And I wasn't even off Eden Prime before I remembered how terrible the inventory was in that game.

People wanted that crap back in 2 and 3? God, they must be sadists. I loved ME1 when it came out, but jeez that is a horrible system.

The inventory and the combat system are soooo much worse. I love Mass Effect 1 but man is that stuff hard to go back to.

I never thought the system was really all that bad; it was the insane amount of crap that game gave you every five minutes. You would literally be carrying over a hundred items after each mission and wanted maybe two of them. Luckily, Bioware learned that there is such a thing as too much inventory.

@Cataphract1014:

I went through ME 1 and 2 again before 3 and I don't know if it was worse (inventory, combat, etc). But it sure as hell was different. To me, I look at ME 1 as being a completely different game from ME 2 and 3. Not better or worse, just different.

They don't wanted it back as it was, people just wanted an inventory. But you're right, the inventory was/is awful.

Liked the combat, generally liked the Mako/planet exploration stuff, DETESTED the inventory (though the solution of 'let's get rid of it entirely' wasn't all that great a solution).

That's not the only thing that makes it terribly difficult to go back to the first game, but yeah, it's probably the worst aspect.

@AdmiralStupid said:

Liked the combat, generally liked the Mako/planet exploration stuff, DETESTED the inventory (though the solution of 'let's get rid of it entirely' wasn't all that great a solution).

I feel ME3 is the perfect middle ground.

It always amazes me that Bioware, a seasoned RPG developer, did such a terrible job with inventory in that game. And of course instead of trying to fix it, they just removed it.

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

I wanted the inventory and looting improved, not just back. Same as with the Mako. Without those things ME 2 felt way more monotous to me.

The inventory system would have been fine, it's just the menus were difficult to navigate (at least on the Xbox version, not sure about PC). I hated how every time you wanted to convert something to omni-gel, you would have to scroll through your entire list of stuff. Instead of removing the inventory in 2 and 3, they should have just given better options for sorting and navigating through your items.

I really liked the customization of the first game.
 
Even if the menus were pretty bad, it actually blended shooting and RPG mechanics together really well. It was sad to see ME2 completely abandon the idea.

Yep, the inventory and armour system was great in theory and even in the game itself, just those menus. Dear god those menus.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

Yes, I don't understand how people had problems with the inventory, just turn what you don't want into onmi-gel. The Mako could get a little awkward on rough terrain, but I really liked exploring the planets. And the combat was great with all the different weapons and mods and unlimited ammo, I legitimately had fun playing through on insane difficulty.

The combat was definitely the worst part of ME1 for me..clunky w/ a half-assed cover system. The inventory didn't bug me, thought, and I enjoyed the Mako. Those aspects needed refinement, not complete evisceration going into ME2.

I dont really understand all the hate for the inventory system in Mass Effect 1. It seems pretty standard to me for inventory systems of the era.

How is having an invisible inventory a middle ground? And that leads to the horrendous upgrade menu that doesn't even break the guns down by type.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

@Lagaroth said:

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

I didn't mind the combat or the inventory, but the Mako sections were extremely tedious. Plus the checkpointing was nasty. There were quite a few times where I'd forget to save, then have a Thresher Maw kind of... assimilate with the mako as it sprouts out of the ground underneath me, killing me instantly, which forced me to start all over again collecting those damn resources. The combat in the mako was complete balls as well; mostly just a lot of you standing there shooting, or forced to hang back for like 15 minutes waiting for your shields to charge. There were lot of times where I couldn't even aim at the thing I was trying to shoot without having to move just a little bit lower down the terrain because of the highly limited area you were allowed to move the reticule.

I know a lot of people as of late like to champion the original ME out of its ass because of the very different direction the series took with ME2, and I even think that overall ME could very well be my favourite of the lot too, but that game has some issues, and I always find it silly when so many people like to profess ME to be some sort of flawless deity.

@Lagaroth said:

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

I didn't mind the combat or the inventory, but the Mako sections were extremely tedious. Plus the checkpointing was nasty. There were quite a few times where I'd forget to save, then have a Thresher Maw kind of... assimilate with the mako as it sprouts out of the ground underneath me, killing me instantly, which forced me to start all over again collecting those damn resources. The combat in the mako was complete balls as well; mostly just a lot of you standing there shooting, or forced to hang back for like 15 minutes waiting for your shields to charge. There were lot of times where I couldn't even aim at the thing I was trying to shoot without having to move just a little bit lower down the terrain because of the highly limited area you were allowed to move the reticule.

I know a lot of people as of late like to champion the original ME out of its ass because of the very different direction the series took with ME2, and I even think that overall ME could very well be my favourite of the lot too, but that game has some issues, and I always find it silly when so many people like to profess ME to be some sort of flawless deity.

after I took my sniping to 11 on ME1 I loved the shit out of that game, everyone got head shotted. soldier for life lol

I really don't understand why people say "you wanted that back? it was horrible!" Yeah, the system wasn't very good. But you know what most sequels do when something in the original isn't all that great? They improve it. Why does everyone think the only 2 options are remove it or keep it the exact same as ME1?

Just tried to go back to ME1 as I wanted to play through all 3 of them again.
 
Holy shit it has aged poorly.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

@Donkeycow: Neither do I. It wasn't an awful inventory system. The only problem I had with it was the fact I always, ALWAYS, had over 150 items on me at all times no matter how many guns, armour or mods I got rid of. That said I did have like a trillion credits.

But hey, remember the days when you could just slap omnigel on everything?

@wemibelec90 said:

I never thought the system was really all that bad; it was the insane amount of crap that game gave you every five minutes. You would literally be carrying over a hundred items after each mission and wanted maybe two of them. Luckily, Bioware learned that there is such a thing as too much inventory.

I didn't think the inventory system in ME1 was all that bad either. It certainly had lots of room for improvement and I'd hardly call it exemplary, but I managed to use it just fine.

Meanwhile, Mass Effect 2 didn't have much of an inventory at all. You had some guns and a bit of armor which you could fiddle with at your spaceship and not in a pause menu, but that was all. For that matter, 2 didn't even have much in the way of skills to level up. 3 was better in this aspect, at least.

You should try going through ME2 again...

I thought it wasn't too bad, but they really would have benefited from a Reckoing-style junk flag that you could use to either sell stuff of turn it into omni-gel.

@RetroVirus said:

I thought it wasn't too bad, but they really would have benefited from a Reckoing-style junk flag that you could use to either sell stuff of turn it into omni-gel.

Or say Dragon Age? DA:O had the exact same thing, yet every time it gets brought up, people mention other, newer games. Makes me think no RPG players even played the game.

I always considered ME1 having the better story but worse gameplay than ME2. I still like ME1 more though. ME2 feels very fragmented with all its mission-reports and loadscreens. 
ME1 needed more thought out planets and not random mountains that you had to climb with the Mako, driving it around was actually pretty fun on the planets that had some design to them. The inventorysystem wasnt bad but having 1-12 of every single item and too much of it forcing you to spend hours to sell and confirm was just not very entertaining but quite timeconsuming.  

ME3 was superior to both, but then it got worse than both at the end.

Just turn everything into omni-gel. It's easy to just open all of the containers and crates and just collect everything, but it's much easier to just melt it all down and put it towards Mako repairs and unlocking doors and safes.

The PC version of this game plays soooooo much better, I don't think they should have been allowed to release the first game on 360, the framerate was horrible. I had the game turn into a slideshow at a few points.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory, or the Mako, or the combat system.

The inventory is bad but it's such a small part of the first game. The combat was poor to start off with but only because you had to level up before you could really be good at it - it's a true rpg in that respect. I prefer that to ME2 and 3, in which you essentially own everything from beginning to end in the same way with very little sense of progression. The combat scenarios in 1 I also think were a lot more varied (not just corridors or open plains with chest-high walls).

But all that is kind of moot, ME1 had the best writing, built up pretty much the entire universe (and pretty much all the good characters), had the best sense of exploration, a superb ending, and great story arc, in my opinion. Stick with it past the slow start, it takes a lot more investment than the sequels, but you'll get a lot more out of it.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: The inventory system wasn't complex, it was just badly designed. Who thought it was an amazing idea to not group duplicate/similar items so they could be easily tracked and removed? Instead you had to scroll through a long ass list and individually remove each unwanted component. Along with that they dealt new stuff at such a quick rate that it became a chore to do that with the shitty inventory. That is my main problem with it, the inventory management is just downright terrible. I played on the 360 when the game was released so I'm sure it was better on PC, but it was unpleasant on the 360.

@GreggD said:

@RetroVirus said:

I thought it wasn't too bad, but they really would have benefited from a Reckoing-style junk flag that you could use to either sell stuff of turn it into omni-gel.

Or say Dragon Age? DA:O had the exact same thing, yet every time it gets brought up, people mention other, newer games. Makes me think no RPG players even played the game.

I've never played Dragon Age, but it's on my to do list, right after I finish Darksiders. Thanks for the tip!

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: Every 30 minutes during combat areas is a lie, but thats not the point I was making. The inventory system was bad, not complex. And with that statement you are kinda contradicting your first statement of the game being complex, which it wasn't.

@RetroVirus said:

@GreggD said:

@RetroVirus said:

I thought it wasn't too bad, but they really would have benefited from a Reckoing-style junk flag that you could use to either sell stuff of turn it into omni-gel.

Or say Dragon Age? DA:O had the exact same thing, yet every time it gets brought up, people mention other, newer games. Makes me think no RPG players even played the game.

I've never played Dragon Age, but it's on my to do list, right after I finish Darksiders. Thanks for the tip!

Don't mention it.

@wemibelec90: Then they kinda shot themselves in the foot by removing the inventory entirely, forcing us to run around the citadel hoping we had the item for the person we were spending fifteen minutes at a time searching for. Kinda went from one extreme to the other in that sense.

OP: I don't really mind it, then again, I'm hard-wired to love loot...though the way selling upgrades was handled was god-awful...the combat can handle like gravel-coated shit, but I did love equipping explosive rounds to my SPECTRE grade pistol, then blowing everything in front of me away. Add two upgrades that reduce overheating, and you're pretty much made...Bioware have a problem when it comes to complaints. Like in 1, we wanted the Mako fixed, which would have been easy, driving on L-stick, aiming for gun only on R-stick. Same with the boss fight of 2. We wanted it to be better. Then we got the Shadow Broker DLC, which had two excellent boss fights and a whole pile of cool shit...and then they completely forgot about it in ME3. They take criticism the way toddlers take slight issues with someone saying their football is a little flat...they take it away so nobody can play with it.

They don't seem to understand refinement outside of the combat. It's weird too, because we've seen instances where the more refined ideas have been well-recieved, but then they're pushed to the side or outright ignored. I'll never understand that.

@ajamafalous said:

I never had any issues with the inventory,

The only real issue with it is the sell/buy screen was poorly managed and handled. If there were selectable subcategories that showed them from strongest to weakest, and showed more items, it might not be so bad. On consoles at least, it only showed you like, four items at a time, so unless you planned on selling everything (and I don't think they exempted equipped mods), it was difficult to manage. Also yeah, I don't fully understand the combat complaints either. I usually played on lower difficulties and using cover was never needed, really.

People wanted them back, because they were neat in theory. A sequel to a game is usually supposed to improve on the first game, so I hoped for a more improved inventory system rather than it being removed as a whole.

The inventory is bad but it's such a small part of the first game. The combat was poor to start off with but only because you had to level up before you could really be good at it - it's a true rpg in that respect. I prefer that to ME2 and 3, in which you essentially own everything from beginning to end in the same way with very little sense of progression. The combat scenarios in 1 I also think were a lot more varied (not just corridors or open plains with chest-high walls).

But all that is kind of moot, ME1 had the best writing, built up pretty much the entire universe (and pretty much all the good characters), had the best sense of exploration, a superb ending, and great story arc, in my opinion. Stick with it past the slow start, it takes a lot more investment than the sequels, but you'll get a lot more out of it.

i really never had a problem with any of this stuff in ME1. In fact, I like looting and think the actual story and vibe of ME1 is superior to the other games. However, I played on PC, where the inventory seems a bit easier to navigate. I think that at least for ME1, it seems like they ported from the pc style interface without actually making a seperate console UI.

I replayed the series before jumping into 3. The original has its antiquated processes, to be sure, but I still really enjoy it a ton.