example).

I’m partway through it (just killed the Thorian, made the eternal mistake of choosing “can’t I have both?” and pissing off Ashley, have to redo that bit) and it’s great so far. I was saving the game and realised i’d played for 3 hours without leaving Citadel Station. That’s a lot of content for essentially the first hub area.

I like the sidekicks. Most of the time in games like KOTOR or NWN there’s only a couple of characters I like, most are meh, and a couple are just annoying. For once I found myself wishing I could take along more of the crew not just for the firepower but for the story and interjections (which the (for lack of a better term) “camerawork” makes great looking). I like that there’s a good effort to make lines follow on; normally in games you start one line of questioning, go onto the next and it just doesn’t feel as natural.

My only problems were that I thought the Shepard face-selection was a bit off… I ended up spending ages trying to make a guy that didn’t look like he had a single-digit IQ, came up with a meh-ish one, but once I got into the game he looked considerably more Spectre-worthy. For a Bioware RPG you don’t get as many comedy lines as i’d like, but I suppose that’s to be expected. The aliens all look pretty damn cool - the Turians uniformly look kickass and most of the Krogans, too.

Oh, and those fucking leapy geth things? Fuck them, and fuck their red-automatic-death lasers.

13

Ha, I looked it up, and Joker is Seth Green. I knew I recognised that voice from somewhere.

14

Not all that much to add, I really liked the game and don’t feel much of a need to give my subjective take on various features.

I will, however, clear something up for folks who’re having trouble fighting Thresher Maws. Those fights are actually absurdly easy, if done right. First thing’s first, get to a spot where the Thresher spits its acid stuff at you repeatedly without popping down below the dirt. Then just use your jump jets to leap over any acid blob and shoot the Thresher in the head with your main cannon. Easy as pie.

For other enemies, using your zoom and a hull down position, as was already stated, will get you through just fine. And simply as icing on the cake, fighting Armatures and the other Geth boss form (forget its name) is actually pretty simply too: run them the fuck over. If you hit a big Geth with your Mako, you’ll smoosh it to the ground and it’ll take a bit to get back up. During that time, you can target it with your cannon, blast it, and then ram it again to knock it over.

15

Heh, yeah I’ve discovered that on my second playthrough. When you run over man-sized enemies, you generally kill them instantly and send them flying several meters away.

I’ve discovered another good trick with sniper rifles. Later in the game you start finding high explosive ammo upgrades. They overheat your weapon like mad, but that doesn’t matter so much with sniper rifles anyway. Pair them with damage increasing weapon upgrades, and you’ve got yourself some nice field artillery. A near miss is still a hit, and you can take down pretty much anything short of a Geth Colossus - those regenerate faster than you can reload. Best thing against them is a pistol or assault rifle with anti-shield rounds, backed up with biotic or tech attacks.

16

Bonus fun: if you’re on a hot world, ram the aramtures and colossuses into lava pools for instant kills.

17

Just finished it and I thought the story was absolutely great. I’m surprised there isn’t more chatter about this one. It was like a pint-sized Vernor Vinge plot, which means it was still huge in scope. The game play left a lot to be desired but was serviceable, and easy to overlook given the amazing story and visuals. Anyone else finish this one yet?