Ok, i will try to explain, what i mean.
First, I want to thank you for the time to try to explain it to me. It helps me to try and see it from your point of view. Some of what you say makes sense. Some of it seems to be purely a matter of opinion.
I want to address this part first:
First: The classes of ME1 and 2 are mainly the same, but in Me1 every class had more skills (some passive) and some of them were only made accessable, by levelling others to a certain degree. It was impossible to max them all out (at least as far as i know). And to upgrade skills like persuasion, a certain level of the paragon/renegade-bar was required.
In this way, classes felt more individual and could be adapted to your own playstyle by maxing one skill and ignoring another one completly.
In ME2 there were - if i remember correclty - 4-6 skillbars and you could max out almost every one of them pretty fast.
By that, classes lost weight to me and i also got the feeling, that using skills got less important (there were some levels i completed mainly with shooting).
Me2 was more like a 3rd-person-shooter than an action-rpg.
In terms of number of power/talent bars:
In ME1, each class had up to 13 talent bars:
- 8 powers (combat/weapon/biotic/tech and/or first aid skills)
- 2 passive bars: class passive and Spectre Training
- 2 persuasion bars: Charm and Intimidate
- 1 bonus talent (if unlocked)
12 points per bar, for a total of 156 points.
At level 60 (which required a minimum second playthrough to achieve), you had 102 points to spend.
So you could max 8 of the 13 bars (96 points) plus half another bar (6 points).
In ME2, each class had up to 7 talent bars:
- 5 powers
- 1 class passive
- 1 bonus power (if unlocked)
10 points per bar, for a total of 70 points.
At level 30 (achievable in one playthrough) you had 51 points to spend if you did not abuse a glitch.
So you could max 5 of the 7 bars (50 points) plus 1 point in another bar.
I should also note that ME2 also had powers that required you to spend points in another power first to unlock it.
Now on the surface I would say that Mass Effect looks to have more builds or playstyles, but in practice I do not find that is the case. Generally speaking, each class in ME1 really has two distinct builds, each built around its class passive, and a bonus power does not change it much (
Level 50 single playthrough builds). I find Mass Effect 2 has more builds and playstyles just by changing its class passive, and/or choosing a different bonus weapon.
Now that is just my opinion and someone may have a different opinion on the matter and I would like to hear it.
And I also completed entire missions in ME1 just by shooting. And I was an Adept. Throw up a barrier > shoot > throw up a barrier again when ready > shoot. Enemies are dead. Never used any of my other abilities.
And the class-system took another dump from ME2 to ME3, since now every class could use every weapon with just a (tiny) cooldown penality.
Everyone feels so alike...
I agree with you on this to a great degree. I believe the power combo system has a lot to do with it, as each class can power combo so it makes each class less unique. In ME2, only biotics could combo, and only the Adept could do it on their own. (Vanguard could to some small degree.)
Removing the weapon restriction was nice, but then they tied weapon weight into the new cooldown system which I think was mistake. I think it would have been batter if they were separate. Have it so the Adepts, Engineers, and Sentinels had the least weapon weight capacity, Vanguards and Infiltrators a medium weight capacity, and Soldiers the most weight capacity.
I wished biotics f.e. to feel more like mages, not being able to use any weapon except pistols and insted throwing biotic-energy (as the equivalent of mage-fireballs)- Rremeber when Samara was first introduced by finishing of a bunch of mercenaries solely without using anything but biotics? That looked badass.
Or technicians to have to use their surroundings by making fuses explode, or placing turrets (like the traps of a rogue).
I disagree. Powers should compliment weapons and vice-versa. In ME1 powers were mainly about disabling enemies so you they could not shoot you, or buffing you so you could shoot them easier or take more enemy fire before dying or taking health damage. In ME2, powers were mainly about disabling enemies or removing defenses.
In ME3, you can essentially do what you want: complete the game without firing a shot. Every class can do it.
Second: Since ME2 it is impossible to customise your party.Yes, you can equip weapons and chose from some few skins, but that's it. No different armors with different stats or something like that. And even the customisation of your own shepard-character is bare minimum with a handful of exchangeable armor-mods.
I will agree with this to some extent. I like how ME2 gave each squadmate its own look, but it was totally stupid how no one liked to wear armor into battle. This was rectified somewhat in ME3 where squadmate outfits do have different stats.
I do think that armor stat buffs and armor customization should be kept separate.
Yes, ME1 had it's flaws... many in fact. But it was the FIRST in this franchise... a prototype... and such things always have a hard time, since there are no predecessors it can be measured on.
It's the sequels which have to polish on those flaws and add on... and eventhough ME2 was more polished, there was no addition or improvement in it's Rpg-core-features. The opposite, it was more shallow.
Instead of fixing things like the inventory and item-system, they deleted it... and that's - in my opinion - the worst thing to do with Rpg-features.
And ME3 for the third game in this franchise not beeing any better, feels lackluster to me.
I am going to disagree with you opinion that features should be improved in sequels. Sometimes features need to be removed outright, particularly if they are in opposition to the game mechanics you want to achieve.
In my opinion, ME2 did not outright remove some features so much as they streamlined features. Case in point, the inventory: it is still there, just streamlined. Since there are no multiple types of (crap) amps/omni tools, they do not need to be there. It is just weapons now. And you choose them before a mission or if a mission has a weapons locker. Weapon mods were removed since they were no longer needed (and some were now research upgrades) and ammo mods are now powers for some classes and squadmates.
ME2 also streamlined some powers and passives into other skills or passives. They were not removed. If they were removed, it was because they no longer fit the core game mechanics and needed to be removed.
I will agree that ME3 feels lackluster. I think they tried to expand the combat mechanics but a lot of it feels half-baked or poorly implemented, or homogenizes the gameplay between the classes.