I never got into this series back when it first emerged for reasons I can't quite remember.
It could have been other games getting in the way; or reluctancy to play on 360, or this weird prejudice that it was going to be some "baby's first sci-fi" kind of deal.
Well, I was absolutely wrong on that last point. The world and the part you play in it are easily the main things keeping me interested as I play through ME1.
I made a badass, no-nonsense Shepherd with the intent of going full Renegade and ploughing through the game, not giving a hoot about anything or anyone.
My plans for full Renegade are still firmly in-tact (even though the game does a good job of giving you some difficult decisions), but I've found myself drawn in by the world and its characters much more than I thought I would.
And what I've found is that, "caring for" characters was a silly way to look at it.
What I care about is how my choices impact them, and how it makes me feel when (for better or worse) things go as expected.
For example, completing a side-quest for one of your regular squad members actually feels like a little chapter in and of itself. Rather than a typical fetch quest or similar RPG style mission, the outcome never feels 100% clear.
When hunting down a black market organ dealer, I'd made my choice about what was to be done before even setting off. Like many things in the game, I didn't know if it was the "right" choice, but the game made me feel as if it was "my" choice.
It lets you own these (often dramatic) decisions, and on numerous occassions as well, which is something you don't often see in games of this ilk. I'm excited to see how I may benefit from or regret some of these choices in future.
NB: I bought the trilogy on PS3, so save files carrying over is one way that being late to this party paid off.
I love the design of the alien races, (Turian and Quarian in particular), and the way their histories and cultures intertwine is fascinating. As for squad members, I'm rolling exclusively with Garrus and Tali.
Garrus seems like a "get things done" kinda guy, so he fits with my Shepherd's mindset, while Tali is pure cool cat. Love that accent.
Neither of the human members interest me (in fact, I try to give Ashley as much shit as possible).
I don't fully trust Asari, since one of them managed to bed Shepherd early on, quite without my consent.
Wrex is cool, but I've got no time for big, grumpy characters, especially considering how they can get in the way during combat.
Ahh, the combat... probably one of the only gripes I have with this game.
The effectiveness of some of the Biotics has gradually become clear as I've progressed,
but it's the clunkiness of the whole affair that's a massive turn-off.
I find missions with a lot of combat to be a bit of a chore. The lack of weapon sound effect variation and the way enemies just kind of rush at you with no real tactics make it feel more last gen than anything else.
Of course, the graphics are nothing to write home about, but they aren't unbearable, and I'm looking forward to minor visual upgrades in the sequels.
Sometimes cutscenes are pretty terrible, with really wonky camera work that makes them much cheesier than they should be.
Also, I'm not sure if I like being stuck with the initial class selection, as it seems like I can't train in assault rifles and sniper rifles. (I assume ally kills with those weapons don't count towards the trophies?)
But these are small niggles in an otherwise great game. I can understand all the fuss around this series now, as well as Bioware's storytelling in general. The writing is very high quality, and I enjoy browsing over the Codex, learning more about the world. Although I wish you could listen to it while doing other stuff, especially driving around
in the Mako... I don't mind padding, especially when it's optional stuff, but that has to be one of my most painful experiences in recent gaming.
Oh, and great voice acting for the most part. A lot of it sounds very natural, and I don't find any major characters grating on me (except for Joker, who is perfectly ignorable). Some of the quips during combat get a bit repetetive ("I will DESTROY you!", and the sound levels are a bit all over the place, but otherwise a fine audio track. Good score as well.
Tl;dr:
Enjoying Mass Effect more than I thought I would.
Garrus and Tali all day er' day.
2mil in the bank and counting.
Renegade fo' life.
Can't wait to get started with 2 and 3!
*** 2015/10/02 UPDATE post #102 ***
Just finished ME1 last night. Great stuff!
I'd put around 40 hours into it, which felt like a very reasonable length.
Especially considering that I made an effort to do plenty of Assignments and explore as much as possible.
I've never played any Bioware games, and I don't usually make time for this sort of "epic" RPG, but I'm glad I finally did.
The "point of no return" was quite far back, which surprised me.
I was half-hoping to finish collecting some rare metals and stuff, but I think it's for the best that I didn't get too bogged down.
I already got a "Completionist" trophy a while back, so I'm content in thinking that any other side missions would have just been fluff.
(I actually refused to help one shady guy outside Flux when going to meet Anderson.
He annoyed me, plus ain't nobody got time for that. It felt really good just saying "No".)
I have to say, the game was juuuust beginning to grate by the end, but the ending itself made up for it.
It felt conclusive and satisfying, while still leaving room for things to pick up in the sequel.
The following is my account of the ending, so I don't recommend clicking unless you've finished ME1.
Suffice to say, I'm very much looking forward to diving straight into ME2. Got it ready to install tonight.
Before I do (and I'm sorry if this has been asked gajillions of times before), which DLC are must-haves?
On the store (not counting weapon/aesthetic packs), all I see are Arrival and Cerberus.
The trilogy came with the Cerberus pack, which seems to contain a bunch of superflous stuff, but I'll check it out because why not, eh?
Also, if I need to get DLC, can I get started and grab it later on? (Really hoping the answer is yes...)
Thanks again for reading!
P.S. Whatever happened to that autograph guy? I refused to sign and now 30 hours later, I feel a bit dickish about it.
Was sort of expecting (hoping) that decision would come back to haunt me, haha. Perhaps in part 2 or 3...?
It could have been other games getting in the way; or reluctancy to play on 360, or this weird prejudice that it was going to be some "baby's first sci-fi" kind of deal.
Well, I was absolutely wrong on that last point. The world and the part you play in it are easily the main things keeping me interested as I play through ME1.
I made a badass, no-nonsense Shepherd with the intent of going full Renegade and ploughing through the game, not giving a hoot about anything or anyone.
My plans for full Renegade are still firmly in-tact (even though the game does a good job of giving you some difficult decisions), but I've found myself drawn in by the world and its characters much more than I thought I would.
And what I've found is that, "caring for" characters was a silly way to look at it.
What I care about is how my choices impact them, and how it makes me feel when (for better or worse) things go as expected.
For example, completing a side-quest for one of your regular squad members actually feels like a little chapter in and of itself. Rather than a typical fetch quest or similar RPG style mission, the outcome never feels 100% clear.
When hunting down a black market organ dealer, I'd made my choice about what was to be done before even setting off. Like many things in the game, I didn't know if it was the "right" choice, but the game made me feel as if it was "my" choice.
It lets you own these (often dramatic) decisions, and on numerous occassions as well, which is something you don't often see in games of this ilk. I'm excited to see how I may benefit from or regret some of these choices in future.
NB: I bought the trilogy on PS3, so save files carrying over is one way that being late to this party paid off.
I love the design of the alien races, (Turian and Quarian in particular), and the way their histories and cultures intertwine is fascinating. As for squad members, I'm rolling exclusively with Garrus and Tali.
Garrus seems like a "get things done" kinda guy, so he fits with my Shepherd's mindset, while Tali is pure cool cat. Love that accent.
Neither of the human members interest me (in fact, I try to give Ashley as much shit as possible).
I don't fully trust Asari, since one of them managed to bed Shepherd early on, quite without my consent.
Wrex is cool, but I've got no time for big, grumpy characters, especially considering how they can get in the way during combat.
Ahh, the combat... probably one of the only gripes I have with this game.
The effectiveness of some of the Biotics has gradually become clear as I've progressed,
but it's the clunkiness of the whole affair that's a massive turn-off.
I find missions with a lot of combat to be a bit of a chore. The lack of weapon sound effect variation and the way enemies just kind of rush at you with no real tactics make it feel more last gen than anything else.
Of course, the graphics are nothing to write home about, but they aren't unbearable, and I'm looking forward to minor visual upgrades in the sequels.
Sometimes cutscenes are pretty terrible, with really wonky camera work that makes them much cheesier than they should be.
Also, I'm not sure if I like being stuck with the initial class selection, as it seems like I can't train in assault rifles and sniper rifles. (I assume ally kills with those weapons don't count towards the trophies?)
But these are small niggles in an otherwise great game. I can understand all the fuss around this series now, as well as Bioware's storytelling in general. The writing is very high quality, and I enjoy browsing over the Codex, learning more about the world. Although I wish you could listen to it while doing other stuff, especially driving around
in the Mako... I don't mind padding, especially when it's optional stuff, but that has to be one of my most painful experiences in recent gaming.
Oh, and great voice acting for the most part. A lot of it sounds very natural, and I don't find any major characters grating on me (except for Joker, who is perfectly ignorable). Some of the quips during combat get a bit repetetive ("I will DESTROY you!", and the sound levels are a bit all over the place, but otherwise a fine audio track. Good score as well.
Tl;dr:
Enjoying Mass Effect more than I thought I would.
Garrus and Tali all day er' day.
2mil in the bank and counting.
Renegade fo' life.
Can't wait to get started with 2 and 3!
*** 2015/10/02 UPDATE post #102 ***
Just finished ME1 last night. Great stuff!
I'd put around 40 hours into it, which felt like a very reasonable length.
Especially considering that I made an effort to do plenty of Assignments and explore as much as possible.
I've never played any Bioware games, and I don't usually make time for this sort of "epic" RPG, but I'm glad I finally did.
The "point of no return" was quite far back, which surprised me.
I was half-hoping to finish collecting some rare metals and stuff, but I think it's for the best that I didn't get too bogged down.
I already got a "Completionist" trophy a while back, so I'm content in thinking that any other side missions would have just been fluff.
(I actually refused to help one shady guy outside Flux when going to meet Anderson.
He annoyed me, plus ain't nobody got time for that. It felt really good just saying "No".)
I have to say, the game was juuuust beginning to grate by the end, but the ending itself made up for it.
It felt conclusive and satisfying, while still leaving room for things to pick up in the sequel.
The following is my account of the ending, so I don't recommend clicking unless you've finished ME1.
The chat with Vigil felt like a bit of an info dump.
It was a cool twist about the Citadel and the Keepers, but it could have been subtly hinted at throughout.
Maybe it was and I just didn't pay attention... Help me out if so?
I was expecting a big final showdown with Saren, so it was quite a shock when I found I could tell him to top himself!
And then, just as I was beginning to feel disappointed that we couldn't fight, he gets reanimated as some crazy Reaper disco star and we go to it.
Usually that kind of "Oh no he isn't!" schtick is dumb, but here it kinda worked.
(It was also during this last battle that I got a trophy for using Warp 75 times. Lucky!)
The sense of scale with Sovereign in the environment leading up to the last stand was great.
After that chunk had smashed into the tower, I seriously thought Shepard was dead.
That would have been a pretty bold ending, and I think I would have preferred to die an anti-hero, but hey.
At least we got to see her smile for once.
I was honestly pretty stumped by the last decision. I'd been a royal penis throughout almost the entire game, but there I was dilly-dallying about whether to save the council or not.
In the end, I couldn't "let them die", but decided that Sovereign had to be stopped at all costs.
The immediate fallout from that choice has made me even more determined to set things right in the sequel.
Suddenly, I'm not the bad guy anymore. This sniveling clown Udina shows his true colours, and I'm mad that he's muscling out the other races.
I think as a result, my choices will be more levelled in ME2. It'll be fun experimenting with a kind of humbled, considerate Shepard.
It's a great success that the game has given me a concience as well as a clear goal for the next game.
Not only to put a stop to the Reapers once and for all, but to put things right with humanity and earn the trust of other races again.
And if all else fails, at least I'll still have Tali and Garrus by my side. (Right, guys? RIGHT!?)
It was a cool twist about the Citadel and the Keepers, but it could have been subtly hinted at throughout.
Maybe it was and I just didn't pay attention... Help me out if so?
I was expecting a big final showdown with Saren, so it was quite a shock when I found I could tell him to top himself!
And then, just as I was beginning to feel disappointed that we couldn't fight, he gets reanimated as some crazy Reaper disco star and we go to it.
Usually that kind of "Oh no he isn't!" schtick is dumb, but here it kinda worked.
(It was also during this last battle that I got a trophy for using Warp 75 times. Lucky!)
The sense of scale with Sovereign in the environment leading up to the last stand was great.
After that chunk had smashed into the tower, I seriously thought Shepard was dead.
That would have been a pretty bold ending, and I think I would have preferred to die an anti-hero, but hey.
At least we got to see her smile for once.
I was honestly pretty stumped by the last decision. I'd been a royal penis throughout almost the entire game, but there I was dilly-dallying about whether to save the council or not.
In the end, I couldn't "let them die", but decided that Sovereign had to be stopped at all costs.
The immediate fallout from that choice has made me even more determined to set things right in the sequel.
Suddenly, I'm not the bad guy anymore. This sniveling clown Udina shows his true colours, and I'm mad that he's muscling out the other races.
I think as a result, my choices will be more levelled in ME2. It'll be fun experimenting with a kind of humbled, considerate Shepard.
It's a great success that the game has given me a concience as well as a clear goal for the next game.
Not only to put a stop to the Reapers once and for all, but to put things right with humanity and earn the trust of other races again.
And if all else fails, at least I'll still have Tali and Garrus by my side. (Right, guys? RIGHT!?)
Suffice to say, I'm very much looking forward to diving straight into ME2. Got it ready to install tonight.
Before I do (and I'm sorry if this has been asked gajillions of times before), which DLC are must-haves?
On the store (not counting weapon/aesthetic packs), all I see are Arrival and Cerberus.
The trilogy came with the Cerberus pack, which seems to contain a bunch of superflous stuff, but I'll check it out because why not, eh?
Also, if I need to get DLC, can I get started and grab it later on? (Really hoping the answer is yes...)
Thanks again for reading!
P.S. Whatever happened to that autograph guy? I refused to sign and now 30 hours later, I feel a bit dickish about it.
Was sort of expecting (hoping) that decision would come back to haunt me, haha. Perhaps in part 2 or 3...?