Been a while since I did one of these. I thought it would be fun since I'm only now getting to play Mass Effect 3 with all the DLC installed. I'm roughly 3-4 hours in, so this is my first impressions.
The disaster and following bickering over the ending was actually rather convenient in the sense that aside from that I don't know almost anything about the game's plot. I know some character deaths, but that's about it. So despite being 6 years late, I still get to enjoy the story with fresh eyes.
First impressions include:
- the galaxy seems to have gotten a whole lot more grey and darker shades of blue compared to the previous installments. It's kind of hard to judge whether this is due to the "gunmetal grey and dogshit brown" graphics trends of the time, or to emphasize the grim atmosphere.
- Boy, they sure made Normandy a whole lot uglier. Exposed wires all over the place, seemingly a third of the lights ripped out, grey metal on grey metal as the only texture colours. Again, I don't know if this is due to visual trends or to signify the downfall of organic life in visual terms. Either way I don't like it.
- The game does so far a great job at conveying how utterly devastating the Reapers are, and the scale of the conflict. The entire turian planet essentially in flames as the backdrop in the Primarch mission was a sight to behold.
- Despite having only completed the first main story mission (getting the turian Primarch) after the tutorial on earth, there's already been some rather eyebrow-raising reconning here. It's especially noticeable since I stumbled on the Leviathan DLC's first mission basically by accident, since the game doesn't display any difference between the main game and DLC missions. In the first Mass Effect the Reapers are essentially just nonexistent boogeymen, but oh, there was totally a dead reaper found by the Batarians decades ago and they just hushed it up. Never mind how advanced Reaper tech has been built up to be all this time, no, it went totally unnoticed and didn't in any way show on the batarians' technology. Yeah, the Reapers are basically invincible, but look at that, a Prothean artifact we only now happen to mention despite sitting in Mars for decades, despite the Protheans being defined in the first game as almost myths in their own right.
- It's so much fun to realize how attached I've grown to these characters. Seeing minor characters like Dr Michel get a reappearance in the game just drives that feeling further. I just wanted to bro-hug Thane in the hospital
- It's also fun to play my Shepard as a redemption story. In the first two games I played him as a renegade due to his disillusionment and anger, but now I think he's realized that won't work anymore, and is finally taking the position as a leader.
That's my first 2 cents, I'll post more when I see fit.
The disaster and following bickering over the ending was actually rather convenient in the sense that aside from that I don't know almost anything about the game's plot. I know some character deaths, but that's about it. So despite being 6 years late, I still get to enjoy the story with fresh eyes.
First impressions include:
- the galaxy seems to have gotten a whole lot more grey and darker shades of blue compared to the previous installments. It's kind of hard to judge whether this is due to the "gunmetal grey and dogshit brown" graphics trends of the time, or to emphasize the grim atmosphere.
- Boy, they sure made Normandy a whole lot uglier. Exposed wires all over the place, seemingly a third of the lights ripped out, grey metal on grey metal as the only texture colours. Again, I don't know if this is due to visual trends or to signify the downfall of organic life in visual terms. Either way I don't like it.
- The game does so far a great job at conveying how utterly devastating the Reapers are, and the scale of the conflict. The entire turian planet essentially in flames as the backdrop in the Primarch mission was a sight to behold.
- Despite having only completed the first main story mission (getting the turian Primarch) after the tutorial on earth, there's already been some rather eyebrow-raising reconning here. It's especially noticeable since I stumbled on the Leviathan DLC's first mission basically by accident, since the game doesn't display any difference between the main game and DLC missions. In the first Mass Effect the Reapers are essentially just nonexistent boogeymen, but oh, there was totally a dead reaper found by the Batarians decades ago and they just hushed it up. Never mind how advanced Reaper tech has been built up to be all this time, no, it went totally unnoticed and didn't in any way show on the batarians' technology. Yeah, the Reapers are basically invincible, but look at that, a Prothean artifact we only now happen to mention despite sitting in Mars for decades, despite the Protheans being defined in the first game as almost myths in their own right.
- It's so much fun to realize how attached I've grown to these characters. Seeing minor characters like Dr Michel get a reappearance in the game just drives that feeling further. I just wanted to bro-hug Thane in the hospital
- It's also fun to play my Shepard as a redemption story. In the first two games I played him as a renegade due to his disillusionment and anger, but now I think he's realized that won't work anymore, and is finally taking the position as a leader.
That's my first 2 cents, I'll post more when I see fit.