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[Sapphire Dreams]

The 360 version is a total mess, and almost unplayable at certain parts. Noveria in particular got down to slideshow territory. I've been playing through the game again recently after having finished the whole series for the first time in the last month, and I keep wondering, as I did with the first time through the game, "How was this acceptable, even in 2007?"

I'm actually able to do the sidequests that I skipped over the first time because I would enter a room with like a ten rocket drones, but the game would slow to a crawl, causing me to not be able to do anything and die. It helps this time though that I'm doing new game plus, so I'm at a higher level, so dying due to terrible frame rate is less of a problem (though it does suck when I forget to manually save due to the terrible auto-save system). My knowledge on how to actually play the game and use biotics and stuff more strategically also comes from my experience with ME2 and 3. My first time though ME1, I had no idea how the combat system even worked. It was too complicated for its own good.

The terrible inventory system is still terrible, but since I'm playing a New Game Plus, I'm just selling/converting everything to omnigel anyway.

My first time through the game, the Mako was absolute crap, and I couldn't control it worth crap, especially during the final run on Ilos. Now I'm not having as much trouble, so I'm gonna blame my crappy controller with that lacks a "dead zone" on the right stick for why it controlled so badly. It's still stupid, though. Like I said before, I'm actually doing sidequests now, and exploring planets with the Mako is booooring. I actually like planet scanning in ME2 the best (though I played through that game post-patch, which apparently made it go faster).

I think Mass Effect 1 did a good job of setting up the world. Also, you got Wrex in your party. Those are the best things about Mass Effect 1.

Man, seems like the 360 version needed more play-testing.

 

[Melchiah]

That reaper conversation still gives me goosebumps.

I've never really understood what people, including some of my friends, saw in it. It just felt like poor writing to me. Phrases like "you cannot even imagine it", "I'm beyond your comprehension" and "you cannot even grasp the nature of our existence" seemed just an attempt to dodge the need to explain anything in detail. And we know why after ME3.

 

[Conflict NZ]

Mass Effect 1: Best plot
Mass Effect 2: Best characters
Mass Effect 3: Best turd

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Mass Effect 1: Best plot
Mass Effect 2: Best characters
Mass Effect 3: Best turd

ME3 is best gameplay, actually.

 

[Minion101]

I've never really understood what people, including some of my friends, saw in it. It just felt like poor writing to me. Phrases like "you cannot even imagine it", "I'm beyond your comprehension" and "you cannot even grasp the nature of our existence" seemed just an attempt to dodge the need to explain anything in detail. And we know why after ME3.

Your idea is terrible would have killed my favorite part of the game. The great mysteries the game created. ME3 explained too much. People found the reaper motivations to be rather lame and hypocritical.

 

[Melchiah]

Your idea is terrible would have killed my favorite part of the game. The great mysteries the game created. ME3 explained too much. People found the reaper motivations to be rather lame and hypocritical.

I realize some things should be kept as a mystery, and some questions should be left unanswered to feed the imagination, but that dialogue always seemed somewhat comical to me. You can explain more than they did in that scene without ruining the magic. That is, if you have good enough writers to pull it off. Babylon 5 series, which featured a very similar mystical foe as the Reapers, namely the Shadows, managed to do that splendidly. They ruined some of the magic when they explained too much later on, like Bioware, but at least they offered more than platitudes before doing so.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Your idea is terrible would have killed my favorite part of the game. The great mysteries the game created. ME3 explained too much. People found the reaper motivations to be rather lame and hypocritical.

Saying that we "cannot comprehend" their motives is an implicit copout, because if that's true, then the writers can't either, and therefore they have no motives. Of course, the writers lied to us, and their motives are entirely grokable to the mark 1 human, they're just fucking dumb, and the only way to justify it is to say that the star child is just broken and not thinking straight. The overarching Reaper mythos was hashed out prior to ME1's release, and they spent the first two games dropping hints here and there and trying to set up their AMAZING REVEAL (which was a crock of shit in the end). Melchiah's comparisons to B5 are great because that's an example of a long-running mystery stretched out over a series run that made sense and wasn't terribad. The hints and foreshadowing in earlier episodes was brilliant because it wasn't just a dumb fucking exposition dump where you literally ask them what their motives are and they tell you you're too dumb to understand.

 

[Melchiah]

Saying that we "cannot comprehend" their motives is an implicit copout, because if that's true, then the writers can't either, and therefore they have no motives. Of course, the writers lied to us, and their motives are entirely grokable to the mark 1 human, they're just fucking dumb, and the only way to justify it is to say that the star child is just broken and not thinking straight. The overarching Reaper mythos was hashed out prior to ME1's release, and they spent the first two games dropping hints here and there and trying to set up their AMAZING REVEAL (which was a crock of shit in the end). Melchiah's comparisons to B5 are great because that's an example of a long-running mystery stretched out over a series run that made sense and wasn't terribad. The hints and foreshadowing in earlier episodes was brilliant because it wasn't just a dumb fucking exposition dump where you literally ask them what their motives are and they tell you you're too dumb to understand.

Finally someone who shares my views. The funny thing is, that like in ME3 there was also a three-choice ending in B5's Shadow War,

Spoiler

in which the only way to end the cycle once and for all was a refusal. Bioware later offered that as the fourth option in ME3: Extended Cut, but instead of salvation that choice lead to destruction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tj4qfe9afs