A few thoughts (Gaming)

by stabbim , Des Moines, IA, USA, Friday, October 20, 2017, 09:25 (2592 days ago) @ marmot 1333

Mass Effect 3 excelled at player control. I am sure people will laugh at this, but a player could develop a mastery of the timing and idiosyncrasies in the controls. (I would often joke that A/space was used for 12 different actions depending on the context.)

Generally speaking, yes. I'm not sure if this comes across the way I mean it, but everything had a nice "weight" to it, if that makes sense? Where it did fall down sometimes was conflicting controls - you weren't the only one who made the "A button does everything" joke, because it wasn't a joke. It was a fact. I don't have the numbers to convey how many times I tried to revive a teammate and ended up activating a button instead, or rolling, or getting into cover.

I thought the farewell scenes to long-standing characters were emotionally powerful. I liked the supporting characters.

I might still tear up a bit if I think about Mordin or Thane.

I thought the multiplayer was superb. I really liked fighting all the different enemies.

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer was, and still is, absolutely the best co-op game I have ever played. I'd still be doing it NOW if anyone else was ever on.

I played the MP a decent amount; it was rough at launch and got slightly better, but still seemed very shallow.

Yeah, the big balance change patch did make it significantly better, and it plays decently now, but it's still not as good as ME3, generally speaking, although it is less buggy. Not that that's saying much - other things which are less buggy than ME3 multiplayer include Windows ME, and KotOR running via the XBox 360's emulator.

IMO, the biggest mistake they made was getting rid of the light/heavy melee distinction. It's weird that a small thing can make so much difference, but having the option of light or heavy melee was a huge part of how ME3 felt, to me. Having only one melee option now, and having it FEEL like the heavy melees used to, makes everything feel super weird. The Krogan Vanguard especially, since melee is practically all it ever does. Having only one melee action now, as opposed to before when there were 2, and good reasons to use one or the other depending on the situation, makes the current Kroguard feel very dull and repetitive to play.

Also, the alternate melee modes were used in some ME3 multiplayer characters as a way to activate special abilities. So, by getting rid of that in Andromeda, they robbed themselves of one function button. Not that it'll matter now, since no DLC characters are ever going to happen.