Yes the combat has flaws, and the framerate is sloppy.
But the story, graphics, and cohesiveness of the world is something very special.
I've not finished it yet, but i'm pretty sure I'm on the last world, I am confident that this is the best story from a game I've played. The includes the likes of FF7, FF8, FF9, MGS, MGS2, KOTR, Shenmue, Hostile Waters, Ground Control and many others.
Save for the combat flaws it would be a 10, but with them a 9.
The controls are shitty, but more importantly the camera sucks. It's set way too close in for that type of terrain. I'm constantly wrestling with it, because half of the time I lose sight of my target as I maneuver under fire and end up staring at the undercarraige. Not fun.
I've only just started and put about four hours into it. I got to the Citadel, toured around, and decided to do all of the side quests I could. I thought to clear out as much as possible before moving on.
Oy did this sterilized, eighties sci-fi space station start to weigh on me! It started to feel like weak ketamine. It took more than two hours to complete the main and side quests, and now I'm ready to leave the station.
Is this the shape of things to come? Is the main quest interesting and dotted with fights and are the side quests nothing but dialogue fetches?
I'm just wondering if I should treat this game as a completist or just burn through the main and get the best out of the game. Do the side quests wind up as being as satisfying as the main?
I must be the only person not tearing their hair out over the Mako. Is it perfect? Hardly. Have I gotten frustrated with it at times when stuck in a corner or something? Yes. Does it control well enough to get me where I want to go? Yes. Is combat difficult with it? No.
Just circle around targets and use the rockets instead of the gun. Its not that bad.
I must be the only person not tearing their hair out over the Mako. Is it perfect? Hardly. Have I gotten frustrated with it at times when stuck in a corner or something? Yes. Does it control well enough to get me where I want to go? Yes. Is combat difficult with it? No.
Just circle around targets and use the rockets instead of the gun. Its not that bad.
I'm just wondering if I should treat this game as a completist or just burn through the main and get the best out of the game. Do the side quests wind up as being as satisfying as the main?
Not really. Citadel side quests are 90% conversation based. Non-citadel side quests end up being mainly mako exploration and combat based with almost no dialog whatsoever.
I'd suggest playing through the main quest and, if you have the desire, replaying the game as a completionist
edit: the mako is a vehicle I had no love for, but no hate for. Then I found the ability to zoom, as well as the DOUBLE exp/credits from getting out of the mako to deliver a final blow, and I fell in love.
I've only just started and put about four hours into it. I got to the Citadel, toured around, and decided to do all of the side quests I could. I thought to clear out as much as possible before moving on.
Oy did this sterilized, eighties sci-fi space station start to weigh on me! It started to feel like weak ketamine. It took more than two hours to complete the main and side quests, and now I'm ready to leave the station.
Is this the shape of things to come? Is the main quest interesting and dotted with fights and are the side quests nothing but dialogue fetches?
I'm just wondering if I should treat this game as a completist or just burn through the main and get the best out of the game. Do the side quests wind up as being as satisfying as the main?
I enjoyed the side-missions. They are quite repetitive, but occasionally you get some interesting surprises. They also allowed me to build up my characters with the best armor, buy spectre weapons and so on. I got the completist achievment so I know I did a lot of side quests (not all of them though). For me, exploring the different planets and seeing the weird atmospheres and weather effects was really fun.
Havent really read any of this thread... came home the other day and my mums partner had purchased it. so played it today for a good 4 or so hours, at the start it took me a while to get used to it, the generic terrain got me lost in the first area. but i stuck to it, and from after that edin what ever level i've really enjoyed it (Y)
how neccesairy is it to stick to the main story? can i shoot random people in town and so on? i havent tried just incase i can, ( i like to play as the 'good guy') and i assume by the two bars that are on my characters profile the white and red ones, that i can be perceived as good and bad?
how neccesairy is it to stick to the main story? can i shoot random people in town and so on? i havent tried just incase i can, ( i like to play as the 'good guy') and i assume by the two bars that are on my characters profile the white and red ones, that i can be perceived as good and bad?
You cannot shoot random people. You do not have to stick to main story. You can do all of your side quests and then come back and do the next level of the main story whenever you want.
Those two bars are your Renegade (Bad) or Paragon (good) meters. The higher your score is in either will open up new Dialog options.
Here's my impression
I have 2 characters:
Geese Sheppard: Male soilder, colonist, war hero (going for paragon and weapon achievements)
main partners: Kaiden, Ashley
Zena Sheppard: Female vanguard, sole survivor, ruthless (going for renagade and biotic achievements)
main partners: Wrex, Garrus
Soilder class is a power house. All will fall before geese soon. Vanguard is quite a change in pace. Zena is only 7 hours in so at this time her combat and armor leaves her too open to die so I decided to hold off on her for now and focus on Geese.
Iam about 11+hrs in and I have to say that the main quests are awsome. Just beat Feros last night and it was quite a surprise. Funniest moment for me was at Peak 15,
sheppard mumbles a code to the terminal was priceless.
:lol:
Pro:
-Combat is great. This is where the game shines, various weapons and upgrades can be swapped instantly and you can really see the difference when you kill your enemy or how fast their health goes down.
-At first I couldn't afford anything, armor and weapons were too expensive so I had to take what I could get in the field, This made the game difficult at first. Enemys had better armor and were slaughtering my entire team, but once you level up to mid 20s early 30s money grows quick and better armor and upgrades became available. Iam only level 34 and I already have the rich achievement and just picked up some specture equipment.
-Music overall great. The tittle screen music is awsome and I would love to have the tittle screen as a wallpaper.
Con:
-Among traveling to galaxy to galaxy what annoys me the most is you cant access your journal while in the galaxy map. You have to exit the map, access your journal, and try to remember what galaxy you want to visit for your side quest, thank god the main quests are labeled. It would be nice if you can mark a side quest on the map.
-I've mostly been tackling side quests and I have to say they are very repetitive.
Driving the Mako on barren planets has gotten old quick. I wish there was a
boost button cause there are plenty of buttons not used and the driving feels
too slow espically going up steep mountains. Next game needs a hover craft or
just something faster. The side quest on the main planets are better and quite
refreshing after traveling across the galaxy doing a couple of side quests.
-checkpoints are horrible. I was getting my ass kicked early on and had to save
after an elevator ride or before going into combat, I also kept getting disc errors.
Because of this, reaching the dig site and Peak 15 was a pain. It took me awhile
to beat benezia, but then you go to a checkpoint with lengthy dialog and die,
then go through the same dialog just to die again. I had to do that at least 9
times.
-Elevators. Yeah... the game needs less of them. The citadel had good transportation plus it auto saves, I wish the other planets had this too. Iam starting to go to the bathroom or getting a snack while I waiting for the elevator.
-Minor glitches. Ive run into some weird and funny glitches. here are some examples:
1. During some dialog at Peak 15 after the main memory override, My sheppard and Ashley were combined, forming a ugly interracial 2 headed monster.
2. I have my Charm at max and I came across the dialog wheel that had some charm dialog, but was shaded gray.
3. On one of my side quests I had Kaiden throw a character and he went through a wall. He was still alive because he was indicated on the radar and and I can see some of his legs and weapon hanging out of the wall.
-Partner Control: at times the partners feel dumb. Also were we initially going to switch control between characters like KOTOR? Cause when I check the point stats I see first aid and medicine and wonder, your partners don't really need these cause you have to manually heal them or add points to soilder class or health armor upgrade.
Thats all I can think of right now.
Iam defiantly enjoying the game. This is alot more enjoyable than KOTOR (didn't like the combat and lost interest after a while). Frame rate doesn't bug me that much because it doesn't happen alot when I am on a mission, but the texture pop ins do suck.
You cannot shoot random people. You do not have to stick to main story. You can do all of your side quests and then come back and do the next level of the main story whenever you want.
Those two bars are your Renegade (Bad) or Paragon (good) meters. The higher your score is in either will open up new Dialog options.
Quick question but because I don't want too many spoilers I don't want to dig much. Does the sniper rifle ever become useful ? Can you get hits while firing from the hip or must you look down the scope. My first character was a soldier and he became a beast, there was one part where I was literally standing in a doorway on Feros and about 6 to 8 enemy were running at me and I literally mowed them down in the doorway to the point where the 3 that got through the hail of bullets caught the rifle butt to the skull , too easy.
For my next re-up I want a little more of a challenge anybody complete the game with an Engineer ?
Just finished. Fucking awesome game. We all realize it has faults (frame, texture pop etc etc...)...but by the end I didn't really even give a fuck. I can put up with alot if the "core game" is fucking awesome and ME is fucking awesome. The ending is truly fucking epic, as someone said before, This is how you end a video game of this scale. Not some 10 sec clip with a handshake, yea fuck you Halo 3.
I played Male/Soldier/Renegade. I was level 48 when I finished @ 30hrs. Started up a new game already, Female(red head)/Infiltrator. I went assault rifles with my first dude so I think I'll go pistols with the babe.
I kept myself spoiler free for this game the whole way and I am so glad I did. Some of the moments just had me in awe. The Wrex incident on the 4th story planet was amazing and going through the dialogue with him I thought that if I went 100% renegade he would turn traitor and run off to the krogan on the planet so I believe I picked one of the 'indifferent' options and basically my dude smacks him with the butt of his rifle and then puts 2 slugs in his head...and I was like DAMN...WTF DID I JUST DO! My first thought was too reload and try again, Wrex was one of my favorite characters for no other reason than his voice so I used him alot. I however did not reload, thats the joy of this game, its another reason to play again.
The other big decisions were pretty cool as well, I killed Garth. I never once used him and he basically was nothing to me. While Ash on the other hand I used often enough and while her personality was a little goofy I liked her. As far as the council, I was overjoyed when I was given the option to let them die. As the cut scene ran and the 2 asari pilots realized I cut off the channel and turned down their call for help I was yelling "fuck you!" at the TV. I haven't got that emotionally involved in a game for a long time.
Looking forward to ME2. 2-3 yrs down the road =(. Hopefully sooner. I wonder what ending it will spawn from, or perhaps it will have Multiple beginnings/settings and take in account your saved game. Now that would be fucking sweet. Bioware, make it happen. hopefully in 2 we get to go in to 'Dark Space' where ever and whatever that is. Sounds interesting.
Final thoughts, the game for me at least started out pretty fucking slow. I wasn't even that interested or impressed with the game for the first 6-7hrs or so. Even after the first story planet after the citidel I was kinda...meh about it all. But then then came Noveria and Fenros(sp?) and that shit just blew me away and then I get to
Ilos
and you just sit there in awe as you travel this awesome setting/environment. So 2 thumbs up.
This isn't a glitch - you unlock new levels of charm as you get higher in level. So, right now your "max" charm is probably 5 or 6 points - but as you level up you are able to push it higher.
This isn't a glitch - you unlock new levels of charm as you get higher in level. So, right now your "max" charm is probably 5 or 6 points - but as you level up you are able to push it higher.
no, as far as i know, they become available when you increase either your charm or intimidate talents in the squad menu. from what i can tell your paragon/renegade meter does nothing other than a) affect the ending and b) give you an achievement. someone correct me if i am wrong about that.
no, as far as i know, they become available when you increase either your charm or intimidate talents in the squad menu. from what i can tell your paragon/renegade meter does nothing other than a) affect the ending and b) give you an achievement. someone correct me if i am wrong about that.
It's combination. The higher your paragon/renegade, the more max slots of charm/intimidate slots you can unlock when you level upME shirts? Have a link?
I never buy game apparel, but I think I'll make an exception with this awesome game
edit: I posted in this thread 62 times already....funny...I think my previous record for # of posts in an "Official" game thread (non-MMO) was 4
makes sense, but can anyone answer this question, Whats the point of your partners having first aid or medicine? I havent come across Kaiden or Ashley with an ability to heal me or the other partners. Ive been doing all the healing with med-gel and health reg. armor upgrade. It feels like Bioware wanted you to be able to switch control between any charcter rather than just control sheppard and give commands.
makes sense, but can anyone answer this question, Whats the point of your partners having first aid or medicine? I havent come across Kaiden or Ashley with an ability to heal me or the other partners. Ive been doing all the healing with med-gel and health reg. armor upgrade. It feels like Bioware wanted you to be able to switch control between any charcter rather than just control sheppard and give commands.
Quick question but because I don't want too many spoilers I don't want to dig much. Does the sniper rifle ever become useful ? Can you get hits while firing from the hip or must you look down the scope. My first character was a soldier and he became a beast, there was one part where I was literally standing in a doorway on Feros and about 6 to 8 enemy were running at me and I literally mowed them down in the doorway to the point where the 3 that got through the hail of bullets caught the rifle butt to the skull , too easy.
For my next re-up I want a little more of a challenge anybody complete the game with an Engineer ?
My first character (completed game) was an Infiltrator with the sniper as the primary weapon. I used my tech skills and my another party members skills (tech, biotic) to suppress the enemy and the last party member (Ashley or Garrus) to kill anyone getting a little too close.
It took a bit to figure out how to use them effectively but once I did the sniper was the best weapon for the job (master spectre sniper with the prototype slippery material, extended barrel (forgot the name but last barrel upgrade), and the round best suited for the targets. I could pretty much kill anything in 1 to 2 shots even with full shields.
makes sense, but can anyone answer this question, Whats the point of your partners having first aid or medicine? I havent come across Kaiden or Ashley with an ability to heal me or the other partners. Ive been doing all the healing with med-gel and health reg. armor upgrade. It feels like Bioware wanted you to be able to switch control between any charcter rather than just control sheppard and give commands.
First aid is a passive skill. Whenever you use a medi-gel, the person with the highest first aid attribute is effectively the one that does the healing.
similar to a teammates' higher decryption skill being used instead of your character's whenever you run across a locked container.
example: If Tali's Decryption and First aid skills are the highest in your party, whenever you come across a locked container you will be using her skill to unlock it. Whenever you use a medi-gel, you will be using her first aid bonus to boost your healing abilities.
This spacey shirt is required wearing for all those times when you need to talk a robot into blowing itself up, take dubious advice from an imaginary super model/sentient machine, or have your hand cut-off by your angry, angry asthmatic dad.
37 hours though, and I did eeeeeverything, on Veteran. Hardcore begin.
Random thoughts: this end credits track RULES.
Sniper rifles PWN.
I have no idea how to trigger the love interest conflict that I thought would happen if I was nice to / acted interested in both Liara and Ashley. Never happened. I must have done something wrong with Ash, but for the love of me I can't remember what. Ash = teh hotness, Liara = space elf, meh.
Can't wait to play this game as an Engineer or Adept. But L60 and Insanity mode first.
Holy shit, it takes a LOT of questing exclusively with a given character to get the Ally achievements. Did a lot of stuff with Ashley and no dice.
First aid is a passive skill. Whenever you use a medi-gel, the person with the highest first aid attribute is effectively the one that does the healing.
similar to a teammates' higher decryption skill being used instead of your character's whenever you run across a locked container.
example: If Tali's Decryption and First aid skills are the highest in your party, whenever you come across a locked container you will be using her skill to unlock it. Whenever you use a medi-gel, you will be using her first aid bonus to boost your healing abilities.
I see now. I do the healing because I have the higher stats on first aid and kaiden does electronics and decryption because his stats are higher on those.
37 hours though, and I did eeeeeverything, on Veteran. Hardcore begin.
Random thoughts: this end credits track RULES.
Sniper rifles PWN.
I have no idea how to trigger the love interest conflict that I thought would happen if I was nice to / acted interested in both Liara and Ashley. Never happened. I must have done something wrong with Ash, but for the love of me I can't remember what.
The Mako:
I don't really mind the controls, but I wish it could be upgraded. It's too damn powerful (and a pistol will damage it, yet I can fall off a mile-high cliff with no problems??).
They should have started it out with smaller guns, lower shields, and had it become better (and faster) over time. Also, more powerful jump jets.
Also, the sequel should have achievements relating to exploration in the Mako: climbing a really tall mountain (like the Agency Tower in Crackdown), falling X hundred feet, etc.
Yes, but I've seen a cutscene video with those two fighting over you in-game. That never happened. I figured there'd be a point of no return / point of choice thing, like in Wing Commander 3, or Baldur's Gate 2, Jade Empire, or whatever.
About the Mako , did everyone notice that wherever the cannon points the Mako goes ? I found it easy to drive you can literally point the cursor in the direction that you want to go and even if you go over a few obstacles the Mako will correct itself and continue in that direction. I thing alot of people found it wierd because it almost seems like the turret is stearing the Mako and not the other way around.
First Aid improves the amount of healing you get when you use the Y button in combat, it also improves the cooldown time for recharging that power.
Medicine improves (reduces) the cooldown time for the power even more, and with enough ranks you can unlock Neural Shock, an attack power.
The reason to take ranks in First Aid (or have your squaddies take ranks) is that the game uses the cumulative ranks of all members currently in the group for the healing bonus, not just your rank or the rank of the highest level person in your group.
Beat it last night. Sean Shepard, Soldier, lvl 43, Paragon in ~25 hours on normal.
I started the game with biotic/soldier and after 2 hours I couldn't get into it for some reason, I started again as a solder and couldn't put it down. So many amazing moments in this game, some of the best dialog and story ever in a game. Spoiler from the end
when saren shoots himself in the head... all I was thinking was "wow"
. In the end, as a soldier, the combat felt pretty good, I was taking people down with my extremely accurate assault rifle and sniper rifle and I was dropping people close quarters with my shotgun. Even with the flaws (the mako, some minor combat flaws (more so at the beginning in my experience), framerate, a seemingly excessive amount of loading, the inventory system, etc.) I would give this game a 9.5. The pros let this game rise above its issues. It has quickly climbed my GOTY list. Cannot wait for ME2... hopefully we'll see it by holiday '09.
Yes, but I've seen a cutscene video with those two fighting over you in-game. That never happened. I figured there'd be a point of no return / point of choice thing, like in Wing Commander 3, or Baldur's Gate 2, Jade Empire, or whatever.
Actually, I've heard that First Aid and Medicine are cumulative. So if you have two characters with them, they stack. Same with Electronics when it comes to healing the Mako.
Getting full Paragon/Renegade bars gives you two free Intimidate/Charm points and various bonuses and opens more slots for you to allocate points into. If you are patient and are going for the Insanity + Level 60 achievement, the best thing to do is to go through the first two playthroughs by not maxing out your Intimidate/Charm, since you can potentially get up to 3 free points each playthrough for each skill. If I knew that, I would have had 9 extra points to spend on combat abilities instead.
NJ x Falkor said:
Where did you get your Colossus X armor? I can't find it anywhere. I'm on my second playthrough, level 55, about to leave for Ilos.
You have to buy the license from the C-sec officer on Citadel. Then, it's just random. The only sure way to get it is to travel to a new main planet, save before talking to a shop owner and then keep checking his stock to see if they have it. Sometimes it drops in the containers, but very rarely.
I'm playing through as a Vanguard and have chosen the Shock Trooper for my specialization my first time through.
On my second playthrough, do I get to choose another specialization? For example, can I choose Nemesis and then have all the Shock Trooper points from my first playthrough in addition to the Nemesis points from my second playthrough?
No, you don't get another class specialization unfortunately. The only bonus that repeats is the Spectre indoctrination one.
I think you end up doing that one for the Ally achievement or the XP.
I'm having a real hard time choosing if I should play as a Infiltrator or Soldier.
I love snipers, and to my understanding the soldiers can use them as well? So then the question rises about the extra engineer skills Infiltrator gives you is enough to make you leave the heavy armor and assault rifles and stuff that soldier gets.
I'm having a real hard time choosing if I should play as a Infiltrator or Soldier.
I love snipers, and to my understanding the soldiers can use them as well? So then the question rises about the extra engineer skills Infiltrator gives you is enough to make you leave the heavy armor and assault rifles and stuff that soldier gets.
As an Infiltrator you wont have access to the heavy armor, but with your Electronics skill you'll get pretty significant bonuses to shields. I finished it as an Infiltrator and got the Tactician achievement.
Now maybe this has been covered earlier, (dont have the time to look, at work) but is there really no way of getting around having to change everything you look at in crates to gel if your full on inventory. It just boggles my mind why they wouldn't let you back out of the crate or container and then remove stuff instead of screwing yourself over from a potentially good item. Anyone else hate this?
Now maybe this has been covered earlier, (dont have the time to look, at work) but is there really no way of getting around having to change everything you look at in crates to gel if your full on inventory. It just boggles my mind why they wouldn't let you back out of the crate or container and then remove stuff instead of screwing yourself over from a potentially good item. Anyone else hate this?
Now maybe this has been covered earlier, (dont have the time to look, at work) but is there really no way of getting around having to change everything you look at in crates to gel if your full on inventory. It just boggles my mind why they wouldn't let you back out of the crate or container and then remove stuff instead of screwing yourself over from a potentially good item. Anyone else hate this?
Just keep selling and reducing stuff occasionally and you will hardly ever reach the 150 item limit. I was aware of this thanks to the 1up show so i never had a problem with it, only at the end where you want to keep a lot of stuff.
looking forward to putting in another good handful of hours tomorrow.