Am I playing the first MassEffect wrong? There isn't much gameplay at all...

[gamernerdtg2]

I sold ME2 and Dragon Age 2 after I beat them and realized:
1) These games are about the story and the personalities of the individual characters. It's essentially opera for gamers.
2) These games are not about gameplay. The gameplay works when you play through for the first time, but -
3) You can watch all the story stuff that you didn't choose in your first play through on Youtube.

That was a serious buzz-kill for me... I mean...after you play the game once through, you can even read the conversations on this thread to see what you've missed. These games are like the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books from way-back-when. I was seriously hooked when I first played through, but it died hard afterwards. I think that the OP may be in danger of losing interest after beating ME.

People must get something else from these games (which is cool), but I seriously wish that I knew what those things were. As it stands now, I'd rather play Zeno Clash to get my 1st person shooter fix on.

 

[votemarvel]

It's weird to be honest gamernerdtg2 because most of the time I don't change my story when I play through the trilogy. I mean it was only this year that I finally killed Wrex in Mass Effect 1 to see what the result would be in the following two games. Oh and the pain I had to deliberately kill Mordin off in the Suicide mission of ME2.

I enjoy the story as much as I did the first time I played and I vary it very little.

Don't get me wrong I like third person shooters. Personally I feel as if the ending to Gears of War 3 suited the trilogy perfectly.

So sure I could just watch the story on YouTube but it wouldn't be my Shepard. They would belong to the person who made the video.

 

[AD-Stu]

Long story short is yeah, ME1 gameplay gets tremendously broken past a certain point, pretty much regardless of the class you choose. There's the weapons that never overheat, the endless money, the perma-Immunity ability, tech/biotic skills that can render enemies defenceless too. Snipers/rockets are about all you really need to worry about. They rebalanced a LOT of that stuff in the following games BTW, as well as improving the combat in general.

As everyone else has pointed out though, it's really about the story, the world and the experience, not so much the combat gameplay with ME1.

You killed Wrex?! Yes, yes you're playing the first Mass Effect wrong!

Spoiler

Besides, the chance to betray him in Mass Effect 3 is sooo much more badass

In general I agree. I think it's worth having at least one playthrough with a dead Wrex though:

Spoiler: ME3 stuff

It allows you to save Mordin and REALLY screw Wreav, for example

 

[votemarvel]

Long story short is yeah, ME1 gameplay gets tremendously broken past a certain point,

Here's the thing though. It only becomes broken if you let it.

Can you build a weapon what can fire non-stop? Yes you can. Do you have to build a weapon that can fire non-stop? No, you don't.

Don't like that weapon that never over-heats? Then don't make it and use something else.

It's the same with the Immunity power that can make Shepard essentially immortal. Don't like that happening, then you can put those points into something else.

Can you break the combat in Mass Effect 1. Yes. Do you have to break the combat in Mass Effect 1. No.

 

[AD-Stu]

Sure. I mean, if you wanted to you could try to finish the entire game using only melee attacks too. Or you could solve the infinite money problem by losing it 200 credits at a time on quasaar until you felt like you've got yourself back down to an unbroken level. I just don't understand why you'd want to do any of those things

 

[In Search of Username]

The consensus is generally that the combat in the first Mass Effect isn't great. You just play it for the story really. That said, I wouldn't say I've ever found it actively annoying. It's just kind of there, and very easy to blast through and get straight to the story stuff if you want to. No real reason why it should put you off playing the game a second time.

 

[Beffudled Sheep_v1legacy]

Spoiler: ME3 stuff

It allows you to save Mordin and REALLY screw Wreav, for example

Spoiler: More ME3 stuff

Oh man, I kinda wanted the genophage to stay in place (ie: sabotage the cure), since I actually agreed with the reasoning Mordin gave during his loyalty mission in ME2.
And it's not like the Krogan were actually going extinct or anything. All it did was reduce their birth rate to something comparable with humans.

But anyway, if Wrex and Mordin are still alive, and you still want to sabotage the genophage cure, what follows is probably one of the most depressing and harrowing cutscenes in the ENTIRE series.

Spoiler

If Wrex and Eve are both dead, you can still sabotage the cure without having to go through this scene. But damn, it's painful if you have Wrex/Eve still alive (Mordin cannot be talked out of it).

Spoiler: Even more ME3 stuff

I thought it was stated somewhere in the games that the Krogan were eventually going to go extinct because they preferred killing each other and getting into fights with other dangerous things instead of settle down to breed.

 

[FoolKiller]

I also should say, I've somehow hit the max money one can own.

That's not possible. You've hit the max money the display can show. It does actually keep accumulating.

I liked the game. The gameplay isn't great but it is solid for the most part. The story and explorable galaxy is the exciting part.

 

[DragonStorm247]

Explosive rounds, rail extensions on the spectre sniper rifle. Do it.

 

[AD-Stu]

Spoiler: More ME3 stuff

Oh man, I kinda wanted the genophage to stay in place (ie: sabotage the cure), since I actually agreed with the reasoning Mordin gave during his loyalty mission in ME2.
And it's not like the Krogan were actually going extinct or anything. All it did was reduce their birth rate to something comparable with humans.

But anyway, if Wrex and Mordin are still alive, and you still want to sabotage the genophage cure, what follows is probably one of the most depressing and harrowing cutscenes in the ENTIRE series.

Spoiler

If Wrex and Eve are both dead, you can still sabotage the cure without having to go through this scene. But damn, it's painful if you have Wrex/Eve still alive (Mordin cannot be talked out of it).

Yeah, that one's nasty. It took until my fourth playthrough to do a full Renegade run, and I'd resigned myself to having to do that / see that scene. So it was one of the times that I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome when it didn't go down that way and...

Spoiler

...Mordin ends up agreeing with you, and walks away to join the Crucible team without attempting to disperse the cure. Because Wreav is a toolbox. Nice.

That's not possible. You've hit the max money the display can show. It does actually keep accumulating.

I could be wrong, but I'm 99% sure that it doesn't keep accumulating. I know many times I've hit 9,999,999, picked up a few more credits and then gone to buy something, and it subtracts the full amount from 9,999,999.

 

[FoolKiller]

That's not possible. You've hit the max money the display can show. It does actually keep accumulating.

I could be wrong, but I'm 99% sure that it doesn't keep accumulating. I know many times I've hit 9,999,999, picked up a few more credits and then gone to buy something, and it subtracts the full amount from 9,999,999.

Nevermind... you are correct and I was mistaken. I've played both this and Borderlands so much I've gotten that mixed up. In Borderlands you keep accumulating wealth even though the counter hits the max. Thanks for the correction