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You can see part of her face through her visor, though. Her eyes and a nose. Looks sort of cat like, though. And her armor is skin tight, so her body seems human-like enough. So I actually thought eventually there would be a romance option, and she'd take off her mask.
I actually don't like the two real choices. The human isn't bad, but it somewhat bugs me how she is named after Bruce Campbell's most famous character. Even her last name.
You can see part of her face through her visor, though. Her eyes and a nose. Looks sort of cat like, though. And her armor is skin tight, so her body seems human-like enough. So I actually thought eventually there would be a romance option, and she'd take off her mask.
Her face is human looking enough that you can see, and she's got breasts, so she's a mammal maybe...
But, I mean, her legs are decidedly cyber/ alien. Still, much more interesting character.
I actually don't like the two real choices. The human isn't bad, but it somewhat bugs me how she is named after Bruce Campbell's most famous character. Even her last name.
I never noticed any of the characters "draw attention" to themselves, so I only talked to them on the ship. None of the paths really seemed that involved, Wrex was cool enough, but brief. Garrus was boring, the two humans were so-so, Liara was bleh. Only Tali was fun for me really.
When you had to make a choice, I was running a Wrex/ Tali group, and didn't really care.
I'm starting to notice the repetition of side quest maps. It is surprising - I would have thought the game was built with a toolkit similar to NWN, and so maps wouldn't be too hard to make. Especially with so many people listed as working on the game.
From what I've seen, Mass Effect, while a great game, suffered some from the time crunch. I was watching the 06 E3 trailer, and you can see how features were scaled back, and the shortage of backstory and sidequests. Most of that stuff seems pretty "early development" stuff, so maybe there was a good sized change late in development and they had to rush in some cleanup. Some of the choices don't seem to really matter much (such as Anderson at the end) and it might be that.
But, they have said they'll have downloadable content, so I'm eager and waiting.
Ugh. The game really is short. I thought I did a lot of side-quests and it took me 25 hours to finish. I thought I had another 10 hours or so (since I had thought I had done a lot of side quests), I was caught by surprise..
I hope this isn't the fate of all future RPGs, to be really short, because so much effort is done on graphics. 5 years to make a 25 hour RPG? (with padding)
Ugh. The game really is short. I thought I did a lot of side-quests and it took me 25 hours to finish. I thought I had another 10 hours or so (since I had thought I had done a lot of side quests), I was caught by surprise..
I haven't played the game, so don't think I'm defending this shortcoming or anything. But a lot of people are already working on second or third run-throughs, playing the game as a different class, choosing different options in the dialog wheel, etc. Do you not feel the game is worth playing a second time?
KOTOR is not what I would call a long game, but I played through it twice just to experience both the light and dark side playstyles and options. I suspect Mass Effect will have an even better playthrough experience than this because there are more options than "really really good guy" or "really really evil guy."
Well, The Witcher might not be quite as long as the 80 hours I've seen claimed, but it's definitely a solid 40-50 hour game, so some people are still making long RPGs.
Mass Effect is damn short, though - I've intentionally done as many of the side quests as possible to drag it out, and it still feels too short. The main missions are great, but even there, the cut corners show - for example, the way on Foreas
There's a mere handful of side-quests, and they're all accomplished by going down into the tiny basement area
or how Noveria
despite supposedly being a hotbed of corporate intrigue, has no quests not directly related to the main plot - just a couple of brief asides you can literally do in minutes
.
Makes you wonder where all the effort went - was it trouble with the Unreal 3 engine? Did working on all those great, expressive characters and a system allowing for cinematic in-engine cutscenes eat up such a big chunk of the art budget? Or was it the time they spent working on a more tactical combat system that was later scrapped? (anyone remember that E3 demo in which the guy playing was individually order squadmates to move to specific places? the game clearly played differently at one point, and they cut things back) Did they sink a bunch of effort into a dialogue system that really would have been revolutionary (again, anyone recall the clip they showed off as normal gameplay in which your character was able to cut Garrus off with an angry dialogue choice and grab him by the collar for emphasis?) but which they weren't able to implement properly?
I really like Mass Effect, but just like with the original NWN, I look back at what was promised and what we got and I see a significant discrepancy. Not something on a Fable or Black and White scale, of course, but definitely a case of the game falling way short of the marketing.
My big hope is that, with the engine in place, the sequels will end up being much stronger, since - in theory, at least - they won't have to do much additional work in that department and will be able to concentrate on the story, and that how short Mass Effect was isn't just an unavoidable consequence of the cost of developing games with high-end visuals for next-gen consoles...
I haven't played the game, so don't think I'm defending this shortcoming or anything. But a lot of people are already working on second or third run-throughs, playing the game as a different class, choosing different options in the dialog wheel, etc. Do you not feel the game is worth playing a second time?
Oh yeah, it's definitely worth playing again as a different class (Biotic) and sex (just to get different romance), indeed, I already started a new game. But the light side/dark side difference seems much smaller in this.
The game engine and the gameplay absolutely is brilliant. I was skeptical, not liking Jade Empire. I just wish it lasted longer.
The KOTORs lasted about twice as long, and IMHO, had more replay value. Maybe not from the game mechanical aspects, but from the story aspects. The story in this seems a little more linear, and the Paragon/Renegade choices don't seem to have much impact on the outcome of events.
My big hope is that, with the engine in place, the sequels will end up being much stronger, since - in theory, at least - they won't have to do much additional work in that department and will be able to concentrate on the story, and that how short Mass Effect was isn't just an unavoidable consequence of the cost of developing games with high-end visuals for next-gen consoles...
I'll be interested in seeing how the downloadable content plays out myself. If it's too much for too little, it'll sink the experience for me, but it could be fun. Otherwise, ME2 should be a good improvement over 1 and ME3 should be a good story experience to seal the trilogy.
That wasn't my experience. My first time through both KotORs took ~20 hours with replays in the 10-12 hour range. My first time through Mass Effect was ~40 hours with replays being ~25 hours. In all cases, this is with doing the vast majority of the game. (In the one replay of ME i did on Insanity i rushed through it doing only the main quest, and that still took me ~10 hours; about as long as a total-game replay of either KotOR.)
As for replay value, i think Mass Effect will hold my interest more in the long run. I'm already on my sixth play-through.
