mass effect 2...

[mirowr]

is awesome.

[Sosa]

I just finished replaying ME1 in anticipation of it. I can't afford to buy it, but I have an active gamefly subscription 'til mid Feb... so it's next on my list.

I hope to god they've actually fixed some of the bugs... but I already know better: it's a Bioware game. It'll crash every five minutes, make me lose at least 5 or 6 hours of progress, require driver and reinstallation wizardry and even then probably still won't work correctly - and I'll love it anyway because it will deliver in every other way that matters.

Damn you, Bioware. Damn you and your compelling characters and stories.

[metaspiral]

...is orgasmic
human character models look sooooooooo good in this one its scary. gets a lil weird though when you have a ME1 character standing next to a supersmexy ME2 person lol

[Nauren]

I personally can't stand the ME games....they aren't good shooters or good RPG's...

great graphics, great voice actors, good story but everything else is sub par.

and from what I read about part 2....they lessened the rpg elements even more and haven't made any gains on the shooter side.

What am I missing here? it has to be something.

[Sosa]

Wall of text incoming. If you don't want to read it, it's probably not meant for you, so just move on.

I'd understand that complaint regarding ME1.

It was interesting in that it was a somewhat effective hybrid between the two genres, but it didn't capture either particularly well. The shooting and cover elements were clunky, and squad management was nowhere near as streamlined as it could have been. A lot of features felt out of place or were simply boring/very rough, like the vehicular sections. The same can be said for the RPG elements. Armor and weapon upgrading was broken and mostly pointless. The talent points and character classes weren't particularly effective. Sidequests were incredibly generic and monotonous, environments got repeated a lot.

The reason it managed to garner a fan-base despite these faults is because the game still manages to deliver a compelling experience despite these faults. The universe of Mass Effect is fully realized - the setting is a compelling take on the science fiction genre. The entire thing is held together by a plot that, love or hate, is populated by compelling characters that have a real stake in what's going on. All of this is masterfully crafted in typical Bioware fashion.

At the end of the day, what you get is a peanutbutter-in-your-chocolate mashup of tactical shooter and RPG elements that is, for the most part, better than the sum of its individual parts.

Now take all of those complaints and throw them out the window.

I was leery to hear about how much was trimmed or streamlined from Mass Effect 1 in the sequel. I'm eating those words now. From my hands-on experience so far (~20 hours,) Mass Effect 2 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. The shooter elements have indeed improved substantially - the controls are tighter, the action is more intense, and this streamlined experience does lead to better gameplay. The pace is substantially faster, but never uneven.

RPG elements, while toned tone, have also been refined. What you get overall is a much tighter, more focused gameplay experience that is simply more refined than its predecessor. The story and character evolution returns, but the cast is even bigger and better than before. Integration with the weighty decisions you made in ME1 are fairly seamless and impact your story in a few big ways.

The bottom line is basically that ME2 is a better game. I liked the first, but was disappointed by a lot of its missed potential. ME2 utterly blows the original game out of the water and is one of the better games I've played in a few years.

[mirowr]

Feb 2, 2010 12:02:18 GMT -5 Sosa said:

Wall of text incoming. If you don't want to read it, it's probably not meant for you, so just move on.

I'd understand that complaint regarding ME1.

It was interesting in that it was a somewhat effective hybrid between the two genres, but it didn't capture either particularly well. The shooting and cover elements were clunky, and squad management was nowhere near as streamlined as it could have been. A lot of features felt out of place or were simply boring/very rough, like the vehicular sections. The same can be said for the RPG elements. Armor and weapon upgrading was broken and mostly pointless. The talent points and character classes weren't particularly effective. Sidequests were incredibly generic and monotonous, environments got repeated a lot.

The reason it managed to garner a fan-base despite these faults is because the game still manages to deliver a compelling experience despite these faults. The universe of Mass Effect is fully realized - the setting is a compelling take on the science fiction genre. The entire thing is held together by a plot that, love or hate, is populated by compelling characters that have a real stake in what's going on. All of this is masterfully crafted in typical Bioware fashion.

At the end of the day, what you get is a peanutbutter-in-your-chocolate mashup of tactical shooter and RPG elements that is, for the most part, better than the sum of its individual parts.

Now take all of those complaints and throw them out the window.

I was leery to hear about how much was trimmed or streamlined from Mass Effect 1 in the sequel. I'm eating those words now. From my hands-on experience so far (~20 hours,) Mass Effect 2 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. The shooter elements have indeed improved substantially - the controls are tighter, the action is more intense, and this streamlined experience does lead to better gameplay. The pace is substantially faster, but never uneven.

RPG elements, while toned tone, have also been refined. What you get overall is a much tighter, more focused gameplay experience that is simply more refined than its predecessor. The story and character evolution returns, but the cast is even bigger and better than before. Integration with the weighty decisions you made in ME1 are fairly seamless and impact your story in a few big ways.

The bottom line is basically that ME2 is a better game. I liked the first, but was disappointed by a lot of its missed potential. ME2 utterly blows the original game out of the water and is one of the better games I've played in a few years.

...YEAH! suck it nauren!

[Sosa]

Wall of text

Read: I have a different opinion; here's why.

...But yeah.

[Sosa]

I just beat it.

There are a few minor quibbles involving clunky or unrefined elements, but the bottom line is basically this:

Mass Effect 2 is one of those rare games that is so engrossing, I had to play it non-stop until I beat it. It's one of the best games I've played in a long time and is a marked improvement over its predecessor. Anyone that liked the original should grab it, and even if you didn't - it's worth giving ME2 a second chance via rental or something.

[cabezahueca]

last night I beat it for the second time.

[Nauren]

from what I read...the rpg element is non existant. you get xp for missions completed which i've always disliked because your progression is completely decided by the devs.

That gives the devs the ability to skip putting in code to make enemies approx the level of you. They know what level you will be at X spot because they control the xp.

If you are going to put in xp....then make it dynamic.

[Sosa]

That's partially correct, and partially wrong.

The bulk of the EXP you receive throughout the game is indeed determined by mission completion; however, every side quest or objective you complete gathers additional EXP. That's not really any less dynamic than simply having enemies drop X experience on death. In addition, the order in which certain story elements unlock is linear, but the order you tackle them in is not - you unlock missions in clusters at a time. I never noticed a difficulty spike (in either direction,) so some form of subtle enemy scaling is likely in use.

The "RPG" elements that were removed were largely contrived or broken, and I honestly don't understand the reason most people have for complaining. Gone are the "masked" load times in the form of party conversations on elevators - the choice to simply make loading times non-existent was better for the game overall. No more spending 10 minutes to run back to your ship every time you finish a mission. Believe it or not, there are people that complain that these "features" were removed. If they really feel these are necessary gameplay elements and not just poor design elements, I'd suggest this probably isn't the right game for them.

The same can be said for the inventory system; entire classes of weapons and armor were utterly useless in ME1, and navigating them all was more trouble than it was worth. You now pursue upgrades in the form of research trees, which you can upgrade at any time by buying or finding schematics on missions. You upgrade items at your own pace, though you can hit an upper limit if you spend too much time developing new toys instead of playing the main game.

Those are pretty much the only "RPG" elements that have been removed. Character and class development are still very much intact, and the "meat" of the RPG experience - the exploration, story development and deep, richly developed lore - are all completely intact and better than ever. Gone are those pointless and annoying side missions from ME1 that all took place in the same warehouse. Even the "random" missions you'll find by scanning a planet are based on a unique back-story and take place in unique environments - they're just smaller in scope and execution than normal missions.

None of this is to say the game is flawless or beyond reproach - I'm just saying, a lot of the complaints people are levying against it are inane. If someone were to point to faults, I'd expect them to talk about the uneven character development, or weapon imbalance, or pointless mini-games ("flying" the ship and scanning for resources are less offensive than planet exploration in ME1, but still tedious.)

[Sosa]

In case you didn't have enough of a reason to hate Gamespot IGN... here's one of their headline articles for today: PS3 Perspective: Mass Effect 2 is Better than Uncharted ... _{Deal with it, fanboy}

Their words. Not mine. I just found it hilarious. ;D

Consequently, Uncharted 1 + 2 are next on my Gamefly list.

[Edit: Wrong publication. Whoops.]

[Xaero]

Your ME 1 crashed?? I played ME 1 through like 3x and never once had it crash on me. I can't wait till I can afford to pick ME2 up though

[Vindication]

Feb 2, 2010 5:29:26 GMT -5 Nauren said:

I personally can't stand the ME games....they aren't good shooters or good RPG's...

great graphics, great voice actors, good story but everything else is sub par.

and from what I read about part 2....they lessened the rpg elements even more and haven't made any gains on the shooter side.

What am I missing here? it has to be something.

I'll agree with you with regards to ME1. I had the game for the 360 and did not make it past the first mission on that snow planet due to clunky controls and frustrating dialog encounters. However... I recently bought it on Steam (for the PC) and I am enjoying it a LOT more with PC controls. After playing some of the other bioware games I've learned to deal with the slow paced dialog. Overall to me the PC version of the game is a big improvement. I just have some minor issues with sound effects and my settings getting reset when I use CCleaner but other than that no bugs yet.

The main reason why I even bothered to re-play ME1 was that from what I could see, through various video reviews, is that ME2 is a pretty big improvement on the first (and more action/fps orientated). The dialog is still there though so if that was the deal breaker for you... I dont know how much it improved between the games yet. I have heard however that the game's FPS element has been improved greatly.


Link to Vid Review:
www.gametrailers.com/video/review-hd-mass-effect/61245

[Xaero]

lol, that's why I always say shooters = PC. I'll never touch a shooter game for platforms. I don't care what the reviews are for the games either. If it don't have a port on the PC I won't play it