Since we're all reeling from the monumental disappointment that is ME3's ending, I decided to perform a bit of a Mass Effect retrospective. The first Mass Effect was released in 2007 to great acclaim and fanfare, leaving the fans waiting impatiently for the next part in the epic trilogy. Chronicaling the adventures of Commander Shepard, an alliance soldier who will soon be making choices that affect the entire galaxy, and his choices will have consequences.
The character creation is incredibly complex, and while it comes with several pre-sets to work off of, it usually makes your character much more 'yours' to customize your Shepard from the ground up. Is he an older gentleman with wrinkles starting to crease his brow? Should he be torn up from his various fights with scars crisscrossing over his face? A fresh young soldier, his hair still cut in the military style and a youthful look? The choice is yours and the choices are many.
The classes are pretty well defined, most of the differences coming down to how much the class dips into each of the three kinds of skills. Such as Biotics, the 'mage' of the setting. These skills will heavily influence how you fight, but generally you'll always have at least one weapon skill, even if its just a pistol.
The leveling system is incredibly confusing, demanding you choose between a multitude of bars that aren't very well defined. There are even three skills that ultimately do the exact same thing. Namely the hacking, electronics, and decrypting skills. Each skill allows you to open chests and devices that are locked, but each container requires a different of the three skills. So if you want to keep finding better equipment, either you need to take one of the classes that have all three of the skills, or make sure your party members have them.
The inventory system can also be a bit confusing, as you have a maximum number of items at one hundred and fifty. You fill this up faster than you'd think, as it covers every little piece of equipment. If you fill up on items and open a container with more stuff, you're forced to destroy it without knowing what exactly what you're destroying. It could be that super awesome rare item that can blow anything away in one shot! Too bad you have to destroy it because your inventory is full.
The story is well written, an epic space opera that follows the three chapter rule magnificently. The characters are well written and you get a real feeling for each character's hopes and dreams. From the quarian space Gypsy (or romani) Tali, to the brash rebellious turian Garrus Vakarian, to the brutish yet shockingly intelligent krogan Wrex. I'd only call the other human squadmates bland due to comparison. I'm sure they'd be interesting characters on their own, but when they have to be compared to the other companions there is no contest.
The mechanics are well done, having a unique overheating system in regards to gunfire. Through the lore, you basically have no need to ever reload, but as you fire, the gun will start to overheat. So you either fire in bursts, or blow through the entire heat meter, and stay in cover until it cools off. Generally burst fire works better, as you can still fire up until the heat meter maxes, but once its hit the red you have to wait for it to cool all the way down, but it makes for an interesting system beyond the generic reloading system.
Overall, Mass Effect is a wonderful game, taking chances and experimenting to try and mix things up. The story is nice, and fully contained, while allowing for expansions on the overall universe. For all the things I've complained about its a great trip to another universe, even if its in the same old Milky Way.
~ E-Tank
Monday, April 16, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mass Effect 3: A marvelous gourmet meal, until you reach the dessert.
The final part in the trilogy of Mass Effect, ME3 has been long awaited and speculated about. Bioware, being the coy little strumpet it is, has been very tight lipped about the story. Only dropping the occasional hint at a grand amazing finale that will be customized to every Shepard and every story.
“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…” ~ Mike Gamble, Associate Producer.
"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.
Mechanically, the game is wonderful. They found that magical sweet spot between Mass Effect one and two that brings both of the game's strengths together. You are able to customize your characters equipment in wonderfully diverse ways that also gives you a reason for exploring beyond looking at the beautiful set pieces. Finding upgrades that can be attached to your weapons is great fun, and adds a great bit of strategy. For example: A pistol melee stunner that is essentially a tazer duct taped to the underside of your pistol, makes it a much better close quarters weapon. Instead however you may opt to add the armor piercing modification, allowing your weapon to penetrate cover and do more damage to heavily armored enemies.
Each weapon has its own brand of potential upgrades, and each weapon is distinctive in its capabilities. Giving each weapon a personality all its own, and no weapon ever becomes truly obsolete. This is much harder than it sounds, as you feel the need to continually give the player bigger and better weapon as the game continues, but no weapon truly becomes useless as you play. It all comes down to what your style is. From the original generic Avenger rifle, dedicated solely to spewing lead at relativistic speeds in the general direction of the bad guys. To the Mattock, a semi-automatic rifle that vaguely resembles a P90 and is a mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Finally to the Talon, a pistol that functions as a shotgun instead of a highly accurate single shot. Each gun has its balances, its pros and its cons and experimentation is very much a part of the game, even going so far as to give you a shooting gallery to test out combinations.
The RPG elements are back adding in a bit more choice than in Mass Effect 2 in regards to what you want your character to be able to do. As well as not overwhelming the player with so many choices that ultimately boil down to having three different ways to do the exact same thing as in the first Mass Effect. Some would argue it is dumbed down, I would more suggest that its been streamlined. In the original Mass Effect 1 the skills aren't very distinct and many of them are redundant. Streamlining allows you to better understand what you can do and makes it much easier to understand.
The story is well written, even though it occasionally dips into cheesy moments. The characters here are very consistent with what has been established prior, giving you the feel that this is much more than just a character in a video game. Making you feel that they are a real person with wants, dreams, and needs. The story is a grand epic of a tale that will suck you in and toy with your emotions like a toddler that enjoys throwing his things across the walls to see what kind of noises they make when they break.
When I heard about the addition of Multiplayer, I feared that it would be like many games where Multiplayer is thrown in. Basically taking attention away from the single player to appease people who want all games to be like Halo, whereas I buy games for their single player first and their multi-player aspects being a minor concern. Thankfully my fears were unjustified, as they did an amazing job. All multi-player games are co-op, using up to four players to fend off attackers and perform missions such as capturing targets, killing key enemies, or defending a certain area while data is uploaded. Its great fun, very well done, and I'd argue one of the best multiplayer games out there. Its a wonderful game, I'd wager its the best game I've played in a long time.
EXCEPT FOR THAT FREAKING STUPID IDIOTIC ENDING.
The writing takes a nose dive within the final five minutes of the game, the ending is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life. It doesn't manage to entirely taint the rest of the game, but the ending can't even really be called an ending. It just stops short of actually accomplishing anything. Even then, remember the quotes up above in this review? I'll direct you to one in particular, and bold the part that is a complete and utter lie.
"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.
There are essentially three endings. I won't spoil them, but I will say this. You have no feeling of accomplishment, what is answered is answered in a manner that will make you wonder what happened to the writers at the last minute. Was it that they just lost intrest? Was it that they didn't give a crap? Or was it more likely that they wanted to sell DLC?
Considering after you watch the writing equivillant to a soiled diaper the first thing you see is a "BUY OUR DLC" message, I'd wager its the last one. The ending has no substance, it might as well just be a generic 'You win' text scroll straight out of the NES days for all it accomplishes or how much of an impact it makes on you. Supposedly it is meant to cause 'speculation', which is among the worst ideas that Bioware could have had, considering how the only things the playerbase can use to fuel said speculation say that everything that Shepard did, everything you accomplished over three games and over a hundred hours of gameplay, is essentially undone.
I'm not going to bother writing an article explaining it as there are already countless articles debating it and explaining why everyone is so pissed off. I can only say that I personally prefer Angry Joe's list of reasons why the ending pisses everybody off. (Massive spoilers.)
There has been announced recently that EA will be releasing the 'Directors Cut' of ME3, possibly altering the 'Ending' so its an actual ending and not something spawned from the fevered dreams of a madman. Amazingly and potentially a sign that the apocalypse is nigh, it will be free. Hopefully this will repair the damage done to this game, and make it much better. I somewhat doubt it, as Bioware seems to have said that this ending is what they intended, and is even upset that the players didn't like it. My pessimism aside, we'll just have to wait and see.
“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How
could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and
then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t
say any more than that…” ~ Mike Gamble, Associate Producer.
"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.
Mechanically, the game is wonderful. They found that magical sweet spot between Mass Effect one and two that brings both of the game's strengths together. You are able to customize your characters equipment in wonderfully diverse ways that also gives you a reason for exploring beyond looking at the beautiful set pieces. Finding upgrades that can be attached to your weapons is great fun, and adds a great bit of strategy. For example: A pistol melee stunner that is essentially a tazer duct taped to the underside of your pistol, makes it a much better close quarters weapon. Instead however you may opt to add the armor piercing modification, allowing your weapon to penetrate cover and do more damage to heavily armored enemies.
Each weapon has its own brand of potential upgrades, and each weapon is distinctive in its capabilities. Giving each weapon a personality all its own, and no weapon ever becomes truly obsolete. This is much harder than it sounds, as you feel the need to continually give the player bigger and better weapon as the game continues, but no weapon truly becomes useless as you play. It all comes down to what your style is. From the original generic Avenger rifle, dedicated solely to spewing lead at relativistic speeds in the general direction of the bad guys. To the Mattock, a semi-automatic rifle that vaguely resembles a P90 and is a mixture of a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Finally to the Talon, a pistol that functions as a shotgun instead of a highly accurate single shot. Each gun has its balances, its pros and its cons and experimentation is very much a part of the game, even going so far as to give you a shooting gallery to test out combinations.
The RPG elements are back adding in a bit more choice than in Mass Effect 2 in regards to what you want your character to be able to do. As well as not overwhelming the player with so many choices that ultimately boil down to having three different ways to do the exact same thing as in the first Mass Effect. Some would argue it is dumbed down, I would more suggest that its been streamlined. In the original Mass Effect 1 the skills aren't very distinct and many of them are redundant. Streamlining allows you to better understand what you can do and makes it much easier to understand.
The story is well written, even though it occasionally dips into cheesy moments. The characters here are very consistent with what has been established prior, giving you the feel that this is much more than just a character in a video game. Making you feel that they are a real person with wants, dreams, and needs. The story is a grand epic of a tale that will suck you in and toy with your emotions like a toddler that enjoys throwing his things across the walls to see what kind of noises they make when they break.
When I heard about the addition of Multiplayer, I feared that it would be like many games where Multiplayer is thrown in. Basically taking attention away from the single player to appease people who want all games to be like Halo, whereas I buy games for their single player first and their multi-player aspects being a minor concern. Thankfully my fears were unjustified, as they did an amazing job. All multi-player games are co-op, using up to four players to fend off attackers and perform missions such as capturing targets, killing key enemies, or defending a certain area while data is uploaded. Its great fun, very well done, and I'd argue one of the best multiplayer games out there. Its a wonderful game, I'd wager its the best game I've played in a long time.
EXCEPT FOR THAT FREAKING STUPID IDIOTIC ENDING.
The writing takes a nose dive within the final five minutes of the game, the ending is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in my life. It doesn't manage to entirely taint the rest of the game, but the ending can't even really be called an ending. It just stops short of actually accomplishing anything. Even then, remember the quotes up above in this review? I'll direct you to one in particular, and bold the part that is a complete and utter lie.
"At this point we’re taking into account so many
decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.” ~ Casey Hudson, Director.
There are essentially three endings. I won't spoil them, but I will say this. You have no feeling of accomplishment, what is answered is answered in a manner that will make you wonder what happened to the writers at the last minute. Was it that they just lost intrest? Was it that they didn't give a crap? Or was it more likely that they wanted to sell DLC?
Considering after you watch the writing equivillant to a soiled diaper the first thing you see is a "BUY OUR DLC" message, I'd wager its the last one. The ending has no substance, it might as well just be a generic 'You win' text scroll straight out of the NES days for all it accomplishes or how much of an impact it makes on you. Supposedly it is meant to cause 'speculation', which is among the worst ideas that Bioware could have had, considering how the only things the playerbase can use to fuel said speculation say that everything that Shepard did, everything you accomplished over three games and over a hundred hours of gameplay, is essentially undone.
I'm not going to bother writing an article explaining it as there are already countless articles debating it and explaining why everyone is so pissed off. I can only say that I personally prefer Angry Joe's list of reasons why the ending pisses everybody off. (Massive spoilers.)
There has been announced recently that EA will be releasing the 'Directors Cut' of ME3, possibly altering the 'Ending' so its an actual ending and not something spawned from the fevered dreams of a madman. Amazingly and potentially a sign that the apocalypse is nigh, it will be free. Hopefully this will repair the damage done to this game, and make it much better. I somewhat doubt it, as Bioware seems to have said that this ending is what they intended, and is even upset that the players didn't like it. My pessimism aside, we'll just have to wait and see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)