AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
I've played 2 and 3 but not 1. Considering doing a Mega Asshole Shepard run, though. Is there really any good reason to play 1? I've heard... not much good about it.
I've played 2 and 3 but not 1. Considering doing a Mega Asshole Shepard run, though. Is there really any good reason to play 1? I've heard... not much good about it.
edit:
crap, wasn't reading properly.
Renegade shep is renegade shep.
sometimes he does really cruel things just for the sake of it.
the writing in me1 isn't as ... thought out (lol) .. as it is in 2 or 3.
you'll probably find it a slog.
evilthecat on
tip.. tip.. TALLY.. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
0
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I've played 2 and 3 but not 1. Considering doing a Mega Asshole Shepard run, though. Is there really any good reason to play 1? I've heard... not much good about it.
No, that's Mass Effect 2. I've never done many renegade choices in 1, I don't really know what it's like. But people talk about it like it's really mean, murderous Shepard in 1, while in 2 and 3 it's "whatever it takes to get the job done" Shepard.
Have left PA forums.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
+1
NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
Nah, that's just Shep's L-2 amp acting up.
See, Kaiden gets migraines as a side effect. Shep gets seizures.
Luckily(?) they only happen when Shep is also bombarded with bass and flashing lights.
0
AbsoluteZeroThe new film by Quentin KoopantinoRegistered Userregular
Finished Sanctuary. Miranda's dad is a hilariously bad decision maker. I told him that with his hostage he WOULD die but without her he MIGHT die. When really, the only question was whether Miranda would be able to beat me to pulling my trigger 9 or 10 times (she did, good hustle out there girl!)
Next up, the end of Cerberus and London. Then I'm pretty sure there's a party that ends the game right? That's all I remember...
Yeah, both him and Rana McAnear (Samara's model) have been known to show up to conventions decked out as their characters.
Waaaargh, what ? Sorry, I blacked out there for a minute. You mean we have photos of Samara's model dressed up as her ? I think I need to see a few hundred of them to judge their authenticity.
I've played 2 and 3 but not 1. Considering doing a Mega Asshole Shepard run, though. Is there really any good reason to play 1? I've heard... not much good about it.
I think it's absolutely worth playing. The gameplay, to be honest, is much more repetitive and less exciting than the other two. You'll be doing a lot of the same thing over and over, especially if you do side missions. If you've already played the others, it'll unfortunately be that much more noticeable.
But the story is pretty good and has some scenes that are now gaming classics. They may not have quite the same impact since you're spoiled for the rest of the series, but they're still pretty good. It's the most talky and least cinematic of the games. Sometimes that get's boring, but it provides lots of opportunities for Shep to express herself.
Overall, I much prefer ME2 and ME3, but I'm glad that I played the first. You might have to power through some of the gameplay sections, but it's still a great game.
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I expect a 1,000 year old biotic badass to dress in like the shabbiest of sweats or whatnot. Because who the fuck is going to stop her? And by 1,000 years she's probably well over preening for other people's benefit.
Also the high heels are to help her run, like when she had to chase Nihlus for a few days. If Nihlus had high heels, he'd never have needed to create a diversion.
(Samara discussion) Going back through ME2/3 it was fascinating to see how basically every female character has amazing proportions and a fairly large rack. I would actually say FemShep has one of the smaller busts out of any of the characters. I'm guessing this comes down to saving resources where they can by reusing the same physical model wherever possible. Especially considering you'll see people with your exact hairstyle and so on. Still, if say, Allers was supposed to be "the pretty one" it would help if every random person wasn't just as made up and curvy.
So I completed my main campaign Insanity playthrough last night (FemShep Renegade Soldier). The toughest part was actually making a move on the second missile launcher at the end, I was perfectly safe where I was, but crossing through so many lanes of fire was pretty deadly. I chose Synthesis since I hadn't seen Extended Green ending and besides why not give everybody the so-called best, most happy ending?
Ending rant!
Because it's insultingly stupid that's why. Jesus it's just the worst really. "You collected exotic power sources from all over the galaxy Commander, but what this incredible power source really needs is you know... a human's energy with some robot parts in 'em. If you just sort of chuck yourself in that beam, you'll magically create understanding and perfect technological enhancements for EVERY RACE THAT IS OUT THERE. Also this will make everybody be nice to each other for no particular reason." It also runs into the exact same problem from the Geth storyline. In Mass Effect 2, Legion states that accepting a chain of technology that your society didn't create fundamentally changes your society, and not necessarily into a better form. Better to eke out your own destiny than accept a huge quality of life upgrade that makes you something you're not, Legion explains passionately. Then in Mass Effect 3, Legion says that Reaper upgrades are "beautiful" and IMMEDIATELY spreads them out to his entire race over the course of like a day. If the game presented this as a tragedy or was even AWARE of the contradiction, I'd call it pretty genius writing. Since apparently the writing staff ate a bad taco and accidentally ___ the whole plot to ME2 at some point, I guess not.
Going back to Synthesis, a theme of the series could be described as "not better or worse, but different." The story of Mass Effect is NOT one of teaching all the other races how Yoomanity does it back on Earthtown(!). Instead, you learn from all your companions cultures and hangups. Sure they have problems and downsides, but the third enemy faction in 3 is just asshole human beings. The most extreme example of this theme is the momentous meeting with a friendly Geth in Mass Effect 2. It's difficult to wrap your head around "consensus" culture, but it certainly has its merits. It's not better or worse from being individuals, it's just what works for them. The Geth plotline in 3 makes a HUGE turnaround and says "Actually, the best Geth would all be individuals, they wouldn't need consensus really other than as just a way to make decisions as a group." Then Synthesis extends this theme to EVERY RACE in the galaxy! "Your problem is that you're all different see. If you were just basically the same thing, then there'd be peace and ice cream cake and sexy times for humans and robots alike!" At the start of Synthesis, EDI says "I am alive," referring to the change made to her. A bit of a shock to me, I thought the point of AIs gaining sentience is that they were ALREADY alive. I forgot they needed magic green energy to be REALLY alive though, guess all that prejudice did have a point after all.
And all that ignores the "We couldn't force organics to accept synthesis, they need to choose it... but if YOU individually make that choice, that counts for EVERY organic and synthetic in the galaxy, no quorum needed."
It's clear that Destroy vs Control was the real choice, but Destroy was too straightforward and optimal, so they stacked some stupid shit on top of it to make it seem worse (you arbitrarily get blown up, it arbitrarily kills any robot friends you've made) so that you'll reconsider. Then, after thoroughly mocking the concept of a happy ending as something that immature, non-artful people want, they make one of the least thoughtful "super happy ending" things I've ever seen with Synthesis.
For those who don't want to get into it, it's just impressive how Mass Effect has some of the best, most thoughtful stuff in the trilogy, but also the flat out worst things by far.
Moving on to post game, I started Citadel on Insanity. Holy crap, it actually feels like post game content on this difficulty. You can just hear the designer.
"Oh, Insanity is too easy after multiplayer huh? Well what if we started you off without any of your armor!" Well that would certainly drop my stats a bit, not too bad though.
"And no teammates!" Huh, that would certainly be harder, not really more fun though. The game is designed around having teammates, the combat sort of morphs in an unfriendly way when they're not there. Even on multiplayer I have at least one other dude to draw aggro.
"And a new, low level gun that doesn't fit your playstyle! You can't use any other equipment!" Okay, now it sounds like you just want to fuck me over.
"Also no medi-gel at all for this sequence!" I'm not sure why 'no mistakes or you die' becomes more fun, but I guess I can handle it...
"Also also, you start out near death from a cutscene before hand!" Just... why??
"Also also also, the cover sucks shit and the enemies have THREE different ways of punishing you for hanging out in what cover there is!" Shouldn't it be bad cover WITH a team, or a versatile arena WITHOUT one, not the worst of both things?
"Oh and limited ammo for that gun we're forcing you to use!" So... hope you picked Engineer, the DLC huh?
If they would have allowed a weapon choice and not arbitrarily killed my life bar, it would have been a fun challenge. As presented, it felt sloggy and pretty annoyingly unfair. As a soldier, I couldn't unleash my weapon damage with a "stupid stealth pistol Mark I" with no ammo. My disruptor ammo concussion shots became pretty much the only weapon I had. At least as a Vanguard I could still rip them to pieces with my mind... Like Arrival before it, "solo Shepard" challenge shows annoyances to the combat system, it doesn't make for a thrilling engagement. Of course, the rest of the DLC is superb. I will say Soldier Shepard as a boss is tremendously less threatening than Vanguard Shepard as a boss. It doesn't seem to have any good ideas about power use in this class, whereas Vanguard Shep spammed grenades, shockwave, Charge, and Nova to a degree where you could lose control of the fight quickly if you weren't tearing him/her to pieces fast enough.
Regarding male vs fem Shep in Citadel, evil Mark Meer was more compelling to me, but Jennifer Hale's outraged reactions to everything were pretty great. Brooks seemed more hateable this time around, but that's probably because I was fully aware of exactly what was happening the whole time.
(Samara discussion) Going back through ME2/3 it was fascinating to see how basically every female character has amazing proportions and a fairly large rack. I would actually say FemShep has one of the smaller busts out of any of the characters. I'm guessing this comes down to saving resources where they can by reusing the same physical model wherever possible. Especially considering you'll see people with your exact hairstyle and so on. Still, if say, Allers was supposed to be "the pretty one" it would help if every random person wasn't just as made up and curvy.
So I completed my main campaign Insanity playthrough last night (FemShep Renegade Soldier). The toughest part was actually making a move on the second missile launcher at the end, I was perfectly safe where I was, but crossing through so many lanes of fire was pretty deadly. I chose Synthesis since I hadn't seen Extended Green ending and besides why not give everybody the so-called best, most happy ending?
Ending rant!
Because it's insultingly stupid that's why. Jesus it's just the worst really. "You collected exotic power sources from all over the galaxy Commander, but what this incredible power source really needs is you know... a human's energy with some robot parts in 'em. If you just sort of chuck yourself in that beam, you'll magically create understanding and perfect technological enhancements for EVERY RACE THAT IS OUT THERE. Also this will make everybody be nice to each other for no particular reason." It also runs into the exact same problem from the Geth storyline. In Mass Effect 2, Legion states that accepting a chain of technology that your society didn't create fundamentally changes your society, and not necessarily into a better form. Better to eke out your own destiny than accept a huge quality of life upgrade that makes you something you're not, Legion explains passionately. Then in Mass Effect 3, Legion says that Reaper upgrades are "beautiful" and IMMEDIATELY spreads them out to his entire race over the course of like a day. If the game presented this as a tragedy or was even AWARE of the contradiction, I'd call it pretty genius writing. Since apparently the writing staff ate a bad taco and accidentally ___ the whole plot to ME2 at some point, I guess not.
Going back to Synthesis, a theme of the series could be described as "not better or worse, but different." The story of Mass Effect is NOT one of teaching all the other races how Yoomanity does it back on Earthtown(!). Instead, you learn from all your companions cultures and hangups. Sure they have problems and downsides, but the third enemy faction in 3 is just asshole human beings. The most extreme example of this theme is the momentous meeting with a friendly Geth in Mass Effect 2. It's difficult to wrap your head around "consensus" culture, but it certainly has its merits. It's not better or worse from being individuals, it's just what works for them. The Geth plotline in 3 makes a HUGE turnaround and says "Actually, the best Geth would all be individuals, they wouldn't need consensus really other than as just a way to make decisions as a group." Then Synthesis extends this theme to EVERY RACE in the galaxy! "Your problem is that you're all different see. If you were just basically the same thing, then there'd be peace and ice cream cake and sexy times for humans and robots alike!" At the start of Synthesis, EDI says "I am alive," referring to the change made to her. A bit of a shock to me, I thought the point of AIs gaining sentience is that they were ALREADY alive. I forgot they needed magic green energy to be REALLY alive though, guess all that prejudice did have a point after all.
And all that ignores the "We couldn't force organics to accept synthesis, they need to choose it... but if YOU individually make that choice, that counts for EVERY organic and synthetic in the galaxy, no quorum needed."
It's clear that Destroy vs Control was the real choice, but Destroy was too straightforward and optimal, so they stacked some stupid shit on top of it to make it seem worse (you arbitrarily get blown up, it arbitrarily kills any robot friends you've made) so that you'll reconsider. Then, after thoroughly mocking the concept of a happy ending as something that immature, non-artful people want, they make one of the least thoughtful "super happy ending" things I've ever seen with Synthesis.
For those who don't want to get into it, it's just impressive how Mass Effect has some of the best, most thoughtful stuff in the trilogy, but also the flat out worst things by far.
Moving on to post game, I started Citadel on Insanity. Holy crap, it actually feels like post game content on this difficulty. You can just hear the designer.
"Oh, Insanity is too easy after multiplayer huh? Well what if we started you off without any of your armor!" Well that would certainly drop my stats a bit, not too bad though.
"And no teammates!" Huh, that would certainly be harder, not really more fun though. The game is designed around having teammates, the combat sort of morphs in an unfriendly way when they're not there. Even on multiplayer I have at least one other dude to draw aggro.
"And a new, low level gun that doesn't fit your playstyle! You can't use any other equipment!" Okay, now it sounds like you just want to fuck me over.
"Also no medi-gel at all for this sequence!" I'm not sure why 'no mistakes or you die' becomes more fun, but I guess I can handle it...
"Also also, you start out near death from a cutscene before hand!" Just... why??
"Also also also, the cover sucks shit and the enemies have THREE different ways of punishing you for hanging out in what cover there is!" Shouldn't it be bad cover WITH a team, or a versatile arena WITHOUT one, not the worst of both things?
"Oh and limited ammo for that gun we're forcing you to use!" So... hope you picked Engineer, the DLC huh?
If they would have allowed a weapon choice and not arbitrarily killed my life bar, it would have been a fun challenge. As presented, it felt sloggy and pretty annoyingly unfair. As a soldier, I couldn't unleash my weapon damage with a "stupid stealth pistol Mark I" with no ammo. My disruptor ammo concussion shots became pretty much the only weapon I had. At least as a Vanguard I could still rip them to pieces with my mind... Like Arrival before it, "solo Shepard" challenge shows annoyances to the combat system, it doesn't make for a thrilling engagement. Of course, the rest of the DLC is superb. I will say Soldier Shepard as a boss is tremendously less threatening than Vanguard Shepard as a boss. It doesn't seem to have any good ideas about power use in this class, whereas Vanguard Shep spammed grenades, shockwave, Charge, and Nova to a degree where you could lose control of the fight quickly if you weren't tearing him/her to pieces fast enough.
Regarding male vs fem Shep in Citadel, evil Mark Meer was more compelling to me, but Jennifer Hale's outraged reactions to everything were pretty great. Brooks seemed more hateable this time around, but that's probably because I was fully aware of exactly what was happening the whole time.
If you were playing a Vanguard you wouldn't find Citadel so bad. HAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRGH!
If you were playing a Vanguard you wouldn't find Citadel so bad. HAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRGH!
My first playthrough of the series (Paragon Male Shep) is a Vanguard, so yeah I know. Even there, Shields are the Vanguard's most persistent weakness, so of course nearly every single stinking enemy in Citadel has them.
If you were playing a Vanguard you wouldn't find Citadel so bad. HAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRGH!
My first playthrough of the series (Paragon Male Shep) is a Vanguard, so yeah I know. Even there, Shields are the Vanguard's most persistent weakness, so of course nearly every single stinking enemy in Citadel has them.
I just ground them down with Charge and pewpew slowly. (And Dark Channel for 'plosions.) It's not as Vangoddy as one might intend, but even without Nova, Charge can be close to invulnerable with sufficiently fast cooldowns.
0
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Also the high heels are to help her run, like when she had to chase Nihlus for a few days. If Nihlus had high heels, he'd never have needed to create a diversion.
Mass Effect.
the heels are for optimal neck-stomping
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
The Suppressor was super fun to use as an Infiltrator - problem is that I don't think it's ever upgradable for that segment so most players are already decked out in weapons that work far better for that DLC
Really, why the hell did they think that giant pencil gap down the front of her armor made sense in any way?
Old Asari secrets for effectively unleashing biotics. Remember Liara's mom?
I guess this would also explain Jack, and Kaiden's impressive pectorals when he's bed-ridden in ME3. Clearly James and Diana Allers both have a lot of untapped potential.
kai leng is an effectively written antagonist (at least, in ME3) insofar as I really wanted to kill him
the main problem with him in the game is just that the scene in the asari temple is so annoying gameplay wise; you're supposed to be forcing him to run away or something, but he spends so much time with cutscene invincibility that it just feels like you're flailing
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Yeah, I'm not sure why he wasn't more intimidating mechanics wise. I was kind of expecting him to be teleporting around a lot more to avoid your powers, or have much higher shielding so he wasn't dying as soon as the fight started.
Redoing Thessia, I ended up putting on disruptor ammo, going to a piece of cover where the gunship couldn't hit me no matter what, then just shooting him with the Revenant nonstop. Even while he was recharging. I don't know if it did any damage then but I didn't care. Took about 2 minutes and I was never in any danger. On Insanity.
The horrible encounter with the two harvesters a few minutes earlier was harder than the freaking primary antagonist of the moment.
Then that cutscene happens. Christ. At least I could skip all the bullshit dialogue before the fight but goddamn that after cutscene is unbearable.
Aistan on
0
HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
(Samara discussion) Going back through ME2/3 it was fascinating to see how basically every female character has amazing proportions and a fairly large rack. I would actually say FemShep has one of the smaller busts out of any of the characters. I'm guessing this comes down to saving resources where they can by reusing the same physical model wherever possible.
uhh or it's just the game was made by a bunch of dudes trying to make the most amount of sales/money and this is how they thought they should do it? It's gross but that's life sadly
(Samara discussion) Going back through ME2/3 it was fascinating to see how basically every female character has amazing proportions and a fairly large rack. I would actually say FemShep has one of the smaller busts out of any of the characters. I'm guessing this comes down to saving resources where they can by reusing the same physical model wherever possible.
uhh or it's just the game was made by a bunch of dudes trying to make the most amount of sales/money and this is how they thought they should do it? It's gross but that's life sadly
No that's definitely part of it, but it's not planned out as cynically as it could be. Like Samara (a minor character in the scope of things) has an impressive rack whereas the storyline's MAIN Asari (Liara) is reasonably proportioned (while still being stunningly good looking of course, let's not get crazy). If they were driving hard at that audience, you'd expect something more along the lines of Varric's first pass at telling the Champion's story in Dragon Age 2.
For the next Mass Effect, they definitely need a body shape slider like in Saint's Row. Maybe not as expansive, but your protagonist should be allowed to look more different from other people's if they wanted to.
Also: a button that makes your protagonist put the helmet on (for intimidating scenes) and take it off (for more personal moments). I know you can do it in the menus now, but that means if you've started the conversation it's already too late.
Posts
edit:
crap, wasn't reading properly.
Renegade shep is renegade shep.
sometimes he does really cruel things just for the sake of it.
the writing in me1 isn't as ... thought out (lol) .. as it is in 2 or 3.
you'll probably find it a slog.
No, that's Mass Effect 2. I've never done many renegade choices in 1, I don't really know what it's like. But people talk about it like it's really mean, murderous Shepard in 1, while in 2 and 3 it's "whatever it takes to get the job done" Shepard.
Basically mean to everyone, with a splash or two of psychopathy and more racist than Ashley.
Shepard has never been to the bathroom?
Suddenly this makes a lot more sense.
If this community believes that hating someone based soley upon their gender is acceptable and understandable, I have no interest in being a part of it.
See, Kaiden gets migraines as a side effect. Shep gets seizures.
Luckily(?) they only happen when Shep is also bombarded with bass and flashing lights.
I had to think for a minute about what an "upper decker" was and when I figured it out, I fucking lost it. Holy shit, why is that so funny?
Next up, the end of Cerberus and London. Then I'm pretty sure there's a party that ends the game right? That's all I remember...
You could say that, yeah:
Paragon on the right, Renegade on the left.
Waaaargh, what ? Sorry, I blacked out there for a minute. You mean we have photos of Samara's model dressed up as her ? I think I need to see a few hundred of them to judge their authenticity.
Well, there's that. Everything else is a GIS away.
Old Asari secrets for effectively unleashing biotics. Remember Liara's mom?
I think it's absolutely worth playing. The gameplay, to be honest, is much more repetitive and less exciting than the other two. You'll be doing a lot of the same thing over and over, especially if you do side missions. If you've already played the others, it'll unfortunately be that much more noticeable.
But the story is pretty good and has some scenes that are now gaming classics. They may not have quite the same impact since you're spoiled for the rest of the series, but they're still pretty good. It's the most talky and least cinematic of the games. Sometimes that get's boring, but it provides lots of opportunities for Shep to express herself.
Overall, I much prefer ME2 and ME3, but I'm glad that I played the first. You might have to power through some of the gameplay sections, but it's still a great game.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
It's the kinda embrace that makes your head go "pop".
Though your blood and brains may be warm as they slowly flow down Samara's face.
Battlenet ID: MildC#11186 - If I'm in the game, send me an invite at anytime and I'll play.
Mass Effect.
So I completed my main campaign Insanity playthrough last night (FemShep Renegade Soldier). The toughest part was actually making a move on the second missile launcher at the end, I was perfectly safe where I was, but crossing through so many lanes of fire was pretty deadly. I chose Synthesis since I hadn't seen Extended Green ending and besides why not give everybody the so-called best, most happy ending?
Ending rant!
Going back to Synthesis, a theme of the series could be described as "not better or worse, but different." The story of Mass Effect is NOT one of teaching all the other races how Yoomanity does it back on Earthtown(!). Instead, you learn from all your companions cultures and hangups. Sure they have problems and downsides, but the third enemy faction in 3 is just asshole human beings. The most extreme example of this theme is the momentous meeting with a friendly Geth in Mass Effect 2. It's difficult to wrap your head around "consensus" culture, but it certainly has its merits. It's not better or worse from being individuals, it's just what works for them. The Geth plotline in 3 makes a HUGE turnaround and says "Actually, the best Geth would all be individuals, they wouldn't need consensus really other than as just a way to make decisions as a group." Then Synthesis extends this theme to EVERY RACE in the galaxy! "Your problem is that you're all different see. If you were just basically the same thing, then there'd be peace and ice cream cake and sexy times for humans and robots alike!" At the start of Synthesis, EDI says "I am alive," referring to the change made to her. A bit of a shock to me, I thought the point of AIs gaining sentience is that they were ALREADY alive. I forgot they needed magic green energy to be REALLY alive though, guess all that prejudice did have a point after all.
And all that ignores the "We couldn't force organics to accept synthesis, they need to choose it... but if YOU individually make that choice, that counts for EVERY organic and synthetic in the galaxy, no quorum needed."
It's clear that Destroy vs Control was the real choice, but Destroy was too straightforward and optimal, so they stacked some stupid shit on top of it to make it seem worse (you arbitrarily get blown up, it arbitrarily kills any robot friends you've made) so that you'll reconsider. Then, after thoroughly mocking the concept of a happy ending as something that immature, non-artful people want, they make one of the least thoughtful "super happy ending" things I've ever seen with Synthesis.
For those who don't want to get into it, it's just impressive how Mass Effect has some of the best, most thoughtful stuff in the trilogy, but also the flat out worst things by far.
Moving on to post game, I started Citadel on Insanity. Holy crap, it actually feels like post game content on this difficulty. You can just hear the designer.
"Oh, Insanity is too easy after multiplayer huh? Well what if we started you off without any of your armor!"
Well that would certainly drop my stats a bit, not too bad though.
"And no teammates!"
Huh, that would certainly be harder, not really more fun though. The game is designed around having teammates, the combat sort of morphs in an unfriendly way when they're not there. Even on multiplayer I have at least one other dude to draw aggro.
"And a new, low level gun that doesn't fit your playstyle! You can't use any other equipment!"
Okay, now it sounds like you just want to fuck me over.
"Also no medi-gel at all for this sequence!"
I'm not sure why 'no mistakes or you die' becomes more fun, but I guess I can handle it...
"Also also, you start out near death from a cutscene before hand!"
Just... why??
"Also also also, the cover sucks shit and the enemies have THREE different ways of punishing you for hanging out in what cover there is!"
Shouldn't it be bad cover WITH a team, or a versatile arena WITHOUT one, not the worst of both things?
"Oh and limited ammo for that gun we're forcing you to use!"
So... hope you picked Engineer, the DLC huh?
If they would have allowed a weapon choice and not arbitrarily killed my life bar, it would have been a fun challenge. As presented, it felt sloggy and pretty annoyingly unfair. As a soldier, I couldn't unleash my weapon damage with a "stupid stealth pistol Mark I" with no ammo. My disruptor ammo concussion shots became pretty much the only weapon I had. At least as a Vanguard I could still rip them to pieces with my mind... Like Arrival before it, "solo Shepard" challenge shows annoyances to the combat system, it doesn't make for a thrilling engagement. Of course, the rest of the DLC is superb. I will say Soldier Shepard as a boss is tremendously less threatening than Vanguard Shepard as a boss. It doesn't seem to have any good ideas about power use in this class, whereas Vanguard Shep spammed grenades, shockwave, Charge, and Nova to a degree where you could lose control of the fight quickly if you weren't tearing him/her to pieces fast enough.
Regarding male vs fem Shep in Citadel, evil Mark Meer was more compelling to me, but Jennifer Hale's outraged reactions to everything were pretty great. Brooks seemed more hateable this time around, but that's probably because I was fully aware of exactly what was happening the whole time.
If you were playing a Vanguard you wouldn't find Citadel so bad. HAAAAAAA-RRRRRRRGH!
My first playthrough of the series (Paragon Male Shep) is a Vanguard, so yeah I know. Even there, Shields are the Vanguard's most persistent weakness, so of course nearly every single stinking enemy in Citadel has them.
I just ground them down with Charge and pewpew slowly. (And Dark Channel for 'plosions.) It's not as Vangoddy as one might intend, but even without Nova, Charge can be close to invulnerable with sufficiently fast cooldowns.
Engineer sucks for Citadel. I had to switch my class to Vanguard I was getting so irritated in some of those opening sequences.
Then I just kept it that way because Vanguard.
like, i guess it's trying to be a stealth section? but stealth doesn't actually work sooooooo
i'm glad the rest of the DLC is as good as it is, because good lord, that first segment is the worst gameplay the series has seen since at least ME1
the heels are for optimal neck-stomping
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Bioware figured out how to allow you to cloak without aggroing in Arrival, what happened?
At least Infiltrators have plenty of ammo options to put on that pistol.
Gamertag: PrimusD | Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
My canon Shep was an engineer, and that first part of Citadel was pretty much 90% hiding, 10% sending out drones or hitting someone with an overload.
Reminds me of a scene from Police Squad; "Who are you and how did you get in here?" "I'm a locksmith, and I'm a locksmith."
I guess this would also explain Jack, and Kaiden's impressive pectorals when he's bed-ridden in ME3. Clearly James and Diana Allers both have a lot of untapped potential.
the main problem with him in the game is just that the scene in the asari temple is so annoying gameplay wise; you're supposed to be forcing him to run away or something, but he spends so much time with cutscene invincibility that it just feels like you're flailing
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
The horrible encounter with the two harvesters a few minutes earlier was harder than the freaking primary antagonist of the moment.
Then that cutscene happens. Christ. At least I could skip all the bullshit dialogue before the fight but goddamn that after cutscene is unbearable.
No that's definitely part of it, but it's not planned out as cynically as it could be. Like Samara (a minor character in the scope of things) has an impressive rack whereas the storyline's MAIN Asari (Liara) is reasonably proportioned (while still being stunningly good looking of course, let's not get crazy). If they were driving hard at that audience, you'd expect something more along the lines of Varric's first pass at telling the Champion's story in Dragon Age 2.
For the next Mass Effect, they definitely need a body shape slider like in Saint's Row. Maybe not as expansive, but your protagonist should be allowed to look more different from other people's if they wanted to.
Also: a button that makes your protagonist put the helmet on (for intimidating scenes) and take it off (for more personal moments). I know you can do it in the menus now, but that means if you've started the conversation it's already too late.