The key to the future of Mass Effect is in its past.
Item One: The Inventory System is Clumsy and Hard to Use
BioWare’s solution: Remove inventory management completely, and only allow armor changes for the player character.
Yes, the inventory system in the first Mass Effect is a confusing mess. The game doesn’t filter weapons and armor that your character can’t equip, and good luck trying to add mods to your gear. On top of all that, many of the stats that your equipment has don’t make any sense, and there is no explanation given in the game as to what these actually do. Sure, “shields +150” is easy enough to decipher, but what exactly is “hardening +20%”, and what benefit does that give me? I have no idea, and I’ve played this game half a dozen times (so far).
Yep, that inventory is a mess to look at.
So, instead of addressing the problem of inventory management, BioWare ripped nearly all of it out of the game for the sequels. You can still equip Commander Shepard with armor, but it’s largely cosmetic, and I found myself changing it constantly just to have a modicum of visual progression for my character. Your party members are in no such luck, so I was unable to, say, get Jack out of that ridiculous outfit that only coves her nipples, for example. Sure, you unlock secondary costumes after completing each person’s loyalty mission, but most of them are basically palette swaps, and are far from an interesting alternative to actual armor sets.
Mass Effect 2 has fancy armor that is basically just cosmetic.
This is a real problem for me, because one of the things I love most about Western RPGs is the sense of progression for my characters. A large part of this is visual, of course. My level 50 Shepard looks so cool in his black and red Colossus armor (courtesy of Kassa Fabrication, of course), and it’s a far cry from the standard issue N7 armor he starts with. But a bigger reason to have an expansive inventory factors into gameplay. A late game shotgun feels much more powerful than the early weapons; take aim at a Geth in the final mission and watch it crumble in a shot or two, provided you’ve put enough points into your shotgun proficiency.
My solution: give me my damn inventory back!
That’s pretty much it! Just put it back in the game, but be smart about how you handle it. Take a look at Diablo III on consoles for how to do this right. Diablo III has a ton of information for every weapon and piece of gear, but when you first pick it up you can easily see if it is significantly better than what you’re already using. If it appears so, then you open up a handy radial menu and can get more info to determine if you really want to equip it for your particular character build.
Diablo III nails a complex inventory for consoles.
Let’s bring back useful, visually appealing armor, for ALL of your characters. It’s almost as if BioWare forgot how to design armor once EA bought them, as evidenced by all Dragon Age and Mass Effect games since that acquisition. Yes, it’s true that having everyone wearing the same type of armor can impact each character’s individuality, but I bet there’s a great middle ground to be reached here. While that asari seen in Andromeda looks all cool with her bare midriff it doesn’t really mesh well with the Mass Effect universe, at least not when you’re supposed to be exploring a new, never before seen world. There’s plenty of opportunity on the ship to see your characters wearing things that are more in line with their personal aesthetic, anyway.
Nice outfit. Leave it on the ship though.
I want weapon and armor mods to make a meaningful return, as well. They just need to be streamlined. Mass Effect 2 had certain characters with abilities that were basically weapon mods you could activate like a sustained buff. Let’s explore that, but allow every character to select these from the weapon wheel. Instead of having tons of different weapon mods, just keep it to “damage vs. synthetics”, “damage vs. organics”, and so on. Weapon mods are highly effective in the first game on the tougher difficulty levels, so just make them less of a pain to use.
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