In an ongoing effort to shrink my massive backlog due to me creating a new gamertag recently, I've been playing:
Mass Effect
Amazing game with some very significant issues.
- The framerate is terrible
- The main story is too short
- The conversation options all being in set places based on their Paragon or Renegade alignment make thinking about what you're going to say useless if you want to play a set route
- The side mission planets are bland and uninteresting (except the skyboxes which are goddamn beautiful)
- The Mako has no weight to it and controls like ass
- It's far too easy to become a god by pouring points into Fitness early on for Immunity
- The shooting feels pretty crappy
- Texture pop-in is annoying
BUT
The game has some of the most likeable characters I've ever seen in a WRPG, the story is massively immersive and well told, and it has kept me playing for at least 8 hours a day every day that I have played it. This alone redeems almost all of the above faults.
I've since beaten ME1 and move onto
Mass Effect 2
Hoo boy... I'm not sure how I feel about this game. Plot-wise, it's as sound as the first, if not a little disjointed in some places, but, it's just such a different game. Now, the shooting feels great, and the weapon and armour systems are streamlined (still can't decide whether I like or hate this). The additions of stuff like the Captains Cabin and all of the decorations are absurdly pointless, but harmless
I'm also not that big of a fan of a lot of the characters. Jacob, Miranda, and the old crew members from ME1 are the only ones that I really like all that much, and Jack is possibly one of the worst ideas for a character I've ever seen. Also, what is with Zaeed? some crazy weirdo wearing Isaacs armour from Dead Space? who the hell thought he would be a likeable guy?
I think my issue with this game is that I no longer feel like I'm playing an RPG as much as a 30 hour long shooter with conversation options. Sure, some of the stuff in ME1 was pretty complex or annoying, and the equipment system was pretty terrible, but this game feels less like it's streamlined it, and more like it's just removed a ton of content from the RPG section and dumbed down the rest of it.
I don't know though. I'm just about to go recruit the Assassin, so I may get more used to it (and playing ME1 so close to it can't have made the massive changes between the two games as seamless as they could have been)
