Heh. You’re right, it’s not clearly communicated as an incentive ahead of time.
I’ve always headcanoned it by noting that the facility you’re clearing out is an Alliance training site. Presumably, by spending some time there, you earn the right to add on to your Mad Skillz.
But otherwise, yeah, it’s a little wonky. But it goes to what I was saying before, about the old-fashioned nature of the game design. The modern thing, as you note, would be to dangle a carrot, showing you what you could earn. Here, you just go do the thing, and what you get in reward is a bonus.
It’s interesting to see you stumble over things like this. I’ve gotten so used to it, I don’t notice any more.
I agree the specialization thing is annoying because they only give you a vague idea of what the different choices mean. Nowadays I know to save the game beforehand so that I can reload if I change my mind, but I learned that lesson the hard way.
I should note that I have played many RPG games and Mass Effect is quite a bit better at giving out information than some games. I played Wizardry 8 and some other older games and there were times I had no idea where to go or what to do.
At least ME has a journal that logs core quests and sidequests. And they do tell you what system or cluster to get to.
Morrowind and Daggerfall used to make us wander towards something in the distance with only landmark directions.
Anyway, I’m thankful that I did the mission, but who knows what the heck other ones I will miss that had huge incentives.
Anyway, I guess I will be moving on to the next story quest. Been a couple days since that.
I have 9 hours in so far, though I did do one reload(20 minutes or so?) and I think saves only note playtime through that save.
I would also advise saving any time getting out of the Mako. I and others have had the “interact button does nothing” glitch. I had it on Luna after fighting off the outside robots/turrets and had to redo it.
In the OG version of the game, enemies you killed with the Mako cannons earned you half XP. So there was incentive to, say, whittle down a boss and then jump out to finish it off. I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I understand this penalty has been removed, so there’s no longer any reason to hop in and out.
I bit the bullet and restarted with femshep since I’ll be stuck with this toon for 3 long games and can’t stand maleshep voice. Her voice acting is WAY better than male Shep. Only lost about 3hrs. Will be worth it once I catch back up.
I did a mission with Garrus to go aprehend/kill a doctor who did experiments. We did everything right to take him in and he still turned hostile and we killed him.
It happened so suddenly, I had to look it up at the end to make sure it wasn’t a glitch or something. Nope, he always turns hostile and dies.
God help me, I’m falling in love with this aspect of it. I think Fallout 3 in 2008 was a little better at conveying mission information and other information, but I definitely remember getting lost in Fallout 3 as well.
I am on Ferros(I think) doing the mission involving the colonists and the Thorian. I was supposed to use special grenades to save the colonists. OK, but I actually am not a heavy grenade user, so I only have a slot of 6 of them. I was only able to save 8 of them out of 16, so not a great result. I’m not re-doing it, though. I’ll just have to live with the disaster.
It shows enemy locations when it isn’t jammed, but never shows walls, stairs, elevator points. I have to press “M” to access the full map to get that. Is there a way to make it show more detail than just enemy and ally locations?
If not, did they add a little detail to my minimap in ME2 and ME3?
I’m making it through, but could occasionally use a better minimap down there.
IIRC it should automatically be in your journal at this point, but if it isn’t, go to the Asgard system in the Exodus cluster and you should be able to activate it by landing on the asteroid.
IMO it’s one of the more memorable quests in the first game and gives you an opportunity to roleplay depending on whether your Shepard is Paragon or Renegade and how their backstory has lead them to feel about batarians, and it has a minor impact in the third game.
Hmmm… thinking about getting this (I have all the originals). Questions:
Is ME1 less clunky now? More in-line with ME2 as far as gameplay and mechanics?
The graphics. I understand it’s been made “4K” (I don’t have a 4K monitor so this is useless to me). Are there any other graphical improvements besides (I assume) higher res textures?
I’m new to the game, but will attempt to answer for you:
It isn’t as great as ME2/3 in terms of gameplay. However, they added better hit detection and a better hud for fighting.
I looked at some videos for ME1 and it is clear they did not re-make the game. It’s still the same system, but yeah, they added high resolution textures and improved lighting. Still a very nice PS3 game in terms of graphics, though.
Did they add a button for melee attacks to ME 1? The most recent time I replayed it, I drove myself crazy trying to figure out how to do a melee attack.
I’m about ten hours into it. (Got started a couple days late.) It’s basically the same game, just hyper polished. Loads faster, plays smoother, looks crisper. All the same mechanics are present, it’s definitely an aging game framework, not fully re-dev’d to the ME2 standard; but it doesn’t feel as stuttery and buggy.
If I had to boil it down, I’d say it essentially feels like the original game as it has been idealized in my fondest memories. Familiar but better but still the same. It’s very odd. Pleasant, but odd.