Mass Effect 2
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Ah, here it comes. I don't like Mass Effect because there's like, dialog and stuff. God forbid I find it a boring game that does neither RPG nor shooter elements very well.
But go on, keep thinking you have some kind of refined taste because you enjoy a shooter/RPG hybrid more than I do.
Ah, here it comes. I don't like Mass Effect because there's like, dialog and stuff. God forbid I find it a boring game that does neither RPG nor shooter elements very well.
But go on, keep thinking you have some kind of refined taste because you enjoy a shooter/RPG hybrid more than I do.
You made a completely unqualified negative statement about a game in a thread full of people talking about how much they loved the game. What did you expect to happen, genius?
If you don't want people to assume that you got bored with the game because you're a drooling Halo fanboi, you could at least give examples of some games you enjoyed more and actually explain why Mass Effect didn't appeal to you.
I don't disagree that some other games have either done RPG elements or shooter elements better than Mass Effect, but it combines them very well into a compelling overall package with a great storyline and a fairly novel emphasis on cinematic presentation.
Doesn't on Steam
That's news to me, people where saying it did when it was released.. have they removed it? or where people mistaken?
Actually, I kinda expected dragonfliet's exact response. Sad that most people don't defend real RPG's like he did.
Sure. Deus Ex. Better in setting, art direction, level design, and multiple paths. Worse in voice acting and shiny graphics.
From what I hear of Mass Effect, it has a few cosmetic choices, one big decision over which cliche party member lives, and a mostly linear story. From what I've played, combat is uninteresting, and dialog consists of flavor choices that give you either Paragon or Renegade points.
Anyone that said it did was wrong. All the games EA placed on Steam themselves have SecuROM either disabled or removed (by disabled, I mean it's still present in the executable but does not activate).
People used Crysis as an example that they did, however Crytek placed those on Steam, not EA.
This is possibly the only upcoming game that I'm caring about. -insertME1wasageniousgamesentencehere-
You're basing your opinions on what others have said. Play it, (actually talk to Joker and get a little farther) then judge.
Mass Effect was a ****ing amazing game.
For some utmost peculiar reason, I'm not that stoked for Mass Effect 2. The trailers and articles stopped exciting me at some point. But I know it's god awesome. Just the idea of a better and way more polished Mass Effect is enough to go and get it. So I know I'll be getting the CE on release day alright. If they ever get those on preorder here. :/
I don't mind that I don't have huge expectations of the game; at least like that I can be genuinely blown away by its awesomeness. Or turn out thoroughly disappointed. But it won't disappoint. It's Mass Effect.
Anyway, BioWare has spoiled WAY too much about this game so far, so I'm really trying to avoid any more media they release about ME2.
For some utmost peculiar reason, I'm not that stoked for Mass Effect 2. The trailers and articles stopped exciting me at some point. But I know it's god awesome. Just the idea of a better and way more polished Mass Effect is enough to go and get it. So I know I'll be getting the CE on release day alright. If they ever get those on preorder here. :/
I don't mind that I don't have huge expectations of the game; at least like that I can be genuinely blown away by its awesomeness. Or turn out thoroughly disappointed. But it won't disappoint. It's Mass Effect.
Anyway, BioWare has spoiled WAY too much about this game so far, so I'm really trying to avoid any more media they release about ME2.
Ah, here it comes. I don't like Mass Effect because there's like, dialog and stuff. God forbid I find it a boring game that does neither RPG nor shooter elements very well.
But go on, keep thinking you have some kind of refined taste because you enjoy a shooter/RPG hybrid more than I do.
I'm mocking you because you could not get past the first mission because it was apparently too boring to talk to a few people before the giant ship, the solid (if not particularly great) 3rd person shooting elements, the well told plot, the very good writing and fantastic voice acting.
The choices are well conceived and executed with plenty of minor, but true-to-character choices that feel important, etc. It doesn't have any RULE the galaxy v SAVE the galaxy moments, but that's part of what makes it so much better than something along the lines of Deus Ex with its silly story (yes--for all of its innovation Deus Ex was a stupid story that was written poorly, acted poorly and laid out poorly. Going back to it last year revealed it had the sophistication of the movie Angels in the Outfield. Sure, I loved it when I was 12, but it doesn't age well).
Of course ME had a long litany of flaws, but if you say something isn't good based upon you getting bored and not being able to finish the first twenty minutes of the game it says a lot more about you being ADD than it does about the game.
~Jason
I should have been more clear. I played as far as after your contact with the beacon, and when you could choose three flavor descriptions of your dreams afterward.
I'd rather the first twenty minutes of a game be fun before continuing. Otherwise, it's a waste of my time. Deus Ex (I actually played it for the first time May of this year, so let's not speak of rose-tinted glasses) and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (better writing and voice-acting, serviceable combat) both grabbed me in this time, and neither were about mindless action.
I won't say that ME is a bad game. Every time I think about playing it, I just realize there's something better to play. ME2 interests me, because it seems to play more like a shooter according to the devs. My brother's getting it, so I'll give it a look before completely giving up. Fair?
I actually think Rohit's opinion is rather fair. Mass Effect is a game I really enjoyed, but it's not exactly the sort of game I'd expect most people to like. I can usually tell whether I'm going to like a game within the first half-hour of playing it. Why? Well, because that's a pretty good barometer to see how a game is going to be for the whole ride (what you see in the first 30 minutes is what you're gonna probably see for the whole thing, just more of it. There are just too few examples to speak of that are contrary to this rule, and those that do are basically games with unnecessary time consuming "training style" early game segments, like GTAIV). For example, to this day I have not played farther than 30 minutes into Gears of War.
What drew me into Mass Effect was the way the story took a front seat to everything else and how the player could involve themselves in that plot...which for me, was something very refreshing for a video game. I don't see that often, and when I do I get the MGS effect...where I play five to ten minutes at a time before watching a movie for the next forty. It didn't depend on overdoses of cutscenes, like most games-wanting-to-be-films do, and the ingame dialogue was handled very well. I would compare this to say, Fallout3...a game I enjoy much more than Mass Effect but feel that the interactive dialogue system was far less streamlined technically, with speech options that were not always up to the standard seen in Mass Effect.
But there's really no debating the biggest flaw with Mass Effect, and in a video game this is always going to be the biggest factor, story or no story. Gameplay. Mass Effect is not a game I would herald for its gameplay. To be blunt, when it isn't involving you in the treacherous politics of communication it is mostly a series of doorway shootouts in cargo hold type rooms. The best combat parts of the game were when I was on planetary surfaces, in and out of the vehicle. And even those become pretty repetitive fast. The interface for upgrading equipment and items was not as well cultivated in other games (playing it on my 360, this system was fairly cumbersome. I always felt I was spending far too much time in my menus).
In the end, it is a far cry from being a well paced game, and the diversity in the side quests is simply not there. If the storyline and how you participate in it grabs you at the get go, like it did me, then it's the kind of game you stick with despite its flaws (like how I stick with Fallout 3 despite the plethora of bugs that one has going for it). Personally, I'm looking forward to the the sequel and will pick up my copy. But it's hardly surprising for me to hear anyone turning it off as early into it as Rohit did.
What drew me into Mass Effect was the way the story took a front seat to everything else and how the player could involve themselves in that plot...which for me, was something very refreshing for a video game. I don't see that often, and when I do I get the MGS effect...where I play five to ten minutes at a time before watching a movie for the next forty. It didn't depend on overdoses of cutscenes, like most games-wanting-to-be-films do, and the ingame dialogue was handled very well. I would compare this to say, Fallout3...a game I enjoy much more than Mass Effect but feel that the interactive dialogue system was far less streamlined technically, with speech options that were not always up to the standard seen in Mass Effect.
But there's really no debating the biggest flaw with Mass Effect, and in a video game this is always going to be the biggest factor, story or no story. Gameplay. Mass Effect is not a game I would herald for its gameplay. To be blunt, when it isn't involving you in the treacherous politics of communication it is mostly a series of doorway shootouts in cargo hold type rooms. The best combat parts of the game were when I was on planetary surfaces, in and out of the vehicle. And even those become pretty repetitive fast. The interface for upgrading equipment and items was not as well cultivated in other games (playing it on my 360, this system was fairly cumbersome. I always felt I was spending far too much time in my menus).
In the end, it is a far cry from being a well paced game, and the diversity in the side quests is simply not there. If the storyline and how you participate in it grabs you at the get go, like it did me, then it's the kind of game you stick with despite its flaws (like how I stick with Fallout 3 despite the plethora of bugs that one has going for it). Personally, I'm looking forward to the the sequel and will pick up my copy. But it's hardly surprising for me to hear anyone turning it off as early into it as Rohit did.
Hah. If you were wondering if the game changes drastically after those 30 minutes(there is a lame driving segment, apparently Halo dictates all future shooters have vehicle segments), it doesn't. Deus Ex didn't change, and thats why it hooked me to the end. Vampire became a dungeon crawl toward the end, but was awesome before.
Eesh, a "series of doorway shootouts?" Unless the basic shooting mechanics are absolutely sublime (which in my time they weren't), I'm not wasting my time.
Give me my arena shooters back.
Yeah, the combat leaves a lot to be desired if you are used to actually playing games with a lot of combat. But, I don't want to turn you off of it if you were actually thinking of giving it another go
I dunno. I wouldn't say it has the strongest combat gameplay ever, but it's more realistic than many other games. Most of the time the environments you fight in in real life are going to be boring, mundane locations. Maybe not as mundane as Mass Effect sometimes is... but considering the locations, I don't see that as a real weakness to the game. You're mostly fighting around military bases on various worlds.Yeah, the combat leaves a lot to be desired if you are used to actually playing games with a lot of combat. But, I don't want to turn you off of it if you were actually thinking of giving it another go
The RPG elements I thought were fine, but weren't refined to the PC as much as I would have liked. You can't to multiple select in the inventory, there is no really good item compare system and reaching the inventory limit is easy-peasy. Still, I don't think it's all that weak, the fact that it isn't as strong as in some other RPGs doesn't automatically make it awful. Remember Oblivion prior to modders fixing all the UI problems?
It's not the locations really, but what's done with them...and how the combat plays within. A game like F.E.A.R. took place in warehouses and office complexes, but the combat was really engaging. So it's not so much location for me exactly but rather repetition of the same location and the same fight replayed dozens of times (although, this IS an RPG we're talking about). I hate being so critical because I really like the game, and I'm merely playing devil's advocate on this...and this thread simply reminded me of some hair-pulling moments I had in ME. For instance, a good majority of the game's combat takes place in maybe two or three stock environments that are largely the same every single time with some relocation of boxes, and each fight plays out the same way each time; you enter, they see you, and you basically take potshots at each other through entryways. I've played fun games with less to go on, most certainly. But the way these segments played were very chore-like to me. There was not a whole lot of fluidity in the way the fights play out and there's hardly any diversity in what you can do. There's not a whole lot to the A.I., whether they're your enemies or they're your buddies. The movement doesn't exactly allow for real kinetic mobility, and if you're using other forms of attack besides guns then it's really a game of chance rather than skill. Everyone has to be in the right spot for you to get a real clean victory, and the nature of enemy attacks sort of forces doorway shootouts in almost every interior combat situation I encountered. Yes, I suppose a lot of this is more of a generalized criticism of RPG fighting, and I can certainly compare a lot of this to what's done in other games. But things like lazy environment use that consistently reveals more about the flaws in the A.I. than it does their advantages is sort of specific to the game. I compared this to Fallout 3 in my other comment, and I will here. Lots of elements in Fallout 3 are similar to ME and are borderline comparable (when it comes to replication of interior level design and similar combat scenarios), but Fallout's system simply had the diversities, the options, and a kind of violent glee about its fighting that made me forget the sluggishness of my player character's movement. No level really had the same layout, even if the same decorum was used repeatedly. The levels had a kind of interactivity beyond that of what Mass Effect offered, and even simple fights were very satisfying when won. I never really had the bloodlust when playing Mass Effect, save for some of the levels in the main story (a few of those vehicle assault scenarios were amazing). But I guess you could say that has more to do with the focus of its overall premise.
I know it probably sounds like I'm more critical of the game than I actually am, but I find that some of my favorite story-orientated games have issues when it comes to things like combat mechanics. One of my all time favorite games, Silent Hill 2, has the same issues with me; totally absorbing game narrative, completely forgettable combat mechanics.
The RPG elements I thought were fine, but weren't refined to the PC as much as I would have liked. You can't to multiple select in the inventory, there is no really good item compare system and reaching the inventory limit is easy-peasy. Still, I don't think it's all that weak, the fact that it isn't as strong as in some other RPGs doesn't automatically make it awful. Remember Oblivion prior to modders fixing all the UI problems?
Oh I'm not saying it's awful. Awful isn't a word I'd use in the same sentence as Mass Effect, at all. But the selection system can be rather clunky. We've all played it, so we can agree. When it comes to games (especially RPGs) I'm rather speedy on my menus. I don't like to be in them very long and I've developed a habit during my years playing 90s era RPGs to learn my menus early and cycle through them on impulse. I get easily frustrated with systems that are slow to respond to touch and aren't easily navigated or exited. I've endured worse, for sure. But Mass Effect's menus really stood out to me as speed bumps, kind of like that damn elevator on Shepherd's ship. But from what I've heard, my gripes with it are just the tip of the iceberg and the team is fixing this a lot for 2.
I'm with Mister Prophet on this one. I loved this game and actually liked the combat (again, it wasn't anything great, but it was solidly decent), but the level design on the side quests was atrocious (I mean, how much time does it really take you to move your pre-fab textures into a different layout? Everything not being the same exact box shape only with a door sealed here and there was tiring) and the game encouraged overly cautious tactics. I will disagree a bit and say I found that levels did send blood pumping through my veins, but not as often as I would have liked. It really looks, however, that Bioware is fixing that from the combat videos they've shown.
~Jason
~Jason