Premptive: What do you want to see in Mass Effect 3?

[Bateluer]

Return the game's weaponry to the overheat system of the first game. This was somewhat unique and differentiated the game from other shooters. Along with that, more variation and weapon skills in the skill tree. Being able to specialize in a specific weapon type in ME1 was enjoyable and kept in positive RPG aspects. Shepard being able to use every weapon, despite class or training, is kinda lame.

Next, the boss fights need to be more personal. In ME1, Saren dogged you at multiple points. You saw him at Eden Prime, you sparred verbally with him at the Citadel, you fought to a stalemate at Virmire, you saw him repeatedly on Ilos, and you prior and after your final battle on the Citadel. This made the battle more personal, Saren became an enemy that you could hate and focus on. By comparison, the enemies in ME2 are very lame. There is no single 'enemy', the closest thing is Harbinger, whom you never actually see and don't get to face in a final battle. The end battle sequences in ME2, while spectacularly done, paled to the first game.

And, as always, Mass Effect needs more character interaction between the Normandy crew. While the ME franchise isn't targeting the same level of complexity as DAO, it would still be nice not to have to walk to every level of the Normandy between every single mission and/or relay jump to converse with your team. At various points in your relationships with them, they should seek you out. IE, you'd be walking along one of the corridors, and a scripted event occurs where the character rounds the bend and initiates dialog with you. I love the renegade/paragon choices you were able to make during conversations, even though the game's load screen tips had the buttons reversed. However, it seemed like there were only a handful of them. If would be great if conversations with important NPCs, as well as many of the conversations with the player characters, held more of these interactions.

Also, I would like to see more characters return in ME3 from ME2. Only 2 characters from your ME1 crew join you in ME2, and you met a few others. Depending on how you ended ME2, your entire crew could easily be with you again in ME3.

Also, not sure if I missed this in ME2, but what happened with the Rachni? I let the Rachni queen go in ME1, and ran into an NPC on Ilium that 'spoke' for them, but never encountered them anywhere in the actual game. You'd think letting go breeding queen of a race that caused a major interstellar war in the game would get more attention from the game's political factions.

And, from a technical standpoint. What with the damn load screens? Why does it take my E8500 with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon 4870 several minutes to take the elevator from the CIC to the Crew Deck? The game itself hums along at 60fps with maximum detail settings, but the load screens are a major interruption. I realize the game was ported from to the PC from the console, but part of a successful, well done, port is to optimize the game for the PC's strengths. Load screens like this should be minimal.

 

[lupi]

less paid dlc crap.

 

[Maximilian]

Better storyline, somthing epic like mass effect 1, ME 2 was alright but a bit of a letdown.

 

[Zenoth]

Return the game's weaponry to the overheat system of the first game. This was somewhat unique and differentiated the game from other shooters. Along with that, more variation and weapon skills in the skill tree. Being able to specialize in a specific weapon type in ME1 was enjoyable and kept in positive RPG aspects. Shepard being able to use every weapon, despite class or training, is kinda lame.

In my book both systems did their job well, but the need for clips in ME2 was even explained in the lore itself, it's now part of the universe of ME and not just a mere game-play mechanic decision. If they bothered "excusing" it with a lore entry then they [BioWare] must be confident that it was the right thing to do and will more than likely keep it for ME3, and if that's the case I honestly don't mind much about it. I played ME1 right after completing ME2 to create a new character with the purpose to import it later, and I liked both systems just fine, so on this point in particular I really cannot say I prefer one or another, in ME1 it could over-heat and I had to switch weapons, and in ME2 I need to reload, it's really not that much of a negative consequence for me.

Next, the boss fights need to be more personal. In ME1, Saren dogged you at multiple points. You saw him at Eden Prime, you sparred verbally with him at the Citadel, you fought to a stalemate at Virmire, you saw him repeatedly on Ilos, and you prior and after your final battle on the Citadel. This made the battle more personal, Saren became an enemy that you could hate and focus on. By comparison, the enemies in ME2 are very lame. There is no single 'enemy', the closest thing is Harbinger, whom you never actually see and don't get to face in a final battle. The end battle sequences in ME2, while spectacularly done, paled to the first game.

Entirely seconded on that one. You are clearly referring to the Nemesis that Saren was in ME1, that's exactly what we do not have at all in ME2. Additionally I thought that the Geth as the "main foe" in ME1 was better than having those bugs in ME2, and what frustrated me even more is that the Geth in ME2 are awesome, but are barely encountered outside of the Tali's and Legion's missions. But I guess it was certainly better than nothing, unfortunately I am almost certain that their presence in ME3 won't necessarily be more frequent either, but I hope I'm wrong.

And, as always, Mass Effect needs more character interaction between the Normandy crew. While the ME franchise isn't targeting the same level of complexity as DAO, it would still be nice not to have to walk to every level of the Normandy between every single mission and/or relay jump to converse with your team. At various points in your relationships with them, they should seek you out. IE, you'd be walking along one of the corridors, and a scripted event occurs where the character rounds the bend and initiates dialog with you. I love the renegade/paragon choices you were able to make during conversations, even though the game's load screen tips had the buttons reversed. However, it seemed like there were only a handful of them. If would be great if conversations with important NPCs, as well as many of the conversations with the player characters, held more of these interactions.

Yup, I also don't like how static the crew is in the Normandy. I also liked how in ME1 some of the crew would salute you as you walked by them, although not all of them did it, it was still a nice touch of detail which helped nourish the immersion, and overall I still prefer the Normandy SR-1, mostly because it wasn't built by Cerberus, and flying in a Cerberus ship for the entirety of ME2 is quite unsettling for my tastes, regardless of how clean, sophisticated and shiny it is in comparison to the SR-1, but at least the elevator is better in the SR-2...

Also, I would like to see more characters return in ME3 from ME2. Only 2 characters from your ME1 crew join you in ME2, and you met a few others. Depending on how you ended ME2, your entire crew could easily be with you again in ME3.

I'd be surprised if BioWare decided to "wipe out" most of the team you spent time building in ME2. In fact ME2 is focused on building that team, and puts the "main plot" side ways on three missions only (Horizon, IFF and Suicide Mission), for me that means the lead writer (Mac Walters) probably wanted to prepare "a team" for the events to come in ME3, which hopefully will finally focus on the real threat via more than three missions. It's clear that ME2 is built on a more personal level, and it'd be... dumb... if BioWare decided that they had to give us yet another bunch of new faces to recruit, it'd just be repeating ME2 all over again which is something you don't want to focus on when you're about to release the last chapter that will close a trilogy. I think that the team we have in ME2 will at least for the most part remain in ME3.

Also, not sure if I missed this in ME2, but what happened with the Rachni? I let the Rachni queen go in ME1, and ran into an NPC on Ilium that 'spoke' for them, but never encountered them anywhere in the actual game. You'd think letting go breeding queen of a race that caused a major interstellar war in the game would get more attention from the game's political factions.

If you let listen to the news broadcast on the Citadel, Omega or Ilium you might eventually hear about alien ships that are being spotted recently that match old Rachni ships designs, so the Rachni in the space of two years only managed to get new ships of their own and still remain secretive enough as to not reveal the location chosen by the surviving Queen to keep on living. What the Asari (or rather the Rachni) tells you on Ilium is quite clear, they do not wish to be discovered for the moment, they're already trying to rebuild their species, and in the meantime are probably working on their own front to prepare for what they know might be coming their way, namely the Reapers.

Because the Reapers indoctrinated the species in the past to provoke the Rachni Wars, which is something clearly told by the Queen in ME1, that in other words the Rachni were never naturally aggressive, and that the Reapers controlled them and sent them in a war that would result in their defeat, which was exactly what the Reapers wanted, as a preemptive strike against the Rachni since they might have been the only true organic race capable to sustain a full scale Reapers invasion, and so the Reapers simply wanted to clear the way for Sovereign to conduct his vanguard operations with Saren and not have Rachni in their legs at the same time, although part of this is speculation, to me is quite clearly what happened, but I might be wrong.

And, from a technical standpoint. What with the damn load screens? Why does it take my E8500 with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon 4870 several minutes to take the elevator from the CIC to the Crew Deck? The game itself hums along at 60fps with maximum detail settings, but the load screens are a major interruption. I realize the game was ported from to the PC from the console, but part of a successful, well done, port is to optimize the game for the PC's strengths. Load screens like this should be minimal.

For me ME2 loads very fast, and plays very smooth especially in comparison to ME1, and the load screen don't bother me at all, nor do they stay on too long between level transitions even on the Normandy.

 

[Jinru]

My small gripes with the game.
-Have door open quicker so you don't run into them and have to wait for them to open. Some do that.
-Loved how quick the save was in ME2 compared to ME1, no loading time, just the save logo on bottom left. I resaved like every 20mins incase of bugs or something I wanted to redo.
-Missed the larger skill optimization in ME1.
-No more Mako moving across horrid terrain and probe scanners or anything similar again...


I didn't have any problems with loading on the ship/citidel/etc, it was fairly quick moving between floors(~5sec).

 

[GoodRevrnd]

A story.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Just something I noticed between the two that I like more about ME2 was the liveliness of it all...ME1 just seemed like the whole world was boring and just YOU...ME2 gave more of a "you are one person among a whole galaxy" feel too it...I couldnt get into ME1 that well because of this. Other than maybe a blander story line there really was nothing about ME2 that I would change other than the mention of some kind of interaction among myself and the NPC other than me having to go to them all the time...that just seemed unrealistic entirely...

 

[Bateluer]

If you let listen to the news broadcast on the Citadel, Omega or Ilium you might eventually hear about alien ships that are being spotted recently that match old Rachni ships designs, so the Rachni in the space of two years only managed to get new ships of their own and still remain secretive enough as to not reveal the location chosen by the surviving Queen to keep on living. What the Asari (or rather the Rachni) tells you on Ilium is quite clear, they do not wish to be discovered for the moment, they're already trying to rebuild their species, and in the meantime are probably working on their own front to prepare for what they know might be coming their way, namely the Reapers.

Because the Reapers indoctrinated the species in the past to provoke the Rachni Wars, which is something clearly told by the Queen in ME1, that in other words the Rachni were never naturally aggressive, and that the Reapers controlled them and sent them in a war that would result in their defeat, which was exactly what the Reapers wanted, as a preemptive strike against the Rachni since they might have been the only true organic race capable to sustain a full scale Reapers invasion, and so the Reapers simply wanted to clear the way for Sovereign to conduct his vanguard operations with Saren and not have Rachni in their legs at the same time, although part of this is speculation, to me is quite clearly what happened, but I might be wrong.

I completely missed parts in ME1 where it referred to the Reapers affecting the Rachni. I thought the Rachni Wars were started because one of the Citadel races activated an relay into an uncharted area of space, invading the territorial rachni in the process?

 

[l0cke]

I completely missed parts in ME1 where it referred to the Reapers affecting the Rachni. I thought the Rachni Wars were started because one of the Citadel races activated an relay into an uncharted area of space, invading the territorial rachni in the process?

That was from ME2.

Return the game's weaponry to the overheat system of the first game. This was somewhat unique and differentiated the game from other shooters. Along with that, more variation and weapon skills in the skill tree. Being able to specialize in a specific weapon type in ME1 was enjoyable and kept in positive RPG aspects. Shepard being able to use every weapon, despite class or training, is kinda lame.

I think you got the games mixed up. In ME1 Shepard can use any weapon regardless of class. In ME2 you can only use what your class allows. Adept gets only a pistol and SMG.

And, from a technical standpoint. What with the damn load screens? Why does it take my E8500 with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon 4870 several minutes to take the elevator from the CIC to the Crew Deck? The game itself hums along at 60fps with maximum detail settings, but the load screens are a major interruption. I realize the game was ported from to the PC from the console, but part of a successful, well done, port is to optimize the game for the PC's strengths. Load screens like this should be minimal.

There is a glitch with dual-core processors that increases loading times on the Normandy to a few minutes. You should research that more, as I know there is a fix.

 

[shortylickens]

Hmmm, there werent many things I liked about Mass Effect 1 aside from the story and characters.
Based on the complaints in this thread, I see no reason to buy Mass Effect 2 if it was a lot worse in many aspects.

 

[Spoooon]

Every door needs to open automatically. And if it isn't supposed to, it needs to look like a door that should be opened manually.

Renegade consequences to stealing creds. It's funny to me that we're reduced to opening every safe for money or schematics and suffer no consequences (when it would make sense to have them).

And as far as schematics go, I can understand discovering something cool in some ancient ruins or something, but not in the Omega underworld from some dead mercenary. Well, maybe, I suppose it depends but it's hard to image some random merc being armed with something that Cerberus couldn't come up with.

Normandy upgrades: get rid of them. Hard to buy that it would take one of your random team members to suggest a manufactured upgrade (when you read the descriptions for some of these things, it makes them sound like they've been in development, etc.)

If we are going to have a captain's quarters, I need more reason to go up there than to feed the fish or have it be where I have to go to select my armor.

More congruence between the response I'm selecting and what is actually said. I like that it isn't word for word, but it needs to match more closely. Some instances bore only a loose resemblance to the response you'd choose.

Variety in taxis or whatever. They all look the same on every single planet.

I'm not sure how I feel about scanning worlds for resources and stuff. Sort of odd when some of the planets are currently being mined.

Random encounters could be cool. Either rescuing other ships or pirating depending on which way you swing.

Lots of other good thoughts in the thread, especially the need for greater interaction with your crew.

 

[fatpat268]

That was from ME2.
I think you got the games mixed up. In ME1 Shepard can use any weapon regardless of class. In ME2 you can only use what your class allows. Adept gets only a pistol and SMG.

Yes, but say you were an adept, you couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from two feet way with an assault rifle in ME1.

ME2 allows for weapon specialization, allowing an adept to be able to fire the AR accurately.

Hmmm, there werent many things I liked about Mass Effect 1 aside from the story and characters.
Based on the complaints in this thread, I see no reason to buy Mass Effect 2 if it was a lot worse in many aspects.

If you liked the story in ME1, then definitely play ME2. We're all just nitpicking at this point. Just because we have some complaints doesn't make this a bad game. In fact, if you didn't particularly like the gameplay of the first game, ME2 might suit you better.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

less paid dlc crap.

Uh...lol wut? To this date, pretty much a month after ME2 was released, there has been zero paid DLC. All of the DLC released so far is free for legitimate owners of Mass Effect 2.

Not to mention all of the "free" promotional DLC (bonus pre-order items, Collector's Edition items, Dr. Pepper items, etc.).

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

As for what I'd like to see, I dunno. Mass Effect 2 is a great game, and while I have some minor squabbles with some decisions made for the game, it is overall an excellent game.

I guess the thing I'd like to see most in Mass Effect 3 is the entire crew from ME1 and ME2 come together to join up and fight the "big bad guys" for the finale.

Spoiler

I thought one of the best parts of ME2 was seeing your old crew again. Garrus and Tali joining your new party was awesome. Wrex's role was done well, though I'd rather have him in my party than Grunt. Ashley and Liara well...their cameos were a bit disappointing, especially if you romanced one of them in ME1. They just had like an extra line then continued on with their normal dialogue. Pretty disappointing.

 

[l0cke]

Spoiler

I thought one of the best parts of ME2 was seeing your old crew again. Garrus and Tali joining your new party was awesome. Wrex's role was done well, though I'd rather have him in my party than Grunt. Ashley and Liara well...their cameos were a bit disappointing, especially if you romanced one of them in ME1. They just had like an extra line then continued on with their normal dialogue. Pretty disappointing.

Spoiler

Maybe you would see more if you didn't cheat on them ()

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Spoiler

Maybe you would see more if you didn't cheat on them

Uh...what?

Spoiler

Your dialog with Ashley and Liara occurs well before the point in the game where you can pursue any romantic interests.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

More then anything, Biotic push and lift should be combined into a single ability, that functions like a typical gravity/physics gun and functions as a primary instead of an active skill. If I'm a friggin' Telekinetic, let me throw crap at people. That would especially serve to give biotics something to do other then spam warp/reave when targets have shields.

 

[Bateluer]

Every door needs to open automatically. And if it isn't supposed to, it needs to look like a door that should be opened manually.

Renegade consequences to stealing creds. It's funny to me that we're reduced to opening every safe for money or schematics and suffer no consequences (when it would make sense to have them).

And as far as schematics go, I can understand discovering something cool in some ancient ruins or something, but not in the Omega underworld from some dead mercenary. Well, maybe, I suppose it depends but it's hard to image some random merc being armed with something that Cerberus couldn't come up with.

Normandy upgrades: get rid of them. Hard to buy that it would take one of your random team members to suggest a manufactured upgrade (when you read the descriptions for some of these things, it makes them sound like they've been in development, etc.)

If we are going to have a captain's quarters, I need more reason to go up there than to feed the fish or have it be where I have to go to select my armor.

More congruence between the response I'm selecting and what is actually said. I like that it isn't word for word, but it needs to match more closely. Some instances bore only a loose resemblance to the response you'd choose.

Variety in taxis or whatever. They all look the same on every single planet.

I'm not sure how I feel about scanning worlds for resources and stuff. Sort of odd when some of the planets are currently being mined.

Random encounters could be cool. Either rescuing other ships or pirating depending on which way you swing.

Lots of other good thoughts in the thread, especially the need for greater interaction with your crew.

Just to follow up on two of your points, the captain's cabin and Normandy upgrades. I agree on the cabin, there's almost no point to go there. Even the decorations don't serve much of a point. The star ship models are cool, and for about 3 seconds I had fun with them, then I never came back.

On the Normandy upgrades, I say there should be more of them, but more practical ones. I think the only upgrades you need for the Normandy in ME2 are the weapon and shield upgrades. Depending on how you finished ME2, there could be a LOT of people gunning for Shepard in ME3. It could very well be Shepard vs Reapers vs everyone else. I'm going to need more obvious upgrades, and more visually apparent upgrades. If I upgrade the Normandy's armor, show me some armor plating on the hull, having NPCs comment on the armor or weapons when you dock at stations, etc.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Return the game's weaponry to the overheat system of the first game. This was somewhat unique and differentiated the game from other shooters. Along with that, more variation and weapon skills in the skill tree. Being able to specialize in a specific weapon type in ME1 was enjoyable and kept in positive RPG aspects. Shepard being able to use every weapon, despite class or training, is kinda lame.

This would be a huge step backwards in my opinion. Shepard being able to use every weapon and needing to use multiple weapons to preserve ammo made the combat far more enjoyable than in ME1 where you rarely ever switch weapons. It also meant that the weapons themselves could be better and put value on shooting smart rather than just shooting a lot.

And, from a technical standpoint. What with the damn load screens? Why does it take my E8500 with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon 4870 several minutes to take the elevator from the CIC to the Crew Deck?

Are you exaggerating or is it really that bad for you? I didn't really notice a problem when I was playing, but just tested out a random elevator trip from the bridge to the crew deck. It took approximately 10 seconds (down and back up) on a system slightly better than yours (not 12x faster).

 

[Bateluer]

This would be a huge step backwards in my opinion. Shepard being able to use every weapon and needing to use multiple weapons to preserve ammo made the combat far more enjoyable than in ME1 where you rarely ever switch weapons. It also meant that the weapons themselves could be better and put value on shooting smart rather than just shooting a lot.

I dislike FPSs, so anything that makes ME more like a FPS is a negative in my book. I never switched weapons in ME1 or 2. In ME1, once I maxed out my pistol skills, I never switched from a pistol type weapon. In ME2, I only switched from heavy pistols to SMGs. I never ran out of ammunition, it was just tedious and shooter-like.


Are you exaggerating or is it really that bad for you? I didn't really notice a problem when I was playing, but just tested out a random elevator trip from the bridge to the crew deck. It took approximately 10 seconds (down and back up) on a system slightly better than yours (not 12x faster).[/QUOTE]

At the start, it wasn't bad, but as the game progressed, it got progressively worse.

 

[simonizor]

A game that was programed for PCs first and then ported to consoles like the way it used to be. I'm getting tired of all of these lazy ass console ports that just get things working enough to be barely playable and extremely buggy most of the time.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

More sex.

 

[Spoooon]

Just to follow up on two of your points, the captain's cabin and Normandy upgrades. I agree on the cabin, there's almost no point to go there. Even the decorations don't serve much of a point. The star ship models are cool, and for about 3 seconds I had fun with them, then I never came back.

On the Normandy upgrades, I say there should be more of them, but more practical ones. I think the only upgrades you need for the Normandy in ME2 are the weapon and shield upgrades. Depending on how you finished ME2, there could be a LOT of people gunning for Shepard in ME3. It could very well be Shepard vs Reapers vs everyone else. I'm going to need more obvious upgrades, and more visually apparent upgrades. If I upgrade the Normandy's armor, show me some armor plating on the hull, having NPCs comment on the armor or weapons when you dock at stations, etc.

I can see that. But then what would the penalty be if you don't upgrade? Or maybe having to choose options (increase stealthiness at the cost of armor/firepower or something).

I definitely agree with you about needing some feedback. It seemed like the only time you heard anyone talking about any of the cool new things you did was when you went to engineering.

 

[s44]

There seems to be a loading bug with certain dual-cores. Perhaps today's patch fixes it? On my quad-core Normandy loads are instant.

The combat/skill system isn't going to change -- that's why the level cap is 30. We'll surely see new skills though.

 

[Kalmah]

They need to find a way to give the game more replay value. I'm not going to play through an entire new game just because some tiny new DLC is available.

I don't know.. I loved the game.. but damn there needs to be a way to just have some fun and avoid conversation when you want.