Mass Effect 1's terrible side quests

[Indignator]

Skyrim is out but Mass Effect 3 is on the horizon, so let's get those Mass Effect threads going people!

Anyway, I think most people agree that ME1's side quests were awful. Three or four identical floor plans repeated ad nauseam; short and repetitive (go there, blast everything and maybe perform a speech check at some point); uninspiring and disjoined plotting (the Cerberus missions in particular had great potential for an epic secondary quest squandered); and endings usually presented in text boxes.

Now I read a comment somewhere that BioWare actually outsourced the design of the side quests to some studio in Asia. Usually I ignore such comments and though I am still skeptical about it I must say that this idea has some plausibility, especially considering the stark contrast between the main missions and the side quests in ME1.

Has anybody else heard a similar rumor? Maybe even have some hard facts? Short research with Google/Wikipedia did not produce any meaningful results on my part. So if the side quests were designed in house, why were they so lame?

 

[Sixcess]

My impression with the side quests in Mass Effect is that they realised there was no way they could make them anywhere near as elaborate or interesting as the main quests for reasons of time, money, disc space even. All that voice acting, all those cut scenes, all those unique environments - it would all take up developer resources that would have sent their development time and budget through the roof.

That was one of my few disapointments with ME. Once I realised that just about every side quest and minor planet was going to be generic, pallete swapped filler I simply stopped doing them.

It's the downside of modern game production values. Yes, the environments look great, but there's not nearly as many unique environments as older games could manage because it takes too long and costs too much.

 

[Swifteye]

I don't know anything about that but while you mentioned side quest in mass effect. Yahtzee and a couple people complained about how in the second game there was a lack of bigness because you could no longer run around planets and feel the size and hugeness of the planets and instead was just forced to shoot probes at most of them.

When I actually played mass effect two I found the opposite to be the case. Moving around on the planets was tedious and annoying and running into identical rooms to shoot down random people just made the whole game feel like a copy paste of itself and the less I think about high mountain planets the better.

If you think about it. You only get to play half a dozen legitimate levels. Story wise mass effect one felt really short cause you visited so little places and you really only had to go to them once. Mass effect two really changed that I believe. We got to visit so many different places with different creatures and even though the plot was just assembling a team it felt like we had twice the levels to go to and twice the reasons to revisit places. Probing planets was monotonous though I think my finger would wear out pressing R1 over and over again.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Oh wow the Mass Effect 1 side missions were utterly terrible, I forced myself to complete a lot of them though simply because I wanted a really good save to continue into ME2 and ME3, I dont think I'd ever be able to do them again, which is why Mass Effect 3 needs something like the Genesis comic, only a lot more in depth.
I counted maybe a total of 5 different interiors, the only thing differentiating them being crates in different places. Good thing though that Mass Effect 2 fixed this, yeah the planet scanning was boring but I'll take it any day of the the Mako's terrible controls.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

Aside from the fact that they were extremely boring, they made the galaxy seem so empty and dead. I remember being so excited when I saw the size of the galaxy map the first time and then so dissapointed when I discovered that, outside the main quest, there's really nothing to see. And even the main quests suffer from repetitive, brown/grey corridors. Other than the Citadel, the galaxy seems to be devoid of any culture whatsoever and it made me not care about its fate. It's what makes, in my mind, Mass Effect probably the worst Bioware game I've ever played (although I haven't played either Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age 2).

 

[michiehoward]

I wrote my own walkthrough for ME1. God all I remember was all the fun I had. The memories of tedium have faded since I played ME2.


I can't wait for ME3, March can't come fast enough. And its going look fucking amazing on my new TV!

 

[Caveworm]

I tried a couple but soon realised how awful the side quests were and I stopped.

Same copy and pasted worlds, awful controls, and that blooming tank thing you drove on the planets-arrrgh!

ME2 on the other hand, I fully enjoyed the side quests and exploring the galaxy, despite it being 'smaller', it gave the game more focus and encouraged one to explore the galaxy to find the quests.

 

[LordFisheh]

Actually, I quite liked the sidequests for one reason. Lots seemed to go somewhere; you'd find the terrorists holding someone hostage, or try to arrest/release morally bankrupt scientists, that sort of thing. The environments were poor and repetitive, but the missions themselves often contained a decent story and often had something unique, even if it was just a choice or conversation.

ME2, meanwhile, had side missions consisting almost entirely of arrive, kill everything, hot button, leave. Not once do I remember actually talking to someone on a sidequest. There were only two quest chains, both of which consisted only of killing stuff and hitting buttons; compare that to ME's Cerberus arc, or the criminal who sends you after her associates.

 

[Steampunk Viking]

Oh wow the Mass Effect 1 side missions were utterly terrible, I forced myself to complete a lot of them though simply because I wanted a really good save to continue into ME2 and ME3, I dont think I'd ever be able to do them again, which is why Mass Effect 3 needs something like the Genesis comic, only a lot more in depth.
I counted maybe a total of 5 different interiors, the only thing differentiating them being crates in different places. Good thing though that Mass Effect 2 fixed this, yeah the planet scanning was boring but I'll take it any day of the the Mako's terrible controls.

Have to agree with this post, although the genesis comic may very well be a possibility. Bioware have always said when they implement something, they're testing it for later use. The Hammerhead DLC missions were a trial for Mass Effect 3 vehicle missions, for example (and let's face it, their controls were miles better than the Mako's).

I love all Mass Effect games, it's my favourite series ever, but that doesn't mean they were faultless, and the side quests in ME1 were horribly boring. I only did them all purely to because I'm a completionist, but I don't think I could stand doing them all.

Having said that, the roleplay elements in 1 were miles better than 2. Hopefully 3 will be a good mixture.

 

[putowtin]

Meh! They made a nice break when I didn't feel like tackling one of the major plot planets, yes they were repetative, but you picked up armour and guns and got to shoot things, and in my eyes that's always win!

 

[Bostur]

Actually, I quite liked the sidequests for one reason. Lots seemed to go somewhere; you'd find the terrorists holding someone hostage, or try to arrest/release morally bankrupt scientists, that sort of thing. The environments were poor and repetitive, but the missions themselves often contained a decent story and often had something unique, even if it was just a choice or conversation.

ME2, meanwhile, had side missions consisting almost entirely of arrive, kill everything, hot button, leave. Not once do I remember actually talking to someone on a sidequest. There were only two quest chains, both of which consisted only of killing stuff and hitting buttons; compare that to ME's Cerberus arc, or the criminal who sends you after her associates.

I felt much the same way. ME1 side missions had interesting stories and development, but the level layout was dull, and the AI of opponents seemed even worse than normal. I did enjoy doing them though, mostly to see what would happen and they made a nice distraction from the main events.

ME2 was almost the exact opposite, dull stories but with decent level design and some good fights.

I sometimes wonder why it is so hard to combine the best of both.