Getting through ME (1) when playing the trilogy is a chore

I Loved ME1 - I played it several times when it came out, and recently I finished it again after 7 years. It was a great adventure. I loved the story and that moment when we drive the Mako through the Conduit - PRICELESS!

I loved exploring the Citadel and the planets. I guess it could become tiresome if done for too long, but that could be said about *most* things.  

 *sighs while looking to the left in nostalgic memories*


I can't say that its my favorite as ME2 has that honor, but each game in the trilogy brought something different and new, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. 

Sorry for the much belated response. I've been away for a while with real life concerns.

You've exactly grasped what I meant. It would preserve the gameplay balance of ME2 and ME3, while reinstating the more logical lore of ME.

Anyone that doubts the superiority of ME's heat sink lore for MEA I ask to contemplate the alien vistas of Andromeda inexplicably littered with thermal clips -- a Milky Way technology. It's time to move away from silly, ammo-littered battlefields in Mass Effect. It's one of the few franchises, maybe the only one, with a conveniently built-in means to do so. Gameplay balance can be preserved. Original lore can be respected and restored. The beautiful, detailed landscapes they're working hard to create can be spared the indignity of being littered with those stupid thermal clips and ammo crates.

I don't dislike them. I enjoy the game, despite its simpler, more clunky design.

There are some things that they really put a lot of effort into during ME that fell by the wayside in later games. The visual distortions and auditory effects of biotics were amazing in ME. Those didn't have to go when the game mechanics were deemed over-powered. Maybe we will see some of that return with the higher ceiling of Frostbite 3? Who knows?

There was also a lot not to like, though, like that terrible inventory, and the character-building system. If I could "wish" ME3's mechanics into ME, I'd do it.

Here's a non-MP confession. The first time I played ME1 (on the RRODbox) I thought it would play like KOTOR. So I sat there and waited to take my turn against the Geth Drones and was mowed down within 2.3 seconds of Jenkins buying the farm. I'm sure that was years of replay entertainment among the juggies and destroyers in the geth consensus rec room.

Yes there is a lot of Fedexing, though ME3 makes you do it too and in a more ludicrous situation (the Reapers ARE here and are murdering bajillions every second while you go looking for Hanar bottle openers).

The combat I thought was fine overall though it was certainly improved in ME2. I did love being able to mod assault rifles to the point where you were RAMBO and could pour an uninterrupted stream of projectiles into those fucking Armatures and never overheat.

I also wish ME2/3 had retained the ability of shotguns to launch enemies 30 feet down a passageway and biotics to create a furniture typhoon

I guess the story in ME1 is so good that I selectively block out the tedious parts of the game and remember the awesome stuff like solving the Thorian mystery, the duels with Saren, driving the lolMako into the beam and fighting cheating toaster scum on the side of the Council Tower with Sovereign and the Citadel Wards looming over you.

But on topic finally, short of cheating I think the best thing to do is arm Garrus and Wrex to the teeth and just let them kill everything while you make dinner. It also helps to know which quests are totally skippable and which ones don't matter if you don't mind not having certain people in the later games.

I haven't the time to read a long article, at the moment. That said, if it's good, has this been shared in the "Articles" section yet? We're looking to build an archive/reference of sorts, and this might be a cool fit. The focus there might be more on development, rather than retrospectives, but it wouldn't hurt to check.

Ugh. Exactly. Having them in Andromeda will be One Million times worse.

I really hope they take this golden opportunity to weave lore and mechanics. I doubt they will, though. It might risk "confusing" a few simpletons that here and there that also happen to be newly introduced to the series. You can't risk that, and wouldn't want to assume gamers can understand such a simple concept as heat sinks. This isn't 2007, anymore. Even basic thinking is hard. Keep it out of muh SciFi.


I hope my pessimism is proven unfounded.

Combat in ME(1) gets very tedious for me, particularly on the higher settings if one is starting with the fresh low-level character with the early game crap weapons.  I really don't like pumping infinite, ineffective rounds with an continually overheating weapon into enemies that are spamming their immunity.  So, I usually blow through a quick playthrough (effectively a speedrun) with a new Shepard on casual to get some levels on him/her and then run a more complete and more precise playthrough (dialogue-wise) for eventual import) on a high difficulty (usually insanity).  I find that having max'd out some powers (like Warp) on Shep and squad can really help to keep the battles shorter (and, therefore, more fun).

Warp cuts through Immunity on any difficulty level.

That's one of the things I like about the first game, you can make it as easy or as hard as you want to.

I only play the first game on Veteran or Higher and if Shepard doesn't have it, then taking a character with Warp is essential.

A very effective squad make up is a Soldier Shepard with Decryption as the bonus talent, teamed with Liara and Wrex.

You don't need to max out all of Soldier Shepard's weapons talents, freeing up points for Decryption, and Liara is capable of activating any Electronics you may encounter. And Wrex is just a combat and biotic monster.

Ah, ME1. The only game in the series about which I can get nostalgic these days. I loved the exploration. It felt like going out and finding new worlds, standing on a new planet with a different sun. It triggered everything I like SF for. I loved the innovative combat mechanics and greatly resented the return to conventional ammo in ME2/3 with its absolutely nonsenstical rationalization. I loved exploring with the Mako and collecting resources. I played ME1 so often that if I returned to it today, I could still collect 95% of the resources on the uncharted worlds from memory of their location alone. I even recall the paths I took for efficient collecting on most planets.

The bad things were mostly irrelevant: combat tended to get tedious in higher difficulties, but I did not need to play those, and some scenes were horrible even by B-movie standards (the first Saren/Benezia scene comes to mind, Zombie-Saren at the end, and the scenes with Saren and the Council which were laughably implausible). The latter didn't change with ME2/3 though, but pushed the cheap horror elements up to eleven on top of it, so ME1 still stands out for its other qualities.

Think of it this way.. they all share a fairly similar formula in quest structure. It might help hold some interest.

Like ME1 starts with Eden Prime and geth attack. ME2 is mech attacks. Earth is Reapers. You lose a henchmen in each (Jenkins, Wilson, Anderson).

The Citadel is a hub that introduces you to the main political interplay of races.. especially Garrus and Wrex. ME2 does the same, but Mordin becomes the alternate side of Wrex's story in 2. And Omega is the counter to the Citadel. After that, there's Jack, trapped similarly in a way to Liara, but a new angle on human biotics. And she doesn't like being rescued, like Liara. lol. Grunt's mission has hints of Virmire..

I could keep going, but basically a lot of motifs are the same. And ME1 isn't complete without them. Although I do understand why Tuchanka gives off that vibe.

You can minimize the loading quite a bit now. I don't get it with doors on a typical modern PC. And there's a mod to cut down the loading screens... they'll only last as long as it actually takes time to load (before the animation would play regardless. It was timed to 360 loading times).