girlofprey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
girlofprey) wrote2013-03-19 10:39 pm
girlofprey) wrote2013-03-19 10:39 pm
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I'm starting to get a little frustrated with Mass Effect 3. I'm still really enjoying it, but - let's just say a twist in the story has happened, and all of a sudden a bunch of side quests I had to do - some of which I was quite looking forward to - have been wiped off the map. Along with a bunch of storyline opportunities that weren't technically quests, as far as I can tell.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the fact the game has manages to take me by surprise quite regularly. And the fact that events and the order in which you do them have consequences is great, especially in a game as high-concept as Mass Effect. But part of the fun of the series has always been doing the little side quests and building up new relationships, and seeing characters from previous games again and how your decisions affected them. And partly it's the setting of the new game - war is on, millions of people are dying every day - but it doesn't always feel logical to chase up every side quest or email from an old friend you get as soon as you get it, you know? But apparently the game expects you to, or else you don't get a chance to do them at all.
In fairness, I could have done all of those side quests. I did a couple of storyline missions in a row, which does have a tendency to move the world on, and I probably should have remembered that from previous games. But in previous games, it was also true sometimes that waiting too long on storyline missions sometimes fucked THEM up too. And all the ones I did felt logical to do quickly and together - especially since the planets I was doing them on were all pretty close together. I decided to save all the side quests for one planet until I went back to that one planet. Only to find out that main quest events had made them impossible.
I suppose the fact that I'm starting to agonise over decisions and which quests I do is part of the 'complicated decisions' aspect of the game, and it adds to replay value I guess. But at the moment I don't want to replay it. I just have a headache. I like Mass Effect, but I do think it suffers a bit from having thrown too much into the pot. Third Person Shooter combat, but also role-playing elements, but also having to constantly run around looking for supplies, like survival-type games. On a smaller level, it sort of makes the individual missions ridiculous, because a lot of the time I'm meant to be rescuing people, and they need you to come NOW, they're in so much danger! But I don't hurry through them, I run around looking for supplies, because unless there's an actual counter on the screen I know nothing bad will probably happen until I get to another scripted part of the game. And I can be pretty sure that I won't do well in the fights coming up unless I HAVE spent 10 minutes scouting for supplies in each area, because the game expects you to. So all the sense of urgency is sort of lost, and it makes it hard to buy into the story of the game - and the story of the game is sort of supposed to be one of the most important things, you know?
And I guess that's my problems with the side quests at the moment. I know the storyline events changed things, but I don't really understand why it wiped so MANY side quests of the map - it didn't have to, they could have just moved people around - or failing that, why they gave me so many in the first place. Maybe it's just the OCD talking, and me just feeling like I want to complete EVERY quest and see EVERY story, but it's starting to feel like to get the full experience of the game, I'm supposed to not really get absorbed in story. Which is not really the point of most role-playing games, from what I can tell.
Maybe it's just the style of the third game that doesn't suit it well. Or maybe it's just me that wants to get through the story so I can stop avoiding spoilers, and you know, find out what happens. Or maybe this IS the style of the current game, that it's war and everything's urgent, and each decision you make could rule out a bunch of others without you even realising it, because there's no time. And as far as I know, all the big stuff I was looking forward to is still going to happen, they just had to shift it round because of the order I did the main quests. But you know, maybe not. And at the moment I'm just sort of finding it frustrating.
Also, Cerberus are a bag of dicks. Fuck them.
I've not really been having a good day apart from that though. I woke up two hours before I wanted to and couldn't get back to sleep, until about an hour before I was meant to get up, when I started dropping back off. Then my mum had the great idea that she, my ON and I should go to the fair which is in time, and told him I might come before asking me, or even telling that's what she was thinking of. And it's a nice idea, but I wouldn't have minded some advance warning? Like I wouldn't mind with everything most of the time? And then when my nephew got back from swimming we had to go IMMEDIATELY, which mum also didn't say she wanted me to do, and it massively fucked up my game-playing "schedule" for the day, so essentially I ended up playing an hour longer than I really wanted to, and a lot later than I really wanted to. And now I pretty much have to go downstairs and pretend I can focus on The Following. So you know. Maybe I have a headache for different reasons.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the fact the game has manages to take me by surprise quite regularly. And the fact that events and the order in which you do them have consequences is great, especially in a game as high-concept as Mass Effect. But part of the fun of the series has always been doing the little side quests and building up new relationships, and seeing characters from previous games again and how your decisions affected them. And partly it's the setting of the new game - war is on, millions of people are dying every day - but it doesn't always feel logical to chase up every side quest or email from an old friend you get as soon as you get it, you know? But apparently the game expects you to, or else you don't get a chance to do them at all.
In fairness, I could have done all of those side quests. I did a couple of storyline missions in a row, which does have a tendency to move the world on, and I probably should have remembered that from previous games. But in previous games, it was also true sometimes that waiting too long on storyline missions sometimes fucked THEM up too. And all the ones I did felt logical to do quickly and together - especially since the planets I was doing them on were all pretty close together. I decided to save all the side quests for one planet until I went back to that one planet. Only to find out that main quest events had made them impossible.
I suppose the fact that I'm starting to agonise over decisions and which quests I do is part of the 'complicated decisions' aspect of the game, and it adds to replay value I guess. But at the moment I don't want to replay it. I just have a headache. I like Mass Effect, but I do think it suffers a bit from having thrown too much into the pot. Third Person Shooter combat, but also role-playing elements, but also having to constantly run around looking for supplies, like survival-type games. On a smaller level, it sort of makes the individual missions ridiculous, because a lot of the time I'm meant to be rescuing people, and they need you to come NOW, they're in so much danger! But I don't hurry through them, I run around looking for supplies, because unless there's an actual counter on the screen I know nothing bad will probably happen until I get to another scripted part of the game. And I can be pretty sure that I won't do well in the fights coming up unless I HAVE spent 10 minutes scouting for supplies in each area, because the game expects you to. So all the sense of urgency is sort of lost, and it makes it hard to buy into the story of the game - and the story of the game is sort of supposed to be one of the most important things, you know?
And I guess that's my problems with the side quests at the moment. I know the storyline events changed things, but I don't really understand why it wiped so MANY side quests of the map - it didn't have to, they could have just moved people around - or failing that, why they gave me so many in the first place. Maybe it's just the OCD talking, and me just feeling like I want to complete EVERY quest and see EVERY story, but it's starting to feel like to get the full experience of the game, I'm supposed to not really get absorbed in story. Which is not really the point of most role-playing games, from what I can tell.
Maybe it's just the style of the third game that doesn't suit it well. Or maybe it's just me that wants to get through the story so I can stop avoiding spoilers, and you know, find out what happens. Or maybe this IS the style of the current game, that it's war and everything's urgent, and each decision you make could rule out a bunch of others without you even realising it, because there's no time. And as far as I know, all the big stuff I was looking forward to is still going to happen, they just had to shift it round because of the order I did the main quests. But you know, maybe not. And at the moment I'm just sort of finding it frustrating.
Also, Cerberus are a bag of dicks. Fuck them.
I've not really been having a good day apart from that though. I woke up two hours before I wanted to and couldn't get back to sleep, until about an hour before I was meant to get up, when I started dropping back off. Then my mum had the great idea that she, my ON and I should go to the fair which is in time, and told him I might come before asking me, or even telling that's what she was thinking of. And it's a nice idea, but I wouldn't have minded some advance warning? Like I wouldn't mind with everything most of the time? And then when my nephew got back from swimming we had to go IMMEDIATELY, which mum also didn't say she wanted me to do, and it massively fucked up my game-playing "schedule" for the day, so essentially I ended up playing an hour longer than I really wanted to, and a lot later than I really wanted to. And now I pretty much have to go downstairs and pretend I can focus on The Following. So you know. Maybe I have a headache for different reasons.