Overall, this game deserves a 7/10 at most. Despite my dislike for many aspects of Mass Effect, I will buy Mass Effect 2 if it looks like some of the problems are fixed, if only to experience the ME universe once again. Also, I liked the dialogue and the moral choices, they were both a lot less campy than the usually Bioware fare. Why Bioware would spend so much time on landscapes when they could have been designing halfway decent levels is beyond me. The characters and the landscapes are absolutely breathtaking. There were never any situations where using flanking or another strategy would have really helped. Making them use their abilities worked all right, but that's hardly different from any other real time RPG like KOTOR. Controlling my teammates' movements was either impossible or pointless. However, this is not a squad based shooter.
I played a Vanguard, and I have to admit that casting crowd control spells on the baddies in order to charge up at them and blow them up with Carnage was pretty cool. I actually enjoyed the combat once I put it at Hard (or whatever the difficulty level one step above Normal is called), except during the sidequests. Baldur's Gate 1's story was vastly superior to this. It starts strong, the twist isn't bad, and the ending is all right, but when you get down to it it's unoriginal, predictable, boring shit. I say it made my jaw drop because I couldn't believe Bioware was responsible for it. While the level design astonished me with its low quality, what really made my jaw drop was the story. They had a few good moments, but for the most part they were uninteresting and felt. But even Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Liara's planet, and Ilos were poorly designed. Of course the sidequests were a complete waste of my time, Bioware must have spent about 30 minutes designing them all, and they must have been pretty drunk at the time. My feelings are that as far as the story, level design, and gameplay are concerned, this game is phenomenal at the beginning, pretty good at the end, and pure shit in between.
0 kommentar(er)
