CapnHun
Shared on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 13:50OK. I am on my second play through and so now have a little bit of experience in the game to form some opinions. I think if you didn't mess around with any of the assignments you could actually play through the main story in ten hours or less. I thought I had done quite a bit of side quests on my first play through but I still haven't gotten my 'Played more than half the game' achievement.
WARNING. Once you get through the story line there is no going back and finishing the side objectives. You have to start over again. You can start over with your characters level in tact (and you can play it at on hardened or veteran so the enemies will also have skill comparable to the level you have achieved), but you start from the beginning and must go save the galaxy all over again. So if you want to get through all the extra stuff you can do you can do, just ignore the main two missions and go out in the galaxy and explore.
Also it seems there is ONE PLACE and one place only before you start over to change your career as I found out the hard way and am stuck being a Sentinel which isn't too bad since I have some stuff I want to unlock still.
I have gotten the hang of the wheel and LOVE it. Since all play stops while you are in the wheel, you find you can go back and correct any mistakes before taking your finger off the right bumper and letting it roll. It is pretty intuitive.
However, the AI's also seem pretty darn smart themselves so it isn't a must to be able to coordinate your attacks or anything (at least not yet, I will get back to you when I get around to going after the bosses on hardened).
The game itself seems to have something for everyone. If your an information junkie you can read through every scrap of intel that comes your way...or just skip it. One of my side hobbies is trying to figure out which elemental compositions make the different planets their different colors. I think someone has studied this out well, so you aren't going to find a planet with a lot of sulpher in the atmosphere be purple for example.
Like drama? You can run around and stick your nose in everyone's business or ignore their 'overheard conversations'. The game does can get somewhat 'preachy' at times by putting you in these moral dilemmas....not that it is judgmental on your decisions but there are times when I wished I didn't go there. Or you can get involved romantically (I am not sure whether this can get you into more sex scenes or not).
Like fighting? You can go through the whole game using the might makes right solution or if you prefer peaceful resolutions you can use charm or intimidate to get through it.
Like exploring? Here is one of my few disappointments in the game. All the exploring planets are structured the same. The environments are modified and stuff is placed differently but it starts to get repetitive. The space stations are worse although there are not as many of them. The boarding vessel environments are all alike and the missions are boring (there are only a few of these however). The stronghold environments are the same. The mine environments are the same. The type of mission and number of enemies are different but unless you are playing a main plot all that sameness makes for grind.
The way the storylines diverge and converge is masterful. You aren't going to miss out on anything impotent in the plot by choosing the wrong answers. If you go visit a planet before you get the mission at the citadel, you either get the mission via the comm link from the Admiral when you fly into that system or in one case I met the person who was going to give me the mission later and they said "I was going to ask you to kill so-and-so but since you have already done the deed, I will give you payment." I tried not to take the payment but the 'credits were already on their way' so I still earned my Paragon points and got the cash (wish RL were like that). There was only one time when I felt a little disoriented to the storyline because this mission was probably better taken later in the game. The story itself is usually predictable but not always. And that still doesn't seem to take away from the 'wonder' factor.
The truth is the story telling, the graphics, the characters are all great. How the character plays is also good. But the game design itself is last gen. It is almost as if they had a budget and they had to choose between story board and game design to put their money into. I am REALLY glad they chose story board though, it is a wonderful tale.
So far I haven't found that you can back to a planet you have been to and find anything new on them. They have definitely left the story line open for Mass Effect II though.
A couple of pet peeves:
1. Decryption of the locked containers needs to be a little harder. I don't mind the Simon game button pushing (remember the old Simon game where it lit up colors and you were supposed to follow the sequence, I rocked at that game!) but they needed to make it somewhat more difficult, especially as you level up. And did you notice it doesn't matter if it says easy, moderate or hard decryption, it is random? Even now I think the worst sequence is six and I have lots of omni-gel if I screw up. It isn't really balanced, you can find equipment so much easier than paying for it.
2. Hair. Listen up game developers, ladies like to change their hair. Every RPG I have played I am stuck with the same friggen hair style through the whole game. It can't be that hard of a programming feat, we change uniforms when we upgrade. Just have a screen in Captain's headquarters where I can change my hair style. If you can program hot, alien sex for the guys, you can at least throw me this bone.
3. The Thresher Maws. Save before any Thresher Maw battle because no matter how skillaged you are, there are still going to be random times where the dude pops up from under you for instant death and you die. It is the most frustrating thing in the Universe when you have done all the other exploring you can, forget to save and get killed that way. Or if the game developers feel like it is more realistic that way then have an autosave when player goes into any Thresher Maw territory.
WARNING. Once you get through the story line there is no going back and finishing the side objectives. You have to start over again. You can start over with your characters level in tact (and you can play it at on hardened or veteran so the enemies will also have skill comparable to the level you have achieved), but you start from the beginning and must go save the galaxy all over again. So if you want to get through all the extra stuff you can do you can do, just ignore the main two missions and go out in the galaxy and explore.
Also it seems there is ONE PLACE and one place only before you start over to change your career as I found out the hard way and am stuck being a Sentinel which isn't too bad since I have some stuff I want to unlock still.
I have gotten the hang of the wheel and LOVE it. Since all play stops while you are in the wheel, you find you can go back and correct any mistakes before taking your finger off the right bumper and letting it roll. It is pretty intuitive.
However, the AI's also seem pretty darn smart themselves so it isn't a must to be able to coordinate your attacks or anything (at least not yet, I will get back to you when I get around to going after the bosses on hardened).
The game itself seems to have something for everyone. If your an information junkie you can read through every scrap of intel that comes your way...or just skip it. One of my side hobbies is trying to figure out which elemental compositions make the different planets their different colors. I think someone has studied this out well, so you aren't going to find a planet with a lot of sulpher in the atmosphere be purple for example.
Like drama? You can run around and stick your nose in everyone's business or ignore their 'overheard conversations'. The game does can get somewhat 'preachy' at times by putting you in these moral dilemmas....not that it is judgmental on your decisions but there are times when I wished I didn't go there. Or you can get involved romantically (I am not sure whether this can get you into more sex scenes or not).
Like fighting? You can go through the whole game using the might makes right solution or if you prefer peaceful resolutions you can use charm or intimidate to get through it.
Like exploring? Here is one of my few disappointments in the game. All the exploring planets are structured the same. The environments are modified and stuff is placed differently but it starts to get repetitive. The space stations are worse although there are not as many of them. The boarding vessel environments are all alike and the missions are boring (there are only a few of these however). The stronghold environments are the same. The mine environments are the same. The type of mission and number of enemies are different but unless you are playing a main plot all that sameness makes for grind.
The way the storylines diverge and converge is masterful. You aren't going to miss out on anything impotent in the plot by choosing the wrong answers. If you go visit a planet before you get the mission at the citadel, you either get the mission via the comm link from the Admiral when you fly into that system or in one case I met the person who was going to give me the mission later and they said "I was going to ask you to kill so-and-so but since you have already done the deed, I will give you payment." I tried not to take the payment but the 'credits were already on their way' so I still earned my Paragon points and got the cash (wish RL were like that). There was only one time when I felt a little disoriented to the storyline because this mission was probably better taken later in the game. The story itself is usually predictable but not always. And that still doesn't seem to take away from the 'wonder' factor.
The truth is the story telling, the graphics, the characters are all great. How the character plays is also good. But the game design itself is last gen. It is almost as if they had a budget and they had to choose between story board and game design to put their money into. I am REALLY glad they chose story board though, it is a wonderful tale.
So far I haven't found that you can back to a planet you have been to and find anything new on them. They have definitely left the story line open for Mass Effect II though.
A couple of pet peeves:
1. Decryption of the locked containers needs to be a little harder. I don't mind the Simon game button pushing (remember the old Simon game where it lit up colors and you were supposed to follow the sequence, I rocked at that game!) but they needed to make it somewhat more difficult, especially as you level up. And did you notice it doesn't matter if it says easy, moderate or hard decryption, it is random? Even now I think the worst sequence is six and I have lots of omni-gel if I screw up. It isn't really balanced, you can find equipment so much easier than paying for it.
2. Hair. Listen up game developers, ladies like to change their hair. Every RPG I have played I am stuck with the same friggen hair style through the whole game. It can't be that hard of a programming feat, we change uniforms when we upgrade. Just have a screen in Captain's headquarters where I can change my hair style. If you can program hot, alien sex for the guys, you can at least throw me this bone.
3. The Thresher Maws. Save before any Thresher Maw battle because no matter how skillaged you are, there are still going to be random times where the dude pops up from under you for instant death and you die. It is the most frustrating thing in the Universe when you have done all the other exploring you can, forget to save and get killed that way. Or if the game developers feel like it is more realistic that way then have an autosave when player goes into any Thresher Maw territory.
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Submitted by KingDrewsky on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 14:12