So how bad are Mass Effect 1's driving segments?

[swenson]

Have you played ME2? Because let me just tell you, after the planet scanning, you will be begging for more Mako.

The Mako is... well, it's kind of like Old Doctor Who's special effects. As Colin Baker pointed out, you didn't love the terrible special effects, you tolerated and forgave them; anything else is just nostalgia. The Mako is kind of the same way. After you play the game, you're like "Well, maybe that wasn't so bad after all." But when you go back and play it, you're like "Wait, no, yes it was."

However, it's survivable. It's definitely not a gamebreaker for me. And once you get used to it and all its special little quirks (it will go up a sheer cliff until it won't, it goes flying in random directions at the slightest bump of anything, if you're on anything other than perfectly flat ground the cannon couldn't aim to save your life... oh wait, it literally can't aim well enough to save your life so half the time you might as well just get out of it and fight on foot... and get extra XP anyway...), it's not all THAT bad to drive. It's very rarely required, either. On all of the required planets, it is required, but in all of them, the paths you have to drive on are relatively smooth, as opposed to the random cliffs on other planets. Like Nodacrux, Scourge of the Galaxy. I hate that planet SO MUCH.

 

[octafish]

I like the feel of exploration the Mako gave to the game, something that was lacking in ME2.

 

[Nieroshai]

The awkwardness of the driving was more hilarious than aggravating to me, personally. I enjoyed the ability to completely throw it around like a toy car.

 

[Crazie_Guy]

It was awesome. Driving a bouncing wall-climbing rover/tank over mountains and through valleys was the exact opposite of boring, and some of the best visual in the game were to be had on those distant planets.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

It's not quite as bad as many make it seem, but it does take a while to get used to the controls. It's very slow to respond to directions, but when it does respond you can be doing 360s without intending to.

There's only 3 major driving sections that I can think of, so it's not like you're driving half the game or anything.

 

[Stammer]

It's a great game, and once you've gotten the hang of driving it really isn't all that bad. If you really want to you can bypass like 99% of the driving segments anyway. But really, once you learn a few tricks the Mako isn't too bad.

Protip: If you find yourself stuck trying to climb up a 90-degree slope, try going up diagonally rather than directly straight up, it'll usually work a lot better.

Do NOT pass this game up because the driving segments kinda suck. Even if you don't find the extreme offroading a lot of fun, the rest of the game is well worth it. Mass Effect is my second-favourite game, competing with my all-time favourite right now. And I don't even LIKE shooters.

 

[Images]

Let me start by saying PLAY THE GAME. IT IS A WORK OF ART.

However I will say that the driving sections were very misguided from the off. when it takes place on the main missions, its usually been designed pretty well. Though the handling is still rubbish they at least tried to add some pizzaz to the main mission driving sections such as driving round a curvy snowy ravine edge or navigating a tropical rock formation. However the side mission experience can be boring to the point of extreme tedium. The driving areas on the planets are bland as hell, only differentiated by a change of colour between them and that's about it. No party banter, radio or anything to make the drives seem more pleasant. Some people skip all the side missions which is understandable, the shame is that some of those side missions can be quite interesting if you can tolerate the awkwardness of the journey. Just don't get me started on he aiming system VS Thresher Maws...

But still, PLAY IT

 

[skywolfblue]

The Mako was the best part about ME1.

The side-quest generated terrain planets are the source of the problem. The terrain was bland, horrible to drive on, and did I mention bland and terrible to drive on?

 

[Terminate421]

Its potential is there but it controls like this:

Place a hotwheels car onto a 3 x 3 slab of cardboard, now guide the hotwheel around the house with an earthquake going on.

 

[Snotnarok]

They didn't bother me at all, I thought it was better than other shooters/rpgs with driving in it. Halo I hated that dumb bloody tank something fierce, Mass Effect however I could snipe at full speed while falling off a hill.

The planets that weren't story missions however were bland and goofy. And considering you go on the moon at one point and are driving on hills...you know which the moon doesn't really have, as it does have craters...and this moon does not it gets irritating to me. It's just ...okay I won't get technical, however the maps are bland when they're not story oriented.

 

[mikespoff]

I didn't mind the driving, really. If it bothers you, it's almost all on optional sidequests, and I actually quite enjoyed it.

Definitely not something to avoid the game for - it's a pretty incidental aspect of it.

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

I personally despised it.

God, if there was ONE thing about the first Mass Effect I really, REALLY hated it was the driving sections.

That and the micromanaging inventory bullshit.

 

[DustyDrB]

I don't miss these sections at all. Most planets aren't bad, though. But there is one that I can't remember the name of. I'm positive that it's a part of the "Geth Incursions" side quest. There is only one route you can take, and it's guesswork which direction you have to go to get to it. You'll be bouncing along and then will come about an impassable mountain and have no choice but to turn around and try a different way. That planet makes me hate the Mako. Hate it hate it hate it hate it.

But I was glad to see this gone. I prefer planet-scanning to the Mako.

 

[Agayek]

I'm thinking about giving Mass Effect a try and the only thing that worries me is all of those horror stories about how bad the driving is. Is it something that you do a lot of during the game?

It's not as bad as people make out, in all honesty.

There's something like 4 forced driving segments through the course of the main game, and these are just fine. There's no issue with them at all.

The problem comes in when you go exploring on random planets. Their terrain is very unfriendly in many areas and it makes driving nigh impossible. There's all sorts of hills/mountains that the thing just refuses to go up, and the handling on it is piss-poor so it's really easy to fall off when you're trying to find the sweet spot that will let you go over.

If the terrain was halfway decent, the driving would be fine. Not good by any means, but perfectly serviceable. As is, exploring the side planets is just painful.

 

[Zero_ctrl]

I didn't have a big problem with them, but I'm a sucker for physics based stuff.

 

[captaincabbage]

Personally I thought they were way overexaggerated. They're not that bad. Not geart, but not that bad.

 

[Bobbity]

It's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be; the vehicle handles badly, true, but not painfully so, and not enough to pose any real difficulties.
Don't bother exploring deserted planets though; the driving there is exceptionally boring, and everything is cut and paste. Well, maybe explore one, because it is kind of cool the first time. Don't bother after that though.

 

[Apprentice88]

The Mako handles perfectly fine...

...until you need to reverse.

Don't even bother trying to reverse terrible things will happen...

...Terrible, Terrible Things.

 

[Phisi]

I would have enjoyed them a lot if the vehicle handling was slightly better. I'm talking about the jump jet things that I would have found to be very fun to use to get around the map as a person who is entertained by annoying my friends on steam by calling them continuously . If the just made it so it pushed you up and slightly forward no matter what angle you were at or had some way to use them to control direction in the air. As they were if you used them on a hill you flew off the hill and had to drive back up. The driving around planets was pretty boring as well as there wasn't much to look at but the combat in the vehicle was kinda fun. They could have been improved but they weren't game killers as some people have made them out to be. I once had to restart from my last save when I got the Mako (name of the vehicle that you ship deploys on planets) on a mining vehicle by jumping around and them left it there to go do the mission and came back and couldn't get back in