You know, I've been playing this for a few days now. I've got my ship, I'm exploring worlds, I'm doing quests. And I've been waiting and waiting for the game to kickstart and be as awesome as everyone says it is. But I just don't think it's going to happen. And that article goes a long way to explaining why.

I think the biggest problem with Mass Effect is that it's not Knights of the Old Republic. I know that's an unfair thing to say, but when you make one of the best games of a console generation, expectations are going to be understandably high. But Mass Effect feels like a step down in so many ways. For one thing, the combat flat out sucks. I'm sorry, but it does. The cover system only seems to work half the time, and 90% of the combat is hiding behind a wall or a rock and waiting for enemies to come at you one at a time. The weapons system is inelegant and not precise. Compared to KOTOR, where you had all different kinds of weapons with tons of different customization options, here you have your four options and all the weapons are titled the same, just with a different number at the end. The customization doesn't seem to make nearly as much of a difference as it did in KOTOR, where you could tell the changes made to each weapon when you used different upgrades. And the fact that you cannot switch characters is pissing me off. One of the great things about KOTOR was that each character had something unique to bring to the game. Here the other characters are just window dressing.

The heavily hyped conversation system is basically the same dialogue trees we had with KOTOR, only now in a handly little GUI. I'm not seeing the kind of freeform conversations that Bioware had promised, where you could actually give an ebb and flow to the discussions. None of that is present in the final product. And finally, the whole thing just feels smaller in scale than KOTOR. Obviously the world of Star Wars is incredibly expansive by this point, so KOTOR had the benefit of the larger universe, even if it doesn't go to every single planet. Here, you've got the Citadel and a few main quest planets, and that's it. As someone else pointed out, the uncharted planets are essentially the same thing with different colors. Incredibly boring.

This, to me, is the biggest disappointment of 2007. Every other game I'd been eagerly awaiting delivered in some form or fashion, even if each one wasn't a total slam dunk. The more I play Mass Effect, the less I'm enjoying it and the more I just feel like going back to Assassin's Creed, Mario Galaxy, or Rock Band.

In reference to your thoughts on combat, what kind of character are you? I would spend some experience points of pistol and shotgun if you're a vanguard... I ended up using the pistol like a sniper rifle and the shot gun is extremely accurate at a far range. I think the combat is great, rarely to I hide in cover anymore, I just run into the gun fight, tell my teammates who to attack with what, and then I use Throw at a group of guys, who are then on the ground together where I shower them with my shot gun. It's pretty effective. I even use Lift to pick up the tougher enemies so my guys can take pot shots at him while I wander around picking off the smaller guys.

I'm a Vanguard and have definitely put points into my pistol and shotgun.

Oh, and another thing that bugs me is that the biotics are nowhere near as interesting as the Force powers in KOTOR.

so which chars in your party gives you a sidequest?
so far, I've only know of Wrex and Garret giving one.

So I'm sure most of you have noticed there's a section in the 'Extras' menu for Downloadable Content, but it's empty right now. Any speculation as to what could be added?

I had to take a break from this because I am in the process of moving and of course my little PayPal fiasco...

Anyhow, the combat is fun to me. The side quests and planets might be the same types but it's fun nevertheless. The game doesnt seem short. I'll run through it again with a female goodie goodie character after I finish it.

At this point I am about 22 hours in, and on Feros. I still have alot of side quests to do as well. I can see about 30-35 hours by the time I am done.

I finally beat it, was level 36 - 10/11 hours in... the side quests were too boring to keep me interested in them.

OK, so I am still at the beginning stages of the game, and I am stuck on a couple of the side missions. I am ready to pick up my ship, but I'd like to go through some of these first. I am assuming once I leave, I can come back to complete some of the side missions. Is that correct?

Here are my issues:



Any help would be appreciated.

Wow, you missed out big time.

Beat it today. just about 30 hours with what I think is most of the sidequests. I was 1 ore short of finishing that collect 4 types of ore/gas one, and I forgot talk talk to one of my crew that would have given me another sidequest or finished one. Was level 48. Bummed I didn't get to 50 for the achievement but not life or death heh. I though it was fantastic though. I just go done playing through Orange Box (HL2, ep 1 and 2 and portal), then Call of Duty 4, then Assassin's Creed, and now this. I don't know what to play next! Everything lately has been so good!

Way too many good games out. I've went thru Episode 2, Portal, played a ton of Team Fortress 2, Rock Band, next to last level on Assassin's Creed and now this game. Jesus. It's almost overwhelming.

too bad i can't even play the game. I brought it to work with me, played about an hour (but ended up busy so didn't get too far b/c i didn't want to miss anything) and i was busy my 3 days off..here i am at work again, I break everything out pop in the game and what...."this must be played in an xbox 360 console". ?? So i look at my 360...confirming that is in fact a 360 and i didn't accidentally bring my DVD player or Ps2...and then i reset...same thing. I take the disc out, 0 scratches or anything.
I try one more..it plays..i'm like...whew. So i load my level...take a couple steps and...bam. Disc is unreadable. grrrr...i try again...it freezes right after i hit start on the main menu...i give up.

So i search around...over on the bioware forums apparently this is a big issue. I'm surprised none of you got it.
I'm returning mine tomorrow...possibly just give it back if they'd let me. I don't understand why bioware wouldn't give you a replacement though. And before you ask...yes i have done the whole, erasing the cache thing already. Same issue unfortunately.

Oh yea...here's the Link

Oh, i plan on playing it over again most definitely. I just wanted to try out the soldier class and get an idea of what the other classes where all about. Though I'm just wondering, how did I "miss out" I got the complete story line down pat and thought the game was amazing.

Where the hell do all these people work who have time and space to be playing games on xbox 360s and browsing the internet all day.

Why tech support of course. ^_^

I love this game - I've done Norvia, Vilemra (or however you spell 'em) and doin Feros now. Not doing any sidequests this time, plan on doing that the next time I play it.

P.S

I'm sorry, Wrex.

Got past my questions above, and now I need to collect the 21 items.

What is the consensus on using your points? I haven't really allocated too many yet, and I was wondering what is the best way to utilize these, especially for Shepard. I know that I am autoassign them, but is there a more efficient way? I am playing as a soldier.

Vanguard here and now that I think about it, I should of just played a solider. I've put almost all my points into Shotgun / Assault.

I'm playing adept. I do think the biotic skills are a little difficult to use. I wish i didn't have to hold RB to keep the game paused and in a menu. I prefer being able to switch characters and toggle pause like in KOTOR.

Graphics aside, everything about KOTOR was better than Mass Effect - that's why ME is such a disappointment to me.

Well i'm still very very early into the game and i can see potential to like the story better than KOTOR.

I do wish there was some kind of melee though.

There is. If you're close enough to an enemy (and if your character is so inclined), the shoot button will act as a melee action.

Yeah, i saw myself pistol whip them once. I'm talking a melee focus though - like skills to use a cool edge weapon of some sort. I mean even Star Trek had some
cool bat'leths!

Except, you know, Mass Effect is actually fun .

well alot of people often said that KOTOR would be an average game without the SW license. So perhaps that is Mass Effect.

I love the game, though.