Mass Effect 1 Misgivings

Yes, I know, I'm just the teensiest bit late to the party, but I just got my hands on the Mass Effect Trilogy. I've beaten Mass Effect 2 on PC, and I absolutely ADORED it. Definitely one of my favorite games of all time. Now I want to do an entire series playthrough, and I've, logically, started anew with the first Mass Effect.

I'm finding it...a little difficult to get through. The story really is great: the tension between humans and aliens, the likeable characters, all of that is certainly on par with the second game. But the combat is a slog. I feel like I'm just wading through rivers of tedium, depserately seeking out the next bit of story. It's not all bad. The biotic powers are nice. Actually, it's mostly all bad. The cover system is a bit of bad joke. Is that rock cover? Hmmm..guess not, after I've already crouched down and awkwardly pressed myself against it. Oh look, there are my AI partners standing out in the open, getting shot. Lovely. Oh, they're both dead. Now I'm shooting a geth soldier, not really seeing my bullets and having no idea if I'm actually hitting it. Oh no, now that geth soldier is right in front of me? How do I melee? I have to run into it, sending myself right into the line of fire? Yup, now I'm dead. And, look at that? It sent me all the way back to the beginning of the mission (though that is, perhaps, my fault as a result of more recent games' love of autosaving) . It just feels half-baked.

And those Mako sections? Oh god, no! The controls feel...off. And they feel extremely rinse-and-repeat. And the combat isn't exactly thrilling, not even when compared to the ho-hum normal combat. The whole side quest system feels generic. That same compound? Really? For every mercenary group? Have they all signed agreements promising to construct their illegal compounds in exactly the same fashion, so as not to confuse the people chasing them? Very kind of them really.

So, I love the story. I really do. But the rest of the game feels underdeveloped, and unwieldy. Sure there a kazillion and change upgrades and weapons and armor pieces to equip, but those menus I have to struggle through to do all that? Count me out, especially when I find the combat so unappealing. Those powers are nice, but after a few seconds my whole team has used them all up and we're just shooting at spongy enemies that won't die!

So am I crazy? Brilliant (well, I already know the answer to that question...it's yes, by the by)? Will it be worth it in the end?

That's what happens when you play games out of order. You get so accustomed to the "improved" mechanics in the sequel that when you go back and try to play the first game that didn't have those same mechanics it feels awkward. When it came out the combat wasn't that bad because there was nothing to compare it to; whereas now two full games with updated controls have been released. You really should have played the first game first.

ME1 Definitely had some **** combat mechanics, but I never found it THAT hard. Except on Noviera when my framerate would dip through the floor (though I played on the 360, don't know if the PS3 has the same FPS problems). All in all, you just gotta take it a bit slower than ME2, where you can pretty much bulldozer everything in sight.

for the on foot combat, i always thought of it more like bioware's dnd-based games where regular attacks (holding down the trigger) are about dps and the powers are just burst damage you wait for cooldowns on. it doesn't make the cover system any less clunky or anything (although there are classes such as the solder that are less dependent on it), but it's easier to swallow when you think of it through the numbers behind the scenes.

the dialogue system in ME1 is maybe the worst in the trilogy and i think that effects the storytelling. while 2 and 3 remind the player that both renegade and paragon shepards are saving the galaxy in their own way, ME1 just gives the player the option to be a saint or a dick. that along with separate skill trees make it harder to have a balanced shepard. the only way i can really justify it is that bioware made 2 disparate characters that arc toward each other over the course of the series.

the mako parts do have some control issues for the aiming, but i like that those sections establish a space frontier for the fiction and provide a middle ground for pacing between the dialogue and the on foot combat.

beyond the three pillars that the series was always based around, the inventory management was awful and there's no excusing that. still, the elevator sections as loading times were great ways to keep the player in the world.

Maybe it just me but I did enjoyed ME1 quite a bit. Yes the Mako levels were bit tedious but everything else to me personally was more RPG oriented then ME2 or especially ME3 which leans more towards shooting then role playing. Both ME2 and ME3 felt stripped away from RPG elements compare to the first game.

Either way I love all three games but ME1 to me still remains more fateful and original when it comes to story and role playing elements.

the mako exploring was definately the worst part of the game for me. you have to remember, this is a pretty old game. the first one is more of an rpg than the other 2, so planning and using powers is a must. i had a lot of trouble too, especially as infiltrator (the sniper rifle is so damn shaky you can barely get a proper shot in). make sure to use the directional pad to position your party out of harms way before you enter a fight. and use your powers as much as you can. i played through ME2 and ME3 like a third person shooter on normal and had no problem, but in ME1 i was getting pwned regularly on normal.

my biggest suggestion, use Liara. her biotics are so clutch, literally it made the game so much easier for me. i don't think i couldve gone through it without her. and as crappy as the cover system is, it is still essential. cover then unleash your powers and let your guns finish the job. it gets easier once you level up a bit and get better weapons and stuff. but again my biggest advice would be to use Liara. singularity when you see big groups of enemies and pull to deal with close quarters especially when you have krogans charging at you.

its definately worth it to keep trying dude especially if you plan on playing through the series again like i have been. after playing ME1, i actually enjoyed the challenge, and i re-played through ME2 on hardcore mode and had a great time with it. and its great because this time i knew the full story and the choices you made in the first one affect the second and so on.

Already beat ME1 two times on the 360, going through it on the PS3 and the AI (squad) is pretty bad for the PS3 version, it was pretty bad for the 360 version but oh man it's pretty bad for the PS3. Those two times I beat it on the 360 I was the soldier class which is ridiculously OP, was playing a Adept but then started way too slow for my taste so atm I re rolled to a infiltrator for the PS3 playthrough.

i just got done playing this a little while ago and i was thinking the exact same thing as the TS. I've not played any of the Mass Effect games but i heard they were good. so far the combat has been pretty struggling, a bit more "regroup, heal and attack" than i expected. lots of one shot kills too, dumb partner ai, enemies making shots across the map. the parts that work right are pretty fun & you get the idea of what they were going for but the rest is kinda subpar, i hope i finish it soon so i can move on to me2 and 3.