Mass Effect

I'm not sure I can say how amaznig mass effect is. The best way is through an email conversation I've had over the past couple days:

ME:
OK, so, I got completely sucked into Mass Effect (to the point of almost forgetting about Rock Band).
First, the writing is amazing. The dialog is better than any I've ever heard before in a video game.
Second, to back up the first, the voice acting is top notch.
The plot and graphics (for the most part) rock, and the pacing is pretty good.
This really is the next step forward from KOTOR.
However,
I don't know if I was just doing something wrong with my team, went someplace too early, or just have to learn more, but the game is HARD.
The last planet I was on took hours. I had to fight for every single inch, struggle to get through every encounter.
While this was very frustrating, its also very satisfying.

A couple of items...the moon-rover vehicle is no fun to drive.
There are a couple bugs here and there, like your character just getting stuck behind a bar, or, as recently happened, in a wall.
But these are small prices to pay for what may be the best RPG out there.

I ache.

Tomorrow, I drum.


MK:
I second that: i've played (it tells me) for 13 hours this weekend,
and i'm not even remotely tired of it. The vehicle is indeed a piece
of shit to drive, but everything else is pretty damned sweet, but i
figured out yesterday how to handle it in a fight much better than
before.

honestly, i could have doubdled the time spent in game if i read
everything in the codex that i gathered, but frankly, i don't think i
can: but the fact that they built a incredibly deep universe is
awesome.

favorite bug: walking across a bridge in the Citadel, and just getting
stuck right in the middle of it. couldn't go forward, or backward,
until i crouched. and then the invisible wall was gone.

S:
Someday I will get to play.

*sigh*

Until then I will continue assassinating people.


ME:
btw
1. While I hate the moon buggy, I will say that it moves like you'd expect a moon buggy to move, and its almost indestructable due to terrain. I think I drove off a mountain top, fell for almost 10 seconds, and only hurt my front right wheel. Assuming the wheel wasn't already damaged.

2. The elevator sequences are pretty long. But I love the small talk the companions make:
A(big alien, deep voice): So, your people created the Geth, the greatest threat to the universe ever. Do you talk about that?
B (female): No. We find it to be very unpleasant conversation. Your people were steralized by the Taurians. Do you ever talk about that?
A: all the time.

As fun as the side quests have been, I finally took my first real step in the main storyline (after becoming a spectre).
And its even more fun than the side-quests.
Also, turning your squad-mates from 'use skills/talents for defense only' to 'use talents for all purposes (or w2hatever)' makes for MUCH more fun. Nothing like seeing a giant dog-beast suddenly fly into the air and get smashed to the ground


MK:
super concur about changing the AI control settings. sure, it takes
some of the finer control out of the game (no, don't make that guy fly
in ther air, dammit!), but it also allows me to not go insane issuing
command after command - pausing to do such a thing really takes some
of the flow out of the game. more importantly, it actually allows me
time to use the sniper rifle without going insane zooming in and out.

i do kinda wish, however, that the game didn't keep track of how long
i've been playing. over the course of a 4 day weekend, i apparently
logged 24 hours of game time. this is an unheatlhy ratio, but
stunningly, all i want to do is play more. it's been a *long* time
since i wanted to do that - not even KOTOR did that for me (though, of
course, now i want to re-play that).

ME:
I'm a bit disappointed in the sniper rifle, the 'zoom' doesn't appear to be any different than anything else. Or am I missing something?
I am, however, VERY happy with my squad using the rifle. a couple of them become absolutely devastating with it.
Of course, having done more than a few side missions first, I may just be over-powered at this point.

I'm rapidly filling up all the skill-slots though (at least for Sheppard), so I'm curious as to what will happen when I have no more places to put skill points.

I agree with the desire to simply keep playing and playing and playing.
This is to RPGs what God Of War was to action/hackslash games.
If someone would feed and diaper me, I'm pretty sure I could play 24 hours straight.

BTW, Saren and Captain Anderson were the main characters in the Mass Effect novel.


MK:
24 hours in, i still have plenty of skill slots to go; not sure you
have to worry about that.

The sniper rifle zoom is definitely different than the zoom on the
other weapons. i don't know what you're doing to not get it - you get
the typical "black circle + fine crosshairs" zoom that you'd expect,
and it's a *big* zoom. saved my life more than once by being *far*
away and just pegging people from the top of a mountain. One shot
kills are nothing to sneeze at.

ME:
ahhhh...I wonder if its because my character doesn't have any skills in it. That would make ALOT of sense. Dragsville, daddy-o, I'm always a fan of sniper rifles. Mostly I use a pistol (which, surprisingly, does a ton of damage...).


I'm probably 75% or more through my skillslots. Of course, I might be mentally editting all this and forgetting the skills I'm not bothering with so who knows.


S:
He spent most of the weekend (up until about 8pm last night) doing side quests. So his chars may be a bit more leveled than yours.


He's finally learning to play right ;).


Tags:Mass Effect