I have to say...I prefer Mass Effect 2's take on exploration. I know you can really hardly call it that, but it was so tedious and unrewarding in the first game. All the non-story planets were filled with copy and pasted locations and just had an ounce of story to them (that was usually told to you in a dialogue box after you killed everything). And getting there could be a pain in the ass. I used to defend the Mako, but now that I've been much more thorough (I'm pretty sure I did everything you possibly can do on my last playthrough) I've seen how extremely poorly the Mako handles on many planets (there's one in the Geth Incursions side quest, and I think another one in the Major Kyle one too that are filled with steep and unclimbable mountains).
I didn't miss the Mako. Not to mention the missions it led to were often just too vanilla, so the payoff just wasn't there. Mass Effect 2's side missions were just better and more varied. They didn't re-use locations and didn't always boil down to "kill everyone in the base".
I agree that the side missions in ME2 were better in that they were more varied and diverse but I'm having trouble thinking of a side mission where you could move to the next room without killing everything in the current room. I thought "kill everyone in the base" applied to ME2 as well.
There was the one in which you release a VI's control of a Cerberus research station. There were no enemies in the station. You could die in a particular hallway from extremely hot fumes that were periodically released. The VI tried to discourage you from "killing it" the whole time.
There was also one (though I wouldn't say this one was handled well. It was kind of Mass Effect 2's attempt at platforming...without a jump button) in which you found a crashed ship and recovered some data from the wreckage.
There were two or three others without any combat. One had you restore a colony's shield to protect it from solar radiation. Another had a Mining Mech that you had to keep finding power cells for (though there may have been a couple of varren there). Then there were a few Hammerhead missions with no combat (and I did actually like the Hammerhead...as long as I wasn't fighting in it).
Coming from someone who would rather just scrap vehicle sections altogether, I found the controls of the Mako to be rather manageable, really. What really did it for me was the map layout. Every planet required me to drive this thing up a mountain.
I got pretty good with it, because I'm a determined completionist, but I was anxious for the day when I got everything possible done with the Mako, because the handling was awful. It got stuck for no reason whatsoever. I found the Hammerhead missions a poor substitute, though. If they'd had Mako-style exploration in a hovering vehicle like the Hammerhead that wouldn't get hung up on the scenery all the time, that would be perfect.
While I understand that the controls for the Mako was not perfect they were newer a problem for me. I loved the experianse of seeing my rover-tank descend from within the bowels of my ship down to a alien surface. I found the planets full of atmosphere and tone especialky the ones with the hazard warning.
I liked the Mako, I liked the planet exploration and the controlls were not a problem .
Personally I hated the Mako. I hate vehicle sections of games in general, they're always horrible to control and usually impossible to aim the weapons of if they have them.
The Mako wasn't that bad in terms of those two points, but the Mako sections were still boring and felt dull.
Although I did love Mass Effect. I just hated the Mako with a passion.
I have to say...I prefer Mass Effect 2's take on exploration. I know you can really hardly call it that, but it was so tedious and unrewarding in the first game. All the non-story planets were filled with copy and pasted locations and just had an ounce of story to them (that was usually told to you in a dialogue box after you killed everything). And getting there could be a pain in the ass. I used to defend the Mako, but now that I've been much more thorough (I'm pretty sure I did everything you possibly can do on my last playthrough) I've seen how extremely poorly the Mako handles on many planets (there's one in the Geth Incursions side quest, and I think another one in the Major Kyle one too that are filled with steep and unclimbable mountains).
I didn't miss the Mako. Not to mention the missions it led to were often just too vanilla, so the payoff just wasn't there. Mass Effect 2's side missions were just better and more varied. They didn't re-use locations and didn't always boil down to "kill everyone in the base".
I agree that the side missions in ME2 were better in that they were more varied and diverse but I'm having trouble thinking of a side mission where you could move to the next room without killing everything in the current room. I thought "kill everyone in the base" applied to ME2 as well.
There was the one in which you release a VI's control of a Cerberus research station. There were no enemies in the station. You could die in a particular hallway from extremely hot fumes that were periodically released. The VI tried to discourage you from "killing it" the whole time.
There was also one (though I wouldn't say this one was handled well. It was kind of Mass Effect 2's attempt at platforming...without a jump button) in which you found a crashed ship and recovered some data from the wreckage.
There were two or three others without any combat. One had you restore a colony's shield to protect it from solar radiation. Another had a Mining Mech that you had to keep finding power cells for (though there may have been a couple of varren there). Then there were a few Hammerhead missions with no combat (and I did actually like the Hammerhead...as long as I wasn't fighting in it).
ah, I forgot about those. I think ME1 had a couple of noncombat missions too but because they were copy pasted bases, it lost quite a bit of atmosphere.
An example I can think of is when you convince the cult leader to turn himself in, avoiding combat. There was also the woman who gained control over some mercs after you take out the other two leaders, you can convince her to disband it or fight her. I can't think of any other ones off the top of my head though.
One interesting combat mission had you fighting combatants while avoiding killing the innocent people who were walking around aimlessly, which was a nice change of pace(if paragon anyway).
I loved just driving around in the Mako, exploring everywhere, seeing whats over this hill, seeing whats over there. Personally I dont think the problem was ever with the Mako i think the only thing that let the Mako down was the lack of variety in planets, ie. the terrain, gravity, weather conditions were generally the same everywhere and if they had added abit of customisation to the Mako (like a paintjob, or changing weapon etc.) then it would have make things even more fun.
I miss that car so much, especially after the disaster that was the Hammerhead.
Give me back my baby in ME3. It's still in good condition even after surviving explosions and the complete destruction of the Normandy! Let Garrus fix it up and it'll be as good as new!
I had some fun times. Granted, there were frustrating times, but it was fun roaming around the planets in that little thing.
edit: I found that each location on a map had at least 1 easily traversed mountain path to get to it, I as well as others, just didn't have the patience to look for it. Which might be a good thing considering open land is alot less open when forcing a player to take a particular path... or it could just be bad game design.
Interesting didn't know that hmm. I knew that sometimes I would spend like 5 minutes trying to slowly go up a 89 degree incline then accidentally hit my thrusters and knock myself off then I look around nearly ready to throw my controller and then spot the path...needless to say some choice words were said.
OT: I loved the mako, sure it had its down side like when you bounce off a rock and flip and spin like 720 degrees. The thrusters honestly didn't do much at all. But over all it wasn't bad enough to completely take out of the series and replace it with that horrible and not too mention impractical hammerhead. I mean seriously everytime they landed back in the normandy they would tear up the floor. But I didn't like the hammerhead because it took damage way to easily, and the missions for it seemed specifically made to cater to it and seemed pointless. It just gave them reasons to put pointless jumps everywhere. Hey you got to get on to the other side of the colony but there is a river OF LAVA ooooo.
I think the main problem with the mako besides the 5hours it seemd to recharge the shields was not actually the mako but the craggy ass terrain you had to go across.
I miss that car so much, especially after the disaster that was the Hammerhead.
Give me back my baby in ME3. It's still in good condition even after surviving explosions and the complete destruction of the Normandy! Let Garrus fix it up and it'll be as good as new!
I had some fun times. Granted, there were frustrating times, but it was fun roaming around the planets in that little thing.
I love it. Except one time I got stuck in a hole on some planet or other because I got out of the damn thing and I couldn't get close enough to get back in because there's NO JUMP BUTTON. Sigh. Oh well, thank God for Quicksave!
To me the Mako was the best part about running around on a small patch land on a planet. It handled well and fun going up mountains and jumping off them.
I didn't think the Mako segments were that bad at all. Granted, it takes forever for your shields to get back up whenever you get damaged, but other than that, I found them enjoyable.
After ME2's retarted resource gathering and this flying-kite-thing (guess it was called a Hammerhead), the bouncy tank got even better. I kinda enjoyed roaming "freely" around the different planets, looking for trouble and loot. ME2 fucked it up by separation and dullness.
I had a controller and thought the Mako was just fine. There were two planets (I think) where they had one single path you could follow which was annoying, but beyond that it was great. Then they removed it altogether, only to replace it with that Hammerhead thing which I am sure is made out of either tissue paper or wet paper bags and might as well have a nerf gun for a weapon.
Mako > Hammerhead, by far. I would have liked the Hammerhead a lot more if it had some racing usage instead of combat. As it is now, the Hammerhead worlds are just plain annoying, whereas the Mako had way better levels, at least where you needed to use it to progress in the game. I didn't explore very much beyond the side quests.
I liked the Mako for its handling too. The reason it feels off to a lot of people is the fact that the center of gravity for the Mako is below ground. Because of this, it's almost impossible to get stuck on the roof, but the handling gets a bit weird because of it. That said though, I really liked it, and the boosters are really fun to play around with.
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