People need to stop praising ME1

I will try to be as precise and possible.

It depends. I will try to cover some things:

It pretty much started with Baldurs Gate, we can see the way how BioWare makes RPgames there, with each game thereafter we see how they put the ladder in RPgaming higher and higher and higher, in ME we see a little bit of each previous BW game.
- ME was announced and said to be console only... at this time consoles got just shooters, beat m ups and jump n runs... so how are you going to sell a RP to them? Well they added "shooting", not good, but good enough to sell a few copies.
- at ME release the RP genre was said to be dead, ME revived it... imagine it like a desert and you are wandering it, very thristy, and no water in sight and then, suddenly, you do not get just a drop of water (any other RP) but an oasis (ME)
- for a RPG the graphics were above average
- for a RPG the gameplay was standard, it was not worse or better
- while you are, to some degree, right with "same line for few dialogue options", it was the paragon and renegade what set the game apart from the rest. 3 different optins to play, and while the general outcome was not realy affected (it does not matter if you talk Saren to shoot himself or fight him), we still had 3 options. This increased the replayability of ME drasticaly.
- the ME squad was, at this point, realy not the best, but the squad was involved in the game and your story... I did not like Garrus because he had such a great background story, but because he was true to himself and I could count on this simple NPC who kept me on track during conversations and decisions... btw, MEA is NOT (as I thought earlier) worse here, it is just... thanks to too much pointless and meaningsless content to fill the "too" large world, all the stuff that makes ME ME is lost
- the MAKO was a console problem, it was fine on PC and... a lot of people thought they can drive the MAKO around like a full tuned car in Need for Speed... ME is a RPgame and not a shooter and not a car driving game. Having both is pretty much fine for all the RP enthusiasts out there, and bad for the action crowd

I think to fully understand why ME was a masterpiece, you actualy have to have experienced the evolution of RPGs. In 2007 ME was the king on the RPG throne, today MEA is just extremely mediocre. I prefer scifi to fantasy, and I do not like Witcher that much, but I do see why TW3 is way ahead of MEA. Is ME better than MEA? Well, if MEA wouldnt have been released in an extreme sorry state and all its features fully developed, then no, MEA would be the next masterpiece, even when they missed the tone of their setting by miles. Btw, if people do not see the forest, it does not mean, it is not there.

Eh seems weird to really put much stock in speed run times. Speed runs themselves are longer than like 3-4 goddamn movies!

ME1 is awsome.

ME1 was a great game for its time, but its my least favorite out of the trilogy. Good story and roleplay mechanics, but the gameplay felt very "last gen" at the time. If i want just a good story I'll read a book. ME2 was much tighter over all.

Meanwhile Main + Extras averages 62 hours on ME:A and 29 hours on ME1.

The fact that you're talking about cutting out small side quests in ME1 to get the time down to 20 hours suggests you were looking at Main + Extras for that game.

The speedrun data means basically nothing for ME:A because it says only 1 person has entered data for it.

I don't think so.  It's pretty much the mission description:


Dr. Okeer



- Millennia of combat and strategic experience

- Rumored familiarity with Collector technology



A brilliant and brutal krogan warlord who fought in the Krogan Rebellions, Dr. Okeer has become obsessed with saving the krogan people from the genophage and is believed to have contacted the Collectors in an attempt to gain technology to that end. He is currently in a Blue Suns camp on Korlus, though the nature of his relationship with the mercenary group is unknown.

Just can't let them go somtimes...


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People need to realize that putting down the original ME is not going to make Andromeda seem any better.

How I see it...
lets split the games into 3 categories: primary missions, secondary missions, filler

ME:
Have no secondary missions. And while the primary missions take place on planets ABC, the filler take place lightyears away on planets DEF and we can do it after we finish ME.

MEA:
As with ME, the pimary missions take place on various planets and we can just do them.
The first problem starts with the secondary missions... this are both loyalty missions and establishing outposts, while both are optional and not necessary to finish the primary missions, they add to the story and understanding of the story. So it is advised to make them. Unfortunately...
The filler.. takes place on the same planets like the secondary missions. It is like impossible to go from A to B without running into 5 random encounters and at least one of them must be finished (too much damage to the Nomad), on top of that the filler missions are all over the place, hard not to trigger (start) one and not to finish it. Due to having more story to them then "filler missions" in previous ME games, we let it distract us (like... "waaaah Kett took A prisoner help him before he dies"... so we feel some urgency and do that pointsless, to the main story, mission... and the next one and next one, virtualy we drown in the flood of filler... also, a lot of the secondary missions are go to A to B to C back to A to B back to A to D back to A... and never forget Tempest and Nexus, as we want to see if the NPCs have something new to say.

My advice to all: do the primary missions and the secondary missions, build nomad shield/armor/boost as soon as possible and speed your way though everything to bypass it (this way you will negate any exloration in MEA, but alas, there is no exploration anyway since we have to leave the nomad every 10 yards). Do not do ANY of the filler missions before you defeat the Archon. The bugs will be still there, the features will be still unfinished, the writing is not going to be better, but at least you will get a decet ME experience having what ME is known for.

Not a Fan of Kaiden, but Ashley I like. One of the better written characters for sure. The problem is that most of the aliens just explain their background, give their loyalty mission, then have nothing much to say for the rest of the game. I am not criticising the writing for the content that was there, just that there wasn't very much of it.


Thanks for the pennies!

I'm fine with the amount of praise l ME1 gets. Its the ME2 praise that gets me and I beat that game 20+ times. I don't see why it's the Holy Grail of the series. I like ME3 and MEA so much more.