Mass Effect - "the" Xbox360 title to get

[Vocenoctum]

Its roughly 15 main quests and 45 sidequests to get it, so you can kind of tally that up yourself to get an idea. But the numbers are rough and with her so late to join, even going right for it, that's the 'fun' one.

The main drawback for me, is that once you hit the endgame, there's really no way to go back and finish quests. You can of course replay from the start, but that's a little different.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

The main drawback for me, is that once you hit the endgame, there's really no way to go back and finish quests. You can of course replay from the start, but that's a little different.

As long as you don't go to Illos you should be fine...well, except for possibly missing some Citadel stuff.

 

[Felon]

There's basically around 3 building archetypes for "random worlds" (anything not a core quest) and it gets a bit tedious.

Let's see....There's the big warehouse-style room, which is really boring tactically because you'll be taking heavy fire from virtually everyone at once, so your best tactical option is just to hole up at the entrance and let them enter your killzone. Then there's the one with the big killing room that leads into a hallway that has a small room on the left and right--again, all the bad guys tend to be packed in the one big room.

Um...what else is there? The cave/mine and the ships...

It really is hard to tell some times how ME spend four years in development. Other times, of course, it's great.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Yeah, Cave/mine, ship, Cerberus style "entry room, then big slaughter room, then t'section with two rooms" and "big room with side hall leading to second floor".

Sometimes with various rooms blocked off.

I'm hoping that DLC will give a core quest style buildup for a good low price, but who knows. It'll probably just be a new armor/ weapon set.

 

[trancejeremy]

The more I play, the more I do see it's a dramatic improvement over KOTOR. Some of the missions are simply much longer and more detailed, especially with how the Mako gets integrated into some of them. Makes the planets feel much much bigger than in KOTOR.

That said, one of the things I wish they had gotten away from was the 2 extra character (NPC) limit from KOTOR. I realize they want people to play more than once, but some missions it seems almost silly leaving half the squad behind.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I'm playing through the second time with an engineer. I'm enjoying the pistol. The accuracy kicks butt, and with marksman and the right ammo upgrades, cuts through enemies quickly. Loving the side quests too....

 

[Vocenoctum]

I was actually surprised not to have a combat on the Normandy.

I'd rather have a smaller group and perhaps some exclusionary NPC's (say you only have 4NPC, all accompany you, but it's from a pool of 8 potential NPC's. GW's has some NPC's like this.)

 

[trancejeremy]

The only thing that really bugs me, is how the romance seems rather rushed. I guess because the main quest isn't very long. But it seems like I barely knew either one and had to decide already. Actually, I probably spent more time talking to the russian lady in the suit.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The only thing that really bugs me, is how the romance seems rather rushed. I guess because the main quest isn't very long. But it seems like I barely knew either one and had to decide already. Actually, I probably spent more time to the russian lady in the suit.

The funny thing with the "choice" was that the first time, I was only really giving basic convo with Liara, and so it was a bit of a surprise that I was getting a "it's her or me" speech.

And, yeah, Tali was a more interesting character, perhaps due to not being a love interest, she was given more "other" parts to play. On the one "what DLC for Mass Effect", a bunch of people said "Tali Love Interest Plot".

The fact there's no idea what her race looks like is also funny. ("She's like a sexy jawa.")

 

[trancejeremy]

Let's see....There's the big warehouse-style room, which is really boring tactically because you'll be taking heavy fire from virtually everyone at once, so your best tactical option is just to hole up at the entrance and let them enter your killzone. Then there's the one with the big killing room that leads into a hallway that has a small room on the left and right--again, all the bad guys tend to be packed in the one big room.

Um...what else is there? The cave/mine and the ships...

It really is hard to tell some times how ME spend four years in development. Other times, of course, it's great.

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.

Ages and ages ago, back when I was briefly an external tester on Daggerfall, before there was anything for us to test, BS put us to work making buildings and such for the game. You'd think Bioware would do the same.

I think ultimately the real solution for any sequels, though probably unlikely to happen, is procedural generation for the side quests and maps. You know, like in the Elite series