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Review Mass Effect Reviewed

Burning Bridges

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Good review. You save me some hassle and money.
 
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The review did an excellent job highlighting the negatives, to which I would like to add a few of my own, mainly dealing with overall design choices.

- Stop with the romances, at least for male players. I know this is Bioware's prestige, the element they're known for and put in all their games. But to put it succinctly, they're awful. I don't think they can do anything (within reason) to make them interesting to the male player. Worse, I have a feeling the love interest will be playing a larger role within the main storyline as the series progresses, so you'll have a character whom you have little empathy for acting as an albatross over the main plot.

- They love highlighting Shepard as the Commander, so put the burden of command on the player. DO NOT MAKE THE DECISION EASY. In other words, don't have the two characters screaming over each other to die for your cause. It just cheapens the decision. To maximize empathy, have the death occur in the presence of the player and as viscerally as possible (shock value). Not for it to occur offscreen: "It's OK Commander...(burning alive), YOU MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE...(skin aflame)...I FORGIVE YOU!...oh wait I can't forgive you, because you didn't do anything wrong...[radio silence]...oh, you must have left the system, I would have done the same if I were in your shoes, so I just wanted to say it was an honor to serve under your command." (planet explodes)

Some more thoughts to add when I have time later.
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
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Romances are optional. Don't like them avoid them. Duh.
 

DefJam101

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They devote development time to a niche that is more adequately satisfied by fanfiction, which is hilarious. Add other (more interesting) things and stop worrying about romances.
 
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Volourn said:
Romances are optional. Don't like them avoid them. Duh.

This is true, but Bioware tends to keep pressing the option by leaving the door open (if the player reacts like an asshole the first 30 times, for example). As Defjam mentions, it really is a waste of resources (no matter how little). I mean if you're a very young teenager I guess I can see the appeal (and I don't mean that to be a prick), but for "mature" gamers that this was targeting, it just doesn't work, even if I were interested in the romance option. Far too clunky. Maybe it works for female gamers, I don't know. Anyway you're missing the larger point I mentioned. Bioware intends to have the love interest integrate with the main plot, and if anything else that would make the main storyline uninteresting to me.

It does raise the question if you didn't have a love interest in the first game, how is that going to affect the main plot. I'm assuming the sequel will again try pushing you into having one, but I guess we'll see.
 

Lightknight

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Mass Effect is also one of the shortest games I've played.
10-12 hours. Right. One of the shortest.
Fallout 1 can be finished in about 50 minutes with all major quests completed and leveling enough to kill Master in fair fight. Thats what i did when i showed it to my friend, accidentally finishing it under an hour, and it was only my second time.
 

WhiskeyWolf

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Lightknight said:
Mass Effect is also one of the shortest games I've played.
10-12 hours. Right. One of the shortest.
Fallout 1 can be finished in about 50 minutes with all major quests completed and leveling enough to kill Master in fair fight. Thats what i did when i showed it to my friend, accidentally finishing it under an hour, and it was only my second time.
Are you some kind of a fool? ME can be finished in under 3 hours.
 

Volourn

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Only if you know exactly where to go and you speed rush. And, consideirng people have beaten BG2 rather quickly it's not that impressive.
 

GarfunkeL

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Lightknight said:
Mass Effect is also one of the shortest games I've played.
10-12 hours. Right. One of the shortest.
Fallout 1 can be finished in about 50 minutes with all major quests completed and leveling enough to kill Master in fair fight. Thats what i did when i showed it to my friend, accidentally finishing it under an hour, and it was only my second time.

And who has claimed that F1 is especially long game anyway? Also, I think I'll take you up for that 50 minutes thing since I'm pretty sure you are full of shit.
 

Sceptic

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Divinity: Original Sin
Volourn said:
Only if you know exactly where to go and you speed rush.
It could go much faster if it weren't for the goddamn unskippable cutscenes all over the place (including the interminable intro sequence)
 

GarfunkeL

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GarfunkeL said:
Lightknight said:
Mass Effect is also one of the shortest games I've played.
10-12 hours. Right. One of the shortest.
Fallout 1 can be finished in about 50 minutes with all major quests completed and leveling enough to kill Master in fair fight. Thats what i did when i showed it to my friend, accidentally finishing it under an hour, and it was only my second time.

And who has claimed that F1 is especially long game anyway? Also, I think I'll take you up for that 50 minutes thing since I'm pretty sure you are full of shit.

Oh and surprise, surprise, Lightknight was full of shit. Just getting to the Hub by following the main quests and plots takes an hour in F1 and that leaves you with over 3/4 of the game left.
 

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