Who Wants to Talk Some Mass Effect?

Earlier today, I wrote a massive article on Mass Effect. It examines mostly the story of the game, what I thought worked, what I thought didn't, and what could be improved. For anyone out there in the community who has played Mass Effect, I hope you join in the conversation about the game. (Or hey, at least read my blabbings on it and maybe reconsider your views on the title!)

Hope to engage you in the comments here or in the article!

Earlier today, I wrote a massive article on Mass Effect. It examines mostly the story of the game, what I thought worked, what I thought didn't, and what could be improved. For anyone out there in the community who has played Mass Effect, I hope you join in the conversation about the game. (Or hey, at least read my blabbings on it and maybe reconsider your views on the title!)

Hope to engage you in the comments here or in the article!

A great article to read.  I pretty much agree on most of the stuff you had trouble with in ME.  The side missions were the same boring stuff throughout.  Conversations in the game were enjoyable to listen to and I did most of them when I had the chance since I wanted to learn more about the characters and also because of the voice acting being pretty solid throughout.  I did think it was a great game but not as good as I thought it would be but hopefully ME 2 fixes the problems I had with this game (better side missions and better control with the mako amongst a few others).

@ArtG: the link didn't work for me... i had to work it out. can you scribe www with the rest of the address?

I'm going to read it.

Cheers

Dude, I'm reading it now, but please... next time put this in the Mass Effect Forums, for fuck's sake. 

Hmmm, ok lets talk.  I hope they have even more lesbian/lesbian alien sex in this next game.  Would any of you guys like to see man on man/alien man sex in the next game?  Ugh, imagine, Wrex and Shepard get it on.  No I would not like this in the game.

@Darro:

Yeah, I think the voice acting was pretty good. Keith David did a great job as Captain Anderson, and Seth Green delivered some good lines as Joker. I'm not sure who the rest of the cast is in terms of their voice talent, but Wrex's voice actor brought that character to life. So good.

@Jeust:

http://www.endsights.com/2009/06/17/lttp-mass-effect/

That's the direct link. Don't know why the bit.ly link instead working, but that's cool.

@Luke:

All apologies.

Im always down to talk about Mass Effect. But first i should read the article.

I'll just say this: It's about time you played the damn game.

I understand what you are saying, but i have a different point of view.

I liked a lot the side mission, not for the reused assets or the empty planets, but for the mission themselves. 

While i didn't read much of the description about the planets, i loved to experience them. It was almost like exploring the far reaches of space.

And the ships should look similar (not the same) because of the technology. It uses some padrons... so it's normal to see the same design is various ones.

Excepted for the Citadel and Sovereign.

That was well done.

But they said that the planets in mass effect 2 would be much livier.

I was bummed to being able to retrive the cure for wrex genophage... I scouted every inch of sarren's fortress for it, and nothing. I even took wrex. :(

About the good, bad and mild decisions, i think it needs rethinking too. Because they should be centered on what happens next, and not necessary classified as in good or bad.

And in the latter decision councerning saving the council or not... try not to, and see what happens. Perhaps that's for the best *evil grin*

cheers

Jeust:

What did you like in particular about the missions though? Did you feel that the gameplay was solid enough and the enemies fun/challenging enough to take them at face value? As for the planets themselves, I just wish I could feel the same way. Obviously, they have a limited amount of time and they have to ship a product at the end of the day. However, I think if they're going to stuff as many playable planets in there, it'd be best to actually populate it with something interesting -- rather than rocky terrain and a couple of points of interest.

Nice tease for the opposite end of Mass Effect. Just might have to replay the game to see it. (Even though I never replay games. :P)

About the missions, some had an interesting premise that i wanted to see till the end, others were just to keep schedule.

The gameplay needs for me a little improvement...

Browsing and manipulating the inventory was kind of troublesome, and the third person shooter scenes were a bit hard at times. 

There are a lot of planets there, like in a small version of the universe, but they were very empty. :S

You'll like the other ending... you can play the game the same way you did, just don't save the council. :p

Woo just beat the game for the first time about 20 minutes ago, and i have to say i wish i had waited longer to play it. Now all i can think about is what Mass Effect 2 will be about. I just watched the trailer for 2, and i had no idea what was going on. I wished they had a least one shot of a shepherd fucking up a reaper, seeing thats what he said he was going to do at the end of the first one.

Zombie:

Solution--play it again! :P

I'm overdue for purchasing/playing Mass Effect... :|

That was a great analysis of the game Art. I pretty much felt the same way as you... the unexplored planets are a bore, not to mention the MAKO (the buggy) is just not designed well enough to handle some of the seemingly randomized geography of the planets. Would it have killed them to put in a tree or a river here or there? I also agree the missions were lame... I go to the Earth's moon and the base there is the same as the base on a planet in another solar system?

If you'd like you can read my full thoughts in my personal review. In there I do mention that I too thought that the dialog wheel was overly simplified, but I didn't mind so much because of the results of the choices always seemed to play out interestingly. Of course there is the bit about the MAKO, the slightly clunky inventory menus, the planets, the lame teammate AI and pretty much all that stuff that sort of tarnished a REALLY great game.

I hope that Mass Effect 2 is closer to the ideal vision they had for the first game. It already looks promising and I am excited that you can play your Shepard from the first game in the 2nd, that's a neat feature.

Alpha:

Thanks for the kind words. :)

But yeah, I was going to talk about the Mako in the article, but when I really thought about it -- outside frustrating turret shooting (My cursor is on the guy, why isn't he dying?!)...I'm not sure they're going to be able to fix the Mako all that much, unless they fix the planets first. Most of the side planets, like I said, are mountanious husks of nothingness. However, I wonder if making the Mako feel more grounded and less floaty would have made traversal even more difficult.

One of the main problems I had with the Mako was wrapping my head around the camera and its effect on the vehicle. When you've got the camera directly behind the Mako, the controls are fine. But when the camera is facing the front of the Mako, the controls are inversed on the North/South plain...which really sent my head for a loop.

Like you, I'm also extremely pumped for ME2. Cannot wait to continue the story.

@Mordukai:

Glad that you enjoyed reading it. :) Might go ahead an upload it to the wikia as well.

Why aren't you enjoying the rest of what the Xbox 360 has to offer? There are plenty of games out there for it.