The Mass Effect RPG loop - get me out please

[Conza]

Hi, I love Mass Effect a lot, so much so, I've started the game probably 5 times, and finished it, solidly, 3 times.

I want to stop myself starting try number 6, by finding another PC FPS/RPG or RPG that will give me similar/same elements and crucially a different story.

I've also played ME2 and ME3 and clocked them, but didn't love them the same way as ME1.

I have a decent PC, 670GTX OC, so pretty much anything goes, willing to go back, I guess a decade (The original Deus Ex I couldn't get into sadly). Others I've tried recently, I loved Bioshock Infinite, played to the end as well, but that for me was more shooter than RPG.

Any suggestions guys? Hope this is either an original type thread or atleast hasn't been done in a while

EDIT: Gee, I should probably say what I loved about ME right?

I played as a sniper (Infiltrator), and would love another sniper type game, loved the customisations to the weapons, even if the inventory system sucked, I thought it was still worth it overall.

Well, the main story was great of course, no spoilers here, but I found myself going to every single planet, finding Geth, and shooting their brains out, that was so much fun! I did that 3 times over it was that much fun. Driving up in the Mako (car), finding a good spot on a mountain, and picking them off one by one. I mean in the main story the gameplay was more like, 2 foot high walls, cover, lean out and shoot, also great gameplay.

So yeah, that's why I sunk maybe 90-120 hours into that game over several play throughs, I'm sure there are other bits I liked, but that's the main things that comes to mind.

EDIT 2: Would definately want it to be an RPG though, not just an FPS, and I accept that the RPG elements of all the Mass Effect series, could be considered light, but with that much RPG or more would be enough for me.

 

[AD-Stu]

Alpha Protocol is the first title that springs to my mind. It's an action-RPG in much the same vein as Mass Effect, with an involving story. Present day espionage setting rather than sci fi, but I'm assuming that won't be a problem? It offers you the weapon customisation and it's open to a whole range of play styles (stealth, kill-everything-that-moves, etc).

Plus there's a particular boss fight that ranks up there with the best of all time.

I should really go back and play it again, actually.

 

[shrekfan246]

Alpha Protocol and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

As AD-Stu said, Alpha Protocol is an espionage-shooter-RPG with mechanics that are very similar to the first Mass Effect game: Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability, interactions with other characters work with a dialogue wheel that influences how they react to you (though all choices are timed, so you have to be on the ball with your decisions and have to get a feel for the personalities of the other characters depending on whether you want them to like or hate you), and perhaps most importantly it's a game where many of the actions you take will directly impact future missions you embark on and will be called back and referenced multiple times and also influence how people respond to you.

Deus Ex has perhaps slightly more shooter-y shooter mechanics, in that it's not quite so dependent on how you level your character, but building a stealth-based pistol wielding Adam Jensen is still going to make using assault rifles a pain. It's set in a cyberpunk-lite universe and, in my opinion, has an absolutely phenomenal story and some of the best level design to exist in modern action games. Plus, the Director's Cut edition which released a few months back adds new rooms to the boss fights, allowing you to take them down in more ways than were present in the base game, because if you weren't offensively focused then they were almost all extremely obnoxious and out-of-place when compared to the relative openness of the rest of the game.

Neither of the games are really "sniper" games, per se, but Human Revolution does have a few different types of sniper rifle (depending on if you want to be lethal or not) and playing either game as full stealth games requires you to spend most of your time carefully lining up shots anyway (or sneaking up behind them to use cheap one-hit melee takedowns, but that's another story).

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Alpha Protocol is the first title that springs to my mind. It's an action-RPG in much the same vein as Mass Effect, with an involving story. Present day espionage setting rather than sci fi, but I'm assuming that won't be a problem? It offers you the weapon customisation and it's open to a whole range of play styles (stealth, kill-everything-that-moves, etc).

Plus there's a particular boss fight that ranks up there with the best of all time.

I should really go back and play it again, actually.

i hope you are referring to this boss

Spoiler: spoiler for the game

if so then I agree completely, from the song to his personality to coking up to go into hyper knife mode it all fit perfectly.

OT: by your tastes I would definitely recommend alpha protocol, solid rpg that puts RPG first and shooting second, you gotta line up your shots otherwise there is a high chance they won't hit. not to mention one of the best games where choices actually matter that I've ever seen.

others I might add are(not necessarily shooters, but rpgs with a slight focus on story/player customization):

fable: the lost chapters edition

Fallout 3 or New vegas (new vegas personally tickles my fancy)

Mars War logs (this game is VERY rough around the edges, made by a low budgeted dev team, but I still enjoyed it enough for a very fun playthrough)

 

[Conza]

Wow ok some great responses, thanks everyone so far.

I'll say with Alpha Protocol, I haven't played it, but I might give it a shot, its $20 on steam atm, may be cheaper elsewhere, I am concerned about the gameplay elements, if its like Shrek says that "Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability" That's a deal breaker imo, I want the satisfation of aiming and killing something, not some sort of back end maths calc to say 'ok you're good enough to kill that guy'. Having said that, as your skill increased in ME, it got 'easier' to kill things (more stable weapon, more power, better zoom(?), ect), so if its more like that, then that's definately a consideration.

Deus Ex and I didn't get on, I bought it when it first came out, something about it sort of made me lose interest, the whole stealth thing isn't exactly my favourite type of gameplay, the RPG side was 'ok', but yeah gameplay is number one for me.

Fallout 3, another should be awesome game for me, not another great success, sort of lost interest somewhere after the second town, don't know why, but not a winner here.

Fable I've heard mixed things about, its a Microsoft game for a start, but there was one thing that put me off it initially, struggling to remember what it was, I only own a PC and a PS3, so if its that its only on Xbox/360, then that'd be it, but I thought it was something else.

 

[Bertylicious]

Wow ok some great responses, thanks everyone so far.

I'll say with Alpha Protocol, I haven't played it, but I might give it a shot, its $20 on steam atm, may be cheaper elsewhere, I am concerned about the gameplay elements, if its like Shrek says that "Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability" That's a deal breaker imo, I want the satisfation of aiming and killing something, not some sort of back end maths calc to say 'ok you're good enough to kill that guy'. Having said that, as your skill increased in ME, it got 'easier' to kill things (more stable weapon, more power, better zoom(?), ect), so if its more like that, then that's definately a consideration.

Deus Ex and I didn't get on, I bought it when it first came out, something about it sort of made me lose interest, the whole stealth thing isn't exactly my favourite type of gameplay, the RPG side was 'ok', but yeah gameplay is number one for me.

Fallout 3, another should be awesome game for me, not another great success, sort of lost interest somewhere after the second town, don't know why, but not a winner here.

Fable I've heard mixed things about, its a Microsoft game for a start, but there was one thing that put me off it initially, struggling to remember what it was, I only own a PC and a PS3, so if its that its only on Xbox/360, then that'd be it, but I thought it was something else.

I imagine you could find Alpha Protocol for less than 20 bucks, it is pretty old.

Would Stalker be of any interest? I spent most of the game sneaking around with a scoped rifle shooting dudes in the head. In terms of RPG mechanics there are no bars to fill up but you can customise your gun, armour and find all these cool artifacts to give you passive bonuses.

 

[shrekfan246]

Wow ok some great responses, thanks everyone so far.

I'll say with Alpha Protocol, I haven't played it, but I might give it a shot, its $20 on steam atm, may be cheaper elsewhere, I am concerned about the gameplay elements, if its like Shrek says that "Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability" That's a deal breaker imo, I want the satisfation of aiming and killing something, not some sort of back end maths calc to say 'ok you're good enough to kill that guy'. Having said that, as your skill increased in ME, it got 'easier' to kill things (more stable weapon, more power, better zoom(?), ect), so if its more like that, then that's definately a consideration.

It's more like ME than not, in my opinion.

It feels a bit like a halfway point between the RNG and skill checks of games like Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age and the gunplay of Mass Effect; When you've got your targeting circle over the enemy it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to hit them, but as you level up your proficiency with whatever your preferred weapon is aiming becomes a bit faster, more stable, and more precise, or you get certain perks like being able to line up automatic crit shots if you aim long enough before firing.

If you didn't get on with the gameplay of Human Revolution it might be worth waiting until Alpha Protocol is on a Steam sale or something. It's quite a bit friendlier to run&gun or straight cover-shooting than Human Revolution and the story and characters will actually make note of your playstyle (either trying to be sneaky and non-lethal, sneaky and lethal, or charging in with the subtlety of a rhinoceros), but "espionage" is right in the name after all. The first hour or two before you can really choose your specialty focus a bit heavily on the stealth side of things and your weapon skills start uniformly pretty terrible, so it might not endear you to how neat the rest of the game can really be.

 

[DeadProxy]

I've been playing The Witcher Enhanced edition since the christmas steam sale, and it's pretty good. One of its tag lines is just "There are no good or bad choices, just consequences." And theres plenty of choices to be made.

Combat is a little on the simple side in that you attack with timed clicks of your mouse, which seemed to throw alot of people off according to the reviews. And choosing what style (fast,slow,group) and blade type (silver or normal) to deal with all the different enemies in the game. Theres also 5 spells in the game to help change up the battles or add some extra dps if you need it. And potion making system for all your buffs and main healing since food does such a tiny amount of stuff.

Anyway, it's pretty cheap on steam, could probably get both games for less than 25 bucks and you'll get at least 15 hours out of the first game.


Just happened to remember this part too, you get a number of opportunities to bang chicks in this game. Nothing graphic, but there are plenty of women out there just waiting to be plowed lol.

 

[not_you]

As someone posted before, I can vouch for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games... Although they look a bit dated they are pretty good...

To be fair, I have never played Mass Effect, so I can't draw comparison between my suggestions...

Although in terms of RPG elements, it does seem a bit lacking in that regard, so, there's really not much else to go on besides inventory management and which faction you want to friend with... But there is a LOT to explore... Since most events are randomly generated you'll never run out of things to do, but some of the maps are huge, so there's always something new to find... (Clear Sky or Call of Pripyat are my recommendations... Not Shadow of Chernobyl) Stealthy sniping is the best strategy in these games, and almost any weapon can be made into one, but if they spot you, either run or hope you have a lot of bullets...

Fallout 3/New Vegas is the only other game I can wholeheartedly recommend...
Although the level of "shooting" required is usually covered by VATS... But it does have the issues of "skills low = accuracy low"

Again, because I haven't played Mass Effect I can't make direct comparisons... But many hours can be sucked away by either of those games...

 

[AntiChri5]

Only three playthroughs of ME1? Man, i have to play it at least 3 times just to get a character ready for ME2.

To put that into perspective, i have finished ME2 more then 12 times.

 

[ColaWarVeteran]

Wow. Gotta say I'm pleasantly surprised that people are suggesting Alpha Protocol. I loved that game when it came out and it's one of the few games I played enough to 1000/1000. Sadly, I seemed to be in the minority since most reviews trashed the hell out of that game to the point where a sequel was almost immediately off the table.

OT: Can't really add much. Anything I could think of has already been suggested.

 

[camazotz]

My suggestions: try Fallout 3 and then Fallout:NV, those will cater to the sniper in you as well as provide a robust RPG. I've plugged at least 100 hours into the PC version and another 70 on the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 alone.

If you're not averse to a faux-historical get into the Assassin's Creed series. There's more of an action aspect to the game play, yes, but the story is hard to beat. I've been averaging 20-35 hours per installment, and with seven of them out on PC that's a lot of gameplay. It does not contain any hardcore sniping however, but will be a dream (or nightmare) to completionists.

 

[AD-Stu]

i hope you are referring to this boss

LOL - yep, that's absolutely the one I'm talking about. I had to replay that section a dozen times to be able to beat him and the frustration was outweighed by the hilarity every single time. Awesome.

I'll say with Alpha Protocol, I haven't played it, but I might give it a shot, its $20 on steam atm, may be cheaper elsewhere, I am concerned about the gameplay elements, if its like Shrek says that "Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability" That's a deal breaker imo, I want the satisfation of aiming and killing something, not some sort of back end maths calc to say 'ok you're good enough to kill that guy'. Having said that, as your skill increased in ME, it got 'easier' to kill things (more stable weapon, more power, better zoom(?), ect), so if its more like that, then that's definately a consideration.

I don't remember it being that big of a deal - you get skills later on that make things much easier (a slowdown mechanic, for example) but even before that it's not like a Fallout / XCom RNG type experience. Alpha Protocol felt very familiar to me mechanically, and I was a big Mass Effect fan going in.

My gut feeling is you should probably be able to get it cheaper than $20 these days though.

 

[Saetha]

Fable I've heard mixed things about, its a Microsoft game for a start, but there was one thing that put me off it initially, struggling to remember what it was, I only own a PC and a PS3, so if its that its only on Xbox/360, then that'd be it, but I thought it was something else.

Fable is... I personally loved the first game, so I can't speak really for it's critics, but as I understand it's biggest problem is that it got a lot of hype prior to release, and when people played the game and it turned out that it wasn't what they were told - well, you know. I went in cold, and ended up loving it. Not to say that Fable hasn't got it's flaws, though. Just that a lot of people were disappointed.

As for the game itself, there is a lot of customization, and the story's interesting. You'd probably want to play as a ranger, though. I think a ranger's ability to actually land a hit is only determined by numbers and calculations if you're just firing in the heat of battle - you can go into crosshair mode with the bow and use it to line up individual shots, with your character getting more power and less tremble as you improve. On the other hand, while my memory's a little fuzzy, I think you have to unlock crosshair mode - if you do, then only by leveling up, and I'm certain that it was an early level ability...

Well, anyway. There's a lot to explore in the game, too. If you just rush right to the quest objective, yeah, you're likely to miss out on a lot of awesome stuff. And you can explore half the game world as soon as the tutorial's done, so you can ignore all those stupid Guild members and all their stupid world-ending crisises and just shoot the heads off of bandits in Greatwood.

It's on Steam right now, for just ten bucks, too.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Wow ok some great responses, thanks everyone so far.

I'll say with Alpha Protocol, I haven't played it, but I might give it a shot, its $20 on steam atm, may be cheaper elsewhere, I am concerned about the gameplay elements, if its like Shrek says that "Shooting will be more determined by your character skills rather than your personal aiming ability" That's a deal breaker imo, I want the satisfation of aiming and killing something, not some sort of back end maths calc to say 'ok you're good enough to kill that guy'. Having said that, as your skill increased in ME, it got 'easier' to kill things (more stable weapon, more power, better zoom(?), ect), so if its more like that, then that's definately a consideration.

it is pretty similar to mass effect that as your skills grow (level up) your accuracy increases (if that respective weapon skill you level up) and if you customize the weapons right with the right tech upgrades, HOWEVER, if you are running around full speed and trying to hit people with pinpoint precision with pistols, that is unlikely to happen (which you can use smg's and shotguns for that style of play. Me personally? I enjoyed the slight stealth/pistol master combo, sticking to cover and owning with lined up headshots seemed to do the trick for me every time.)

also, fallout new vegas is different from 3 in that it has a much tighter (and in my opinion, much better) story and characters, which made new vegas replayeable over and over while i struggled to make it through fallout 3 once. so perhaps you'll have the same luck?

but as people have mentioned, you can find most of these games for cheap on sales somewhere online, don't pay 20 bucks or whatever it is for the full price!

also fable the lost chapters doesn't require GFWL if you were in fear of that..otherwise i'd check some trailers/gameplay of it if you are questioning it.

you can get it through steam for 10 bucks, or find it online for a cd copy for decently cheap too I think...but the second one i don't think came out for pc and the third one is currently in cahootz with being part of the GFWL shutdown...

i hope you are referring to this boss

LOL - yep, that's absolutely the one I'm talking about. I had to replay that section a dozen times to be able to beat him and the frustration was outweighed by the hilarity every single time. Awesome.

Yeah the first time after he knifed me in coke mode I came to a screeching halt on close combat, snuck around and pistol obliterated his face as many times as possible with chain shot, thankfully only took me 3x to beat him (although i'm not sure if that's such a good thing considering how awesome that boss battle was...)

 

[daveNYC]

It's pretty old, but Jade Empire is a great RPG. Martial arts based combat, solid story, Bioware title. Combat gets pretty easy (like explosive mod on the best shotgun in ME easy), but it's got the second best 'twist' of any Bioware story, and the art, while quite dated, is still very nice.