I guess this post contains minor spoilers, but I won't really spoil the storyline.

I finally beat the game today. I played on the normal difficulty, but by the 2nd half or so it was beyond easy. My weapons and armor were so advanced I would pretty much so have to stand in the middle of the room and do nothing if I wanted to die. Even my teammates were so advanced, I had to struggle to kill things before they got to them. I even managed to beat the final boss once (I beat the game several times to see the various different endings you could choose) by just running around the room while my teammates took him out.

I was kinda disappointed that you can't keep playing the game after you beat it. But if you want, you can start a new game with all the levels, money, and weapons that you finished with, which is so beyond ridiculous it's not even funny. Even on the hardest level.

I would still have to say the storyline in KOTOR I was better than Mass Effect. I had heard the ending leaves the door open for sequels and boy, they weren't kidding. I'm honestly surprised they didn't go ahead and put in a line trying to get you to go out and preorder Mass Effect II. But overall any issues I had with the game are minor. This game is great if you're a fan of this type of game.

11/21/2007 12:17:37 AM

Just got this though Gamefly...bout to wile out

11/21/2007 6:31:51 PM

This game is awesome.

11/21/2007 8:58:34 PM

damn you UPS and your no-thanksgiving delivery!

11/22/2007 1:56:42 PM

i was playing as a vanguard, cuz i love shotguns in most games and it seemed cool, but i hardly ever use the spells and most fights i was in seemed to be medium or long range. im switching to tech/solider instead whatever thats called.

[Edited on November 22, 2007 at 2:39 PM. Reason : conversation is done extremely well though and the graphics are great.]

11/22/2007 2:34:09 PM

Yeah I played a little as Vanguard but don't really use the spells either.

I think Infiltrator is the one that combines tech and long range guns, gonna try that one next.

I've been acting like an asshole to everyone except I'm nice to that Ashley Williams girl, I figure she's decent for a video game chick and if I play my cards right she might let me bang her.

11/22/2007 6:31:44 PM

meh the sniper rifle wasnt my thing either though the tech bombs are pretty nice. having the tech abilities to hack/unlock/whatever is nice too. i got locked in a room one time cuz no one could take this computer and you had to do it before you could leave. was gay.

i still hate that the autosaves are really far apart sometimes. i almost killed one of the "bosses" after a drawn out fight and then it restarted, was gay.

11/22/2007 7:02:03 PM

Quote :

"I figure she's decent for a video game chick and if I play my cards right she might let me bang her."

you totally can.

11/22/2007 7:11:53 PM

She's pretty good looking, but her neck is really long.

As an Adept, some of the fights have been pretty tough. I think the PC can play the casting classes just as well as you can (you just have to tell them what and where to cast) but they aren't that good as soldiers. Ashley doesn't fire her gun nearly enough, she fires like 3-5 round bursts every second or so, far less than the cooldown should allow. I probably do more damage with my pistol than she does with the AR, even with full training.

11/22/2007 9:31:48 PM

I want to invert the got damm x-axis!

11/22/2007 10:28:02 PM

The X axis?

Does any game let you do that?

You can invert the y axis, I had to do that immediately.

11/22/2007 11:26:14 PM

in most games of this sort, moving the right stick right will make the screen move left.. it seems backwards but thats just what I'm used to




[Edited on November 23, 2007 at 12:19 AM. Reason : .]

11/23/2007 12:18:43 AM

^What you're saying does not make any sense. I don't know any "game like this" I've played where moving the stick left moved the screen right.

11/23/2007 11:56:54 AM

can you turn into anybody other than Shepard?

11/23/2007 1:15:27 PM

No, you can just tell them what to do.

11/23/2007 2:54:20 PM

^^^ what I mean is 3rd person games where the left analog stick moves your guy and the right one moves the camera.. like hitman/numerous other rpg or stealth games

I'm used to having the x-axis inverted for the camera movement.. it took me like 40 seconds to shoot a gas bag at the beginning of this game, though I've gotten better at it now so it's not a huge deal

11/23/2007 3:35:56 PM

Ah alright I think I see what you mean- in those games you're moving the camera right and pivoting on the character, so the screen moves left in that case. I guess it just didn't seem that strange to me and I haven't played that many other 3rd person games. The game does respond much like a first person shooter in terms of camera movement.

11/23/2007 8:19:50 PM

This is the best game I have played in years.

It has, however, severely hampered my academics.

I now have about 15 pages to write by 1 PM Monday.

Damn you mass effect!

11/24/2007 3:14:17 PM

haven't played much and I've done a lot of the side quests...but damn! I just got the normandy and the whole inspirational speech to the crew and having full control over what to say was pretty awesome! haha

11/24/2007 7:15:49 PM

^that sounds about exactly like something I did in one of the KOTORs

11/24/2007 7:37:49 PM

this game is basically a carbon copy of KOTOR with the fighting changed to real time/1st person, not that that's necessarily a bad thing

11/24/2007 7:42:11 PM

just finished it and the ending is pretty bad-ass. I don't know how much your choices at the end effect the ending but I would like to think they change the ending scene significantly...

[Edited on November 24, 2007 at 11:58 PM. Reason : and seth green gets to be the cocky/funny pilot, i liked that.]

11/24/2007 11:54:44 PM

punching a female in the face is most gratifying. thank you mass effect.

[Edited on November 25, 2007 at 2:14 PM. Reason : and then argue with a jellyfish]

11/25/2007 2:11:35 PM

haha this whole time I was thinking "this game is awesome but damn, the graphics kind of suck! Not next gen at all...except for cut scenes. Then I found the film grain option and switched it off....its like Playing on a SD tv and then moving up to a HD 1080p tv lol

11/25/2007 4:08:32 PM

was that chick from inside the plant on Feros going to join my party if I hadn't shot her in the head?

the remaining outline on my party selection screen kinda looks like her, oops

11/25/2007 10:30:07 PM

no, you get that chick somewhere else, the something tau something, the one where all the systems are greek cities.

[Edited on November 25, 2007 at 10:52 PM. Reason : ]

11/25/2007 10:52:13 PM

so i know i'm late to the party and all (wedding/honeymoon) but first thing i did was pick this baby up. Wow...I'm really really impressed.

Particular with three elements. 1. Graphics are unbelievable. 2. Combat for a Bioware/KOTOR RPG is totally awesome....it's like a FPS! 3. Story elements and atmosphere so far are through the roof.

I've only scanned the thread but i'm hoping that this isnt the 'first 4 hours of gameplay' halo effect i have going on, cause between this and SMG i won't need to buy another game til 08!

(Oh and another thing, vets of KOTOR will know this - but that game (and it's sequel) are hella easy by the time the game concludes...i remember being able to cut swaths with dual lightsabers and not even take a tick of damage...my only complaint with that game...i'm thinking ME might have a similar trait hence the 'this is too easy' comment. I put mine on hard/veteran and i'm leaving it there. So far the challege is great...hope it keeps up)

[Edited on November 26, 2007 at 3:10 AM. Reason : sfd]

11/26/2007 3:07:26 AM

Actually IMO it just keeps getting better the more you play it. The story unfolds more, you get more familiar with the combat, and of course you get all those level ups which give you awesome powers.

After finishing the game as an adept and having many of the powers maxed out, it's actually a little boring to go back to the early game (started a new character).

And it may get easier as you play through. I think it's a bigger problem with the major combat classes, since you as a human can do that much better than your companions, and when you get some godly weapons with godly upgrades it can get pretty easy (or so I understand). I know that I still had some challenge late game as an Adept. There were still some enemies who could one or two shot me.

[Edited on November 26, 2007 at 3:15 AM. Reason : ]

11/26/2007 3:11:34 AM

Mine is sitting on my counter still in the wrap

I will beat AC first before I dive into this, because I know once I open it I won't play anything else for a few months

11/26/2007 8:05:02 AM

beat it last night as an Infiltrator...tried to have a nice mix between Vangard and Renegade...still though only weapons I was trained in were pistols and sniper rifle so I ended up using pistols mostly...I'm going back through now as a Soldier since you can get better weapons and armor...also I plan on using Intimidate whenever possible and shooting anyone I'm allowed to shoot...and wtf in my game as Infiltrator I was playing Ashley and the alien bitch but I only banged the alien...fuck that

11/26/2007 10:28:11 AM

man i got merced last night
rolled up on a random mercenary camp in the maco
i thought i was the hot shit...ate a bunch of rockets in quick succession

11/27/2007 9:45:21 AM

you can get through this game pretty quickly if you dont fuck around with the side missions...i probably got through both Eden Prime and Noveria in like 2 hours

also hitting X during conversations is a good way to speed the game up

11/27/2007 10:07:35 AM

why you trying to move so fast through the game? Enjoy it man?

11/27/2007 10:34:55 AM

i already beat it once and did a bunch of the side missions...i'm going through it quicker now on Soldier and then I plan to transfer that character...I've definitely been enjoying the game though, dont get me wrong

11/27/2007 11:07:00 AM

Reminds me a lot of KOTOR with one huge exception- the ending feels more complete and satisfying. Not to mention that there are some very significant things that can play out differently during the game depending on how you play your character.

Blah, I should be doing homework but I'm going to play the last 10 minutes again making different choices to see how it plays out.

****Spoiler... sorta*****









Speaking of important things in the game playing out very differently, I love how the whole situation with Wrex can play out depending on your charm/intimidate levels. If anyone out there is playing and really like's Wrex (one of the funnier characters with his dry sense of humor I think) then max out either your intimidate or charm skills.











****Spoiler... sorta*****

[Edited on November 27, 2007 at 11:33 PM. Reason : wish I was a premie so I could make the text white so you had to highlight it.]

11/27/2007 11:33:06 PM

10 hours into the game! The story is pretty badass so far. +1

11/28/2007 12:22:17 AM

with the influence system it sounds a lot like KOTOR II

spiffy

11/28/2007 12:49:46 AM

Yeah but unlike KOTOR II they actually finished the endings.

11/28/2007 12:55:06 AM

***SPOILER***


I loved killing Kaiden. He reminded me too much of Carth Onassi from KOTOR (I think he might even be the same voice actor). I was lol'ing when the game tried to make the Kaiden/Ashley decision emotional.


***SPOILER***

11/28/2007 8:25:46 AM

^^haha, yea....have you seen the 'secret' stuff that was released with the CD's? Like hidden dialogues that hint at what the game was supposed to be? Very, very interesting stuff.

^ noooooooooooo my eyes

11/28/2007 9:02:14 AM

There's a group working on unlocking all that hidden stuff.

But now that Mass Effect's out, meh.

11/28/2007 9:20:07 AM

2nd time through I'm being a dick to everyone I can, and using the Red intimidate text on every person possible, but using nice and Blue charm text for Ashley...she's pretty hot for a racist

11/28/2007 9:31:02 AM

I'm romancing her the 2nd time around just to see the other storyline. Crap I can't stand her. I wish I had the option of killing...

***SPOILER ALERT***


both her and Kaiden


***SPOILER ALERT***

11/28/2007 9:37:18 AM

anybody get all the rocks or minerals or whatever? i got all the turian insignia and the writings or whatnot but probably only got like 15/20 or 16/20 for some of the light and heavy metals...i went to a lot of worlds but not all of them...surveying asteroids is easy

11/28/2007 9:44:29 AM

Think Wrex is my favorite character by far.

11/28/2007 9:44:45 AM

5^ they're still going at it? I figured they found everything there was, and that they would've stopped after what, 2 years it feels like

11/28/2007 11:00:21 AM

so i've done a bunch of the side missions like scanning all 21 of the keepers....are those missions really worth it though? iirc all you get is some experience points

11/28/2007 12:34:26 PM

^^ They're not just digging up old material-- they're incorporating it into a complete game.

11/28/2007 12:39:36 PM

Some of them may have some bearing on how your squadmates react at plot points (influence you have on them) but pretty much all of them are just for the experience or hell of it. Some of them actually have a lot more to do with the main plot than you might expect (greater insight into what's going on and all.)

The cerberus sidequests are pretty neat too,

11/28/2007 12:46:35 PM

yeah i did most of them my first play through so I've got a pretty good handle on the overall plot and story of the game...just didn't know what you could get

my new thing is after i do a side mission, i try and use intimidate to get some extra money out of it

11/28/2007 12:54:50 PM