So is it worth touching... Mass Effect [No Spoilers Please]
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Overall the universe is great, the npcs are awesome for the most part, especially moridan who i find hilarious , it's worth getting if you love scifi
It's not Planescape: Torment. It's not Baldur's Gate. It's not Dragon Age. Hell, it's not even Jade Empire.
It's a shooter with periods of talking and conversation options, with a journal and some inventory management (though really only in the first one).
I'm playing the second one atm (again) to prepare for ME3 after this. I'm told it's a really good game, completely ruined by the ending. If you disregard the final 10%, it's excellent.
About ME1 and ME2, I like them a lot. ME1 had a good villain, there's some good voicework (especially by the female Commander Shephard) and some good NPC's (who for the most part don't continue into later works, unfortunately). Complaints about pop-a-mole gameplay (waiting for the enemy to pop out of cover, shoot, pop back into your own cover) is fair, though the various classes do offer differing playstyles (in 2 more than 1). Character building got slashed in ME2, along with inventory management but it's not that big a loss, the system in ME1 was less than ideal (you'd end up carrying 38 shotguns, 19 sniper rifles, 62 pistols, etc) and instead of finding new weapons, you just find upgrades to current weapons (mostly extra damage). Not as exciting as finding new weapons, but it works alright. There's still a few variations per weapon class (3 sniper rifles, 4 shotguns, etc).
The powers of the 6 classes (which are combinations of the three corners, Soldier, Tech specialist and Biotic specialist) are interesting, though more fleshed out in ME2. I played Soldier the most because I'm a simple person and like big weapons for big enemies, but dabbling in Biotics was also pretty fun, once you get the hang of it. You'l still do a lot of shooting though, since all powers are on a Cooldown basis.
Roleplaying wise, there's more than people give it credit for. There's not so much an Evil path as an Asshole path, with the option to gain Paragon points (be nice, save people, give up credits, value people's lives over mission) or Renegade points (blast everything, take no prisoners, do anything to get the mission done). They're not mutually exclusive (gaining Renegade pts doesn't lower your Paragon pts) and they unlock special dialogue options if you have enough (with Paragon being diplomatic and Renegade usually being violent). The conversation options could do with some improvement, the conversation wheel offers 2-3 words per option, which turn into a full sentence when chosen. This doesn't always mesh perfectly (In a mission where a friend betrayed an NPC I got "Friend's Loyalty" as an option, which apparently meant I said "If my friends were this loyal, I'd shoot them in the head" 0_o)
ME2 introduces Interrupts, which are actions during a conversation (paragon or renegade) for which you have a limited amount of time. For instance, a Krogan warlord might be walking around on a balcony, yelling taunts at you, a Renegade interrupt might appear when he's close to a giant Gas container, allowing you to blow him up mid-sentence. A paragon interrupt may allow you to calm someone down who's panicking. They lend a nice bit of interactivity to the normal RPG conversation convention where you always have to let the other party finish talking.
Unfortunately, quests and/or missions usually amount to "Go there, kill tons of people" with dissappointingly little variation in them (this is especially noticible in ME2 where three mercenary companies apparently encompass ALL the crime in the galaxy and as such, 80% of your enemies are one of these groups). ME1 has some (argueably) fun planet exploration (with a vehicle most people hate but I don't mind) as a side-game, whereas ME2 has Planet Scanning, where you arrive at a planet, scan it from orbit for resources (for research) and occasionally you find a Distress Beacon or similar thing on a planet, giving you a little sidemission (inevitably ending up with having to shoot 30 Mercenaries in a warehouse with chest-high crates for cover).
So anyway, bottom line, try them out, I recommend them. Don't expect tactical mastercraft or mindbogglingly deep writing, just enjoy the ride, fancy graphics, fun NPC's and simple but effective gameplay.
It was so bad that I cancelled my The Old Republic subscription then and there even though I really liked that game, just so that no part of Bioware would get any more of my money.
So no, do not play Mass Effect. Or if you do, play ME1 and ME2 and try and make sure everyone dies in ME2 so that you cant import to ME3, and can just rest knowing your sacrifices were in vain.
Regardless - well worth playing. Awesome series.
Mass Effect give you another approach of the morality, noting anymore a path of good or evil, after all the entire universe is at peril and you're already an high rank officer that already make the moral choices of your life, you're a soldier on the general scope of the word.
Now you have to decide how will you save the word, through Diplomacy or Tiranny, being reasonable or reckless, at the end both ways work to get the job done, each on of those with their own consequences.
When i say this is an RPG, understand that most of what you do will lead to future consequences, and when i say future, understand that the choices made on a mission in Mass Effect 1 can completly change an entire quest in Mass Effect 3 (If only the devs of BG EE use this simple but awesome idea...).
The romances possibilities are many in the game, specially in ME2 and ME3, they could be a bit more hot for my taste, nonetheless they're good enough to make you enjoy the banters(i always enjoyned the little sex movie with Morrigan in DA:O, even with the flaw of she be using an underwear during the act).
The game can be more or less RPG alike based on your choices, most of the banters in the game are going to be started by you, if you want, what means that you can finish the game without exploring the RPG side of Mass Effect, focusing pratically only on the FPS aspect (i discouraged this approach on ME).
As said before, the end of ME3 is a HUGE SHIT, but that's ONLY because of the divine level of the content in all of the 3 games during the entire saga. If Mass Effect was an ordinary game, that shit end on ME3 would be acceptable, but when you make a legend, expectations tend to raise, and anything less than perfection will disapoint, on this moment an ordinary work to end an epic saga as was ME3 can do more than disappoint, it can enrage.
There's an DLC out now that change Mass Effect 3 end, from what i saw it's not so much better than the old end, i didn't tried it besides an video on youtube, but i don't think that end to be better.
Obs: If you intent to play the game DO NOT OPEN THE SPOILER BELOW, but after finshing the game WITH ONE OF THE OLD ENDS come back and open this link for an video with an very interesting conspiracy theory that give some lot of sense to the end (I feel more at ease after i wached this video):
Well, i hope you enjoy the game, besides the last 10 minutes of ending in the 3° one (that can be accepted with the video provided here) it's an true art piece.
#1 is very good but can tends to be slow as it builds up the mythos of the ME universe.
#2 is probably the best of the franchise. Great story, and interesting NPCs. There is actually a race against time lacking in other games.
#3 starts off amazingly. Epic battles; a story captures feeling of both hope and hopelessness as your decisions from the previous games transforms the story till the end where it implodes upon itself. As long as you do not expect the ending to be as epic as the rest of the franchise, it is still worth it.
The DRM part of the third game isn't needed anymore iirc. I never played the MP part of the game, however, I can see how it would interest others.
Firstly it does not compatible for xbox gamepad.
Secondly it have little choices for me to select way of solving and finding way out.
So for me it is worth touching.
For you @Samus I dunno. Did you liked TOEE? If yes maybe worth a shot.
Have no idea what it has to do with ME though.
In short, I wanted to point out if you liked hard game or not
Just another question, After reading what ppl wrote about it, @Samus do you want to touch ME1 or not?
Don't think Jack got better with sex, serious. She always distrust everything around her (with strong reasons for that), in ME3 the outcome that happened for her if she's alive gave reasons for her to change, i liked the way they worked Jack in ME3, at least in my personal view it's coherent.
Don't throw away the good with the bad part.
I found the first one much better on PC but the other two better on console.
It's typically one of those stories that I would give a LOT for being able to forget it, just to be able to play it again without knowing what will happen
Sure, they tell many bad things about the ending of the 3rd, but honestly, if you know how great the rest of it is, would you throw all those days of fun away just because of that 10 minutes at the end? Well, don't!
As the game mechanics go, it's not a true RPG I would say. It really is more like an FPS-"light RPG" combo. You do get some choices though which have serious consequences. And thanx to the voice acting, you get immersed very easily.
And to defend the 3rd instalment of the game: first of all the combat mechanics are just great. Beats both the first and second game. The story can be very dramatic at many points (I remember sheding some actual tears on my first playthrough). And you get the chance to fit the DLC in the story on your first go with the game, which also enhances the experience (this goes for all 3 games). As for the ending: people whine a lot. And if you have already lower expectations for it than we did when the game came out, it may not even feel bad at all.