Awhile back I posted a thread asking for people's take on Mass Effect and if it's worth trying knowing that I got damn near zero enjoyment from the KOTOR series: Based on the personal critiques of several forum users, I figured it was worth a shot. Faster gameplay, good story, lasts for hours and hours? And at $20: Why not...
Good game. Found out too late that being "casual" good and bad isn't good or bad enough to unlock the more extreme reactions in the game. Playing "as myself" was unrewarding in that sense, so halfway through I developed a Dirty Harry mentality and found cooler stuff to say/do.
I played it at night, waiting to fall asleep, taking in the rich sci-fi atmosphere (trying my best to ignore Seth Green) and then all hell breaks loose and I have to rush back to Citadel (no spoilers, but if you've played it you remember why).
We kill a guy... it feels like the story will continue, but then I get a promotional poster image of my character standing against some random planet: Roll credits.
It was 2:30am, I sat up in bed and said "What the fuck, Bioware!? You make an RPG in an interesting, entertaining way and then it *ENDS* 16 hours in?"
"But what about all the side quests!?"
I'll admit, some were interesting and I probably could have done more of them... but the main story was so good I wanted to keep playing. That said, I can't imagine pulling the same 60-80 hour gameplay extension from doing all side quests: Seems a little unbalanced that they couldn't consolidate, oh, 30 of those side quest hours into another 5 or 10 hours of core story.
However, because the length is so short, I believe "playing through it again" will be easier to stomach (Any game that takes 80 hours is worth a single go).
Another thing: I WANTED TO BANG THE ALIEN CHICK IN THE ENVIRONMENT SUIT! You only faintly see her face through her mask, but that body? That voice? Christ... however that suit opens up so she can poop, I wanna be there (between movements) to show her how we show women proper respect and admiration in our traditional Earthican ways.
Instead Ashley died (the bigot, I say... I wanted to rage bang her and make her see the light).
Blue alien chick? Not into it.
Wrex? You'd better believe I killed him. Pretty much used him the required minimum and just... y'know: Tossed him into the fire. He was like Kimari in FFX, or the stupid Vampire guy/Cait Sith/Barrett/Red Pup/(...jeez there wasn't a lot to like) in FF7.
On a scale of 1-10, overall I'd give Mass Effect a 7. Had the story been longer, let me make sweet bang to envirosuit babes and did more to explain its interface earlier in the game, score would've gone up. When replayability comes from "Playing it now that you know the game and want to see if you could do the beginning better", it ain't really worth it... however, there is enough of a difference based on your good/evil alignment that It'd be worth it to go through the game again to see altered stories.
Incidently, one other gripe: The psychic abilities? Even at the highest levels and "Advanced" versions of the skills... they were all largely useless. The only one I ever used was Unity (due to my idiot bot partners repeatedly attempting to deflect missiles with their cheses) and Adrenaline Boost so I could use it again 40 seconds later when I'm all alone once more.
Good game. Found out too late that being "casual" good and bad isn't good or bad enough to unlock the more extreme reactions in the game. Playing "as myself" was unrewarding in that sense, so halfway through I developed a Dirty Harry mentality and found cooler stuff to say/do.
I played it at night, waiting to fall asleep, taking in the rich sci-fi atmosphere (trying my best to ignore Seth Green) and then all hell breaks loose and I have to rush back to Citadel (no spoilers, but if you've played it you remember why).
We kill a guy... it feels like the story will continue, but then I get a promotional poster image of my character standing against some random planet: Roll credits.
It was 2:30am, I sat up in bed and said "What the fuck, Bioware!? You make an RPG in an interesting, entertaining way and then it *ENDS* 16 hours in?"
"But what about all the side quests!?"
I'll admit, some were interesting and I probably could have done more of them... but the main story was so good I wanted to keep playing. That said, I can't imagine pulling the same 60-80 hour gameplay extension from doing all side quests: Seems a little unbalanced that they couldn't consolidate, oh, 30 of those side quest hours into another 5 or 10 hours of core story.
However, because the length is so short, I believe "playing through it again" will be easier to stomach (Any game that takes 80 hours is worth a single go).
Another thing: I WANTED TO BANG THE ALIEN CHICK IN THE ENVIRONMENT SUIT! You only faintly see her face through her mask, but that body? That voice? Christ... however that suit opens up so she can poop, I wanna be there (between movements) to show her how we show women proper respect and admiration in our traditional Earthican ways.
Instead Ashley died (the bigot, I say... I wanted to rage bang her and make her see the light).
Blue alien chick? Not into it.
Wrex? You'd better believe I killed him. Pretty much used him the required minimum and just... y'know: Tossed him into the fire. He was like Kimari in FFX, or the stupid Vampire guy/Cait Sith/Barrett/Red Pup/(...jeez there wasn't a lot to like) in FF7.
On a scale of 1-10, overall I'd give Mass Effect a 7. Had the story been longer, let me make sweet bang to envirosuit babes and did more to explain its interface earlier in the game, score would've gone up. When replayability comes from "Playing it now that you know the game and want to see if you could do the beginning better", it ain't really worth it... however, there is enough of a difference based on your good/evil alignment that It'd be worth it to go through the game again to see altered stories.
Incidently, one other gripe: The psychic abilities? Even at the highest levels and "Advanced" versions of the skills... they were all largely useless. The only one I ever used was Unity (due to my idiot bot partners repeatedly attempting to deflect missiles with their cheses) and Adrenaline Boost so I could use it again 40 seconds later when I'm all alone once more.
