Leveling Down

I've only just encountered Fist, so hold on the spoilers for now.  Here's my thoughts.

1.  When I'm in this game, I feel like I'm playing a 1990's sci fi console game.  The loading screen and the main menu feel very old.  For even the xBox.  I shouldn't be able to see the color changes in blue pixels, yet I still do. 

2.  Although the storyline finally seems like it's progressing, I'm annoyed that the combat interface seems cumbersome.  I can't differentiate between melee and firing at close combat and my teammates constantly get in the way in a battle.  One of the these always seems to happen:

-I see enemies, my teammates run way in front of me, get shot and die.

-I duck to find cover, my teammates get in my line of fire, T can't shoot at enemies, they die.  

Either way I'm fighting everyone myself. 

3.  I'm not sure how my results in dialogue will impact the game result.

Also, first time I talked to Joker I was like, I know this voice…  and yeah, it's who I thought they were.  (Unlike the Green Bay defense last night!)

Alright, I'm opening up the thread for spoilers. Don't read below if you don't want to know what has happened!

First, answers to my own questions:

1. Tairese, I think you're right, the game feels a bit dated. Now that I'm playing on hardcore, I definitely need to tread more carefully, but of course the cover system is not the greatest. Also, since I'm not playing as a soldier, I don't have access to all the guns I might like. At the same time, I still think the game looks pretty good, awkward Fallout 3 walking aside. I'm particularly impressed with how well the cutscenes hold up two years later – I still really enjoy watching them.

2. I'm still impressed by the different choices you can take and the multitude of side missions. Other games have done it better since Mass Effect, but it's still fun to delve into all the little side stores. Combat is still an issue, and the Mako sections suck. I can't believe I have to spend so much time driving around in that stupid car, only to fall off a cliff and start from the beginning again because I was too lazy to save!

3. I'm enjoying testing out the dialogue tree and using the responses that I didn't use the first time. It's just amusing to see how Shepard speaks, and some of the renegade responses are downright hilarious. Looking forward to seeing an evolution of the system in the sequel.

Follow up question: Have you spend any time talking to the crew? What do you think of them so far? Gotta love Wrex!

Finally, I figured I can use this forum as a way to recap the game, in case people forgot what happens for the sequel. So,

SPOILERS BELOW

So the game opens with your character, Commander Shepard, investigating something on the human colony of Eden Prime, with a turian (alien) spectre, aka do-it-all commando, along for the ride. When you hit Eden Prime, you find that it's been ravaged by a robot-species called the Geth. They are after a Prothean beacon, the Protheans being a mythical race of beings who lived in the universe some 50,000 years ago. You meet Ashley Williams, a fellow human soldier, and together with Kaiden Alenko, another human, you find the Prothean beacon and receive some sort of vision – but not before a rogue spectre, Saren, murders the spectre that came along with you.

After you find evidence exposing Saren's treachery, you are inducted as a spectre by the Council, a multi-alien (but no humans) group that makes decisions for the galactic federation (or something like that). Your task is to take down Saren, and that sets up the remainder of the game. Along the way, you meet the rest of your rag-tag crew, consisting of Garrus, a turian, Wrex, a krogan, and Tali, a quarian, whose people created the geth.

You are tasked with three missions to help you get closer to Saren, and on the Prothean ruins in the Artemis Tau region, you save Liara T'soni, an asari, from the geth. And that's where we're up to so far! Oh, and Liara T'soni is the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, a.k.a Saren's right hand…woman. Cue drama!