Mass Effect - Spoilers

[Maxxthepenguin]

I am just about to get to Ilos (what I'm assuming is near the end of the game) and I must say that I am really disappointed by this game. Why the hell is this game getting such a free pass on things such as:
Crappy and repeated level design
Repetitive and generally shitty quests with non-existent or unclear rewards. The class change is given to you pretty much randomly, what the fuck? You just do a certain quest about disabling a rogue VI and BAM you class change?
Empty planets with tons of annoying mountains
Endless collectathons
Graphics that are stunning in some areas and terrible in others
Repeated loading times to do things such as get into your ship (3 separate 15-20s loads from most locations in the citadel)
Stupid party members
Useless abilities (hai2u tech)
Lack of explanation of anything (wtf does hardness do?)
Relatively boring characters (holy crap this guy gets MIGRANES? AWESOME!)
Items that are all cookie cutter bullshit without any uniqueness (though there are some decently cool upgrades)
An interface that makes it easy to fuck up and hard to know things like "how many omni-gels do I have" when opening containers
Bugs and glitches that can cause your game to crash (happened to me twice)
Voice acting that seems to always have the lines said competently but in JUST the wrong way
A plot that, while quite enjoyable and pretty riveting, is mostly ripped off from their own game (KOTOR.) So you get recruited into an elite fighting/special ops agency and have to defeat somebody who defected from that agency who plans to awaken an ancient power of machines that will rule the universe if unleashed. Seriously guys, it's not like its a cookie-cutter plot that most people follow but for some reason both of Bioware's sci-fi efforts have the same plot skeleton.
Terrible controls for the Mako that make aiming while driving is almost impossible unless you're circling.
A shitty, meaningless hacking/picking up/everything else minigame that you probably do about 500 times.
Constant texture pop-in.
Throws itself deep in the uncanny valley.
Stupid romance
Conversation that FEELS like it is different responses chained together (which it is, but it's usually better hidden)

I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's got some places of greatness where it shines and shows its potential but all this crap bogs it down and just destroys all the great potential this game has. Baldur's Gate II or KOTOR this is not...

[Ehran]

I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's got some places of greatness where it shines and shows its potential but all this crap bogs it down and just destroys all the great potential this game has. Baldur's Gate II or KOTOR this is not...

Lesbian Alien love stories vastly outweigh all your petty gripes.

[Elcura]

I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's got some places of greatness where it shines and shows its potential but all this crap bogs it down and just destroys all the great potential this game has. Baldur's Gate II or KOTOR this is not...

Lesbian Alien love stories vastly outweigh all your petty gripes.

I LOL'd after reading this post after Max's rant

[Maxxthepenguin]

I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's got some places of greatness where it shines and shows its potential but all this crap bogs it down and just destroys all the great potential this game has. Baldur's Gate II or KOTOR this is not...

Lesbian Alien love stories vastly outweigh all your petty gripes.

It's not even lesbian! She's non-sexual!

And it doesn't show shit, the love scenes were pathetic.

[Exoduso]

Stop ranting max it's a good game. The sidequests are repetitive, sure... but I bet you played soldier because the gameplay is way better if you're an adept or an engineer.

I'm ASSUMING that's what you played anyways, cus you mentioned the abilities are useless.... you obviously have no idea then lol.

[Ehran]

I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head. It's got some places of greatness where it shines and shows its potential but all this crap bogs it down and just destroys all the great potential this game has. Baldur's Gate II or KOTOR this is not...

Lesbian Alien love stories vastly outweigh all your petty gripes.

It's not even lesbian! She's non-sexual!

And it doesn't show shit, the love scenes were pathetic.

Speak for yourself, but my first play through Shepard put in work on Ashley.

[Maxxthepenguin]

I was playing Vanguard. I did like the game overall which attests to how good the base concept is, but those numerous specific things piss me off.

As far as the abilities being useless I was including biotics/tech, and for a while I micromanaged Tali and so many things were useless. AI hacking sucked since it could still attack you. Damping sucks because so few enemies use biotics and tech. Overload and sabotage can be useful but they're nothing compared to lift (and, from the looks of it, singularity.) Neural Shock is a pure joke. On the biotics side there's the crazy powerful Lift and singularity, the semi-powerful throw, and the wastes of good points known as warp and stasis.

And Ehran, so did I. I'm doing a 2nd playthrough (I did have fun with the game). I did the shepard/ashley sequence my 1st time through and it was lame and pointless. In past Bioware games at least it had some influence on the game...

My biggest peeve is the lack of effort put into most of the content. The items, the sidequests, all of that is all just more of the same. There's no awesome sidequests, they are all just 'go kill everybody in one of three layouts and click something'. This game could have been so much better if Bioware put their A game on all of it instead of just the main missions. Half the sidequests/planets but make each one different, please.

btw the inventory management is godawful too, in case I didn't mention that.

[Exoduso]

What difficulty were you on? most of the abilities you mentioned might seem useless to you because enemies die too quickly anyways so they don't matter... on Hardcore and Insanity it damn sure matters and you can't kill half the stuff without the right abilities (especially the flkahjkfashjfkashrfa Krogan assholes on Insanity >.<)

[Maxxthepenguin]

was on normal, now i'm doing hardcore

Those abilities still suck. Who the fuck cares about 100 damage and stunning one mob for 3 seconds when I can lift and do damage straight to a radius through shields (from falling) and disable them from doing anything for a good 12 seconds with lift. Oh yeah, they're removed from cover while we're at it.

Screw tech

[Brill Weave]

I just recently picked this up myself and as of so far I'm enjoying. I don't really see the need for Tech yet. And I fucking hate everytime I have to get in that little piece of shit armored car. HATE IT.

[Exoduso]

Yeah the Mako fucking sucks.

[Maxxthepenguin]

And you have to spend like 25% of the game in it if you want to explore :/

[Exoduso]

Sadly... I never fight with it though, I just exit the vehicle when i'm around enemies and fight.

Also check the map, don't go head first into a mountain that takes 30 seconds to climb when you can just drive around it in 10.

[Maxxthepenguin]

That works for some planets but there were a few where you literally get completely boned and can't help but climb every mountain in the way.

I often exit the vehicle to fight as well, mostly because you only get 1/3 of the exp if you are in the mako. The mako however has two things about it that are great combatwise: blowing shit up with the mortar thing is fun and running over people, when you can get the damn thing to do what you want, is also fun.

BTW, fuck thresher maws. They aren't fun to fight, can one shot you, and can kill you with no chance of survival if they pop up under you twice.

Speaking of which, whose great fucking idea was it to add rocket dudes that can one shot you? What the hell, Bioware?

[Exoduso]

Haha seriously... Thresher Maws are lame as hellllllllllllll... but seriously all you have to do is keep driving forward. As long as you don't drive sideways etc. it'll almost never pop underneath you. But yeah screw them, they're damn near impossible on Insanity.

[Brill Weave]

Man that fucking Matriarch bitch was pissing me off. Took me a few tries before I was able to kill her. Course I was also trying to off her before she had used up all of her powers.

[Exoduso]

It's funny people are having trouble with Benezia on ANY difficulty level, I always thought it was the easiest fight out of the 3 boss fights on the initial planets you go to after becoming a spectre..

[Maxxthepenguin]

I had major troubles with her as a Vanguard on my 1st playthrough but on hardcore just now, as a soldier, I just raped face.

[Exoduso]

Vanguard is a hard job until your techs are leveled high enough (omg yes you could try using techs. )

[Brill Weave]

I will probably start over again as a tech if only for the fact that I hate not being able to open locked chests, safes, etc. It's like all they are doing is taunting me.

Don't laugh but if there is a way to order your team to do it, I don't know it. The copy I got was used and had no instruction manual and I figured it was basically KoTR revamped, why would I need it.