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Since 6125 DaysI mean, i palyed Pool of Radiance on stream a few months back, and i think i enjoyed that more than any more current RPG i've played in the last 10 years. That shit don't even have music, and you have to read a goddamn booklet for some of the story :P
Cake or death!?
Since 4667 DaysI also prefer Mass Effect 2 over Mass Effect 1, but I can understand why many people prefer Mass Effect 1 over 2. Till this day I still remember a lot of Mass Effect 1's locations, characters, stories, combat, etc. It was a great game by the same BioWare that did Dragon Age: Origins, the best of the series.
Mass Effect 2 was more of a Third-Person Shooter with almost no RPG elements, though it did have a really big budget and marketing like a Hollywood Blockbuster. The budget made it be much better than Mass Effect 1, since all the ambition could be executed very well.
Also, if - and it's a bif IF - I'm not remembering incorrectly because of nostalgia, Mass Effect 1 had better combat than Mass Effect 2. Probably not, but it's been over 7 years since I played Mass Effect 1 and my memory might be playing tricks with me.
Since 6465 DaysOk.
I've also never really understood the sentiment: "if you take X from Z it has nothing" it makes no sense.
I know you are not the only one who likes it, doesn't mean i agree with you :P
You don't have to agree, but it is what it is; they cut the bullshit and I feel they made a better game.
It's all opinions at the end of the day.
There are two rules to success:
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1. Never tell all you know.
Since 6125 DaysAs for ME2 i agree, they did "tighten it up" it's just that the end result is still mediocre. It's still not a good shooter, and now most of the RPG elements are cut out or minimized as well. So in my book, the flawed elements of ME1 are still more entertaining than the slight polish to shooting in ME2. But as you say, that's down to opinion. I don't mind rifling through my inventory, swapping out gear for occasion and managing my teammates. In fact, i find that to be fun when i get to see that my planning gives results in the game.
Cake or death!?
Since 6204 DaysMe2 needed some actual role playing put into it, THAT would have made it a better game.
Since 6800 Days
Since 6465 DaysTerms like 'mediocre' and 'ok' are all subjective opinions and we will be here forever with no objective way to say which was better Mass Effect 1 or 2.
Mass Effect's key strengths were always in its story and characters as far as narrative goes and powers were the main pillar of its game design; if you take these away in the first one and the second one you are left with something that isn't Mass Effect.
Does Mass Effect 2 do shooting mechanics a great deal better than 3rd person shooters out there like Gears of War? No. Hell, even ME3 is a janky shooter to play. What sets it apart however is its robust set of powers, which is where the attention was required, but if ME2 is a mediocre shooter then ME1 is a mediocre RPG. Do you see the problem with this?
Mass Effect has always been a conflation of shooter and RPG but never pushing the boundaries in either direction gameplay wise and that is where the story and characters support it.
If you really wanna see where builds, customisation and party formation really matter in the Mass Effect series then Mass Effect 3's horde mode is all of that as the right mods and ammo type as well as power builds are the difference between sucking in Gold and succeeding in Platinum, there's even RNG but its implementation may not sit well with you.
There are two rules to success:
___________________________________
1. Never tell all you know.
Since 6125 DaysI was ofc just trying to highlight how lackluster the gameplay in ME is, but that said i don't think many people will be looking back at ME in 30 years as a reference of excellent game design that we should all learn from. More likely the opposite. Certain genres do a better job of marrying story and gameplay though. Now to me, thanks to the dumb and useless paragon/renegade system, dialogue no longer serves any purpose, as you only ever make one choice: paragon or renegade. You might as well just pick at the start of the game, then have set dialogue in front of you, cause there is no incentive to ever pick and choose according to situation, your own feeling towards characters etc. You want to be a saint or punch babies? You only get the reward if you stick to one!
In most good point and click adventures you need the dialogue to suss out puzzles, while at the same time getting a good story, and in cases like monkey island, they even work it in to the insult sword fighting mechanic. Or in an old RPG like Fallout where your stats, actions, party members and so forth all do their part in coloring dialogue and events though out the game. What you do in the game is quite interlinked with how the story plays out. In ME it feels more like the game is distinctly split in to story mode and action mode, and the two barely have anything to do with each other. You get to make like 3 meaningful choices through out a 30 hour game. You make more choices that radically impact Fallout on the goddamn character sheet :P
So if you make a game that's all about story and characters, and you have very limited impact on how the story plays out, you did a shite job of interactive storytelling. Add some pretty assy shooting on top and that doesn't make anything better. It just seems to me that the story of ME could have been just as well, or perhaps even better, told in a trilogy of films, or a tv series. Cause that's a medium that really shines when it comes to characters, stories and visuals.
Cake or death!?
Since 3944 DaysA RPG has so many layers that allow it to be successful in many ways, even a RPG with shitty story and characters can still be redeemed by its gameplay, world lore, locations, etc. While a Shooter needs to have a great combat system, if it fails on that, even if everything else is great, it will still feel hollow. I feel the same with Fighting, Racing or Sports games.
To be honest,
And all those things Megido said about Fallout are some of the reasons why it is still to this day one of the best RPGs of all time. It's also why it's been re-released accross the years over a dozen times.
The closest BioWare ever got to that level of quality was on Dragon Age: Origins, which while not perfect, was a truly great game. I've played it from start to finish with all DLCs and doing all sidequests twice now, my last playthrough was over 180 hours and I still think of replaying it again down the line. It is still the best game BioWare ever made by far.
Since 6123 DaysI will buy it once it hits $10 or something. Bioware is done imo
Since 6800 Days
Since 6125 DaysCake or death!?
Since 6800 Days
Since 6729 DaysI share the sentiments that ME1 was the best.
The sequels suffered because Bioware chose a more consumable mass market friendly game. Suffered for ME that is, maybe not others...
In terms of scope ME1 was more ambitious with the universe and setting. It was far more interesting than the action movie focus of 2 and 3.
The RPG elements that were stripped away made your experience less immersive, disconnected, and as if you had less control in the game. I was no longer invested.
Those are just a few things that I can recall. It's been a long time since I played Mass Effect 1 and 2. I largely ignored 3 after 2 just shat all over everything I enjoyed about the first game.
Looks like Andromeda just continues to do so.
Also if you wanna talk Bioware's closest achievement with an action RPG, I'd argue it was Kotor.
Since 6800 DaysKOTOR is really hampered by the hardware that it was meant to run on. It's full of tiny ant mazes and loading screens. I guess you could say the same to an extent of Dragon Age and Mass Effect (the trilogy), but zones are much larger and it feels much less cramped as a result.
Since 6125 DaysOh and the alternative i would like would be fully turnbased, not this sort of semi realtime with pausing. Like Fallout or Divinity, kinda.
Cake or death!?
Since 6800 Days