Siding with everything @divedivedive said above.
I don’t disagree with a word you wrote.
But it’s all a matter of priorities. I don’t care much about gameplay, so it being more polished does little for me. In fact the streamlining actually worked against the variety and customization of the first game. Plus I hate hate the fact Powers don’t work when an enemy has shields or armor. Portable black hole? I got two points of shield so it does nothing. It drove me nuts (plus made most debuff powers nearly useless. By the time they worked, enemy was nearly dead)
For me the tone and narrative have primacy, so all flaws get subsumed in that.
Though 2 introduces the Pinball of Death Vanguard, which was pure joy.
It’s one of those things. I don’t disagree that there was a lot wrong with ME1 mechanically. I just thought that the changes they made for 2 were not improvements and where they bothered to retain systems at all they made them actively less enjoyable.
As they moved into 3 and Andromeda, they took the replacement systems in directions that were a lot more rewarding, IMO, but they should never have let 2 ship in the state it did.
I love all the Mass Effect games, there’s not a stinker in the bunch for my money. But if I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the first one. And if I had to pick a least favorite it would probably be 2.
I love the way the mysteries unfolded in the first game and how epic it became. I loved all the characters, and the settings and technology. I loved the codex and how it tried to explain how everything worked.
The second game had all that too, it just didn’t feel very epic. It was a side story, and while I don’t hold that against it there just didn’t seem to be as much going on. Getting us involved with Cerberus just felt weird too. It’s like if Google were a small wing of a much larger company and while it still operated under a “do no evil” rule, all the other companies were just doing the evilest shit imaginable. Then Google is all, “Wait, our company is involved in all this evil? I never knew that!”
But they’re all really good and are definitely my favorite thing Bioware has done overall. KOTOR was pretty good too.
The funniest thing about Andromeda reviews is how people feel the need to apologize when they (gasp) actually like the game.
I’ve never felt the need to apologize for liking Andromeda. Same way I don’t feel that people who didn’t like it should feel the need. But if you think it was one of the ‘worst’ games of the year? Then you’re an idiot.
Andromeda had it’s share of issues, no doubt about it. But considering they were trying something different in terms of gameplay, it worked pretty well. I would have loved to have seen a sequel where they had more time to work on the story and characters and whatnot now that the system itself is in place. But dumb-ass people whining about animations and how it was the ‘WORST GAME EVER’ stopped that from ever happening. I will always loathe those people who don’t care if others like it, they hated it so it must be killed.
I also feel the same way about The Last Jedi (I loved the movie), but at least in that instance, the mouth-breathers aren’t stopping Ep IX from coming out. And again, it’s not that people disliked it. It’s that they’re trying to basically kill the franchise because of their rage at a movie they don’t like, despite the fact there are plenty who didn’t feel that way. I’m sorry this game or that movie didn’t meet your own expectations, but fuck you for trying to ruin it for everyone else.
I may need to lay off the caffeine…
Well, I do feel like I need to apologize for liking Andromeda. Specifically to Murbella. It just felt like I was upsetting his world view when I posted positive stuff about the game.
I’d agree with that for the base game, but once you add in all of the DLC, especially Kasumi and the Shadow Broker, it made for a pretty satisfying all-middle sprawl of a story (for me).
Lair of the Shadow Broker was the only time ME2 felt like it lived up to ME1 for me. In part I think the fight along the outside of the ship very successfully evoked my favorite bit of combat in the first one, when you fight along the outside of the Citadel. (I think that’s actually probably my favorite combat sequence in the whole series, despite the combat in 1 not being quite as good as 3 or Andromeda.) And then there’s a number of other cool bits, too.
Shame about Arrival being 90% (bad) combat with a nonsensical storyline. :/
Agreed 100% with all of that. Lair was the best part of ME2, ME1 Citadel fight is the best of the series, Arrival sucks.
ME3’s Citadel DLC is on sale again on Xbox Live for $5, so I’m tempted yet again. But there’s no way I’ll play ME3 again, surely, so I should stop being tempted.
Would the Citadel DLC be fun with just a cold return to the game? If I didn’t bother starting again, but just went in with a save game and started playing just the DLC?
I never really thought Lair of the Shadow Broker was all that big a deal. I enjoyed it, and certainly was cool getting more Liara time, considering she was so underutilized in the main game. But it always seemed like the praise was overstated to me. I’d say I liked Overlord about equally. But yeah, Arrival sucked.
I think Citadel is worth the time and money, totally. There are some great character moments and even a fun little mini campaign. You shouldn’t hate to replay the whole game I think, as long as you have a save that’s far enough along.
I honestly barely remember Overlord. It wasn’t as janky in narrative and tedious in terms of action as Arrival but I didn’t feel like it really did anything exceptional either.
It’s interesting that each of the original trilogy Mass Effects seemed to be notable for different things, often at the expense of something else. For example, ME1 had the best story, but the weakest gameplay. ME2 had the best cast and side quests, but the weakest main story. ME3 had the most rewarding gameplay, but the weakest cast of characters. It’s almost as if they had massive staff overhaul each time they made a new one (maybe they did, I’m not up on video game industry happenings).
As far as DLCs, the only ones I can clearly recall are the Kasumi one (which was my favorite) and the Shadow Broker, which was okay but not something I’d play through again (never was a big Liara fan). I don’t think I played any of the ME3 ones, but it’s rare I finish a game at all anymore, much less a bunch of DLC. One of the reasons for my bad memory is that I tended to play the games a several months after release and they usually had the DLC bundled with the base game by then, so it was rarely obvious that I was starting a DLC mission.
It would be fine. It’s really just some fun fan service with not a lot of connection to the story of ME3.
EA is probably not going to let this go on much longer, but this crew’s fix list is pretty impressive.
Why do you think EA will do anything? How is this different than the other ME mods out there already?
Did you look at their plans for phases 2 and 3? They got pretty far into what could be considered an unauthorized derivative work that EA might not approve of and feel the need to defend their IP. Putting words into the mouths of their characters, etc.
I hope they get left alone to work on it, they zoned in on a lot of things that ME3 was rightly criticized for.
Be interested to see where they go with that. Last time I played, I used the ‘Happy Ending’ mod, wherein you either won or lost the war based on your EMS (or whatever) rating. The whole ‘Star Kid’ stuff was gone, as was the stupid decision tree at the end. And, if you won, Sheppard survived. Much better ending than the one from the base game. Not because Sheppard lived (if you won), but because you weren’t presented with a conversation that ignored everything you had done in three games up to that point. So it’ll be interesting to see what they come with for an ending. Because I don’t think the MEHEM is a great ending. May not even be more than average. It’s just better than what we were given. And FTR - No, I don’t think the last 10 minutes of ME3 ruined the series. It’s just an incredibly disappointing end to what was up to that point an outstanding game in every way. I played the series through twice more - with the original ending - because the rest of the series was that good overall.
I feel like saying you feel the need to apologize for liking something is extremely passive aggressive.
Liking or not liking something is simply a matter of opinion. I’m certainly not going to apologize to you for thinking Andromeda was mediocre. In other times when my opinion is in the minority I’m not going to apologize to the majority that I disagree.
So unless you start throwing out conspiracies liked me a only failed because people are mean to bioware you have my permission to keep on keeping on. There is a line between being a fan and being an obsessive fan (general comment, not about you or anyone specific).
And anyway, upsetting people’s worldview by posting positive impressions of a game is just icing on the cake.