JaegerBane wrote...
Terror_K wrote...
Seriously, do you honestly believe that when they were first developing this series that they originally intended for Mass Effect to be like it is with ME3?
Not at all - I've no idea how you managed to get to that. My point is that you've been moaning about how ME isn't going your way ever since the first ME2 trailer rolled, which tells me that what your dislike has less to do with the actual narrative of the story and more to do with the fact that its been edging towards TPS from ME2 onwards.
Which is fine, you don't like TPSs, I get it, everyone gets it - but please, lets not start claiming that its 'deviating' from the 'true ME approach' simply because you don't like shooters. It is what it is - ME has always been an RPG/TPS hybrid and its emphasised combat more and more, but the fundamental model of gameplay - combination of weapons and powers, TPS perspective, squad control, action menu - hasn't changed at all. Its undergone a bit of refinement, nothing more - if you didn't like how things were done in ME2 and 3, you're unlikely to have found ME1 to your tastes either.
It's not that I don't like TPSs at all. I own Gears and Space Marine for instance. And it's not even the move towards the more TPS approach so much as the move
away from the RPG one. I actually agreed with the basic notion that Mass Effect needed to detatch itself away from the stat-based combat approach of ME1 and even that the inventory system needed work. But it was all far too much, and so much got culled, reduced and oversimplified that didn't need to. And judging from the reasons and methods BioWare went about it, it seemed far more attibuted to growing their audience and appealing to modern day gaming trends than actually improving the game in any natural manner. ME3 just exemplifies this so much, as the game is basically a cinematic, story-driven action game with light RPG elements now, just like the likes of Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, Batman AA/AC, etc. are.
The thing is, while with ME2 I complained about the lack of statisical RPG elements and the overall oversimplification, over combat-focussed nature and linearity, along with the fact that it felt more like just "a game" than the experience ME1 was, at least I still felt the more personal character-based RPG elements were intact. Elements such as choice, dialogue, narrative, etc. Sure, there were exceptions... too many import things that I felt were poorly or lazily handled, and too little connection to ME1's story and major aspects, but I still had lots of dialogue choices and feel I could adequately hone my characters in ways that differentiated them and represented their personalities. My Shepards still felt like mine and not just a totally pre-defined character. Interrupts added another dimension that ME1 even lacked, and there were plenty of Charm/Intimidate opportunities.
Then ME3 came along with its autodialogue, two dialogue choices 90% of the time, squaddies who just say "hey Shepard" more often than not, less Charm/Indimidate chances in the entire game than just Noveria gave me in ME1, and a whole bunch of really weak and samey outcomes. Shepard was no longer mine, and everything I'd done before was pretty much meaningless. The same things always happen in the same order. I'd spent hours discussing the Rachni Queen decision alone at length with literally over a dozen people in real life (i.e. face-to-face, not including forum discussions) between my first playthrough of ME1 and the arrival of ME3, and it all ended up being meaningless. I was looking forward to seeing how whether Kaidan or Ashley would play out in ME3, only for them to act pretty much the same in the first quarter of the game and for them to be just left out of most of the rest of it with lazy storytelling, like they were purposefully written out just so the writers didn't have to deal with differences. It doesn't matter what I told the quarians in ME2, they still do the same thing in ME3. The new Council are basically clones of the old one. Heck, my choice as to who was human councilor was just retconned entirely! And that's just the tip of the iceberg with what's wrong with ME3.
So, yeah... while many of the factors I'd complained about being missing, reduced or oversimplified in ME2 were brought back somewhat (weapon modding, varied XP, more varied skills/builds, etc.) and the levels didn't feel as gamey as they did in ME2, ME3 ended up making some factors even worse (overall linearity, even more focus on combat with no RPG elements that weren't about it, lack of quest options/variations, weak and lazy consequences, unbelievable God-modded Cerberus BS, etc.) where it mostly failed was in all the things that ME2 had still mostly retained: the actual
roleplaying of the game. So while I had admittedly complained about the statistical RPG elements taking a dive in ME2, the reason ME2 was still a largely enjoyable experience for me despite my issues was because of all the stuff I enjoyed about the series since ME1, and in other BioWare games: dialogue choices and the feeling I am controlling a character with some flexibility who is actually making a difference on the world around them.
In ME3 Shepard stopped being mine and just became BioWare's pretty much entirely, not giving me the choices I want and having them say stupid things that wouldn't suit their character at all automatically. I don't even get to have proper conversations with my crew most of the time, since despite all the complaints about how dialogue with Zaeed and Kasumi was handled in ME2 BioWare seem to think it was the way to go most of the time in ME3. I can't go where I want, when I want, most of the time for no reason other than weak narrative convenience. There's no quest variety, and almost no variety within quests. Tuchanka and Rannoch for all their glory still essentially came down to a decision at the end, and they don't avoid the fact that Mars, Palaven's Moon, Sur'Kesh and Thessia were terribly weak choice-wise. The "listen in" fetch-quests were tedious, and turned The Citadel from one of my favourite locations in ME1 and ME2 into a tedious, repetitive chore in ME3, far FAR worse than any of the UNC planets in ME1 that people always whine about. Then pretty much the only sidequests left were repurposed MP maps with lazy "kill waves of Cerberus" objectives. Horrible journal system too... how could something that they'd already got so right from the get-go in ME1 fail so utterly in the final game?
ME3 wasn't without its charms: seeing your crew on The Citadel and even interacting with each other and moving about the ship was great, as were some of the more personal moments. I won't try and claim that ME3 was completely fail in this department. But when it comes down to it, while ME2 may have failed at being a decent RPG due to its lack of
statistical RPG elements, ME3 fails mostly because of its lack of
roleplaying RPG elements. And while I may have complained about ME2 due to its statistical RPG factors, it's actually the roleplaying stuff I enjoy more, even if I think its less crucial to the definition and identity of an RPG. That's why I came to BioWare games above all else, that's what got me into ME1 originally more than anything, and that's what's suffered the most in ME3.
And that's why I'm not supporting BioWare games any more: because BioWare clearly don't want to give players the freedom and control over their characters they once did. Following modern trends and going for a more cinematic approach have ruined BioWare's recent offerings, and their attitude and mindset are leading them away from the very things that made their games unique and fantastic in the first place. Now they're just on the same path as every other developer: the cinematic, story-driven action game highway. They're merely coming at it from a different angle. Other developers are adding depth, narrative, complexity and RPG elements to their action games to make them richer. BioWare are reducing these elements an adding more actionto make them sell better. They're just following the same trends that are leaving us with a lot of very, VERY samey titles lately.
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