Let's talk about a dreamy Mass Effect trilogy remaster. Do you think ME1's combat/mako needs to be overhauled?

[SofNascimento]

The original Mass Effect is a game loved by many, for good reasons.

Yet most people will agree it has many shortcomings, one of major ones is combat. Simply put, ME1's combat is bad. The cover system doesn't work well, enemy AI is basically them running around randomly, bullets have no impact, enemies have no weak spots, powers and melee attacks are clumsy, level design ranges from poor a little less poor, there are only four weapons in the game and depending on the class you pick you can't use many of them, the leveling system is inefficacious, and... I guess that's it.



You must die.

Of couse, I'm sure that are dozens of people who will say: but I liked Mass Effect's combat. Which is fine. But it doesn't change how it's a bad combat sytem. I don't want to through the "objective" word around, but I do believe anyone can look at say, Gears of War's cover system, compare it with ME1's and say "I might think the latter works fine, but the former is better executed as a game mechanic".

Talking about Gears of War, the game that build on the main pillars of the TPS genre, ME1 was released just one year later. In other worlds, the TPS genre was still stablishing itself, so it was more understandable that a game made by Bioware would struggle with it. Yet now we're in 2020. And I have to wonder, how people that never played ME1 before will react to its precarious gameplay?

Same thing with the Mako. It's a terrible designed vehicle. I often hear people saying you can get used to it, but getting used to something doesn't change the fact it was bad in the first place. More importantly, a well designed game shouldn't demand patience from players to a mechanic that should have worked well in the first place.



That's not even the worst of it.

Which brings me to the question. Should Bioware (or whoever is working on this small piece of a better world) improve those aspects of ME1? Of couse, there is the question of how such thing would be done. To improved those aspects might mean big changes in many aspects of the game. More like a small remake rather than a remaster. And that would cost mroe of EA's dollars.

My answer is that they should work on it. Even if just a little.

 

[Kolya]

I love the first one, it's my favourite Mass Effect game and one of my all time favourite games full stop. Saying that they absolutely should bring it more in line with the others. The gameplay is just straight up jank and playing it in the year of our lord twenty twenty is not fun.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Combat and the Mako are both bad, although at least the Mako is sometimes amusing. Both would require significant reworking if you wanted to modernize these games. I doubt we'll get such a treatment. For the Mako, the primary issue is that it controls like ass and has the floatiest physics imaginable. The vehicle physics in Andromeda weren't too bad from memory.

I actually really love the feel of flying around in the Hammerhead from ME2, but that thing had paper mache armor so it sucked in fights despite "Feeling" good.

 

[Swift_Gamer]

I think they should but it'd need a massive rebalancing of the game, which will never happen.

 

[Dreamboum]

I wanted to play Mass Effect because I was drawn to the RPG elements. If I wanted to play a third person shooter I'd play anything BUT Mass Effect.

So no. ME2 and 3 needs to be overhauled, ME1 had a great foundation that should have been expanded upon instead of stripped down to become the generic EA shooter.

 

[The Unsent]

Mako sections probably have to be completely new, but that's probably asking for too much. They felt like they were from a rough beta of a game.

 

[VilleEricson]

I love the first one, it's my favourite Mass Effect game and one of my all time favourite games full stop. Saying that they absolutely should bring it more in line with the others. The gameplay is just straight up jank and playing it in the year of our lord twenty twenty is not fun.

Click to shrink...

Couldn't say it any better. I would love to see the combat of three be in both the first and the second game. When it comes to the Mako, you can't get it to drive like the Nomad in Andromeda. But it would be nice if it was closer to that then the tank it is in the original.

 

[SofNascimento]

I wanted to play Mass Effect because I was draw to the RPG elements. If I wanted to play a third person shooter I'd play anything BUT Mass Effect.

So no. ME2 and 3 needs to be overhauled, ME1 had a great foundation that should have been expanded upon instead of stripped down to become the generic EA shooter.

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I'm going to put that option on the poll.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

In a perfect world we get a remaster aching more to a remake. Overhaul the combat entirely to be closer to ME2 and ME3. There are a few fans that might say they prefer the combat of ME1, but the grand majority seem to largely agree that (regardless of their feelings for ME2 or ME3) the combat got better in the sequels.

Besides that I would also take this chance with a remake and expand on what is Mass Effect 1's biggest strength: the Citadel. Citadel in ME2 and ME3 sucks compared to ME1. So go absolutely ham. I would love a bigger Citadel with more interactions, introduce some of the sections we were only able to explore in 2 and 3, just make it the best part of the game.

 

[Flounder]

The game's UI and inventory system need the biggest overhaul IMO.

 

[SPRidley]

They would still need to have mako being able to be used on all those planets because the idea was fantastic, but maybe overhaul it a bit. Even then, some of the barren planets i wouldnt touch them much, just make barren and handmade be 50/50 or something, also give a little bit more variety to enemy bases, maybe add some sidequests to them that arent "kill everyone on the base on sight". Is control of the mako what need to be retouched more.

The combat? Yes, just make it as 3 and add some of the good stuff from andromeda.

The inventroy sysyem needs a big overhaul.

Also, make tali and garrus romancable from the start in 1. The best thing would be to add the character interaction between each other of the team affected by your decissions thay 3 had. Thats the best thin 3 has and its a pity people dont mention it more.

 

[Era Uma Vez]

Just put the mechanics on par with Mass Effect 2 and 3 and leave the rest of the game as it is.
I dont think anyone wants to change the combat from ME1, just the jank and lack of polish.
Oh and the menu navegation, specially when you gather too much loot and there is no practical way to navigate it, or even eliminate the fucking things.

 

[Lyre]

Honestly, I don't think so. I definitely think the autosave and inventory system should be better, but otherwise the game is near flawless. Under no circumstances change the ammo modifications, I loved using cyrogenic/incendiary ammo etc and wish it never got removed.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

I wanted to play Mass Effect because I was draw to the RPG elements. If I wanted to play a third person shooter I'd play anything BUT Mass Effect.

So no. ME2 and 3 needs to be overhauled, ME1 had a great foundation that should have been expanded upon instead of stripped down to become the generic EA shooter.

Click to shrink...

ME3 already reintroduced weapon mods, while also adding in the excellent weight/load-out system. It strikes a really good itemization balance. The game was disappointing but it was the best core gameplay the series ever had. ME1 is overwrought with excessive itemisation, loot and irrelevant granularity in the skill trees, ME2 trims a bit too much meat along with all the fat it cut, so ME3 would be a great starting point to build on.

 

[Orieon]

I love ME1, it's undoubtedly my most played mass effect. That being said, If it were ever re-released it'd need to be remade from the ground up. Combat completely modernized. Be faithful to the RPG elements, but redesign them. Inventory management and weapon mods in ME1 are not fun.

 

[SofNascimento]

In a perfect world we get a remaster aching more to a remake. Overhaul the combat entirely to be closer to ME2 and ME3. There are a few fans that might say they prefer the combat of ME1, but the grand majority seem to largely agree that (regardless of their feelings for ME2 or ME3) the combat got better in the sequels.

Besides that I would also take this chance with a remake and expand on what is Mass Effect 1's biggest strength: the Citadel. Citadel in ME2 and ME3 sucks compared to ME1. So go absolutely ham. I would love a bigger Citadel with more interactions, introduce some of the sections we were only able to explore in 2 and 3, just make it the best part of the game.

Click to shrink...

I think that people that like ME1's combat are generally the people that don't really like combat in games. And so, can look more towards the idea of the combat rather than the gameplay system themselves.

For example. I remember someone on BSN saying how they prefered snipers in ME1 than in ME2. And so they mentioned how in that game they could park the Mako on top of a mountain, far away from the enemy base, and snipe those enemies from hundreds of meters. And that's indeed possibel in ME1, but not in any of the sequels.

It didn't matter that there is absolutely no gameplay mechanic in ME1 to support that. Snipers behave the same regardless of your distance to your target, it didn't matter if they aimed at the head or at the foot, the damage would be the same. After they fired, enemies would start to fire back and behave no differently than if Shepard was right at their side... it would be just them running randomly. Indeed, depending on the difficulty, you might not even be able to 1 hit kill an enemy...

So the gameplay mechanics are bad, but the idea is not.

 

[Wrexis]

Don't you dare touch my baby.

 

[Barnak]

They should, but they won't. At this point, better remake the whole game like Resident Evil 2 or Final Fantasy 7 and put a big budget on it. And I doubt that's something EA is interested with.

 

[SofNascimento]

Honestly, I don't think so. I definitely think the autosave and inventory system should be better, but otherwise the game is near flawless. Under no circumstances change the ammo modifications, I loved using cyrogenic/incendiary ammo etc and wish it never got removed.

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They weren't removed. In fact, both freeze and fire rounds work better in ME2 than they ever did in ME1. Although I know what you mean.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

I think that people that like ME1's combat are generally the people that don't really like combat in games. And so, can look more towards the idea of the combat rather than the gameplay system themselves.

For example. I remember someone on BSN saying how they prefered snipers in ME1 than in ME2. And so they mentioned how in that game they could park the Mako on top of a mountain, far away from the enemy base, and snipe those enemies from hundreds of meters. And that's indeed possibel in ME1, but not in any of the sequels.

It didn't matter that there is absolutely no gameplay mechanic in ME1 to support that. Snipers behave the same regardless of your distance to your target, it didn't matter if they aimed at the head or at the foot, the damage would be the same. After they fired, enemies would start to fire back and behave no differently than if Shepard was right at their side... it would be just them running randomly. Indeed, depending on the difficulty, you might not even be able to 1 hit kill an enemy...

So the gameplay mechanics are bad, but the idea is not.

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yep. I also liked to snipe enemies. But I admit that my dreamy memories of ME1 are just that. I tried to replay it recently on PC and I had to stop because it felt so shit. Nostalgia was strong but it got ruined.

 

[Dreamboum]

ME3 already reintroduced weapon mods, while also adding in the excellent weight/load-out system. It strikes a really good itemization balance. The game was disappointing but it was the best core gameplay the series ever had. ME1 is overwrought with excessive itemisation, loot and irrelevant granularity in the skill trees, ME2 trims a bit too much meat along with all the fat it cut, so ME3 would be a great starting point to build on.

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Most of this shit is absurdly irrelevant unless you were invested in multiplayer or whatever. ME2 and 3's gameplay is not good in comparison to other games of its ilk. ME1 had its own niche, ME2 and 3 just shined in its mediocrity in comparison to other games it wanted to stand tall against. Let's not act any of these last two games even stood up to the ankle of Gears of War.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Hey who misses the grenades from ME1?

Me neither.

Most of this shit is absurdly irrelevant unless you were invested in multiplayer or whatever. ME2 and 3's gameplay is not good in comparison to other games of its ilk. ME1 had its own niche, ME2 and 3 just shined in its mediocrity in comparison to other games it wanted to stand tall against. Let's not act any of these last two games even stood up to the ankle of Gears of War.

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Everything matters more as you scale difficulty higher. Certainly on easy or normal you can ignore half the mechanics in ME1, too.

If ME2 and 3 are mediocrity then ME1 must be sewer trash by comparison, because it also makes you spend a similar same amount of time in combat, it's just completely terrible combat instead of decent to good combat.

The fact that I had to constantly sort through the deluge of loot to upgrade my weapons didn't actually make the experience better, quite the contrary. If you played it on Xbox (PC version did not exist in 2007) it was even worse because there every time you omnigelled an item in the field to free up inventory space it teleported you back to the top of the list where all the best gear you didn't want to get rid of was. Good times, good times.

 

[TheZjman]

If they were to remaster it, i would just take the combat out of 2/3 and put it straight into 1. Tighten up the mako controls and it's good. Change nothing else.

 

[SofNascimento]

Most of this shit is absurdly irrelevant unless you were invested in multiplayer or whatever. ME2 and 3's gameplay is not good in comparison to other games of its ilk. ME1 had its own niche, ME2 and 3 just shined in its mediocrity in comparison to other games it wanted to stand tall against. Let's not act any of these last two games even stood up to the ankle of Gears of War.

Click to shrink...

ME2 has one of the best, possibly the very best, TPS gameplay out there. Gears of War, and others, surpass it in terms of core mechanics. But when you add powers, enemy variety and squadmates, ME2 has a flavor that is all its own.

 

[Landford]

After Andromeda and Anthem, the only thing I want from a Mass Effect game is to not be made by Bioware.

ME1 was my favorite. It had that BSG feel before it became a knock off Star Wars.

 

[Chewydawg]

As someone who loves the trilogy(aside from the very end of 3) and absolutely adores ME1, I think they would at the very least need to revamp the combat and inventory system. I think the people who covet the RPG systems in the first game's combat really undervalue the convenient yet still customizable options you received ME2 and especially ME3. Also ME:A has the best combat in the series. Fight me.

 

[Secretofmateria]

I adore mass effect, but i would love a remake, however it is integral that certain things remain in order to keep it unique and somewhat special when compared to mass effect 2 and 3, which by comparison, feel somewhat homogenized. Keep the exploration of uncharted worlds, i want big empty swaths with only hints of civilization. Those worlds kept the atmosphere of mass effect mysterious and unique. Keep the mako, modernize it so it doesnt feel like a nitrous induced piece of styrofoam. Combat should incoroporate the advances made in 2 and especially 3, but enemies should be smarter and a bit tougher in order to retain that "pause and go" strategic feeling that the first mass effect has over its predecessors. Bring the original voice cast back to re-record some of those lines, there is a delightful cheese to mass effect, but it makes the first game feel tonally dissonant from 2 and 3, and could certainly use some improvement.

btw i love the quantity of mass effect threads we've had recently. I literally just finished a trilogy run and im already half way through 2 a week and a half later. I just love these (3) games so much. It warms the cockles of my heart to still see so much passion for them years later.

 

[Springy]

It could be polished better, but that is not the same as "making it more like 2 and 3's"

Absolutely would not want that. Their combat isn't bad, but it is a very different approach to design. I think it would be doing a disservice to all the games to make 1 play like the sequels.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Oh man they should make it so that instead of a 30 point scale for every skill, it's a 100 point scale, where each pip gives you 0.25% power or damage increase. Imagine how RPG it would be then!

 

[Kamaros]

i love the Mako.

but yeah it has a wonk gameplay that would def be tweaked and the offensive menus should be redone, more akin to ME2/3.

the redone combat i don't see it being doing, but it would be worth 60$ alone.

the rest i'm good.

 

[Dreamboum]

Hey who misses the grenades from ME1?

Me neither.



Everything matters more as you scale difficulty higher. Certainly on easy or normal you can ignore half the mechanics in ME1, too.

If ME2 and 3 are mediocrity then ME1 must be sewer trash by comparison, because it also makes you spend a similar same amount of time in combat, it's just completely terrible combat instead of decent to good combat.

The fact that I had to constantly sort through the deluge of loot to upgrade my weapons didn't actually make the experience better, quite the contrary. If you played it on Xbox (PC version did not exist in 2007) it was even worse because there every time you omnigelled an item in the field to free up inventory space it teleported you back to the top of the list where all the best gear you didn't want to get rid of was. Good times, good times.

Click to shrink...

That's missing the point. ME2 and 3 isn't an evolution of 1, it's something different entirely.

The thing is, ME1 is its own sewer trash. There was only one like it and it was fun. Customizing was fun, that it actually mattered to give orders to your teammates was fun, juggling the overcharge of your weapons was fun, playing with mods that actually made huge changes to weapon variables was fun instead of incremental changes.

ME1 was its own thing. There wasn't anything like it. ME2 and 3 is a generic mess, there was much better that was done before and after it and it was so absurdly lacking of any identity that they went BACK to ammo weapons to the point that they had to justify it in-lore. I'm not going to be glad that the ME series went through the EA grinder and I'm certainly not going to kiss them on the cheek for delivering a sub-Gears of War in my what was once an actual RPG. I'm sure it's good, it's just not something ME1 should emulate in any capacity. Any improvements made to the game should be entirely separate from every single thing ME2 and 3 did, and I mean *every* thing

 

[Deleted member 2254]

Ideally, the entire trilogy's gameplay would get overhauled big time. Like a lot of the third person games from early-mid last-gen, the gameplay didn't age too gracefully.

 

[Starlatine]

Mass Effect is a beautiful baby and people tastes are the ones who need to be overhauled

Proud to be one of the sole voters of "ME2 and ME3 that need to be more like ME1". Show yourself, my other comrade!

 

[Kazuhira]

Is there any evidence of a remastered trilogy actually happening? Or is it just wishful thinking? I'm completely out of the loop here.

 

[Tibarn]

ME2 has one of the best, possibly the very best, TPS gameplay out there.

Click to shrink...

Hard disagree, it's rather cluncky and the encounter design is just bad. It was more "fun" thatn ME1 was, that's sure, but there are games like Gears or even Uncharted 4 that have a far better and more fun combat system.

I don't really expect any relevant improvement if we ever get remakes of the games, but I would absolutely want all 3 to be reworked. ME1 with good combat would be one of the best RPGs ever, and the other 2 would be quite solid.

juggling the overcharge of your weapons was fun

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As much as I dislike that they reverted this decision in the following games (mostly because of the lore changes), I don't think that having infinite weapons is any more fun than having limited uses, and the implementation of the concept in ME1 was really really bad.

 

[KernelC]

ME1's combat is wonky but feels more RPG like than other titles. Mako is objectively terri but I feel like it should stay as is, so we can compare how much they improved over time

 

[Pirate Bae]

Combat and the Mako are both bad, although at least the Mako is sometimes amusing. Both would require significant reworking if you wanted to modernize these games. I doubt we'll get such a treatment. For the Mako, the primary issue is that it controls like ass and has the floatiest physics imaginable. The vehicle physics in Andromeda weren't too bad from memory.

I actually really love the feel of flying around in the Hammerhead from ME2, but that thing had paper mache armor so it sucked in fights despite "Feeling" good.

Click to shrink...

This

If they don't rework both combat and the Mako I ain't buying

 

[Mindwipe]

No, the only thing they need to do is fix inventory management.

 

[Wrexis]

Is there any evidence of a remastered trilogy actually happening? Or is it just wishful thinking? I'm completely out of the loop here.

Click to shrink...

EA promises new remasters and unannounced first and third-party games coming next year

EA is working on a number of unannounced games set for release in FY2021.

www.vg247.com

In a call to investors following the reveal of EA's second quarter earnings in FY2020, the publisher confirmed some exciting news for what's to come in the next fiscal year, FY2021.

During the period between April 2020 and March 2021, EA will release remasters of "fan-favourite" franchises, including the previously revealed Command and Conquer remaster. EA, however, did not hint as to what these could be.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

Modern standards? Jeez. Game plays fine.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

I never had any issue with the Mako, in fact I don't get the complains.
But the inventory management needs a serious overhaul.

 

[Edgar]

im one of those weirdos that liked how guns behaved and sounded in first one a lot more than in sequels . It felt more scifi, and just the notion that youre shooting plasma or whatever and you need to be careful due to overheating was way cooler than actual magazine clips and how shooting felt in sequels(despite shooting being more tighter and there was sorta lore reason why they changed it)
I am also the weirdo that liked unchardted planets in first one and mako , because it created that illusion of vastness of galaxy and 60s low budget sci fi stuff via negative space and copy pasted bunkers . It felt like youre going on a journey where civilazition was just starting . Despite ME 2 having a lot more optional environments and scenarios , it felt a lot more crammed , cause the actual destination getting there was gone . Tho visiting derelict ships and abandoned space stations was actually fantastic in creating that sorta fucked up sci fi horror vibe and just giving your mind to wonder of potential of what happened in those scenarios and just making the universe more interesting
I also liked the actual janky combat gunplay , due to more slower approach and animation jank, in my head it felt more tactical and hard sci fi, despite ME 2 having more interesting enemy encounters

 

[AmirMoosavi]

After years of hearing how terrible the Mako was, when I finally got around to playing ME1 I ended up really liking it and not seeing where all the hate came from 🤷🏻‍♂️

But yeah, combat was rubbish in ME1 compared to sequels.

 

[Chairdeath]

If I'm honest you could just remove all the "drive around generic planet and hit the three points on the planet map that matter" bits and I'd be happy. Currently, when I want to replay the series I like doing everything so the checking off all the stuff from the planets usually makes me just download a save that matches the decisions I'd make that also has full completion of bonus objectives as well.

 

[Kazuhira]

EA promises new remasters and unannounced first and third-party games coming next year

EA is working on a number of unannounced games set for release in FY2021.

www.vg247.com

In a call to investors following the reveal of EA's second quarter earnings in FY2020, the publisher confirmed some exciting news for what's to come in the next fiscal year, FY2021.

During the period between April 2020 and March 2021, EA will release remasters of "fan-favourite" franchises, including the previously revealed Command and Conquer remaster. EA, however, did not hint as to what these could be.

Click to shrink...

Oh ok,thanks a lot.

 

[Oleander]

I don't have a strong opinion about the combat or the Mako, but I would need an overhaul of the inventory system. It was early 1990s JRPG-tier in its implementation.

 

[Foxnull]

The Mako is almost the best part of Mass Effect 1, it doesn't need change. Combat is fine, too, even nowadays.

 

[SofNascimento]

That's missing the point. ME2 and 3 isn't an evolution of 1, it's something different entirely.

The thing is, ME1 is its own sewer trash. There was only one like it and it was fun. Customizing was fun, that it actually mattered to give orders to your teammates was fun, juggling the overcharge of your weapons was fun, playing with mods that actually made huge changes to weapon variables was fun instead of incremental changes.

ME1 was its own thing. There wasn't anything like it. ME2 and 3 is a generic mess, there was much better that was done before and after it and it was so absurdly lacking of any identity that they went BACK to ammo weapons to the point that they had to justify it in-lore. I'm not going to be glad that the ME series went through the EA grinder and I'm certainly not going to kiss them on the cheek for delivering a sub-Gears of War in my what was once an actual RPG. I'm sure it's good, it's just not something ME1 should emulate in any capacity. Any improvements made to the game should be entirely separate from every single thing ME2 and 3 did, and I mean *every* thing

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As you already pointed out. ME1 was its own thing because of how bad it was. No other TPS wants to be like it.

Also, the idea that ME3, and especially ME2, are generic is absurd.

 

[.exe]

GO GO GO

I WILL DESTROY YOU

Yeah, it could use some work, but I never really played that game for the combat anyway.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

ME1 was its own thing. There wasn't anything like it. ME2 and 3 is a generic mess, there was much better that was done before and after it and it was so absurdly lacking of any identity that they went BACK to ammo weapons to the point that they had to justify it in-lore.

Click to shrink...

There isn't anything quite like ME1 because the only system that most people thought was worth copying was the dialogue wheel, haha. Note of course that ME2 and 3 do maintain that, the 2nd game even expands the dialogue system with interrupts.

The through line of the series, from it's conception to it's naming to it's overall structure to it's famous launch trailer was about making tough choices. All three games wind up disappointing me to varying degrees with how badly they mangled some of these choices, but that nevertheless that is the core idea that is maintained the whole time. Making decisions, and experiencing the consequences. You can say that ME2 combat is similar to Gears, and yeah it is, but it's clearly not "just" a Gears of War game, because you're spending half your time not in combat, just like in ME1, talking to people, going on quests, reading codex entries, and making decisions. That's not an experience that is "generic" or that you can just get from any random TPS! It's a totally different overall game because of it.