General Gaming So I Replayed and Beat Mass Effect. It is flawed but still really great. TRILOGY COMPLETE! (and MEA too)

[Bacon]

I have replayed and beat the first Mass Effect so I can finally beat Mass Effect 3 for the first time. Mass Effect had a special place in my heart, similar to Dragon Age: Origins, but on replaying, I realized my memories of it are far greater than what the game is. 

 

Now, I still really love the combat in ME1. I've only ever been soldier until now, but this time I made a space mage with Vanguard. I recall never being much of an ability user and this time around I set NPC ability usage to all and rolling two biotics and a tech-wizard stunned locked the entire game on Insanity. I don't know if this was a side effect of the legendary upgrade, but ME1 is fuckin' easy on the hardest difficulty. However, I wonder if I am just a smarter gamer. In the past, I would have never picked a class like Vanguard nor would I have used major defensive skills like Barrier, which really makes the Vanguard into an unkillable shotgunning machine. Whatever the case, I have never liked the ME combat more than I have with my most recent play-thru. It was a blast charging into the enemy while enemy projectiles failed to pass my unnatural biotic defense.  I have loaded up ME2 already, still picked Vanguard, but it breaks my heart to see it gutted of its utility. Sure, I could reroll to adept, and I might, but I really wanted to go Vanguard all the way. It is just that on Insanity in ME2, I feel like I am taking loads of damage, and all of the ways I avoided damage were taken from me. I didn't use cover pretty much ever in my most ME1 play-thru. 

 

My Shep is just the standard John Shepard. In my mind, Shepard is a character as much as Geralt is and so I just left the name as the default. However, I really wanted to create a "punished Shepard" that I could carry over into ME2. I kind of succeeded, but the story of ME1 doesn't really have the depth for my punished Shepard RP to exist. And I have no interest in killing off everyone in ME2 as a punished Shepard would never allow that to happen. While it is the most popular pick, I went sole survivor, but I also went least popular with colonist.  This is because not only does your entire squad die as sole survivor, but all of your family and friends die as colonist.  Sadly, the game never really connects these two events in the way I feel they should. The next step in my punished Shepard RP is to romance Ashley () but to select her to die on Virmire. She becomes the final victim of the Shepard curse, and Shep rebounds with Liara in his time of hurt. That aspect of my punished Shepard went alright, but not as great as I wanted it to. Again, there is no in-game connection of events so Shep doesn't really despair as I'd want him to. But, getting with Liara after Ashley felt like it worked decently. Character reactions were appropriate. Of course, I couldn't properly romance Ashely and Liara as getting the scene where you have to choose wouldn't go well with my RP. I actually had to do virmire "early" for this to work and I can't do the core missions in my preferred order for this, at least not in the first play-thru, but I wasn't willing to do two play-thrus. So, while I was on the path to romance Ashely, the romance could only progress to stage 2 of 4 instead of 3 of 4. Still worked out pretty well with Liara and Ash not being happy with your "friendliness" toward the other and Liara's dialogue post-virmire works really well for my RP. 

 

That brings me to the two ultimate bad things with ME1. Male Shep's voice acting is bad and companions are so underwritten. I have only played the intro of ME2 but my god Mark Meer really stepped up his game. ME1 Shep is a robot. Almost every line is spoken with so much... neutrality. Unless you pick the bottom option which has him sounding like Shooter McGavin. Those are his only settings. Asshole or Monotone Soldier. It makes the romances feel wrong. I know he is a commander, but he romances others while using the same tone a superior officer would use to command those under him. Seems like it is much improved in ME2. 

 

Now in my memories, Wrex and Garrus are these great characters with loads of witty and funny dialogue. It is so obvious why they are the best! Or so I thought. Your companions are almost irrelevant. Sure, each one has some good lines every now and then, but they add almost nothing to the story. I honestly should have used Liara more, but I was so unwilling to swap out Garrus and Wrex. Liara was my third most used, but Tali and Kaidan saw almost no screen time. I have no clue what they have to offer to the main missions and their interactions on the ship do not inspire me to bring them out on missions either. Garrus and Wrex also are such a balanced team. Liara swaps with Wrex pretty easily even though she isn't a tank, but while there is plenty of Geth to hack, I don't really feel Tali's hack is all that useful when you are running two biotics who can stun lock with space magic. Garrus is just the better combatant. Anyway, your companions have little to offer and don't talk often. They never talk on the field like in Dragon Age, my elevator rides were so few and always filled with new reports, and overall there was just so little banter. It seems crazy how loved some of these characters are when they lack so much. I know ME2 changes this somewhat, but people have always loved Garrus and Wrex and it sucks to see my favorite characters as boring now. Maybe there is something wrong with the Legendary Edition and I just missed a lot of interactions, but I don't think I did. I mean, once you do Garrus's missions in ME1 he gets stuck in this loop of thanking Shepard and has nothing new to say until you set sail for Ilos. I really feel like all the companions are undercooked except for maybe Liara which makes me regret that I didn't use her more this time around.  

 

Now maybe back in the day, ME had a really good story when compared to its rivals but it is very lacking now. I am also somewhat put off by how much fantasy is in my science fiction. So much of this game feels like a fantasy game with a sci-fi skin. Like Star Wars without the lightsabers. Makes sense given what games they made before, but it feels wrong for a game where Earth is real and exists. I'm not even talking about the biotic powers, but shit like the telepathic 50k-year-old plant and regular mentions of higher powers. I'm also bothered by how young a spacefaring humanity is and how their advancements are unrealistic. What I mean is, Earth is Earth. If your story contains a realistic Earth, Humanity's advancement needs to feel much more realistic. Earth, in-game, is way too advanced for something that was less than 200 years in our future and there is no bullshit alien magi-tech on Mars either. How humans became spacefaring in-game is just bad and wrong IMO. It really isn't a big deal but I don't like it. Ideally, such alien tech would have fallen into the laps of humanity instead of it being some buried treasure on mars... Anyway, about the main story, it just isn't that great until the final act. The Lockdown, Ilos, and the endgame is really when the story picks up which is like the last 5-ish hours. Now that last act was fucking great. I had forgotten all of it except for the final battle with Saren. I had forgotten all about Vigil who is great. Virmire was pretty great too with Sovereign, but the story wasn't that strong there. Of course, Virmire was something I remember clearly except for Sovereign so it could just be that I was expecting a fresh new experience from a book I have already read multiple times. None of the side quests were that special. Not like in something like Dragon Age: Origins. Quests with the fan, and where you punched the reporter seemed much more impactful back in the day, but I may be adding my experiences with ME1 and 2 together so they seem even greater in my memory. 

 

What this game does really well are atmosphere and music. The Citadel is almost perfect for what it is. The music on the Normandy really sets the mood, and the game has such much "ambient" synth-wave music that you can't escape that feeling of being a Space Boy in Space, doing Space Boy things. Each planet, even if they are reusing skyboxes, give off such strong feelings of adventure, dread, and loneliness. There is a special type of horror to being the only living thing on an empty planet. So many of the planets feel like places where you shouldn't be. A place you need to leave asap. Any dead people and abandoned buildings you find only serve to remind you that you don't belong on this empty world. Like god, imagine waking up on a world with no life other than plants. Mountains tower over you in every path, and when you encounter a vast empty plain all you can feel is dread. At least for me, when you are in your shitty Mako, with no visible companions, you truly feel alone in the universe. It is a special type of horror that you can't achieve on purpose. You couldn't actually make a game like that because it would just come across as a shitty UE asset flip. I just love the feeling of landing on a new planet. I won't miss it in ME2 as it does get boring, but there is something about it that is great. It is what makes Mass Effect stand out for the better. 

 

Finally, as I was playing it I was reminded of another game I really enjoyed despite it being shit. Of course, I am talking about ELEX. There is something about ELEX 1 and ME1 that is just so similar. Mass Effect does have this level of shittiness that I didn't remember. And it isn't just in the bugs either. ME does have a good amount of jank that really makes an RPG great. No, the bug where you can use your power wheel during the final battle with Saren is not what I am talking about. But shit like the Biotic abilities and the high explosive rounds. They are beyond fuck up. Enemies just rag doll constantly and are stun locked to death. Often I would Lift an enemy and send them flying so far up into the air with my shotgun that the game would just kill them. Knocking enemies off an edge has them die instantly and comedically. Like, they would die if they fell off their bed or something. Shit like that really just makes a game great. 

 

Now I'm off to ME2. I remember less about this game so I should be in for a somewhat fresh experience. I have a feeling I will be just as letdown by the gameplay changes as I was when it first came out, but that's just the way it is. 

[Biggie]

I just deleted it off my PS5. I tried to give it a chance I really did but in my opinion the game is ass. 

[best3444]

9 hours ago, Biggie said:

I just deleted it off my PS5. I tried to give it a chance I really did but in my opinion the game is ass. 

 

[SaysWho?]

I replayed the three last year. ME2 significantly ups the dialogue of your companions and the returning ME1 characters, easily. ME2 had other issues, such as less customization and upgrading, but there was a big jump in characterizations and its graphics.

 

Many of the side missions in the Mako were quite basic, such as getting Wrex's armor, and his dialogue during the mission isn't anything to write home about even though it lays the groundwork for your relationship with him should he survive ME1. Still, it is a product of its time; it's easy to forget that the cinematic nature of God of War 1, which released just two years prior in 2005, was a relatively new thing that most games did not have even as they tried to replicate it. To me, there's a difference between the cinematic stuff something such as Final Fantasy did (look at the cutscene difference between the Final Fantasy X FMVs and the in-game cutscenes, holy shit are the in-game ones badly framed), and what God of War did. I feel many games going back to the NES wanted to get as close to cinematic cutscenes as possible, but God of War's atmosphere really fucking nailed it with the technology there to finally do it, and the presentation has aged spectacularly. Metal Gear Solid's another good example of that, which I also felt was the exception rather than the rule. Nowadays, most games feel a lot better in this department, but it was rarer to feel a game was cinematic in the 2000s.

 

I bring all this up because ME2 in 2010 feels much better at presentation and I think nails the feeling that carried over to 3, whereas 1 had many good ideas that had to be fleshed out. I think if you place ME1 in 2007, it definitely felt better than a lot of other games' voice acting and story, and if you stick with it, you get to fall in love with a lot of characters over the course of the trilogy.

[Bacon]

Huh. When I played FemShep, I let Kaidan die. Now that I'm playing MaleShep, I let Ashley die. 

 

So, something I dislike that I didn't really talk about is the morality system. I hate being locked out of decisions I want to make. I cheated in ME1 and exploited a bug to max out my meters. Now, I'm going to exploit a bug in ME2 but it is much more time consuming. I am glad that this system changes in ME3. I hate the feeling of being locked in to blue or red. You can be nice and forgiving on some matters, but then have a more personal opinion on others without being "flippy-floppy".

[best3444]

Phenomenal post bacon. That pretty much nails impressions for that game in 2022. 

[Mr.Vic20]

ME 1 is definitely a time and a place RPG that we likely will never see again from a AAA developer. I get the comparison to Elex 1 (2 sucks, it really does) and it is quite appropriate! 

[Dre801]

Played through  Legendary Editions of 1 and 2 recently. 

[Kal-El814]

In hindsight I think some of the weaknesses of ME1 and DA:O is that their influences are just so, so, so transparent. Some of the scenes in DA:O look like they’re just straight up lifted from the Lord of the Rings movies, with the soundtrack being close to cribbed as well. I feel Ike in the original ME there’s a lot of, “look, we’re doing the things,” from a lot of sci-fi classics.

 

They get more of their own vibes later to varying degrees.

 

Fun thread!

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Some of the scenes in DA:O look like they’re just straight up lifted from the Lord of the Rings movies

I can totally see that now, but I couldn't make that connection back then. LotR wasn't something I was involved with and DA:O seemed original enough while sticking to common fantasy tropes. 

[Keyser_Soze]

Dragon Age Origins started development in 2002 right after the first LOTR, however, it finally released in 2009 which is way long after the last LOTR movie, so people had time to forget about those movies.

[stepee]

2 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

In hindsight I think some of the weaknesses of ME1 and DA:O is that their influences are just so, so, so transparent. Some of the scenes in DA:O look like they’re just straight up lifted from the Lord of the Rings movies, with the soundtrack being close to cribbed as well. I feel Ike in the original ME there’s a lot of, “look, we’re doing the things,” from a lot of sci-fi classics.

 

They get more of their own vibes later to varying degrees.

 

Fun thread!

 

Mass Effect came out and was the Star Trek game I always wanted with a brand new universe to explore in a time when Star Trek had no good new content. I don’t think I was ever happier to be in a gaming universe than I was to be in that one at that time.

[Keyser_Soze]

8 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Mass Effect came out and was the Star Trek game I always wanted with a brand new universe to explore in a time when Star Trek had no good new content. I don’t think I was ever happier to be in a gaming universe than I was to be in that one at that time.

 

Also Bioware had previously made KOTOR 1 and 2 so they made their star wars game and wanted to make a different star wars game that wasn't star wars.

[stepee]

Just now, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Also Bioware had previously made KOTOR 1 and 2 so they made their star wars game and wanted to make a different star wars game that wasn't star wars.

 

Yeah that makes sense though Mass Effect always felt a lot more Star Trek to me.

[Bacon]

1 minute ago, stepee said:

Yeah that makes sense though Mass Effect always felt a lot more Star Trek to me.

Totally star wars tho. You have space magic that can push, pull, lift, and hold. The major enemy type are droids with laser guns. Short haired twi'leks that every race want to fuck. The main character is basically the chosen one. I feel like the only Star Trek thing about is that you command a ship with a human crew. Remove the human crew and I think you'd lose that feeling. 

[Biggie]

2 hours ago, best3444 said:

Phenomenal post bacon. That pretty much nails impressions for that game in 2022. 

What about my post? I thought it was phenomenal and nailed the whole ass impressions.

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, Bacon said:

Totally star wars tho. You have space magic that can push, pull, lift, and hold. The major enemy type are droids with laser guns. Short haired twi'leks that every race want to fuck. The main character is basically the chosen one. I feel like the only Star Trek thing about is that you command a ship with a human crew. Remove the human crew and I think you'd lose that feeling. 

 

Maybe but also a lot of it seemed more about meeting other civilizations and establishing peace in a more organized manner. There was the main threat but most of the actual life living in the universe was pretty united. Star Wars seems like it’s always just chaos and never ending civil war and lots of boom boom. Mass Effect and Star Trek I feel focus more on the civilizations and their stories and explore the universe in more subtle ways.

[stepee]

Though KOTOR compares more to Mass Effect than Star Wars movies and other Star Wars games of course, and it’s a lot less boom boom than the movies. That’s why it’s probably my favorite Star Wars thing. And I always forget I was in love with the MMO for like 6 months too.

[Bacon]

11 minutes ago, Biggie said:

What about my post?

I thought it was shit and discouraged posting and discussion. 

 

9 minutes ago, stepee said:

I feel focus more on the civilizations and their stories

I do not feel that way at all after playing ME1. The most similar theme is humanity still finding it's position among the stars, but I feel like there is a distinct lack of learning about alien culture. I mean, you don't get to experience it. You can ask the jellies and round bois why they are the way they are, but their cultures are never represented beyond the words of the few. 

[Biggie]

1 minute ago, Bacon said:

I thought it was shit and discouraged posting and discussion. 

[stepee]

4 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I thought it was shit and discouraged posting and discussion. 

 

I do not feel that way at all after playing ME1. The most similar theme is humanity still finding it's position among the stars, but I feel like there is a distinct lack of learning about alien culture. I mean, you don't get to experience it. You can ask the jellies and round bois why they are the way they are, but their cultures are never represented beyond the words of the few. 

 

Idk and it has been awhile, maybe just bits and pieces were enough at the time for me to feel immersed into the world and the world building. I guess there was a lot of mystery about things in the first one; but I liked that too. You find out more later of course.

[best3444]

Even though part 2 was a watered down RPG compared to part 1, it's my favorite in the trilogy. I remember when it initially released being really blown away by the whole thing. 

[Bacon]

Just now, best3444 said:

Even though part 2 was a watered down RPG compared to part 1, it's my favorite in the trilogy. I remember when it initially released being really blown away by the whole thing. 

That intro is so fuckin' hype. It is one of the best starts to a video game ever. 

[stepee]

Honestly the beginning to 3 is also great 

[Keyser_Soze]

28 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

Maybe but also a lot of it seemed more about meeting other civilizations and establishing peace in a more organized manner. There was the main threat but most of the actual life living in the universe was pretty united. Star Wars seems like it’s always just chaos and never ending civil war and lots of boom boom. Mass Effect and Star Trek I feel focus more on the civilizations and their stories and explore the universe in more subtle ways.

 

I mean, like Kal said, it's a mix of both. The creatures, space magic, etc very Star Wars like. Visiting different planets to investigate stuff and go on missions is Star Trek like.

[Bacon]

7 minutes ago, stepee said:

Honestly the beginning to 3 is also great 

The kid getting blown the fuck up? Great!

Shepard being emo about it? BAD!

I dislike how much of an event the game makes that out to be. I really don't give a fuck about some random kid. 

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

I mean, like Kal said, it's a mix of both. The creatures, space magic, etc very Star Wars like. Visiting different planets to investigate stuff and go on missions is Star Trek like.

 

I think that it’s not so one dimensional is why I say it still leans more towards Star Trek (which has some magic stuff like Q) basicialy what I’m saying is that Mass Effect is a lot better than Star Wars.

[Nokra]

I've never played any of the Mass Effect games. Is it safe to read this thread without having anything spoiled? These are actually next on my "to play" list. 

 

 

[Bacon]

14 minutes ago, Nokra said:

I've never played any of the Mass Effect games. Is it safe to read this thread without having anything spoiled? These are actually next on my "to play" list. 

 

 

No, not really. I wouldn't read it, probably, if I were you. I mention the end boss, which isn't much of a spoiler, but I also spoil something pretty big. You could pretty much read all of it EXCPET for the block of text that contains the  emoji. Better play it safe and not read it. You'd probably be fine to read it once you have finished "Virmire" but at that point you only got like 5-15 hours left depending on you do the main story so you might as well just finish the game at that point before reading. 

 

But do come back and give it a read in the future. 

 

Oh and the other posts have spoilers in it as well. The one for ME3 is at the beginning of the game tho so it ain't much of a spoiler. I also spoil that "pretty big" thing in another post.

[Biggie]

21 minutes ago, Nokra said:

I've never played any of the Mass Effect games. Is it safe to read this thread without having anything spoiled? These are actually next on my "to play" list. 

 

 

Spoiler

Game sucks. Play something else.

 

[best3444]

2 hours ago, Nokra said:

I've never played any of the Mass Effect games. Is it safe to read this thread without having anything spoiled? These are actually next on my "to play" list. 

 

 

 

There's spoilers in hurr.

[Keyser_Soze]

5 hours ago, Nokra said:

I've never played any of the Mass Effect games.

 

[Kal-El814]

22 hours ago, Bacon said:

I do not feel that way at all after playing ME1. The most similar theme is humanity still finding it's position among the stars, but I feel like there is a distinct lack of learning about alien culture. I mean, you don't get to experience it. You can ask the jellies and round bois why they are the way they are, but their cultures are never represented beyond the words of the few. 

 

I feel like this is something games in general are consistently bad at. This is a weird example, but I remember playing Baten Kaitos and thinking it was weird that the characters could all fly but the architecture, worlds, houses, etc., might have looked like cupcakes or whatever, but were clearly not designed by people who could fly.

 

I appreciate that it’s a heavy lift to have a human art team design meaningfully different kinds of environments, worlds, technologies, etc., for multiple different species. The juice probably isn’t worth the squeeze. But it always occurs to me when I’m playing games with wacky, zany aliens but shit is almost universally built to purpose for humans.

[Bacon]

oof ME2 is rough

 

There is no hide helmet. I forgot about this but now you have to have a helmet on at all times or you miss out on stats. I forgot all about the armor modification which sucks a big dick when compared to ME1. 

 

Then there is the combat. Fun as been removed from the game. Ammo is far more limited than I thought. You only have 15 rounds of shotgun ammo, and pistols, which were great in me1, fuckin' suck now and the SMG is just BAD. Ammo mods now being class abilities is a huge downgrade that just highlights the biggest issue of the new combat which is that this game is a shitty cover shooter now. Pretty much never hid behind cover except for during the first mission in ME1. As soon I got barrier in ME1 I could not be killed. It was great. Now they severely limit the abilities you and your squad have. First, ammo mods don't count as abilities. So that means companions only have like 2 abilities compared to the like 6 or 7 they could have in ME1, and that was on top of your 7-8 abilities. As a vanguard I now only have 3 abilities now and my amazing defensive capabilities are gone. replaced with very mid offensive abilities due to how armor/shields/barriers block biotic attacks. It really sucks that this game is so focused on cover shooting with bursts of "space magic" instead of locking down the entire battlefield with biotic abilities that each had their own cooldown instead of everything sharing the same cooldown. 

 

It really fuckin sucks that they have so improved the story, acting, and NPC interactions only to remove the fun gameplay for something so basic. If it wasn't for the fact I spent hours exploiting already I'd re-roll to soldier because If I have to play this game like a cover shooter I might as well pick the best class for the job. Now, I've heard that vanguard gets better, but it really doesn't feel that way. It just seems like you get a better rounded team to carry your ass. 

[Bacon]

17 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

But it always occurs to me when I’m playing games with wacky, zany aliens but shit is almost universally built to purpose for humans.

Well, at least a good portion are humans but blue, or humans but with 4 eyes and a big green head. Even Turian, Quarian, and Salarian are close to human in their stature. Probably why the council accept humanity so fast while the jellies and such are left in the cold.