ME3 First Impressions *Spoiler Free*

[Fappy]

I am actually very surprised this thread doesn't already exist (guess everyone who owns it is taking a sick day and playing it right now) so I will take this oppertunity to lay out my impressions of the full game thus far. I'll avoid anything plot-oriented Bioware's marketing hasn't already talked about and focus primarily on the broad scheme of things. I played it for roughly 4 hours last night and if I don't cover it here I'll answer any questions you guys over in Europe/Australia/etc. have. I will list a few pros and cons, but I feel Q&A is a better way to do this.

Pros:

- Combat has greatly improved much to no one's surprise. Controls are more responsive and the powers/weapons feel like they pack more of a punch. Its also really fun hunting down all of the weapons and mods on a battlefield. Feels RPG-y in that sense.

- Bringing it back: Right from the get-go the game invokes the spirit of the first game. As someone who romanced a certain romance option in ME1 I was surprised the topic came up within the first hour of gameplay. A lot of the interactions with returning characters are fun and interesting without feeling like fan-service.

- Banter has been greatly improved and has been pretty insightful/funny so far.

Cons:

- Auto-dialogue: At this point I am sure you guys have heard, but yes, there is a lot of auto dialogue. From what I understand your automated responses are supposed to fall in line with your alignment as my Paragon Shep is usually a pretty nice guy when auto responding, and I would be fine with it if it wasn't so damn prevalent. Note that in most non-big story moments there is a lot of normal ME dialogue give and take and that most of the auto-dialogue happens in missions and during big plot scenes.

- Character models/animations/etc: I don't know what happened between games, but some characters look completely different now. Whether they are prettier now or uglier I think Admiral Hackett is the only human character that doesn't look different from ME1 and 2. Liara looks weird and it bothers me. Some of the animations, as I am sure you guys have heard or seen in the demo, are just straight up goofy.

- Un-synced dialogue and buggy cutscenes: If you thought this was bad in the first two games.... The game also seems to be a bit moire unstable than ME2 was. I experienced a hard-freeze at a load screen and my 360 sounds like its mining the damn disc constantly. I installed it to the HD last night so I will see if it runs better after work.

Overall I am having fun with the game so far and enjoy the story despite feeling a bit railroaded. Well, I don't have much going on right now: fire away with questions

 

[boag]

When you say auto dialog, you mean that its been replaced by trigger events where you press down on the left or right triggers, or auto as in, your previous paragon renegade like stances guide the direction of the conversation without any input.

Also how do you know its auto dialog?

 

[Fappy]

When you say auto dialog, you mean that its been replaced by trigger events where you press down on the left or right triggers, or auto as in, your previous paragon renegade like stances guide the direction of the conversation without any input.

Also how do you know its auto dialog?

The latter. I know it is auto dialogue because in options I have it set for being able to give input on every available dialogue option. Some scenes begin with Shepard saying a whole paragraph before I am asked to give input. The trigger events or "interrupts" are still there as they were in ME2, albeit less frequently. I think they realized they went a bit overboard with the amount of interrupts in ME2.

 

[Fappy]

May I assume you don't play the action mode?

No I don't. I jumped into the options right off the bat and was happy to see the default is "normal Mass Effect" dialogue mode. I don't really remember what the option is called XP

 

[boag]

When you say auto dialog, you mean that its been replaced by trigger events where you press down on the left or right triggers, or auto as in, your previous paragon renegade like stances guide the direction of the conversation without any input.

Also how do you know its auto dialog?

The latter. I know it is auto dialogue because in options I have it set for being able to give input on every available dialogue option. Some scenes begin with Shepard saying a whole paragraph before I am asked to give input. The trigger events or "interrupts" are still there as they were in ME2, albeit less frequently. I think they realized they went a bit overboard with the amount of interrupts in ME2.

You had to set in the options to remove autodialog?

That kinda sucks

 

[Fappy]

When you say auto dialog, you mean that its been replaced by trigger events where you press down on the left or right triggers, or auto as in, your previous paragon renegade like stances guide the direction of the conversation without any input.

Also how do you know its auto dialog?

The latter. I know it is auto dialogue because in options I have it set for being able to give input on every available dialogue option. Some scenes begin with Shepard saying a whole paragraph before I am asked to give input. The trigger events or "interrupts" are still there as they were in ME2, albeit less frequently. I think they realized they went a bit overboard with the amount of interrupts in ME2.

You had to set in the options to remove autodialog?

That kinda sucks

Auto-dialogue to a certain degree is there regardless. I clarified that I was being given as much control over the conversations as possible in the options menu and was happy to see that you are given the maximum amount of input as the default option. Unfortunately it is not nearly as much control as I would like.

 

[Korten12]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

Do you have the prothean crew member DLC?

You may want to spoiler that.

 

[Fappy]

Spoiler

Do you have the prothean crew member DLC?

Spoiler

No, and until I have confirmation that he does play a role in the story without the DLC I will likely avoid the DLC altogether and just watch his story stuff on Youtube. I don't have a problem paying for him as a squadmate. I do have a problem paying for such an important character (because he is Prothean, all the reason you need) being in the game in the first place.

 

[Fappy]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

I am playing on the 360 version and my load times are actually pretty long. Apparently playing it from the HD makes them go a good bit faster, so I will see if it does later tonight.

 

[Korten12]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

I am playing on the 360 version and my load times are actually pretty long. Apparently playing it from the HD makes them go a good bit faster, so I will see if it does later tonight.

Ah, I am playing it on the PC version which might be the reason for the load times.

 

[Fappy]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

Spoiler

Do you have the prothean crew member DLC?

You may want to spoiler that.

Why spoiler it? Everyone already knows about the From Ashes DLC.

Also, wasn't AutoDialog in the first two games as well to some extent, OP?

Spoiler

For those who don't know and have the CE I am sure it is a nice surprise. It makes no sense why they wasted such a great opportunity to shock the shit out of everyone. One of my friends still doesn't know about the Prothean and we're all hoping it doesn't get spoiled for him before he encounters it himself in-game.

Auto dialogue was there to some extent, though it is FAR MORE prevalent than ever. Like, x10 as much as there was in ME2 at least. The good thing is that a lot of the auto dialogue is pretty neutral and question based... usually.

 

[Fappy]

Spoiler

No, and until I have confirmation that he does play a role in the story without the DLC I will likely avoid the DLC altogether and just watch his story stuff on Youtube. I don't have a problem paying for him as a squadmate. I do have a problem paying for such an important character (because he is Prothean, all the reason you need) being in the game in the first place.

Too bad. From what I've gathered from the leaks is nothing impressive or even close to worth the money so I hoped for some confirmation. Well, gonna have to wait for yt videos.

Spoiler

I will likely do the same. I still can't fathom why they made the Prothean of all characters DLC.

Also on the subject of squadmates: there is a pretty awesome/shocking squaddie you get within the first 3 hours of gameplay. I kind of saw it coming but it was still a pretty fucking cool reveal.

 

[boag]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

Do you have the prothean crew member DLC?

You may want to spoiler that.

Why spoiler it? Everyone already knows about the From Ashes DLC.

Also, wasn't AutoDialog in the first two games as well to some extent, OP?

For those who don't know and have the CE I am sure it is a nice surprise. It makes no sense why they wasted such a great opportunity to shock the shit out of everyone. One of my friends still doesn't know about the Prothean and we're all hoping it doesn't get spoiled for him before he encounters it himself in-game.

Auto dialogue was there to some extent, though it is FAR MORE prevalent than ever. Like, x10 as much as there was in ME2 at least. The good thing is that a lot of the auto dialogue is pretty neutral and question based... usually.

I think i will need an example, can you transcribe something that you believe is autodialog?

I would wait to test it myself, but its going to be a long day at work today.

Also, have you encountered any glitches?

like walking into stones, suddenly floating in the air, falling through the ground, that sort of thing.

 

[Fappy]

I am really enjoying it.

I don't know about anyone else, but anyone notice the really low loading times? I booted up the game, got to the menu very quickly. When I pressed resume, it loaded in three seconds, barely even had time to take in the momentary black screen.

Do you have the prothean crew member DLC?

You may want to spoiler that.

Why spoiler it? Everyone already knows about the From Ashes DLC.

Also, wasn't AutoDialog in the first two games as well to some extent, OP?

For those who don't know and have the CE I am sure it is a nice surprise. It makes no sense why they wasted such a great opportunity to shock the shit out of everyone. One of my friends still doesn't know about the Prothean and we're all hoping it doesn't get spoiled for him before he encounters it himself in-game.

Auto dialogue was there to some extent, though it is FAR MORE prevalent than ever. Like, x10 as much as there was in ME2 at least. The good thing is that a lot of the auto dialogue is pretty neutral and question based... usually.

I think i will need an example, can you transcribe something that you believe is autodialog?

I would wait to test it myself, but its going to be a long day at work today.

I will use a scene that is in the game, though I don't remember how much auto-dialogue is in the scene. Nonetheless this is just a theoretical example:

Sorta spoilery I suppose (not really):

Spoiler

Mission ends... next scene Shepard is in mid-conversation with the Asari councilor. Shepard tells the councilor he needs their help. They go back and forth and she eventually signs off. No dialogue option at any point. You call Hackett, tell him what's up and after a few lines you get to ask him a few questions. It's not always THAT bad, but it's a good example.

 

[Jeremy Meadows]

I don't have the game but my brother picked it up. From what he has told me (spolier free of course) my fears seem to be coming true about this game. He's about a day in and there still is no explianation as to why your suddenly on earth, why or even how your stripped of command and why you have a new normanday, and what the heck even happened to your crew from the second game. These are huge things that should have been thought of before the game came out. Yet they seem to be more focused on just trying to get more sales from non mass effect fans.

He'll tell me later if these questions get answered but right now I'm not liking any of the single player stuff I'm hearing so far and I'm pretty pissed about it.