Mass Effect - Disappointment of the Year

[afewhours]

There's less wasted skills/talents

There are a ton. Let me take the Biotic skills for example.

Lift: use = crowd control
Singularity: use = crowd control
Throw: use = crowd control

and then they get Shadow Word: Pain (Warp) and Power Word: Shield (Barrier) on the side.

and a few of the combat skills

Carnage: use = increased DPS
Overkill: use = increased DPS
Marksman: use = increased DPS
Assassinate: use = increased DPS

and

Adrenaline Rush: use = increased tanking
Immunity: use = increased tanking

and so on, and so on. You're right. There are different force powers in KOTOR that do pretty much the same thing, but I still felt more... erm... "empowered" by what was on offer.

there's more actual meaningful choices,

No real consequences, though. I didn't feel particularly immersed by ME. The decisions I made just seemed to affect which cutscene I saw next. There seemed to be no real difference to the MQ. At least in KOTOR you got to murder your whole party if you felt like it, though the MQ was also pretty rigid. I can't really give either game the edge in this duel.

I did like being able to kill Carth-clone Kaidan, though. That was fun.

not everything is black and white,

Black/white, Light/Dark, Renegade/Paragon. It's still heads and tails.

space travel isn't as limited

Yes, I did like this about ME - even if it was ultimately just fluff and added little to the gameplay. I liked being able to shift through the pretty nebulae and read the descriptions of the planets. It made the spacefaring side of me happy. Reminded me of flying around space in Freelancer, Frontier etc.

 

[One-guy]

Yes, Mass Effect is one of the most overrated games imho.
Yes, its story fails imho, only someone who never read/play/watch even one SF genre (or is totally blind) can say it dont.
Yes, i was dissapointed a bit.
Yes, still i think MoTB was on the top and TW is second (beats all other games by its C&C).

But No, ME is still good, enjoyable game. I did expect greater game at first (after the first 2 hours of game i was expecting total crap to the end). Good dialogs, good graphic, good music, many cool stuff. If it have better story, maybe i would tell you its the best game of the year. The reason i'm saying GB fails is:
-it says that's the mechanics ruins the impression, which is not bad imho
-gives this game award for its story.

 

[doctor_kaz]

I keep reading about how Mass Effect is so much like Star Wars, but everything I read and see about the game looks like what George Lucas was trying for Star Wars not to be -- i.e. cliched future with people wearing skin-tight uniforms and silly looking aliens that are simply humans with a mask on. Mass Effect looks unintentionally funny like the cheeseball 1980 version of Flash Gordon than Star Wars or the old TV series Buck Rogers. The boring and stale environments in the game don't help much. The art direction in the game just sucks.

 

[Imbecile]

I keep reading about how Mass Effect is so much like Star Wars, but everything I read and see about the game looks like what George Lucas was trying for Star Wars not to be -- i.e. cliched future with people wearing skin-tight uniforms and silly looking aliens that are simply humans with a mask on. Mass Effect looks unintentionally funny like the cheeseball 1980 version of Flash Gordon than Star Wars or the old TV series Buck Rogers. The boring and stale environments in the game don't help much. The art direction in the game just sucks.

I was under the impression that this was exactly the kind of vibe they were going for, hence the funky retro music, and fuzz-o-cam.

 

[Solaris]

Mass Effect was an ok game, I enjoyed it for the most part. But it certainly comes nowhere near MotB or The Witcher. They are on a completely different level, overall. And yeah, ME is a classic example over over-hyping. But....as usual, people got sucked into it and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[elander_]

To dismiss some unfounded rumors we can play Fallout with a diplomat character, without having a fight except for the ocasional hostile random encounter which is unavoidable. It's a bit harder and unforgiving at start but it's possible. I will make a walkthrough for the diplomat character and hopefuly when someone says this isn't possible we can just link to this walkthrough and put the dumbfuck tag on the dumbfuck.

 

[Brother None]

To dismiss some unfounded rumors we can play Fallout with a diplomat character, without having a fight except for the ocasional hostile random encounter which is unavoidable. It's a bit harder and unforgiving at start but it's possible. I will make a walkthrough for the diplomat character and hopefuly when someone says this isn't possible we can just link to this walkthrough and put the dumbfuck tag on the dumbfuck.

I think most people know that...

- run away from random encounters
(- sneak/run through Necropolis Vault, if you want)
- get into military base via Harry, let Lou torture you, go to prison, escape, steal security card, set off bomb and flee
- sneak/run into cathedral, talk to Master, get him to blow the damned thing up

It's true it's no playthrough "without killing anyone", that's impssible, but it's not hard to finish the game without firing a single shot. Fallout 2, same thing, but it's a bit easier.

 

[elander_]

You are talking about the stealth character which is yet another possibility. I meant we can actualy do it just by talking but it's necessary to have these stats: int 10, cha 10, speech 150+. I got level 5 and a speech kill above 150 just by doing quests in vault 13, shady sands and junktown. Had to kill some rats and one radscorpion only.

"- run away from random encounters"

That's the only thing that screws up diplomat playing.

"(- sneak/run through Necropolis Vault, if you want)"

You can convince Harry you are a ghoul or a robot with high speech and charisma.

"- sneak/run into cathedral, talk to Master, get him to blow the damned thing up"

No need to sneak either. Just gain entrance by obtaining the symbol/key with some smooth talk then convince the guy upstairs to let you talk to the master. You need that BoS sci girl data disk to convince him.

When i mean we can play a diplomat in Fallout i mean we can 50% and sometimes 90% of quests in each location just by talking to someone and make wise dialog choices.

 

[aries202]

With all the Biohype surrounding Mass Effect, it doesn't come as a surprise to me that Gmebanshee found it to be the disappointment of the year. Things were promised, then they were cut, the most important one, I think was being able to control any single character in your party individually. (which really seemed to be what the fans wanted). Instead, they possibly got combat a la Gears of War's, I think, which really isn't as fun as it sounds, imo.

Despite that, Gamebanshee's given the best writing/story award to Mass Effect is still a valid onne, imo. The main story in ME is really one of the best for an (action) RPG in a very long time. And I understand, it has its (usual) twists and turns as well.