Mass Effect - unbiased impressions

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Mass Effect - unbiased impressions

Post by Candy Arse »

:unbiased:

Moving on to Mass Effect, I am excited. I love Bioware games not called Jade Empire. I thought KOTOR was hands down the single best game on the Xbox. I also happen to be a card carrying sci-fi fan. It seems like a good mix.

Played for about an hour and a half last night, and so far so good. Visuals and presentation are utterly superb (film grain + motion blur wins), voice acting seems almost too good for a videogame. Maybe my expectations about the combat were lowered by whingers like mech, but that's probably a good thing. I'm yet to have any major gripes with it. As it isn't purely an action game I don't expect snappy, precise combat like say Gears or Vegas, but it seemed easy enough to assign various weapons to your group and tell them what to do.

I spent a good amount of time going through the codex, familiarising myself with the back-story and universe as things were added. Not a huge surprise that Bioware has (seemingly) put great amounts of effort into the ME universe.

Needless to say I am itching to get stuck into it again tonight and then this weekend.
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Post by mech »

Haha get fucked Candy.

Combat was one of the few things I haven't had a good whinge about :D
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Post by Blotto »

mech wrote: Combat was one of the few things I haven't had a good whinge about :D
would be about the only fucking thing.... :lol:
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Post by Scullibundo »

Combat was pretty shitty though. My main problem with the game was that the worlds/cities felt desolate. Wasn't enough interactivity with characters. I await Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls for my fix.
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Post by mech »

HOW DARE YOU WHINGE ABOUT IT SCULLI THAT GAME IS PERFECT AND HAS NO GLITCHES. FUCKING WHINGER.
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Post by Twiztid Elf »

Nice impressions Candy. :up:

Even though classic fantasy is more my thing than sci-fi, I am thoroughly engrossed in this game. I'm about half way through my second play through now. There are a stack of other games I want to play, but they're all on hold right now.

The game just gets better and better, and when you hit the 5 to 10 hour mark it really starts to gather pace and show it's true greatness.

As much as I adore this game, I'm not even going to try and defend the obvious problems with the technical side of the game. :lol:
But the lore, the plot, the story, the pacing, the character design - it's all so far above anything else, that I really don't give a shit about the tech issues.
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Post by K.T.Shoe[BMs] »

Hey Candy, sorry to go off topic, but I recently bought a copy of Jade Empire for $10 at Hardly Norman (still shrink wrapped) - so what is wrong with it? I thought all Bioware games are good?!?!
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Post by Twiztid Elf »

Jade Empire IS good. But it isn't 10/10 good. Blame IGN for the hate for this game.
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Post by mech »

Twiztid, did you do all the side missions in Mass Effect?

I've started to (I'm about 10 hours into the game) and fuck me they are boring. Do they get better? My housemate told me not to bother. Do you think it's worth it, or should I just plough ahead with the main story?
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Post by pilonv1 »

Which ones have you done? The Lunar one is fucking awesome (you get a new class spec) and really challenging. There's some good ones and you'll level up quite easily.

Just randomly exploring planets isn't too fun though.
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Post by mech »

I've done 2/3rds of the bases on the Lunar one. Challenging? Really? I haven't found the combat too hard at all in this game... I've died once ever I think.

But yeah I've been working my way through exploring EVERY planet and asteroid belt, and it's just sooooo slow. I'm thinking I won't bother.
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Post by Twiztid Elf »

Yeah, it's a mixed bag on the side quests. Some are awesome. Some not so good.

For example, I have mixed feelings about the war on the Geth one (where the Geth are amassing forces in 4 systems and you have to go destroy them). I 'get' where they are coming from with the quests, but it just seemed to drag on, and the design of some of the battlegrounds is questionable, particularly on the planet where it is snowing.

You do have to be patient with it. I guess the balance is whether you want to persevere through some of the more drawn out boring bits for completion purposes? Some of the side quests aren't a patch on the amazing main story. A bit like Oblivion in this regard.

Even the main story has it's ups and downs. I absolutely love Feros (and dare I say it even kindof reminded me of the Library in Halo1) :P
I did Noveria for the second time last night, and I enjoyed it a lot more this time. I didn't really dig that the first time around.
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Post by pilonv1 »

mech wrote:I've done 2/3rds of the bases on the Lunar one. Challenging? Really? I haven't found the combat too hard at all in this game... I've died once ever I think.
I found one of them hard, probably because I was playing a weak combat class. It's easy if you funnel them into the hallway though.
But yeah I've been working my way through exploring EVERY planet and asteroid belt, and it's just sooooo slow. I'm thinking I won't bother.
There's no real reason to unless you have a side quest there. It's just for completionists and to level up.
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Post by t0mby »

pilonv1 wrote:
mech wrote:I've done 2/3rds of the bases on the Lunar one. Challenging? Really? I haven't found the combat too hard at all in this game... I've died once ever I think.
I found one of them hard, probably because I was playing a weak combat class. It's easy if you funnel them into the hallway though.
Yeah, the last one of the three bases was a lot harder. Save at the doorway before you enter the first room exposing the enmies (once inside), it will save you a lot of heartache.

As said, some of the side missions are shit, but if you want to expand your Paragon or Renegade rating then they are worth doing. Nothing really gained out of it other than an achievement. ANd only Lamby could screw up the alien love scene. :lol:
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Post by mech »

Oh yeah I've heard it's retardedly hard if you're not a combat or vanguard class, my bad.
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Post by Twiztid Elf »

I went soldier first time through and breezed through it. This time around I'm Biotic/Tech hybrid (Sentinel?), and it is without a doubt more difficult.
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Post by mech »

I've been leveling up one of my other characters with the tech stuff and another with first aid stuff, and using my own characters points for other things (like spectre, charm, etc), and it's been working a treat.
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Post by Candy Arse »

Damn I am loving this game, it has sucked me right into it. I'm getting similar feelings to when I first played through Shenmue, which means if Mass Effect stays the course of excellence it will find a spot in my top 10 all time games list.

The voice acting really is 5 star.
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Post by Blotto »

yep i agree in whole Candy. Fantastic game!
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Post by pilonv1 »

mech wrote:I've been leveling up one of my other characters with the tech stuff and another with first aid stuff, and using my own characters points for other things (like spectre, charm, etc), and it's been working a treat.
Just make sure you don't level them all up in first aid - they just use the highest ranked party member for medkits.
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Post by mech »

Yep, and the same for tech... I've found it works really well by doing it that way. I've got all the side (shared) stuff where I want it to be so now I'm leveling up people's weapons and health stuff.

Also, getting a decent version of the spectre revival thing (unity or something? forget what it's called) is awesome. Had one of my party die for the first time yesterday and revived them straight away.
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Post by pilonv1 »

Unity is great, but you can waste it by bringing them up in an area where their shields can't recharge.

Can't remember what the invincibility thing is (it turns you white or something) but once you max it out you can basically spam it and stay invulnerable.
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Post by mech »

It's amazing how much better the main storyline is than the side missions. If they'd had half the care applied to them this would have been such a better game. I seem to remember KOTOR's side missions being pretty good.
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Post by t0mby »

A few of the side missions are quite good, nothing outsanding, but better than most. Hopefully the game ended up this way becasue of the amount of time put into the actual engine and such.

Ive got a good feeling about the sequel, I just hope we dont have to wait too long but on the flipside, I hope its not generic roster update Mass Effect 2009.

I think Im going to play through it again (loss of save makes it a tough decision) just to do the Paragon path and in hopes that the sequel will use the characters gamesave, like Shenmue 2 on the DC.
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Post by pilonv1 »

mech wrote:It's amazing how much better the main storyline is than the side missions. If they'd had half the care applied to them this would have been such a better game. I seem to remember KOTOR's side missions being pretty good.
There are some awesome side missions. "The Fan" is the best.
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