@KultofCows, I agree, KOTOR definitely had better combat. Light sabers and force powers are hard to beat :).
But as for your original question. I am enjoying the game a lot. It has really turned out as good as I expected. I see a lot of similarities from the KOTOR games, but at the same time this has a completely new and distinct feel and story.
Exploring the galaxy is pretty fun. I like to find all the mines on the planets. I wonder if there is an achievement for going through all that trouble... I will have to look it up :).
Ah good point. I loved for KOTOR had so many different possibilities for weapons...even with sabers you could fight with 3 different styles (double, single, doubleblade).
@Laoldar, the one thing about KOTOR I really miss in Mass Effect is the light sabers. There is melee combat in ME but it's definitely an after thought (basically its just pistol whipping or rifle butting someone if you are really close to them).
Force abilities were also a much bigger aspect of combat than biotics. There were tons of force abilities you could use, most biotics either launch an AOE attack or boost your shields.
It sounds exactly like Knights of the Old Republic for the X-Box...which is a good thing because that title was amazing. I'm glad that Bioware stuck with a strategy that worked for them in the past.
It's on the top of games to get for the 360 (once I eventually get one).
After playing Mass Effect for a few days, I must say it is a very enjoyable RPG. For those who haven't been following the game, it is very different from your Final Fantasy JRPG.
The game is mainly based on two areas of game play, combat and dialogue. Mass Effect makes pretty big changes in these areas from other RPGs. Combat is almost like a squad-based shooter. Your weapons range from assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, and sniper rifles. You move your character in real-time like you would in any third-person shooter. You can zoom in a scope for better aim and hide behind barriers and peak around. Alongside conventional weapons, you have special abilities called biotics--though these are used more strategically as they have long cooldowns. You do not control your other squad members directly, but give them commands like in squad based shooters. This makes RPG combat quite exciting, though its not quite at the level of a shooter like Call of Duty 4.
The dialogue is pretty comprehensive. You can make a number of responses to NPCs. The type of responses you make give you paragon and renegade points. I'm not quite sure up to this point what earning paragon and renegade points really means as unlike Bioware's KOTOR, you don't gain evil powers for being evil. The game has quite a lot of background lore, which is interesting to get you involved in the history of the Mass Effect universe...something that you go in blind with compared to a Star Wars RPG.
My main complaints are with the load times. They are very long. The most egregious are the elevators in the game. The game fills the time with small talk between your characters, but there are a lot of elevators in the game and it is a lot of waiting. Not being able to skip cut scenes is another problem when there is a combat sequence following a cut scene. So if you die and reload, you will have to watch the cut scene over and over again. The driving controls (yes you can drive vehicles) are a bit buggy as well.
@Bleezy, I actually must say, i just watched the gametrailer review and i would put this on my list probably. I'll get the xbox with the free Halo3, CoD, and this game i can play when i feel like walking around a virtual world in single player. Being as multiplayer will probably just be some more squad based shooter action right?
Maybe some traders stopped to look at the numbers and decided it was insanely overpriced.
I've been short on this stock for some time, but when I noticed how it has gained about 100 DKP since then, I looked up comparison sales (in my previous post). Looking at that, I increased my position...I'm sure others did the same (my trading only moved the price slightly, so I'm not claiming credit for the entire drop).
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