Board 8 > Mass Effect Legendary Edition Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

LeonhartFour posted...

somehow not the most outrageous Roba opinion

No I think this one takes the cake.

---

I'm at level 21 (30 cap) and only now started Noveria. The side quests don't seem as annoying as I remember, though I'm sure the improved load times have a lot to do with that.

---

LeonhartFour posted...

somehow not the most outrageous Roba opinion

She literally has an "I'm not a racist, BUT..." speech.

---

Ashley 100% has a confederate flag tattooed on her somewhere.

---

She's an interesting character
---

well sure interesting and terrible are not necessarily mutually exclusive

---

I could see someone saying Ashley is an interesting character. Naming Ashley as your actual favorite ME character is something else.

---

Hitler was an interesting character, too.

---

Leave Wolfenstein out of this.

---

In Robas defense, Mass Effect 3 spoilers: Her racism is rooted in the idea that the different races will abandon other races for their own in the end, and unless Shepard convinces them otherwise, they do prove her right.

---

Honestly, her ME1 characterization makes sense to me. It's ME2 and 3 where Ashley tends to lose me.

---

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

In Robas defense, Mass Effect 3 spoilers: Her racism is rooted in the idea that the different races will abandon other races for their own in the end, and unless Shepard convinces them otherwise, they do prove her right.

I don't give Ashley credit just because the series becomes so human-centric by 3!

And honestly Ash bored me even in playthroughs where I went out of my way to interact with her whenever possible. There are douchey characters in this series who are interesting, but she's not one of them imo!

---

People either love or hate Ashley.

Or think she's okay.

---

I forgot how hilariously rich you can get in this game. My Shep's rollin through the Citadel with 7 million credits.

Also, I'm at Level 24 after completing Noveria. I haven't touched Feros or Virmire, so get the feeling you can get pretty damn close to the level cap (or reach it outright) in one playthrough now.

---

Yeah, they reworked the XP distribution so you can hit the level max in one playthrough.

---

Wait...

Why doesn't Wrex know what the rachni are? We first ran into them on Peak 15 and he's like "what are these things?"

---

lol I thought the same thing. I looked into it and he wasn't born yet.

---

Yeah, Wrex is old, but he's not that old.

Plus, everyone has assumed the rachni are extinct, so that may not be his first thought anyway.

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

lol I thought the same thing. I looked into it and he wasn't born yet.

whats post 216?

---

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

whats post 216?

Rock wondering why Wrex doesn't know what the rachni are when he sees them on Noveria.

---

Does anyone else have points where they can't shoot, open doors or anything? Reloading seems to fix it. Hopefully the patch fixes that issue.

(Also, why'd they make planets so hard to traverse?!)

---

Dancedreamer posted...

Does anyone else have points where they can't shoot, open doors or anything? Reloading seems to fix it. Hopefully the patch fixes that issue.

(Also, why'd they make planets so hard to traverse?!)

Yeah I've had that glitch a couple times. Had to reload.

And if you thank it's bad now, it was worse before! All the planet traversal stuff for sidequests is just mind numbingly awful. You can make the Mako drive better all you want, doesn't stop all of that content from just being fundamentally bad.

---

10gb patch is probably something <_<

---

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-05-17-mass-effect-legendary-edition-changed-a-characters-race-fixing-a-decade-old-bug

Forgot about that guy until I saw this, glad they fixed it because it was definitely odd that he was a human.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

10gb patch is probably something <_<

ME1
* Improved terrain textures

ME1/ME2
* Resolved an issue with the character code sometimes not displaying in the squad menu
* Improvements to pre-rendered video playback ME2
* Improved lighting in some cinematics
* adjusted tone mapping
* Improved VFX on some levels
* Resolved minor text issues with achievements

ME3
* Stability improvements

Other minor calibrations

---

ninkendo posted...

Other minor calibrations

Garrus approves.

---

Ashley and Kaiden are both such terrible characters, I can never decide which to keep in my party. In fact, why is it that almost every shitty character is human (Ashley, Kaiden, Miranda, Jacob, that weird gym bro from ME3, Jack) while almost every good character is alien (Garrus, Tali, Legion, Wrex)

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Yeah I've had that glitch a couple times. Had to reload.

And if you thank it's bad now, it was worse before! All the planet traversal stuff for sidequests is just mind numbingly awful. You can make the Mako drive better all you want, doesn't stop all of that content from just being fundamentally bad.

What a terrible opinion. The Mako and side missions gave ME1 a million times more depth than the stupid scanning/probing of ME2/3. It's a big reason why ME1 is the best in the series

---

BlAcK TuRtLe posted...

What a terrible opinion

All the proof I need that I'm right.

---

UshiromiyaEva posted...

All the proof I need that I'm right.

Don't forget Vlado was a big "ME1 was the best" person, too.

---

It brightens my day everytime BT comes into a topic and spouts the worst opinion as a matter of fact that they can't fathom anyone could disagree with.

I can't get enough of it.

---

Does Tali have no additional armor? She's always in my party but I can't find any armor for her.

IIRC, Tali does have armor options but they're pretty rare, it's only a few types.

---

https://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-legendary-edition-project-director-says-multiplayer-could-make-a-comeback/

oh hell yeah

---

I'm 9 bours into 2 and it's just astounding how much better this game is.

ME1 people are crazy. Like, I try to keep and open mind, but how on earth...

---

I like the world building

I like the mako segments

I like the larger focus on the rpg mechanics

---

I agree with shine. No, I wouldn't call the original better than 2, but it does have certain things going for it, like an impressive sense of scale (especially when considering you can somehow rush through the game in like four hours), an amazing sci-fi feel, more open exploration, and the franchise's origin story (I'm a sucker for those).

Most people are going to prefer the much better polish, more unique individual missions, and infinitely funner ensemble cast of ME2, but it isn't a pure upgrade in the way something like REMake > RE1 would be. The games are different enough that I can understand people preferring the original despite its flaws. And honestly, I'm 30 leisurely-paced hours into ME1, am well on my way to 100%ing it, and am enjoying the experience more than I thought. With all the technical improvements and quick loading times, I'd say the game holds up surprisingly well.

---

Yeah I don't think I would ever say the 1st game is a better game than the 2nd one

I just like it more is all

---

I think ME1 is incredibly solid when you're on the Citadel early on, before it opens up. But once you get into the meet...its just way to jank for me. I'm always going to keep those memories of ME1 being my first HD game, playing it on a 4:3 CRT, and just being absolutely stunned by what I was experiencing.

That's really where I think I want it to stay, though: memories. I did almost everything in the game this time around, but at the end of the day it still felt like work only meant to build towards ME2. And that's a REAL shame because for those first 6-8 hours I was really on board. Then I got on a random planet, to do a random nothing quest in a copy paste building that literally identical to 50 other missions except the debris is in a different place. Then I did it again...and again.....and again....and it never got better, in fact it for worse. There was a moment where it took over 10 minutes to Skyrim my way to a ? objective and it was a prothean artifact, and I just felt DEFEATED.

I truly regret doing all that content and not just mailing the story. It hurt my opinion so much, and doing practically none of it back in the day is likely responsible for me having such fond memories. I damaged my opinion with ME1 with this release and that makes me upset.

---

Worldbuilding is the only thing ME1 does better than the rest of the series. That's some people's jam, sure. But it's WAY worse in every other aspect. There's a reason the series didn't truly blow up until 2.

---

I also don't understand the larger focus in RPG mechanics thing. It doesn't actually have that. It just has MORE numbers, that doesn't make it MORE of an RPG.

Is it really just down to the gear? Because that entire gear system is a nightmare and arguably the worst thing about the game.

---

Yeah the whole 'ME1 is more of an RPG' thing has always confused me. I guess you can make anything feel like an RPG if you shower the player in mounds of useless equipment and make the controls so bad that playing it like an FPS doesn't feel good. Otherwise it's basically the same as ME2 and ME3.

---

ME1 does have more customization. Yeah it has more gear, but from what I recall, each character also has access to more abilities, and weapons are quite customizable as well (in the late game, you can swap in up to three unique upgrades per weapon). Combine that with all the different types of weaponry, and you can easily do something like customize your pistol to rapid-fire ice rounds like a submachine gun or fire devastating explosive rounds like a sniper rifle.

Now obviously, that's not to say that ME1 does its inventory management particularly WELL (this is actually my biggest gripe with the game at the moment, even more than mountainous Mako traversal), but the options for tweaking your team is significant.

IIRC, ME2's customization options were far more limited. This was a big plus for most people, as it was more accessible and resulted in each ability upgrade being much more impactful, but again, there will always be those gamers who prefer little tweaks and inventory management.

Also, it's totally unfair that ME1's overall plot gets slept in whenever the series is discussed. A lot of the side content sucks, but the main plot is tightly focused and super well executed.

Oh and for the love of god, here's the Mass Effect Hill I die on forever:

Sovereign >>> Harbinger

Harbinger was a troll who spawned a bunch of memes. Sovereign was an actual mind-fuck supervillain, and the conversation with him on Virmire might still be my favorite moment in the series. I remember it leaving my wide-eyed back in 2007.

---

ME1 is not a long enough game to justify it's minute tweaking, though. By the time you any if that stuff has any real impact, you're already at the end, even if you do every dumb planet sidequests.


---

I don't think any of the ME games have particularly good main plots, honestly. The series' strength lies in the characters and the overall universe. Outside of Virmire nothing about ME1's plot stands out to me, and I wouldn't list it as a major strength over the other two games. Not when Tuchanka stands as the emotional high point of the entire series.

---

I think for me the idea of the spectres was so cool and first becoming one to take out a rogue spectre before the story goes full anime was fun

---

I think ME1 has probably the best standalone story of the 3, I always really liked it even though it felt a little short. I remember playing it and stuff that felt as though it would be a long arc ended up being resolved very quickly.
---

I prefer ME2 over ME1 generally, but I can totally understand the first game being peoples favourite. Its like Fallout 3 and New Vegas, I think people will generally agree NV is the better game, but I prefer 3 more since it introduced me to the series and left a bigger impact on me.

---

I have always thought ME1 could be the best in the series if it underwent a full remake to make the shooting gameplay more in line with later entries. The worldbuilding is very good and I do think the uncharted worlds stuff could be great if made today (I'm thinking like Andromeda's open worlds), and there's some things it flat out does better than later entries- the Citadel is at its best here, the villains are good and the arching plot is much more substantial than 2 and tighter than 3. Although my opinion on the plot did drop a bit after I played Halo 1 and realised how similar the broad strokes are lol.

1 also feels the most 'alien' to me which is a big plus, the human aspect got bigger and bigger as the series went on and I'm far more interested in the foreign cultures and alien lore. Like ME3 largely centres on Earth, Shepard and the human military and that is not why I got into the series!

---

Hot take: ME1's RPG stuff isn't very good

---