My first playthrough thoughts, as a completionist
After a whopping 200 hours of gameplay I've finally finished my first playthrough. I have:
- Completed 53/55 Origin achievements (Unwavering & Matchmaker still left)
- Read every codex entry, datapad, terminal and character dialogue that I could find in the game
- Finished every mission that I could find, including allies, Heleus & additional
- 99% Heleus progression (no idea what I missed though, and didn't have the energy left to try and find out) - although my save file stats in the Load/Save menu show 100% game completion for some reason
- Found 10 fusion mods
- Every collectible ship model for Pathfinder quarters
- Character level 73 - the build I used is detailed over here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/JanePhoenix-insanity-vanguard-build/td-p/6735912/jump-to/first-unread-message
- Nexus level 26
The forum is filled with negative rants about this game, about Bioware, and about EA. While some of it may be merited, I for one feel that neither the developers, the game, or the publisher deserves all the vitriol being thrown around. Granted, I'm late to the game, and played it in a mostly patched up form. But I found the experience greatly enjoyable. Certainly not the best RPG out there, but definitely not a BAD game.
Roleplaying games are often a bit of an emotionally involved affair for me, and I did find the game a bit lacking in this department. The storyline had enormous potential which has sadly not been reached. The game opened fairly strongly and then there just wasn't enough happening story-wise for it to feel very compelling. Then towards the midpoint of the game it felt like things picked up a bit, but before the end had become a bit stale and uneventful once more.
What I did find rather satisfying was the combat itself, character speccing, crafting & modding. I love that the game didn't lock you into a specific character class at the start, and that you're able to change it more or less on the fly, with a respec option at the Tempest for more drastic changes. Even so, I feel like I want to do another (non-completionist) playthrough with a different class, learning its peculiarities in detail, as I spent a great deal of time between planets tweaking and perfecting the Vanguard to my particular playstyle as it evolved during the course of the game.
One thing I found quite poorly implemented was the consumables. The game UI made it hard to see which were equipped (they should have been right there next to your equipped powers), with hardly any feedback to show when something was used, or the effect it was having. So little focus was given to this that I quickly forgot it even existed, and ended up not using consumables at all.
I was astonished at the sheer amount of content in this game, and that alone deserves some praise. Initially I felt a bit overwhelmed at the non-linear, somewhat open world nature of the game, but quickly got used to it. Overall have to say congratulations to all involved for a mostly positive experience. I still have to go back and play the older titles in the series, but count me as a fan so far, and I would love to see future titles in the Mass Effect series.
