[360] Mass Effect

[PARANOiA]

Are you sure it's not x? I haven't hit a cut scene I wanted to skip but x skips the voice acting.

I just finished Eden Prime last night, playing for an hour and a half. My impressions are reasonably mixed - it's really hard to judge RPG's on short play-throughs... you really need to tie up the game before commenting. Having said that, let me throw in my thoughts.

I rolled an adept (biotic-only) and the combat feels sluggish to me. This is a common problem I have in RPG's for people like me who prefer to roll magic/special characters. You basically start off near-useless, with limited mana (or in ME, terribly long recharge times) and are forced to either wait for ages between attacks or revert to physical attacks. In groups of two to three enemies, I had time to kill one person with my starting special attack before having to pull out my pistol. This reminds me of KOTOR though, when you really couldn't have a core-magic user. Everyone needed light-saber skills at some stage.

Having only one magic skill available at a button press is useless. If I'm a magic-only character, I pretty much don't want to have three of my shoulder buttons being phyical-attack based (shoot, aim and switch weapon). Let me free up at least one other button. This game is making me think "it's a shooter", when I don't think it is - it's hard to tell at this stage. Bioshock felt similar to me in that I tried to play it as a magic (plasmid) person but it took a while to realise the game was a shooter at heart. I think it'll take a few more levels in ME to work out whether or not it is a RPG-shooter-hybrid, or a true RPG.

The dialogue options are incredible, and I can see this is where this game really shines. Dropping a couple of points into charm paid off in the opening level, getting me some extra weapon upgrades by forcing a smuggler to tell me where he kept his cargo.

The universe itself is probably my favourite aspect. I completely agree with earlier posts that compare the feeling to the new BSG. A believable sci-fi universe is difficult to pull off without sounding tacky - I personally can't stand most pulp sci-fi television or movies, although I am a genuine sci-fi nut. Stargate, Trek, etc all grind my gears, but Star Wars, BSG, and the "cyber-punk" show/movies like Blade Runner are stunning for me. ME's universe falls into the latter category.

The blending of the sci-fi universe and the dialogue options and interactions are what brings it home for me, though. My biggest fear for this game was that they'd "silo" these two areas, so they would make a dialogue/interaction based drama that would have been transferrable into any other universe - basically a template-type arrangement, so you'd start seeing modern-day type clones, or medieval/fantasy versions of the concept. Thankfully they're blended in nice, subtle ways, so I'm starting to use my charm skills (at this very early stage) to get to know the universe and the characters interaction in this future universe a bit better.

As an example

Spoiler

I've just been told one of my crew has "headaches" as a side-effect of their bionic implants being from an older generation. I tried to dig a bit further, but the doctor doesn't seem to be to open to me just yet, and I talked down to the crew-member on the planet, so he's not opening up. I'm going to have to try and work my way into his trust before I imagine I'll learn any more about what this means, and whether or not technology can be used to help him - all the while teaching me a bit about the fictional universe.

Overall, I think the reviews are pretty accurate. I'm guessing this will be one of those games that probably undersells, and will initially be remembered for its flaws rather than what it does well. It's sad, and I'm already seeing people who have a 360 who seem to be turning their nose up at the game on this board because of this (Arwin, I shake my finger at you!). In the long-term, I bet this game will go down as one of the classics, much like KOTOR is today, warts and all.

How's that for my 1000'th post. Only took a few years

 

[dobwal]

In terms of what this game is offering I am not expecting perfection in all areas.

GTA has never been stunning visually, poor combat mechanics, average driving and nothing really special about its mission based gameplay. But its in a sandbox world that gives you plenty of options and minigames with a good story and great acting that when pooled with all its short comings it still produces what has been a terrific franchise.

 

[Nesh]

Spent 5hours on it tonight. And now made Spectre after 4 hours! Spent a lot of time talking to everyone. Then headed off to do a rescuse mission which I believe is a side quest. I'm exploring the abandoned planets. The vehicle is damn fun to drive

Goes without saying, the presentation is top notch. The voice acting, gestures, dialouge scheme is just spot on. Your level of immersion depends on your interaction with the NPC's and how much of the story you want to know and be involved with. Amazing sound track and effects. The characters so far have been likeable and most importantly, believeable. After a few hours, it feels like you are watching some show like BSG. If you're into sci-fi at all, the story will hook you in no time at all. This is the sort of game you could sit and watch someone else play and if they were good at it, you literally would be watching a movie. The grain filter is a must! Really gives it a movie feel. I turned off the filter for 10mins and turned it right back on.

The combat is nothing amazing from a shooter perspective. Basic cover, pop up shoot with squad controls. 2 things worry me so far. The rifle crosshair expand way too quickly regarless of how well you try to do 2-3round bursts and retraction is painfully slow. I'm really hoping that as you upgrade the rifle, those things evolve also. If not that make it useless. The other being the sniper rifle. Again, the level 1 weapon has waaaay too much sway and hiting things is a prayer. There is not hold breath button to stabilize that I came across. Like with the assault rifle, I'm hoping that is improved with the more advanced models. The pistol is rock solid though! Sounds good too. I was stupid and picked soilder class which doesn't give me any powers I guess I'll pick another class next playthrough.

The framerate and tearing issues within 5hours of continous playtime were minimal at best and never became a distraction. I got stuck one time because I climbed onto a crate and a pirate did some power on me, knocking me back at a weird angle and getting me stuck back there.

If you're an achievement whore, just understand that it'll take 2-3 playthroughs to get most of them.
All said and done, this game is easily something you can play through a few times and have a completely different experience each time. The NPC interaction is as close to real as you can expect. The whole conversation aspect is just amazing. You'll tell your character to give a response and expect the conversation to go one way but your character will take your response and loosely direct it into a sentence but might change up the delivery thus the NPC ends up reacting in a way you didn't expect. For those who are playing it, you'll know exactly what I mean but to those who have not, it'll be a bit confusing. Rest assure, it works well!

Some of the problems you have with some of the weapons should be temporary. I ve read that they are upgradable and improve later. Rifles become more stable , targeting gets more accurate and weapons in general evolve into more effectve and powerful tools

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

At least one (IGN) mentions the occasional loss of control while in combat (in that buttons/triggers stop registering every now and then and sometimes the only fix is to reset). That I'd think qualifies as serious. Additionally, more than one has run across the "getting stuck in random places" bug. Okay, so they claim that you can fix these with patches, but normally a game would never be allowed to ship with that first bug (assuming it's actually caught in the course of the submission process).

Also as far as the slowdowns were concerned, it often sounded more like framerate hitches and combat always went hand in hand.

Moreover, my one big problem with the forgiveness on account of "that can be fixed with a patch" is that I've never heard that uttered with regards to any other game before. A lot of games are forgiven for slowdowns because they just look good... but this one is new to me.

Thankfully i have my xbox up and running again so back to this game.

I got this game almost 2 weeks before its release took me 30+ hours to complete i was not rushing to see the end.
Im' playing a second time in veteran difficulty setting, i'm seeing things i never saw before.

In my experience there was never an occasional loss of control while in combat.
I got stuck on someplaces several times but at least i was always able to get free.
There are some texture pop in (but i think that has alot to do with your xbox dvd drive mine broke hours after i finish the game and i got a new one to replace the old and it did considerably less pop ins with the new one).

The framerate issues are present but they are not as bad as some people want to make them, this isnt a first person shooter so between 5 and 10 fps drops in some occasions are very acceptable for me.

This is a new game and brings alot of new things to rpgs and really does alot of things right that will compensate for those small flaws.

 

[vazel]

I got the game today and just played 4 hours. What a meaty game I'm enjoying it very much. I'm disappointed at the texture pop-in and lack of v-sync but no biggie.
And I did experience one instance of loss of control in combat. My zoom button stopped registering, it started registering again after a while.

 

[RobertR1]

The writing which leads into the story, character interaction and development is so ridiculosly better than anything else out there that it makes the rest of the game seem rather flat in comparison. The combat would make a decent shooter on it's own merits but is completely overshadowed by the writing. So far, I'm just getting through the combat because I'm more concerned with what happens next? how will this person react the next time I see them? Don't disgrace this game by trying to do fast run throughs. If you do, you'll easily miss out on the aspect that makes this game great.

 

[scooby_dooby]

snip about combat

Actually, the pistol in this game fuckin rocks, so you will use it alot, and you can go with a pure magic user as long s you pump some points into the pistol.

Marksmenship is a sick skill, and will literally shred enemies with the pistol, and once you unlock singularity and stasis, your magic user will become much more powerful/fun.

Personally I went with a vangaurd, but I wish I didn't since I hardly use the shotgun anyways.

But ya, later in the game combat becomes much more exciting, in the beginning it's fairly mundane since your character is pretty weak.

I always bring on an adept on my team, and I can imagine that if my character was an adept as well, we could wreak some havoc on the battlefield. As a vangaurd, I can't unloick the singularity skill which is a damn shame!

 

[RobertR1]

Being a soilder class, I don't have any "decryption" skill and thus I can't open a lot of stuff with the message saying "deccryption skill too low." Anyway I can use one of my squad to initiate the hack for me?

 

[PARANOiA]

Edge is generally more reliable than a lot of magazines/sites.

Strange how you didn't pipe this thought into other threads where Edge gave surprisingly low scores (Lair:3, Heavenly Sword:6, EoJ: 4). I'll take your "balanced opinion" spiel a bit more seriously when you are balanced yourself.

(I know, I know, don't feed the trolls, but you were all thinking it!)

Actually, the pistol in this game fuckin rocks, so you will use it alot, and you can go with a pure magic user as long s you pump some points into the pistol.

But the point being I don't want to be using a gun as a pure magic user. Being able to make the gun better by spending my XP on it rather than spells completely defeats the purpose.

I think I need to balance my expectation of the magic user in games. I'm still used to the JRPG-model where magic-only users can survive and be the highest-damage people in your team. WRPGs tend to require magic/physical combinations (Spellblade, etc).

 

[scooby_dooby]

Being a soilder class, I don't have any "decryption" skill and thus I can't open a lot of stuff with the message saying "deccryption skill too low." Anyway I can use one of my squad to initiate the hack for me?

As long as anyone on your team hash a high enough decryption skill you can hack it. I use that garus guy on almost every mission, as he level up both electronics and decryption, and is a pretty good fighter too since he can use the assault and sniper rifles.

But the point being I don't want to be using a gun as a pure magic user. Being able to make the gun better by spending my XP on it rather than spells completely defeats the purpose.

Ya, there aren't alot of real damage dealing powers in the game, it isn't until you unlock singularity that you can really do some damage. Still, you only need to spend around 6pts on the pistol to be extremely effective, and that's peanuts in the end.

And, I'm sure could probably be extremely effective by stocking your party with two combat based members, and then sitting back and casting powers during the battles.

Hopefully in the sequel they come up with some more offensive powers. I kind of get the sense they were holding back a little on the powers in the first title.

 

[RobertR1]

Thanks Scoob. I brought him along and it works out great. Gonna stick with him and the chick in white armor for my party. Works out well since I'm a soilder.

After I found Liara, I went to Feros and took care of business. Found the framerate to suffer a couple of times are Feros in big fights but nothing un manageable. To make it super smooth they could've stuck with 600p + AA I suppose but if that meant detail loss during character interaction, I wouldn't make the trade.

Feros spoiler

Spoiler

You guys kill that bitch or let her live? I executed her!

I'm realizing how to best equip my team for certain combat situations. Looking at their strenghts and giving them the weapons accordingly. Got the pistol achievement and onto the rifle next. Then sniper and finally, I'll go for shotty's. I'm maxed out on Pistol and Rifle points. Balanced out armor and fitness and now putting points into Sniper since that I should be almost done with the rifle achievement when the sniper points are almost maxed out. It's working out well. Haven't really put much into communication and spectre. The combat become much easier when you plan out your party, equipment and strategy. The ahievement system for this game is the best to date. It requires a good balancing strategy just like the rest of the game.

 

[vazel]

I hope future game threads don't concentrate most of their chit-chat on anally analyzing reviews and instead actually discuss the game itself.

 

[AlNom]

Mod's 2nd Note: Moved more general review discussion to the existing sub-thread.

Folks, stick to the topic at hand. If you need to quote, don't be lazy and copy/paste the quotation and go to the other thread.

 

[Daozang]

Got it last night!
I got to the that huge space station were I stopped playing, and up till now the game is trully amazing!
The grapphics look great, although from the vids I was expecting something more. But this is irrelevant because the art direction and story make you feel right in the middle of a huge world with it's history and everything. Also the aliens in this game have an amazing design. Bioware has very good artists!
Right now my only problem is that my 360 doesn't have an hdmi... It would be looking so great on my projector...
I'll post more later, but till now I'm very impressed!

 

[Vic]

Strange how you didn't pipe this thought into other threads where Edge gave surprisingly low scores (Lair:3, Heavenly Sword:6, EoJ: 4). I'll take your "balanced opinion" spiel a bit more seriously when you are balanced yourself.

.

Well you've gone off-topic but anyway...

A big deal was made about HS on this forum, some by people who were quick to attack the game's quality when the reviews came in. However, I said I thought it was decent, hence me buying it. I still accepted Edge's review; the game had flaws, just as ME does. As for the other games you mentioned, they were not hyped up nearly as much as ME. In any case, I'm not going to bring up every Edge review that is written.

I'm not so sure why you got so defensive. I mentioned that Uncharted got a lower score in Edge than most places, but I'm still going to buy it. I'm not bitching/complaining about low scores on any game released thus far because I'm not that uptight (when did people get like this?).

My friend who owns a 360, managed to get an early copy here in London, and is complaining about tearing and framerate issues. Which is exactly why I took my PS3 version of Pro Evolution 2008 back after getting that early.

 

[jonnyp]

Finished Mass Effect a few days ago and it's a great game but it does have its flaws for sure.

I've spoiler-covered my impressions just to be on the safe side.

Spoiler

* I hate the Mako - with a passion and I hate the sidequests for the most part - repetitive, boring and not enough reward doing them other than to tediously level up your characters.
* Your character and squad being completely useless the first part of the game. I almost stopped playing after dying 30 times in the boss fight against Matriarch Benezia (this may also have to do with me not levelling up the smartest way possible but I didn't know I would be in such a tough boss fight at that stage though!). But when your characters reach a certain level it becomes way too easy and you have to increase the difficulty level to be challenged again.
The last part of the game and boss fight was just too easy then. So I think it was very unbalanced experience in that respect. I'm sure others may feel differently though, depending on how you level up etc.
* I think some of the voice acting is very flat and it's a shame when the characters visually are so well done. Still, they're better than most other games of course.
* I hate the 150 item max restraint, especially since you can't access your inventory to make space for new items you've received - you have to turn it into omni-gel if you've forgotten to clear out beforehand. Stupid. And how the inventory is organised is also hopeless with regard to selling items or turning them into omni-gel.

I don't care much about stuttering framerates when they're so few and far between as I experienced. I had more trouble with the flickering shadows (seems like a UE3 trait unfortunately) and the LOD texture pop-in. The grain filter hid a lot of this though, and I think I'm one of the minority who actually liked the grain filter.

But even with these flaws, I'll still give the game a 9/10. The story-driven levels and action sequences are amazing IMO, both in presentation and gameplay. It's a fantastic experience on the whole. But there's definitely room for improvement in the sequels, which I'm thoroughly looking forward to.

Oh and the music is GREAT!

 

[Hazuki Ryu]

I think im very close to compleating all the quests in the game including side quests this game really does have a lot of content. (or at least i hope im close to competing)

I agree the music is very good too.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Thanks Scoob. I brought him along and it works out great. Gonna stick with him and the chick in white armor for my party. Works out well since I'm a soilder.

Sweet. You might want to think about taking Liara along instead of ashley, she kicks ass at the biotic powers and can really wreak havoc, she's saved my ass a few times. Using her biotics in combination with your soldier will be a devestating combo.
i.e. She lifts 4 guys up into the air for 10seconds, and you shred em with your assault rifle

Feros spoiler

I let her live. I've already shot about 4 people in the head in this game so far, so I figured I'd relax a little this time around

 

[scooby_dooby]

Are you sure it's not x? I haven't hit a cut scene I wanted to skip but x skips the voice acting.

Right, sorry guys, X does skip most pieces of audio.

 

[RobertR1]

Sweet. You might want to think about taking Liara along instead of ashley, she kicks ass at the biotic powers and can really wreak havoc, she's saved my ass a few times. Using her biotics in combination with your soldier will be a devestating combo.
i.e. She lifts 4 guys up into the air for 10seconds, and you shred em with your assault rifle

Just for shits and giggles, I went out with Liara and the other chick in the mask and they certainly pull their own weight in combat. I'm at the Benezia fight right now. So far just trying to figure out the best combo to compliment my soilder class. The Garrus guy died at the first signs of combat so his ass is gonna get left behind.