I don’t think his question was entirely out of line. The Mass Effect games are built around the idea of the continuous story being a huge part of the experience. So much so, in fact, that Bioware built them so that decisions in each game impact the story in the sequel.
Sure, you can jump into the third game and play it. I’m sure it will be reasonably fun and you’ll catch up on the story quickly. It just won’t have the impact of seeing all your decisions from the previous two games play out in the end. Your call.
Wow. What is going on over at metacritic, user pc review score currently sits at 2.4. I know it is perceived to be cool to be a internet hater and haters gotta hate but wtf?
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mass-effect-3
-Tim
Why is that surprising? It’s just Internet rage over EA or release day DLC or whatever. The usual.
The war assets display has a very clear indication whether you’re ready to take on the Reapers. It is literally a bar that fills up. A line on the bar is your goal. After playing multiplayer for a while yesterday, my bar shot well past the line.
And I feel that TurinTur’s question – “Why would you want to buy and play ME3 if you haven’t played the previous ME?” – is worth answering. Mass Effect 3 is a good sci-fi RPG even if you didn’t play the previous games. It has it’s own story arc that works as a self-contained game, even though it often references the previous games.
But unlike Mass Effect 2, you don’t have to be invested in the characters to be invested in the story. It certainly helps, but it’s not required. Everyone can appreciate saving the galaxy. Not everyone cares about saving Miranda’s sister.
-Tom
I haven’t played the game yet and have no idea if I like the combat or not. But liking the combat doesn’t mean I will want to play multiplayer. Are you just trolling here or something?
You can see for yourself!
(but… I don’t recommend wasting your time on reading… that).
stusser
1807
From what I’ve read, the goofy muscle-bound Freddy Prince Jr. character exists to fill in Shepherd’s backstory.
Joe_M
1808
This is why they really shouldn’t haven’t bothered answering the “day one DLC” questions in an adult manner. If they had just been sneaky about it and released it a month later, it would have prevented the internet tantrums altogether.
My point is that unlike many shooters, there isn’t a dramatic disconnect between the feel of the single player combat and the multiplayer combat. If you play a shooter like Modern Warfare 3, you get a very different experience when you play single-player and when you play multiplayer. That’s not the case with Mass Effect 3. The co-op very much feels like the single-player missions on the same map in the single-player.
-Tom
It does kind of weird me out to hear we’ll be doing singleplayer missions on those multiplayer maps.
Heavy content reuse (maps and levels) is a scourge on videogames, though an inevitable one in modern development. No need to hash that out again.
Well, it’s the standard procedure when you make a new multiplayer part for your single player game: you take the action part (and the weapons, classes, powers, some scenarios) and put more players on it, be on cooperative or competitive modes. They aren’t going to reinvent the wheel for the mp.
That’s fine (and even good), but tying progress to the single player game is still absurd. I don’t care what the endings look like. You can’t say Bioware doesn’t want people to go for 100% war resources/wants to make it hard to go for 100% because they made it easier to do if you play multiplayer (in fact, if there’s any thing time triggered in the singleplayer, relying on Multi to get war resources up potentially avoids such pitfalls).
It’s nonsensical design. I just let my gold sub lapse. I figured I’d be renewing it at some point but I don’t have a reason to right now, and yes that includes my having purchased Me3 (which is probably sitting on my doorstep as we speak). I am not interested in playing Me3 with any of you. Or anybody else.
Brakara
1813
ME2 has a metacritic rating of 96. If that didn’t bring you into the franchise, why would this one (which is currently rated lower) ?
Just wanted to say, this is pretty much my exact position as well.
Brakara
1815
Actually it’s Gears that has “inspired” them to do this. But at least in Gears the one-button thing has been perfected over three games.
But otherwise, you are absolutely right. As a shooter, ME3 is downright clunky in comparison to Gears 3*.
- Based on the demo. Maybe it’s better in the final game?
Agreed, but in your scramble to accuse me of trolling, you’re ignoring the other two points I made. Furthermore, it sounds like you don’t understand how the war readiness stat works, which I also explained in that post. It can be increased in single-player or multiplayer. They’re connected, but not tied to each other.
If you don’t want to buy Mass Effect 3, that’s cool. Furthermore, if you want to complain about the crossover with multiplayer, that’s cool, too. But you can’t complain that Bioware is forcing you to play multiplayer to get the story ending you want. No such thing is happening.
-Tom
I’m surprised how clunky the cover design is too. I’ll literally be running under fire and come upon a tangled mess of barrels, framed barriers, and walls. It’s like a slapstick comedy trying to decide on the best spot. I’d almost prefer an obvious array of waist-high walls instead! Then I discover I don’t have a good angle for a shot because there’s a high wall nearby. Damn you, cover shooters!
Oh, and one thing’s driving me nuts – If I aim at something behind me, does that make my character stand up from the cover she’s in? I guess that’s the penalty you face when you’re flanked, unless you want to shoot from the hip?
A buddy of mine is finding the From Ashes DLC to be really crashy/buggy - anyone else noticing that sort of thing?
flyinj
1819
I’m still confused over how importing characters works vs starting a new character.
If I have a say, level 22 character from ME2, will it start me at level 22?
If I have a level 30 character from ME2, I will be level 30? How does the game handle the fact that I’m so powerful? What if I import a level 10 character?
What happens if I start a new one? Do I get a level 1 character?
