Mass Effect

[Tyyr]

I think Liara was a pretty popular choice both with male and femsheps. Kaidan second for the straight girls, sorry guys if like dick you're up a creek, Ashely a distant second for the straight guys.

Doesn't hurt that Liara is blue.

[Mark]

I think the actress that plays Williams is hot. Sorry, but I'd do her in so many different ways, it'd violate Council ethics.

[Tyyr]

I've got no problem with Ashely's looks and frankly she's probably more tolerable if you can romance her and get her past her "I hate aliens," phase.

Still, I want a mod where you don't have to pick.

[Lighthawk]

Finally got around to giving this game a go, no idea how far into the game I am in terms of the main story, but I just took care of the Thorian. So far the game is fun, but nothing special. Honestly the best stuff about it have nothing to do with the game play. I love the amount of detail they put into the universe, I'm more excited to get new codex updates than I am to figure out the next part of the story line. I like the FTL systems, having the mass relays acting as hubs of galactic civilization. And I think it's a good mix of hard and soft scifi.

Game play wise though...it's okay. Combat just seems very repetitive to me. Granted I'm playing a soldier, I think perhaps I'd have had more options with a biotic. 95% of the time all I need to do is blast away with my assault rifle, maybe hit shield recharge or immunity if return fire gets crazy, but that's about it. I tried specializing in sniping, but there just aren't many battles where you have the time to snipe. By the time I get a shot lined up and drop someone my team has wiped out most of the opposition, if I just run n gun with the assault rifle I can mow down 3/4th of the enemy myself easy.

I wish the enemy made more use of cover, so that I had a reason to. I like the cover system, it's fun as hell to leap frog from cover to cover, popping out to snap off shots...but there's no reason to. My shields and armor let me take the few hits an enemy can get off before I cut them down without worry, and half the enemy just rushes forward themselves anyway, so the cover isn't very helpful.

I also have to say, that humans are the most annoying enemy in the game. Every three fucking seconds "I WILL DESTROY YOU!" or "ENEMIES ARE EVERYWHERE!" Over and over again. Shut up and die!

I'm also not much of a fan of the mako. First off it handles like the Halo warthog, which is to say badly. The thrusters are pretty much useless, I don't even see what use they could have. And fighting with it is both repetitive and annoying. I hate that the aiming reticule will depress further than the actual gun, because it's tricky at times to eyeball it and tell if the enemy is below your field of fire or not.

The level system is okay. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing worth really talking about either.

I find the gear drops annoying, because of the sheer amount that they throw at you. Even a short mission will drop a dozen plus items easy, most of it copies, and the equip menus don't make it easy to sort through since you can't organize things. My omni-gel is constantly maxed out from converting all the redundant drops, to the point now that I don't even bother with the hacking minigame, I just spend the gel to try and use some of it.

I do really like the character interaction. I love the little conversations your team mates will have during elevator rides for example. All the characters are nicely fleshed out. Wrex is probably my favorite for his commentary post blowing the hell out of something. Liara is a close second though, and my current romantic interest for this play through.

Over all, I'd give the game a 6/10. It's fun, but I doubt I'll ever come back to it once I'm done.

[colmquinn]

The second game in the series corrects most of the issues of the first I think

[Reliant121]

Mass Effect 1 rode on atmosphere and dialog more than gameplay sophistication. Again, personal bias but I am really not fussed if the physical gameplay is shoddy if theres something else that redeems it. S'why I actually quite like Legacy cause all the glitter is enough to satisfy me. For example, the planets of Virmire, Ilos and the final scene on the Citadel (no more details than that ) All have excellent atmosphere.


ME II improved the gameplay elements a fair bit, and still retained a lot of atmosphere. It also has a far greater weight of consequence in what you decide to do.

[Mark]

Like banging Miranda..

[Tyyr]

Over all, I'd give the game a 6/10. It's fun, but I doubt I'll ever come back to it once I'm done.

You're dead to me.

[Lighthawk]

Over all, I'd give the game a 6/10. It's fun, but I doubt I'll ever come back to it once I'm done.

You're dead to me.

I think I've gotten that enough times now that I should be able to raise myself as one of the unliving.

[Coalition]

For Mass Effect, make sure you have a good bass system before you go to Virmire. It is worth it.

Future:
Mass Effect 3 - allow/encourage romances between other characters?

Tali/Legion should be interesting.

[Mark]

I banged Tali in ME2. It was disappointing. Forget about seeing a side boob. You never even really got to see her face.

[Lighthawk]

Okay just beat the 1st game. I'm torn on the ending. I liked the idea of the Reapers, they are a pretty scary and intimidating villain idea when you really think about them. Nicely evil. I was not such a fan of the human alliance suddenly just jumping up to the top of the political ladder though, it felt forced, and just so cliched. Oh look, the young upstart humans just proved how awesome they are compared to all those older races. I guess I was suppose to go "Yay us!" or "In your face aliens!", but I'm actually getting a bit weary of humanity always being the magic miracle race of the universe, doing things faster and/or better than any other, or doing what others thought could not be done.

That aside though, I loved the story, and I was so freaking torn about who to leave behind to die. I did not however hesitate for a second to sacrifice the council, the condescending pricks. That felt rather good actually.

I am also glad I brought Liara for the final fight. The Lift ability saved me a lot of time trying to keep Saren in my sights, and Lift combined with Overkill let me put a lot of hurt on him really fast.

[Tyyr]

I'll respond longer later about your whole post. The final portion of ME is pretty damn epic. The choices you make in relation to the council makes the BIGGEST impact on the second game. Killing them off is so popular that it's the default choice in ME2.

For me Liara and Tali were the best combo for my soldier shep.

[Lighthawk]

I'll respond longer later about your whole post. The final portion of ME is pretty damn epic.

It was a hell of a battle.

The choices you make in relation to the council makes the BIGGEST impact on the second game. Killing them off is so popular that it's the default choice in ME2.

...ha! Awesome.

For me Liara and Tali were the best combo for my soldier shep.

It's creepy how much we think alike at times. But they are a great combo, and it makes a well rounded team. Shep for combat power, Tali for the tech, and Liara for the bionics. You have a specialist in each field.

[Tyyr]

As much as I like Wrex and Garrus their combat abilities aren't as useful as Liara and Tali's fully developed biotics and tech.