inherit
7016
0
17
lyravain
5
April 2017
lyravain
|
Post by lyravain on May 8, 2017 22:05:51 GMT
You are entitled to your opinion, but I'd like to just interject some of my own thoughts to counteract. I thoroughly enjoy the game. I can't speak to the multiplayer component because I'll likely never play it. 1. Companions. I actually think Vetra is one of the more boring companions. However, go back and watch some Youtube videos of interacting with your characters in ME1. I've said this in other posts, but I think most people are thinking of the character interactions in ME3, where we had three full games of reference point to like these characters. Garrus, specifically, in ME1, was a very boring flat character. He was an ex-cop, disillusioned and depressed that it wasn't a great job. That's it. All he ever talks about is his time at C-Sec and that he was frustrated by red tape. It's not until ME2 he develops more personality that continues to build into ME3. Using Ashley as the comparison isn't representative because she's actually one of the more nuanced and more fleshed out characters in ME1. Every character consists of tropes. However, what you see as aggravation I see as developed character flaws. Cora is a professional. She's been an asari huntress (okay, okay I get the jokes), she was Alec's second to become Pathfinder, then everything changes. Talk to her and see how she's faced disappointment after disappointment and still plugs along. Actually, she does have a pretty good FUBAR skill because despite being passed over for you as Pathfinder, she accepts it and goes along willingly. She never fights it. Liam, I'll give you. He sucks. Peebee's romance isn't pushed any more than anyone else's. Certainly less so than Liara's through the entire Mass Effect trilogy. Jaal... isn't really self-righteous. In fact, he admits to flaws in his people, like the roekaar. He's the one who willingly jumps aboard the Tempest to be his people's representative with you. He has no idea anything about you and risks his life by coming along. Plus he cares about you and the crew, as seen when he's trying to make gifts for everyone to show he cares and wants to be a part of the team. 2. Biotic/weapons. I don't see what you are talking about. I feel like the biotics are sufficiently powerful. I rely on biotic detonations quite a bit and try to use them as much as I can to soften up/finish off opponents and use my guns as mop up or crowd control. For instance, singularity and detonating a throw is my bread and butter with a few Nova's thrown in to boot. I think the biotics are actually pretty powerful and they feel great to use with how fast Ryder can move. Also you can set up 4 different "favorites" of three distinct powers and change them on the fly in the weapons wheel... So you really can possibly have 12 powers (be they tech, biotic or combat) at your disposal.... 3. Meh..> I suppose personal flavor. I will concede it's unlikely to travel to a different galaxy and still have humanoid alien species. That's true. We could use some more variety in the next games. However... we needed enemies and allies that could move like us and be enemies and companions. How in the world are you going to fight a hanar opponent? The races are humanoids for practicality's sake. It's the same in the OT.... Drell, krogan, asari, turian, salarian, quarian, batarian... everything is bipedal humanoid. The ones that aren't? The hanar and the elcor? They are never more than just background noise that are maybe vendors or give you quests but they never are companions or enemies or anything and they are slowly phased out over the course of the trilogy (and by slowly I mean they pretty much vanish after ME1. It's a game. If the new species didn't have new armors and weapons we could use, people would complain and we would just have the same old stuff. They are made humanoid so we can relate to these game characters and have a proper enemy to fight that 's both new and familiar. Seriously, if we had just enemies like the elcor that aren't humanoid.... well I guess the entire game would just be fighting fiends all the time and nothing more. Honestly, it's fine that you don't like the game.. However, I don't know... some of what you said just seems like you didn't really dive deep in the game and took everything at a surface level look. If you can't objectively say that the companions have more depth of character and content given to them than the squad mates in ME1... I just don't think you actually did more than main missions and called it a day. Sorry for the delay in replying -kinda forgot to check here. Still, thanks for the reply and the structured form of said reply. To the points you made; Unlike most, I don't idolize ME1,2 or 3. Thing is, most of my experience with the franchise comes from ME2 and ME3 (I didn't play more than an hour on ME1). And I'm not making a comparison. Just an observation; most of the companions in MEA are boring. Suvi and Kallo have more interesting opinions than Cora. Which is a good point for Suvi and Kallo -and a bad one for Cora. As for Ashley; to me, I kinda liked her -she was a soldier first, everything else a distant second. Which, considering she was a soldier, is a pretty good thing. Still, she wasn't nearly as fleshed out as, say, Mordin. They had a LOT of time to throw in interesting characters -instead they picked a couple of tropes for each and said 'welp, that's it, we're done'. I wish they'd just asked even one person who's played some decent pen-and-paper RPGs to make a character. It's okay if characters start out two-dimensional, that's why they 'start out', but they need to grow and evolve, change, adapt. Please PeeBee's romance is pushed - I didn't even choose the flirty answers and she just up and offered the happy-fun-time. Two missions later, she wants a permanent relationship. Come on. And Jaal only admits that 'hey, we got the Roekarr, we're not perfect', but if you ever so much as insinuate something negative about anyone who's not a self-identified Roekarr, he goes bonkers. Powers seem kind of... underwhelming at times. Make no mistake, I like using them (Annihilation, Lance and Drain Energy are a pretty good mook destroying combo), but I can't help but feel that in ME2 and 3, Powers were more... impactful. That said, it's okay since Ryder is NOT a war hero on his way to legendary status. In the original ME trilogy, you have to take into account the technical limitations. Yes, it was advanced, but not to the point they could animate realistic movements for vastly different skeletons -for one, where would they even mo-cap (and how would they mo-cap) something that is VASTLY different from a bipedal form. If they had mocaps for bipedals and just 'imagined' movements for everything else, it would make for a jarring experience. So, good on them that they didn't do it then. But this is SEVERAL years after it. They had time -and money. Even if they had just added more races as 'background noise' so to speak, they would have been better. Doesn't have to be 'big hulking machines of doom' either -they can be flying or immobile or oozing out of somewhere like a gigantic murderous amoeba. Thing is, I DO like the game -a lot. I see so much potential in it. That might be my problem though. I see all those things they COULD have done to make it even better -for example, the scanner. So much potential there. And sometimes, they go into it, only to the forget about it. I loved the interaction when you first take your scanner in front of the guards in Aya, about as much as I loved it when Ryder scanned something completely different and the surprise that came with it. Aaaand then it wasn't really explored that much. Sure, I used it to identify some wirings and weakpoints, it even told me some interesting lore stuff. Heck, I'd have been all for the mineral and flora scanning to have been bigger, more involved. Scientists talking about what we sent them. That kind of stuff. And for the record; I did do almost all of the quests (except, for example the 'collect all roekarr datapads' ones because I got seriously bored after 2 hours of looking). The animations never really bothered me (I'm a 90's kid so if it is at Baldur's Gate or better graphics, I'm good). It was the fact that there's so much inspiration they could have used to give something so, so much bigger and wonderful. |
|
inherit
191
0
833
Furisco
546
August 2016
furisco
|
Post by Furisco on May 9, 2017 0:43:30 GMT
And for my last florish of provocation before exit...Pebee is better than Drax! ::runs like the wind::  |
|
erikson
N3
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Posts: 704 Likes: 872
inherit
6153
0
Sept 14, 2019 19:54:32 GMT
872
erikson
704
Mar 26, 2017 13:56:54 GMT
March 2017
erik
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
|
Post by erikson on May 9, 2017 1:46:42 GMT
And for my last florish of provocation before exit...Pebee is better than Drax! ::runs like the wind:: |
|
liquidsnake
N2
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
Posts: 132 Likes: 431
inherit
6457
0
Nov 30, 2017 17:32:22 GMT
431
liquidsnake
132
Mar 28, 2017 17:28:42 GMT
March 2017
liquidsnake
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
|
Post by liquidsnake on May 9, 2017 11:52:57 GMT
Sorry for the delay in replying -kinda forgot to check here. Still, thanks for the reply and the structured form of said reply. To the points you made; Unlike most, I don't idolize ME1,2 or 3. Thing is, most of my experience with the franchise comes from ME2 and ME3 (I didn't play more than an hour on ME1). And I'm not making a comparison. Just an observation; most of the companions in MEA are boring. Suvi and Kallo have more interesting opinions than Cora. Which is a good point for Suvi and Kallo -and a bad one for Cora. As for Ashley; to me, I kinda liked her -she was a soldier first, everything else a distant second. Which, considering she was a soldier, is a pretty good thing. Still, she wasn't nearly as fleshed out as, say, Mordin. They had a LOT of time to throw in interesting characters -instead they picked a couple of tropes for each and said 'welp, that's it, we're done'. I wish they'd just asked even one person who's played some decent pen-and-paper RPGs to make a character. It's okay if characters start out two-dimensional, that's why they 'start out', but they need to grow and evolve, change, adapt. Please PeeBee's romance is pushed - I didn't even choose the flirty answers and she just up and offered the happy-fun-time. Two missions later, she wants a permanent relationship. Come on. And Jaal only admits that 'hey, we got the Roekarr, we're not perfect', but if you ever so much as insinuate something negative about anyone who's not a self-identified Roekarr, he goes bonkers. Powers seem kind of... underwhelming at times. Make no mistake, I like using them (Annihilation, Lance and Drain Energy are a pretty good mook destroying combo), but I can't help but feel that in ME2 and 3, Powers were more... impactful. That said, it's okay since Ryder is NOT a war hero on his way to legendary status. In the original ME trilogy, you have to take into account the technical limitations. Yes, it was advanced, but not to the point they could animate realistic movements for vastly different skeletons -for one, where would they even mo-cap (and how would they mo-cap) something that is VASTLY different from a bipedal form. If they had mocaps for bipedals and just 'imagined' movements for everything else, it would make for a jarring experience. So, good on them that they didn't do it then. But this is SEVERAL years after it. They had time -and money. Even if they had just added more races as 'background noise' so to speak, they would have been better. Doesn't have to be 'big hulking machines of doom' either -they can be flying or immobile or oozing out of somewhere like a gigantic murderous amoeba. Thing is, I DO like the game -a lot. I see so much potential in it. That might be my problem though. I see all those things they COULD have done to make it even better -for example, the scanner. So much potential there. And sometimes, they go into it, only to the forget about it. I loved the interaction when you first take your scanner in front of the guards in Aya, about as much as I loved it when Ryder scanned something completely different and the surprise that came with it. Aaaand then it wasn't really explored that much. Sure, I used it to identify some wirings and weakpoints, it even told me some interesting lore stuff. Heck, I'd have been all for the mineral and flora scanning to have been bigger, more involved. Scientists talking about what we sent them. That kind of stuff. And for the record; I did do almost all of the quests (except, for example the 'collect all roekarr datapads' ones because I got seriously bored after 2 hours of looking). The animations never really bothered me (I'm a 90's kid so if it is at Baldur's Gate or better graphics, I'm good). It was the fact that there's so much inspiration they could have used to give something so, so much bigger and wonderful. I appreciate the constructive reply and I do actually agree with some of your points. I guess it's all personal interest in the characters. For instance, a lot of people like Samara in ME2 and I just always thought she was fairly 'meh.' I can see why some people would think the characters in MEA are fairly one note. It takes time to develop and really get in to the heads of them. Cora, for instance, has been bombarded with a lot of criticism that she is very one note and boring. I, personally, thought she had quite a fair bit of subtlety and subtext to her character that made her interesting. At first glance all she ever talks about is being an asari commando. Yikes. It kind of drones on and waters her down a bit, but it's the subtlety underneath that I found interesting. She's a deeply hurt woman who feels like she's been used and cast aside by everyone she ever cared about in her life. First by her parents, then by the Asari commandos who said she would be better off in the Initiative and then by Alec Ryder. She trained under him as his second to become Pathfinder only to then be passed over for Sara or Scott, later learning she was never meant to be Pathfinder to begin with. Then during her loyalty mission she had built the Asari in her mind to be this infallible race of heroes and the pinnacle of intellect only to have a lot of that bubble burst and everything come crashing down. She's very focused and dedicated to her mission and despite the hurt, she keeps overcoming the obstacles and pressing forward to do her best. I thought she was actually a really well written character, but I definitely can see why she's not everyone's flavor. Yes, I'll also agree, the characters in ME2 were incredibly well written. They were fully fleshed out and integrated to the story. However, unlike ME1, ME3 and MEA, the entire story of the game revolves around these characters and getting to know them. That's the point of the game. Sure, the ACTUAL story is about the Collectors abducting humans and the suicide mission (STILL the best structured video game level I've probably ever played) to stop them but you spend the vast majority of this game conducting a mission to recruit the characters individually, getting to know them extensively on the ship and then conducting their loyalty mission as well. I thought MEA had a really great balancing act where they had so very many big stories going on (Kett, Remnant, planetary viability, individual planet story lines, Angaran "first contact", Ryder mystery etc.) and they STILL managed to have loyalty missions, follow up to the loyalty missions, Citadel-esque movie night etc. I do understand what you mean about the tropes though. I'll grant that. If you look at the characters high level, they are basically recreations of the original Normandy crew. Powers - I do see what you are saying now that I've finished the game. As I reached higher levels (upper 50's-60s) the powers did start to feel weaker and weaker. They don't get any stronger as you level up to match the enemies also leveling and it ended up seeming as if I was hitting them with biotic detonations and they just kept standing up whereas earlier in the game they dropped like flies when I blasted them with a fully powered Throw. Nova still seemed to do some significant damage, but I am aware of the enemies continually leveling bug which can compound this problem 10 fold. So I do partially agree here. I have no desire right now to start a New Game + to have bullet sponges and powers that feel like I'm just slapping the enemies bare palm. I hope that if they make a MEA2, and you give it a shot, it's got more of what you want. I'm not disagreeing with the scanning portion of the game. I personally didn't really find it overwhelmingly boring, but yeah there is probably a lot more they can do with it going forward. Animations? Well, I had the benefit of getting the game the day 1.05 released without even knowing it was being released so I got the benefit of never seeing the full fledged awfulness of the base game, however there are some silly moments. With that I will agree. I see the potential for the franchise going forward, and I guess it's also very fortunate I found this game to be very fulfilling. I do understand how some people don't though. Thanks for the reply. It's always nice to get replies from people who don't agree that aren't hostile or demeaning! I appreciate it. |
|
