ME3 First Impressions *Spoiler Free*

[Keava]

I have played ME2. My problem is ME1--I played ME1 on Steam, but ME2 was from a physical disc. I kept Wrex around, but I wasn't able to transfer my info from ME1 so I had to make a new character in ME2. So now I'm without Wrex by default, and it makes me sad :-\ It's such bullshit, and so easily fixed.

There is always easy solution. Go to www.masseffectsaves.com , pick a save that suits You, eventually tweak it a little bit with save editor, and voila, You can play with all the choices You would make.

 

[Xangba]

Pros: I love the added customization for both weapons and skill trees.

Cons: The cover system is tough to use.

As an adapt I barely ever use cover. I think I need to turn the difficulty up to Hardcore because I am one-shotting half of the mob waves with single biotic explosions.

Adept wrecks things on less than insanity. Always has. On insanity the enemies can actually do enough damage to force you into cover and make you time your attacks better.

 

[mrblakemiller]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

 

[Lilani]

I have played ME2. My problem is ME1--I played ME1 on Steam, but ME2 was from a physical disc. I kept Wrex around, but I wasn't able to transfer my info from ME1 so I had to make a new character in ME2. So now I'm without Wrex by default, and it makes me sad :-\ It's such bullshit, and so easily fixed.

There is always easy solution. Go to www.masseffectsaves.com , pick a save that suits You, eventually tweak it a little bit with save editor, and voila, You can play with all the choices You would make.

Oh, thank you! Man, I might replay through ME2 with one of those. I loved Wrex, and it pissed me off that I had to lose him just because Bioware was too lazy to put the "choose your past" function in the character creator.

 

[Fappy]

Man this thread is making me feel soooooo much better about pre-ordering this game, cheers for making it Fappy Anyway so far based on what you have seen where would you rate it compared to the other Mass Effect games? Also how do the Biotic abilities control? I had a lot of trouble bending them around cover in the Demo.

I think it's too early for me to rank it among the other two, but I am a huge fanboy of the original so its going to take a lot to beat ME1 (i.e. it probably won't lol).

On biotics: It just takes some getting used to. The biotics have a much higher velocity than they did in ME1&2 so it's just a matter of predicting how and when the biotic power will curve.

Liara does look different. Her face has a weird texture. It doesn't look good.

She looked so much better in Lair of the Shadow Broker

Admiral Hackett is the only human character that doesn't look different from ME1 and 2.

I could be wrong but we've never seen Admiral Hackett in person up until ME3, unless he was in some DLC.

Also, I noticed that the lip syncing was off in the demo. Is it still as bad in the released version?

Yeah he is in the DLC "Arrival". The lip syncing seems to be inconsistent. I believe it may have to do with poor optimization. If the frames lag a bit for a second it goes out of sync with the audio for a tiny bit. Not terrible so far.

-snip-

Question: When you make a new character, do you have several options for the decisions you made in the past (who lived/died that sort of thing), or is it still only Ashley or Kaiden like it was in the demo? Because I wasn't able to import my character from ME1 and if the demo tricked me and I have to go without Wrex again I will not be a happy camper :-\

This a quote that's been floating around on BSN, "By default, Wrex and Kaidan died on Virmire, Shepard killed the rachni queen, and the council died in Sovereign's attack on the Citadel. From ME2, only Mordin, Garrus, Tali, Miranda, and Jacob are left standing."

I haven't tried making a new Shepard myself and if this statement is true I would definitely recommend playing ME2 if you can.

I have played ME2. My problem is ME1--I played ME1 on Steam, but ME2 was from a physical disc. I kept Wrex around, but I wasn't able to transfer my info from ME1 so I had to make a new character in ME2. So now I'm without Wrex by default, and it makes me sad :-\ It's such bullshit, and so easily fixed.

There is a mod you can use that can edit save files. You could go into your ME2 save and change the fact that Wrex had died to him living. I have limited experience with the PC version though so I have never used it. Look around on the BSN.

... Ninja'd as I type this XP

 

[Fappy]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

 

[Xangba]

Man this thread is making me feel soooooo much better about pre-ordering this game, cheers for making it Fappy Anyway so far based on what you have seen where would you rate it compared to the other Mass Effect games? Also how do the Biotic abilities control? I had a lot of trouble bending them around cover in the Demo.

Biotics are smoother than two, but still not our favorite insta-use-go-through-shields abilities from one, but then again that was just a wishful dream I once had. You can cause more combos than in two, for example pull+throw will actually detonate on the affected enemy. Hitting around corners is actually easier now, because in two you had to completely arc the shot and some, like singularity, were very slow moving, causing trouble. Now the abilities fly like a bullet, and tend to do a sharp twist at the last second, making it easy to get around cover and it avoids the problem two had with accidentally arcing it into the environment, ruining your ability. Basically for an easy breakdown:
ME1: Overpowered mess that made Shepard laugh at those in front of him/her
ME2: Most enemies have defenses negating majority of effects + slow moving through the air forced you to play more carefully
ME3: Fewer enemies with defenses + fast-moving and sharp-turning through the air + most abilities make a combo allows for a much more fast-paced biotic, truly making it live up to the description of fighting without firing a single bullet.

For a biotic in ME3 you really only need to pack an SMG to take out shields, then wreck them with your biotics at +200% regen rate. By increasing weight capacity taking a heavy pistol along for added wrecking is always encouraged

P.S. Biotics need no fear of big enemies like Atlas or Brutes, as once you are down to their armor using warp+shockwave destroys them. Especially if upgrading warp to cause increased damage to target.

 

[Talvrae]

- 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.

Hackett was only in the arrival DLC, otherwise it was only his voice... part of it is to show the passage of time

 

[Amax29]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

Wow wow wow bring it back a sec, you can just cut her out the game completely? With no real affect on the game? [Please say yes]

 

[Fappy]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

Wow wow wow bring it back a sec, you can just cut her out the game completely? With no real affect on the game? [Please say yes]

You can tots tell her you don't want her ugly ass around

 

[PinochetIsMyBro]

Is it just me, or does a lot of the dialogue between Shep and Co. seem crappy and forced compared to the previous two games. Example:

X: Lt. Commander Y seems to have really developed as a person.
Shep: Yeah.

That's it. That's all there was to that conversation. I've had something like that happen several times and I just left the Citadel. It's depressing.

Also Chobot's voice acting is TERRIBLE, but still nowhere near as bad as her character model. What the heck Bioware? She looks like she has downs. I let her on my ship for the asset points but I have no intention of ever speaking with her again.

 

[Abbo]

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.

Well Shepard sacrificed an entire solar system, a mass relay and 300.000 Batarians to delay an imminent reaper invasion in the ME2 Arival dlc story. \ which was supposed to happen just before ME3 events.

 

[AlternatePFG]

2 hours in, only played a bit before I left the house this morning. Story (Especially how you abruptly start on Earth) seems pretty weak, but the gameplay is extremely improved and actually really fun to play now.

Lack of dialogue choices is pretty lame, but I'm really fine with it. I always played the ME series as more of a shooter anyways.

Multiplayer I haven't tried yet, but from the demo it was actually surprisingly fun.

 

[Schreck157]

The auto-save feature on the console version is now my most favorite addition. It saves (lol literally) so much time by not having to pause and go to the main menu to save.

 

[Fappy]

By the way I have put another 2 hours in and the dialogue options open up a lot more and things start to get a lot more interesting. In retrospect the opening is pretty weak. Once you get to spend a good bit of time on the Citadel be prepared to get bombarded by awesome references to the last two games. Some really funny shit!

Also for whoever was asking: Yes, you can make squadmates carry one weapon if you want them to.

 

[boag]

By the way I have put another 2 hours in and the dialogue options open up a lot more and things start to get a lot more interesting. In retrospect the opening is pretty weak. Once you get to spend a good bit of time on the Citadel be prepared to get bombarded by awesome references to the last two games. Some really funny shit!

Also for whoever was asking: Yes, you can make squadmates carry one weapon if you want them to.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up, will be picking up my copy late tonite.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Anyway so far based on what you have seen where would you rate it compared to the other Mass Effect games? Also how do the Biotic abilities control? I had a lot of trouble bending them around cover in the Demo.

I'm about 11 hours into the single player, and have played a ton of the MP demo. I'd rate ME3 as the best in the series, by a pretty decent margin. I LOVE Mass Effect 1, and I liked ME2 a lot, so it should say a lot that I'm enjoying ME3 this much. The gameplay is staggeringly improved over the past 2 games.

Biotic abilities control just as well or maybe slightly better than in ME2. They seem to curve more so it's easier to hit enemies around corners and behind cover than it was in ME2.

 

[Waaghpowa]

-

Just about everything you listed I agree with. Though personally, I feel a tad disappointed in the game. It could be due to the hype around the game, or it could be that I'm not feeling it this time around.

Also textures are ugly, but I'm playing on PC and I tend to notice these things.

 

[Dr. Paine]

Enjoying it so far, but I just realized I have to re-start due to starting on the wrong save file xD

Oh well, only about... what, six hours lost? I've enjoyed the story and *most* characters so far- the only one I honestly don't like is James. The references to the previous games is fun, and

Spoiler: Spoiled for some minor things

I honestly got a bit teary when going through the Normandy for the first time. All those empty spots...

I also love the fact that, for all intents and purposes, my Shepard and the new turian Primarch share the same first name xD ... then it got sad when I went to see Thane in the Citadel. I've heard rumors that you might be able to save him if he was Shepard's LI in the previous game, but... with the other rumors I've seen, I'm already preparing for his death and Shepard's. Oh well... it'll be a fun ride while it lasts, no?

Also, Biotic Charge + Nova is the most fun thing ever.