[360] Mass Effect

[AlNom]

One thing that I really do like about Bioware is that they know how to write and their voice acting directors (or whatever) are shockingly better than those of say Two Worlds or The Witcher.

I agree completely. There was never a moment where I felt the dialogue or acting was out of place, and it was just so immersive. One part that stood out to me (besides the main story scenes) was

Spoiler

on Noveria with the arrest of that corrupt guy, Anoleis. The actress arresting him just had some good lines that made the game seem more life-like, her frankness with the dress and the beer etc. that gave her scenes that extra bit of immersion.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Okay, finished my first playthrough after about 16 hours. I was rather dissapointed to find that Mass Effect in reality is KOTOR 3 with real time action and no light sabres. The game is build up exactly the same as KOTOR1 and 2 in terms of map design, quests, everything.

Which imo is a bad thing, even thought i loved KOTOR 1 (and i enjoyed KOTOR2, but not as much, the story twist in KOTOR1 is amazing, didn't see it coming at all), it certainly has alot of flaws, and i feel that they could have tried to do a better job getting the cities to feel more like cities, not just a handful of people standing in varius places that don't want to talk to you.

I also feel that there is far to few places to visit, i thought the game was going to be bigger, when i went into the star map for the first time and discover that you cannot visit 90% of all the planets there, i was very dissapointed.

I found the few planets i visited outside of the main plot rather dull and boring, with little do to except finding something to salvage\sell and shooting some geth (which gets boring cuz the game gets rather easy after a while).

I would have loved to see more cities, where you can do actual roleplaying rather than just shooting stuff. After all, the shooting doesn't play all that well (framerate problems, and stupid enemy AI doesn't make much of a challenge).

On the good side though, the game looks like a 80's sci-fi movie,the story is good, and with 2-3 endings to most of the quests there is a lot of replay value in it. The ending saved the game for me, as the last parts where cool story wise.

I would still easily recommend this game to anyone, but i wouldn't make it out to be as great as many of the reviews have.

 

[Acert93]

Wow, 16 hours? Either others really suck at the game or you flew through it!

 

[swaaye]

I'd guess that he skipped most of the side stuff and didn't spend much time exploring the rather static environments. I can see it being entirely possible to move through it that fast if you push hard and know what you're doing with the gameplay. And since he's obviously a KOTOR vet, and this is KOTOR with 3rd person realtime combat, I'm sure he was on top of things rather quickly.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

16 hours is doable, but he probably didn't spend too much time on sidequests or reading/listening the information in the index. (the Index voice was the same as the Agency voice in Crackdown BTW...)

I found many of the sidequests quite enjoyable and well executed and together with the main plot they formed a very enjoyable gaming experience, I can understand differing obinions though, but to me those 26.5 was pure gaming heaven.

I gave my original copy to my brother for christmas, but I bought the collectors edition for myself...I'm sure I'll still play it through atleast once or twice.

 

[DeathKnight]

(the Index voice was the same as the Agency voice in Crackdown BTW...)

It's Niel Ross. Same guy who has narrated the most episodes for Nova (PBS series).

He's done tons of other stuff too... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0743719/

 

[DuckThor Evil]

It's Niel Ross. Same guy who has narrated the most episodes for Nova (PBS series).

He's done tons of other stuff too... http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0743719/

Ok thanks for pointing that out, as it turns out it wasn't the same guy who did the voice of Agency in Crackdown... While I was playing Mass Effect I was haunted by the familiarity of that voice and after awhile I was sure that the familiarity comes from Crackdown.

 

[PARANOiA]

I found the few planets i visited outside of the main plot rather dull and boring, with little do to except finding something to salvage\sell and shooting some geth (which gets boring cuz the game gets rather easy after a while).

One thing I'd like to add here. Certain optional side-planets allow you to unlock story quests. Most of these relate to allowing you to close out quests for your party members, allowing you to learn more about their history and motivations.

Additionally, there are additional missions available depending on the character you rolled ("sole survivor", etc) - I don't want to spoil anything, but one in particular is quite harrowing, and very hard to do "correctly", requiring a fair bit of fore-thought in terms of how to tackle both the conversations and combat. There is a lot of reward for just flying around seeing what is out there.

Did you get the second round of missions at the Citadel by returning to it after first leaving?

From what I've seen, a fair few people tried two or three planets, driven purely by the quest log, then gave up on them altogether since they were deemed "boring". This is a shame, since the party member side-quests were a fantastic addition to the game, allowing you to stumble upon new content.

 

[xexuxjy]

Yep the party side quests were good (finished it last night). Thing I found a bit depressing was that there was never any real point dealing with merchants, picked up far more and far better equipment just exploring. Money was a joke, having an achievement for 1mio was quite good I though until I started maxing my money and just didn't bother picking things up any more. Bit of a shame really as it's one of the few annoying points in the game.

 

[joker454]

Just about finished the game a second time. It's definitely worth a second play, there were many things different on my second play compared to my first. On the second play I took my time and explored the other quests, talked to more people, and put more points on charm. It definitely made a difference! For example, I got more side quests on the other planets. I must have completed most of the game this time since I got the "completionist" achievement

Here's some other things that changed on my second play through, Ill spoiler them just in case. Warning, heavy spoilers follow!!!

Spoiler

I got a side quest on Earth's moon. After completing that quest, the game gave me the choice of being either a "Shock Trooper" or "Commando". I chose commando and now I have an additional stats bar called Commando that I can fill.

Spoiler

I got very, ummm, friendly with one of my female crew mates. I was surprised to even see a brief nudity scene! The whole thing where you can sleep with one of your crew mates yet still have to choose which one of them dies as a certain point in the game is pretty cool.

Spoiler

My first play through I had two crewmates die. The second play through I was able to save one, but I still had one die. Is there any way to complete this game with the entire crew intact?

Spoiler

Charm definitely makes a big difference in numerous conversations. For example, I was able to get Anoleis arrested this time (he got away the first time).

Spoiler

At Peak 13, the first play through was more typical, I got a bunch of side quests from the numerous people there. On the second play through, for whatever reason the captain there said they were under orders from Benezia and they all attacked me! No clue what changed to make them behave that way.

There's more of course, but you get the point. I went for Paragon on the second play and have done all the quests except for one:

Spoiler

The guy in front of flux that wants to cheat at the quazar machines. I haven't done that quest yet, is there any 'paragon' way to complete that one?

 

[AlphaWolf]

There's more of course, but you get the point. I went for Paragon on the second play and have done all the quests except for one:

Spoiler

The guy in front of flux that wants to cheat at the quazar machines. I haven't done that quest yet, is there any 'paragon' way to complete that one?

Yes.

Spoiler

you can just take the quest and turn the item in to the bar owner. There's several outcomes to that quest.

 

[TurnDragoZeroV2G]

Spoiler

My first play through I had two crewmates die. The second play through I was able to save one, but I still had one die. Is there any way to complete this game with the entire crew intact?

Spoiler

One dies no matter what, on Virmire.

Spoiler

At Peak 13, the first play through was more typical, I got a bunch of side quests from the numerous people there. On the second play through, for whatever reason the captain there said they were under orders from Benezia and they all attacked me! No clue what changed to make them behave that way.

Spoiler

You went down to the hotlabs. Once you figure out Benezia isn't there (as the capt. has been saying), he has no choice but to try and get his intestines on your boots.

 

[joker454]

Ahhh ok, thanks guys!

 

[DuckThor Evil]

I also finished my second playtrough yesterday, and this time I played as a renegade. I chose hardcore difficulty at the menu, and thought that I'm playing it on hardcore, but at the end I found out that the game had turned it into normal on its own... Is that what the "needs to be unlocked" means? Do you have to choose hardcore from the menu after the game has already started or what?

Spoiler

on the second playthrough I was able to intimidate Wrex to back off and also talked Saren to shoot himself in the head! It seems like at some point the developers were thinking to let the player join Sovereign, atleast the dialogy at the end led me to that conclusion, but they probably got rid of that in order to enable better continuation for the sequel.

I have now also scored with Ashley and with the Asari, and I'm not sure but I might have scored with the consort also, when I intimidated her, but the images didn't really reveal it hehe

My character finished at level 57, so I still have to play it a bit to get the achievement for reaching level 60. They should have putted a filthy rich achievement for reaching 9.999.999 credits!

heh I have to say that my renegade character was quite a ruthless bastard :smile:

 

[archangelmorph]

Any word on a patch yet?

 

[AlNom]

Not yet, but I imagine one of the things they'll be patching is the selection of completed careers when you start a new game. Imagine beating the game at least three times just to see what happens had you chosen different paths. That selection screen just gets messy without the ability to rename or delete those instances.

The BioWare team does read their technical issues forum often enough to respond to people in a timely manner.

Only news regarding a patch I'm hearing is that it was supposed to be out by New Year's but... I don't know where that bit of info originated.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I also finished my second playtrough yesterday, and this time I played as a renegade. I chose hardcore difficulty at the menu, and thought that I'm playing it on hardcore, but at the end I found out that the game had turned it into normal on its own... Is that what the "needs to be unlocked" means? Do you have to choose hardcore from the menu after the game has already started or what?

AFAIK all you have to do is select hardcore before you start the game and leave it there for the entire play through. That's what I did and it worked for me.

 

[AlNom]

One of the BioWare devs mentioned that you have to make sure it is set to hardcore before you finish the Eden Prime mission.

 

[ERP]

I finally got around to playing through this game, and I really enjoyed it, despite for the most part hating the combat.

It just didn't seem to decide if it was a duck and cover game or not, it automaticaly put you n cover if you were too close to an edge, then later in the game every other projectile was explosive, so being in close cover was suicide.

I though the plot was very Babylon 5, but it felt very compelling.

From a technical standpoint it was adequate enough to not spoil the experience.

It's certainly the bst 360 game I've played thus far, although I still haven't gotten to Bioshock.

 

[arhra]

I also finished my second playtrough yesterday, and this time I played as a renegade. I chose hardcore difficulty at the menu, and thought that I'm playing it on hardcore, but at the end I found out that the game had turned it into normal on its own... Is that what the "needs to be unlocked" means? Do you have to choose hardcore from the menu after the game has already started or what?

When you start a new game with a preexisting character, it reads all the settings - including difficulty - from your career save file. So you have to set the difficulty manually once you get control (you can change at any point up until you examine the beacon on Eden Prime if you want the achievements, but any changes after that will invalidate it).