ME1 Combat & Gameplay

CONCLUSION:

If you like ME1, that is fine. Liking or disliking something is subjective and completely personal. I happen to like ME2 much more than ME1. I still like ME1 and play it, but I much prefer the combat in ME2.

That was certainly not ideal, although I'd classify that as average stupid game AI. In ME1, they completely ignored if their line of fire was obstructed. They just stood there shooting at a wall forever. Literally forever if you or the enemy didn't move. And if it was you instead of a wall, they didn't give a shit either. They'd just stand there and continue shooting you in the back forever. Which I found pretty distracting.

The biggest problem however is enemy AI. Enemies would often just stand there doing nothing while eating your bullets, they'd literally just run in circles while eating your bullets, or just generally run around chaotically, not giving a shit where you are firing from. Or they'd hide forever while shouting "GO GO GO!" every 2 seconds. It wasn't remotely as bad in the sequels. It's one thing if AI is unsatisfying, but it's another if it's borderline gameplay-breaking imo.


I don't think that's so bad. I mean, installing heat sink mods meant fewer slots for other mods. Being able to get unlimited shooting seems fine to me if it means a trade-off.


I think the biggest problem in the paragade system was still that you were forced to choose always the good – or always the evil – option to get those crucial conversation options when it mattered. It makes you stop thinking about given conversation options, it basically forces you to pick a certain option no matter if you like it or not.

I'd have actually preferred ME1's point-spending system if it was independent of your conversation history. Want better options? Well, spend your points there. But since the higher levels are only unlocked by being a saint or a sinner, it's in principle the same system as in ME2, only that you have to spend valuable points on top of that. Which in the end makes me like it even less.

I actually think Andromeda did it best by getting rid of it entirely. You sadly can't be a real renegade there anymore, but at least it made me actually think about what I want to say (or do).

ME 1's combat and why it isn't as like summed up easily.

Am I fighting Geth? Swap every weapon mod to armor piercing that gives bonus damage to geth

Am I fighting organice? Swap every weapon mod to shredder that gives bonus damage to organic.

Elite special ops agent trained by the most rigors and challenging program the Alliance has crafted? Has more sway when looking down a rifle then a drunk.

I'd like to know the name of that mod lol

I did a trilogy playthrough as an adept without using weapons except for when the game forced me to. 

*Bangs head on desk* Why are you using only Singularity and Warp?? You have other powers! And squadmates!

Also, why the aversion to using guns? Guns were an integral part of gameplay in both ME1 and ME2. They were only made optional (for all classes) in ME3 except in specific instances.

All classes were weakened in ME2, except maybe the Engineer. 

Tend to agree here.  Admittedly, ME2 rewards you more for taking a strong Paragon or Renegade stand in ME1 since you'll start with more.  In a lot of cases you really have to know when to do certain LM's in order to avoid worse case scenarios (unless that's what you want).  Like knowing when to do Miranda and Jack or Tali and Legion makes a huge difference in possible outcomes.  It requires more than one run (probably several) before this stuff can be figured out.  I was fortunate that I started playing 4 years after ME3 came out so I was able to look up anything I didn't understand.  Still, not necessarily an option for when the games first launched.

I think that's why ME1 is my favorite in the series, despite its flaws.  It was definitely focused more on establishing the lore, which meant more information dumps than I liked, but it was consistent within itself.  ME2 immediately started to discard established lore.  The graphics obviously improved and the fact that I could romance Kaidan (and, if you'd have been unable to romance the sex of your choice you'd be equally annoyed) in ME3 meant a lot to me.

1) Crouching - I always found the execution of the crouch on the Xbox to be more of an annoyance than anything.  I would often accidentally activate it (pressing down on the right stick).  More annoying was the fact that it did not cancel itself, so I would frequently find myself trying to scoot to a different bit of cover but instead slowly "crouch-walking" to it because I failed to deactivate the crouch I had used just because the previous cover I was in was low.  ME2 crouched you automatically behind low cover and then let you stand up and run to the next piece of cover without having to think about deactivating the crouch.  A big improvement IMO.

2)  I like the added strategy of having to concern myself with running out of ammo.  Since I favor using a sniper, this meant that I could not snipe carelessly... could not "spray and pray" the higher power bullets from the SR the way I could in ME1.  In ME1, it didn't matter if it I missed 5 shots before I hit with one.  In ME2, it mattered and I liked that it mattered.

3)  Squad commands were far more refined in ME2 and ME3.  In ME1, you could only send both squad members to one location and, more often than not, they failed to take cover in that location because there often just wasn't room for both of them to do so.  In ME2, we could send them to separate locations (a big improvement), but the AI was still very finicky and, quite often, they did things like take cover on top of the cover you wanted them behind.  As far as the power wheel goes, people continue to misrepresent how many powers they had accessible at one time.  In ME2, it was a maximum of 3 at time.  That is, you could use one of your own and one from each squad member... then all were on cooldown.  In ME:A, you have three of your own and you can readily switch them out individually from your skills menu at any time or you can set up favorites and switch all three at once with a cooldown that is similar to those in ME2 (about 6 seconds).  In ME1, the cooldowns were in the range of 20 to 40 seconds and many of the skills on the power wheels are defensives or passives (like immunity) or are actually first aid related (like unity).  In ME:A, any passives you have allocated points to are always on, so that's better - you don't need to call up anything to activate them and first aid is handled completely differently.  I will say that I would to see the return of ammo powers like they had in ME2 and ME2 rather than the ammo consumables they have in ME:A.  The ammo mods in ME1 behaved more like the ME2 and ME3 ammo powers (staying on as long as they were equipped), so that would also be better than ME:A's consumables (that disappear after only 3 clips).

4) Sprinting in ME1 was indeed faster than in the rest of the Trilogy, but once Shep became fatigued; the duration for recovering in order to sprint again was inordinately long and annoying.  Ryder can sprint on command or do an evade or biotic blink (which is quicker than the sprint in any of the games) and can do it repeatedly without fatiguing (much more useful, IMO).

I really don't see great character development in ME1.  Take Tali for example.  You meet her in the alley and she'll thank you for saving her life.  You take her to Udina and she'll describe the evidence and tell you about the pilgrimage.  On the ship, she'll compliment you about your ship and tell you about the pilgrimage again and info dump further about Quarian government and the geth.  In the next conversation, she'll tell you about not sleeping because the ship's too quiet.  In the next conversation, she'll tell you about being the daughter of an admiral.  After that, if you do Geth Incursions, she'll ask for the data.  In one other conversation, she'll ask you if you're worried about catching Saren.  That's it, that's all.  That is the full extent of her character development in ME1.  IMO, it equals an info dump and not much else.  In ME2,, because she's a character Shep can romance, she finally warrants some personality development and we get some glimpses into hopes, dreams and real opinions.  We actually meet other people who are in her life - Veetor, Reegar, Raan and get some feel about how she feels about them.  It's in ME2 that she starts to feel like something more three dimensional.

Take Garrus as another example - We meet him and he tells us about his investigation.  We meet him again and he tells us that he wants to get Saren.  On the ship, he says he left C-Sec because of their rules and mention that his dad was C=Sec.  In another conversation, he'll describe Dr. Saleon and just mention that he's frustrated C-Sec let him get away.  In another conversation, he'll ask you if you're worred Saren might get away.  After you do that mission, he'll thank you and either tell you he's going back to C-Sec or becoming a spectre or just thank you.  After that, he says nothing else.  So, where's the character development?  I can't find it.  Again, it's in ME2 where we see some glimpses of actual character development (something more personal about him specifically), but even that's a little thin outside of his loyalty mission... he's usually calibrating (WOW - great character development that).

I see your point. In terms of character development, there's not much happening with Garrus in ME1 and virtually nothing with Tali. I'd like to point out Wrex though. You learn to know him as a very cynical Krogan who doesn't think much about his own kind. However on Virmire, with changing variables, he's becoming conflicted in a powerful way, understandably confronting you on the notion that the lines between friend and foe are beginning to blur. I thought that was great stuff.

Apart from that, you shouldn't forget the different nature/focus of ME1&2. ME1 is about the mission to stop Saren and Sovereign, the big story takes centre stage here, requiring characters to fall in line to some extent. ME2 is all about the characters, unlike in ME1 they are the main thing, at the cost of a good overarching storyline. Hell, Bioware said the character stuff is the main story of ME2.

From this background, it should be expected that ME2 does more with its characters than ME1 did. That doesn't make it better imo because ME1 did more with the main story than ME2. Just two different approaches, and ME2 did this better because it was the focus of the game.

Well yes, but on the other hand, maybe ME3 could have built on the main storyline if its predecessor had bothered to advance it, instead of having to fill the gaps all on its own. Pros and cons.