Mass Effect

[Psion]

The sidequests are unfortunately hit or miss and far too many miss. I did like Listening Post: Alpha though. It was another "hey look, you're going to shoot bad guys, and then shoot more in a mine you've seen 70 times already" but they tweaked it around just enough to make the first half of it pretty awesome. More sidequests like that and I imagine most people wouldn't have been so bored.

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Psion:<BR>The sidequests are unfortunately hit or miss and far too many miss. I did like Listening Post: Alpha though. It was another "hey look, you're going to shoot bad guys, and then shoot more in a mine you've seen 70 times already" but they tweaked it around just enough to make the first half of it pretty awesome. More sidequests like that and I imagine most people wouldn't have been so bored. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>I don't get why they're boring. I mean, how do people manage to play story-less FPS shooters (or any online shooter)? You just kill the same enemies in the same location over and over and over. The excitement is in the combat itself, and ME adds story and dialogue to mix things up a little.<BR><BR>I can imagine the game would truly suck for a primarily FPS player who didn't like ME's particular combat mechanic (and/or found it too easy), and also didn't like the dialogue (skips through it because there's too much talking (!)). But for the rest of us surely the situations is that the UNC missions aren't as truly excellent as the main plot missions, though considered by themselves are still fun?<BR><BR>I mean, there are very many RPGs where the combat, story and variety across the entire game are all worse than ME UNC missions alone. I guess a person's fun/bored threshold depends on how much of an RPG fan they are and how many they've played.

 

[Deleted member 1]

I've played a few RPGs, I am certainly not a hardcore RGP fan but the side-quests in ME certainly stick out as particularly boring.<BR><BR>1) Land on planet<BR>2) Drive around, scan stuff<BR>3) Kill bad guys (and guns) with Mako, or kill the occasional monster that comes out of the planet surface<BR>4) Go into some small structure, kill more bad guys<BR>5) Return to Normandy<BR>6) Rinse and Repeat<BR><BR>That's acceptable for an RGP fan?

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by PerfectCr:<BR>I've played a few RPGs, I am certainly not a hardcore RGP fan but the side-quests in ME certainly stick out as particularly boring.<BR> </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>0) Receive an interesting sounding quest in one of a variety of interesting and inventive ways<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"><BR>1) Land on planet<BR>2) Drive around, scan stuff<BR>3) Kill bad guys (and guns) with Mako, or kill the occasional monster that comes out of the planet surface<BR>4) Go into some small structure, kill more bad guys<BR> </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>4a) Or sometimes talk to them, or solve some kind of simple puzzle; have a choice of resolving the quest in a few different ways<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"><BR>5) Return to Normandy<BR> </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>5a) You've already received quest rewards during the mission, but at some point you typically get some nice quest resolution (ie. dialogue as reward).<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"><BR>6) <STRIKE>Rinse and Repeat</STRIKE> You never get true repetition, which you <I>do</I> get in many other RPGs<BR><BR>That's acceptable for an RGP fan? </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Well, you kind of missed out the reason for visiting the planets in the first place: the UNC missions. Without the missions it would be like unforced random battles, so yes it would be 'acceptable'. With the missions it's not only acceptable, but IMHO super-great.

 

[Psion]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by senduran:<BR> I guess a person's fun/bored threshold depends on how much of an RPG fan they are and how many they've played. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Uh, no.<BR><BR><BR>When doing an average UNC sidequest, you go to the galaxy map, you zoom out, pick your cluster, zoom in for the system, wait for it to fire through the mass relay, find the planet, click land, wait for the Mako drop sequence, drive to a prefabricated [mine/bunker/building] with one of about 2 interior layouts, shoot [krogan/rachni/slavers/mercenaries], then leave. Maybe survey a mineral or two.<BR><BR>There's far too much time expended getting to the 'meat' of the quest, which is almost invariably the exact same 'meat' as the last 15 quests. Not this crap about whether or not you're an actual RPG fan.<BR><BR>There are far too <I>few</I> sidequests which actually involve anything beyond "go to a bunker and shoot someone," which is the point. Shooting people in bunkers in and of itself isn't a problem - but that too many of the sidequests are too similar in doing so. Snooze. And the transit time is ridiculous for doing the same thing half a dozen times in a row.

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Psion:<BR>When doing an average UNC sidequest, you go to the galaxy map, you zoom out, pick your cluster, zoom in for the system, wait for it to fire through the mass relay, find the planet, click land, wait for the Mako drop sequence, drive to a prefabricated [mine/bunker/building] with one of about 2 interior layouts, shoot [krogan/rachni/slavers/mercenaries], then leave. Maybe survey a mineral or two.<BR><BR>There's far too much time expended getting to the 'meat' of the quest, which is almost invariably the exact same 'meat' as the last 15 quests. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>But all RPGs that feature exploration are exactly like this. You spend time traveling, discover a simple kill/fetch mission, then you kill/fetch that thing which is most likely in a generic cave or dungeon. Cf. Oblivion.<BR><BR>You're <I>always</I> at some fundamental level doing the exact same kinds of things over and over (in any game type): I don't get why these are especially singled out, unless it's because the large difference between them and the main quests makes their nature so obvious (or the person playing just doesn't like that kind of simple gameplay: the non RPGer).

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Psion:<BR>Shooting people in bunkers in and of itself isn't a problem - but that too many of the sidequests are too similar in doing so. Snooze. And the transit time is ridiculous for doing the same thing half a dozen times in a row. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Well, that particular issue is easily remedied by not doing them all in a row. You can mix them up with the main quest line to help keep things interesting. I always saw it as a welcome break from the intensity of the main plot to do something simple but still satisfying. And to explore the galaxy, which I found fun in and of itself.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">But all RPGs that feature exploration are exactly like this. You spend time traveling, discover a simple kill/fetch mission, then you kill/fetch that thing which is most likely in a generic cave or dungeon. Cf. Oblivion. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>I wouldn't say all. Oblivion is absolutely an example. Pretty much every JRPG is an example. But the old school American computer RPGs were far less so.<BR><BR>Here's hoping that Bethesda grasps this difference while they are developing F3.

 

[Arleban]

Here is what I want to know for these Mako landings. My ship can scan the planet and find an anomaly that is a tiny half-buried box holding a medallion, but it can't find any mineral deposits? Really? Even the big ones that are sticking out of the ground higher than my character is tall?<BR><BR><BR>I will say that I was impressed with one of the last missions that I ran. Gur bar jurer lbh gnxr bhg gur jneybeq va gur Fxlyyvna Iretr gung gur Nyyvnapr frghc. Gur raq qvnybt jnf cerggl njrfbzr:<BR><BR>Furcneq: "Lbh frg zr hc. Gur Nyyvnapr chg uvz va cbjre naq abj ur jnf zrffvat jvgu lbhe zvaref"<BR><BR>Nqzveny Unpxrgg: "Gur Nyyvnapr qbrf abg pbaqbar nffnffvangvba naq jbhyq abg nhgubevmr gubfr zvffvbaf. Orfvqrf, lbh znqr gur pubvpr gb xvyy uvz. Lbh'er n Fcrpger naq abg haqre bhe pbageby fb jung pna jr qb nobhg vg abj?"<BR><BR><BR>Just seemed like a nice bit of dialogue.

 

[C0rinthian]

Most of the side quests had a unique premise, but then the actual implimentation was very repetitive. Of course, you could say the same thing for World of Warcraft, where every quest boils down to kill/collection/delivery.<BR><BR>I thought the news reports about various things you did were a nice touch though. Especially when they were obviously run through a RDF.

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Arleban:<BR>Here is what I want to know for these Mako landings. My ship can scan the planet and find an anomaly that is a tiny half-buried box holding a medallion, but it can't find any mineral deposits? Really? Even the big ones that are sticking out of the ground higher than my character is tall? </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Correct. The Normandy can detect electronic signals (beacons), but not other stuff. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. This is why surveying a mineral deposit involves sticking a beacon next to it.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Gur bar jurer lbh gnxr bhg gur jneybeq va gur Fxlyyvna Iretr gung gur Nyyvnapr frghc. Gur raq qvnybt jnf cerggl njrfbzr:<BR><BR>Furcneq: "Lbh frg zr hc. Gur Nyyvnapr chg uvz va cbjre naq abj ur jnf zrffvat jvgu lbhe zvaref"<BR><BR>Nqzveny Unpxrgg: "Gur Nyyvnapr qbrf abg pbaqbar nffnffvangvba naq jbhyq abg nhgubevmr gubfr zvffvbaf. Orfvqrf, lbh znqr gur pubvpr gb xvyy uvz. Lbh'er n Fcrpger naq abg haqre bhe pbageby fb jung pna jr qb nobhg vg abj?" </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>How do you get this quest. Near as I can tell, it's the only one I didn't get. I found the location but his facility didn't have an openable door.

 

[baseline]

I believe you have to have at least 75% Renegade to receive the transmission that provides this mission. <BR><BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR><BR><BR>How do you get this quest. Near as I can tell, it's the only one I didn't get. I found the location but his facility didn't have an openable door. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[bulletproof]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR>I wouldn't say all. Oblivion is absolutely an example. Pretty much every JRPG is an example. But the old school American computer RPGs were far less so. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>As someone who has never touched a JRPG (or Oblivion) can you elaborate on what those sidequests are and why they are so much more interesting? Specifically what different sidequests are you doing in a JRPG (or Oblivion) other than hunting/fetching/assassinating?

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">As someone who has never touched a JRPG (or Oblivion) can you elaborate on what those sidequests are and why they are so much more interesting? Specifically what different sidequests are you doing in a JRPG (or Oblivion) other than hunting/fetching/assassinating? </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>You read that exactly opposite of how I intended it, I think. Sorry for not being clearer.

 

[English_C6H^]

<blockquote class="ip-ubbcode-quote">
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div>
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by bulletproof:<br><br>As someone who has never touched a JRPG (or Oblivion) can you elaborate on what those sidequests are and why they are so much more interesting? Specifically what different sidequests are you doing in a JRPG (or Oblivion) other than hunting/fetching/assassinating? </div>
</blockquote>
<br><br>Oblivion was a lot of "fetch, kill, collect, assasinate, sneak, steal, guard," quests, which really boils down to 1. Kill X, 2. Get X, or 3. Don't let X get killed. <br><br>Oblivion did a decent job of giving you the quest-giver's motivation and why it was important to them, but if you didn't care, it would not matter to you.<br><br>Basically, if you are going to play an RPG thinking "There better not be any fetch quests..." well, let's just hope it a nice day outside wherever you are. -- View image here: http://episteme.meincmagazine.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif --

 

[bulletproof]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">As someone who has never touched a JRPG (or Oblivion) can you elaborate on what those sidequests are and why they are so much more interesting? Specifically what different sidequests are you doing in a JRPG (or Oblivion) other than hunting/fetching/assassinating? </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Ah- I see. Thanks.<BR><BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"><BR>Basically, if you are going to play an RPG thinking "There better not be any fetch quests..." well, let's just hope it a nice day outside wherever you are. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR> I guess that was what my question was. The sidequests in ME seem pretty standard to me for an RPG. I guess I don't understand what Psion is disagreeing about.<BR><BR>You read that exactly opposite of how I intended it, I think. Sorry for not being clearer. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

[Semi On]

Holy broken quoting...<BR><BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I guess that was what my question was. The sidequests in ME seem pretty standard to me for an RPG. I guess I don't understand what Psion is disagreeing about. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>For an alternative option, play the Fallout series. While there is still a level of fetch/kill, there is a huge amount of variety in how you go about solving the quest aside from "travel to area, kill everything, bring back item".

 

[English_C6H^]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR>Holy broken quoting...<BR><BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I guess that was what my question was. The sidequests in ME seem pretty standard to me for an RPG. I guess I don't understand what Psion is disagreeing about. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>For an alternative option, play the Fallout series. While there is still a level of fetch/kill, there is a huge amount of variety in how you go about solving the quest aside from "travel to area, kill everything, bring back item". </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Which is why the Dark Brotherhood quests were the best in Oblivion. "Kill X. Extra goodies if you kill X by dropping Y on him without Z seeing you." You didn't have to do it that way, but the challenge (and the motivation) was there if you wanted it.

 

[Hurricane]

See me I wouldn't have really minded the repetitive nature of most of the quest had the combat system been dynamic enough to give you a different experience in each encounter. Being a long time RGP player I am used to the repetitive nature of questing that is filler in most RPGs(though some games became so repetitive as to become outright boring; that's what happened to me soloing in WOW). But with the almost vanilla combat scenarios that you play over and over again it got really stale. I outright gave up on the collection quests on my second runthru and I only did the side missions mainly to gain P/R points.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Which is why the Dark Brotherhood quests were the best in Oblivion. "Kill X. Extra goodies if you kill X by dropping Y on him without Z seeing you." You didn't have to do it that way, but the challenge (and the motivation) was there if you wanted it. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>The DB missions were by far the highlight of the game.

 

[Hast]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR>Holy broken quoting...<BR><BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I guess that was what my question was. The sidequests in ME seem pretty standard to me for an RPG. I guess I don't understand what Psion is disagreeing about. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>For an alternative option, play the Fallout series. While there is still a level of fetch/kill, there is a huge amount of variety in how you go about solving the quest aside from "travel to area, kill everything, bring back item". </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>The Fallout games as well as Torment (and to some extent Arcanum) stand out IMHO as having really good quests. But I wouldn't put this against ME since most games (particularly console RPGs) don't have that much variety. The fact that ME doesn't have any "protect" quests is a big fat plus in my book since those are usually broken by suicidal AI.<BR><BR>My biggest gripe with ME is that the ships, bases and caves are waaaaaay too identical. They could at least have mirrored the levels every now and then.<BR><BR>Now on my second play-through it feels like the game actually mixes things up more than I remembered. But the identical set-pieces are kind of tricking you (in a bad way) into feeling that it's the same mission each time. The side-missions are usually hinted at during the main quests as well (you see notes on terminals, or someone mentions something) which is kind of neat. But there usually is very little to do besides kill everyone.<BR><BR>For an example in Fallout2 of how they mix stuff up: There is one quest (in New Reno) where you are asked to kill the sheriff of the town. (This is an option if you're playing a bad guy.) Naturally you can just go over, kick the door in and start shooting. But you can also go to the back of the house where his kid is playing. Give the kid a explosive charge (set with a small delay) and he'll run inside to show his daddy... Boom!<BR><BR>You don't see that type of evil options in Bioware games. Instead it's more petty evil. (Though I have found that now that I play renegade in ME that it's less petty than their earlier games. And sometimes it's even a morally correct choice, for some moral system.)

 

[Zarile3]

I have about ten hours in the game, and am only on the 3rd storyline mission, I have been playing side quests like crazy. I think they are a blast. Sure, they may be the same thing over and over, but I am gaining experience, getting new items, and am being challenged, and I am pretty sure that's what an RPG consists of.

 

[senduran]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Hurricane:<BR>See me I wouldn't have really minded the repetitive nature of most of the quest had the combat system been dynamic enough to give you a different experience in each encounter. [...] But with the almost vanilla combat scenarios that you play over and over again it got really stale. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Hmmm, that was one of the things I quite liked about the combat system, but perhaps this doesn't apply to soldiers so much: as you level up you get new talents (or improve some until finally they become usable in combat, or got some new item that augmented those talents) and using them really does change an encouter drastically. <BR><BR>As an adept I was still discovering new and better ways to use my array of talents right up till the end of the game, and each encouter played out a little differently. In fact I remember some of the hardest encounters tended to be UNC missions with a ton of enemies in a room and I might have to reload a few times, trying out different combinations of talents and tactics to win.

 

[Captain_Science]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Hast:<BR>My biggest gripe with ME is that the ships, bases and caves are waaaaaay too identical. They could at least have mirrored the levels every now and then.<BR> </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Agreed. Even in their current form, I think the sidequests would be a lot more interesting if they just mixed up the environments a bit. Even though the actual quests were the generic "shoot guys", there are two that still stick in my mind just for where they took place: the one on the Moon, because well, it's the Moon, and has guaranteed emotional resonance; the second was on a planet really close to a red giant (Abaddon maybe?), where I got a real palpable feeling of dread every time I looked at the sky and saw this monstrous star just hanging there. I was almost drawn to look, but hated it when I did.<BR><BR>The rest of the planets were just a bunch of interchangeable heightmaps and accordingly, I can't remember the details of any of the quests I did on them.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The fact that ME doesn't have any "protect" quests is a big fat plus in my book since those are usually broken by suicidal AI. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>A-fucking-men.

 

[Paul M]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The fact that ME doesn't have any "protect" quests is a big fat plus in my book since those are usually broken by suicidal AI. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>A-fucking-men. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>This I can agree with 100%. <BR><BR>You don't have to go that far back though to look at other ways the optional quests could have gone. Just look at previous Bioware games like Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. There's nothing at all like what they did in ME, and I consider that to be a good thing. Jade Empire had a scrolling shooter minigame that comes closest, but it was always extremely short, skippable entirely, and really had little impact on things. Being short is the key, even if you wanted to do it it took very little time. <BR><BR>Almost every single side planet in ME takes longer to get from the ship to the quest location than to complete the quest once you're there. That's one of the big problems, it's an artificial time sink.<BR><BR>Also can we get a moratorium on Tower of Hanoi puzzles in video games? Please?

 

[Wwen]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Psion:<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by senduran:<BR> I guess a person's fun/bored threshold depends on how much of an RPG fan they are and how many they've played. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Uh, no.<BR><BR><BR>When doing an average UNC sidequest, you go to the galaxy map, you zoom out, pick your cluster, zoom in for the system, wait for it to fire through the mass relay, find the planet, click land, wait for the Mako drop sequence, drive to a prefabricated [mine/bunker/building] with one of about 2 interior layouts, shoot [krogan/rachni/slavers/mercenaries], then leave. Maybe survey a mineral or two.<BR><BR>There's far too much time expended getting to the 'meat' of the quest, which is almost invariably the exact same 'meat' as the last 15 quests. Not this crap about whether or not you're an actual RPG fan.<BR><BR>There are far too <I>few</I> sidequests which actually involve anything beyond "go to a bunker and shoot someone," which is the point. Shooting people in bunkers in and of itself isn't a problem - but that too many of the sidequests are too similar in doing so. Snooze. And the transit time is ridiculous for doing the same thing half a dozen times in a row. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>And there are like 3 different bunker designs. I enjoyed ME, but I skipped the bulk of the side quests. Most are boring story-wise, driving the mako to every little object on the map isn't fun to me, and there is very little diviation from the side-quest formula described above.

 

[iko]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Also can we get a moratorium on Tower of Hanoi puzzles in video games? Please? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Seconded. I literally groaned when I ran into that.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">quote:<BR>Also can we get a moratorium on Tower of Hanoi puzzles in video games? Please? <BR>Seconded. I literally groaned when I ran into that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Meh. It took like 10 seconds to complete.

 

[Eyris6]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by senduran:<BR><BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Hurricane:<BR>See me I wouldn't have really minded the repetitive nature of most of the quest had the combat system been dynamic enough to give you a different experience in each encounter. [...] But with the almost vanilla combat scenarios that you play over and over again it got really stale. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Hmmm, that was one of the things I quite liked about the combat system, but perhaps this doesn't apply to soldiers so much: as you level up you get new talents (or improve some until finally they become usable in combat, or got some new item that augmented those talents) and using them really does change an encouter drastically. <BR><BR>As an adept I was still discovering new and better ways to use my array of talents right up till the end of the game, and each encouter played out a little differently. In fact I remember some of the hardest encounters tended to be UNC missions with a ton of enemies in a room and I might have to reload a few times, trying out different combinations of talents and tactics to win. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>This was one of the nicer things about the sidequests: the combat was often harder than the main quest combats, which made them a nice challenge.

 

[Psion]

It's already been noted but my problems with the sidequests in general take two forms:<BR><BR>Repetitive tasks <B>in repetitive environments</B> are boring. They couldn't palette swap so the moon missions (as in Luna) didn't have red rock outside the tunnels? Last I checked the moon is not made of red rock. There are enough crates to make OMM cry. There's just not enough variety in location to do a bunch of similar quests. One or the other being repetitive is fine, both is awful.<BR><BR>Getting to and from each quest zone took longer than completing it. 5 minutes of flying to a planet, landing, driving, all for 70 seconds of fun (ie, combat?) No thanks.

 

[iko]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Semi On:<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">quote:<BR>Also can we get a moratorium on Tower of Hanoi puzzles in video games? Please? <BR>Seconded. I literally groaned when I ran into that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Meh. It took like 10 seconds to complete. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Yes, it's not even a good method by which to stretch the 'time played' counter.<BR><BR>I mean, they could have at least gone with a sokoban level. Is sudoku still fashionable? Tic-tac-toe?¹ *shudder*<BR><BR><small>¹: The Sam & Max episode where you had to force yourself into a /loss/ in a game of tic-tac-toe was at least somewhat novel.</small>

 

[Deleted member 1]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Psion:<BR> They couldn't palette swap so the moon missions (as in Luna) didn't have red rock outside the tunnels? Last I checked the moon is not made of red rock. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yeah I did that side quest and man is that just lazy. I was wondering why the rock was Red underground.

 

[Semi On]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I mean, they could have at least gone with a sokoban level. Is sudoku still fashionable? Tic-tac-toe?1 </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>Funny you should say that as I typed what I did, got up and went to the bathroom, naturally pondering the point. The only thing I came up with on the toilet as a more modern take on a similar idea was Sudoku.

 

[Deleted member 1]

So after about 22 Hours I finished my run through this game. I have to say, overall I am disappointed. The presentation is second to none. The story line is great, and the combat was even decent. However there wasn't enough of it to sustain the game. And no I don't consider the cookie cutter side quests as part of the story. <BR><BR>I loved KOTOR. While Mass Effect had a great story, it was a little to close to KOTOR for my liking.<BR><BR><B>ME / KOTOR</B><BR>Spectre / Jedi<BR>council / Jedi Council<BR>Geth / Sith<BR>Biotics / Force<BR>Saren / Darth Malak<BR>Kaiden / Carth (same voice too)<BR>Sovereign / Star Forge<BR><BR>I could probably find more. Now if you're going to copy a game, KOTOR is the one. <BR><BR>The game mechanic has tons of potential, let's hope they expand on this big time in ME2 because this game left me wanting big time.

 

[Shallow]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The game mechanic has tons of potential, let's hope they expand on this big time in ME2 because this game left me wanting big time. </div></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR>I couldnt agree more. The potential (and hype) were both there but ME left me unsatisfied. Maybe that was because I played ME almost immediately after I finished The Witcher. I didnt expect it to be as good as The Witcher but still I expected more. Jebus H. Simpson, the witcher was so much better then ME with none of the bullshit marketing.<BR>EDIT: Im not saying that ME was a bad game but it just didnt didnt do the job for me.

 

[Hurricane]

++<br><br>It's like I keep saying; I feel the game was unfinished. When you compare the main storyline mission with the side mission there just appears to be alot more polish to them in every aspect; Mako sequence; level layout; etc.<br><br>Being that there are a large quantities of planets in the game I did not expect each planet to have it own unique base; but they should have least come up with more archtype structures. think about it; all side mission revolve around 2 types of base structures and one mine type. That's it, even the internal layout for those bases and mines are essentially the same(just a slight change here and there in the way the crates are laid out.<br><br><br>But on a more positive note; I just picked up a 42in. 1080p LCDTV and I must say this game looks awesome in HD(after all the textures load -- View image here: http://episteme.meincmagazine.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif -- ). I am truly blown away by the level of detail and the games looks more cinematic now than it did on my SD TV. And I can finally read all the text in the game!!!!! I am doing another runthru so I can get all the story I wasn't able to read the other two times I played. <br><br>BTW is there any word when DLC will be comming to this game?

 

[Semi On]

So it occured to me that there is a conclusion to one of the missions that is missing in my opinion. With regard to the Hive Queen, I really wish there was an option to save her, fill her in on Saren (or as much as you can know at that point) and then tell the council to fuck off because you just unleashed a terribly effective weapon against the Reapers. <br><br><blockquote class="ip-ubbcode-quote">
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div>
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">It's like I keep saying; I feel the game was unfinished. </div>
</blockquote>
<br><br>Over and over and over...<br><br><blockquote class="ip-ubbcode-quote">
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div>
<div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">BTW is there any word when DLC will be comming to this game? </div>
</blockquote>
<br><br>The game keeps telling me it's available now. It lies! -- View image here: http://episteme.meincmagazine.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif --

 

[Hurricane]

Yeah the DLC that's available now are gamerpics!!!!!<br><br> -- View image here: http://episteme.meincmagazine.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif --