Mass Effect: A few thoughts

[mediaboy]

I went into town on Saturday with a mate and his girlfriend and whilst we were wandering around we happened to somehow pop into the games shop. And I discovered Alone in the Dark, which I've not got round to playing yet, and Mass Effect.

I spent around 12 hours playing Mass Effect on Sunday to get it completed, and I thought that I'd share a few opinions of it (this is the PC version.)

Firstly, unless you have Shader 3.0 support, disable the shading option in settings. Otherwise you'll glitch. It may seem like an obvious thing, but I forgot and I ended up with all my characters having duplicates of themselves a few miliseconds behind them. It's just enough to get your character looking twice as fat. It does make being thrown into the air amusing though, as for the briefest of instants there's two of you.. one on the floor and one in the air.

Secondly, ensure that the specs you set it at are reasonable. If your computer can't handle those specs, the entire game quits. There's no such thing as lag. There's just your computer closing Mass Effect. It still is visible as a process in task manager though, and it also says that you can't have more than one instance of Mass Effect open at the same time.

Thirdly, and finally for the bugs that I've found so far, I'd try to avoid using the rapid transit around the Citadel. It occasionally crashes, forcing a restart of the game. F6 is your friend here, save after you do anything. It helps.



Apart from these bugs - and the fact that I have to use a workaround to get my AMD 8450 Phenom Tri-Core computer to load up the game, due to some sort of problem with ME and the Phenom line of processors - the game seems almost incomplete. I mean... 12 hours to burn through an RPG? That's awful....

Oblivion took me about 100 hours to burn through, even Quake 4 had more than that!

I was, however, on the easiest level of difficulty and as such things were ridiculously easy to kill. And it's still got replay value. I've only completed one of the four (to my knowledge there's four) romance subplots available. I've only completed the game as a Paragon (that's the goodygoody two shoes) and I've not even unlocked the hardest difficulty yet.

I have unlocked the best weapons however, which was fairly easy and I could get them at about level 30 (half of maximum level.. I think...) and then I just killed everything in the game in one shot or less.

There's one memorable moment where I ran into the last level and there were three or four Geth (the enemy) standing around and I unloaded my shotgun into the middle and they all died, either directly from the shot or from the poisonous upgrade to my weapon.

There is.. in grand total... 6 compulsory missions. A tutorial, 3 to discover where you've got to go, another to go back to the citadel+break out from it after you're grounded by the alliance military, and a final one to save the universe from destruction.

Each one lasts between one and two hours (linear missions mostly... you have to either kill everyone or run past them. No sneaky option that I've managed to find yet) and there's plentiful medical supplies and even plentifuller (if that's a word) supply caskets to restock grenades. Not that I used that many mind... there's only one mission where I felt the need to 'nade everything that moved, and that was because it was easier than knocking them over.

Knock-out 'nades are required to be the goody-twoshoes in one of the missions, and to be in role I had to do it. More work than it was worth though... Only useful thing was that it cleared entire rooms of civilians without me having to run in and knock them out one by one, and saved me having to assassinate the one or two actual enemy sitting around in the crowds.



There's a fairly good variety of weapons - about 6 or 7 makes for Assault Rifles alone (and I don't notice any of the other weaponry) - and you can mod all of them to have more firepower, penetrate shields, blow things to pieces, poison everyone or simply just knock them backwards on target. Or maybe you want it so that your gun heals you whilst it's equipped? A faster recharge rate for your special abilities?

All sorts of nice perks.

Same goes for armour. Although, unforntunately, finding decent armour for your men is a pain in the backside. I went through about half the game on Scorpion I (the first armour you get) only updating what it's single mod was. Then, at about level 20, I suddenly found a plethora of better armours, and so both of my humans are kitted out in Heavy Armour version of the Scorpion VII armour, which is fairly good. Apparently there's a spectre-only armour you can get for your humans, but I'm yet to find it. It's not in either of the two spectre shops, but that might be due to me not doing one necessary mission or something.


A really good thing about Mass Effect is the fact that, despite the lack of a levelling system for the monsters (The Geth Troopers on both Casual, which is easiest, and Hardcore, which is hard, have the same hitpoints, but just do more damage and are sometimes replaced by the elite Storm Troopers as, on the higher level difficulties), it has immesne replay value.

It's currently running at something like £1/hour gameplay for me (12 hours gameplay.. amazon sells it for 12 quid+P&P) but that'll drop down lots. I'm planning on spending as much time as needed to get all achievements (yes.. there is achievements. And they don't look too hard. Apart from one named Completionist.. which I'm guessing will take the vast majority of 100 hours or so gameplay time.. requires that 'the majority of the game has been completed. Shudder. There's about 10 sidequests on every planet.)

Any questions? I'm sure this doesn't make too much sense, so if you need something clarifying, want to ask me something about how the game works or simply tell me how to play the game without using the Soldier/Soldier/Agent setup that I have found works fairly well. I need to work out how to sneak past people instead of just blow things up and hope it works....


It's worth the money. Get it if you haven't got it!

[NeedMoarFarms]

You've made the worst mistake - don't rush through this game. I've spent about 50 hours on the xbox version and I've just started my second play through. I've got the best armour in the game, and a shotgun which has the range of an assault rifle, freezes the enemies on contact and is impossible to overheat . You can play this game multiple times with the same character, so I'd recommend playing through on a harder difficulty and doing all the side missions, exploring every planet and doing all the sub plots. There's a ridiculous amount of planets to explore and missions to do. One of my favourite rpg's (still behind KOTOR of course ).

[jonathan_phang]

I think that quoting the time taken for this game is a bit of invalid, because I dont think that its comparable with something like Oblivion. When I played ME, I basically treated it more like a cinematic movie, with the narrative being the hook. The rest of it was just a means to progress the story more.

I didnt bother with the side quests as they seemed a bit samey, but basically went for the central thread. Didnt cost me that much, it was oddly discounted really quickly for a PC game, but was worth it I think. I might even go back and play it again, but with different sidekicks, as I stuck with the 2 humans (Kaiden and whatsername...)

All in all, I'd personally call it an experience rather than a game.

[Butuz]

I really enjoyed it to be honest but then I never play on Easy as ... well that would be too easy!

If you want to get all the achievements and go through the entire game you do need to put about 70 hours in and play through several times.

[revol68]

why select easy and then complain about enemies being too easy to killl and your guns beng too powerful. also why do people rush through a games main quest and then moan about it being too short, do the side quests for god sake.

[dangel]

why select easy and then complain about enemies being too easy to killl and your guns beng too powerful. also why do people rush through a games main quest and then moan about it being too short, do the side quests for god sake.

Seen much the same for fallout 3 - why?

[mediaboy]

If you read it, I'm fairly sure I mentioned that I did play through on easy, and although the monsters were easy it was probably due to this. I also mentioned that I am now replaying this on a harder difficulty. Read the OP more carefully before insulting me


As for rushing through the main quest and only the main quest.. that's about 6 hours gameplay. Seriously. Just completed a run through to unlock hardest mode. NOW I start to mess around a little, explore the universe systematically, complete every single sidequest and assignment in the book, get completionist and then run through a few more times to get the 'complete majority of game with x' achievements.

Do you get replacement armours for the Asari does anyone know?

[kalniel]

Do you get replacement armours for the Asari does anyone know?

She can wear human I think, but doesn't have any armour skills.

Mass Effect is a relatively short game, but what you get is so very cinematic it's worth it. I'm glad not all games are 200hour fests - variety is good and there's enough great games out at the moment to keep me occupied.

[revol68]

If you read it, I'm fairly sure I mentioned that I did play through on easy, and although the monsters were easy it was probably due to this. I also mentioned that I am now replaying this on a harder difficulty. Read the OP more carefully before insulting me


As for rushing through the main quest and only the main quest.. that's about 6 hours gameplay. Seriously. Just completed a run through to unlock hardest mode. NOW I start to mess around a little, explore the universe systematically, complete every single sidequest and assignment in the book, get completionist and then run through a few more times to get the 'complete majority of game with x' achievements.

Do you get replacement armours for the Asari does anyone know?

the point is why complain about them being easy ifas you say this is because you played it on easy?

also why are you playing iton easy in the first place, you aren't 8.

[jonathan_phang]

also why are you playing iton easy in the first place, you aren't 8.

Dont you think that this is a little bit harsh? I know people who would rather play a game on easy and complete the story that a game is meant to tell, rather than put it on hard and not ever finish it... I think that it depends on the game. I played it on easy, but wasnt that bothered, as I was only in it for the narrative.

You have to also appreciate the fact that sometimes, regardless of how leet your skills are, some people just dont have the time to really slog at a game. There are other commitments in life too you know? Now I'm not saying that you dont have any, but if you do, you could at least recognise that the OP might not want to spend that long battling the super geth trooper and dying loads just to get that next cut scene.

I'm sure I'll get cut down, but just a thought is all.

[revol68]

Dont you think that this is a little bit harsh? I know people who would rather play a game on easy and complete the story that a game is meant to tell, rather than put it on hard and not ever finish it... I think that it depends on the game. I played it on easy, but wasnt that bothered, as I was only in it for the narrative.

You have to also appreciate the fact that sometimes, regardless of how leet your skills are, some people just dont have the time to really slog at a game. There are other commitments in life too you know? Now I'm not saying that you dont have any, but if you do, you could at least recognise that the OP might not want to spend that long battling the super geth trooper and dying loads just to get that next cut scene.

I'm sure I'll get cut down, but just a thought is all.

well considering he then griped it being a bit short and easy.

and anyone who's been playing games for a while should be able to breeze through Mas Effect on medium, it's really not very hard at all, especially as you level up.

[Virtual Monkey]

I've taken to putting games on easy before I start - I generally only get to play a few hours a week and I want to get somewhere during that time, not constantly reload the same level I can't get past.

I'm playing through this at the moment - I'm not very far in, only just rescued Liara. I doubt I'll play many sidequests - I've done a few and they all seem to be similar: travel to a distant planet, kill some people, talk to someone on the Citadel for some money or an item. Does this remain the case throughout? In contrast, the main storyline is awesome. I'm addicted to squeezing conversation out of my crew after each mission.

One thing I think is just blatently crap is the similarity between all the weapons. They all look very boring and pretty much eliminate the joy of decking my Shepard out in extravagent bling, which for me is a pretty integral part of an RPG.

Also, why the hell does my Vanguard character always carry a sniper rifle and assault rifle he's not trained to use? Which also reminds me, the inventory screen is crap.

Hopefully a lot of this will be adressed in Mass Effect 2, since Bioware will be able to focus on content rather than adapting the engine etc.

[kalniel]

I'm playing through this at the moment - I'm not very far in, only just rescued Liara. I doubt I'll play many sidequests - I've done a few and they all seem to be similar: travel to a distant planet, kill some people, talk to someone on the Citadel for some money or an item. Does this remain the case throughout?

Yes. Sometimes the story behind them can be interesting, and occasionally ties in with your companions, but it still ends up being the same thing.

[Zadock]

I'm quite interested in this game but the mixed feelings/ reviews have put me off buying it.

What is the character system like in Mass Effect are their feats and skills like biowares D&D based games (NWN and Kotor) games or is there an altogether different kind of system?

and, if I enjoyed the likes of Biowares previous games and games like oblivion and fallout am I likely to like it?

[kalniel]

I'm quite interested in this game but the mixed feelings/ reviews have put me off buying it.

What is the character system like in Mass Effect are their feats and skills like biowares D&D based games (NWN and Kotor) games or is there an altogether different kind of system?

and, if I enjoyed the likes of Biowares previous games and games like oblivion and fallout am I likely to like it?

Yes there's XP and feats/skills etc. - it's not exactly a D20 system, instead when you level up you get x points to spend on a set of skills - as you increase these skills you unlock feats. Some of the feats are things like ability to use medium armour etc., others might be the tech equivalent of spells that you can use and then have a cooldown period as they 'recharge'.

If you liked KOTOR you'll like Mass Effect - the biggest change is the fact you now aim and shoot in third person, so it's a bit like a shooter, but there's auto aim for people who have difficulty with that. The accuracy and damage of the shot (spread effectively) is controlled by character skills.

However, you'll like Storm of Zehir (NWN2's second expansion) more - out this friday

[Zadock]

However, you'll like Storm of Zehir (NWN2's second expansion) more - out this friday

Ahhh... your joking, so is GTAIV and I've still got the rest of the DC wasteland in Fallout 3 to discover.

Its been a good year for games.