Totally agree, ME is a fantastic game and like I said in the other thread, would be my GOTY for 2007 if it released on PC. Its currently my front-runner in 2008 although its still very early. Definitely not perfect, but its been quite a long time that I've played a game that has gotten so many things right and makes it difficult for you to walk away from it.
Here's some goods and bads that come to mind:
Good:
- Varied gameplay throughout. At its heart, ME would probably be a TPS that handles like an FPS within a story-driven RPG. But there's tons of of mini-games that are seamlessly integrated into the game that keep mundane events interesting. Even in the FPS portions of the game there's some neat design/scripting/story twists to keep you on your toes.
- Difficulty, EXP and money scale based on your level, meaning there is no "set progression" or predefined order of completion. Some plot threads can eliminate other options though, but for most stuff you can complete them in any order without any money or EXP penalty which is a great feature. MMOs would do well to take note of this.
- Combat/control/cover system is very engaging, fun and well-designed. Weapons feel rough at first, but as you progress and upgrade them and your own talents, you definitely see them improve. By the end they're what you might come to expect from a standard FPS in terms of accuracy and handling. Overall combat feels a bit too fast-paced to mess with squad commands most of the time. I'm looking forward to playing through again as a Biotic/CQC-type char and use the squad commands more as fire support.
- Game is extremely polished from a production point of view. Visuals, sound, voice-acting, story, artistic design are all exceptional. As many others have stated the game has a cinematic feel to it without feeling as scripted/funneled as say, CoD4. All of it runs seamlessly on my rig at 1920 with everything set to highest. I've read it runs well on lesser systems as well. A particular strong point is how seamless zones/transitions are. The game does a great job of precaching and using cut-scenes to disguise loading, but rarely do you ever see a "Loading" text and even when you do its only for a few seconds. This really keeps the game flowing so what you see on-screen seems fluid and continuous experience (but makes it really hard to find stopping points!).
- Inventory/items have quite a bit of variety that allow you to put as little or as much interest into it as you like. You can customize your weapons, ammo and armor. I think at Normal difficulty you wouldn't need to really pay attention to this stuff, but at harder difficulties it might prove more beneficial. One minor gripe is the variety and selection of mods seemed somewhat limited for weapons.
Bad:
- Money and gear are very scarce to start and items from vendors are insanely expensive. This changes pretty drastically once you start clearing some of the plot quests to the point you are replacing gear in the field faster than you can buy/sell it.
- You can't control what talents your squad mates choose. This means if you want to have the best electronics and decryption throughout (which leads to better armor/weapons and more money), you need to spec it yourself as your squad mate may choose something entirely different. Unfortunately you're probably half-way through the game by the time you realize this.
- The auto-aim is pretty cool overall, but I still wish there was some kind of manual control over the reticle, particularly at long ranges. Along with depth of field blur/focus, lack of targeting info at long range really hurts an otherwise very gratifying sniper experience.
- Most Doors really should auto-open or stay open after opened once. I can understand why some in hostile areas don't, but having to click/engage a door on the Normandy or the Citadel just gets old.
- Some redundant/repetitious level and character design. There's like 3-4 "generic" indoor structure styles for the side quests. Main plot areas are huge and well designed. For an engine that can clearly create just about any facial style....I found ME used many of the same facial structures. Particularly for Human Female (all Doctors, Jenna, etc) and Asari........ I can understand the repetition with the indoor areas, but for characters, especially ones you engage in dialogue with, its a pretty bad oversight.
- Overall I found the interface/menus well designed and easy to navigate with a few exceptions. Draggin the map and accidentally hitting an icon zooms you out a level to the mission/assignment screen....but not to the relevant one. Mission/Assignment screen was pretty cryptic also. It doesn't put a priority on any mission/assignment, which is how the game is designed (Missions are the priority, Assignments are like side-quests), but it still feels really clunky and aimless. Few other minor annoyances I had, like I didn't see a way to remove a socketed mod/ammo upgrade without replacing it with another or having to hit compare in some screens but not others (like at an NPC).
So that's a quick overview of some things that came to mind. Overall a great game and as TheVrolok said, a game I can already see myself playing through again making different choices and harder difficulty.
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