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Forums - Microsoft - I finally finished Mass Effect. Wow.

rocketpig on 02 February 2010

Med-Gel can also be used through a skill you can select later in the game to heal people. I never took it so I'm not quite sure how it works.

As for the smallness of ME2, I totally agree. It's one of my few complaints about the game. Everything felt rather tiny (and therefore linear) because there's not a lot of room left for exploration. But given the obscene amount of work put into every other aspect of the game, I'm not going to fault BioWare for not creating Oblivion-esque environment roaming.




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Killergran on 02 February 2010
rocketpig said:
I had no problems with the elevators. I think I'm the only one.

Honestly, what's the difference between an elevator and a load screen? Who cares?

The problem I had with the elevators was that they didn't take into consideration the actual load times. On PC it loads rather quickly, so the elevator rides serve no purpose whatsoever.

Still, all the faults in Mass Effect amount to nothing when you finally get caught up in the atmosphere. The music, design, characters and the world all make it worthwhile. There are no other games that has such a great atmosphere.



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Reasonable on 02 February 2010
Killergran said:
rocketpig said:
I had no problems with the elevators. I think I'm the only one.

Honestly, what's the difference between an elevator and a load screen? Who cares?

The problem I had with the elevators was that they didn't take into consideration the actual load times. On PC it loads rather quickly, so the elevator rides serve no purpose whatsoever.

Still, all the faults in Mass Effect amount to nothing when you finally get caught up in the atmosphere. The music, design, characters and the world all make it worthwhile. There are no other games that has such a great atmosphere.

I like Mass Effect and all, but over the last twenty or more years I've played plenty of games with the same or arguably more 'atmosphere'.  But I get your drift... I just don't it's necessary to try and be that exclusive in the short term, particularly when it's hardly accurate.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

Killergran on 02 February 2010
Reasonable said:

I like Mass Effect and all, but over the last twenty or more years I've played plenty of games with the same or arguably more 'atmosphere'.  But I get your drift... I just don't it's necessary to try and be that exclusive in the short term, particularly when it's hardly accurate.

My intention was to talk about my own personal experience, I didn't mean to sound so absolute about it. It's possibly a mistake that comes from not being a native english speaker. That or I was expressing myself carelessly.

Personally I cannot think of any game I've played that offers a tighter or better atmosphere than Mass Effect. It's the entire reason I love the games. Just standing still can be an amazing experience. I can remember games that have done basically the same thing, but none that has done it just as well. There are games that are better though. Atmosphere is not everything.



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Reasonable on 02 February 2010
Killergran said:
Reasonable said:

I like Mass Effect and all, but over the last twenty or more years I've played plenty of games with the same or arguably more 'atmosphere'.  But I get your drift... I just don't it's necessary to try and be that exclusive in the short term, particularly when it's hardly accurate.

My intention was to talk about my own personal experience, I didn't mean to sound so absolute about it. It's possibly a mistake that comes from not being a native english speaker. That or I was expressing myself carelessly.

Personally I cannot think of any game I've played that offers a tighter or better atmosphere than Mass Effect. It's the entire reason I love the games. Just standing still can be an amazing experience. I can remember games that have done basically the same thing, but none that has done it just as well. There are games that are better though. Atmosphere is not everything.

Ah well, if you're writing in a second tongue its probably just a nuance not to worry about - no need to apologise for that.

I was talking about atmosphere though, not other games being better.  For example System Shock 2 has as much, arguably more, than Mass Effect - although it's more of a horrible atmosphere but it sure is constant.  The Thief series of games also have atmosphere that's right up there with the best.  Games like ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are almost entirely built on having a seamless, perfect atmosphere built on perfect use of sound and visuals to totally immerse you in their world.

But I agree, Mass Effect games are very much up there in the top ranks of having a solid, well developed atmosphere for the game world.

To be honest I thought you were making the mistake of making an expansive judement based on the games you know in ignorance of the games you don't - but clearly that wasn't the case so I hope in turn I didn't give offense either.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

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Lolcislaw on 02 February 2010

Good to hear that you liked it, it is an amazing game with awesome replay value. I started playing it again this week and it is as good as the first time i played it. Cant wait till i finally get my hands on ME 2.

However i still think that DA:O > ME



Slimebeast on 02 February 2010
twesterm said:

What the Hell people? 

I know I've said *many* times that I have not finished Mass Effect yet nobody got on my back about it.  The wife was in San Antonia this weekend so I took the chance to finish the game.  I didn't like my previous Shephard so I made a new one and then set it to easy because I just wanted the story, the new game+ in Mass Effect 2, and I didn't feel like wasting the time with the gameplay.

Well I finished the game last night and hot damn it was amazing!  Even though I have Mass Effect 2 I still want to play through Mass Effect again!  I actually cared about the characters and the decisions in that game got pretty tough (though the Kaiden Ashley decision wasn't hard since I didn't like either of them)!  It got to the part where I to save the council and I was just like crap what do I do! (I focused on the Soveriegn) and then you even have to pick the new human council chairmen.

Mass Effect I think actually rekindled my love of the RPG I think.

Traditional JRPG's just get me bored and I can't remember the last new one I finished.  Other WRPG's like any Bethesda game I generally get bored too and they're too open so I forget about the main story.  I loved the ending of Fable II but I was done with that game and I didn't want more.  I loved Dragon Age, but after a while I was just done with it.

But Mass Effect, crap, I loved that game and I want more.  I wish I had actually made myself play through it earlier because I did almost no side quests and I want to do them all now.

And then moving straight from Mass Effect to Mass Effect, holy shit, the improvements are insane!

So yeah, congratulations Bioware, Mass Effect is incredible, it rekindled my love for the RPG, and I'm looking forward to playing Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 again and again. 

Great game is great, Mass Effect is easily one of the best games this gen and I'm only 1-2 hours into Mass Effect 2 and it's improved in almost every way so far.

Great read. But it sounds like you weren't very engaged the first time around playing Mass Effect but now you were enthusiastic. How come? It's because you now had heard how your decisions would carry over to ME2?



twesterm on 02 February 2010
Slimebeast said:
twesterm said:

Well I finished the game last night and hot damn it was amazing!  Even though I have Mass Effect 2 I still want to play through Mass Effect again!  I actually cared about the characters and the decisions in that game got pretty tough (though the Kaiden Ashley decision wasn't hard since I didn't like either of them)!  It got to the part where I to save the council and I was just like crap what do I do! (I focused on the Soveriegn) and then you even have to pick the new human council chairmen.

Great read. But it sounds like you weren't very engaged the first time around playing Mass Effect but now you were enthusiastic. How come? It's because you now had heard how your decisions would carry over to ME2?

I have a bad habit of putting down games and not picking them back up.

Some things that lead to me putting down a game can be bugs, crappy framerate and other presentation issues, not fun, and super long (longer than 12 hours).  Mass Effect hits the bugs, framerate, and super long points so I'm not surprised I never finished it until now.

I loved the story and decisions (though I didn't get to a point where I had never made a tough decision, I never beat more than two of the opening two worlds so never got to Virmire), I just put the game down and never picked it up.  I've actually started two or three other times trying to finish it so I had actually played each of the opening three worlds at least once.

Along those lines, it was kind of annoying because I went to Virmire right away since I had never played it and I wish I had saved that for my fourth world instead of the Arachni world.  Virmire was just insane and awesome and it kind of sucked to go from that to the Arachni world that I had already played twice before before going to the end of the game.  It kind of threw my pacing off a little.



 

Slimebeast on 02 February 2010
twesterm said:
Slimebeast said:
twesterm said:

Well I finished the game last night and hot damn it was amazing!  Even though I have Mass Effect 2 I still want to play through Mass Effect again!  I actually cared about the characters and the decisions in that game got pretty tough (though the Kaiden Ashley decision wasn't hard since I didn't like either of them)!  It got to the part where I to save the council and I was just like crap what do I do! (I focused on the Soveriegn) and then you even have to pick the new human council chairmen.

Great read. But it sounds like you weren't very engaged the first time around playing Mass Effect but now you were enthusiastic. How come? It's because you now had heard how your decisions would carry over to ME2?

I have a bad habit of putting down games and not picking them back up.

Some things that lead to me putting down a game can be bugs, crappy framerate and other presentation issues, not fun, and super long (longer than 12 hours).  Mass Effect hits the bugs, framerate, and super long points so I'm not surprised I never finished it until now.

I loved the story and decisions (though I didn't get to a point where I had never made a tough decision, I never beat more than two of the opening two worlds so never got to Virmire), I just put the game down and never picked it up.  I've actually started two or three other times trying to finish it so I had actually played each of the opening three worlds at least once.

Along those lines, it was kind of annoying because I went to Virmire right away since I had never played it and I wish I had saved that for my fourth world instead of the Arachni world.  Virmire was just insane and awesome and it kind of sucked to go from that to the Arachni world that I had already played twice before before going to the end of the game.  It kind of threw my pacing off a little.

Interesting. Now, this time u played on easy and I assume skipped many/all side quests? How many hours did it take to complete?



twesterm on 02 February 2010
Slimebeast said:
twesterm said:
Slimebeast said:
twesterm said:

Well I finished the game last night and hot damn it was amazing!  Even though I have Mass Effect 2 I still want to play through Mass Effect again!  I actually cared about the characters and the decisions in that game got pretty tough (though the Kaiden Ashley decision wasn't hard since I didn't like either of them)!  It got to the part where I to save the council and I was just like crap what do I do! (I focused on the Soveriegn) and then you even have to pick the new human council chairmen.

Great read. But it sounds like you weren't very engaged the first time around playing Mass Effect but now you were enthusiastic. How come? It's because you now had heard how your decisions would carry over to ME2?

I have a bad habit of putting down games and not picking them back up.

Some things that lead to me putting down a game can be bugs, crappy framerate and other presentation issues, not fun, and super long (longer than 12 hours).  Mass Effect hits the bugs, framerate, and super long points so I'm not surprised I never finished it until now.

I loved the story and decisions (though I didn't get to a point where I had never made a tough decision, I never beat more than two of the opening two worlds so never got to Virmire), I just put the game down and never picked it up.  I've actually started two or three other times trying to finish it so I had actually played each of the opening three worlds at least once.

Along those lines, it was kind of annoying because I went to Virmire right away since I had never played it and I wish I had saved that for my fourth world instead of the Arachni world.  Virmire was just insane and awesome and it kind of sucked to go from that to the Arachni world that I had already played twice before before going to the end of the game.  It kind of threw my pacing off a little.

Interesting. Now, this time u played on easy and I assume skipped many/all side quests? How many hours did it take to complete?

About 15 hours, I skipped most sidequests.  I did just about all the citadel quests (I skipped a few that would get me Paragon points) and I did some of the character sidequests.