i just bought mass effect

D

Dome

2[H]4U
Joined
Mar 16, 2002
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i know i'm late, but i finally got around to blowing the cash on it. i played the crap out of KOTOR II so i didn't think i'd be dissappointed. i spent 3 hrs on it last night and so far its pretty awesome.

my one complaint is that so far (a MEASLY 3 hrs into the game as a soldier) it feels much more action based than the first one. while that's not bad, i liked in KOTOR2 how you could pause and stop and think. i know it made the game too easy, but it gave me a big RPG feel to the fights.

other than that though, the voice acting, the fights are still good (though learning to use all the abilities is going to be interesting) and the story is developing well enough
 
I was deciding whether or not to get Mass Effect myself. A lot of people said it was good, but the sci-fi thing doesn't really get to me. The screenshots doesn't look that great. I would like some more opinions on it.
 
Mass Effect is a great game. I enjoyed it. It's a Bioware RPG and really, it's almost like Kotor. The only thing I didn't like was the menu system and the upgrades got confusing after a little while.
 
so far its not too sci-fi. i mean they use some techno-babble but not overly, honestly it doesn't feel much worse than a fantasy-based rpg.

unfortunately i'm only 3 hours in so i feel like i'm unqualified to give you a good answer
 
The trick to stopping the action and being able to think on the fly is pressing and holding whatever button to switch weapons or task (RB and LB I think)...

This game was game of the year for me... second was bioshock.
 
Starts slow... but has the best middle to end of any game I've ever played. I've played it through a couple of times now (I almost never re-play games) but I still really dislike the first couple of hours of the game.
 
I prefer run and gun games so it took me a while to adjust to mass effect's slow start. In my opinion, it plays like a movie which is a plus for me. Graphics are solid and gameplay is superior to jade empire which is a very good thing. Inventory system like everyone said is total crap but overall, the game is solid so far.
 
Yeah, I had a great time with Mass Effect. Like everyone has mentioned, it begins slowly. Your people can't really hit the broad side of a barn and there isn't a tutorial for the inventory system or combat.
Your first major mission (Therum) is actually kind of tough as a result.
Once you get past that mission, things ease up a lot and your abilities start to increase a lot more. The ploy also gets a lot better. At first it's as though they rushed the plot along, but then things start pacing a little better.
Mass Effect was one of the 3-4 best games of 2007.
 
tevil said:
I would like some more opinions on it.
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I'm part of the minority that didn't care for it. I had purchased it with great anticipation - but after about 10 hours in I gave up and sold it.

Yes, yes - the story, the voice acting, the plot - all phenomenal and ground-breaking. I loved it. But the actual gameplay (which Bioware tried to emphasize in this title) fell completely flat for me. The combat was cumbersome to begin with, but then when you add in a cover system that just plain doesn't work, I quickly got frustrated.

The Mako (terrestrial land rover) parts were horrid. It handled like a piece of bouncy shit, and the combat felt very disconnected. Since you could target and fire at enemies at such long distances, the majority of the combat was just you shooting at tiny little targeting triangles - without having any real sense of what you were fighting. Other than that, I fought some annoying giant sand worms that, at seemingly random times, spawned directly underneath my Mako and tipped me over.

Another huge complaint I had were the environments, which were very sterile and boring. Lots of long, non-descript hallways and corridors with mute tones. And the planets (at least the ones I visited) were barren wastelands of boring dunes and rock. The few structures found on these planets were also non-descript, having no real sense of purpose. Just randomly planted metal sheds found scattered around. Going inside these structures usually just provided a dead-end hallway or two that goes no where.

For such a painstakingly rich universe they created in this game - with the characters and backstory - the actual gameplay portion just didn't live up at all. imo.
 
I'm early on (RRoD waiting on my box) and really enjoying it. I'm not a run 'n gun type either, and I really am enjoying the RPG elements. I haven't even made it out of the the station yet.
 
PoweredBySoy said:
I'm part of the minority that didn't care for it. I had purchased it with great anticipation - but after about 10 hours in I gave up and sold it.
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Sadly it sounds like you never got to the good bits. The side quests are very much bleh but the main quest is rock solid.
 
yeah, i'm a big fan of the game too.

it isn't designed for "run and gun". at certain parts you really have to think about your abilities and the abilities of your team mates in order to successfully complete a mission w/o getting your ass hammered.

the cover system is a little tough to get used to, but once you get it down you won't have a problem.

also, the only time the action wasn't up close is during the mako missions(some of which did suck). then again, the shotgun was my main weapon of choice.
 
Psychotext said:
Sadly it sounds like you never got to the good bits. The side quests are very much bleh but the main quest is rock solid.
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Again, I was digging the quests, the story, etc.... It was the core game play that struck me as trashy. If I was using the controller to interact with the game, chances are I wasn't having fun. I didn't see that correcting itself no matter how many hours I put into it.
 
You CAN play it a little like a shooter once you get about 1/2 way into the game.
Once you have at least one gun mostly powered up, you can play it like Halo in slow motion :)
Your support characters still aren't much help, but I went into many fights with my shotgun blazing and absolutely wreaked havoc.
The missions that really suck are the Mako missions. They're repetitious, control poorly, and there are only 4 base designs in the whole game.
Stick to the main quest and you'll be happy, though.
 
Psychotext said:
Sadly it sounds like you never got to the good bits. The side quests are very much bleh but the main quest is rock solid.
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His complaints were of the terrible control/combat system, which are very valid and very present throughout the entire game. Ten hours or 100 hours wouldn't have made a difference. Story has no impact on it.

"Getting used to" is a great euphemism for really shitty controls and poor implementation. The cover system was just buggy and unresponsive (although I could say that about nearly every combat and inventory aspect of the game).

It's actually my favorite game for the 360, but it has some giant, glaring flaws that people too easily forgive and forget just because they like everything else.

To anyone just picking up the game though; don't play soldier. You're basically making a character with half of the gameplay as nearly all other classes.
 
Neurofreeze said:
His complaints were of the terrible control/combat system, which are very valid and very present throughout the entire game. Ten hours or 100 hours wouldn't have made a difference. Story has no impact on it.
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Actually... levelling up your skills makes a MASSIVE difference to how the combat feels. It goes from being slow and painful to quick and brutal. So in this case time does make a difference.
 
...err...what was wrong with the cover system? People could still hit you from the right angles, but I never had any other issues. You just get near something and your guy just moved into cover automatically. You hit the aim button to move out of it briefly. I'm not saying there was nothing wrong with it...but I'm not sure what it was.
Also, what was wrong with the control scheme? It played like a shooter with little red crosshairs on every thing. Don't like auto-aim? You can turn it off.
It had plenty of flaws, but the gameplay was fine for me. It only sucked when you were trying to use guns like the sniper rifle with no training. In those cases, you probably shouldn't be trying anyway.
 
I think the complaints about the game are universally agreed to:
Mako sucks big time: every planet looks the same, the controls suck
side quest missions get repetetive: all the bases are the same design
first 3 hours were really kind of dull
mini games were boring
inventory system blows
friendly ai is pretty useless
ELEVATORS!!
however.. the story was fantastic, music was awesome, getting your character leveled up to be a killing machine was oh so satisfying and the ending.. one of the best endings I've ever experienced. the last 3-4 hours of the game were just so exciting. Dialog scenes were awesome as well
so if you can deal w/ the early game and forgive the mako missions, it all pays off in the end. I can't wait for ME2
 
JoRos pretty much hit the nail on the head, although I actually didn't have any issues with the controls.
One thing you can actually do if you hate the side missions is to spend a lot of time doing dialog missions in the main citadel rather than doing a lot of the lame-o Mako missions. To reach the level cap you'll need to do both, but the dialog missions are a great way to get stronger before you're thrown into the main story missions. If you do them all, you could arguably skip all of the side missions (sans Luna, which is a good one) and still be do just fine moving ahead with the main story.
 
JoRos said:
I think the complaints about the game are universally agreed to:
Mako sucks big time: every planet looks the same, the controls suck
side quest missions get repetetive: all the bases are the same design
first 3 hours were really kind of dull
mini games were boring
inventory system blows
friendly ai is pretty useless
ELEVATORS!!
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I pretty much agree with these. Friendly AI is ok if you just let them go nuts and control everything themselves. I also didn't mind the Mako controls once I worked it out.

What were the mini games?
 
great game, but should've waited until may to buy the pc version instead. cheaper and has better upgrades...and graphics. :(
 
FanZ said:
great game, but should've waited until may to buy the pc version instead. cheaper and has better upgrades...and graphics. :(
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True, but that also assumes you have the hardware, screen size, etc. to compare it to the 360 version. The PC *can* be better, but it could also potentially be much worse.
I'd rather have the 360 version at 1080p on my TV with Dolby 5.1 than on a PC with 2 speakers a 19" monitor, and potential hitching if your video card is over 2 years old.
With the 360 one, you know what you're getting. With the PC version it could be better or worse.
 
With an E6600 @ 3.0, and an 8800GT 512, I'm 100% sure it's gonna be better on my system.

I also have a 37" Sharp Aquos near my PC, so I can easily DVI -> HDMI to the TV and play with a console controller if I wanted to.
 
ex0du5 said:
With an E6600 @ 3.0, and an 8800GT 512, I'm 100% sure it's gonna be better on my system.

I also have a 37" Sharp Aquos near my PC, so I can easily DVI -> HDMI to the TV and play with a console controller if I wanted to.
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Rub it in. :p
 
ex0du5 said:
With an E6600 @ 3.0, and an 8800GT 512, I'm 100% sure it's gonna be better on my system.

I also have a 37" Sharp Aquos near my PC, so I can easily DVI -> HDMI to the TV and play with a console controller if I wanted to.
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People said that about Gears of War, too :) I think you're probably right, but I wouldn't assume anything until it's out.
 
JoRos said:
I think the complaints about the game are universally agreed to:
Mako sucks big time: every planet looks the same, the controls suck
side quest missions get repetetive: all the bases are the same design
first 3 hours were really kind of dull
mini games were boring
inventory system blows
friendly ai is pretty useless
ELEVATORS!!
however.. the story was fantastic, music was awesome, getting your character leveled up to be a killing machine was oh so satisfying and the ending.. one of the best endings I've ever experienced. the last 3-4 hours of the game were just so exciting. Dialog scenes were awesome as well
so if you can deal w/ the early game and forgive the mako missions, it all pays off in the end. I can't wait for ME2
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Nah. I lovew the mako levels. Reminded me of back in the 80's when 'Big Trak' the programmable toy came out. Was awesome. I enjoyed the slower pace and exploring the levels. Admittedly the controls were crap when you used the turret. But i loved theose levels. The mini-games were shite, and the inventory was annoying. The unintuitive galaxy map controls were incredibly annoying. Many a time i exited the map screen when i intended just to zoom out. Never had a problem with friendly AI though. They always covered my back given cover.

I was a bit 'meh' when it came to this game too. But i borrowed it from my brother and played put 33 hours into it before completing it. The game had that 'just one more quest' thing to it. I'd start a mission and think 'i'll just land on the moon', then it'd be 'i'll just collect these minerals and get to the bunker', then 'i'll just get rid of these enemies', then 'i'll just report the mission outcome', then 'i'll just goto the next system', then 'i'll just land on the moon' etc. you get the idea.

Loved every minute of it and i didnt even want the game. I'm gonna get it on pc too when it comes out because i want to play through as a woman. I'm 32 and want to see the lesbian alien sex scene. Yes...... there i said it.

We've all wanted too but i had the balls to voice it.




























i'm so lonely ;)
 
I think Skirrow makes a good point that it's really good at making you play "just a few more minutes." It always gives you a little bit of a reward for moving a little further.
My wife got completely hooked on it and ended up winning it in about a week.
I took it a little slower, but probably ended up clocking in 35 hours in 2-3 weeks.

Everyone knows the inventory system sucks, but one thing that at least makes it a little better is the fact that you get the best weapons in the entire game pretty early. You can buy Spectre-grade stuff almost immediately and once you can afford it, you should. Once you can get Spectre level-2 weapons, you can just safely sell everything else you have. Nothing gets any better than that unless you're interested in only one attribute. The upgrades are so plentiful that you can sell those, too. You'll always just find more. About 1/2-way into the game I had $9,999,999 and I still had everyone with at least 2 of the best possible weapons.
 
Domingo said:
True, but that also assumes you have the hardware, screen size, etc. to compare it to the 360 version. The PC *can* be better, but it could also potentially be much worse.
I'd rather have the 360 version at 1080p on my TV with Dolby 5.1 than on a PC with 2 speakers a 19" monitor, and potential hitching if your video card is over 2 years old.
With the 360 one, you know what you're getting. With the PC version it could be better or worse.
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valid points, but resolution wise, i'd take my monitor over the tv. not everyone has a 5.1 theater for the tv (nor HDTV), and not everyone has only 2 speakers for their computer. it just seems like you're comparing the best tv setup versus a low-medium pc setup. most of all, the graphics will load immensely faster on a PC than the 360, which takes about 10 seconds of reading the disk when rendering different textures.

to be honest, i hope it's worse on the computer. just so i dont feel as bad about paying a few bucks more for the less-polished 360 version. but truthfully, i think bioware/EA will do a decent port.
 
after about 12 hours in, i'm pretty happy w/ the game. it feels so much like kotor i love it.

mako controls are bad, but they don't ruin the game.
some of the quests are tedius, but they're optional, so its up to you.

its my first run through, so i'm not worrying too much about paragon/renegade yet, and i'm still only a soldier. i just got the assault rifle accomplishment, so i need to pick a 2nd weapon, probably sniper. i've been using tali and ashley a lot.

when i beat the game once, i'll start a new game on normal and pick 2 more guys, and then start doing hard and insane difficulties once i'm really familiar w/ the game.

i'm pretty excited, i was able to play through kotor2 5 or 6 times, i'm hoping for at least that much w/ this
 
I'm not a big fan of Mass Effect. I like the story, but I'm not into the whole "sci fi" thing. However, after playing for about 4-5 hours I really got into the story (I'm a big RPG fan). I'm 50/50 about the gaem. It's beautiful, but I think the controller and weapons should have been worked out better as well as there should have been a tutorial better explaining things. I have played some Kotor II but not enough to really get the feel for Mass Effect. If there are any similarities, I wouldn't know.
 
How do you make money in this game? I'm like 13 hours in and I only have like almost 4000 credits. All the shops and weapons are selling for a lot more than I can ever buy. :( I love the game too. Only reason why I haven't had time to finish it is because of my gf.
 
Dome said:
after about 12 hours in, i'm pretty happy w/ the game. it feels so much like kotor i love it.
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now THAT is what I want to hear. I was thrilled that Bioware was porting it to the PC so soon (I think we all knew it would happen eventually), mainly because I loved KOTOR to death.

Hopefully the tweaks/alterations they make for the PC version will alleviate many of the issues with the 360 version.
 
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