Originally posted by: wbynum
What's the deal with communication in this game? I did the assignment where
you have to find the lost military personnel for that admiral. Once you find
the people you have to go all the way back to the Citadel just to tell the
admiral what you found. Haven't these people heard of subspace communication?
You think thats bad? In the Noveria mission, I had to run all the way back
from the research labs to the Normandy to switch squad members because I
didn't have someone with a high enough electronics or decryption skill to
progress. FYI, bring someone who's really good at one or the other, you'll
need them.
There are a few things that really keep Mass Effect from being a truly great
game.
1) The combat.
Manual, twitch combat has no place in an RPG. Concentrate on the story and
character development.
2) The Inventory/shop system
It blows, plain and simple. If the PC version is improved over the Xbox
version, which I never played, then its a wonder Xbox players could even get
past the first few missions. No stacking, no sorting, limited comparing of
item stats, and a 150 item limit. I had to turn many decent weapon upgrades
into omni-gel to make room mid mission.
3) The exosolar plants and systems
Why do so many worlds look identical, and what does Joke always see fit to
drop you in the middle of a mountain range? The game has many planets to
visit, but they all tend to blur together because they are so similar. Some of
them had fantastic visuals though, such as the planet with the red giant/blue
giant binary system. Planet was dull as hell, but looking at the sky was
certainly cool.
4. Bugs
Nothing serious, but enough to annoy. Several times, I clicked Use on a
elevator only to have my squad freeze in the elevator and not move. I couldn't
move from the elevator, couldn't quick save, nothing. I had to exit and reload
from my last save.
5. Talking to squad members
Is there a reason I can't talk to my squad members in the field? I mean, I can
understand not having a conversation in a fire fight, but what about when I'm
walking around Citadel? Yeesh, does all conversation have to take place in the
bowels of the ship? Some characters seemed to have only partially fleshed out
back stories, I would have preferred something more indepth.
6. Epilogue?
My male Vanguard character completed the romance with Ashley, and then that
was it. The game 'ends' with him swearing he'll find a way to stop the
Reapers, and then he walks off into the 'sunset'. So what happened to his
lover?
7. Speaking of romances . . .
That is the scene that caused so much controversy!? WTF! You see a heavily
shaded silhouette of a female buttocks and some bare shoulders, along with
some slightly suggestive dialogue. Honestly, it barely qualified as PG-13. And
ME carries an M rating. Are Americans really that prudish, or just plain
stupid?
Maybe the romances between a female Shepard and Liara are more risque?
8. Length
The game is too short. I bought the game on Thursday, started playing it
Friday morning, beat it late Sunday afternoon. There's not a chance in hell
you could beat BG2 or Torment in less than 3 days, unless you skipped every
side quest and short cutted through the major ones.
9 Speaking of quests . . .
What is the point of the collection quests? Do they have a point, some benefit
I didn't see? I only completed one of them, and that was by chance. And there
didn't seem to be any benefit to completing it.
10. Graphics
They are extremely good, especially when you crank the resolution up and
disable that god aweful film grain. So in this game of top notch visuals,
where characters models lip synch to their dialogue, facial expressions that
change with their mood, its even optimized fairly well, so why do the
characters self shadows look like they were finger painted by a retarded
child?
I've ranted enough now.
Edit - No, I haven't.
11. More on Party members
The entire game, the only party member that had his own side quest was Garrus. Sure, Liara's mother was one of the games villains, but that doesn't count. Every party member should have their own side quest to build commraderie and lengthen the game with quality content. Down loadable content should address this major short coming.