I guess that confirms that I'm the only one who didn't like the biotic menu system =p having to pause to go to a little tech wheel to cast spells was fine with me back in the days of Secret of Mana, but in a 2007 Bioware RPG, I would have hoped to be able to use all my abilities without pausing. it breaks the immersion for me, and also lets you be somewhat cheesy. I'm sure if they ever port it to PC, you'll be able to map your abilities to single keypresses, which would be awesome - lift this guy, throw this other guy, all without being taken out of the action...
I started out as a shotgun vanguard, and wasn't having much fun at all. the shotgun sucks imo <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> it does crap for damage at anything other than close range, and at close range, your horizontal tracking sucks thanks to not having a mouse and keyboard. also, if enemies close in, you may very well be toast already anyway. also, as I already mentioned, I didn't like being bothered to go to the menu to use my biotics.
so, I restarted as a soldier, and now I'm having a ton of fun. assault rifles are pretty balanced for all ranges - they can tear someone up at close, work perfectly at medium, and can even take care of business at long range. I never have to go to the tech menu unless I lose shields and want to boost or if someone dies or something, which are acceptable times to go to the menu, IMO. my companions take care of the techs and biotics without me having to go to the menu for them, so everyone wins.
I only discovered 10 hours into the game that there's a map with points of interest after you land on a planet -_- I was previously wandering around aimlessly trying to find my objectives...
<!--quoteo(post=1667538:date=Jan 15 2008, 07:04 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Jan 15 2008, 07:04 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667538"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I only discovered 10 hours into the game that there's a map with points of interest after you land on a planet -_- I was previously wandering around aimlessly trying to find my objectives...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh, thank you for pointing that out. I thought you were MEANT to drive around and feel awarded for actually noticing things on the minimap... I'd guess it wouldn't be as fun after doing it 50 times <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Biotics, right. I can't say I dislike the actual system but rather the biotic powers themselves. Overheat weapons 7-10 meters away? Woptie doo, like I would take a chance to overheat their weapons instead of shooting at them in panic as they step on my toes. Weakening biotics and yada yada ain't to impressive either. Maybe lift and singularity will prove better once I get em.
I actually chose shotgun vanguard as well, which in my opinion isn't so bad. Once you get the personal shield (really early on) you can suck up 400+ points of damage and sprint into a small group then use "shotgun carnage" (50% extra one shot damage) or whatever it was named, quickly finishing off one or two enemies before the shield is depleted. Then rely on teammates assault rifles or snipers to deal with distant enemies, back them up with pistol if none else is close.
<!--quoteo(post=1667549:date=Jan 15 2008, 03:30 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Jan 15 2008, 03:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667549"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Biotics, right. I can't say I dislike the actual system but rather the biotic powers themselves. Overheat weapons 7-10 meters away? Woptie doo, like I would take a chance to overheat their weapons instead of shooting at them in panic as they step on my toes. Weakening biotics and yada yada ain't to impressive either. Maybe lift and singularity will prove better once I get em.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
wait, wait, wait... "overheat weapons"... are you talking about the tech skill sabotage?? Seriously one of my favorites. If that's what you're talking about don't overlook it. It does good damage. (I cant think of any other ability like what you're saying.) I found pretty much every ability to be useful except damping... I never used that one, but I imagine it would be very useful in some portions of the game.
<!--quoteo(post=1667608:date=Jan 16 2008, 08:55 AM:name=frostymoose)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(frostymoose @ Jan 16 2008, 08:55 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667608"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->wait, wait, wait... "overheat weapons"... are you talking about the tech skill sabotage?? Seriously one of my favorites. If that's what you're talking about don't overlook it. It does good damage. (I cant think of any other ability like what you're saying.) I found pretty much every ability to be useful except damping... I never used that one, but I imagine it would be very useful in some portions of the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, you're right, I accidently threw both biotics and tech skills in the same mix as both are "magic".
just finished the game, and in the end, the plot made me roll my eyes a little.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>The general idea of the game is basically Star Control 3. Protheans/Precursors, a race that periodically wipes out all sentient life, and a plan to stop it.
why did saren want the darn conduit so much? earth to turian, you were a spectre and probably lived on the citadel - you didn't need a secret mass relay to get there. the frickin' Sovereign was double-parked outside the citadel the first time you get there, for crying out loud. and he waited until the citadel was ready for an attack to make his move? gg.
and didn't we prevent the relay from being opened? why does the game end with your PC saying that the reapers are coming? I would think if we prevented the relay from being opened, the reapers would be trapped, and if the relay WAS activated, the galaxy would be doomed.
and back a little, as soon as we finished vemere, the council said it wasn't going to do anything about saren but I was authorized to do what I needed to do. Then, I walk 2 feet and suddenly I'm summoned to the citadel where my ship is taken away and they mobilize the fleet to sit on their hands, basically doing the opposite of what they just said. and all of a sudden they were talking about expecting an attack from Saren. why on earth were they expecting an attack at the citadel? their official line was that they didn't even believe me about the reapers, let alone that saren had any plans whatsoever of attacking the citadel in order to bring them here. he didn't even have the conduit yet...</span>
tldr: just like kotor2, the plot feels a little rushed in the end, but the game was still quite awesome.
<!--quoteo(post=1667549:date=Jan 15 2008, 10:30 PM:name=Svenpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Svenpa @ Jan 15 2008, 10:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667549"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh, thank you for pointing that out. I thought you were MEANT to drive around and feel awarded for actually noticing things on the minimap... I'd guess it wouldn't be as fun after doing it 50 times <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->The map doesn't show -everything-, mainly the minerals. perhaps only the minerals, not sure..
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The alien planets sucked, no wait they blew. The only well designed levels were on the main campaign. Every other planet was either fire planet, green planet, rock planet, or toxic planet. There was no wild-life, no trees, no bushes, no grass, no lakes, no animals, no rivers, absolutely nothing to make the planet indistinguishable from the last except for the color.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree 100%. This ruined the entire game for me to be perfectly honest. The side quest planets felt so badly tacked on and that they use the same 3-4 facilities/mines for every one it gets super repetitive. It's like they realised they made a 10 hour RPG and needed some way of buffing the time, so they threw in a ton of badly designed planets with even more poorly designed repetitive areas to bulk out the time.
There are some animals on the odd random planet. There is a crab thing, a strange cow thingie and I believe a monkey or two. Other than that, planets have nothing to tell them apart except from how aggravating they are (IE: number of mountains) and the colour of the terrain.
I really hope they improve things in the next game, with either a longer campaign or making sidequests generally better designed.
it's funny - the things everyone loved, I hated, and the things everyone hated, I loved. I liked the alien planets. was the terrain repetitive? yes. was it annoying trying to navigate steep terrain in the mako? yes. but the combat was generally pretty fun so I was happy to have extra opportunities to bust some heads. also, the plots of all the sidequests were usually pretty minimalistic, but they were also pretty interesting, and kinda made each sidequest feel like an episode of Star Trek... interesting little self-contained plots with quick stories to uncover... from the rooting out of an evil genetic engineering ring to the simple moral decision of unplugging the life support of someone drifting in space.
I'd say most of those side missions are too minimalistic; there's 10 minutes of driving to your plot destination for 3 minutes of fighting. Oftentimes there'd be no dialogue (which tends to be better loot than the ...well, loot).
They could also have simply looked at geology and copied a ton of different landscape types and created varied, interesting terrain instead of geologically impossible retardo-mountain ranges (seriously, each non-plot planet's surface is made out of crags - that is, alternating shear cliffs). Almost every planet is geologically impossible based on combinations of plate tectonics, vulcanism and erosion/cratering. One geologist on that game development would help immensely (or simply level designers who have imagination, I guess).
They even throw you on <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>the Moon for part of it, and it doesn't even look like any part of the moon (also, Earth is textured wrong - they don't even know what our planet looks like, apparently). It's also the only one that loosely looks remotely plausible, but still annoying.</span>
The sequel should be brilliant if they correct this stuff and make the exploring more fun and more alive.
First off, I thoroughly loved this game, and I can't wait for the sequel. This is my first Bioware experience, and I read a lot about the issues known to this game before getting my hands on it, so I had no problems with it at all. I saved frequently, and omnigel or sold my inventory at regular intervals so it never got full.
<!--quoteo(post=1667431:date=Jan 14 2008, 04:57 PM:name=PerfectionsFlaw)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PerfectionsFlaw @ Jan 14 2008, 04:57 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667431"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The worms; While it may sound like a good idea to have the player drive around in circles or zig zag around the map while shooting at one of these behemoths, it's really not all that fun. Especially since it only takes one melee hit or two ranged attacks for you to be toasted. The worms cheat sometimes, popping up right underneath you and knocking the Mako upside down, preventing you from running.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, I disliked the worms for their ease.<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>You simply sit in one place and jump over the spite, shooting a rocket each time you land. You never get hit, and they die quickly. In fact, I used this for any Mako encounter, came off without a hitch</span>
Overall, though, the game was great, and I loved the story. I knoticed parts where you knew it was meant o be fleshed out more, but I still enjoyed it. It's my Game of the Year for 07. I hope they don't rush the sequel so we'll get a better experience
What's even more fun is to find a place where the worm gets bugged and A) Won't go underground and B) Can't hit you. Then you get out of the Mako (seriously) and just blast it down for a much higher amount of EXP. Alternatively, you can stand behind the mako on an angle and use it as a shield to shoot the worm down. Alternatively agaiin, you can peg it down to like 1% health then run out and shoot it with your pistol.
Regardless of how you do it in, if you kill it with infantry weapons you get significantly more EXP and this applies to anything like Geth Primes, Colossus units etc. This kind of cheese is basically mandatory for hitting the level cap.
<!--quoteo(post=1668081:date=Jan 22 2008, 08:18 AM:name=Aegeri)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Aegeri @ Jan 22 2008, 08:18 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1668081"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->[...] This kind of cheese is basically mandatory for hitting the level cap.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Or you could just start a new game with an old character that has completed the game..
Comments
I started out as a shotgun vanguard, and wasn't having much fun at all. the shotgun sucks imo <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> it does crap for damage at anything other than close range, and at close range, your horizontal tracking sucks thanks to not having a mouse and keyboard. also, if enemies close in, you may very well be toast already anyway. also, as I already mentioned, I didn't like being bothered to go to the menu to use my biotics.
so, I restarted as a soldier, and now I'm having a ton of fun. assault rifles are pretty balanced for all ranges - they can tear someone up at close, work perfectly at medium, and can even take care of business at long range. I never have to go to the tech menu unless I lose shields and want to boost or if someone dies or something, which are acceptable times to go to the menu, IMO. my companions take care of the techs and biotics without me having to go to the menu for them, so everyone wins.
I only discovered 10 hours into the game that there's a map with points of interest after you land on a planet -_- I was previously wandering around aimlessly trying to find my objectives...
Oh, thank you for pointing that out. I thought you were MEANT to drive around and feel awarded for actually noticing things on the minimap... I'd guess it wouldn't be as fun after doing it 50 times <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Biotics, right. I can't say I dislike the actual system but rather the biotic powers themselves. Overheat weapons 7-10 meters away? Woptie doo, like I would take a chance to overheat their weapons instead of shooting at them in panic as they step on my toes. Weakening biotics and yada yada ain't to impressive either. Maybe lift and singularity will prove better once I get em.
I actually chose shotgun vanguard as well, which in my opinion isn't so bad. Once you get the personal shield (really early on) you can suck up 400+ points of damage and sprint into a small group then use "shotgun carnage" (50% extra one shot damage) or whatever it was named, quickly finishing off one or two enemies before the shield is depleted. Then rely on teammates assault rifles or snipers to deal with distant enemies, back them up with pistol if none else is close.
wait, wait, wait... "overheat weapons"... are you talking about the tech skill sabotage?? Seriously one of my favorites. If that's what you're talking about don't overlook it. It does good damage. (I cant think of any other ability like what you're saying.) I found pretty much every ability to be useful except damping... I never used that one, but I imagine it would be very useful in some portions of the game.
Yes, you're right, I accidently threw both biotics and tech skills in the same mix as both are "magic".
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>The general idea of the game is basically Star Control 3. Protheans/Precursors, a race that periodically wipes out all sentient life, and a plan to stop it.
why did saren want the darn conduit so much? earth to turian, you were a spectre and probably lived on the citadel - you didn't need a secret mass relay to get there. the frickin' Sovereign was double-parked outside the citadel the first time you get there, for crying out loud. and he waited until the citadel was ready for an attack to make his move? gg.
and didn't we prevent the relay from being opened? why does the game end with your PC saying that the reapers are coming? I would think if we prevented the relay from being opened, the reapers would be trapped, and if the relay WAS activated, the galaxy would be doomed.
and back a little, as soon as we finished vemere, the council said it wasn't going to do anything about saren but I was authorized to do what I needed to do. Then, I walk 2 feet and suddenly I'm summoned to the citadel where my ship is taken away and they mobilize the fleet to sit on their hands, basically doing the opposite of what they just said. and all of a sudden they were talking about expecting an attack from Saren. why on earth were they expecting an attack at the citadel? their official line was that they didn't even believe me about the reapers, let alone that saren had any plans whatsoever of attacking the citadel in order to bring them here. he didn't even have the conduit yet...</span>
tldr: just like kotor2, the plot feels a little rushed in the end, but the game was still quite awesome.
I agree 100%. This ruined the entire game for me to be perfectly honest. The side quest planets felt so badly tacked on and that they use the same 3-4 facilities/mines for every one it gets super repetitive. It's like they realised they made a 10 hour RPG and needed some way of buffing the time, so they threw in a ton of badly designed planets with even more poorly designed repetitive areas to bulk out the time.
There are some animals on the odd random planet. There is a crab thing, a strange cow thingie and I believe a monkey or two. Other than that, planets have nothing to tell them apart except from how aggravating they are (IE: number of mountains) and the colour of the terrain.
I really hope they improve things in the next game, with either a longer campaign or making sidequests generally better designed.
They could also have simply looked at geology and copied a ton of different landscape types and created varied, interesting terrain instead of geologically impossible retardo-mountain ranges (seriously, each non-plot planet's surface is made out of crags - that is, alternating shear cliffs). Almost every planet is geologically impossible based on combinations of plate tectonics, vulcanism and erosion/cratering. One geologist on that game development would help immensely (or simply level designers who have imagination, I guess).
They even throw you on <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>the Moon for part of it, and it doesn't even look like any part of the moon (also, Earth is textured wrong - they don't even know what our planet looks like, apparently). It's also the only one that loosely looks remotely plausible, but still annoying.</span>
The sequel should be brilliant if they correct this stuff and make the exploring more fun and more alive.
<!--quoteo(post=1667431:date=Jan 14 2008, 04:57 PM:name=PerfectionsFlaw)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PerfectionsFlaw @ Jan 14 2008, 04:57 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1667431"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The worms; While it may sound like a good idea to have the player drive around in circles or zig zag around the map while shooting at one of these behemoths, it's really not all that fun. Especially since it only takes one melee hit or two ranged attacks for you to be toasted. The worms cheat sometimes, popping up right underneath you and knocking the Mako upside down, preventing you from running.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually, I disliked the worms for their ease.<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>You simply sit in one place and jump over the spite, shooting a rocket each time you land. You never get hit, and they die quickly. In fact, I used this for any Mako encounter, came off without a hitch</span>
Overall, though, the game was great, and I loved the story. I knoticed parts where you knew it was meant o be fleshed out more, but I still enjoyed it. It's my Game of the Year for 07. I hope they don't rush the sequel so we'll get a better experience
Regardless of how you do it in, if you kill it with infantry weapons you get significantly more EXP and this applies to anything like Geth Primes, Colossus units etc. This kind of cheese is basically mandatory for hitting the level cap.