Mass Effect Mass Effect general thread

Tyzuris

Primarch to your glory& the glory of him on Earth!
So just in case anyone wants to discuss ME, I thought of making a general thread to it here.
 

Captain X

Well-known member
Osaul
Hot Take: While the gameplay mechanics showed some improvement, the games actually started to suck with the second one. While most of the characters were pretty good and I liked some of the missions, I hated the fact they took away so many of the RPG elements, and that the story went in the direction it did, which made no sense really, especially if your Shepard had survived a Cerberus experiment as their background for the first game. And it was also effectively a reboot. And I also feel that the game forgot its space opera roots.

I'm still very much a fan of the first game and feel that in spite of the sequels being more popular and better acclaimed, that the first game still represents the best of the franchise. There's a sense of wonder and exploration that I still get nostalgic over when thinking about the first game that I just don't get with the others. I also liked the RPG elements of the first game better, and feel that the story and characters were better in the first game. In the second game, I was rather disturbed at the changes to the Liara (mai waifu :p) and Garrus characters in the second game compared to the first one. Actually I suppose that change is most noticeable with Liara no matter what kind of character you play in the first game, but if you played a paragon Shepard in the first game and talked Garrus out of getting revenge on Dr. Heart, it's rather disheartening in the second game that he seems to have gone completely back on that character arch. Of course, it could be argued that this is but one of many of the first hints we got of our choices not really mattering in the long run.

Honestly the only improvement I saw between the first and second games was in the combat aspect, especially with biotic powers (vanguard in particular thanks to the charge power). True, the combat could be rather clumsy in the first game, but the customization and ability to do any number of power combo attacks, as well as the other rpg elements still make the first game better in my opinion. And then there's the lame aspect of the heat sinks, which to me represented a loss of a more unique aspect of the gameplay and turned it into an experience much like any other shooter, where I have to run around and collect ammo after a battle set piece.

I'm not saying ME2 and 3 sucked or anything - they were still fun to play - it's just that I found the experience inferior to the first game, and feel that it lost sight of its space opera roots, probably owing to EA interference.

I align pretty well with Mother's Basement's video here:
 
D

Deleted member 1

Guest
Same here, but if you had to choose, I'd choose the Quarians.

I always loved the Quarians inordinately; I suppose by a certain simplistic view the Asari were "my" people for being a Matriarchy, but really I never found their customs and traditions quite so appealing as those of Tali's people. The ending was the kind of terrible blatherous nonsense which modern intellectuals have convinced themselves is profound, and therefore was, by definition, terrible.
 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
Hot Take: While the gameplay mechanics showed some improvement, the games actually started to suck with the second one. While most of the characters were pretty good and I liked some of the missions, I hated the fact they took away so many of the RPG elements, and that the story went in the direction it did, which made no sense really, especially if your Shepard had survived a Cerberus experiment as their background for the first game. And it was also effectively a reboot. And I also feel that the game forgot its space opera roots.

I'm still very much a fan of the first game and feel that in spite of the sequels being more popular and better acclaimed, that the first game still represents the best of the franchise. There's a sense of wonder and exploration that I still get nostalgic over when thinking about the first game that I just don't get with the others. I also liked the RPG elements of the first game better, and feel that the story and characters were better in the first game. In the second game, I was rather disturbed at the changes to the Liara (mai waifu :p) and Garrus characters in the second game compared to the first one. Actually I suppose that change is most noticeable with Liara no matter what kind of character you play in the first game, but if you played a paragon Shepard in the first game and talked Garrus out of getting revenge on Dr. Heart, it's rather disheartening in the second game that he seems to have gone completely back on that character arch. Of course, it could be argued that this is but one of many of the first hints we got of our choices not really mattering in the long run.

Honestly the only improvement I saw between the first and second games was in the combat aspect, especially with biotic powers (vanguard in particular thanks to the charge power). True, the combat could be rather clumsy in the first game, but the customization and ability to do any number of power combo attacks, as well as the other rpg elements still make the first game better in my opinion. And then there's the lame aspect of the heat sinks, which to me represented a loss of a more unique aspect of the gameplay and turned it into an experience much like any other shooter, where I have to run around and collect ammo after a battle set piece.

I'm not saying ME2 and 3 sucked or anything - they were still fun to play - it's just that I found the experience inferior to the first game, and feel that it lost sight of its space opera roots, probably owing to EA interference.

I align pretty well with Mother's Basement's video here:

Oh yeah, story and atmosphere-wise the sequels can't compete at all. Notice how there was a bit of a retro feel to the first game (remember Ashley's helmet design?), that was reminiscent of 50's pulp scifi books, which enhanced the feeling of wonder and exploration somewhat. And the plot was a proper epos, with the fate of the entire galaxy on the line (granted, they returned to that in the third game, but it had a much more grimdark, wartime aesthetic).

I love the 2nd and 3rd games too, but honestly it feels like they just sold out, or got watered down with Call of Duty or something.
 

Tyzuris

Primarch to your glory& the glory of him on Earth!
I am going to have to say that exploration in ME1 was shit. It was hundreds of copypasted-colour palette switched square kilometer patches of mountaneous terrain with like two types of copy pasted enemy outposts and a few types of enemies.

It got boring really fast because of that. That's why when I play ME1, I bite the bullet and do all the side quests first saving the good stuff for later.

And thr inventory was poor as well. Guns only varied by stats which made having different guns useless. The only difference was damage and the time until cool down. Meanwhile in ME2 there was an actual difference between like a Widow sniper anf Viper sniper.
 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
I am going to have to say that exploration in ME1 was shit. It was hundreds of copypasted-colour palette switched square kilometer patches of mountaneous terrain with like two types of copy pasted enemy outposts and a few types of enemies.

It got boring really fast because of that. That's why when I play ME1, I bite the bullet and do all the side quests first saving the good stuff for later.

And thr inventory was poor as well. Guns only varied by stats which made having different guns useless. The only difference was damage and the time until cool down. Meanwhile in ME2 there was an actual difference between like a Widow sniper anf Viper sniper.
I also agree with all that, but it fits what we were talking about - gameplay has improved throughout the series, while the aesthetic, story, atmosphere - didn't.
 

Battlegrinder

Someday we will win, no matter what it takes.
Moderator
Staff Member
Founder
Obozny
I also agree with all that, but it fits what we were talking about - gameplay has improved throughout the series, while the aesthetic, story, atmosphere - didn't.


I think that's half right, half wrong. ME2 had a great story and setting. Sure it had hiccups (many of which would go on to become exponentially worse in 3, such as how the game used and treated Aria), but ME1 wasn't perfect either and viewed on it's own, ME2 is a great game with (mostly) great characters and a great story.

The problem with ME2 is not that it's story is a step down from ME1, but that it's story is not picking up from where ME1 left off. ME1 left you with the galaxy aware of the reaper threat and Shepherd vowing to find a way to fight them, ME2 scrapped that whole plotline and had you run off to go fight the collectors, and that story was pretty good....but it wasn't a good sequel to ME1. It reminds me of that article UA posted somewhere about TLJ, which said it was a great sci fi movie and an awful SW movie (IIRC).

Also, obligatory link to Shamus Young's book sized retrospective of the series: Mass Effect Retrospective 1: The Ages of BioWare - Twenty Sided
 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
I think that's half right, half wrong. ME2 had a great story and setting. Sure it had hiccups (many of which would go on to become exponentially worse in 3, such as how the game used and treated Aria), but ME1 wasn't perfect either and viewed on it's own, ME2 is a great game with (mostly) great characters and a great story.

The problem with ME2 is not that it's story is a step down from ME1, but that it's story is not picking up from where ME1 left off. ME1 left you with the galaxy aware of the reaper threat and Shepherd vowing to find a way to fight them, ME2 scrapped that whole plotline and had you run off to go fight the collectors, and that story was pretty good....but it wasn't a good sequel to ME1. It reminds me of that article UA posted somewhere about TLJ, which said it was a great sci fi movie and an awful SW movie (IIRC).

Also, obligatory link to Shamus Young's book sized retrospective of the series: Mass Effect Retrospective 1: The Ages of BioWare - Twenty Sided

The story was good in a completely different way from ME1. It had a more "personal" feel, with a lot of focus on the characters and their personal drama, while I felt the main story with the Collectors was significantly weaker than the epic ME1 story.
 

Tyzuris

Primarch to your glory& the glory of him on Earth!
I think that's half right, half wrong. ME2 had a great story and setting. Sure it had hiccups (many of which would go on to become exponentially worse in 3, such as how the game used and treated Aria), but ME1 wasn't perfect either and viewed on it's own, ME2 is a great game with (mostly) great characters and a great story.

The problem with ME2 is not that it's story is a step down from ME1, but that it's story is not picking up from where ME1 left off. ME1 left you with the galaxy aware of the reaper threat and Shepherd vowing to find a way to fight them, ME2 scrapped that whole plotline and had you run off to go fight the collectors, and that story was pretty good....but it wasn't a good sequel to ME1. It reminds me of that article UA posted somewhere about TLJ, which said it was a great sci fi movie and an awful SW movie (IIRC).

Also, obligatory link to Shamus Young's book sized retrospective of the series: Mass Effect Retrospective 1: The Ages of BioWare - Twenty Sided
And ME2 gave us one of the most orgasmic moments of all-time in gaming which is the suicide mission.
 

bullethead

Part-time fanfic writer
Super Moderator
Staff Member
For me, Mass Effect 2 is probably the best mix of gameplay and story, but that's mostly because I wasn't particularly interested in the Reaper plot. I'd pegged them as "Lovecraft + (Stargate Atlantis) Wraith ripoffs" at the end of ME1 and figured they'd get taken out in the final game, so I glommed on to the character stories and exploration of the setting.

That said, I was mostly okay with the Collector plot, although they really needed to explain what the goal of creating the Human Reaper was more than not at all. My head canon was that it was a replacement for Sovereign, but I have no idea if that was the intent, and the whole "the Reapers flew back to the Milky Way in less than a year" thing makes that make no sense.

Andromeda was interesting in terms of its gameplay changes, but they had some godawful UIs, and just about everything sucked because pre-production was a total shitfest and they crunched for like 18 months to 2 years to get what they had going. It also had a terrible name, which made sound way bigger than it could ever deliver on, and most of the emotion/adventure evoking stuff was in the ads/video intros to the various features, not the actual game itself.
 

40thousandninjas

Active member
ME has some the best world building in video games. The concept of the relays, their limitations and impact on the astro-political situation and galactic culture was nothing short of genius. It's brilliance isn't overt but subtle. Details such as deliberate inaccuracies in the codex to indicate subtle, unspoken biases hinting at the nightmare of what lies in the greater universe.

It's gameplay was only slightly better than average but combined with some great character writing, it made for a great game series.
 

bullethead

Part-time fanfic writer
Super Moderator
Staff Member
BTW, if you have Mass Effect 2 on PC (or are thinking about getting it), but not all the DLC, you can get all the DLC for $10, since EA is running a sale on it.
 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
I think that's half right, half wrong. ME2 had a great story and setting. Sure it had hiccups (many of which would go on to become exponentially worse in 3, such as how the game used and treated Aria), but ME1 wasn't perfect either and viewed on it's own, ME2 is a great game with (mostly) great characters and a great story.

The problem with ME2 is not that it's story is a step down from ME1, but that it's story is not picking up from where ME1 left off. ME1 left you with the galaxy aware of the reaper threat and Shepherd vowing to find a way to fight them, ME2 scrapped that whole plotline and had you run off to go fight the collectors, and that story was pretty good....but it wasn't a good sequel to ME1. It reminds me of that article UA posted somewhere about TLJ, which said it was a great sci fi movie and an awful SW movie (IIRC).

Also, obligatory link to Shamus Young's book sized retrospective of the series: Mass Effect Retrospective 1: The Ages of BioWare - Twenty Sided
Just wanted to say thank you for introducing the Shamus Young series on Mass Effect to me, I've been reading it for most of the day and I find his commentary brilliant and extremely satisfying, in a way that he basically made me realize why the sequels feel so off to me compared to the first game.
 

Tiamat

I've seen the future...
I'll throw this out there: Does anyone here remember a Mass Effect roleplay site called Cerberus Daily News? It got pretty big around the time Mass Effect 3 came out, on one of it's message boards we did an extended RP where I played several characters, among them an ex-Blue Suns merc turned Alliance "agent" named Solitary man, a biotics-enhanced ex-Cerberus defector named Jessica Six (Yes, I named her after the gal from Logan's Run, sue me :p ), an oddball Hanar doctor named Dr. Osilus (who enjoyed chess), and a few others. Don't know if anyone here knows or remembers any of that, had quite a bit fun before the site got too mired in out-of-character drama and petty politics. :(
 

Porkchopper

Active member
Andromeda was great combat wise but the character models sucked and the story was the same just with a different coat of paint. I do hope they do something new with the franchise.
 

commanderkai

Establishing Battlefield Control...Standby
Moderator
Staff Member
Andromeda was great combat wise but the character models sucked and the story was the same just with a different coat of paint. I do hope they do something new with the franchise.

I will give Andromeda credit. Their "end battle" was what the Mass Effect 3 ending should have been. The minor characters you helped during Andromeda made an appearance, or provided assistance near the end of the game, yet all of the war assets in Mass Effect 3 didn't really feel like they played any real role.
 

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