52 réponses à ce sujet

[Makkah876]

 Saw this posted on Twitter by Mike Gamble and figured there'd be more responses here.

Here's the exact tweet

What's the one thing that defines Mass Effect for you? Shepard? Asari? Lens Flare? We're interested! (remember, we're making a new one?)

For me it was the great characters. I loved talking to and learning more about them as well as watching them grow. There's no Shepard without Vakarian, and there's no ME without a great cast of characters.

[Shinobu]

Shepard.

[MrFob]

There is no one thing IMO. It's a blend of things.
If I had to pick one, it'd probably be the art style. ME is very distinctive, visually with the leek polished look to everything and the ever present swooping arks, breaking lines. There are many more iconic visual cues (e.g. the double barrel guns, the lens flares of course etc.).
Fortunately the art can also contain some of the fictional background. ME was never scientifically accurate but any concepts - even if not entirely sensical - were always thought out to a high degree of detail, especially in texts like the codex or planet descriptions, which is something, I really enjoyed.

[KevinT18]

I put this in another thread but it is exactly what I feel addresses the topic.

KevinT18 wrote...

I was a hardcore gamer back up until 2007. I pretty much stopped after beating ME1. I couldnt play any other game beyond 5 hours, nothing seemed as interesting, everything was missing something. RPG, my fav racing franchises, adventure games, fps, nothing held my interest. I didnt turn my systems on for 6 months at a time.

My sister bought me ME2 for Christmas 2010, almost a year after launch. Needless to say I'm hooked again, and once again nothing satiates my appetite like the great Bioware space opera.

The thing that drew me in? You are YOU. The game makes you feel like an active participant in a universe, not an unwelcome beingjohnmalkovitchian interruption in Master Chef or Marcus Fenix's head. The lore feels yours, as much as it might not totally be.

All games with any story should make you feel this way, but sadly it is very rare.

The setting being science-fiction (space opera) as opposed to contemporary, historical, medieval, or fantasy also is my favourite setting/genre in and of itself, but that alone is not nearly enough for it to stick out as a beloved franchise. E.g. I love Lord of the Rings films more than most sci-fi cinema of the past decade.

[Wolfva2]

Oooo, very good question. I guess if I had to pick just one thing, I'd agree with Makkah. It's the characters. They weren't 2 dimensional cardboard cut outs whose sole purpose was to stoke the players ego. They were their own people, with their own baggage. Throughout the series you got to watch them grow. I'm in the middle of another ME3 playthrough, and today watched both Mordin and Thane's end scenes. Still brought tears to my eyes.

If there's one thing Bioware excels at, it's making characters that you care about.

[Froswald]

  Lens Flare

Honestly I ****ing love Lens Flare and want a ton of it


But the science bits are what I enjoy about ME in part. ME3 was a letdown, but 1 and some of 2 had that. I remember though, in 3 there was a codex entry that I was curious about, so I sat down and came up with 3 pages of physics equations to figure out what it would entail exactly. I forgot a zero or something so it was grossly incorrect, but I love things like that, little tidbits that ground the story in belivability (or realism, I forget the proper term)

Neat ideas like the Geth pre certain point in ME3 are something I also enjoyed, the concept of a networked race of machines was really an interesting one that I may take as a loose basis for a thing I'm working on storywise. 

Planetside exploration was big for me, Mako style. Sure it was repetitive and the landscapes were rocky save for placed structures, but it just felt so barren and untouched, like real exploration. Plus the visuals even in ME1 were great, I almost felt like I was there. Must've taken tons of screenshots of the sky/horizon.


Characterwise, I like DA:O's style the most. People that see your cause/goal as agreeable, whether it is saving the land or MONEY MONEY MONEY. Conversely, squadmates that you may not agree with, situations where one squadmate agrees, the other disagrees, possibly ending up in situations like Andraste's Ashes/Wrex on Virmire, real choices with consequeces (don't let that phrase bite me in the ass later). There should be an 'agreement' system for sure, I felt that it was a great way to work the game. Possibly a three pronged one, Friendship/Rivalry (one of the good things about DA2, not just "HAPPY FUN" or "I will kill you") with the third being plain dislike to hatred.


Oh, and Film Grain, please just have that as an option, from none to ME2 to ME1's grain (I preferred ME1 honestly even though I saw it in part as a way to hide the admittedly poor textures)

Modifié par Froswald, 09 avril 2013 - 03:12 .

[Oilking72]

Characters, dialog, setting.

[Nightwriter]

The dialogue wheel. I would say it represents everything I loved about the series. It's a symbol of your ability to interact with the trilogy's vivid characters, your ability to create yourself and forge your own identity, your ability to choose how you will respond to the world around you.

Through the dialogue wheel's paraphrasing system I saw the protagonist come to life for the first time as a voice acted character, forged bonds of love or friendship that lasted across whole games, and was granted the ability to personalize my game experience on such a deep level that when the series blew up in my face I flailed about and pouted as though someone had shot my puppy.

It's a pretty important little wheel. It's a tricky thing to mess with, too, which is why fans reacted so negatively when it was greatly slimmed down. The dialogue wheel represents the player's control over Shepard, and we do not like to see that control downsized. It means our ability to personalize our experience is under threat. I understand the need to create a more organic feeling of conversation flow, but hopefully they will strike a better balance in the future. Whatever the case, I hope they do not underestimate the wheel's importance.

Modifié par Nightwriter, 09 avril 2013 - 05:50 .

[Iakus]

Before: Hope

After: Futility

[HeadStrikeRxx]

For me it's the whole journey, so many choices and things to see and experience. It would be a waste to pinpoint to one specific thing, i liked everything about it.

If i had to pinpoint i would say, dialog and choices.

[Asch Lavigne]

HeadStrikeRxx wrote...

For me it's the whole journey, so many choices and things to see and experience. It would be a waste to pinpoint to one specific thing, i liked everything about it.

If i had to pinpoint i would say, dialog and choices.

Was pretty much going to say this.

Also, the characters.

[wayhell]

Can't think of just one thing, how about a short list? Characters, game play,, dialog, story, art work. I'll stop there, there are other things but I said short.

[Kroitz]

dissapointing payoff.

[ThinkSharp]

KevinT18 wrote...

I put this in another thread but it is exactly what I feel addresses the topic.

KevinT18 wrote...

I was a hardcore gamer back up until 2007. I pretty much stopped after beating ME1. I couldnt play any other game beyond 5 hours, nothing seemed as interesting, everything was missing something. RPG, my fav racing franchises, adventure games, fps, nothing held my interest. I didnt turn my systems on for 6 months at a time.

My sister bought me ME2 for Christmas 2010, almost a year after launch. Needless to say I'm hooked again, and once again nothing satiates my appetite like the great Bioware space opera.

The thing that drew me in? You are YOU. The game makes you feel like an active participant in a universe, not an unwelcome beingjohnmalkovitchian interruption in Master Chef or Marcus Fenix's head. The lore feels yours, as much as it might not totally be.

All games with any story should make you feel this way, but sadly it is very rare.

The setting being science-fiction (space opera) as opposed to contemporary, historical, medieval, or fantasy also is my favourite setting/genre in and of itself, but that alone is not nearly enough for it to stick out as a beloved franchise. E.g. I love Lord of the Rings films more than most sci-fi cinema of the past decade.

+1   (though my sister didn't buy ME2 for me for Christmas )

Modifié par ThinkSharp, 09 avril 2013 - 09:03 .

[ZeCollectorDestroya]

Buttplay.

I am not kidding.

[Getorex]

Shepard.

And lost opportunity.

[Knight of Dane]

MrFob wrote...

There is no one thing

[zakdillon]

Shepard + co. Pretty much all I care about in Mass Effect.

[Getorex]

zakdillon wrote...

Shepard + co. Pretty much all I care about in Mass Effect.

When I think "Shepard" I also automatically think Ashley, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, Joker.  They define the essence of ME.  They ARE ME.  The other characters, Miranda, Jack, etc, are just passersby.  They are bit players in ME but Shepard and main crew...they ARE ME.

Modifié par Getorex, 09 avril 2013 - 03:59 .

[spacehamsterZH]

Immersion. I really can't put my finger on the how and the why, but no other game series has sucked me in quite like Mass Effect. Something about the universe seems real and alive and makes it difficult to stop playing. There's probably a lot of different factors that contribute to this, and somehow it ends up being more than the sum of its parts, and I'm now realizing that this post is about as helpful as boobs on a hanar.

[mr.brightside4u]

spacehamsterZH wrote...

Immersion. I really can't put my finger on the how and the why, but no other game series has sucked me in quite like Mass Effect. Something about the universe seems real and alive and makes it difficult to stop playing. There's probably a lot of different factors that contribute to this, and somehow it ends up being more than the sum of its parts, and I'm now realizing that this post is about as helpful as boobs on a hanar.

Immersion is really the right term to use, because the great thing about Mass Effect is the lack of this one thing that defines Mass Effect, but it is Shepard, the characters, the believable universe, the detail, summing it up to a game in which you can immerge and be a part of... You really care about anything in this game, because you are a part of it.

Modifié par mr.brightside4u, 09 avril 2013 - 04:17 .

[zakdillon]

Getorex wrote...

zakdillon wrote...

Shepard + co. Pretty much all I care about in Mass Effect.

When I think "Shepard" I also automatically think Ashley, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Tali, Joker.  They define the essence of ME.  They ARE ME.  The other characters, Miranda, Jack, etc, are just passersby.  They are bit players in ME but Shepard and main crew...they ARE ME.

I agree with you 98%. I love Miranda and Thane. So I would add those two to your list. Otherwise, spot on. Mass Effect is character relationships. That's what makes it great.

[Fidget6]

ZeCollectorDestroya wrote...

Buttplay.

I am not kidding.

Interesting. Care to expand on this point?

Modifié par Fidget6, 09 avril 2013 - 10:55 .

[KevinT18]

Fidget6 wrote...

ZeCollectorDestroya wrote...

Buttplay.

I am not kidding.

Interesting. Care to expand on this point?

Yes, I think he would care very much to expand point