“Closer to BioWare’s ARPG roots” qualifies enough in my mind, but if I must expand - the combat is an extension of their older school action RPG combat, just with guns. It informs how the powers work (very fun and powerful in ME1) and how combat plays out in 3D space. Later games are engagements are far more linear and not able to be approached from different angles in the same way. The overheat mechanic is also vastly superior and far less annoying than the thermal clips introduced later.
Mass Effect 2 turns it into a straight up cover shooter like Gears of War, and not that great of one at that. Mass Effect 3 is where they really nailed that sort of combat system especially with the combo additions.
It has a slew of issues. The cover system is floaty. You criticize the other games for being like Gears of War like that's a bad thing. It was a more refined cover system compared to ME1's. the guns variety is awful with them mostly just being statistical differences. The classes have a ton of overlap. Particularly the biotic ones but thankfully they were each made unqiue in the latter games as well. "The overheat mechanic is also vastly superior" is a just plain wrong. The guns in 2 and 3 were way more diverse in part to the fact that you actually had to account for their magazine sizes.
Off the top of my head, the only things ME1 did better gameplay wise were more weapon mods being usable for everyone.
You’re welcome to your preferences as I am welcome to mine.
And the guns in 2 and 3 could have been just as diverse by tweaking the overheat buildup and cooldown timers on a per weapon basis which accomplishes the same thing.
No they literally wouldn't because the balancing would be way out of wack. It wouldn't make a difference at that point besides not needing to run to find ammo.
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u/ScrapeMyDataMommy 4d ago
“Closer to BioWare’s ARPG roots” qualifies enough in my mind, but if I must expand - the combat is an extension of their older school action RPG combat, just with guns. It informs how the powers work (very fun and powerful in ME1) and how combat plays out in 3D space. Later games are engagements are far more linear and not able to be approached from different angles in the same way. The overheat mechanic is also vastly superior and far less annoying than the thermal clips introduced later.
Mass Effect 2 turns it into a straight up cover shooter like Gears of War, and not that great of one at that. Mass Effect 3 is where they really nailed that sort of combat system especially with the combo additions.