I played it on 360 and enjoyed the Mako levels. But for sure, the driving around was much improved in Mass Effect: Andromeda. My favorite part of that was that it wasn’t just driving. How you exit your vehicle, and how you can use it for cover is a big part of the combat situations in Andromeda. It’s my favorite part of the game, and there’s lots of it.
Andromeda comes closer. It’s sadly not quite there, because a lot of the random side exploration isn’t interesting, but there are some interesting things and the planets aren’t just barren rocks so there’s at least beautiful things to see.
Andromeda might just be the first thing I download onto my (mostly) new machine, since I won’t be playing 2077 until I get a new gpu.
I found a lot of interesting things driving around various planets in Mass Effect. There was a planet full of monkeys, and a few planets that kicked off sidequests to clear out geth/bandit outposts. One planet had a giant silver ball-shaped artifact that could show Shepard visions of humanity’s pre-homo sapiens origins. There was probably other stuff that doesn’t immediately come to me off the top of my head.
Outposts that weren’t all identical carbon copies? Can’t recall if I found that artifact or not, but definitely don’t remember the monkeys.
The outposts all looked very similar, if not exactly identical, in structure. I didn’t mind that personally, they all had a very pre-fabricated look that I would imagine an outpost on the edge of the galaxy might have. There weren’t any outposts that had the unique look that the planets with main quest lines had, not that I recall.
Yeah, I found plenty of those. It struck me as the bare minimum of, “hey, there are all these empty planets, we should really put something on them“
I would love a game where you were a prospector or something. You rumble around these barren world on the edge of the galaxy, struggling to salvage enough materials to stay alive, then you stumble across an alien artifact that leads you into a deeper mystery. Something like Starflight, with a focus on planetary exploration
You should try Elite: Dangerous. Assuming you haven’t already - it’s got tons of exploration, lots of mining and prospecting, pretty much an entire galaxy that you can explore. It’s got nearly zero plot though, just so you’re aware.
It would be pretty cool to have some kind of mash-up of E:D and Mass Effect. I can’t imagine how difficult and time consuming such a thing would be though. My understanding is they attempted to do something like that, make the whole game galaxy procedurally generated in Andromeda, but had to scrap the idea - one reason why the thing got pretty much a complete makeover fairly late in the game. It’s cool to think about what might have been though.
CraigM
2795
There was also the planet with the Elk/cow type animals.
And I do remmeber the valley of the monkeys.
There is also one planet that would kick off a series of minor missions with Radchii, you could arrive and find a base under attack. Tied into the whole /what is Cerberus up to’ minor plot bit. In fact there were maybe a dozen such missions around the game, some derelict spaceships you could find too. I am also on the I loved the Mako train. Yes most planets were free of any truly interesting activities, but there was a sense of exploration I really dug. And it fit with the more TNG story feel, compared to the Kelvinverse feel of the later games.
Which probably didn’t help my impressions of the ME2 Cerberus retcon. TIM was at once a neat idea that the execution was extremely off putting. Basically everything main story in ME2 was various flavors of not great.
Scuzz
2796
I too didn’t really have a problem with the endings, but lots of people obviously did due to the firestorm it caused on the internet.
Always assumed Elite was much too hardcore for me. I’m quite looking forward to Everspace 2, though.
Oh that tank thing in Mass Effect 1 was the worst. I’m glad Mass Effect 2 and 3 did away with that. Still had to do all that boring mining though in Mass Effect 2.
strategy
2799
It’s worth keeping in mind, when saying “The ME3 ending wasn’t too bad” that the ending(s) were changed significantly after the initial backlash. All three endings got significant additions/changes, and an entire fourth ending was added. So what is playable today, is a lot more palatable than the original ending of the trilogy. One of the features in the original ending was the mass relay in Sol blowing up; an event the trilogy previously established would destroy an entire solar system -> implied: your victory basically wiped out the Earth and everyone fighting on your side. This was one of the things changed in the endings. So a lot of what caused the original rage was fixed.
One aspect that was not fixed, was how the ending is basically - press a button for the ending of your choice - i.e., your decisions throughout the trilogy has pretty much no impact on the ending of the series. Some people felt that was false marketing (Bioware had been touting how “every decision will count”), but most people probably understood that they were promising too much.
Razgon
2800
Stands up I too, loved the Mako!
I could dance that baby around like you’ve never seen anyone steer a vehicle. And I used to do just that, those low gravity planets I had so much fun on!
Since Mass Effect was really “Star Control II Remastered” the Mako is the 2D sprite lander from that game. It adds about as much depth to the gameplay as its original form.
Yeah, and that’s what I’ve been trying to say - me loving the games wasn’t colored by the first terrible endings, I’ve only played the altered ones.
About the ending choices, I’m not sure all the choices were available depending on earlier choices. Also companions surviving or not surviving, as well as possible romance options were affected by choices throughout all three games
Yes, though it’s Star Control II minus the goofy-ass aliens and the tedious pew-pew combat, maybe more accurate to say Starflight Remastered.
Yes, your warscore affects what endings you can choose, so technically every choice matters. Ludically, it also codes the synthesis ending as the the correct/good/true ending since it’s the hardest to unlock.
That’s part of my five hour TED talk about why that ending is so appalling and at the end of it I’m sure you’ll see tha- gets swiftly tackled offstage
But the ending that requires the highest war score is Destroy with Shepard Surviving.
