JJ
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So thanks to all the Mass Effect 3 talk on this week’s Rocket Jump, I figured it might be time to check it out. Why not before now? I guess it always seemed weird to start a trilogy at the 2nd part. It’s like starting Star Wars with Empire Strikes Back. You can probably make sense of it, but you’d miss quite a lot.
So when I saw that all 3 games were available in a single pack, I considered just getting the $60 ME Trilogy, but that seemed excessive when the games, if purchased individually, aren’t even that much. Thankfully ME1 is now on PSN for $15, so I grabbed it last night and stayed up way too late playing it. It hasn’t hooked me completely yet. The story is mildly compelling, and there were a few “Wow” moments even in the first hour. Combat feels a little loose, but maybe I’m just not used to it yet. But I do want to get back to playing it ASAP.
I’m about 2 1/2 hours in. Still at the Citadel (I think that’s the name), and have recruited 5 people so far. Apparently it’s a great game (IGN gave the PS3 version a 9.0, despite the issues), and said that the next two games are even better. I’m having fun so far, so I can’t wait.
The backlog grows ever deeper…
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This topic was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by
 JJ.
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Jim Hunter
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The intro Citadel is probably the slowest part of ME1. It’s worth going through though for sure, because the story bits are the best. Lots of good stuff despite some general wonkiness from mechanics. Like you said, shooting isn’t great, and when you go traverse some of the worlds, it’s kind of a pain. BUT, most of that stuff has been fixed or removed for ME2 and 3.
The series is awesome.
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Jett Landicho
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Jim Hunter:
The series is awesome.
Agreed.
I started ME1 just after ME 2 came out and I ended up enjoying it, in spite of it being pretty rough around the edges mechanically.
Though a lot of that game hasn’t aged very well, it’s arguably still worth putting in the time to have everything carry over into 2 and 3. It will probably also add to your appreciation of the later games, because the series takes pretty huge step forward from that first outing.
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JJ
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I’m nearly 20 hours in and hitting my stride. The game is great. I’ve adjusted to the combat so I survive much easier, and learning the mechanics and abilities just took time, which also makes combat easier and more fun. And there’s some strategy to it which is nice. If I’m actually enjoying the combat now, I can’t wait to play 2 and 3.
Next for the main quests is Virmire. But I’m doing a bunch of side quests (assignments) first to build up my Paragon meter (I keep inadvertently getting Renegade points, oh well). But my Paragon meter is probably 3/4 full (Reneade maybe 1/4). And I’m level 32. I just finished Bring Down the Sky last night, which apparently was DLC for the 360. That was great. Although I didn’t put it together that not letting the guy go would result in the hostages dying. Opps.
I’m really starting to love the mix of rover stuff with on the ground combat. And I’m getting pretty good and taking out half a dozen turrets while driving the rover around. I’m really glad I waited to play these games until ME1 was available on the PS3. Maybe after all this I’ll actually finish Dragon Age.
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Jim Hunter
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Finished up Mass Effect 3 last night and if I did so before picking my GOTY selections, it would have made the top three list. Fantastic experience. Loved the game, as it currently stands, in its entirety. Mass Effect is the best trilogy ever committed to game form.
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Daniel Tolin
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I felt the opposite about the series in terms of evolution. I absolutely adored Mass Effect 1 because it was a sci-fi RPG with shooter mechanics. I was extremely disappointed that 2 headed in the direction of trying to be a sci-fi shooter with light RPG mechanics. I also didn’t like the disparate darker tone and the massive change to Shepard’s character.
I also think I’m the only person on the planet who loved driving the Mako.
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JJ
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Daniel Tolin:
I felt the opposite about the series in terms of evolution. I absolutely adored Mass Effect 1 because it was a sci-fi RPG with shooter mechanics. I was extremely disappointed that 2 headed in the direction of trying to be a sci-fi shooter with light RPG mechanics. I also didn’t like the disparate darker tone and the massive change to Shepard’s character.
I also think I’m the only person on the planet who loved driving the Mako.
I count two people who love the Mako. It’s fun! I love dropping to a new planet and exploring. Sad to hear it’s mostly (or completely) gone from the other games.
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Jett Landicho
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Team anti-Mako ftw. Unfortunately, we got planet scanning instead, which in certain ways is worse.
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Aaron Phokal
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I don’t hate the Mako, but after 60-80 hours, it became a bit tedious. ME2 has 2 or 3 “Firewalker” missions, which use what is essentially a hover Mako.
I do miss the feeling of exploring barren Alien worlds and the sense of scale that brought, but I just didn’t like doing it quite so often. By the end it had a grind-y, MMO feel to exploring the planet. Relaxing, but not engaging. I’d basically be on auto-pilot.
As I mention in the most recent RJ ep 80, my main issue with ME1 is the combat (of which, there is a lot) and that the cover button and mechanics basically shouldn’t be used. Instead you just manually strafe corners, like Doom. Like Dan, I do miss customizing the armor of every member on my team, but getting a decent combat engine is a palatable trade.
Mass Effect 1 is far from a bad game, but I’ve had more friends than not never make it off the Citadel. It’s an RPG that looks like it should control like Gears 3, and that’s pretty off putting for new people that try to play it like a shooter from 2012. I played ME1 right after ME2 launched, and played them back to back. I loved both, but the difference was stark and I imagine it would be tough to go back.
If you are capable of tolerating the combat, please play Mass Effect 1. It’s a great story (probably my favorite of the series) and really adds to the overall arc of the trilogy. I personally really, really liked it. However, I tolerate a lot of old/retro mechanics or terrible design decisions in order to see a good story (like Planescape Torment), and most of my friends do not. I’d rather see people play ME2 and ME3, than play 1 hour of ME1 and never play again.
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Daniel Tolin
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Aaron Phokal:
> ME2 has 2 or 3 “Firewalker” missions, which use what is essentially a hover Mako.
No.
Aaron Phokal:
> It’s an RPG that looks like it should control like Gears 3, and that’s pretty off putting for new people that try to play it like a shooter from 2012.
That was my point. It was a sci-fi RPG with light shooter mechanics. If you try to tackle the game like it’s a Gears title, you completely missed the point.
Aaron Phokal: > If you are capable of tolerating the combat, please play Mass Effect 1.
It’s not like typical turn based RPGs have ‘good’ combat. Example: I tolerated the inane and boring combat of Lost Odyssey because of its incredible story. If they made the game a third person hack and slash with less of a story focus, it wouldn’t have been the masterpiece that it was.
Anyway, I am not saying ME2 and 3 are bad games by any stretch, the series just went in totally the wrong direction to hold my interest. The story (in 2 at least, can’t comment on 3) became very shallow in the pursuit of being ‘edgy’ and ‘gritty’. I’ll still finish 2 at some point so I can see 3, but it’s going to be a hurdle.
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This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by
 Daniel Tolin.
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wolf rider
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Dan, you are anything but “edgy and gritty,” if you catch a drift.
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David Hughes
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Daniel Tolin: I also think I’m the only person on the planet who loved driving the Mako.
I dug it but they should have had some sort of procedural generation system for the planets you explored, and the chance of random enemy encounters. For “designed” planets they were so dull.
I also agree with you on the trilogy. I burnt out hard towards the end of ME2 and ME3 failed to click with me at all, in no small part because I lost my Shepard. Traded my copy in at about the 6 hour mark. I’ll give it another go in the future but no burning desire anytime soon.
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Aaron Phokal
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Hah, alright. Firewalker isn’t great, but it is free if I remember right.
I can’t really get into much story debate without huge spoilers (JJ is still mid-ME1, after all), but from the end of ME1 the path taken has seemed appropriate given the facts.
When you pick a control scheme, camera angle, and combat flow that are identical to Gears of War, then you get to be compared to it. Missing the point isn’t as much the issue as is anyone who has an current gen console has likely played a Cover-based shooter already. When you go from that to ME1, it’s a tough conversion where you essentially have to unlearn everything the more modern games have taught you. As a retro gamer, this is probably something you are great at. Most of my friends are more casual (Borderlands, Gears, Bioshock) and they fricken hated getting killed while trying to take or unstick from cover.
I think JJ can attest to the fact that ME1 is still a really fun game, but expectations play an important factor.
1) The cover based mechanics of ME1 are terrible and combat isn’t great. It’s mostly just people who rush at you or shoot rockets at you. Both of which are handled better if you never actually try to take cover and just strafe corners/back up instead.
2) The Citadel is a very long, RPG conversation where you recruit a party before you explore the galaxy. Keep going.
If this is too much for you, and you’d quit the series otherwise, know that none of these hurdles are present in ME2. The combat is among the best of the cover-based genre, and the pacing has more combat during the initial InfoDump; recruiting your team is more integrated. The best experience is definitely to play the entire trilogy in order, but for players that would consider quitting ME1, know that ME2 is significantly better playing.
On a personal note, I didn’t like the overall story of ME2 as much until I played ME3. Fortunately, I really liked the recruit missions, which make up a bulk of the experience.
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Aaron Phokal
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David Hughes: I dug it but they should have had some sort of procedural generation system for the planets you explored, and the chance of random enemy encounters. For “designed” planets they were so dull.
I also agree with you on the trilogy. I burnt out hard towards the end of ME2 and ME3 failed to click with me at all, in no small part because I lost my Shepard. Traded my copy in at about the 6 hour mark. I’ll give it another go in the future but no burning desire anytime soon.
I actually thought they were procedurally generated for quite some time, given how the terrain looked.
I “lost” my Shepard face, too. That’s patched now. I also managed to recreate him nearly perfectly using some old notes I kept. You can also generate a ‘face code’, and entering that code would recreate them as well. It’s not obvious on the interface, but there are some blog/tutorials up to help.
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JJ
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I’m nearing the end. Just got to Ilos. I’ll mention a few spoilers here that were “wha wha whaaaat?!” moments for me. Be warned!!
SPOILERS START:
- The big thing I didn’t see coming: Sovereign is a freaking reaper. Craaaaag.
- This is a cycle. A civilization/galaxy/species rises to great power, and the reapers wipe them out. It’s time to happen again. Rinse repeat. Dang.
- Saren thinks he saving the galaxy (or some of it), with a little arrogance that he can convince an eternal sentient machine (who’s race has wiped out trillions upon trillions of people over the centuries) that he’s worth keeping around. Kind of tragic. I thought a few times when Saren and Shepard were talking on Virmire, “Well we’ve seen this story before”, and we’ve seen villains with that motivation before (help the devil and the devil will pay you back handsomely, but he actually just double crosses you, as is his MO) but it was still great.
SPOILERS END.
So I’m on Ilos now and am almost level 50. I’ve done most of the assignments I think. There are maybe 4 elements I haven’t found, and I think 2 or 3 IDs or enscriptions. Otherwise I’ve done almost every assignment and am approaching 30 hours. I suppose I could have missed some stuff. After leaving the Citadel before going to Ilos, that admiral called me again to say he had a mission for me. I thought it was kind of funny considering the circumstances. OR maybe news just hadn’t traveled to him yet of the situation. 
Anyway, sorry for the long post. But I was up super late last night going through Virmire (I think I got those paragon options you were talking about Aaron), and then the Citadel, then starting Ilos.
I really, REALLY can’t wait to start ME2.
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This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by JJ.
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David Hughes
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This thread is awesome. For as much as I hate on ME3 and the back half of ME2, reading this reminds me ME1 is one game I wish I could play for the first time all over again.
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JJ
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David Hughes:
This thread is awesome. For as much as I hate on ME3 and the back half of ME2, reading this reminds me ME1 is one game I wish I could play for the first time all over again.
The only thing I wish I hadn’t done, and I only did it because I just didn’t know, was that I barreled through a lot of the main story up front. The first 13 hours was main quest stuff, right up to Virmire unlocking. I didn’t want it to end yet, and then I discovered the assignments tab in the journal. I spent the next 15 hours doing assignments. They were all mostly amazing (I loved the Rachni stuff), but when I finally finished and went to Virmire, it didn’t feel connected. So it was partly my fault since I didn’t know that I could have been doing the assignments interspersed with the main missions. But they didn’t really explain the assignments very well. I expected to stumble across them (like in most RPGs). I was surprised to find a whole list of them in the journal. I had no idea where they came from.
Still, no major complaints from me.
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Jim Hunter
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That disconnected feeling remains through 2 and some of 3. It’s just part of the vastness of the galaxy I guess. Not everything can flow nicely.
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JJ
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It could be worse. The story could suck. Which it does not.
Started Final Battle mission. Back on the Citadel.
Holy crap.
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Jim Hunter
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JJ:
It could be worse. The story could suck. Which it does not.
Started Final Battle mission. Back on the Citadel.
Holy crap.
Do you have ME2 yet? You’ll probably want to jump right into that.
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JJ
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Sure do. I got 2 and 3 last week for $12 and $20 respectively.
Just finished 1. Man that was great. 2 is installing now.
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This reply was modified 5 months, 1 week ago by JJ.
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Aaron Phokal
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Here’s my guide for DLC buying for Mass Effect 2:
You can find a full list of the Mass Effect 2 DLC here -
http://social.bioware.com/page/me2-dlc
What I’d recommend you Install right after you boot it up the first time.
Cerberus Network – This is the online pass that comes with the game and should be a code within your copy of ME2. Activate it and it will allow you access to several free DLCs in a download list on the Main Menu screen, including Zaeed (party member) and other Missions(incl Firewalker dlc?). Just go through and immediately grab anything that is free.
Next, after downloading all the free ones, buy these:
Kasumi – Stolen Memory
Kasumi is a party member and mission. This party member is not vital to the central plot, but it is best to get the party member DLC early if you want another party member, since most of their conversation comes from between missions and if you bring them along. It’s a bit expensive for what you get, but I’d still recommend it.
If you skipped ME1: Buy Genesis
Genesis is an “interactive comic book” that triggers right after the tutorial. It covers the events of ME1 in a 5 minute summary and lets you more creatively pick “what choices you made” in ME1. So the expected order of events: Start New ME2 game, play the tutorial, comic book triggers, create character screen, then the game begins proper. Without Genesis, instead of a comic, you get a series of dropdown choices where you pick the answers to questions like: “Anderson or Udina?” and you pick Anderson or Udina. Genesis adds very little, but without it you likely wouldn’t know, let alone care, about the choices you are making as the Big Moments of ME1.
After you beat ME2, I *highly* recommend:
Lair of the Shadow Broker
The Arrival (Play this last)
and if you are looking for more, Overlord Pack, which is also good, just not as story essential.
If Lair, Arrival, or Overlord come pre-installed, I would recommend tackling them post-main final mission. They are otherwise available on the main map right away, and Lair specifically doesn’t feel quite right if you do it before completing your main mission. All of these original released after the main game had been out, and unlike ME3, they feel intended to be played post-main final mission.
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Aaron Phokal
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As an overall ME2 tip: At some point there is a mission with the phrase “IFF” in it.
Always, *Always* keep a save point before this mission if you’d like to try for different endings. Upon completing this IFF mission, an invisible counter begins to count down. When that counter hits 0, an event triggers and you are forced to either try the final mission right away or wait a bit. If you wait a bit, you’ll get a semi-bad ending. If you try the final mission right away but aren’t prepared correctly, you’ll get a semi-worse ending. I don’t really want to get into the specifics of how or why, but if you want options, keep the Pre-IFF save slot around. This way, you can reload and do stuff Pre-IFF and prepare, then do IFF, which then triggers the countdown, which then eventually commences the final mission.
Because of the variance here, this save could be a dozen hours before the countdown expires, requiring an extensive replay, so it isn’t a magic bullet or optimal solution, but a bit better than starting the game over to try different things.
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JJ
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As much as I’ve enjoyed the first 3 hours of ME2, I kind of miss the ME1 HUD. I have no idea what me or my squadmates status is. I know there are colored bars and such but I haven’t adjusted to them yet, or figured out what they do. And they swapped what R1/L1 and R2/L2 do! It’s taking some adjustment.
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JJ
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So I’m about to start the IFF mission Aaron mentioned above. I was going all over the galaxy to check every planet for landing sites and finish all the assignments/side missions (except Shadow Broker and Arrival) and trying to get 100% on every cluster. I was all ready to stop for the night with the IFF mission ready to go when I saw Rescue Dr. Kenson on the star map, and after 2 hours of mostly short mission (the N7/landing site ones are really short), I thought “Ok, one more before bed”. I should have looked that up first, cause it was Arrival. And I was locked into it till I finished it.
As Aaron said, it doesn’t keep with the flow of the main story very well, so after 15 minutes or so I canceled out and loaded my last official save, which was two hours before that. Bummer.
No matter. It took about an hour to catch up, redoing a few of the landing sites and visiting all the leftover planets. So I’m nearly there again.
This game is really amazing though. I loved ME1 obviously, but ME2′s diversity of things you can do is crazy. Stopping a ship from crashing into a planet (I usually hate timed events, but it was great), and searching a crashed freighter that is teetering on a cliff. So excellent. And while I loved the rover parts of ME1, I think I definitely prefer scanning for resources in ME2. It’s much quicker, and seems easier to do between missions.
So anyway, loving the game. Can’t wait to see how it finishes up. Question for Aaron though, should I save Project Firewalker for post-game stuff? I see it came out a few months after ME2, so it would probably fit post-game just fine. Plus I’m looking forward to finishing this great story. I have all my squad loyal, and will do the loyalty mission of the last member before triggering the final event. Shepard is around level 24 I think, and all the squad member’s passive abilities are maxed.
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Aaron Phokal
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Nice.
And yea, I’d save it. It’d give you more between mission dialog with that last recruit. I made the mistake of doing almost everything before IFF, so I had very little opportunity to take that last recruit around to anything or talk to them between missions.
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JJ
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SOMEWHAT VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW!!
So I got caught up, did the IFF mission, got Legion, then did his loyalty mission. If that doesn’t paint things in a very different light (at least regarding a certain species in the ME world), well…dang. I was really conflicted in his loyalty mission too. Both options felt wrong.
Great game!
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This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by JJ.
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Aaron Phokal
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JJ:
SOMEWHAT VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW!!
So I got caught up, did the IFF mission, got Legion, then did his loyalty mission. If that doesn’t paint things in a very different light (at least regarding a certain species in the ME world), well…dang. I was really conflicted in his loyalty mission too. Both options felt wrong.
Great game!
Heh, That is one of two decisions that I put down the controller and thought about it for a long time. Longer than made sense given the scenario.
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JJ
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Well I finished ME2 last night. Great ending. Kind of gross at one part (shocking really), and quite a few “NO WAY!” moments. I only lost one team member (Mordin). I picked him to go through the heat vents. Looking at the ME Wiki, apparently he’s the last person you should pick for that. But everyone else survived. Thankfully I saved right before “the event”, so I can do it over and select a different person for the vent and hopefully get the best ending (I was really close though).
I started the DLC and will knock those out, then either go straight to ME3, or take a break and play Ni No Kuni.
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Jim Hunter
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If I was you, I wouldn’t go back and *fix* Mordin dying. You made the choice, JJ, LIVE WITH IT.
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Peter
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You made the choice, JJ, LIVE WITH IT.
Gotta tell ya JJ, I really agree with this statement. I never re-made any choices I did in any of the ME games, and I really feel the experience was much more personal that way.
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Aaron Phokal
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You are all correct. I’m a huge fan of “make a decision and stick with it.” This is super vital for any of ME3′s decisions.
At the same time, though, I also had Mordin keep dying and I kept trying. It turned out the only reason was because I hadn’t had him in my party, and he had a ton of unspent points. I stuffed those in his passive buff (which also increases HP) and he lived through the final boss fight (which has the lowest chance of survival).
Mordin’s presence or lack thereof will deeply impact ME3. I think you’ll want to meta-decision if you feel good about reloading and not sending him in the vents. If you ever were to replay ME2, it is likely he wouldn’t survive if you do the IFF mission early in order to get that last party member, which you’d likely do in order to bring him around on those earlier missions.
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JJ
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I would only do that for the trophy. I’m going to import my save as is (after I finish the DLC) then maybe go back later for that trophy. That was all. I plan on living with the choice and how it effects ME3.
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This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by JJ.
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Jett Landicho
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The only person I had die in the final mission was Zaeed. He was a jerk, so I was not too broken up about it.
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JJ
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I gotta say, playing through the Overlord DLC has me thinking of Metroid for some reason. I hope Retro Studios has a cool announcement at E3.
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JJ
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Decided to jump right into Mass Effect 3 last night. I skipped the Firewalker DLC for ME2. I just don’t like the Hammerhead enough to spend more missions doing it. And I got to level 30 when I finished Shadow Broker, so…
The intro to ME3…wow. I played about 2 hours total and love it so far. I like that they seem to have added more opportunities to get experience and level up. And I love that my abilities and level carried over from ME2. Combat feels even tighter, and I’m finally in the groove with the Vanguard.
I’m really glad I’ve been able to play through the whole series back to back like this. Like getting to watch a new show you discovered from beginning to end of Netflix. These are great games.
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JJ
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22 hours in now. I’m only slightly feeling burned out on the gameplay, but not enough to stop playing. I’ve been playing Mass Effect for a solid 100 hours total now over the last 6 1/2 weeks. That’s probably the most gaming I’ve done in this short span of time in years. But the story is so compelling, and the gameplay really is fun, I just want to keep playing. So as long as the baby cooperates, I usually get 2 hours in a night (except Sunday nights now that The Walking Dead is back!).
Anyway, thankfully I’ve managed to get the Datapad app working most of the time. It usually requires exiting the app completely, then opening it, waiting for it to log me in, then trying the map. Sometimes it opens immediately, other times it takes a few tries. But I’m actually glad I’m able to increase my galactic readiness without having to do multiplayer. I didn’t really like it. But this way I can gain 2-4% per region per day. I’ve upgraded everything. Now I have advanced upgrades open, which should give me even more per day.
Anyway, sorry so wordy. But this is a series I could see myself replaying every couple of years. It’s so great.
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JJ
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Done! I played with the extended ending installed, then watched the original ending this morning. I think either would be fine. Great series!
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Jim Hunter
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JJ:
Done! I played with the extended ending installed, then watched the original ending this morning. I think either would be fine. Great series!
Best video game trilogy committed to disc.
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JJ
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I watched some of the complaints and while I can understand some of them, I can’t count how many stories (games, movies, or books) have done similar things for convenience or ignored things you wanted to see resolved. But even reading articles and watching videos about “why we hate the ending”, it still didn’t really bother me.
Despite some disappointment with the very end (I had the extended cut installed), and obvious stuff thrown in to wrap it all up, it doesn’t ruin the greatness of the previous 119 hours I spent in this universe.
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