First of all: i *love* the game, thanks Bioware to made us such a great adventure! I've just found this article in an insider game-developer magazine (the orig. was in hungarian, so Im translated it for you guys) and i think its interesting, and also its funny (at least im laughed out my *** on the titles).
Soz, it is a bit long-ish, but i've found it extreme funny also lotsa nice ideas in it.So copy paste comin', translation by me, have fun!:) *spoiler free*
1.- Kids... dont believe the NASA. Did ya know, that there are no craters on planets?
Without any offense, study a bit geography guys:) I know you like hills, but there should be some flat planets, or planets with some big flatten areas (remember Tatooine?), all ME planets containing only big hills, doesnt matters its a lava planet, icey, or earth-like, all of them have only hills(?). No lakes (why no lakes? or seas?), no flat areas, no volcanos, no nothing.
I understand its about money and developing time, but i think its not a big deal for a level designer to drop 1-2 lake, rock formation, and remove 1-2 hills or make some flatten areas for the planets.
Also there are no craters!!! jeez, all the planets (especially the ones without atmosphere) have big-big craters (Moon anybody?). So, craters, less hills, some water or lave-pit, volcanos, etc.
Lets summary this in Elcor style...
"Ironically: You have spent hundreads of development hours to make a detailed and wonderful Sci-Fi... and you forgot about craters?"
2.- Universe with a bunch of alien species - but not a single flower this time, sorry.
No vegetation on the planets. Its okay, we dont
except big flora on a lava or rock planet, but none of them have vegetation?
3. Sorry Captain, no budget for a computer. Aye, Aye!
We have a "captain room" on Normandy. We have a computer on a desk there... A useless one.
So, why we cant access our normal squad screen from there? We should be able to spend and review talent points of our crew from there, kinda like "personal files of Normandy" or something. We need to actually leave the ship, to access the squad screen. Nothing worst than a "useless and empty" captain cabin, better to not have one imho.
Also a "review achievments" option beside the "personal files of Normandy" would be good on that computer.
4. Please confirm... two thousand times!
If i have three "medical interface VII", they are not stacked on the inventory., So intead of " (3) Medical Interface VII" I have one at the top of the list, other somewhere in the middle, and a third... god-knows-where. This is a very-very big gamedesign failure.
Also, if i have a "take all" button, why i dont have an "omni-gel all" button as well? Come on, even free flash games have better interface than ME (maaan, i've just "omni-geled" about 2000 items on my playthroughs, each one with a single click+confirm, thats about 4000 mouse clicks)
Make 1 extra button, and make items stackable - for a good coder, its about 10 lines in the program code, and about 15hrs work max:-)
5. Phat Lootz. Ohh.. wait.. we have none!
ME dont have a "looting" system, and its sad. Put some random generated "uber-items" here and there, would add the "I wonder what will I find in the next chest" element into the game.
Instead, we got all the same stuff (only their numbers increasing) all the time - this took out the "look mommy I've just found a unique uber-shotgun" thing from the game, which is a failure - especially, becuase this is not a big thing from the programming side: just make about 50 or so unique "uber" item, and put'em randomly into containers.
Loot is the key of replayability - World Of Warcraft anyone? ...that game have ten mill of users, who are there only for loot, and better loot.. and better loot... (same with Diablo and lot of other games). Using my "Lancer VI", and finding a "Lancer VII" is not a big deal.
Using my "Lancer VI" and finding an "Armax Arsenal TT7 prototype rifle" with a special ability (lets say three or more modding slots, or unique graphics or whatever) - that is a "woooahh" factor, and its not in ME:-(
6. Modular level design is a good thing. But not, if you are using two modules only...
ME interior-level design (especially on UC planets) are modular. Means: there are pre-made "blocks" (rooms, etc.), and level designers put these here'n'there to make building interiors or whatever. This is a good thing - almost all of the games are made this way these days.. but... even in the DukeNukem level editor (and it was more than ten years ago:-) we had some options... like "mirror" the modules.
Flip. Rotate. UnrealEd also have these features... sad thing your level designers didnt use this menu point.
Example: land on an UC planet. Go to a building. It consist: entrance room, hallway, another room with 2 doors. Left and right. Behind each door there are rooms. This was the "ROOM1" desing. Nice, nothing wrong with this. Land another UC. Go to the building... ooops? "ROOM1" design again... Land UC3 planet... errrh.... "whats goin on here?"
We dont except unique interior designs for more than 35 UC planets, but come on... Maybe sometimes +1 room? Or -1room but +1hallway? Get that "ROOM1" design, take out one room, and use it as "ROOM2". Get two "ROOM1" design and merge them into a bigger one and you have "ROOM3". Flip "ROOM3" and delete 1 room from it, andf you have "ROOM4". Its not a big deal - even ten year old "hobby level designers" can do it, so why dont you guys? (without any offense:)
7. Welcome in the ME restaurant... you can choose between: hotdog... and hotdog... oh! and we have hotdog as well!
We have a dialog. And then we have three answer options. Choosing answer one... Sephard says: "I've seen Geth... Slaughtering people... butchering'em..." Nice. Another playthrough. Choosing answer two... Seph says: "I've seen Geth.. Slaughtering people... etc." 3rd playthrough... Answer three... Seph says... "I've seen Geth..." This happens about 50% of the dialogs.
No comment.
8. "And now... im gona sit into this chair, and im gona stay here till our adventure ends!" - Liara
Crew member animations are not changing, Ashley always cleaning weapons, Kaiden always hacking the same panel, Liara never-ever get out from her chair, all the time... (I dont mention Wrex, whos standing near the wall via 20 or so hours...) They are probably bored like hell. Even in Kotor2, the team were walking on the ship, so this is a step backward in ME.
9. We knows your stats. We not gona tell ya.
So here is a big Geth Colossus... ok... lets prepare... we need 60% accuracy for an advanced throw. Its costs 60% accuracy... okay... let me see... how much accuracy i have? Ermm... Lets open character panel.. ok.. here is my health... my XP... hmm... How much accuracy i have? Nah, lemme guess...
This mod adds +120 to shields... nice... let me see... hmm... how much shield I have? So throw costs 60% from.. from what? Shield mod adds +120 shield into my... into 1? into 1000? Same with damage... This rifle does 130 damage... (increased with my accuracy, which i dont know how much I have...) so..
… it does 130 or more (haha!) damage. How much health the enemy have? Lets guess it! Okay... aim... shoot... Bang... "resume last save..."
10. Mass Effect Airlines, safety guaranteed - our ships never had accidents!
This is a Sci-Fi right? So.. how came there are no space ship wreckages on the planets? Shipwrecks you can go into and kill some random mob just for fun? (and for loot).
Dark, scary shipwrecks with Rachni eggs... Abandoned shipwrecks with dead crew members on the floor, small pirate shipwrecks with loot... just to make a bit atmosphere into the game. Put some random shipwrecks, caves, and few more abandoned complex (bildings, even if its empty) can make a big (positive) impact on RPG feeling, too bad this wasnt a part of ME. But maybe in ME 2...
ps: Thank you Bioware for making us this wonderful game - please dont get my lil'article too seriously! Ok, mabbe a bit:) |
