I just started Mass Effect 1 for the first time via Legendary Edition. One of my friends is super into it, and they’re excited for me. I’m about 14 hours in, just finished the first Liara mission (have done everything on the Citadel thats available right now, read all the codex entries I’ve found, etc). Classic leveling, level 21.
I like the story, but it’s jarring how separated from the action it is. So far, I’m either on the Citadel having conversations, or on a planet shooting, and there’s almost no middle ground (except the Fist mission, that had a lot of both). I wouldn’t mind the separation, except they’re extremely separate;
You have to go from the Citadel to the
(boarding loading screen) Normandy to the
(fancy zoom loading screen) map screen to
(zooming loading screen) a
(zooming loading screen) few
(zooming loading screen) planets to the
(landing loading screen) Mako to some driving THERE are some enemies,
then
You get back in the Mako and
(loading screen) back to the ship then
(fancy zoom loading screen) the map screen then
(slightly shorter, but lots of steps, loading screen) back to
(docking loading screen) the Citadel then
(loading screen or running, with elevator loading screens) the quest giver, then a 15-45 minute dialog (depending on whether you did something minor, or a major plot mover that has several scenes).
I haven’t bounced off it yet, but some of the side missions are repetitive and tedious due to the above. I like maxing out my character levels as much as possible, so I want to do all the side stuff, but… yeah. It’s kinda work.
Don’t stress about doing all the side stuff if you’re not enjoying it. The Mako is kind of fun to drive around until flips over, but the places where you use it were built out of repeatable code and procedurally generated assets (not randomized but procedural) to fill in the game a bit. What kind of RPGs are you used to playing? Mass Effect is the progenitor of a lot of tropes in the genre, and the way it flows from scene to scene, or doesn’t, as per your criticism, is pretty common for the era outside of Bethesda games. In fact, I’d still argue most games are better off with the load screens and without the open world design, especially one where you’re traveling between planets like this. And what else were you hoping for besides the city hubs and combat areas? That’s probably informed by the other RPGs you’ve played as well.
I just started Mass Effect 1 for the first time via Legendary Edition. One of my friends is super into it, and they’re excited for me. I’m about 14 hours in, just finished the first Liara mission (have done everything on the Citadel thats available right now, read all the codex entries I’ve found, etc). Classic leveling, level 21.
I like the story, but it’s jarring how separated from the action it is. So far, I’m either on the Citadel having conversations, or on a planet shooting, and there’s almost no middle ground (except the Fist mission, that had a lot of both). I wouldn’t mind the separation, except they’re extremely separate;
then
I haven’t bounced off it yet, but some of the side missions are repetitive and tedious due to the above. I like maxing out my character levels as much as possible, so I want to do all the side stuff, but… yeah. It’s kinda work.
Don’t stress about doing all the side stuff if you’re not enjoying it. The Mako is kind of fun to drive around until flips over, but the places where you use it were built out of repeatable code and procedurally generated assets (not randomized but procedural) to fill in the game a bit. What kind of RPGs are you used to playing? Mass Effect is the progenitor of a lot of tropes in the genre, and the way it flows from scene to scene, or doesn’t, as per your criticism, is pretty common for the era outside of Bethesda games. In fact, I’d still argue most games are better off with the load screens and without the open world design, especially one where you’re traveling between planets like this. And what else were you hoping for besides the city hubs and combat areas? That’s probably informed by the other RPGs you’ve played as well.