Mass Effect?
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Am I the only one who thinks its a bit shit?
Im 5 hours in and all its done so far is piss me off. The Mako is a joke, the worms annoying, the framerate drops alot, theres lots of pop-up, the menus feel clunky, the powers are uninspired and boring.
I loved the Kotor series and i was hoping for something akin to them, but what ive ended up with is a mediocre game with very shiny graphics.
Im 5 hours in and all its done so far is piss me off. The Mako is a joke, the worms annoying, the framerate drops alot, theres lots of pop-up, the menus feel clunky, the powers are uninspired and boring.
I loved the Kotor series and i was hoping for something akin to them, but what ive ended up with is a mediocre game with very shiny graphics.
This first part of my post has no bearing on the quality of the game itself but I think it needs to be said anyway.
[Commentary]While the character mnodels are very detailed, especially the faces after seeing games like Heavenly Sword finally pull off facial expressions the game seems a bit dated if you will. This is a game that both needed to be on the 360 and needed to be made for either PS3 or PC. The environments all feel very empty and frankly plain; it doesn't help that the game stutters often since its loading crap and has to go through and decompress data. I can't help but wonder had Mass Effect been a PC or PS3 game out of the gate would the team have been able to put more things in the environments and find ways to make the game load quietly without rather frequent framedrops.[/commentary]
This game is fairly good the voice acting is all top-notch and it is generally fun to play.....Until you get to the driving parts. Whoever thought the Mako was a good idea not only deserves all the hate mail he or she gets, but needs to be slapped for allowing such a horrid mechanic into the game. Going onto a world is now filled with dread because I know I'll have to drive the Mako. Mass Effect is an example of a game that should have been designed from the ground up as an action-rpg with heavy story elements rather than trying to rid the 360 of it's well deserved image of "Shooterbox" by providing watered down elements of GRAW (This game plays closer to the GRAW games rather than Gears.) and KOTOR.
What people end up with in Mass Effect is a game that takes weaker versions of other genres mechanics and slaps them together making for rather lackluster combat. The party system simply does not work well in this game, typically friendly AI in real RPG's is not nearly as intelligent as they are in other types of games they make up for this by letting the player take direct control over each party member rather than sticking the player with GRAW type squad commands that don't end up working very well since the AI is so dumb. The lack of control and rather idiotic AI lead me to wonder why I am even expected to bother upgrading party members because once the shooting starts its all haphazard at best since I have been neutered with respect to squad control.
All of these gameplay problems upset me because Mass Effect could have wiped the floor with just about any third or first person shooter, action adventure(rpg) had the game dispensed with party members, and restructered the story elements and combat accordingly. Hell it might have even been possible to keep the concept of a party without cloning GRAW or RSV by having your character direct members of your party to different areas having the player take control of a party member you have assigned a given mission to.
For example say you need to destroy an enemy base by overloading its reactor or planting a bomb to complete a quest objective. First you might send a character with very high electronics and/or tech skills to sabotage the communications systems of the base and thereby disrupt enemy command and control making it easier for someone more geared towards in your face combat to go to one part of the base and raise hell diverting most of the enemy already confused by my tech member's toying with their communications from the area I actually need to get to in order to comeplete the mission. Allowing me as Shepard to get in and blow up some more stuff with alot less interference from enemy soldiers, security systems, etc.
I think that is enough for now, I'm going to try and get through another horrific Mako segment now.
Ps. Cross platform games tend to be alot weaker than they would have been had they been exsclusive to one platform. Exsclusive games tend to be the best games that end up coming out period if everything was cross platform the quality of all games would suffer.
[Commentary]While the character mnodels are very detailed, especially the faces after seeing games like Heavenly Sword finally pull off facial expressions the game seems a bit dated if you will. This is a game that both needed to be on the 360 and needed to be made for either PS3 or PC. The environments all feel very empty and frankly plain; it doesn't help that the game stutters often since its loading crap and has to go through and decompress data. I can't help but wonder had Mass Effect been a PC or PS3 game out of the gate would the team have been able to put more things in the environments and find ways to make the game load quietly without rather frequent framedrops.[/commentary]
This game is fairly good the voice acting is all top-notch and it is generally fun to play.....Until you get to the driving parts. Whoever thought the Mako was a good idea not only deserves all the hate mail he or she gets, but needs to be slapped for allowing such a horrid mechanic into the game. Going onto a world is now filled with dread because I know I'll have to drive the Mako. Mass Effect is an example of a game that should have been designed from the ground up as an action-rpg with heavy story elements rather than trying to rid the 360 of it's well deserved image of "Shooterbox" by providing watered down elements of GRAW (This game plays closer to the GRAW games rather than Gears.) and KOTOR.
What people end up with in Mass Effect is a game that takes weaker versions of other genres mechanics and slaps them together making for rather lackluster combat. The party system simply does not work well in this game, typically friendly AI in real RPG's is not nearly as intelligent as they are in other types of games they make up for this by letting the player take direct control over each party member rather than sticking the player with GRAW type squad commands that don't end up working very well since the AI is so dumb. The lack of control and rather idiotic AI lead me to wonder why I am even expected to bother upgrading party members because once the shooting starts its all haphazard at best since I have been neutered with respect to squad control.
All of these gameplay problems upset me because Mass Effect could have wiped the floor with just about any third or first person shooter, action adventure(rpg) had the game dispensed with party members, and restructered the story elements and combat accordingly. Hell it might have even been possible to keep the concept of a party without cloning GRAW or RSV by having your character direct members of your party to different areas having the player take control of a party member you have assigned a given mission to.
For example say you need to destroy an enemy base by overloading its reactor or planting a bomb to complete a quest objective. First you might send a character with very high electronics and/or tech skills to sabotage the communications systems of the base and thereby disrupt enemy command and control making it easier for someone more geared towards in your face combat to go to one part of the base and raise hell diverting most of the enemy already confused by my tech member's toying with their communications from the area I actually need to get to in order to comeplete the mission. Allowing me as Shepard to get in and blow up some more stuff with alot less interference from enemy soldiers, security systems, etc.
I think that is enough for now, I'm going to try and get through another horrific Mako segment now.
Ps. Cross platform games tend to be alot weaker than they would have been had they been exsclusive to one platform. Exsclusive games tend to be the best games that end up coming out period if everything was cross platform the quality of all games would suffer.
"Mass Effect" has occupied all of my free time for the last couple of days.
As a sci-fi fan this game is kind of what I've been wanting to play for quite some time - well besides a top notch cyberpunk RPG or a Warhammer 40K RPG. I'm pretty much done with fantasy/steampunk RPGs. I've just played way too many of them. "Mass Effect" dropped me into the middle of well developed space opera. While the story does seem short the amount of detail - text and dialogue - add a huge amount of time to the game.
That's my two cents for now. Honestly I can't wait to get home and play some more.
As a sci-fi fan this game is kind of what I've been wanting to play for quite some time - well besides a top notch cyberpunk RPG or a Warhammer 40K RPG. I'm pretty much done with fantasy/steampunk RPGs. I've just played way too many of them. "Mass Effect" dropped me into the middle of well developed space opera. While the story does seem short the amount of detail - text and dialogue - add a huge amount of time to the game.
That's my two cents for now. Honestly I can't wait to get home and play some more.
The first little while I was kinda frustrated and there wasn't anything immediately happening that was pulling me in. I had shades of Halo 3 single player which I experienced for a couple hours, said "What the HELL is everybody talking about?" and promptly gave the game to a friend. Something was different about ME, and the payoff that pulls you in happens shortly after the first mission.
After that first mission it just gets cooler and cooler as the assignments, characters and the depth of the universe are revealed (I recommend reading all the gobbledygook because unlike other RPG gobbledygook the stuff in ME is actually interesting as hell and FUN).
Then, the first time you deploy your Mako to the surface of a planet and start tooling around and adventuring there....the cool factor just skyrockets.
The planetside missions are all really cool and really different and they're the very center of why I'm LOVING this game.
After that first mission it just gets cooler and cooler as the assignments, characters and the depth of the universe are revealed (I recommend reading all the gobbledygook because unlike other RPG gobbledygook the stuff in ME is actually interesting as hell and FUN).
Then, the first time you deploy your Mako to the surface of a planet and start tooling around and adventuring there....the cool factor just skyrockets.
The planetside missions are all really cool and really different and they're the very center of why I'm LOVING this game.
I'm starting to wonder about some of the A.I now.
While the enemy A.I does'nt seem to be the best their not idiots either. You dont see them taking gunfire and just standing there. Your squad however seem to have different ideas.
One thing they don't seem to be able to do anything when it comes down to melee, if an enemy gets too close they just seem to carry on shooting (usually missing) their target until they either get obliterated or are saved by your own gunfire. This kind of annoys me as the enemy A.I seems capable of taking you down quite easily up close, especially the bigger ones. Even Wrex does'nt melee, but his own enemy kin can charge into you taking you down in a matter of seconds if your not too careful.
Second, the amount of cover they use seems really varied, one time I had my squad following me and while I got into cover under gunfire, they seemed to stand dead on the spot firing and taking fire without flinching. This made me have to waste my medi-gel and also makes them completely useless. Another time I sent my squad to a point behind a box and instead of taking cover they again did the same thing.
In a game that relies so heavily on squad combat this really puts a downer on the gameplay. I dread to think what it'll be like on the new unlocked difficulty levels.
Any one else noticed the A.I problems?
While the enemy A.I does'nt seem to be the best their not idiots either. You dont see them taking gunfire and just standing there. Your squad however seem to have different ideas.
One thing they don't seem to be able to do anything when it comes down to melee, if an enemy gets too close they just seem to carry on shooting (usually missing) their target until they either get obliterated or are saved by your own gunfire. This kind of annoys me as the enemy A.I seems capable of taking you down quite easily up close, especially the bigger ones. Even Wrex does'nt melee, but his own enemy kin can charge into you taking you down in a matter of seconds if your not too careful.
Second, the amount of cover they use seems really varied, one time I had my squad following me and while I got into cover under gunfire, they seemed to stand dead on the spot firing and taking fire without flinching. This made me have to waste my medi-gel and also makes them completely useless. Another time I sent my squad to a point behind a box and instead of taking cover they again did the same thing.
In a game that relies so heavily on squad combat this really puts a downer on the gameplay. I dread to think what it'll be like on the new unlocked difficulty levels.
Any one else noticed the A.I problems?
You are not the only one dude it pissed me off all the way through the game.
Having beat the game I must say that the biotics and soldiers are almost too powerful Liara is a goddess and in order to kill Ashley she has to get hit by geth turrets otherwise she is nearly unstoppable. you don't really need any of the other characters. The only problem seems to be that it pretty much falls to you to be the engineer class if you want to do any decrypting unless you just run in with the "Ladies of death." and exterminate everything then go back into the area with your tech team and decrypt everything.
Having beat the game I must say that the biotics and soldiers are almost too powerful Liara is a goddess and in order to kill Ashley she has to get hit by geth turrets otherwise she is nearly unstoppable. you don't really need any of the other characters. The only problem seems to be that it pretty much falls to you to be the engineer class if you want to do any decrypting unless you just run in with the "Ladies of death." and exterminate everything then go back into the area with your tech team and decrypt everything.
A big problem for me is that in the middle of a firefight, my AI squadmates start IGNORING MY ORDERS!!! And that's like the WORST time to ignore my orders.dnv2 said:
Last night my two teammates and I were sneaking down a hallway. Halfway I realized that the room at the end was filled with rocket-shooting robots. Being stuck all together in a choke point like that when rockets start flying is not a tactically sound deployment so I quickly ran back out of the hallway and issued an order that my teammates do the same.
Instead they stayed in the hallway with guns ready.
I spammed the "move to the spinning white diamond" D-Pad edge a few more times and they continued to stand there, so I just walked away shaking my head as I heard the explosions that delivered them their well-deserved deaths.
Yes, just now Kaiden and Ashley were happily shooting at the wall in front of them, totally oblivious to the fact that their shots were having no effect.dnv2 said:
Hell, they didn't even care if I was in the way, they just unloaded their guns right into my back. Good job there's no friendly fire, but it still judders your aim with the sniper rifle.
Franky, that's a schoolboy error, and shows that Bioware really haven't thought about squad AI to nearly the level required.
I'm on Veteran right now and frankly it doesn't seem like the difficulty has really changed at all. I doubt they will release a patch to address the AI and the pop-in even if they could which I doubt.
I think it doesn't really. If you read the explanation for the difficulties, Veteran means all sub-bosses and bosses are scaled up with your level (along with, I assume, their allies). Normal, or whatever it's called, only scales up the bosses.shadow skill said:
The difficulty doesn't change much between Normal and Veteran. It takes a jump when you go up to Hardcore, though I hear that it evens out again once you've levelled up some. (I'm finding most encounters an actual challenge now, but then I'm an Adept as well, and they do start off slow.
Yea the AI, both friendly and enemy, is not up to scratch, and its a shame because it is a good game. When you read the codex you can see that some people put a lot of thought into making this as plausible vision of the future as they could. I read that they were planning on making this a trilogy so hopefully they will improve on the combat in the future.
Oh yea, aren't ambassadors meant to be diplomatic?
Oh yea, aren't ambassadors meant to be diplomatic?
I've killed so many people in this game. I'm a good sorta guy, but I'm a ruthless bastard as well. If someone gets on my nerves they a) die or b)get shit from me. The choices are awesome. I want to finiht this then play it again but as an evil-evil guy. I'm sorta evil-good 
Plus you get Seth Green as your pilot. That's worth buying the game just for that!
Plus you get Seth Green as your pilot. That's worth buying the game just for that!