Mass Effect ruined me

[pwnagesarus]

Originally posted by: Zenoth
I loved Mass Effect, but just like KOTOR and KOTOR II, once you're done, there's not much replay value, if none at all. I beaten KOTOR two times to see both endings, and KOTOR II also two times, and I beat Mass Effect three times, and at the moment Mass Effect is uninstalled, and back then both KOTORs took the dust on my desk after beating them twice.

Those types of games are interactive books/movies, it's heavily scripted, and it's alright because it needs to be, because it's based on a story written in a book (Mass Effect's case), and they couldn't make a free-roaming type of game with the story of Mass Effect because then you'd need to create dozens of planets filled with as much content as found in Fallout 3 on each of them, forget it, that'd take a 1,000-men team in a ten years development process. They had to shrink it a lot to make it a "game", or else better leave it as a book and add some pictures.

It's the same with Deus Ex, with Half-Life and any other story-driven games. They might well be triple and quadruple A games in quality AND content, but their replay value is almost always lacking, once the story has been told, once the single or multiple endings are seen, when you've heard all dialog lines and done all side quests all you have left to do it do it all over again just like when you read a book and you know exactly what's going to happen anyway, and that's not necessarily the goal of video gaming, but it's fine, because it's entertaining, for some time.

But the thing with Half Life (I admit, I've never played Deus Ex) is, the game itself is fun to play through again (At least for me) because you don't have to get hooked into it again with all the stats, skills, and equipment. Just pick it up and play. Another thing is I found that the large amounts of great single player mods kept me comin back to Half Life. But I guess that's not fair to Mass Effect because it's such a recent game.

 

[Eeezee]

KOTOR 1 >> Mass Effect > Jade Empire (the combat system really could have used improvement)

I love playing these games two times, once as pure evil and once as pure good. The main plot line is basically the same, but there's enough variation to keep things interesting. Plus, there are certain side quests that you can only do as extreme good or extreme evil, so you do miss out on some of the content that way.

I'll be playing Fallout 3 probably 3 times, since neutral seems to actually be an interesting choice for once.

 

[Sylvanas]

Mass Effect was right up there with Kotor 1 IMO. When I finnished Mass Effect I felt like I had just done my first run through of Kotor and was in awe- it is true, Bioware to date have been making totally awesome RPGs that have no parralel in storyline and everything else really. It's a shame we have to wait years until the next one comes along .

 

[Dumac]

Mass Effect was mediocre, especially compared to some of Bioware's old titles. The only thing it had going for it was real time FPS combat, but that was implemented pretty poorly.

 

[Whitecloak]

system shock 2 will always be my favourite rpg/fps hybrid.

 

[Qbah]

I'd say give System Shock 2 a shot. It is the most amazing game of this type for me ever created (as in a RPG/FPS hybrid). The story is incredible, gameplay's sweet, not too slow not too fast, the atmosphere is very dense. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this game. Well... the graphics are dated for today's standards, though there are some overhaul mods for that.

As for Mass Effect I found the story very good, but very short. The extra star systems are a joke though (and I did them all btw with everything discovered ). Very repetitive and generic.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Did you play Bioshock yet?

 

[Schadenfroh]

Get Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines

 

[Borealis7]

Originally posted by: Qbah
I'd say give System Shock 2 a shot. It is the most amazing game of this type for me ever created (as in a RPG/FPS hybrid).

i would say Might & Magic 6. its First Person party based RPG with real time combat or turn based combat (you can switch between them but turn based is so much better)

 

[Atreus21]

OP if you want my advice....

Get a PS2. Go buy Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver 1, Soul Reaver 2, and Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Play them in that order. Storylines like this, and voice acting of this caliber, belong either on the stage or on the screen

Don't bother with Blood Omen 2. Not a part of the canon.

If you want an idea of an epic story, and a sample of truly badass voice-acting, check out this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..._zJNtc&feature=related

 

[Maximilian]

Yeah mass effect was awesome, what a great storyline! Such a rarity in games. The geth are interesting too, not quite self aware on their own but when theres more of them they become self aware but they dont really think as one they think individually or something... dosent make too much sense imo but i still wonder what theyre up to hiding away beyond the terminus systems.

 

[jonks]

Awesome game, awesome combat system, kinda short for an RPG but given the combat was better than most RPG's I'll forgive it. Great story, great characters, great graphics. Can't wait for the sequels. NWN2 expansion pack and Dragon Age will hopefully help kill a bunch of time.

 

[Dumac]

Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

 

[Pelu]

yeah the story telling wasnt that great... I wondering if mass effect was good at all... lol...

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

No, the story was awesome.

 

[larry89]

If you played Baldur's gate before all of this then that would ruin it for you

not a fps hybrid but long drawn out story...

 

[CP5670]

I loved the effort they put into fleshing out the ME universe, both in the numerous codex entries as well as in the conversations. The last time I saw that level of detail in a story was in Deus Ex and it's exactly the sort of thing I like to see in game plots.

At the same time, I would not call the story science fiction at all. Many events in it made utterly no sense from a plausibility point of view and it was pretty obvious that the developers didn't intend it to be realistic at all, but a Star Wars-ish fantasy drama that happened to be set in space. In fact, many aspects of it were taken straight out of SW.

That was a bit of a letdown for me, but overall this game is very strong in terms of story and atmosphere. Unfortunately, it falls flat on the gameplay and combat. (which is why people say it has little replay value; the game itself is simply boring to play if you leave aside the story)

 

[Munky]

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

I disagree. Unless by "Mass Effect" you really mean "Crysis."

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: CP5670
At the same time, I would not call the story science fiction at all. Many events in it made utterly no sense from a plausibility point of view and it was pretty obvious that the developers didn't intend it to be realistic at all, but a Star Wars-ish fantasy drama that happened to be set in space. In fact, many aspects of it were taken straight out of SW.

Science... fiction. Kind of a key part of the phrase, isn't it?
Just because it's not hard sci-fi doesn't mean it's not sci-fi

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

It wasn't just the characters and the epic storyline of the game itself (which was awesome). It was the cool backstory. The concept of Mass Effect is quite intriguing - the discovery of another universal force that changes everything in the galaxy.

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

It wasn't just the characters and the epic storyline of the game itself (which was awesome). It was the cool backstory. The concept of Mass Effect is quite intriguing - the discovery of another universal force that changes everything in the galaxy.

Oh hey, that sound likes 50% of the science fiction stories out there!

Honestly, Mass Effect's storyline has been reused so many times that I don't see how any of you couldn't predict the entire storyline (and backstory) less than an hour into the game unless you just haven't experienced any science fiction.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

It wasn't just the characters and the epic storyline of the game itself (which was awesome). It was the cool backstory. The concept of Mass Effect is quite intriguing - the discovery of another universal force that changes everything in the galaxy.

Oh hey, that sound likes 50% of the science fiction stories out there!

Honestly, Mass Effect's storyline has been reused so many times that I don't see how any of you couldn't predict the entire storyline (and backstory) less than an hour into the game unless you just haven't experienced any science fiction.

*spoiler*
Nope never predicted that massive ship at the start was a self aware AI that can mind control people and is one of a race of machines that wiped out the protheans and they live out in dark space, never saw that coming, i dont see how any of that is predictible. Also i never saw the citadel being the key to it all, its a bit weird that none of the races built it but whatever. *End spoiler*

If anything i thought the protheans would return somehow or you would stumble across a forgotten base of theirs and they would be less than friendly once awoken or something simple like that. That was my second prediction after the first which was you just have to kill saren because he is a racist against humans plus he and some other turians are planning to kill all the other races and take control blah blah etc.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: Maximilian

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

It wasn't just the characters and the epic storyline of the game itself (which was awesome). It was the cool backstory. The concept of Mass Effect is quite intriguing - the discovery of another universal force that changes everything in the galaxy.

Oh hey, that sound likes 50% of the science fiction stories out there!

Honestly, Mass Effect's storyline has been reused so many times that I don't see how any of you couldn't predict the entire storyline (and backstory) less than an hour into the game unless you just haven't experienced any science fiction.

*spoiler*
Nope never predicted that massive ship at the start was a self aware AI that can mind control people and is one of a race of machines that wiped out the protheans and they live out in dark space, never saw that coming, i dont see how any of that is predictible. Also i never saw the citadel being the key to it all, its a bit weird that none of the races built it but whatever. *End spoiler*

If anything i thought the protheans would return somehow or you would stumble across a forgotten base of theirs and they would be less than friendly once awoken or something simple like that. That was my second prediction after the first which was you just have to kill saren because he is a racist against humans plus he and some other turians are planning to kill all the other races and take control blah blah etc.

Exactly. I figured the Protheans had created the Reapers and were just in hiding or something. I knew there was something weird going on with the ship, but I figured Saren was controlling it somehow.

 

[Sylvanas]

Originally posted by: Maximilian

Originally posted by: Dumac

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: Dumac
Wait, people think the Mass Effect storyline was GOOD? Mass Effect had the most shallow, predictable, and stereotypical science fiction story ever with equally lame characters and character designs.

It wasn't just the characters and the epic storyline of the game itself (which was awesome). It was the cool backstory. The concept of Mass Effect is quite intriguing - the discovery of another universal force that changes everything in the galaxy.

Oh hey, that sound likes 50% of the science fiction stories out there!

Honestly, Mass Effect's storyline has been reused so many times that I don't see how any of you couldn't predict the entire storyline (and backstory) less than an hour into the game unless you just haven't experienced any science fiction.

*spoiler*
Nope never predicted that massive ship at the start was a self aware AI that can mind control people and is one of a race of machines that wiped out the protheans and they live out in dark space, never saw that coming, i dont see how any of that is predictible. Also i never saw the citadel being the key to it all, its a bit weird that none of the races built it but whatever. *End spoiler*

If anything i thought the protheans would return somehow or you would stumble across a forgotten base of theirs and they would be less than friendly once awoken or something simple like that. That was my second prediction after the first which was you just have to kill saren because he is a racist against humans plus he and some other turians are planning to kill all the other races and take control blah blah etc.

This is true, the story was not predictable at all, it was great. I thought at the end I would stumble upon a 'Last remaining prothean' but I was wrong, Vigil was pretty cool. Also the music rocked.

 

[mwmorph]

Mass Effect's story was a generic setting, but the storytelling and characterization was incredible. I :heart: Wrex. Favorite video game character ever.
"Anyone who fights us is either stupid or on Saren's payroll. Killing the latter is business. Killing the former is a favor to the universe."
Pure Genius.

As for everyone else, thanks for the suggestion, I've already played Vampires and I'll pick up The Witcher tomorrow.