TruePrime said:
Mass Effect 1 had it's fare share of nay sayers so it's not really a troll or out of place to see that kind've opinion.
The general complaint of Mass Effect 1 is that there were many concepts that were sound, but they were poorly executed. We all know the issues: Poor frame-rate, mostly c/p sidequests and the float mako. Most of us recognized the potential behind these concepts; all they needed were a delicate touch and Bioware would be onto something brilliant.
What (I think) shocked parts of the community is that Bioware didn't do this. Instead of fixing features that clearly had potential they just took them out entirely. I mean sure, the side quests are no longer c/p, but they're now really boring 15-minute linear missions that are utterly boring and offer nothing interesting in terms of story or setting. It just turned a really interesting game into something generic.
Anyway, in regards to the writing; it's true that Mass Effect 1 doesn'tt have a brilliant story. I mean it's full of tropes, and its prone to lazy writing. Yet what made it so adored by fans is that it was so well paced and executed. It felt like an adventure, you knew Saren had betrayed the galaxy for some reason, so you spend most of the game chasing him while learning about the galaxy and a way bigger threat. I think one of the key things is that it was paced so well, yeah the beginning of the game was fairly slow (I know this turned off some members such as GhaleonGB, who got bored at Eden Prime, returned to the game and when back to the epic trilogy Halo), but it didn't rush you and because of that it probably has one of the epic game endings ever.
Yet the problem with ME2 is that in terms of the main story there is no substance. The PR describing the game in one sentence was correct, and thats disappointing. Putting aside other story issues, the game hypes up the suicide mission so much but theres no real tension or story development for the player to care. You literally spend 20 hours recruiting team members and then the game ends.
I'm not sure why they did this. Maybe it was planned, maybe it was forced by EA, but it's clear that it was intentional. Now I'm not shitting on accessibility, but it was clearly in the design from a story perspective; it's challenging to keep players involved with a main plot that lasts 10 hours +, instead give them a single bullet point story and then offer lots of self-contained missions that players can play for 2 hours and then forget about. It works, but I feel it betrays the original vision and scope that the original portrayed.
This is why there is skepticism towards ME3.
Anyway, thats my effort post quota for this month filled.