Zhukov said:
I found the combat to be a chore that I had to work through to get to the interesting stuff.
It was unbalanced because biotics > everything. The entire game could be beaten by ragdolling every enemy with biotics and then shooting them while they spazzed out on the floor. Compared to that the tech abilities were a joke.
As I said before, the game only becomes unbalanced if you let it. If you are finding biotics overpowered then limit their use. Just because an option is there, doesn't mean you have to take it.
Zhukov said:
This affected the classes a lot.
Want to make the combat extra boring? Play a soldier.
Want to be like a soldier but with less health and useless powers? Play an infiltrator.
Want to spend 70% of your time waiting for cooldowns? Play an adept or sentinel.
Want to spend 70% of your time waiting for cooldowns and be completely ineffective? Play an engineer.
Want to be hilariously overpowered? Play a vanguard.
To be honest it sounds as if you've been trying to play each class the same way.
Just to pick on the Engineer. You aren't meant to take the enemies on your own, the Engineer is a support class. If playing as an Engineer Shepard then hang back, use your powers to debuff enemies, and use allies like Ashley and Wrex to soak up the damage and take the enemies out.
That's one of the things I didn't like in ME2 and 3. Every class of Shepard could easily be a front line fighter.
Zhukov said:
The shooting lacked any sense of weight or impact. You shoot a guy and his health goes down with no other reaction. It felt like shooting at health bars, not enemies. In the sequels there was visual feedback. You shoot a guy and he stagger or falls, y'know, like a guy who has been shot with a high velocity weapon. Some enemies could have bits blown off, successful headshots caused heads to pop, some enemies had particular weak points, like shooting a guardian through the slot in his shield or sniping the pilot out of an atlas mech.
Something we agree on and one of the improvements I liked in the two sequels.
I just wish they had kept the dice-roll in the combat. You mention the slot of the Guardian's shield, I would have liked that to be determined by my aim but by Shepard's skill with that weapon.
Zhukov said:
Speaking of which, the first game had virtually zero variation in enemies. Mostly just guys with guns. The occasional guy who would charge you. The occasional biotic who would be incredibly annoying and ragdoll you. Oh, and those geth wall-hopper things. Compare that with ME3 where you have guys with flamethrowers, guys with rocket launchers, invisible enemies, enemies with shields, banshees, brutes, enemies who buff each other, enemies who spawn smaller enemies, snipers, hijack-able mechs. Hell, even the basic guy-with-gun enemies could flush you from cover with grenades. Huge improvement.
Visuallu different but not a huge improvement in my eyes.
The enemies in 2 and 3 would just hand back, enabling you to easily take them out from the safety of your chest high wall. The enemies in ME1 were far more aggressive in attacking your postition, you couldn't just hang back in cover if you expected to survive.
Zhukov said:
The armour in ME1 didn't give unique bonuses. Don't know what you're talking about there. It just gave higher shield/armour stats. Exciting! Granted, the sequels didn't much improve on this, but at least there was some customization.
Yes it did. From the top of my head Phoenix armour gave a boost to health regeneration and those from Devlon gave you protection from environmental hazards.
Combine that with the upgrades and you could feel the difference while playing between the suits, something I never found in ME2 or 3 with the parts.
Zhukov said:
As for stats, I'd rather actually have some input in the combat, instead of having everything decided by how big my numbers are. Besides, in the first game the stats were just a matter of making numbers bigger in such tiny increments that you could barely tell the difference. Oh wow, now I do +4% damage with pistols! In ME3 choosing how to put your points into a particular ability actually effected the way that you used that ability.
You have input in the combat in ME1. You direct your team, you aim your weapon and powers, you move around the battle-field to find better positions and vantage points other than chest high walls.
However I fully confess that I love stats in my combat, always have from my table-top RPG days. I like it because it is not just my skill that is important but the skill of the character.
