Oh How I'm Excited
Mass Effect 2's release date is supposedly the first quarter of 2010.
akjhdflakjhgaf DO WANT
I bought Mass Effect for my brother for his birthday. He was the one who played it first, but I played it too because it was an RPG, and damn I love this game. D:
It's already been a year and a half since Mass Effect came out… now I want to play it again...
I heard that KOTOR is supposed to be a trilogy too, and KOTOR II was released about four and a half years ago. 8|
I've gotten myself on a Mass Effect hype. And now I will be posting my (veeery) overdue thoughts about the games, comparing and contrasting them. >__> Jade Empire was a Bioware game too, but that one is a little different from the other two RPGs. Just sayin’.
The one thing that I like about both these RPGs is that when you first start the game, you can choose your character to be either a male or a female. Doing some reading online, I’ve read that in KOTOR I, the developers had in mind of Revan being a female. This kind of showed too in KOTOR II when the exile was first talking to Atton, and referred to Revan as a “she,” unless you correct him and say Revan was male. Then also in KOTOR II, if you continue on saying that Revan was female, when you talk to Carth near the end of he game, it made it seem like him and Revan had a romantic relationship, if I remember correctly. In Mass Effect, I think the developers had Shepard being a male, one reason being that the game cover shows a male Shepard, and in the game, his romance can happen with two females. I’ll talk more about character development and romances later on, and with that said, I'll address them by their pronouns respectively.
Both games are somewhat linear, because there were a lot of side quests that you can do. As far as I can remember, most of the game play is littered with side quests, and once you're promoted, like Revan becoming a jedi in KOTOR I and Shepard promoted to Spectre in Mass Effect, you have even more freedom.
In KOTOR I, even before Revan becomes a jedi, there is still a lot of freedom since after escaping the ship she was on, then her and Carth end up on Taris, and there are a ton of side quests that you can do before getting on with the main ones. That one was kind of tricky too, since when you first play through it, you had no clue that the sith would be blowing up the planet. If you didn’t complete all the side quests given to you on Taris, then there is no way you can finish them now. You arrive on Dantooine, where you find out that Revan has the potential to become a jedi, and then sent on a mission that only she can take up because of her visions. When you have control of your ship again, the order of the planets that you visit is up to you.
I think one third of KOTOR I is consisted of running around without the help of a lightsaber. There was quite some time that passed before you were able to escape from Taris, Even when you were on Dantooine, you were able to build your own lightsaber, but still there were some time consuming trials before she was able to go on her epic mission.
I don’t remember much about what happens in KOTOR II. And from what I remember in the beginning of that one, you start out in a mining planet, then most of your mission revolves around killing or reuniting the Jedi Order. In any case, that game was filled with lots of things to do too, and some of the side quests took a while to do because there were so many components involved.
As in Mass Effect, your first mission doesn’t take up a lot of your time since this is kind of when you’re starting to get an idea of how the story is going to play out. After all, there’s a cut scene where you see Saren, a Spectre, kill another Spectre, and the one that was killed was the one you were talking to earlier when you were on the Normandy. At the end of that mission, you get to this beacon where Shepard gets a vision about the reapers, and something else that was related to Saren. When on the Citadel, Shepard is trying to find evidence to convince the council of betraying the Spectres since they won't believe Shepard just from his explanation of a vision he has. While doing so, some NPCs run up to you with some side quests that you can do or not. Then after convincing the council about Saren being evil is when you’re promoted, as well as Captain Anderson handing over the Normandy to Shepard to help him on his mission. Shepard has been given some valued leads by some people, then you set off on the Normandy into space.
When comparing these two, there is a lot more exploration you can do on Mass Effect than on KOTOR I and KOTOR II. But the differences between these would be that KOTOR is based off of something so crazy popular. Even then the Star Wars fandom has gotten so big that there are countless books that you can read about, that have characters and plots that don’t even relate to the movie. Star Wars also has reference and art books that take place in that universe. But in these RPG games, it only has the planets that are popular, and not the other ones that are barely mentioned.
Mass Effect is almost all original and creative about the names of the planets, galaxies, and systems that you can explore. The one thing that wasn’t made up was visiting Luna in the Sol System of The Milky Way Galaxy. Even from there, there were several galaxies that you can visit, and within these galaxies, there are several planetary systems you can choose from. Though, when you get to a planetary system, there is only one planet or foreign object that you can explore, while the other planets are only scannable.
This was just describing the beginnings of the games before your character was able to take control of a space ship. I think the developers had an order in mind of when to visit the planets, even if the order that you visit them is completely up to you.
In KOTOR I, the planets that you visit on your Star Map mission are Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban. Kashyyyk is I think one of the planets that you're recommended to go to first, since on that planet, you get another ally, Jolee. None of these recommendations are clued or anything, but after playing the game once or twice, you get a feel of when you should visit a planet. If female Revan is romancing with Carth, then Korriban would be one of the last to visit. That's only if you've spoken to Carth enough to have him speak about his family, about how his wife died and he doesn't know what happened to his son. When that happens, on the next time you visit Dantooine, an NPC walks up to your crew and informs Carth that his son is on Korriban.
In KOTOR II, the places you're able to visit are Dantooine, Nar Shaddaa, Onderon/Dxun, and Korriban. Dantooine would be one of the first to visit; it's mostly wreckage, but that's where you get the Disciple. On Nar Shadaa, you gain either Mira on Hanharr, as well as having the option of making Atton a Jedi if you have enough influence over him.
There are countless systems that you can explore, but the important ones are Liara's dig site, Feros, Noveria, and Virmire. Liara's dig site would be the first to go to. She's an NPC who becomes part of your crew, as well as being the final one that completes your ship mates. Liara is also Shepard's possible love interest, whether your Shepard is either male or female.
It's not only the side quests that are fun, but there's also the factor that they have a turning point of the games, like of something happening that you didn't expect at all. This usually happens when you're done visiting the other planets, but in KOTOR I, it happens when you only have one more planet to explore.
The turning point of the game would be when your character finds out that he or she is actually Revan, the feared sith lord that was supposedly taken down by Bastila in KOTOR I. You find out that Kreia was dark side, but she was acting as your mentor and being neutral throughout the game in KOTOR II. Mass Effect was a little different, since you're supposed to blow up a planet, you're interrupted mid way by by the enemy while placing the bombs, and now you have a choice to save either Kaiden or Ashley, sacrificing the other to stay on the planet.
Usually after that turning point is when you start seeing the result of some of your actions, specifically the romantic character development if you have chosen the right dialogue that would get you to the point to have a romantic relationship with one of the NPCs.
In KOTOR I, female Revan can end up with Carth, but that only happens when your Revan is light sided. If you have a dark side Revan, Carth tries to save you from going back the path of the dark side at the end, but you kill him. Male Revan can end up with Bastila, and during one of the dialogues, it's implied that he kisses her. Bastila is taken to the dark side, you see her and have to duel her in the Endar Spire, and male Revan says that he can't kill her because he loves her, and Bastila professes her love too. As for KOTOR II, the exile doesn't end up with anyone, and I don't think the dialogue choices that you made with each character matters either. I haven't played this game thorough enough to know if these ever change. >__>;
Male Shepard can either end up with Ashley or Liara, but that depends on if your dialogue choices were so that both of them liked you. After one of your missions, you were confronted by the two of them, and they ask you to choose which one you like. You make the same decision with female Shepard, except her love interests are either Kaiden or Liara. Then, as the story goes on, with more selected dialogue, there's an implied intimate scene between Shepard and his or her love interest.
Basically, both these games are similar on how the general plot goes, but it's because of what happens in each game is what makes it interesting. If you're playing KOTOR or Mass Effect from beginning to end nonstop, you could finish them in about 30 hours. To me, these games have a lot of replay value, since you can either be dark or light, and you can have your characters have different skills.
Of course, not everyone will have the same opinion I have with Bioware games. But I admire the effort the game developers have put into the games; there's a lot of detail that went into it. With this said, Mass Effect 2 coming out soon, and my expectations for it still remain pretty high.
On an unrelated and somewhat related note: Oh how I fucking wish that writing essays for classes would be as easy as writing this. I did a word count on just my comparing and contrasting… 1800+ words. 8|
akjhdflakjhgaf DO WANT
I bought Mass Effect for my brother for his birthday. He was the one who played it first, but I played it too because it was an RPG, and damn I love this game. D:
It's already been a year and a half since Mass Effect came out… now I want to play it again...
I heard that KOTOR is supposed to be a trilogy too, and KOTOR II was released about four and a half years ago. 8|
I've gotten myself on a Mass Effect hype. And now I will be posting my (veeery) overdue thoughts about the games, comparing and contrasting them. >__> Jade Empire was a Bioware game too, but that one is a little different from the other two RPGs. Just sayin’.
The one thing that I like about both these RPGs is that when you first start the game, you can choose your character to be either a male or a female. Doing some reading online, I’ve read that in KOTOR I, the developers had in mind of Revan being a female. This kind of showed too in KOTOR II when the exile was first talking to Atton, and referred to Revan as a “she,” unless you correct him and say Revan was male. Then also in KOTOR II, if you continue on saying that Revan was female, when you talk to Carth near the end of he game, it made it seem like him and Revan had a romantic relationship, if I remember correctly. In Mass Effect, I think the developers had Shepard being a male, one reason being that the game cover shows a male Shepard, and in the game, his romance can happen with two females. I’ll talk more about character development and romances later on, and with that said, I'll address them by their pronouns respectively.
Both games are somewhat linear, because there were a lot of side quests that you can do. As far as I can remember, most of the game play is littered with side quests, and once you're promoted, like Revan becoming a jedi in KOTOR I and Shepard promoted to Spectre in Mass Effect, you have even more freedom.
In KOTOR I, even before Revan becomes a jedi, there is still a lot of freedom since after escaping the ship she was on, then her and Carth end up on Taris, and there are a ton of side quests that you can do before getting on with the main ones. That one was kind of tricky too, since when you first play through it, you had no clue that the sith would be blowing up the planet. If you didn’t complete all the side quests given to you on Taris, then there is no way you can finish them now. You arrive on Dantooine, where you find out that Revan has the potential to become a jedi, and then sent on a mission that only she can take up because of her visions. When you have control of your ship again, the order of the planets that you visit is up to you.
I think one third of KOTOR I is consisted of running around without the help of a lightsaber. There was quite some time that passed before you were able to escape from Taris, Even when you were on Dantooine, you were able to build your own lightsaber, but still there were some time consuming trials before she was able to go on her epic mission.
I don’t remember much about what happens in KOTOR II. And from what I remember in the beginning of that one, you start out in a mining planet, then most of your mission revolves around killing or reuniting the Jedi Order. In any case, that game was filled with lots of things to do too, and some of the side quests took a while to do because there were so many components involved.
As in Mass Effect, your first mission doesn’t take up a lot of your time since this is kind of when you’re starting to get an idea of how the story is going to play out. After all, there’s a cut scene where you see Saren, a Spectre, kill another Spectre, and the one that was killed was the one you were talking to earlier when you were on the Normandy. At the end of that mission, you get to this beacon where Shepard gets a vision about the reapers, and something else that was related to Saren. When on the Citadel, Shepard is trying to find evidence to convince the council of betraying the Spectres since they won't believe Shepard just from his explanation of a vision he has. While doing so, some NPCs run up to you with some side quests that you can do or not. Then after convincing the council about Saren being evil is when you’re promoted, as well as Captain Anderson handing over the Normandy to Shepard to help him on his mission. Shepard has been given some valued leads by some people, then you set off on the Normandy into space.
When comparing these two, there is a lot more exploration you can do on Mass Effect than on KOTOR I and KOTOR II. But the differences between these would be that KOTOR is based off of something so crazy popular. Even then the Star Wars fandom has gotten so big that there are countless books that you can read about, that have characters and plots that don’t even relate to the movie. Star Wars also has reference and art books that take place in that universe. But in these RPG games, it only has the planets that are popular, and not the other ones that are barely mentioned.
Mass Effect is almost all original and creative about the names of the planets, galaxies, and systems that you can explore. The one thing that wasn’t made up was visiting Luna in the Sol System of The Milky Way Galaxy. Even from there, there were several galaxies that you can visit, and within these galaxies, there are several planetary systems you can choose from. Though, when you get to a planetary system, there is only one planet or foreign object that you can explore, while the other planets are only scannable.
This was just describing the beginnings of the games before your character was able to take control of a space ship. I think the developers had an order in mind of when to visit the planets, even if the order that you visit them is completely up to you.
In KOTOR I, the planets that you visit on your Star Map mission are Tatooine, Kashyyyk, Manaan, and Korriban. Kashyyyk is I think one of the planets that you're recommended to go to first, since on that planet, you get another ally, Jolee. None of these recommendations are clued or anything, but after playing the game once or twice, you get a feel of when you should visit a planet. If female Revan is romancing with Carth, then Korriban would be one of the last to visit. That's only if you've spoken to Carth enough to have him speak about his family, about how his wife died and he doesn't know what happened to his son. When that happens, on the next time you visit Dantooine, an NPC walks up to your crew and informs Carth that his son is on Korriban.
In KOTOR II, the places you're able to visit are Dantooine, Nar Shaddaa, Onderon/Dxun, and Korriban. Dantooine would be one of the first to visit; it's mostly wreckage, but that's where you get the Disciple. On Nar Shadaa, you gain either Mira on Hanharr, as well as having the option of making Atton a Jedi if you have enough influence over him.
There are countless systems that you can explore, but the important ones are Liara's dig site, Feros, Noveria, and Virmire. Liara's dig site would be the first to go to. She's an NPC who becomes part of your crew, as well as being the final one that completes your ship mates. Liara is also Shepard's possible love interest, whether your Shepard is either male or female.
It's not only the side quests that are fun, but there's also the factor that they have a turning point of the games, like of something happening that you didn't expect at all. This usually happens when you're done visiting the other planets, but in KOTOR I, it happens when you only have one more planet to explore.
The turning point of the game would be when your character finds out that he or she is actually Revan, the feared sith lord that was supposedly taken down by Bastila in KOTOR I. You find out that Kreia was dark side, but she was acting as your mentor and being neutral throughout the game in KOTOR II. Mass Effect was a little different, since you're supposed to blow up a planet, you're interrupted mid way by by the enemy while placing the bombs, and now you have a choice to save either Kaiden or Ashley, sacrificing the other to stay on the planet.
Usually after that turning point is when you start seeing the result of some of your actions, specifically the romantic character development if you have chosen the right dialogue that would get you to the point to have a romantic relationship with one of the NPCs.
In KOTOR I, female Revan can end up with Carth, but that only happens when your Revan is light sided. If you have a dark side Revan, Carth tries to save you from going back the path of the dark side at the end, but you kill him. Male Revan can end up with Bastila, and during one of the dialogues, it's implied that he kisses her. Bastila is taken to the dark side, you see her and have to duel her in the Endar Spire, and male Revan says that he can't kill her because he loves her, and Bastila professes her love too. As for KOTOR II, the exile doesn't end up with anyone, and I don't think the dialogue choices that you made with each character matters either. I haven't played this game thorough enough to know if these ever change. >__>;
Male Shepard can either end up with Ashley or Liara, but that depends on if your dialogue choices were so that both of them liked you. After one of your missions, you were confronted by the two of them, and they ask you to choose which one you like. You make the same decision with female Shepard, except her love interests are either Kaiden or Liara. Then, as the story goes on, with more selected dialogue, there's an implied intimate scene between Shepard and his or her love interest.
Basically, both these games are similar on how the general plot goes, but it's because of what happens in each game is what makes it interesting. If you're playing KOTOR or Mass Effect from beginning to end nonstop, you could finish them in about 30 hours. To me, these games have a lot of replay value, since you can either be dark or light, and you can have your characters have different skills.
Of course, not everyone will have the same opinion I have with Bioware games. But I admire the effort the game developers have put into the games; there's a lot of detail that went into it. With this said, Mass Effect 2 coming out soon, and my expectations for it still remain pretty high.
On an unrelated and somewhat related note: Oh how I fucking wish that writing essays for classes would be as easy as writing this. I did a word count on just my comparing and contrasting… 1800+ words. 8|