Mass Effect 3 - Preview Roundup

More previews for this game have surfaced. I quote from one of them and list the others:
First up is The Telegraph:

And here's a secret opinion I've been keeping that might not make me very popular: Mass Effect was never particularly good as an RPG in the first place. Its upgrade and inventory system was clunky and confusing and the planet exploration was bunk. That Mass Effect 2 streamlined and refined such things was a welcome change. Mass Effect's true strength has always lain in its interesting, if imperfect, combat and its magnificent world building and characters.

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And then then others:
RPGSite
PalGamingNetwork
GameRant
More information.

The standard slam-to-cover system of the first two Mass Effect titles was largely used for stacking on doors and gaining a break from an enemy push, not to navigate, flank, or advance against enemies in the manner that BioWare may have intended.

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Playing offensively/aggressively no longer seems to be a pain as it was in the previous iterations. Good progression from a shooter angle.

Best preview is RPGsite, with a reviewer clinging to anything that can be assimilated to RPG. In a way, a sensible attitude as people who specialized into RPG are confronting the fact they are reviewing games from other genres.

Bioware's battle is their battle: these reviewers made a name as RPG reviewers, got a visibility as RPG reviewers. Moving to another genre parallels Bioware's ordeal.

Best is still that this guy who wants to bamboozle on RPG angle focuses on the customization/levelling system while in an RPG, a character like Sheppard wont level up much during this adventure. Trapped by their own bias.

He's right about ME not having good RPG elements. What he is off about is that Bioware should have IMPROVED those, rather than dropping them. They should have had better planet exploration. They should have had a better inventory system. Instead they ripped them both out completely.

That said, there's no reason Mass Effect can't be a shooter series with some RPG elements here and there. Unless you don't like shooters that still makes for a compelling experience and I loved ME2. ME3 looked great in all the E3 videos as well. I prefer the first game so far, but to be honest that has more to do with story than anything else.

As bad as planet exploration was in ME, I still preferred it to the planet scanning in ME2.

In fact, I was fully expecting them to improve upon that aspect. However, much like how they did away with RPG mechanics and loot, they simply removed it entirely.

DoctorNarrative said:

He's right about ME not having good RPG elements.

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Are the 'RPG elements' in ISS 2012 any good?

That said, there's no reason Mass Effect can't be a shooter series with some RPG elements here and there.

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Actually, there is no reason for these elements when included in a shooter to be called RPG elements.

Meh, at this point I pretty much think Bioware's niche is cinematic style action game/dating sim hybrids.

ChienAboyeur said:

Actually, there is no reason for these elements when included in a shooter to be called RPG elements.

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Oh boy I hope we have a long debate about what an RPG is and thus what RPG elements are. That would just make my damn day.

Im so f#cking tired of the "that is not an rpg" tirade.
Get a life. Why this dormant need to classify in the human psyche?
(well, I know why but that is boring evolutionary theory)
Things change, enjoy what you can.

I'm Enjoying that I'm slightly drunk, that my wife since six days likes to watch Game of thrones with me (highly unexpected!), that my two toddlers are asleep, that we are going to have six weeks of vacation from tonight.

And I'm looking forward to ME3, far to few space opera romps for my tastes these days


C

Whether ME3 is rpg or not, I loved ME2 and really looking forward to ME3... *fingers crossed*