oak77
Serviceman 3rd Class
Posts: 1
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Post by oak77 on Sept 12, 2013 8:38:47 GMT 1
Up until recently I had no plan to play these games, for reasons unknown, they did interest me but just never found the time to get into them mass effect 1 & 2 have been sitting in my steam account for some time but never loaded em. I do not know much of the universe or the story (I know the ending is meant to be a sucker but to be honest the journey is what interests me). I love lore and love exploring and a couple of days ago started really looking into the series.
To a new player who will most likely put hundreds of hours into the game trying to absorb every little thing he can get his hands on should I do more then play the games? and is there a preferred order, after a quick look at the wiki I noticed their books, comics and even a anime series. I am not interested in the mobile games not saying there crap they just don't interest me.
I ask because starting a new series is gold especially one with this much love put into it, there is nothing like going on a epic adventure for the first time, and if reading the books in order etc will add the experience then great. A example is the book Revelation is meant to be a prequel too mass effect would it be preferred to read that first before jumping in to better understand the universe? I want to extract every bit i can from this series and take my time and figured I would ask some vets on how to go about it.
thanks for the help.
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Post by Cali on Sept 12, 2013 9:16:56 GMT 1
Hey there, Oak! Welcome to the forums!
I haven't dabbled in Mass Effect in quite a while, just taking a break from the series in general. Here are a few things I can tell you for starters:
1. The Science Fiction aspect manages to be unique and complex in its own way while at the same time being accessible to a point where anyone could see what's going on at first glance (as opposed to something like Dune where your parents would give you funny looks during the spice agony scene. Yes I'm talking about the David Lynch adaptation). 2. Mass Effect has a lot of allegories to real world political topics, such as immigration, racism, militarism, jingoism, as well as ancient history. 3. Each alien race is based off of an archaic civilization or culture. Example: Turians are based off Romans, Asari are ancient Greeks, Volus are loosely based off the Yiddish, etc. 4. The main character has no "Good" or "Evil" choices, but choices that center around lawful morality or a shortsighted and jaded perspective. 5. The setting is super militaristic to the core, despite what you might think at second glances. I'm pretty torn by this, as it's both pretty interesting, yet pretty constant at the same time. 6. The series has a few cool references to literature, barring and excluding no genre. There's a character and questline that are pretty cleverly inspired by Braham Stoker's Dracula novel. 7. Don't bother with the books until you really feel like you want to read them. I wasn't the biggest fan of them, to be honest, but some folks like them. 8. The exploration is one thing I loved most about the original Mass Effect, but it seems to have been eschewed in the sequels to some degree, if "streamlined" is actually a word for what they did. 9. The writing is pretty good, but nothing compared to other mediums in the field, or in other video games such as Planescape: Torment, Dear Esther, Amnesia, or The Witcher. Just my opinion though.
Some downsides and warnings:
1. Mass Effect has a pretty rabid fanbase. Both the good/funny/friendly kinds of rabid and the creepy/insane/psychopantic kind. It's easy to avoid the latter, but they're pretty vocal and give the others a bad name. 2. Yes, Mass Effect 3's ending blows. If it's the experience you're interested in, however, I'm not entirely certain it's going to ruin your like for it. I needed a break from it afterward, that's for sure, and I was loving quite a bit for a while. That's all I gotta say. 3. Mass Effect's RPG elements are pretty subjective to a lot of people. General consensus is Mass Effect 1's RPG elements and character building is superior while the sequels are dumbed down kiddie shit. I'd agree for Mass Effect 2, but I do have to say I did think Mass Effect 3's system was a good compromise, despite it being my least favorite game in the series. 4. Each game in the series has a lot of things it does right, and at least one or two things that annoy the hell out of people this day. No game is perfect after all. For instance, Mass Effect 1 has mild bugs and "tedious" vehicle sections (which *GASP* never bothered me. Lots of exploration for the latter), Mass Effect 2 has a tedious mining minigame where you send probes toward planets to mark and mine resources (which also never bothered me. Thought it was a meditative experience in between combat drops and firefights), and Mass Effect 3 has the ending as well as a very weird aspect that playing a lot of its multiplayer is required to get a better ending. (Yeah, that kind of bothered me, but the ending kinda blows anyway, so). 5. One of the more controversial decisions: There's massive amounts of DLC for each game, especially the second and third. One of the DLC's in Mass Effect 2 is basically essential for understanding what the hell is going on in the first few minutes of Mass Effect 3.
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Post by Warhammer Gorvar on Sept 12, 2013 11:24:59 GMT 1
The Arrival DLC for ME2 is horrible but essential to play to understand the beginning of ME3. However I suggest the Shadow Broker DLC for ME2 as a must play since it is very enjoyable.
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Post by jklinders on Sept 12, 2013 11:39:04 GMT 1
How are you doing Oak? Welcome to the site.
Aside from a few warts I still feel that as a combined whole Mass Effect is the about the best gaming has to offer right now. Cali's caveats definitely apply though. I'm going to ad a bit to the plus and minus side here.
Mass Effect 1 without a doubt has a great sense of world building and very good opportunities for roleplay. This sense dies down in bits and pieces as the sequels go but in my opinion, this makes a fair bit of narrative sense as the story goes the options become fewer in general. This will make a helluva lot more sense as you play.
The Paragon and renegade really are not a good/evil mechanic. I know Cali said this but it is really important that that is understood. Shepard is trying to save the day regardless of ethics involved in doing so. See my own caveats below on this mechanic though. It'll be spoiler free but it's important.
The side characters have haunted folks for years after the games were done. Some were more memorable than others but they are pretty much all well written.
Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale both do a fantastic job voicing Shepard. They just do it in ways that are very different from each other. Hale's Shepard is very warm, emotive on the paragon side and icy cold on the renegade. Fantastic. Meer, goes with more of an old school professional marine type for the paragon (who kind of softens a bit over the games) and a very snarky and vicious brute on the renegade. The deliveries are different enough to actually make them different characters altogether.
my own caveats.
Be very careful with going "off script" on paragon and renegade in Mass Effect 1&2. It's not nearly as important in 3 but if Shepard is not a fanatic towards one or the other he/she will fail dialogue checks and at points that can be a shame.
Inventory sucks in ME 1, so they did away with the mechanic in 2&3. I still don't know how I feel about that and it's been years.
We're pretty friendly here so ask questions or comment as you feel fit in this thread. We won't lynch you. The fans at the Bioware Social Network....you'll find some that are reasonable but it is right now the second largest troll breeding ground on the internet after /b/. Seriously, especially the on the squadmate fan pages they are nuts.
We only recently added spoiler tags to this site. By that i mean very very recently. So peruse any of the Bioware or Mass Effect threads very carefully for the spoiler filled minefields they are.
Mock Effect and their sequels are well written and a laugh. Also filled with spoilers. I recommend reading them after you play their respective games. Not before.
Lastly, I am the mod on the site. Any questions or concern regarding the site , give me a shout.
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Post by Lily Ariel Linders on Sept 12, 2013 12:32:02 GMT 1
Welcome to the site, Oak! I have nothing to add regarding the Mass Effect games that JKLinders hasn't already said, but I will add that regardless of playing strategy and whatnot, the games themselves are awesome. The ending of ME3 might have been disappointing to a lot of people, but I might be one of the very few who actually loved the various endings / choices... and you're so right, the journey is what's interesting about the games... Also, don't be surprised if you get emotionally invested in some of the characters... I did - and I remember crying like a lunatic during a couple specific missions, particularly in ME2... and a lot during ME3... and I shan't say any more for fear of spoilers... Aside from that, again, welcome and have fun on your Mass Effect Journey!
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Post by spookyjacobs on Sept 12, 2013 23:26:24 GMT 1
I don't have a whole lot to add as I more or less agree with what everyone else has said. As far as extra material like books and comics go, you definitely don't have to read them in order to enjoy the game and feel connected to the universe the games present you with. I haven't read any of them and I doubt I ever will.
As far as the infamous ending goes, I would suggest that you go into ME3 with an open mind. The end displeased a lot of people, myself included, but it was also completely satisfying to a decent number of players. If you go into it expecting to hate it, you'll hate it. It might even cast your entire playthrough of the third game in too negative a light if you're just expecting to be completely disappointed at the end. I never hated the ending of ME3, and I've even been able to come to terms with it for the most part after the Extended Cut was released. I'm new here too, so I don't know if that's considered to be heretical or not. I actually don't know how the community overall received the Extended Cut since I kind of tuned out for awhile after the trilogy ended.
And if you have no idea what I'm referring to, the Extended Cut was free DLC that Bioware released to address some of the problems a lot of people had with the ending. I thought it was partially successful, but that's probably just me.
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Post by CAPT Issac R. Madden on Sept 20, 2013 23:01:01 GMT 1
Be very careful with going "off script" on paragon and renegade in Mass Effect 1&2. It's not nearly as important in 3 but if Shepard is not a fanatic towards one or the other he/she will fail dialogue checks and at points that can be a shame. This. Admittedly, this is easy for me to do in ME1 since the "renegade" options are less renegade and more "douche hammer kicking sand in the face of a 5 year old". ME2 is much harder since the renegade options are actually what being a true renegade is about: you're getting the job done in a pragmatic manner and to hell with what others think as long as the job is done. My main bitch about the Paragon/Renegade dichotomy is that if you are geared toward being a blend of the two, you're fucked. Shameless plug: that's why I love Alpha Protocol; you can play it any way you want* and still get good results. *as long as you remember that AP is an RPG and not a CoD clone, that is...
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Post by jklinders on Sept 21, 2013 2:04:05 GMT 1
Alpha protocol needs a sequel. Maybe a petition to petition.org or something is order. Not to make Sega to allow a sequel but to get Sega to release the rights to teh content back to Obsidian so Chris Avellone can give us another awesome game.
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Post by CAPT Issac R. Madden on Sept 21, 2013 2:25:24 GMT 1
I'd gladly add to a kickstarter to make this happen.
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Post by jklinders on Sept 21, 2013 2:30:19 GMT 1
Sega needs to get their hands off of obsidian's stick first.
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Post by CAPT Issac R. Madden on Sept 21, 2013 2:31:32 GMT 1
Let me go Sith Lord and I'll gladly remove their hands with a lightsaber.
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Post by A Normal Pathfinder on Sept 21, 2013 22:57:05 GMT 1
Welcome! And you are making the right choice in playing those games
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