Mass Effect

[bingowings]

i picked this up about a month back when i bought my new 360 as i was always interested in it and loved the KotOR games.

i adore it, i don't know what it is - normally i avoid rpg's because i get bored after a while, leave it, then forget what i have to do when i play it again. but with this i sat down and rattled my way through 25 hours of it and enjoyed every minute of it. as with the KotOR games i played it nice and did everything people asked of me - try as i might i just can't be nasty - so in the end i finished as a complete Paragon. i left a few of the side quests like the journalist and a couple of the rescue missions as i knew they would be more of the same land-Mako-kill-return efforts - for the most part all they did was distract me from the (great) main story. looking at the star map, i know there are a couple of systems i haven't fully investigated so they've been noted for the second play-through.

to make things a bit more interesting i played as a female (made to look like Aeon Flux, naturally), just to see how the story would pan out and ended up in bed with Liara as the male love interest was actually an idiot - a whiny character who i had no problem with in sending him of to his death. i never used him on missions anyway, as i stuck with the same team pretty much all the way through unless it made more sense plot-wise to include another squad member. the other characters where a nice mix of personality types and it was always interesting to talk to them about their backgrounds. oh, except Joker. annoying as all hell.

so yeah, the whole thing is exceptionally solid and very enjoyable. never had any trouble with the framerate or graphical glitches - they are definitely there, but i've never been one to forsake a games' technical flaws if it is fun to play.

[Brats]

I've been off ill this week, so didn't fancy anything too fast paced. I loaded up Mass Effect for the first time in over a year, carrying on from my last save.

I'm loving it. I must confess I never really got into it when I first played it. I missed the D20 combat from the KOTOR games, but the missions seemed too similar to those classics. But now the combat seems to have clicked. I get that it's not really a shooter and there are more RPG elements than were forst obvious (such as where to spend talent points, weapon upgrades and team selection).

And I love the universe. All the history and background seem really well thought out and believable. I left the game having just finished Feros (which I did enjoy at the time) and have now done Vermire and loads of side missions, with Noveria still to go. It's slow paced, but I like it more for that reason.

I'm surprised how quickly I picked it up. One nice touch was the ability to reset the on screen help, so that the first time I used anything a message popped up reminding me what to do.

I'm even enjoying exploring in the Mako. That thing can go anywhere.

[Brats]

I finished this last night. I did all the side missions I had access to (including the collection missions). Total time was 34 hours.

The story is fantastic. The way it twists and builds to a space opera climax is superb. I made similar choices to a number of you in this thread (except I got some

->Open Spoiler<-

blue alien action

.

Also, I was going for all the weapon achievements (kill 150 enemies with each weapon). I'd already unlocked Sniper, Assault Rifle and Shotgun, but I thought I had blown it with pistol as I left this to last and the enemies were much harder. However the achievement unlocked when I shot the very, very last Geth before facing

->Open Spoiler<-

Saren

at the end.

Best. Achievement. Ever.

[Super Monkey Balls]

Bump!

This is totally not my thing but I saw it cheap so I decided to give it a go. I think I was 360-less when it was released. I knew it got great reviews but otherwise knew nothing about the game.

At first it bored me to tears. Loads of voice acting to sit through, too much equipment, endless elevators and walking down bland corridors not really knowing if you're going the right way, generally uninspiring and samey locations... Perhaps I'm too used to being lead by the hand with constant objective markers but places like the Citadel hardly inspire you to learn and explore.

I was very close to ditching it when I kept getting lost on the level with the plant that craps alien ladies but for some reason I persevered and I'm glad I did.

The last third of this game is about a billion times better than the rest. You get some seriously meaty weapons and upgrading your teams? kit becomes oddly satisfying, the design team wake up and you get some varied exciting locations, you get to shag racist Ashley, and it generally kicks off on the combat front.

Which brings me to the games main strength, the combat is as good as any third person action game and so much better than that turn based bollocks. I can totally see why people who are in to the character development and exploration find this the complete package
.
Unfortunately I decided I like Mass Effect a bit too late. I completely ignored the side-quests and finished it somewhat abruptly after 12 hours. Roll on the sequel.

[mekanor]

just started playing this on the pc an im loving it. feels so much like the brilliant kotor. im loving how well developed the universe is, though im not surprised considering this is bioware we're talking about.

the visuals are killing me though. i always thought this was supposed to be a pretty game but with all the settings maxed out, the faces look really good but everyones clothing consists of shockingly low res textures. downloading the dlc at the moment to see if that patches it or something but im sure its supposed to look better than this.

if i ever work out how to take screenshots ill post so someone can tell me if its supposed to look this bad

[Unwell Cat]

I'm toying with buying this cheap on the 360, has it aged badly and is it still worth a run out?

[El Leone]

Still my GOTG.

[Unwell Cat]

Still my GOTG.

Good to hear, I've heard a lot of bad things about frame rate and the fact is doesn't get moving until a third of the way through?

[Malc]

I've said this before but don't play any side missions, just go straight through the main story line. If you deviate off to do some side missions, it can get very boring and repetitive, but the main game itself is brilliant especially if it's your first time through.

[Charlie]

One of my favourite games this generation, definately.

I don't think the side mission are as bad as some people say. Attempting too many of them in a row perhaps they do get a bit boring but tackled intermittently throughout the story they're fine.

[averybluemonkey]

I enjoyed the side missions myself, some of them still have cutscenes and moral choices to be made.

[Briareos]

What do you carry through with you to a new game plus? I'm assuming your levels and skills drop back to zero?

[GordonJ]

Nope, you carry everything through (including a second set of the equipment Shepard is using).

All other characters have their skills reset, but keep your level so you have to reassign all their skill points.

[Briareos]

Nope, you carry everything through (including a second set of the equipment Shepard is using).

All over characters have their skills reset, but keep your level so you have to reassign all their skill points.

Can this new game plus character have the bonus skills assigned or do they only work for newly generated characters? As in I'm using a Vanguard type and really want to give it the electronics skill next time around. If I use overload 75 times in this playthrough i unlock it as a bonus skill, but can that be applied to my existing shepherd in new game plus or just new ones i create from scratch?

EDIT: I checked the boards on gamefaqs and they didn't tell me the answer, they did say however that to earn the 75 use acheivements it's sheperd that has to use the abilities, sadly as I'm a Vanguard I can't use overload to unlock it anyway

[GordonJ]

You can only assign bonus skills to a newly generated character.

That was one of the reasons I played through soldier/engineer/adept first, to unlock the bonus skills for the hybrid characters I wanted to play afterwards.

The only problem was after seven playthroughs (four xbox and three pc) I really didn't want to play the game any more, I did unlock everything though