I think expecting something to the scale of Mass Effect is unrealistic, but Owlcat has been really good at delivering solid RPGs so I’m hopeful it will still be a quality AA game
Biowares first well known RPG was BG, followed by BG2, Owlcats was Pathfinder:KM, followed by WoTR
Biowares first 3D RPG was NWN, followed by NWN2, Owlcat has RT that will be followed by DH
The first Bioware 3d ARPG game was Jade Empire, Owlcat gets EOR. You could argue they skipped JE and moved directly to ME. But for me it looks like they are following all the steps of bioware (I hope not to the end).
Bioware was fully owned by EA the same year ME1 came out. Owlcast is fully independent. And they have expanded to be a publisher for other devs as well.
As long as they remain independent, there're little concerns.
yeah. Love my owlcat games, but none of their games have ever reached the levels of Bioware at their peak. They're solid AA, fun to play, but not the sort of thing that ever hooked me as completely as Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect 2
Yeah KOTOR is sort of the exact midpoint where it's doing a cinematic third person presentation but it's mechanically still very CRPG, dice rolls and all.
Bioware's first game wasn't even isometric. They made a mechwarrior game called Shattered Steel in the mid 90s. I played the shit out of that game as a kid.
I love Owlcat games and the Expanse, when the announcement was made I couldn't believe it. Sounds too good to be true. Then the trailer looked awesome. No I'm just stuck going "pleasedontsuck" over and over.
My only experience with them is Rogue Trader, and as much as I enjoyed the game - I feel like it was mostly because of the 40k trappings. The actual game itself was buggy and janky and the end part and some NPCs felt incredibly rushed.
And this being their first outing on a non-isometric CRPG... yeah best keep expectations in check.
I JUST finished Outerworlds 2. Where I played a space commander, to deal with a galactic crisis, with a loyal crew, across planets, with a ship that provided character interactions/ upgrades/ and missions.
When I say "deliver," I'm referring to the same sense of scale and uniquess as the Mass Effect trilogy. In all honesty, though, I think Osiris Reborn could potentially be Owlcat's "Knights of the Old Republic" moment. Taking an established IP and expanding it in a way that the show or books didn't accomplish
I don’t think so? I went in without remembering anything from the first and I did fine. Not sure if it’s a sequel or not, but the characters and conflicts have enough of an introduction to keep you in the loop
Outer Worlds 2 just seems to fail to resonate with a lot of people. Me included. I played a chunk and I found myself incredibly disinterested and kinda just going through the motions. Then KCD2 was on sale so....
It's a competently enough made game but the characters, story and art just fail to resonate.
I did play TOW1 and enjoyed it at the time, but I find myself completely unable to remember a damn thing about it. Not even the names of the characters.
Meanwhile I could still list out my favourite Mass Effect characters, guns and various things about it.
It’s completely valid to have different opinions, but I think it’s wild to say there hasn’t been a space opera game where we play as a space commander with a loyal crew since 2012.
Whether it’s resonates or not, Outerworlds 2 is barely a month old.
So if we’re diving into the subjective “good”, I’m gonna say I disagree with anyone who says Outerworlds 2 isn’t “good.” But again, my opinion is subjective.
Quite a few people seem to enjoy it. Case in point:
I will say this: Out of all of those [Avowed, E33, KCD2, MH Wilds, OW2], Outer Worlds 2 has the best writing.
Yeah? You think so?
I do.
Better than E33 writing?
Yep. The quality of the character to character dialogue for me was... I found way more entertainment in Outer Worlds 2. Be it funny, be it laughing, raw entertainment. I know people are gonna hate this take. I don't care, I'm having such a good time in Outer Worlds 2 - it is far more enjoyable.
I just read about the Expanse game. I've read 3 of the books so far and it could be a successful new IP if they do it right. The characters and stories are quite grounded making them relatable and interesting. Being able to choose an Earther, Martian or Belter would create different gameplay experience for the player. I'm remember playing Colony Wars on the PS1 back in the day and I haven't had the chance to play anything else similar since (unless someone can recommend?).
Naughty dog is working on a game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. We know naughty dog puts out quality games so this one might hit. It’s years away though so can’t get too hyped.
It's turn based with no twitch sections. It's horribly optimised, but can still run playably on an older machine by turning down details, turning on upscaling. Considering that 30fps is perfectly playable given its turn based nature.
The entire ME series was absolutely GOATed. I never played it until the Legendary Edition came out and didn’t put it down for a few months. One of the best gaming series of all time
Inquisition has a solid story and solid characters, it's the immense amount of filler that brings it down. So many fetch quests, so many collect-a-thons, almost none of the non-story zones had a single memorable moment.
If all the fat is trimmed off, and you just rush the story, it's really good.
it's the immense amount of filler that brings it down
Every three or four years, I go back and get through another 30 or so hours of my playthrough before hte fatigue sets in. One day I'll finish it. The story moments are excellent. But the overwhelm of large empty zones, pointless collectables, etc, is real.
They should have either cut all zones in half or more, or cut the number of zones by half with the same amount of story content.
It's just a really good 50 hour game stretched to over a hundred.
I usually notice when a game is going that direction and unless I know i'm gonna get invested I switch it up and just start doing the main story if possible just so I get it done before complete burnout hits. If the game doesn't allow you to skip it burnout hits.
Second this. It's not a bad game and had some very well written characters and even solid gameplay. The issue was that all of that was stretched out over more time than it needed. If they had shrunk the overworld maps to like half the size and removed a corresponding amount of collectibles, it would have essentially been Dragon Age: Mass Effect... which is frankly all I have really needed them to be.
Rushed absolutely. Needed a greater variety of environments.
But genuinely great ideas that haven't been reused enough since. A main character that isn't there to save the world and is not the solitary person making every decision.
It was cool that your companions had their own lives and goals that didn't always align with yours. And obviously come out in a major way at the end.
Also that the game takes place in the one city over the course of years. Just some interesting ideas in rpg design that needed another year of work.
While DA2 had its issues, I really liked just how more personal and intimate everything was. I really got attached to Hawke and his merry band of misfits. And instead of just Paragon/Renegade, you also had "Smarmy Asshole" which I picked when offered the 3 dialogue options and I found it absolutely hilarious.
Microsoft Studios + Bioware gave us Mass Effect 1.
One of my favorite games of all time.
2 was good, 3 was good. But you could feel the stench of EA creeping on both of those.
Then we got Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, which is amazing...but again...that EA stench is all over it with the Cartel Market and I went back recently...now they have Season Passes.
I feel so lucky for playing and loving the originals, forgetting all about it, then playing and loving it all a second time with Legendary. Gotta be a top-3 gaming experience for me, if not #1
Age of mythology (always loved mythology, loved age of empires as well. Perfect mix for my 12yr old self)
Mass Effect trilogy (Ive played through that trilogy too many times. Its about that time of year to replay the entire thing though 😂)
Dishonored 1 (it just itched a scratch, idk, couldnt get into the 2nd one or death of the outsider though)
Honorable mentions -
Rust (First pc game and i still have fond memories. Would NOT go back or recommend tho).
Ark survival evolved (The devs and their publisher continue to make every fk up imaginable, to this day, but riding dinosaurs is still sick)
Skyrim (does this need a blurb?)
Spyro (first game i remember actually playing and the only game ive ever pre-ordered)
It's astonishing how well they aged, considering that the legendary edition was relatively modest changes. ME1 got improved gunplay/controls and graphics, but the rest of core game was unchanged.
Same for me. I bought it because it was on sale and read a lot here on reddit and in genereal how good it was so, why not. And then I didn't stop until I completed the whole series in a row.
I've been chasing this high for so long. It's my favorite genre. Too many space games play it safe and stick to humans as the only intelligent species, where alien life is relegated to just being generic monsters to shoot at. That's why Outer Worlds and Starfield failed to scratch that itch.
If I had any talent whatsoever at game making I would make so many space opera RPGs
Nothing has quite given me such a ride like Mass Effect, being able to continue your decisions across all 3 titles was amazing. Every decision and mistake you make, rippling through your entire 3 game experience.
Really made you want to listen to what people had to say and carefully respond in the right way or you're accidentally gonna end up with a squad mate dead lol.
Also Seth Green voicing Joker was great, I loved him so much in it.
This one flew under the radar somehow, but you're right it's quite good. And a much closer match to compare against Mass Effect I feel than the other two being cited a bunch here since it's still similar gameplay to ME and RPG-lite but still has a fair number of dialog interactions.
I think that OP is just not into cRPGs as we already got critically acclaimed, great space opera, where you play as your spaceship commander with loyal crew in 2023, and its overwhelimgly positive on steam (96% in recent reviews, ~28k reviews total).
Its the most suggested game in this thread. And as the guy above us pointed out, the game sits at a 86% score on Steam based on 26k votes... thats really good for a crpg.
It didn't fly under any radar. It might not have done Baldur's Gate 3 numbers, but as far as crpgs go, its one of the biggest ones.
I was definitely sitting absolutely flabbergasted at the space combat cinematic of ME1 towards the end with those crazy maneuvers and massive ships duking it out.
Okay but that's absolutely nothing like Mass Effect's gameplay which was the big combo-hook for a lot of fans IMHO.
Outer Worlds is far closer to Mass Effect than Rogue Trader is as an equivalent game in that regard.
Sure Rogue Trader is INCREDIBLY well written, but it didn't scratch any of the itches that Mass Effect did/does for me at least.
Often it felt like "Baldurs Gate 3... IN SPACE, by OwlCat Games" a lot of the time. Which is NOT a complaint, but it's on an entirely different set of shelves from Mass Effect despite both being incredibly high up on their respective shelves.
Okay "space opera" and "good" might be debatable according to one's taste but in both Outer Worlds games you play a spaceship commander with a loyal crew.
I hope we get more Parvarti types in the future. If they are going to put younger women on our ship, I hope its not for romance with us, I hope its to let us be like big brothers/father figures and help them go on a date. :') I'm not a dad, but I've helped raise a few friends kids, and my nephew...and man..I had a proud dad moment helping Parvarti with her date.
-sniffles- "It's not the best chooooooice...it's Spacer's Choice!"
I'm only on the second planet in 2 but so far they're a lot more chatty amongst themselves and will give opinions on one another when asked.
And, to be fair, the only times I really, TRULY felt like a space captain in 1 was during certain missions like the Sublight Salvage mission on Monarch, they ramped up the feeling in the DLCs. But I can only hope it's enough to scratch someone in this threads itch. Even if I do have some problems with the games, they're serviceable.
There has been plenty of good space opera games where you command a loyal crew since then, there just hasn't been any near the caliber of Mass Effect, there is a massive gulf between a "good game" and Mass Effect. And I say that while still being bitter about ME3's ending.
This game had my best sci-fi character ever with Tali. While not a sci-fi game it wasn't until BG3 that i got a character that i enjoyed equally and that was Karlach.
It didn't live up to the originals but Andromeda wasn't that bad. They just needed like an extra month for it to cook, most of the worst bugs/jankiness vanished in the first big post-launch patch.
this game.... Had this game in the library for a year and then finished it over a course of two fucking years. In the middle of ME2 I suddenly couldnt stop playing and only realized this when I saw I had 150h on my legendary edition save file.
I loved the first one. The second one I’m a couple hours in and it fails to hook me like the first one. Thinking about putting a couple more hours in before calling in quits
The Outer Worlds games, regardless of your opnion on them, is nothing like the ME series. Not even close. I dont get the comments here at all. ME's writing shits all over it.
It's easy to forget that many people here are young kids who only know things that came out this year.
That's why you constantly hear about <insert aggressively average game here> being "the greatest of all time", because for them "all time" is like 3 years.
Wouldn't Rogue Trader kinda fall into the category you're describing? I mean it's turn based instead of a TPS, but outside of that it shares a lot of similarities to Mass Effect. On that note however, it is a bit weird how Mass Effects success didn't spawn it's own copycats. Exodus and The Expanse are the first proper copycats we've gotten, and they don't even have release dates yet.
Mass Effect 3 was such a good game, too. I know everyone hated the ending (I was more confused as to what they were going for and the revamped ending patch fixed that for me) but there was SO MUCH GOOD up to that point. Hell even the multiplayer was insanely fun. I used to love rolling up as a Batarian and mega-punching Cerberus cronies so hard their heads end up in the next system over.
Getting to do a playthrough but not needing to open the power/weapon wheel at all,
Just telling my teammates what to use and where to go will never be matched
Yup. They just rushed it thinking ME fans would buy anything. I had some memorable times as a space wizard teleporting out from cover to throw a singularly, mow a bunch of mobs down then dash a straggler and shotgun em
Or pop an enemy up in the air, dash punch them mid air, then snipe em before they got too far away to see.
As someone who's got an embarrassing amount of hours invested in Battletech (2018), I have to throw it in for contention. I think the single-player campaign counts as a space opera, and the loyal crew members Mechwarriors live on your ship, so I say it squeaks by on a technicality, lol.
I have high hopes for the Expanse, it looks very promising. I loved the TV Show, had a rough start but man i love that show. The Space combat is so good. Its just sad it got cancelled, had to read the books to learn about the rest.
SteamWorld Heist is right there, or do you mean an industry-leadimg tripe AAA "great" space opera? Because there are more games than whatever is on the front page.
I might give some consideration to the outer worlds if you could rizz up the companions but the obsidian devs refuse to even consider it in their games these days.
Loyal? LOYAL?? They left me after each game when i did everything for them then went through a lot of shit to actually get their loyalty (it was fine when they thought i was dead)
From what I've heard it basically took the place of things like squad commands in combat. So like you could say "Liara use warp" and she would. Supposedly it could also interact with the dialogue window and open doors.
I've also heard there's a bug in the final sequence where you have only your gun, supposedly you can use voice commands to still use powers.
Hopefully, Exodus or The Expanse: Osiris Reborn deliver
I really, really want Expanse to deliver. I have faith in Owlcat but I'm trying my best to keep my expectations tempered.
I think expecting something to the scale of Mass Effect is unrealistic, but Owlcat has been really good at delivering solid RPGs so I’m hopeful it will still be a quality AA game
Owlcat has zero experience outside of isometrics and their games have pretty significant bugs. I have hope, but not faith.
My feelings as well. Loved both kingmaker and wotr but the expanse game is such a huge change of pace for them.
Biowares first well known RPG was BG, followed by BG2, Owlcats was Pathfinder:KM, followed by WoTR
Biowares first 3D RPG was NWN, followed by NWN2, Owlcat has RT that will be followed by DH
The first Bioware 3d ARPG game was Jade Empire, Owlcat gets EOR. You could argue they skipped JE and moved directly to ME. But for me it looks like they are following all the steps of bioware (I hope not to the end).
Bioware was fully owned by EA the same year ME1 came out. Owlcast is fully independent. And they have expanded to be a publisher for other devs as well.
As long as they remain independent, there're little concerns.
Please use less acronyms or at least parenthesize them for the average.
Well some guys from owlcat worked on Skyforge, but yeah. They worked mostly on Isometric games even before they founded Owlcats.
yeah. Love my owlcat games, but none of their games have ever reached the levels of Bioware at their peak. They're solid AA, fun to play, but not the sort of thing that ever hooked me as completely as Knights of the Old Republic, or Mass Effect 2
Most of them are better written, so there's that.
Yap, their writers are very good. Let's hope they hired some great people for the UE development part
That's fair, and I'd be thrilled with that level.
Yeah I'm trying to temper expectations since Owlcat has historically done CRPGs... but I'm so ready
"Owlcat has historically done CRPGs" Just like Bioware before they did Mass Effect
I'm an old man so my memory is fickle, but wasn't Mass Effect 1 Bioware's first game outside of being isometric?
Kotor? Jade Empire?
Yeah KOTOR is sort of the exact midpoint where it's doing a cinematic third person presentation but it's mechanically still very CRPG, dice rolls and all.
Bioware's first game wasn't even isometric. They made a mechwarrior game called Shattered Steel in the mid 90s. I played the shit out of that game as a kid.
I love Owlcat games and the Expanse, when the announcement was made I couldn't believe it. Sounds too good to be true. Then the trailer looked awesome. No I'm just stuck going "pleasedontsuck" over and over.
My only experience with them is Rogue Trader, and as much as I enjoyed the game - I feel like it was mostly because of the 40k trappings. The actual game itself was buggy and janky and the end part and some NPCs felt incredibly rushed.
And this being their first outing on a non-isometric CRPG... yeah best keep expectations in check.
Me too man. Me too.
Exodus is my most anticipated game for next year and it's supposed to make an appearance at TGA's this year so we'll hopefully get a release date.
While I agree, what does “deliver” mean?
I JUST finished Outerworlds 2. Where I played a space commander, to deal with a galactic crisis, with a loyal crew, across planets, with a ship that provided character interactions/ upgrades/ and missions.
If that doesn’t count, what are we hoping for?
When I say "deliver," I'm referring to the same sense of scale and uniquess as the Mass Effect trilogy. In all honesty, though, I think Osiris Reborn could potentially be Owlcat's "Knights of the Old Republic" moment. Taking an established IP and expanding it in a way that the show or books didn't accomplish
Do I need to play Outerworld 1 for it?
I don’t think so? I went in without remembering anything from the first and I did fine. Not sure if it’s a sequel or not, but the characters and conflicts have enough of an introduction to keep you in the loop
Outer Worlds 2 takes place in an entirely different star system (Halcyon instead of Arcadia) with different factions.
Because Outerworlds doesn't come close to Mass Effect. Outerworlds is just so forgettable in every aspect.
Outer Worlds 2 just seems to fail to resonate with a lot of people. Me included. I played a chunk and I found myself incredibly disinterested and kinda just going through the motions. Then KCD2 was on sale so....
It's a competently enough made game but the characters, story and art just fail to resonate.
I did play TOW1 and enjoyed it at the time, but I find myself completely unable to remember a damn thing about it. Not even the names of the characters.
Meanwhile I could still list out my favourite Mass Effect characters, guns and various things about it.
It’s completely valid to have different opinions, but I think it’s wild to say there hasn’t been a space opera game where we play as a space commander with a loyal crew since 2012.
Whether it’s resonates or not, Outerworlds 2 is barely a month old.
Not being snarky but OP specifically asked for a good space opera.
I thought it was good. And critics seem to dig it
So if we’re diving into the subjective “good”, I’m gonna say I disagree with anyone who says Outerworlds 2 isn’t “good.” But again, my opinion is subjective.
Quite a few people seem to enjoy it. Case in point:
We're looking for something far better than "fine" which is what I would classify the outer worlds 1 and 2 as. Leagues below the ME trilogy.
Obsidian seriously needs to work on their writing if they want to get anywhere close to the characters and companions in ME.
I just read about the Expanse game. I've read 3 of the books so far and it could be a successful new IP if they do it right. The characters and stories are quite grounded making them relatable and interesting. Being able to choose an Earther, Martian or Belter would create different gameplay experience for the player. I'm remember playing Colony Wars on the PS1 back in the day and I haven't had the chance to play anything else similar since (unless someone can recommend?).
Naughty dog is working on a game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. We know naughty dog puts out quality games so this one might hit. It’s years away though so can’t get too hyped.
Im excited but that doesn't seem to be a space opera game where you command a space team. Its space opera but seems to be setvon one planet.
Ooh I can't wait to buy the fourth remastered version of that
Keep an eye out on that but my expectations on that is very low.
came here to say this about Osiris
Oh man I just looked into Exodus and wow. Don't want to get my hopes too high.
There's a prequel novel to set up the lore though, going to download the audiobook tn.
Warhammer Rogue Trader
"I am a navigator, not a servitor."
Abelard, introduce me to the peasantry.
Abelard, revoke his life permissions
Rpgue Trader has some of the best "barks" in any game I've ever played
Let the blood of the wicked be shed as thou hast willed. Let not the righteous fear. May their blades be sharp, and I shall not fail!
I do wish she went into hymn occasionally in combat, but she's also not a militant so maybe she got to skip choir day.
Most of the books the sisters are literally singing in battle aside for commanders issuing orders.
I've read tomes on military tactics
"All I heard was 'Demotion!'"
She and I did truly horrific things together.
"Every strike is a prayer" Argenta, Battle sister
"They say a little humility never hurt anyone. I help others by wholeheartedly humiliating them at every steps." Rogue trader
"[This] breaks my heart… Figuratively speaking, of course, my cardiovascular augmentation can support much higher pressures" Pasqual
I wish it would run half decent on my computer :(
Think I might get on Xbox Game Pass while I wait for the Steam Machine to come out
It's turn based with no twitch sections. It's horribly optimised, but can still run playably on an older machine by turning down details, turning on upscaling. Considering that 30fps is perfectly playable given its turn based nature.
Right?! We havnt seen a good space opera……..with a loyal crew in a couple months!!!
And we won't see another one for... Another few months (hopefully) until dark heresy drops.
The Omnissiah knows ALL, comprehends ALL
Just finished my 2nd playthrough of that game. Yes, it's a great game.
Different gameplay aside, Rogue Trader literally gave me the Mass Effect vibes playing it, its the only game to have done so since
ah I love that look of that. wish I could get into it but just struggle with it for some reason.
I used to love these squad based games but not souch as I get older.
The entire ME series was absolutely GOATed. I never played it until the Legendary Edition came out and didn’t put it down for a few months. One of the best gaming series of all time
when bioware was good
It pains me how much they fucked up Dragon Age. DA:O is up there with BG3 and Witcher 3 for best fantasy RPGs of all time.
DA2 was rushed but I've always liked it too
Hell, I really liked 3 as well, although that's an unpopular opinion.
Inquisition has a solid story and solid characters, it's the immense amount of filler that brings it down. So many fetch quests, so many collect-a-thons, almost none of the non-story zones had a single memorable moment.
If all the fat is trimmed off, and you just rush the story, it's really good.
Every three or four years, I go back and get through another 30 or so hours of my playthrough before hte fatigue sets in. One day I'll finish it. The story moments are excellent. But the overwhelm of large empty zones, pointless collectables, etc, is real.
They should have either cut all zones in half or more, or cut the number of zones by half with the same amount of story content.
It's just a really good 50 hour game stretched to over a hundred.
I usually notice when a game is going that direction and unless I know i'm gonna get invested I switch it up and just start doing the main story if possible just so I get it done before complete burnout hits. If the game doesn't allow you to skip it burnout hits.
problems are with games that are designed around the open world grind, and don't allow you to level sufficiently for story encounters without it.
Second this. It's not a bad game and had some very well written characters and even solid gameplay. The issue was that all of that was stretched out over more time than it needed. If they had shrunk the overworld maps to like half the size and removed a corresponding amount of collectibles, it would have essentially been Dragon Age: Mass Effect... which is frankly all I have really needed them to be.
Yeah I never finished it just one day I went "what am I doing ? This is bullshit" put it down and never went back
Nah man, three was great as well, although it had clear issues with trying to wrap everything up.
I'd say the start and end of ME3 was troubling but everything in between was absolutely amazing.
"Had to be me, someone else could have gotten it wrong." Nuff said.
Rushed absolutely. Needed a greater variety of environments.
But genuinely great ideas that haven't been reused enough since. A main character that isn't there to save the world and is not the solitary person making every decision.
It was cool that your companions had their own lives and goals that didn't always align with yours. And obviously come out in a major way at the end.
Also that the game takes place in the one city over the course of years. Just some interesting ideas in rpg design that needed another year of work.
Also I am just a sucker for the Isabella story of convincing her to come back, especially with a romance.
While DA2 had its issues, I really liked just how more personal and intimate everything was. I really got attached to Hawke and his merry band of misfits. And instead of just Paragon/Renegade, you also had "Smarmy Asshole" which I picked when offered the 3 dialogue options and I found it absolutely hilarious.
Inquisition completely lost me.
The other Dragon Ages are decent but since they chose a more action route it didn’t feel like DA:O which sucked but they weren’t bad games at all
Microsoft Studios + Bioware gave us Mass Effect 1.
One of my favorite games of all time.
2 was good, 3 was good. But you could feel the stench of EA creeping on both of those.
Then we got Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, which is amazing...but again...that EA stench is all over it with the Cartel Market and I went back recently...now they have Season Passes.
Member berries ‘memberrrr!
Member when Bioware released Dragon Age Origins in November and then Mass Effect 2 in January?
I feel so lucky for playing and loving the originals, forgetting all about it, then playing and loving it all a second time with Legendary. Gotta be a top-3 gaming experience for me, if not #1
ya I played all the originals when they first came out. and to play the LE was a swansong
What’re the other 2?
Ocarina of Time and Fallout 3/NV for me, first 3d game and first open-world game
You got a top 3?
I’m not who you asked, but for me:
Random coming to put their 2c in -
Age of mythology (always loved mythology, loved age of empires as well. Perfect mix for my 12yr old self)
Mass Effect trilogy (Ive played through that trilogy too many times. Its about that time of year to replay the entire thing though 😂)
Dishonored 1 (it just itched a scratch, idk, couldnt get into the 2nd one or death of the outsider though)
Honorable mentions - Rust (First pc game and i still have fond memories. Would NOT go back or recommend tho). Ark survival evolved (The devs and their publisher continue to make every fk up imaginable, to this day, but riding dinosaurs is still sick) Skyrim (does this need a blurb?) Spyro (first game i remember actually playing and the only game ive ever pre-ordered)
It's astonishing how well they aged, considering that the legendary edition was relatively modest changes. ME1 got improved gunplay/controls and graphics, but the rest of core game was unchanged.
Legendary edition was the best way I did the same and lowkey I am glad I waited
I’ve replayed the game so many times and even do the same choices all the time and yet, it always feels refreshing.
Female Shepard Renegade playthrough of ME2 was genuinely one of the most fun times I've ever had in gaming. So many laugh out loud moments.
Same here, I'm glad I waited, the LE version was really nice and cohesive
I just beat the LE version this morning for the first time. My God, what an incredible experience. Immediately one of my favorite games of all time.
Same for me. I bought it because it was on sale and read a lot here on reddit and in genereal how good it was so, why not. And then I didn't stop until I completed the whole series in a row.
Great characters, story, funny parts.
1st playthrough was the best 90 hours of media I've consumed ever maybe
I've been chasing this high for so long. It's my favorite genre. Too many space games play it safe and stick to humans as the only intelligent species, where alien life is relegated to just being generic monsters to shoot at. That's why Outer Worlds and Starfield failed to scratch that itch.
If I had any talent whatsoever at game making I would make so many space opera RPGs
Rogue Trader
It's a good game but it' a completely different genre...
The good folks at Owlcat agree and have us covered: https://youtu.be/pIQifuOTTe8?si=ZmIKGJg-ztbrtarf
I love Owlcat so much.
I approve of this pre-release gameplay.
That looks great! Strong cinematic and a quick glance at gameplay that makes me think original mass effect trilogy. I’ll have to check it out.
Rogue Trader
Sorry in advance, but every time I see Captain Shepherd I hear his voice
WE'LL BANG, OKAY?
I'm commander Shepherd and this is my favourite store on the citadel!
"I should go."
Shepherd: do I really sound like that
Liara: its the first thing you said to me.
Shephard: what if I said "I should go?
Tali: not a lot of air in here
Shepherd: or "I should go"
MY BRAND!
I fucking love steak
My special eyes
I need you in the engine room, ASAP.
Nothing has quite given me such a ride like Mass Effect, being able to continue your decisions across all 3 titles was amazing. Every decision and mistake you make, rippling through your entire 3 game experience.
Really made you want to listen to what people had to say and carefully respond in the right way or you're accidentally gonna end up with a squad mate dead lol.
Also Seth Green voicing Joker was great, I loved him so much in it.
Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty good TBH
This one flew under the radar somehow, but you're right it's quite good. And a much closer match to compare against Mass Effect I feel than the other two being cited a bunch here since it's still similar gameplay to ME and RPG-lite but still has a fair number of dialog interactions.
It was because of Avengers game.. that kinda left a sour taste on everyone mouth.
Allow me to recommend Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader
I think that OP is just not into cRPGs as we already got critically acclaimed, great space opera, where you play as your spaceship commander with loyal crew in 2023, and its overwhelimgly positive on steam (96% in recent reviews, ~28k reviews total).
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Thank you. This game was so good, and seems to completely fly under the radar of so many people.
Its the most suggested game in this thread. And as the guy above us pointed out, the game sits at a 86% score on Steam based on 26k votes... thats really good for a crpg.
It didn't fly under any radar. It might not have done Baldur's Gate 3 numbers, but as far as crpgs go, its one of the biggest ones.
Rogue Trader is a good budget option but it doesn't sit in that cinematic, high production value niche that Mass Effect does.
The originals weren't that high production value. Cinematic yeah, but I think nostalgia goggles are doing a lot of work on that last part.
I was definitely sitting absolutely flabbergasted at the space combat cinematic of ME1 towards the end with those crazy maneuvers and massive ships duking it out.
There's still a big difference between complex top-down RPG with tons of text and casual action RPG with many cutscenes
Okay but that's absolutely nothing like Mass Effect's gameplay which was the big combo-hook for a lot of fans IMHO.
Outer Worlds is far closer to Mass Effect than Rogue Trader is as an equivalent game in that regard.
Sure Rogue Trader is INCREDIBLY well written, but it didn't scratch any of the itches that Mass Effect did/does for me at least.
Often it felt like "Baldurs Gate 3... IN SPACE, by OwlCat Games" a lot of the time. Which is NOT a complaint, but it's on an entirely different set of shelves from Mass Effect despite both being incredibly high up on their respective shelves.
The Jedi games sorta fit the description. I thought both game were fantastic.
They definitely aren’t mass effect but they are pretty epic sci-fi games and you have a crew.
If you mean kotor 1&2 they came out before mass effect
Jedi fallen order and Jedi survivor. More so Jedi survivor.
Okay "space opera" and "good" might be debatable according to one's taste but in both Outer Worlds games you play a spaceship commander with a loyal crew.
There wasn’t as much chemistry or interactions with the crew in the first game. I haven’t played the second yet.
Parvati is the bestest girl.
I hope we get more Parvarti types in the future. If they are going to put younger women on our ship, I hope its not for romance with us, I hope its to let us be like big brothers/father figures and help them go on a date. :') I'm not a dad, but I've helped raise a few friends kids, and my nephew...and man..I had a proud dad moment helping Parvarti with her date.
-sniffles- "It's not the best chooooooice...it's Spacer's Choice!"
I'm only on the second planet in 2 but so far they're a lot more chatty amongst themselves and will give opinions on one another when asked.
And, to be fair, the only times I really, TRULY felt like a space captain in 1 was during certain missions like the Sublight Salvage mission on Monarch, they ramped up the feeling in the DLCs. But I can only hope it's enough to scratch someone in this threads itch. Even if I do have some problems with the games, they're serviceable.
Outer Worlds was subpar. Its was a Shooter with weak dialogue and was pretty cringe overall.
There has been plenty of good space opera games where you command a loyal crew since then, there just hasn't been any near the caliber of Mass Effect, there is a massive gulf between a "good game" and Mass Effect. And I say that while still being bitter about ME3's ending.
Rogue Trader is brilliant
This game had my best sci-fi character ever with Tali. While not a sci-fi game it wasn't until BG3 that i got a character that i enjoyed equally and that was Karlach.
The geth didnt ask to be here and the Quarians are always sent to fuck off in my runs.
The geth did nothing wrong
It didn't live up to the originals but Andromeda wasn't that bad. They just needed like an extra month for it to cook, most of the worst bugs/jankiness vanished in the first big post-launch patch.
I played it all the way through last month and really enjoyed it. Solid 7/10
Since 2010*.
this game.... Had this game in the library for a year and then finished it over a course of two fucking years. In the middle of ME2 I suddenly couldnt stop playing and only realized this when I saw I had 150h on my legendary edition save file.
I think its one of the best games ever
i played andromenda. a year or two after release
it was good, not excellent, but good and even great
I might be the odd one out here, but I liked The Outer Worlds series
I loved the first one. The second one I’m a couple hours in and it fails to hook me like the first one. Thinking about putting a couple more hours in before calling in quits
The second is so much better, just beat it.
The Outer Worlds games, regardless of your opnion on them, is nothing like the ME series. Not even close. I dont get the comments here at all. ME's writing shits all over it.
It's easy to forget that many people here are young kids who only know things that came out this year.
That's why you constantly hear about <insert aggressively average game here> being "the greatest of all time", because for them "all time" is like 3 years.
Rogue Trader is quite nice.
Everspace 2 has a cast of characters and a base of operations but you're not strictly a ship commander.
X4 is a sandbox but captures the essence if you want to play it that way.
I wouldn't sleep on the above, but I generally agree. I'd like to see a ME-like with a strategy layer or something to make exploration more tangible.
Guardians of the Galaxy 2021 takes so many cues from the BioWare titles
The outer worlds 1 but especially 2 are also good examples of this
If you hadn't said loyal crew I'd say the Guardians of the Galaxy game was pretty good
Rebel Galaxy was fantastic.
Wasn't there just a new STVoyager game?
Not true, the guardians of the galaxy game fits that description.
Rogue Trader
Wouldn't Rogue Trader kinda fall into the category you're describing? I mean it's turn based instead of a TPS, but outside of that it shares a lot of similarities to Mass Effect. On that note however, it is a bit weird how Mass Effects success didn't spawn it's own copycats. Exodus and The Expanse are the first proper copycats we've gotten, and they don't even have release dates yet.
We just had Rogue Trader...
ME:3 multi-player was the peak of gaming.
Mass Effect 3 was such a good game, too. I know everyone hated the ending (I was more confused as to what they were going for and the revamped ending patch fixed that for me) but there was SO MUCH GOOD up to that point. Hell even the multiplayer was insanely fun. I used to love rolling up as a Batarian and mega-punching Cerberus cronies so hard their heads end up in the next system over.
Void Crew.
outer worlds doesn’t count ?
Also bring back that Kinect support for all Xbox games?
This was mindblowingly immersive back in the day.
Getting to do a playthrough but not needing to open the power/weapon wheel at all, Just telling my teammates what to use and where to go will never be matched
Don't really need the Kinect, tbh.
Republic Commando had that covered without a radial dial/wheel at all a while ago
Starfield: do I not exist?
I actually like Starfield, but it's no where near the same as Mass Effect and it's still kinda controversial.
Not good. IMO it was mid but fun. Which is fine
what about Conco...... nevermind
In terms of narrative (leaving out gameplay), Dispatch surprisingly scratched that Mass Effect itch for me.
Isn't that basically Rogue Trader?
What happened to my Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader game then?
Andromeda was a good game goddamnit
...Was it, though?
Best combat of the franchise.
Needed about 12 extra months to cook and it would have been great.
Yup. They just rushed it thinking ME fans would buy anything. I had some memorable times as a space wizard teleporting out from cover to throw a singularly, mow a bunch of mobs down then dash a straggler and shotgun em
Or pop an enemy up in the air, dash punch them mid air, then snipe em before they got too far away to see.
"Lemme get this straight, you think Andromeda's a good game?"
"I do, Murray, and I'm tired of pretending it's not."
As someone who's got an embarrassing amount of hours invested in Battletech (2018), I have to throw it in for contention. I think the single-player campaign counts as a space opera, and the loyal
crew membersMechwarriors live on your ship, so I say it squeaks by on a technicality, lol.Rogue trader would like a word
Play Guardians of the Galaxy. Not gonna pretend it’s as good as the OG trilogy, but it’s a really good game and a lot of fun.
BioWare got shit on for ME3’s ending back then. Looking back now, I think we took that game for granted.
Better with Kinect Sensor my ass
Hard to write, and the ones that own the IP have no talent to do it the right way.
I have high hopes for the Expanse, it looks very promising. I loved the TV Show, had a rough start but man i love that show. The Space combat is so good. Its just sad it got cancelled, had to read the books to learn about the rest.
If you haven't played guardians of the galaxy it's pretty cheap on sale these days. Very good.
I know right, I recently started playing ME again and it's all coming back to me.
2010*
SteamWorld Heist is right there, or do you mean an industry-leadimg tripe AAA "great" space opera? Because there are more games than whatever is on the front page.
Wrex.
You didn't play Concord?
Emphasis on good because Star Fox Zero came out in 2015 or 2016 and it wasn’t good
Outer worlds had the crew part down, even though you freelance
When you said Space Opera my mind started playing the Theme to Robotech. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VloMC21HIWo
It’s because the Kinect isn’t being made anymore /s
I might give some consideration to the outer worlds if you could rizz up the companions but the obsidian devs refuse to even consider it in their games these days.
Since ME2.
Outerworlds?
These types of games are risky and expenssive to make. EA has the budget but taking a chance especially when gamers nowa days are hyper critical...
Loyal? LOYAL?? They left me after each game when i did everything for them then went through a lot of shit to actually get their loyalty (it was fine when they thought i was dead)
what the fuck did the Kinect Sensor do for Mass Effect 3?
From what I've heard it basically took the place of things like squad commands in combat. So like you could say "Liara use warp" and she would. Supposedly it could also interact with the dialogue window and open doors.
I've also heard there's a bug in the final sequence where you have only your gun, supposedly you can use voice commands to still use powers.
anything would go with such decision making and impact across multiple games 🙏
Rogue Trader is pretty great. Loyal is debatable but somewhat loyal, sure