I bought Mass Effect yesterday, since it was cheap (only 20 bucks) and it got great reviews. However, I can't help but have mixed feelings about it. It's good at times, but very boring and disappointing at others. Do note that I've only been playing for about 4 hours, so maybe it gets better. I was given access to the ship, and I've visited a couple planets and done some sidequests.

-Fighting is really random. The Sniper Rifle is nearly impossible to aim. It feels like my character is having a seizure while he's aiming it. Plus, hit detection seems kind of wonky. I have to be very close to my opponents to even hurt them, while they can down me from really far away.

-It's too hard. The game started out really easy, but now it's different. In nearly every fight I'm in, both of my allies get shot a few times and immediately die. Then I have to take on the enemies all by myself, popping in and out of cover to occasionally shoot my assault rifle.

-The radar is awful. It doesn't give you very clear instructions on where to go.

-Exploring planets is about as much fun as watching a bowl of pudding. All the planets I've been to are just a series of hills and the occasional mineral deposit.

So does the game get better the more I play it, or is this pretty how much it is from then on out? I love the RPG elements and improving my character, but the traveling aspect is dreadful and enemies are broken.

I pretty much agree with you on those points, I loved the game when I started out but all the tech issues really put me off and I sold the game 5 hours in...

Although I do regret it now and plan to buy it again before the sequel is released, its an amazing game with a lot of flaws sadly because it was rushed....

Do give it more time and i'd like to see what you think of the game about 8-10 hours in....

I agree somewhat...it's not a bad game by any means, but I didn't feel involved with the quest at all. After some  6-8 hours I realized I didn't care anymore and when the game froze a couple of times for me, I uninstalled it and never played it again

The non-quest planets are horrible. Pretty much reskinned versions of the same planet. But the planets with main quests or big quests on them are pretty sweet.

I strongly recommend not playing through for the first time as a Soldier. It's easily the least fun class (given that you can't use powers) and the shooting in this game isn't that great.

More on the aiming: It'll take time and the hit detection is slightly wonky (I'm the opposite, in my experience I could hit a guy with the standard rifle or whatever the first gun is from miles away but up close it's ridiculous). But the issues I experienced weren't very frequent, probably because I was not the soldier (I used vanguard).

Yes the radar is random (nothing much more to add to that one).

Difficulty: On normal, I only really struggled with one fight in the game. At the start you have to be a little bit less gun-ho and you have to make sure you give your squad really defensive/conservative commands. Actually, thinking about it now, I struggled with 2 fights. I think the first one was the first major boss.

Don't worry, the game doesn't necessarily get much more forgiving BUT you will get better in terms of stats and your ability to command your partners.

Obviously I recommend continuing with the game, I'm sure your opinion will change once you've gotten used to how things work.

Oh Monti, you totally killed my buzz for this game, Baddman loves this game and has played it 5 times already. He swear it's the best game on the 360.

i know exactly what you´re talking about but i didn´t find it that annoying like you
it´s a very good game love it !

I agree with almost all of your points. Except for me the fighting was too easy.  I used a lot of techs though.

The planets were so boring and worthless, but if you don't visit them the game is pretty short. There is only a few main planets that you need to visit to beat the game. I wish that would have been done better because the game has the potential to be amazing, but to me it falls short.

CAL4MITY: Well I picked John instead of customizing a character, so it stuck me as Soldier class. So far I'm using Kaidan and Garrus (since Kaidan has some Biotics), but I don't know. I may just have to skip sidequests entirely if they're all this boring.

It is kinda hard. I was going to give up on the game and then put it on easy and my enjoyment of the game grew exponentially.

^ same with me but i´m not a hardcore gamer i enjoy games but it´s not like i want to have all the trophies/achievements