Mass Effect Legendary edition impressions: Two steps forward, one step back

[meiam]

Really? I just finished a run with whatever class was Biotic/Soldier, and my most recurring thought through that was "Man, this is a little too easy."

And all the tech abilities are even better?

The game is super easy no matter what because the gun are all incredibly OP, even if the ability (biotic/tech) are powerful they just take away from you shooting at stuff which is even better.

They fixed that with 2 (and a bit 3) and legendary difficulty which imo is the only legitimate way to play 2.

 

[FennecZephyr]

The game is super easy no matter what because the gun are all incredibly OP, even if the ability (biotic/tech) are powerful they just take away from you shooting at stuff which is even better.

They fixed that with 2 (and a bit 3) and legendary difficulty which imo is the only legitimate way to play 2.

Maybe a max difficulty run with no weapon skills will make it remotely challenging then

 

[CriticalGaming]

Maybe a max difficulty run with no weapon skills will make it remotely challenging then

And youd get achievements.

 

[CriticalGaming]

More thoughts on ME:2.

After playing ME1, the game feels like a drastic step up in a lot of ways, while also somehow feeling like a step down from the previous game. Which is weird because I think people are pretty much unanimous in the thought that ME1 is basically just decent.

The gunplay in ME2, the movement, the dialog, the sense of build up, is fantastic. However the levels are incredibly linear, there is basically no longer any exploration which includes the planets and Mako explorations from the first game. While the Mako wasn't great, I feel like the better decision would have been to improve the Mako rather than abandon it. Top that off with the simplified levels and the pointless leveling up systems and from a gameplay standpoint it's hard to argue that ME2 is better than ME1 in really anyway.

Where ME1 was a Sci-fi RPG with a lot of room to improve. ME2 is a simple third person shooter with a brilliant story, but not much else beyond that.

 

[BrawlMan]

ME2 is a simple third person shooter with a brilliant story, but not much else beyond that.

From what I heard and remember, the shooting gets even better in 3. The irony being that 2 & 3 have better cover shooting mechanics than a good amount of cover shooters that were copying Gears of War. Me personally, my brother and I barely played ME1, and neither felt the need to play the rest. Knowing my big bro; he most likely forgot the franchise even exists.

 

[meiam]

More thoughts on ME:2.

After playing ME1, the game feels like a drastic step up in a lot of ways, while also somehow feeling like a step down from the previous game. Which is weird because I think people are pretty much unanimous in the thought that ME1 is basically just decent.

The gunplay in ME2, the movement, the dialog, the sense of build up, is fantastic. However the levels are incredibly linear, there is basically no longer any exploration which includes the planets and Mako explorations from the first game. While the Mako wasn't great, I feel like the better decision would have been to improve the Mako rather than abandon it. Top that off with the simplified levels and the pointless leveling up systems and from a gameplay standpoint it's hard to argue that ME2 is better than ME1 in really anyway.

Where ME1 was a Sci-fi RPG with a lot of room to improve. ME2 is a simple third person shooter with a brilliant story, but not much else beyond that.

Hummm I don't think its fair to say that "unanimous in the thought that ME1 is basically just decent" because it's an incredibly uneven game. Gameplay, shit. Graphic, bad. But story is decent, character are starting to go toward good, world building is one of the best in video game land. Because it's so uneven it's hard to call it decent, it'll depend on what everyone like about games.

For ME2 I'd say: Story, shit (Shepard dying is pointless, nothing is accomplished in relation to greater goal, Cerberus should not have such a big role to play). Worldbuilding, good but only because of ME1, ME2 world building is actually pretty bad and the kindest thing I can say about it is that it doesn't piss too much on ME1 worldbuilding. But character are goddamn solid (TIM performance is so good it almost make me forget how dumb everything relating to Cerberus is) and gameplay is actually really good (if you play it on legendary otherwise it's just average). Overall I enjoyed ME2 more, but I think "fixing" ME1 would be easier than "fixing" ME2 since it would involve redoing the full story while keeping most character (Jacob can go).

Oh and ME3 is a clusterfuck (who approved Kai Leng!?) and andromeda is just kinda there.

 

[CriticalGaming]

For ME2 I'd say: Story, shit (Shepard dying is pointless, nothing is accomplished in relation to greater goal, Cerberus should not have such a big role to play). Worldbuilding, good but only because of ME1, ME2 world building is actually pretty bad and the kindest thing I can say about it is that it doesn't piss too much on ME1 worldbuilding. But character are goddamn solid (TIM performance is so good it almost make me forget how dumb everything relating to Cerberus is) and gameplay is actually really good (if you play it on legendary otherwise it's just average). Overall I enjoyed ME2 more, but I think "fixing" ME1 would be easier than "fixing" ME2 since it would involve redoing the full story while keeping most character (Jacob can go).

Actually I thought the story was set up well. The Normandy attack and the time jump allows them to basically reset the player and allow them a good excuse to go gather up the squad again (plus new people). Without that, you'd already have a crew and then you have to deal with the struggle of how you handle the Council situation that believes the Reaper threat gone. The political run around would have been far less interesting to get the game rolling again imo. Not to mention your crew would already be there for you so it makes adding crew harder to justify. So I thought it was a great set up.

The characters are all mostly fantastic I agree with you there. Jacob is probably the most boring, but Miranda is also not very interesting either. But the rest of the crew are great and I love Jack especially.

 

[meiam]

Actually I thought the story was set up well. The Normandy attack and the time jump allows them to basically reset the player and allow them a good excuse to go gather up the squad again (plus new people). Without that, you'd already have a crew and then you have to deal with the struggle of how you handle the Council situation that believes the Reaper threat gone. The political run around would have been far less interesting to get the game rolling again imo. Not to mention your crew would already be there for you so it makes adding crew harder to justify. So I thought it was a great set up.

The characters are all mostly fantastic I agree with you there. Jacob is probably the most boring, but Miranda is also not very interesting either. But the rest of the crew are great and I love Jack especially.

Ehh I just don't see why it was necessery to do a soft reboot, could have just continue from ME1 ending with it being more about figuring out the reaper and finding a way to defeat them (instead of the stupid deus ex machina of ME3 that came out of nowhere). You could still add more crew by just... adding more crew.

 

[09philj]

From what I heard and remember, the shooting gets even better in 3. The irony being that 2 & 3 have better cover shooting mechanics than a good amount of cover shooters that were copying Gears of War. Me personally, my brother and I barely played ME1, and neither felt the need to play the rest. Knowing my big bro; he most likely forgot the franchise even exists.

3 plays the most fluidly and has the best selection of distinct weapons and is the most flexible in terms of loadout since it removes the class requirements to equip each weapon type, instead allowing any class to use as many weapon types as they want with the tradeoff being increased power cooldown. (Or decreased power cooldown if you're giving a class fewer weapons) Obviously it's not optimal to completely tool up a power based class or give Soldiers nothing but pistols and SMGs, but it does mean you can modify your playstyle more.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Alright, this will probably be my final input in terms of reviews and impressions.

After playing around 5 hours into Mass Effect 2, and a little bit of 3, I can with confidence that if you didn't like ME trilogy then, you won't like it now. If you loved ME, then you will still love it.

Because barely anything is changed in ME 2 and 3. This is in both good and bad terms; the shooting, abilities feeling meaningful, the characters you meet, lore and codex, and the world design still hold up really well. But there are also some annoying stuff like ME2's constant need to buy fuels and probes, or ME3's rather disappointing endings just to name a few. Everything is still the same in 2 and 3, and I am starting to think LE was pointless, and quite frankly was a waste of money. Yes, there are some texture and performance improvements for 2 and 3, but mods have been doing that for years.

Honestly, I wish they had put all efforts into the full-fledged remake of the ME1 instead, and have 2 and 3 as the side content. Kinda like what Halo MCC originally did on XB1.

I am also curious to see if EA and Bioware are willing to give Dragon Age series the same treatment? Because DA:O was really great but feels outdated to revisit. I also kinda liked DA2, despite its flaws. As for Inquisition.... Well, it's better than Andromeda

 

[laggyteabag]

Alright, this will probably be my final input in terms of reviews and impressions.

After playing around 5 hours into Mass Effect 2, and a little bit of 3, I can with confidence that if you didn't like ME trilogy then, you won't like it now. If you loved ME, then you will still love it.

Because barely anything is changed in ME 2 and 3. This is in both good and bad terms; the shooting, abilities feeling meaningful, the characters you meet, lore and codex, and the world design still hold up really well. But there are also some annoying stuff like ME2's constant need to buy fuels and probes, or ME3's rather disappointing endings just to name a few. Everything is still the same in 2 and 3, and I am starting to think LE was pointless, and quite frankly was a waste of money. Yes, there are some texture and performance improvements for 2 and 3, but mods have been doing that for years.

Honestly, I wish they had put all efforts into the full-fledged remake of the ME1 instead, and have 2 and 3 as the side content. Kinda like what Halo MCC originally did on XB1.

To be fair, a remaster being little more than a graphical spit shine, kind of comes with the territory.

In my opinion, the only Mass Effect game that really needed much adjustment, was the first game, so it wasn't really a surprise to me, to hear that ME2 and ME3 have barely been touched. Though to ME2 LE's defence, I do notice that the frequency of hacking minigames has drastically reduced, and all of the DLC armours and weapons have been moved around to various shops/research jobs.

As far as I am concerned, the LE's goal of tweaking ME1's gameplay to feel a little more modern, whilst delivering minor QOL improvements to the other two games, and making the whole trilogy a little prettier, has been a success.

And yes, whilst mods have been doing much of what the LE has been doing for years, the modding experience in some games isn't exactly straightforward (and im lazy), and the last time I tried to run ME2 with the ALOT mod, it wasn't exactly stable.

At the end of the day, Im happy with my purchase, even as someone who already owns all 3 games + all of their DLCs.

(It is also worth noting that for PlayStation players, before the LE, the ME trilogy has been locked to PS3 consoles, because PS3 back-compat on PS4 and PS5 doesn't exist. Im sure if I was a PS player, I would be especially happy for this Remaster)

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Kept crashing on what appears to be the final boss in ME1 last night, so gave up in the end as the number of possibilities for troubleshooting are just too many and it was already wasting time. Might try what is advised in this thread I found tonight though, if it really is the biotic powers causing it: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mass-Effe...-Saren-Sovereign-fight-crashing/td-p/10349952
Would be nice for the game to work however.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Kept crashing on what appears to be the final boss in ME1 last night, so gave up in the end as the number of possibilities for troubleshooting are just too many and it was already wasting time. Might try what is advised in this thread I found tonight though, if it really is the biotic powers causing it: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mass-Effe...-Saren-Sovereign-fight-crashing/td-p/10349952
Would be nice for the game to work however.

It worked! Thankyou, obscure internet identities who must have done the legwork in trial and elimination there. On to the second game at long last. (Plz fix tho)

 

[CriticalGaming]

Having now finished ME2, I am rather disappointed. Maybe it's just cause the game doesn't hold up as well as modern games do, or maybe the common praise the game got as influenced me.

The levels are repetitive and the missions basically all follow the same path. Go to place, shoot the thing, mission complete.

But what really stood out to me was just how small the game was. Basically there are only 3 or so core missions, and every other mission is "Get Follower, make Follower loyal." That's it. So it sticks out as strange to me when your crew praises you for all you've done together and all you've been through, because you really don't go through anything with them. There aren't a bunch of Collector missions in which you find clues, track them down, and ultimately chase them down. Okay well there are, but it is exactly that many missions. Find them, get artifact to go to their home, and suicide mission. Everything else in the game is basically a side mission.

Now don't get me wrong, these characters and crew members are great and well written so I think that's why people don't notice how short the game actually is.

Though I would be lying to say that it wasn't still fun. It was a fun game overall, though there are some very strange difficulty spikes in odd places. The gameplay overall can sometimes fuck you out of ammo for no logical reason, and sometimes there is too much dialog. Otherwise ME2 is a solid 7/10 overall I'd say. Which might be blasphemy for some but looking at the game now, yeah it isn't the stand out I used to think.

Will start ME3 soon and see if I can actually finish that one because i never did. I think because ME3 is the same shit over again. Find crew, make crew loyal (as if they need a fucking reason at this point), if enough people are loyal you get good ending. That's it.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Having now finished ME2, I am rather disappointed. Maybe it's just cause the game doesn't hold up as well as modern games do, or maybe the common praise the game got as influenced me.

The levels are repetitive and the missions basically all follow the same path. Go to place, shoot the thing, mission complete.

But what really stood out to me was just how small the game was. Basically there are only 3 or so core missions, and every other mission is "Get Follower, make Follower loyal." That's it. So it sticks out as strange to me when your crew praises you for all you've done together and all you've been through, because you really don't go through anything with them. There aren't a bunch of Collector missions in which you find clues, track them down, and ultimately chase them down. Okay well there are, but it is exactly that many missions. Find them, get artifact to go to their home, and suicide mission. Everything else in the game is basically a side mission.

Now don't get me wrong, these characters and crew members are great and well written so I think that's why people don't notice how short the game actually is.

Though I would be lying to say that it wasn't still fun. It was a fun game overall, though there are some very strange difficulty spikes in odd places. The gameplay overall can sometimes fuck you out of ammo for no logical reason, and sometimes there is too much dialog. Otherwise ME2 is a solid 7/10 overall I'd say. Which might be blasphemy for some but looking at the game now, yeah it isn't the stand out I used to think.

Will start ME3 soon and see if I can actually finish that one because i never did. I think because ME3 is the same shit over again. Find crew, make crew loyal (as if they need a fucking reason at this point), if enough people are loyal you get good ending. That's it.

I decided to do EVERYTHING in ME2; side missions, dlc contents, planet scans, etc. And it took me around 34 hours to do it. And even then, the game felt short, and I think that actually worked for the game's favor. I love good storytellings in games, I really do. But there's a difference telling one big epic story and just dragging on to make the game artificially longer. Finishing ME2 means I can finally move onto other games, and I'm glad I can put it behind me

 

[CriticalGaming]

I decided to do EVERYTHING in ME2; side missions, dlc contents, planet scans, etc. And it took me around 34 hours to do it. And even then, the game felt short, and I think that actually worked for the game's favor. I love good storytellings in games, I really do. But there's a difference telling one big epic story and just dragging on to make the game artificially longer. Finishing ME2 means I can finally move onto other games, and I'm glad I can put it behind me

i did as much as I could tolerate. There were very minor side quests I skipped like finding the Volo's Credit Chip and things of that nature. I still got the perfect ending and achieved 93% of all the trophies possible. So I'm satisfied.

 

[laggyteabag]

Having now finished ME2, I am rather disappointed. Maybe it's just cause the game doesn't hold up as well as modern games do, or maybe the common praise the game got as influenced me.

The levels are repetitive and the missions basically all follow the same path. Go to place, shoot the thing, mission complete.

But what really stood out to me was just how small the game was. Basically there are only 3 or so core missions, and every other mission is "Get Follower, make Follower loyal." That's it. So it sticks out as strange to me when your crew praises you for all you've done together and all you've been through, because you really don't go through anything with them. There aren't a bunch of Collector missions in which you find clues, track them down, and ultimately chase them down. Okay well there are, but it is exactly that many missions. Find them, get artifact to go to their home, and suicide mission. Everything else in the game is basically a side mission.

Now don't get me wrong, these characters and crew members are great and well written so I think that's why people don't notice how short the game actually is.

Though I would be lying to say that it wasn't still fun. It was a fun game overall, though there are some very strange difficulty spikes in odd places. The gameplay overall can sometimes fuck you out of ammo for no logical reason, and sometimes there is too much dialog. Otherwise ME2 is a solid 7/10 overall I'd say. Which might be blasphemy for some but looking at the game now, yeah it isn't the stand out I used to think.

Will start ME3 soon and see if I can actually finish that one because i never did. I think because ME3 is the same shit over again. Find crew, make crew loyal (as if they need a fucking reason at this point), if enough people are loyal you get good ending. That's it.

I see where you are coming from, and I definitely agree to a certain extent.

On one hand, I really love the recruitment/loyalty missions, as they add a lot of location variety (that I think surpasses the uncharted worlds in ME1), and I love that these missions are entirely dedicated to the personal stories of specific characters.

On the flip side, so much of the game is spent dealing with your companion's specific issues, that the Collectors kind of fall to the wayside.

There are also another couple of minor issues, like when you accept a loyalty mission from one of your companions, they will no longer interact with you on the Normandy in any meaningful way, until you complete it.

And another irritation, is how your crew burn through their available lines on the ship so quickly. Your crew only have enough lines to last about half of the game, and then they just spout the same "Can it wait for a bit?" line of dialogue, with nothing else left to say.

There is also that really contrived scene where once you install the Reaper IFF, your entire roster of companions departs on a shuttle to some mystery mission, which just so happens to allow the Collectors to board your ship, and abduct the entire crew.

All in all, I think that Mass Effect 2 is definitely a superior game to the first in pretty much every way, and my only real gripes come down to some of the writing, or lack thereof.

You are right about the length of the game, though. Obviously you'd get a shitty ending, but if you just did only the mandatory missions, I wouldn't be surprised if the game lasted about dozen hours - if that.

On a somewhat related note, can we just talk about how much of a babe Garrus is? With the exception of Joker and Dr Chakwas, Garrus is literally the only squad member who you come across, who immediately drops everything for you.

Liara is too busy for you, pissing off the Shadow Broker. Tali is (at first) too busy for you, doing Quarian shit. Wrex is too busy for you, leading his clan. Kaiden/Ashley now apparently hate your guts. Garrus is just "well, fuck what im doing. My girl Shepard is back - im going with her"

Fuck the rest of them, then.

 

[Lykosia]

I would change one thing for ME2. The way you upgrade Normandy. How it works now is that every crew member you recruit will also magically have one upgrade schematic for Normandy, you only need enough resources to build them. I'd change that you actually have to go on seperate missions to either find the schematics, people who can make the upgrades or the resources needed.

 

[CriticalGaming]

On a somewhat related note, can we just talk about how much of a babe Garrus is? With the exception of Joker and Dr Chakwas, Garrus is literally the only squad member who you come across, who immediately drops everything for you.

Liara is too busy for you, pissing off the Shadow Broker. Tali is (at first) too busy for you, doing Quarian shit. Wrex is too busy for you, leading his clan. Kaiden/Ashley now apparently hate your guts. Garrus is just "well, fuck what im doing. My girl Shepard is back - im going with her"

To be fair you do have to save him from getting gangbanged first. Its not like you just called him up and went, "Get in Birch, we're saving the galaxy again."

 

[Zetatrain]

On a somewhat related note, can we just talk about how much of a babe Garrus is? With the exception of Joker and Dr Chakwas, Garrus is literally the only squad member who you come across, who immediately drops everything for you.

Liara is too busy for you, pissing off the Shadow Broker. Tali is (at first) too busy for you, doing Quarian shit. Wrex is too busy for you, leading his clan. Kaiden/Ashley now apparently hate your guts. Garrus is just "well, fuck what im doing. My girl Shepard is back - im going with her"

Fuck the rest of them, then.

Tbf Garrus didn't really have anything to do once you rescued him from the gangs on Omega. His whole squad was dead and if the gangs hadn't tracked him down he probably would have already fled omega before you got there. And IIRC Liara was trying to save her friend who helped recover Shepard's body from the shadow broker who was going to hand it over to the collectors.