Mass Effect - unbiased impressions
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Mass Effect - unbiased impressions
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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Nice impressions Candy.
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.
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.
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.
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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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)
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.
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)
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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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.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.
There's no real reason to unless you have a side quest there. It's just for completionists and to level up.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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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.pilonv1 wrote: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.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.
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.
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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.
The voice acting really is 5 star.
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Just make sure you don't level them all up in first aid - they just use the highest ranked party member for medkits.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.
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.
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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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.
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.
selfish wrote:Being a massive fanboy and trying to hide it is Lestat's worst bottleneck.