What can Mass Effect 3 do to be better than its predecessors?
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Mix aspects of Mass Effect 1&2 together. There are parts that ME1 that I liked over ME2 and vice versa. There are problems in ME1 that were removed in ME2... only to be replaced with new problems. Here's some of my "Improvements for ME3 that I'd like to see" list:
-Avoid the horribly complex and annoying inventory system of ME1 but give us more than the "Choose one of two weapons for each weapon class" that was in ME2. More options for weapons but don't make it so tedious to look through them.
-Random planet exploration shouldn't be like the Mako from ME1. The parts with the Hammerhead in the various DLCs was nice I'd like it more like that. And no planet scanning. That was incredibly boring.
-Do away with the loading screens. I was happy when I heard that they were going to get rid of the long elevator rides in ME2, but I was disappointed when I found out that they just replaced them with loading screens that felt just as long. Plus they were boring. At least your team members would chat during the elevator ride, which was interesting. So either ditch the loading screens or at least cover them up with something to make it feel like your still in the game rather than breaking it with a boring a repetitive loading screen.
-Bring back the overheating aspect of the weapons. I'm sure other people found it annoying but I had no problem with it and I liked not having to worry about ammo. Switching it to heat sinks in ME2 felt like a downgrade. Infinite ammo that was only limited by overheating (which became near-negligible by the end of the game) to limited ammo (with guns like the hand cannon feeling like they had to little) doesn't sound like progress.
-More abilities per character. In ME1 each character had about 8-10 abilities they could use during combat. In ME2 they "stream-lined" it and made each character have 3 (some of which were just having special ammo) with Shepard having 4-5. Maybe some people like the simplicity of ME2 as opposed to ME1, but I didn't really like not having more abilities to use.
-Loyalty missions were fun in ME2, but at times I felt like I was just collecting a bunch of people then making them better. I understand that that was a big part of ME2 story as you were gathering the best the galaxy has to offer then forging them into a cohesive team under your leadership before making the assualt on the Collector's main base, but it still felt like I was just collecting A,B,C,D,E and several more letters for a quest. If I remember correctly there are only about 4 or 5 main storyline mission that didn't involve you (a)gaining a new team member or (b)gaining a team members loyalty. In ME1 you gained team members as you went along, you didn't go out simply to collect them. The number of loyalty mission in ME2 may have worked for its story but please don't make ME3 a bunch of loyalty mission with races instead of team members and at the end you fight the Reapers in one climatic battle. I want a fucking war, even if the Reapers seem to be steam-rolling the galaxy at first.
Hmm... I've really been ranting for a bit now. I guess in the end I would like it if they combined the best parts of ME1 with the best parts of ME2 and leave out all the crap in both games. Other than that I doubt Bioware will screw ME3 up.
-Avoid the horribly complex and annoying inventory system of ME1 but give us more than the "Choose one of two weapons for each weapon class" that was in ME2. More options for weapons but don't make it so tedious to look through them.
-Random planet exploration shouldn't be like the Mako from ME1. The parts with the Hammerhead in the various DLCs was nice I'd like it more like that. And no planet scanning. That was incredibly boring.
-Do away with the loading screens. I was happy when I heard that they were going to get rid of the long elevator rides in ME2, but I was disappointed when I found out that they just replaced them with loading screens that felt just as long. Plus they were boring. At least your team members would chat during the elevator ride, which was interesting. So either ditch the loading screens or at least cover them up with something to make it feel like your still in the game rather than breaking it with a boring a repetitive loading screen.
-Bring back the overheating aspect of the weapons. I'm sure other people found it annoying but I had no problem with it and I liked not having to worry about ammo. Switching it to heat sinks in ME2 felt like a downgrade. Infinite ammo that was only limited by overheating (which became near-negligible by the end of the game) to limited ammo (with guns like the hand cannon feeling like they had to little) doesn't sound like progress.
-More abilities per character. In ME1 each character had about 8-10 abilities they could use during combat. In ME2 they "stream-lined" it and made each character have 3 (some of which were just having special ammo) with Shepard having 4-5. Maybe some people like the simplicity of ME2 as opposed to ME1, but I didn't really like not having more abilities to use.
-Loyalty missions were fun in ME2, but at times I felt like I was just collecting a bunch of people then making them better. I understand that that was a big part of ME2 story as you were gathering the best the galaxy has to offer then forging them into a cohesive team under your leadership before making the assualt on the Collector's main base, but it still felt like I was just collecting A,B,C,D,E and several more letters for a quest. If I remember correctly there are only about 4 or 5 main storyline mission that didn't involve you (a)gaining a new team member or (b)gaining a team members loyalty. In ME1 you gained team members as you went along, you didn't go out simply to collect them. The number of loyalty mission in ME2 may have worked for its story but please don't make ME3 a bunch of loyalty mission with races instead of team members and at the end you fight the Reapers in one climatic battle. I want a fucking war, even if the Reapers seem to be steam-rolling the galaxy at first.
Hmm... I've really been ranting for a bit now. I guess in the end I would like it if they combined the best parts of ME1 with the best parts of ME2 and leave out all the crap in both games. Other than that I doubt Bioware will screw ME3 up.
Something along these lines. A happy medium of sorts would be ideal. Consider the first two games a testing-ground of sorts..Onyx Oblivion said:
Also, armor customization for your team. Most of the outfits in the second game were awful. Even the alternate versions.
I liked having to wear pink armor in the first because it gave you a sense of urgency when it came to procuring something less fruity
I have no idea what would be good or bad gameplay decisions for the third one, but I do know that the ending would be my favorite part. Ive had a vision since ME2 about what all of your choices thus far are leading toward. Examples like sparing the Rachni Queen, keeping Zhu's Hope going, appeasing the quarians and/or telling them to forget about war with the geth, letting Wrex live on Virmire so he could lead a powerful clan on Tuchanka, rewriting the heretic geth, befriending the Shadow Broker, letting various crime bosses and mercenaries live, letting Balak go on Asteroid X57, and keeping the Council alive should all factor into what the final battle looks like.
Say, youre fighting with your squad when indoctrinated enemies have you pinned down. If you rewrote the heretic geth in ME2, they would swoop in and take out the forces keeping you from advancing. Otherwise, you would loose a squadmate. Or something else: perhaps one or two Reapers are harassing an Alliance fleet. If you spared the Rachni Queen, her forces could then fly up and destroy those Reapers, saving the lives of the Alliance soldiers. Then, for example, if Cerberus does betray Shepard, Wrex's krogan warriors would save you. Otherwise, another squad member dies.
These are just examples, not what would necessarily be the best courses of action. In any case, I want Kirrahe to be a recruitable squadmate.
Say, youre fighting with your squad when indoctrinated enemies have you pinned down. If you rewrote the heretic geth in ME2, they would swoop in and take out the forces keeping you from advancing. Otherwise, you would loose a squadmate. Or something else: perhaps one or two Reapers are harassing an Alliance fleet. If you spared the Rachni Queen, her forces could then fly up and destroy those Reapers, saving the lives of the Alliance soldiers. Then, for example, if Cerberus does betray Shepard, Wrex's krogan warriors would save you. Otherwise, another squad member dies.
These are just examples, not what would necessarily be the best courses of action. In any case, I want Kirrahe to be a recruitable squadmate.
But it never works out that way. Developers always sacrifice one aspect for another, it can't be full shooter and full RPG. I think it's quite shooty enough now. Just right in fact.Optimystic said:
That's one of the main points of the game. The Reapers wipe out advanced spacefaring civilizations because they feel they have the right to, because without their tech everyone would still be stuck in their own systems. Well, almost everyone. There are traces of ancient cultures that colonized worlds without mass effect technology, but they're long dead, and everyone in the currnet cycle has proceeded along the paths the Reapers desire. They're probably funneling us away from traces of their past xenocides or from weapons which could actually hurt them. Imagine, just off the mass effects lanes are thousands of graveyard worlds, hiding the fact that the Milky Way is mostly a corpse.Supernova2000 said:
Regarding recruiting, take a lesson from their own Dragon Age team. You run in to potential teammates as you play through the plot, and you can recruit them if you want. You don't *need* to get them, though there's extra content if you do. Don't hinge progression on recruiting specific teammates, unless it's early and obvious (i.e. Alistair).
Give us some (significant) variation between weapons - Two or three different assault rifles, but with different function (One does more damage, but has a smaller clip and overheats faster, say). Keep research, but focus on upgrades that are modular - a pistol scope that increases accuracy, a longer shotgun barrel that focuses the spread (more damage if it hits, but a smaller area to scatter into a small hit), improved cooling, etc. Limit the upgrading, so I have to customize my weapons rather than it being a blanket "all my shotguns do more damage" type thing. Let me customize different teammates' weapons individually.
More conversation paths, more small details about the characters (even if it has fuck-all impact on anything) to give them depth, and let us pursue the RPG elements (not leveling, but interacting with the world through more than gun barrels) outside of the "safe" zones. I don't want to be able to talk to my companions in the middle of a firefight, but I do want to be able to talk to them when we're on the Citadel.
Bring the "you really could die here" danger out. Let the reapers strike a decisive and devastating blow halfway through, and let Shepard have to plan and execute a supremely dangerous strike behind enemy lines to open up the possibility of a counterstrike from the main Citadel fleets. The "you'll die if you mess up" danger in ME2 was barely brought up. Sure, overwhelming odds, but that's a day at the office. I want to launch a three-man invasion of an active reaper through a carefully-crafted fake torpedo, fight through waves upon waves of Geth, Collector and other, unknown, enemies to its main brain system, plant explosives, and run the fuck out to hitch a ride on a second escape-pod torpedo. I want to personally plant a nuke in an enemy base *without* a Salarian STG unit as backup, and then fight my way out instead of that being the end. I want real, pressing danger of failure, and I don't want failure to simply being a loading screen. Give me endings that I could bring on myself halfway through, that are a lot less victorious.
Oh, and *fuck* the mining bullshit. Replace mineral mining with stolen research data from enemy computers, or strange, undocumented astral phenomena that the onboard scientists can analyze to discover new technological possibilities. And don't have it be that godawful scanning-and-probe shit. In-mission, or as a component of a full side-quest.
More depth to the environment. Let me land on uncharted worlds and explore, find hidden bases for unconnected organizations - a drug depot for a cartel, a slave trading ring's storehouse - and give me stuff that *isn't* my fault. There should be a depth to the world that doesn't feel like everything is about me. Hell, give me a major plot mission that isn't actually related to the Reaper threat, but looks like it is.
^^^
My personal wishlist. But who am I kidding, I'll buy it without any of this. I just hope Bioware doesn't fuck it up.
Give us some (significant) variation between weapons - Two or three different assault rifles, but with different function (One does more damage, but has a smaller clip and overheats faster, say). Keep research, but focus on upgrades that are modular - a pistol scope that increases accuracy, a longer shotgun barrel that focuses the spread (more damage if it hits, but a smaller area to scatter into a small hit), improved cooling, etc. Limit the upgrading, so I have to customize my weapons rather than it being a blanket "all my shotguns do more damage" type thing. Let me customize different teammates' weapons individually.
More conversation paths, more small details about the characters (even if it has fuck-all impact on anything) to give them depth, and let us pursue the RPG elements (not leveling, but interacting with the world through more than gun barrels) outside of the "safe" zones. I don't want to be able to talk to my companions in the middle of a firefight, but I do want to be able to talk to them when we're on the Citadel.
Bring the "you really could die here" danger out. Let the reapers strike a decisive and devastating blow halfway through, and let Shepard have to plan and execute a supremely dangerous strike behind enemy lines to open up the possibility of a counterstrike from the main Citadel fleets. The "you'll die if you mess up" danger in ME2 was barely brought up. Sure, overwhelming odds, but that's a day at the office. I want to launch a three-man invasion of an active reaper through a carefully-crafted fake torpedo, fight through waves upon waves of Geth, Collector and other, unknown, enemies to its main brain system, plant explosives, and run the fuck out to hitch a ride on a second escape-pod torpedo. I want to personally plant a nuke in an enemy base *without* a Salarian STG unit as backup, and then fight my way out instead of that being the end. I want real, pressing danger of failure, and I don't want failure to simply being a loading screen. Give me endings that I could bring on myself halfway through, that are a lot less victorious.
Oh, and *fuck* the mining bullshit. Replace mineral mining with stolen research data from enemy computers, or strange, undocumented astral phenomena that the onboard scientists can analyze to discover new technological possibilities. And don't have it be that godawful scanning-and-probe shit. In-mission, or as a component of a full side-quest.
More depth to the environment. Let me land on uncharted worlds and explore, find hidden bases for unconnected organizations - a drug depot for a cartel, a slave trading ring's storehouse - and give me stuff that *isn't* my fault. There should be a depth to the world that doesn't feel like everything is about me. Hell, give me a major plot mission that isn't actually related to the Reaper threat, but looks like it is.
^^^
My personal wishlist. But who am I kidding, I'll buy it without any of this. I just hope Bioware doesn't fuck it up.
It'd be nice to see more ways to deal with levels as opposed to just keep shooting until everyone in the room is dead. Different classes should be able to approach problems differently, which would also add to the replay value something I feel that ME2 was severely lacking.
More inventory management stuff. As much as it could be a pain at some moments in the first Mass Effect, it added a lot of customization to your team and you really felt like you were this elite agent of a Galactic government, allowed to mod and customize the equipment of both you and your squad to best fit whatever situation you came across, because you weren't stock soldiers, but Blank Check Agents.
Mass Effect 2 arguably had even more of the Dirty Dozen, best of the best of the best of the best, etc etc that made it seem like there would be much more customization and independence in their equipment.
At first I also didn't like how only Shepard had armor that could be changed and swapped around for different benefits, but as I played more and more, I realized something. As you complete each squad's loyalty missions, it seems like their alternate appearances change to be more in line and fit to a sort of theme, that's not quite the black/white dominant with a hint of yellow that was Cerberus colors. But they all incorporated darker colors, usually black and yellows as well, that wasn't entirely Cerberus, but felt like it was a theme for the Shepard's team. And so during the suicide mission, in the briefing room, you're seeing that your team, all assembled, actually looks like they have a sort of "uniform" or "team colors" that they all put on, and that really adds to the fact that you all are part of Shepard's Team and it did a lot to show how the group really came from a rag-tag group of individuals, with their own styles and dress- to a team that surrounded Shepard, and were part of a team, with basically their own jerseys in a way
Mass Effect 2 arguably had even more of the Dirty Dozen, best of the best of the best of the best, etc etc that made it seem like there would be much more customization and independence in their equipment.
At first I also didn't like how only Shepard had armor that could be changed and swapped around for different benefits, but as I played more and more, I realized something. As you complete each squad's loyalty missions, it seems like their alternate appearances change to be more in line and fit to a sort of theme, that's not quite the black/white dominant with a hint of yellow that was Cerberus colors. But they all incorporated darker colors, usually black and yellows as well, that wasn't entirely Cerberus, but felt like it was a theme for the Shepard's team. And so during the suicide mission, in the briefing room, you're seeing that your team, all assembled, actually looks like they have a sort of "uniform" or "team colors" that they all put on, and that really adds to the fact that you all are part of Shepard's Team and it did a lot to show how the group really came from a rag-tag group of individuals, with their own styles and dress- to a team that surrounded Shepard, and were part of a team, with basically their own jerseys in a way
that's a serious monkey paw wish.ThatLankyBastard said:
there are way too many people who think Tali (or all Qurains) looks a certain way
just search "Tali" on deviantart
The Mass Effect art designers can't just pick one because that would piss off too many people
besides I'm satisfied with what I "think" Tali looks like (and so are 1000000 other people) and if they showed that her face wasn't what you (you being general meaning anyone including me) thought it was. you'd be sorely put out.
aside: one thing that always bothered me about the Qurain design is the opaque visor. how do they see out of it?
how do they pilot their ships or aim their guns?
wouldn't a clear one still keep out contaminants and allow them to see stuff?
I think that's why Tali uses a shot gun.
she just can't see two feet in front of her
and Bioware is the only game company that actually writes characters.
If Bioware characters aren't "In Depth" who are?
1. Bring back the Mako. It's not that most people hated it, it's that the loud people hated it and the people who liked it didn't say anything because they were happy.
2. Bring back RPG elements.
3. Melee weapons.
4. Let us be a Krogan.
2. Bring back RPG elements.
3. Melee weapons.
4. Let us be a Krogan.
Have more RPG elements, ditch that heat sink nonsense, ditch the planet scanning thing, bring back the planet exploration thing, but make the planets more varied and interesting, and maybe have playable space battles.
More Krogan headbutting wouldn't be a bad thing.
No complaints about the actual gameplay/combat from me...maybe make the leveling system slightly more robust? Not like ME1, mind you, where you could level up skills you couldn't use (GODFUGGINGDAMMITTHATANNOYEDME!). ME2 was certainly an improvement in this area.
Don't go adding a bunch more characters. We have an established cast now, we have our crew, stick with them and just further develop them. I don't want to spend the majority of ME3 recruiting new squad members and making them like me. Stick to the main plot, and find some way to weave characters' stories into said plot. Also bring back the squad chatter. It's been a trademark of BioWare games for ages, and I want it back, dammit!
The upgrade system/resource gathering. I liked the upgrade system of ME2 MILES above the "change to gun X, take off upgrades, then sell gun Y" of ME1, and frankly that pointless inventory management has always annoyed with most RPGs. Just replace the planet scanning with something, you know, fun, and I'll be happy.
Lastly, less loading menus. This was a small thing, but it really does take you out of the game, and I liked the elevators of ME1...except the one on the Normandy. that took FAR too long to go such a short distance, and there was no squad chatter or news to distract you.
No complaints about the actual gameplay/combat from me...maybe make the leveling system slightly more robust? Not like ME1, mind you, where you could level up skills you couldn't use (GODFUGGINGDAMMITTHATANNOYEDME!). ME2 was certainly an improvement in this area.
Don't go adding a bunch more characters. We have an established cast now, we have our crew, stick with them and just further develop them. I don't want to spend the majority of ME3 recruiting new squad members and making them like me. Stick to the main plot, and find some way to weave characters' stories into said plot. Also bring back the squad chatter. It's been a trademark of BioWare games for ages, and I want it back, dammit!
The upgrade system/resource gathering. I liked the upgrade system of ME2 MILES above the "change to gun X, take off upgrades, then sell gun Y" of ME1, and frankly that pointless inventory management has always annoyed with most RPGs. Just replace the planet scanning with something, you know, fun, and I'll be happy.
Lastly, less loading menus. This was a small thing, but it really does take you out of the game, and I liked the elevators of ME1...except the one on the Normandy. that took FAR too long to go such a short distance, and there was no squad chatter or news to distract you.
Bring Nihlus Kryik back. Somehow.
In about 15 mins of game-time, that guy managed to be the one of the most bad-ass characters in the series
Yeahhh boii.
Other than that, I'd like a bit more variety of weapons and armour in the vanilla game, and perhaps some form of gun customisation (every other game has it, why not ME?)
I also think that they should jsut give up with vehicles. The Mako was actually pretty good imo, but way over used, whereas the new spaceship thing is pretty lame.
In about 15 mins of game-time, that guy managed to be the one of the most bad-ass characters in the series
Yeahhh boii.
Other than that, I'd like a bit more variety of weapons and armour in the vanilla game, and perhaps some form of gun customisation (every other game has it, why not ME?)
I also think that they should jsut give up with vehicles. The Mako was actually pretty good imo, but way over used, whereas the new spaceship thing is pretty lame.
And I loved the fact that ME2 didn't make me carry a weapon I wasn't trained in and never used.JeanLuc761 said:
OT: it's been said before but I'll repeat: rather than adding a lot of new characters stick with deepening the ones that have been already established. I liked that gaining their loyalty was actually an important plot point in ME2, and would like to see the characterization continue. I'm okay with a few new characters or squad mates just don't dump a whole new crew on us.