Okay, I'm Sorry but... Just What on Earth is so Great about Mass Effect?!

[Richardplex]

Characters are incredibly likable, writing is solid and occasionally very good.

Who are you and what have you done with Kahunaburger?

I know right? Maybe he just likes to play Devil's Advocate.

Hey, I have my [small]many, many[/small] gripes about Mass Effect, but far be it from me to imply that the dialogue isn't fun, Mordin's subplot isn't awesome, or that Garrus isn't a total bro

All these are true of course. People said I was crazy when I told them my favorite part of ME2 was Mordin's loyalty mission. After the subplot ended in ME3 and turned out to be the best plot thread in the whole franchise I had much gloating to do

Sometimes my mind is like "maybe your emotions and mental states have clouded your judgement of the Mass Effect series, and objectively they are actually pretty mediocre" - then I remember Mordin Solus, and I can confidently reply, "***** please".

Also, who the hell said you were crazy for that? they're crazy for thinking otherwise.

OT: You didn't get a good impression for an RPG that has its main strength in building a very detailed world and characters by just playing the demo? NO WAY!

 

[AngloDoom]

Mass Effect. Better. Than Half Life.
That was the final straw.

So I ask you all... What the fuck is the big deal?

See, in my mind the reversal of that statement would make me skip a beat.

In fact, I got quite bored of Half-Life because they weren't for me - Mass Effect gave me a world where I believed the lore was possible and the characters were more believable. In the end, I got hooked because I cared what happened to that world - I didn't n Half Life.

 

[Samurai Rabbit]

I must have missed the memo that opinions are supposed to be universal.

If you don't live Mass Effect, cool story. You don't have to ask people why you should like it. Just carry on and play something else.

This sort of reason and logic had no place on the internet. Stop being so rational!

 

[WhyWasThat]

F This has always confused me, as having played the lengthy demos for both Mass Effect 2 and 3

looks like a 'i didnt bother to play the full game' scenario.

so its clear that you would not fully comprehend.

better than half life? not sure. but it could had been on par or surpass it with half life in its own genre. if it didn't screw everything up in the end.

inb4: would you "get" whats so special about half life if you only had played the demo?

Yes, I would actually. My first experience with Half Life was when a friend of mine suggested that we should take a break from playing the PS2 in order to try out the Half Life 2 demo that was on his old PC. You know what I said?
"What's Half Life 2?"
The rest is history.

 

[mfeff]

I used to call Mass Effect the "Sheridan" Experience... as the series initially used tropes from Babylon 5, and borrowed pretty heavily from Star Trek... The second game was decent but more or less ended where it began, eh but it worked. It was an interesting take on the good old Hero's Journey which revolved around the interesting characters against the backdrop of the setting... that being said...

ME3... ohhh where to even begin? Retcons, plot holes, nonsensical "artistic" visions... ultimately a rush job loaded with conveniences. Just assume play Gears of War, being that is what ME3 so desperately wants to be.

If you don't find anything to like I don't blame you... neither did I.

Not the biggest fan of Half-Life so I dunno if I could offer a fair comparison but the idea that ME as a whole is some high water mark for interactive narrative is, by my estimation, a bunk notion or perpetuated myth. One that seemingly states that complex narrative has been achieved in video games... which of course, it has not.

ME1 took me back to games from SSI and New World Computing... Planet's Edge comes to mind.
ME2, sure it was dirty dozen in space... Technically it was the better game, but as an RPGish thing, ME1 I personally think is better.

ME3... garbage, (outside of the Krogan/Geth arcs) which are established in ME1 and 2 and by all accounts had to be resolved, and where written well before development of ME3.

 

[wintercoat]

F This has always confused me, as having played the lengthy demos for both Mass Effect 2 and 3

looks like a 'i didnt bother to play the full game' scenario.

so its clear that you would not fully comprehend.

better than half life? not sure. but it could had been on par or surpass it with half life in its own genre. if it didn't screw everything up in the end.

inb4: would you get half life if you only had played the demo?

I wouldn't have, to be honest. Based on everything I saw about the games prior to actually playing them, the Half Life games looked like rather mediocre shooters that everyone drooled over because of who made them rather than their actual quality. It's actually one of the guns, for both games, that got me to play them. The bee gun in the first, the rebar crossbow in the second. The campiness of shooting bees at my enemies won me over for playing the first, and the novelty of pinning enemies to the wall with red hot rebar got me to play 2. I'm weird like that.

 

[natster43]

Good writing, good gameplay, likable characters and such. Also it is fun, but hey those are just opinions.

 

[Bobic]

Half Life is eclipsed by everything, it's an over hyped shooter that only gets any publicity because it's made by valve.

Ok, not getting into the topic of the thread at all, but that is just factually wrong. The only reason anyone knows who valve are is because they released half life, it's the game that put them on the map. They certainly didn't buy it because it was made by valve, they care about valve because they made half life.

 

[bluesession]

For me is the science fiction. It has a very well written sci-fi setting. Besides that, the rest (gameplay, story, etc) is ok.
I would never tell you mass effect can eclipse anything, is kinda a niche game, its not for everyone.
But that said (and even with the ME3 fiasco) its definetly a game I will replay in the future.

 

[dimensional]

Mass effect is good so is Half Life its just they are big games and get a lot of attention personally I enjoy both series I just dont find them great and so when they start to receive undue praise (from my perspective) it rankles me a bit then you get others beating them down heavily saying they are shit which isnt true either and on we go.

Whether its better than Half Life is irrelevant im sure some people think superman 64 is better than both and if you are one of those people dont feel the need to voice your opinion or say anything.....ever.

 

[Sam17]

strangely, people like different things

i was never a fan of half life personally, always thought it suffered from sequel syndrome; same old gameplay/mechanics just a change of scenery and a sub-par storyline

use your loaf, mate

 

[Zhukov]

[snip]

Looks like this has to be said one more time SALES DO NOT EQUAL QUALITY.

Regardless of how good Mass Effect is or isn't, it simply does not have the widespread appeal and influence of other science fiction properties of this decade

Neither did Star Trek in it's time. Or any other sci-fi show, movie, book at the time of it's creation. Star Wars wasn't as popular in the 70's and 80's as it is today. Blade Runner and Tron are also great examples of this. The pattern has repeated itself more times than you can fathom.

And like the fine gentleman above me said, sales =/= quality. Just look at Call of Duty for fuck sake. It's all about marketing strategy.

You guys are missing his point.

He didn't say anything about quality. In fact, he kind of dismissed it as a factor.

He was talking about impact. Sales may not be indicative of quality, but they sure as hell are indicative of impact.

 

[cerebus23]

For some time now, pretty much since Mass Effect 2 released, fans haven't been able to shut up about how amazing the Mass Effect series is. This has always confused me, as having played the lengthy demos for both Mass Effect 2 and 3, I have to say that fair graphics, standard gameplay, okayish acting, and Jordan Shephard's glassy eyed mannequin head didn't even come close to impressing me. But I just rolled my eyes and got on with it.
However, in a very recent post on this very forum, a user claimed that Half Life 3 would probably not be worth the wait due to the Mass Effect series having very likely eclipsed Valve's flagship series in the meantime.

Mass Effect. Better. Than Half Life.
That was the final straw.

So I ask you all... What the fuck is the big deal?

half life was awesome mass effect was awesome, good enough?

i am sure many more people that played half life, as we are "gamers" we tend to play all sorts of games by our very natures.

but not every person that played mass effect played half life. mass effect had the rather fortunate prospect of landing on the scene about the time battlestar galactica was on and many women were tuning into scifi in big numbers, mass effect kinda dropped right when bsg was at its peak.

So many new gamers picked up mass effect and found a whole game universe where their shepherd was a hero or anti hero.

And many of those people invested a ton into each and every game, on multiple playthroughs and some went so far as to pick up the fiction novels, comic books, etc that tied into it all.

So you can see how people that say invested about 10 years of their life into a game series, might think that is the best game series ever made.

And heck we cannot even get a half life 3 out of valve to finish the cliffhanger of half life 2 for how many years now? Seem now there finally might be some glimmer of hl3 in the works but i will have to find and play hl2 again to even remember wth all happened.

Valve will probably nail it but how many mass effect players are going to play hl3 anyway or have any clue about the events of hl2 at all? Maybe valve will finally jump the shark and really make a bad game, who knows until something is out on steam that has half life 3 attached to it we can actually play.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I love Mass Effect and Half-Life.

I also love watching people put stuff on ridiculous pedestals and getting pissy when someone disagrees with them.

This is an obvious troll thread, and yes, this popcorn is freaking great!

 

[gigastar]

Opinions! People can like and dislike what they want. Some people like Mass Effect for many a reason such as the universe you play in, certain characters or perhaps the combat. Other people may not like it for similar reasons such as yourself or because of the ending to Mass Effect 3.

If you want options, why dont you play Deus Ex? You get options on how you go about completing quests and on how you relate to people. And youre not tied down by an arbitary morality meter that may restrict your options if youre not enough of a saint to help someone or if youre not enough of a douche to punch someone during a conversation.

 

[ElPatron]

I wouldn't have, to be honest. Based on everything I saw about the games prior to actually playing them, the Half Life games looked like rather mediocre shooters that everyone drooled over because of who made them

Wait. Half-Life was made famous by Valve and not the opposite?

Have I switched to a parallel universe?

 

[wintercoat]

I wouldn't have, to be honest. Based on everything I saw about the games prior to actually playing them, the Half Life games looked like rather mediocre shooters that everyone drooled over because of who made them

Wait. Half-Life was made famous by Valve and not the opposite?

Have I switched to a parallel universe?

Well, considering when I played them both(last year), and the fact that I have only had an internet connection for the past 5 years, yes, that's exactly how it came off, that the only reason so much praise was heaped on both games was because they were made by Valve. It seemed like all of the praise for them was "OMG VALVE !!!!!" It's like Tarantino's movies. Half the fans of his movies seem to elevate all of his movies to perfect status solely because he made them rather than based on their quality.