I really want this to succeed. ME1 and 2 were very impactful games for me at the time, although they haven't aged that well. The dialog summaries in conversations are pretty iffy. I can see now why people were bitching at the time Shepard would say unexpected things and it hurt the role play. I particularly like that we can seamlessly land on planets and explore, but I see copy/paste environments in our future. I found a lovely concept art. The series always had solid art direction. Much better than DA has ever had.
sorry but that looks like a bad space marine cliche. he's got the flip hud over one eye that' never been done before of course.
me 1 had terrific art direction, then they got a new guy for me 2 and it was down hill from there. you see it reflected in the armor design. less space suit, more metallic armor.
me1 looks nothing like any other bioware game, it's really in a league of its own
sorry but that looks like a bad space marine cliche. he's got the flip hud over one eye that' never been done before of course.
me 1 had terrific art direction, then they got a new guy for me 2 and it was down hill from there. you see it reflected in the armor design. less space suit, more metallic armor.
me1 looks nothing like any other bioware game, it's really in a league of its own
Rumah time! Dude who does internet surveys for money posted this on Reddit. He is not a troll and a lot of this stuff aligns with info that NeoGAF insiders are privy to.
Good? Some of it sounds pretty freakin' bad to me.
Once again, you are the special snowflake in charge and the fate of humanity rests in your hand.
Once again, there are remains of once "powerful and mysterious" race with forgotten technology that everyone wants a piece of.
This is how I know this is a Bioware game
You get the Deployed Strike Missions, which are randomly generated and time sensitive. You send your people to do this shit for you. It all sounds like a combination of that terrible recruit mechanic from Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Dragon Age Inquisition war table. Boooooooring.
Then you have the Active Strike Missions, which are basically ME3 SP missions that used those MP maps.
Khet outposts sound like the Ubisoft stuff from Far Cry 3 and 4.
The rest sounds mildy interesting. I like the seemless transition between the space exploration and planet landing, and then driving around in Mako. Cool as hell. I like the extended customization of your character and companions. The return of loyalty missions from ME2 is also appreciated.
Anyway, this stuff is legit. Rejoice or despair. We should be seeing some new stuff at E3 this year.
It sounds a lot like they'll have another "readiness points" system where you fly around doing busy work to increase a score that doesn't do anything in the end. I'll bet that your allies will be conveniently accommodating (as usual) and there will be black/white good/evil hero/villain morality along with storytelling written by multiple authors and not making any sense while unsuccessfully trying to be deep. Add a war table with text quests, or planet exploration which is just a scan of a planet with text explaining what happened. Make 50% of the universe gay. And we have another Bioware game... At least ME has much more enjoyable combat than DA2 and DAI.
Sounds just like another run-of-the-mill Bioware game. I wonder when people would get tired to play the same bleeping story over and over and over again. Bioware already turned into a gaming pizzeria - different toppings, but essentially the same.
What I would really like is a story like ME2, more about exploring the (very interesting) universe and cultures, recruiting people for your crew but with a distant threat looming.
Sounds just like another run-of-the-mill Bioware game. I wonder when people would get tired to play the same bleeping story over and over and over again. Bioware already turned into a gaming pizzeria - different toppings, but essentially the same.
What I would really like is a story like ME2, more about exploring the (very interesting) universe and cultures, recruiting people for your crew but with a distant threat looming.
It did have a story with the squadmates, which is what Bioware themselves stated.
The quality story was found with people like Mordin, Garrus, Zaeed, Legion and Tali, at least for me personally though others may find other character stories better. So I strongly disagree with the notion that Mass Effect 2 is comparable to Avatar. That's an asshole comparison. Also Lair of the Shadow Broker.
As for Mass Effect 3 being compared to Transformers. When Transformers has anything remotely similar to the quality of Tuchanka and Rannoch then we can talk.
That's not a story, at best it's a collection of vignettes that lead absolutely nowhere. The only plot important squadmate (i.e. without him the story wouldn't progress) was Mordin, and that's it. A mishmash of disjointed bits with various levels of coherence and severity of daddy issues does not a "story" make.
That's not a story, at best it's a collection of vignettes that lead absolutely nowhere. The only plot important squadmate (i.e. without him the story wouldn't progress) was Mordin, and that's it. A mishmash of disjointed bits with various levels of coherence and severity of daddy issues does not a "story" make.
Leads nowhere? Were Tuchanka and Rannoch in ME3 "nowhere" and before you complain about it being in another game: Mass Effect is a trilogy, not a collection of stand alone games. One of it's main selling points is the way they handled imported decisions.
Does the Empire Strikes Back not have a shitty main story? Yes it absolutely does, but because of the characters, their development and what happens to the them in the next movie it is considered the best Star Wars film out there.
Leads nowhere? Were Tuchanka and Rannoch in ME3 "nowhere" and before you complain about it being in another game: Mass Effect is a trilogy, not a collection of stand alone games. One of it's main selling points is the way they handled imported decisions.
You are right, Tuchanka and Rannoch were in Mass Effect 3, so irrelevant. ME 3 had a story where Tuchanka and Rannoch played a part. It was a shitty story tbh, but at least there was a story. ME2 had close to none. Don't remember the plot of ESB, so can't comment.
You are right, Tuchanka and Rannoch were in Mass Effect 3, so irrelevant. ME 3 had a story where Tuchanka and Rannoch played a part. It was a shitty story tbh, but at least there was a story. ME2 had close to none. Don't remember the plot of ESB, so can't comment.
The story was get a team, go through the Omega 4 relay and try to get out. Simple but effective. I really liked the vignette approach to the world, it felt like a collection of self-contained stories but with a looming threat. I think with ME2 BioWare realized the reapers are ultimately uninteresting foes (despite their presence), When you have an omnipotent villain you can have a strong first impression but resolving the conflict in a meaningful way is very difficult...The same thing happened with Arthas.
With ME2 I found out more about the Geth, more about the world itself and the people I traveled with with, I got to influence the survival rates of my crew by upgrading my ship. That experience was more meaningful than anything BioWare could have done with the reapers.
They would be shadows of themselves without Mass Effect 2 introducing the characters, getting you to care about them and learning about the moral issues in question.
That experience was more meaningful than anything BioWare could have done with the reapers.
That's not a story, at best it's a collection of vignettes that lead absolutely nowhere. The only plot important squadmate (i.e. without him the story wouldn't progress) was Mordin, and that's it. A mishmash of disjointed bits with various levels of coherence and severity of daddy issues does not a "story" make.
Story (as used in this circumstance) is defined by merriam-webster as: the intrigue or plot of a narrative or dramatic work. In Mass Effect 2 the intrigue or plot of the narrative is as follows (in it's simplest form):
The Normandy is destroyed by an unknown ship, killing Shepard and some other crew. Shepard is revived two years later by a team of scientists working for a shady (arguably terrorist) organization called Cerberus. Sheppard is asked by Cerberus to help solve a mystery: why are human colonies disappearing? He discovers that a group of aliens called the Collectors are taking the humans. Not only that, but they are taking the humans through the Omega 4 Relay, to the Galactic Core. To find out more information, Sheppard and his team must then board a newly discovered dormant collector ship to discover more information about the Collectors. They find some data but it is a trap and the team is ambushed and barely escapes. The information obtained tells the crew that it is impossible to get through the Omega 4 Relay without one of the Reaper Identify Friend/Foe device, or IFF. They then go to a discovered derelict Reaper and recover the needed IFF signal. Once Shepard turns on the signal, the Crew of the Normandy (except Joker and EDI) are abducted by the Collectors (who located the ship via the Reaper IFF signal) while Sheppard and his team are off ship. Now that Shepard has the location and IFF signal, he and the remaining team travel to the Collector Base on a Suicide Mission to destroy the Collectors and save his crew. Sheppard either successfully destroys the Collector Base, gives it to Cerberus, or dies in a blaze of Glory, depending on a number of factors.
That is a story. Now you may say that it's not a very complicated or intricate story at it's core, but fyi it is a story. The thing that makes it complicated and interesting IMO are all of the vignettes you disparaged that have a direct bearing on the outcome of the suicide mission. Although I do agree with you that some of the them (I'm looking at you Jacob Taylor) were not very good, I rather like it myself. I kind of wish that they just had Sheppard working undercover for the alliance rather than die and work for (or at least with) Cerberus, but I get the reasons for doing it the way they did. And without everything that happened in ME2, the best parts of ME3 would not have meant nearly as much as they did (as Costin said).
Also, for the record, IMO Tuchunka and Rannoch are probably both in the top 5 missions from the entire series (along with the Ilos/end run of ME1, the Suicide Run in ME2 and the Lair of the Shadow Broker in ME2.
BoT: I think the ending of Mass Effect 3 really did a number on the ability to make a 4th ME. I may not end up playing it because I feel like it's such a cop out to say well it's in a Galaxy Far, Far, Away so we don't have to pay attention to ME3. It just feels like an empty narrative to me. I wasn't even all that upset at the ending the first time around (granted, I only played after Extended Cut came out and I choose destroy every time because I feel like if I was really there having built this force to attack the Reapers, I wouldn't trust what the star child told me AT ALL... sorry EDI and Legion).
I know that they don't really have a choice because of the ME3 end. But they put themselves here. I just wish they would pick one ending (hopefully destroy for my head canon) and go with it. I know they won't ... but the info we have so far makes me much less excited for the game. I may still end up getting it because the galaxy they have created is so interesting, but it is definitely not a given at this point. Which, considering that it's my favorite series that came out in the last 15 years or so (maybe Wild Hunt will change that), is very sad. Sorry for the rant.
They would be shadows of themselves without Mass Effect 2 introducing the characters, getting you to care about them and learning about the moral issues in question.
Absolutely correct. Also made the Citadel DLC amazing because of the bonding with the crew in ME2.
I know that they don't really have a choice because of the ME3 end. But they put themselves here. I just wish they would pick one ending (hopefully destroy for my head canon) and go with it. I know they won't ... but the info we have so far makes me much less excited for the game. I may still end up getting it because the galaxy they have created is so interesting, but it is definitely not a given at this point. Which, considering that it's my favorite series that came out in the last 15 years or so (maybe Wild Hunt will change that), is very sad. Sorry for the rant.
Agree, I think the Mass Effect universe is a lot more interesting than Dragon Age, even though I think DA has better characters. Very few games have the charisma of ME.
