Mass Effect
It took me awhile because I had to play in smallish chunks of time, but I finally managed to finish Mass Effect.
Mass Effect spoilers below.
This Shepard is a Vanguard/Earthborn/Sole Survivor who ended up being about 55% Paragon/45% Renegade after she sacrificed the Council, talked Saren into blowing himself away and installing her former boss as head of the new galactic council. I ended up choosing the darkest skintone because I didn't want to get the melty face effect that plutospawn talked about. Plus I just find the darker skintones in this game to be a lot prettier than the pasty light ones. I think a lot of that probably comes from me not really getting the knack of customizing the faces. Still, I was pretty happy with the way she turned out - except for the hair which ended up driving me batshit crazy by the end (more on that later).
I thought this game, while having some irritating design issues, kicked a lot of ass.
The awesome:
1. Paragon/Renagade system.
I thought this was a great way to make a distinction between two types of play. It's a lot more complicated than just good/evil, lightside/darkside. Sure a lot of the renegade options are the "asshole" options, but there are several occasions where arguably the morally right thing to do is to choose the renegade choice, which usually offered a sure thing, instead of taking a huge risk and choosing the paragon choice. Letting the Council die in order to focus on killing the big bad is a good example of this.
Personally, I would have liked to see this carried a bit further to the point of some of the paragon or renegade choices ending up biting Shepard in the ass such as letting the council live, only to almost lose the game because you didn't have enough firepower to take out the giant alien. There were no real consequences for choosing a paragon or renegade choice and that sometimes cheapened the choices made. Still, most of the time their system worked - and hey - at least they got out of the black and white world view that's in most of these types of games.
2. Jennifer Hale's voice acting.
Her fem!Shep voice just rocked. She was so good, in fact, that I'm having a hard time playing a male!Shep game because the voice actor just sounds horribly wooden in comparison. She also gives Shepard so much personality that I think I'm going to have a hard time reading most fanfic. I can already feel myself cringing at the idea of reading a super sweet, super good, super caring Shepard who talks ad nauseum to Kaiden/Garrus about their relationship. I can already hear the cry of "Shepard is who you make her to be, so shut up, Pris" but I can't agree. Unlike Revan in Kotor, I think the voice acting here and dialogue choices really give Shepard a distinct (hard ass) personality and while I think there'd definitely be some room for interpretation, I don't think there'd be tons - which means I'd probably better stay far, far away from mass effect fandom.
3. Kaiden
I wish they would have chosen someone other than Sbarge to voice Kaiden in a way because it was it was really distracting in the beginning. Still, even though he shares a lot of Carth traits, he's different enough to be interesting in his own right. This is probably a sign of my age, but it's nice to see a romance lead where you don't have to fix their emotional issues because he's grown up enough to do it himself. Out of all the bioware romance options in their games, Kaiden is the only one I'd even emotionally healthy enough to consider hanging with in real life. Plus I found the dialogue options between hard ass fem!Shep and Kaiden to be really entertaining. I have to say that I like him as much as Carth.
4. Hanging up on the council.
This never got old. Never. It's goofy of me, I know, but I thought that hanging up on the Council was one of the best parts of the game.
5. The plot.
I thought the main plot itself, while certainly not original, was well thought out. They took the idea of one person being responsible for the safety of the entire universe almost to it's logical extreme by writing in difficult grey choices for the player to make. I also liked that while the player was another version of "the chosen one" I got more of the sense that it was Shepard's choice, and not fate, circumstances, higher powers or the force thrusting this unwilling person into a position of power (like all of the other bioware games). Shepard seems to be the proactive sort that would choose to do this job, instead of just being anointed against her will. Overall, it was definitely entertaining enough for me to be excited to see the sequels.
The not so awesome:
1. Ashley.
Honestly, I couldn't stand this character. I think she was supposed to come across as a strong female, but really, she's a xenophobic prude who just irritated the crap out of me (I think I my annoyance with her crystallized the minute we walked into the strip club), especially when compared to the awesome job they did with fem!Shep's personality. This ended up being a problem when it came to the part where you have to decide between saving her and Kaiden, because honestly that wasn't even remotely difficult. It didn't have the emotional resonance that I think it was supposed to have (I felt a lot worse in Kotor when Bastila stays behind to fight Malak - even back when I didn't like Bastila). I'm wondering if she improves if you play a guy. Bioware seems to spend so much time on the romances that it seems like they fall short sometimes on creating same sex friendships between the pc and the romance leads.
2. Mako
I suck at driving vehicles in games. Seriously. I find it extremely frustrating to drive even in a straight line, so I was pretty dismayed to discover how often you needed to drive the damn thing.
3. Repetitive, boring side quests.
First of all, they really need to have more than one layout for a base, mines, abandoned ship, etc because holy crap it's irritating. Second, they should have cut the number of these quests by two thirds and focused on making the ones that they kept interesting and distinct. As it was, I ended up skipping a bunch of them because I got so bored. Third, they should have put more thought into the Garrus and Wrex sidequests which when compared to the ones in Kotor, fall horribly short.
4. Male Shepard faces.
Holy crap is it difficult to make an attractive or cool looking male!Shep face. I know I'm not the greatest at that kind of artistic stuff, but still. It seemed like the fem!Shep got the better end of that deal.
5. Shepard's hair.
What the hell was with the hair choices for both genders? Seriously? I thought they all sucked. On the males, I gave up and made my Shep bald. On the fem!Shep I went for the bob, but still, that irritated the crap out of me after about an hour. They need to come up with better choices. They also need to make it so that you can change the pc's hair mid game if you get sick of it.
As a side note, one thing I really don't get is the Garrus fangirling. Hey, I like the guy. I thought he was cool. I really don't get the fangirling that seems to be happening over him though (especially wanting him to be a romance option). I'm guessing it's because he has a cool voice?
Next up... Ivan Shepard, Infiltrator/Colonist/Ruthless:
I have a feeling he's going to be a raging asshole.
Anyway, post pictures of your Shepards (male and female). I've seen some of them but I'm curious to see what other people came up with, and I can't remember where you all posted your Sheps and am too lazy to go looking.
Mass Effect spoilers below.
This Shepard is a Vanguard/Earthborn/Sole Survivor who ended up being about 55% Paragon/45% Renegade after she sacrificed the Council, talked Saren into blowing himself away and installing her former boss as head of the new galactic council. I ended up choosing the darkest skintone because I didn't want to get the melty face effect that plutospawn talked about. Plus I just find the darker skintones in this game to be a lot prettier than the pasty light ones. I think a lot of that probably comes from me not really getting the knack of customizing the faces. Still, I was pretty happy with the way she turned out - except for the hair which ended up driving me batshit crazy by the end (more on that later).
I thought this game, while having some irritating design issues, kicked a lot of ass.
The awesome:
1. Paragon/Renagade system.
I thought this was a great way to make a distinction between two types of play. It's a lot more complicated than just good/evil, lightside/darkside. Sure a lot of the renegade options are the "asshole" options, but there are several occasions where arguably the morally right thing to do is to choose the renegade choice, which usually offered a sure thing, instead of taking a huge risk and choosing the paragon choice. Letting the Council die in order to focus on killing the big bad is a good example of this.
Personally, I would have liked to see this carried a bit further to the point of some of the paragon or renegade choices ending up biting Shepard in the ass such as letting the council live, only to almost lose the game because you didn't have enough firepower to take out the giant alien. There were no real consequences for choosing a paragon or renegade choice and that sometimes cheapened the choices made. Still, most of the time their system worked - and hey - at least they got out of the black and white world view that's in most of these types of games.
2. Jennifer Hale's voice acting.
Her fem!Shep voice just rocked. She was so good, in fact, that I'm having a hard time playing a male!Shep game because the voice actor just sounds horribly wooden in comparison. She also gives Shepard so much personality that I think I'm going to have a hard time reading most fanfic. I can already feel myself cringing at the idea of reading a super sweet, super good, super caring Shepard who talks ad nauseum to Kaiden/Garrus about their relationship. I can already hear the cry of "Shepard is who you make her to be, so shut up, Pris" but I can't agree. Unlike Revan in Kotor, I think the voice acting here and dialogue choices really give Shepard a distinct (hard ass) personality and while I think there'd definitely be some room for interpretation, I don't think there'd be tons - which means I'd probably better stay far, far away from mass effect fandom.
3. Kaiden
I wish they would have chosen someone other than Sbarge to voice Kaiden in a way because it was it was really distracting in the beginning. Still, even though he shares a lot of Carth traits, he's different enough to be interesting in his own right. This is probably a sign of my age, but it's nice to see a romance lead where you don't have to fix their emotional issues because he's grown up enough to do it himself. Out of all the bioware romance options in their games, Kaiden is the only one I'd even emotionally healthy enough to consider hanging with in real life. Plus I found the dialogue options between hard ass fem!Shep and Kaiden to be really entertaining. I have to say that I like him as much as Carth.
4. Hanging up on the council.
This never got old. Never. It's goofy of me, I know, but I thought that hanging up on the Council was one of the best parts of the game.
5. The plot.
I thought the main plot itself, while certainly not original, was well thought out. They took the idea of one person being responsible for the safety of the entire universe almost to it's logical extreme by writing in difficult grey choices for the player to make. I also liked that while the player was another version of "the chosen one" I got more of the sense that it was Shepard's choice, and not fate, circumstances, higher powers or the force thrusting this unwilling person into a position of power (like all of the other bioware games). Shepard seems to be the proactive sort that would choose to do this job, instead of just being anointed against her will. Overall, it was definitely entertaining enough for me to be excited to see the sequels.
The not so awesome:
1. Ashley.
Honestly, I couldn't stand this character. I think she was supposed to come across as a strong female, but really, she's a xenophobic prude who just irritated the crap out of me (I think I my annoyance with her crystallized the minute we walked into the strip club), especially when compared to the awesome job they did with fem!Shep's personality. This ended up being a problem when it came to the part where you have to decide between saving her and Kaiden, because honestly that wasn't even remotely difficult. It didn't have the emotional resonance that I think it was supposed to have (I felt a lot worse in Kotor when Bastila stays behind to fight Malak - even back when I didn't like Bastila). I'm wondering if she improves if you play a guy. Bioware seems to spend so much time on the romances that it seems like they fall short sometimes on creating same sex friendships between the pc and the romance leads.
2. Mako
I suck at driving vehicles in games. Seriously. I find it extremely frustrating to drive even in a straight line, so I was pretty dismayed to discover how often you needed to drive the damn thing.
3. Repetitive, boring side quests.
First of all, they really need to have more than one layout for a base, mines, abandoned ship, etc because holy crap it's irritating. Second, they should have cut the number of these quests by two thirds and focused on making the ones that they kept interesting and distinct. As it was, I ended up skipping a bunch of them because I got so bored. Third, they should have put more thought into the Garrus and Wrex sidequests which when compared to the ones in Kotor, fall horribly short.
4. Male Shepard faces.
Holy crap is it difficult to make an attractive or cool looking male!Shep face. I know I'm not the greatest at that kind of artistic stuff, but still. It seemed like the fem!Shep got the better end of that deal.
5. Shepard's hair.
What the hell was with the hair choices for both genders? Seriously? I thought they all sucked. On the males, I gave up and made my Shep bald. On the fem!Shep I went for the bob, but still, that irritated the crap out of me after about an hour. They need to come up with better choices. They also need to make it so that you can change the pc's hair mid game if you get sick of it.
As a side note, one thing I really don't get is the Garrus fangirling. Hey, I like the guy. I thought he was cool. I really don't get the fangirling that seems to be happening over him though (especially wanting him to be a romance option). I'm guessing it's because he has a cool voice?
Next up... Ivan Shepard, Infiltrator/Colonist/Ruthless:
I have a feeling he's going to be a raging asshole.
Anyway, post pictures of your Shepards (male and female). I've seen some of them but I'm curious to see what other people came up with, and I can't remember where you all posted your Sheps and am too lazy to go looking.