The key to the future of Mass Effect is in its past.
Item 3: The Shooting Sucks
BioWare’s solution: make the shooting based on actual trigger pulls, and not based on dice rolls.
Yes, the shooting in the first Mass Effect is initially bad, but that’s kind of by design. I think the biggest sin of that game was having the weapon scores so low from the outset. My first Shepard was supposed to be good with sniper rifles, but because I didn’t put a lot of points into my rifle ability at the outset he was a pretty poor shot for the opening hours of the game. Accuracy and weapon power improves dramatically as you progress in the game, but it gives a bad first impression that seems to stick with players. It doesn’t help that there are still remnants of the BioWare d20 system working behind the scenes, so you can be dead on with a shot but the roll of the dice registers it as a “miss”.
So BioWare turned Mass Effect 2 into more of a third person shooter. This was the right call for sure; when you pull a trigger in a game you should see the immediate effect. However, in doing so, they made the game feel somewhat generic. Mass Effect 2 can’t hang with even the first Gears of War, which was already a few years old by the time it was released.
The shooting got better, but at the expense of originality.
One of the biggest issues I have with the ME sequels is the addition of “heat sinks” for the guns. The lore of Mass Effect states that guns no longer consume bullets, but instead fire very small fragments of metal at extremely high velocity. As such, you should never run out of ammo with a Mass Effect weapon, and instead you have to manage your heat output. In the first game, as long as you eased off the trigger a bit you could keep up a high rate of fire, but get too trigger happy and your gun would overheat, locking up for a bit. It was an added bit of strategy in a game that was already surprisingly strategic.
BioWare mucked that up when they introduced the disposable heat sink cartridges, basically shoe horning ammo into a universe that refreshingly did away with ammo entirely. Compounded with the lack of abilities detailed earlier, and you have two sequels that, yes, feel better as shooters than ME 1, but lose out on a lot of what made that game unique.
My solution: keep the shooting fidelity, ditch the heat sinks.
I think we’ve seen that you don’t need every game with guns to feel the same. Take a look at the recent release of Doom, a fast-paced first person shooter that bravely went back to not having the need to reload guns. It was refreshing to never have to hit a reload button in the heat of battle. Similarly, the Transformers games from High Moon studios are third person, but you never duck behind cover. That’s because you’re expected to use your alt mode to evade fire and get around the battlefield. These design decisions make those games feel special, but in no way hinder the moment to moment action.
Doom is all about staying mobile, not reloading.
I think pulling the trigger in Mass Effect 2 and 3 feels much better than the first game, but the core gameplay feels lackluster in comparison. I’d keep the cover mechanics, but I’d go back to having to manage your gun’s heat gauge. This is something that sets Mass Effect apart from every other shooting game out there, and if you’re coupling it with deeper ability sets as seen in item 2 then you have a much more interesting experience than pulling left trigger, then right trigger.
I’d also bring back the need to put points into weapon proficiency, forcing players to stick to one or two guns. This gives each class more nuance and depth, and rewards players based on how they spec out their characters. While I do believe that each gun should feel more accurate and effective out of the gate than they do in the first Mass Effect, I like having to decide if I want to do more damage with my shotgun or unlock a new skill when I level up. Oh, and let’s throw in damage numbers, ala Borderlands and Diablo III, because who doesn’t love seeing those numbers get bigger?
Mmmm...damage numbers...
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