Timewaster's Guide Archive
Games => Video Games => Topic started by: Chaos on January 23, 2010, 11:51:24 PM
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So Mass Effect 2 is getting incredible reviews all over the place, saying it has improved over ME1 immensely, and just pushing the bar up for RPGs. Who else is excited? I know once launch day comes out, people won't see me for a while :)
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So Mass Effect 2 is getting incredible reviews all over the place, saying it has improved over ME1 immensely, and just pushing the bar up for RPGs. Who else is excited? I know once launch day comes out, people won't see me for a while :)
I've been waiting for this game since I beat the first, so you bet i'm ready and rarin' to go!
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I know! It was very cool to see the Mass Effect 2 trailer during the 4th quarter of the NFC Championship yesterday, too.
I'm most likely going to play as a Soldier again this time. I like assault rifles too much for anything else.
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heh, my favorite is sentinel.
Only 1 weapon to worry about, and a good mix of tech and biotic strength.
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I know! It was very cool to see the Mass Effect 2 trailer during the 4th quarter of the NFC Championship yesterday, too.
I'm most likely going to play as a Soldier again this time. I like assault rifles too much for anything else.
That trailer was AWESOME!!!! Almost as awesome as the game!!! (SAINTS BABY!!!) I've had this game on pre-order for months. Infiltrator here I come...uh, again.
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I'm glad you like Mass Effect, Steve. I couldn't believe in your elitism otherwise.
Sadly, I don't think I'll have a chance to play it until Friday. Oh well, the whole weekend Mass Effecting? This will be awesome.
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I finished Mass Effect 2. In a word, awesome.
For those who complained about combat in the last game, it's far superior. For those who didn't like the Mako, it's gone, replaced with beautiful side quests on alien worlds. It's two discs for a reason (the reason? Epicness).
There were some serious decisions to be made at the end, for anyone who is wondering. I'm not sure I fully like the ones I made in this one. Most, yeah, but this is a darker game than the first. All those Paragon or Renegade points will help you a lot, but it won't help you with the decision at the end.
Dialogue is top notch, like before. This game is so far ahead of the game when it comes to RPGs, surpassing Bioware's Dragon Age, by far. It's simply far more engrossing to hear Shepard speak all your dialogue. At one side mission, you go to a trial. I chose a Charm dialogue option, and Shepard literally made a rousing speech, with back and forth, to show the character's innocence. You simply don't get the same seamless effect with reading through lists of dialogue. The interrupt system was also employed effectively.
As a bridge in a trilogy, the main plot suffered... a little. It wasn't as earth-shattering than the first game, but the revelations were cool, and I honestly didn't see the final twist coming. I don't know if it's better or worse than the first game, story-wise, it's merely different. There's a lot more time spent with characters, and they are all fascinating. So, its plot was propped from the excellent characters, and the excellent writing. I laughed out loud to dialogue multiple times. If you know your sci-fi, there are some really hilarious homages which I know Bioware put in intentionally. (Mild enthusiasm: You've never seen Hamlet until it is performed by an all-elcor cast.) Bioware is a genius. Savor the little details; they are great.
Needless to say, if you were worried about not having your romantic interest from the first game join your party, as Bioware stated pre-release... Don't. Seriously, don't worry about it. The game's tone is darker. If you liked your first romantic interest, you really don't want him/her dying. You're doing them a favor.
Anyways, if you haven't played it, you need to. I've been playing it more or less for forty hours since 7pm on Friday night. My eyes are bloodshot from awesome.
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My copy was delayed, but I finally started it last night. Graphics are great, but the "Mission Complete" screen is totally balls. It destroys the pacing, looks tacky, and hurts the rpg feel of it. The hacking system is retarded, tedious, and adds false play-time to the game. They stripped out many of the RPG aspects of the game that were messy in the first game rather than improving them. The voice acting and talent is great. So far the story is cool, but not as impactful as ME1. I'll give further impressions later.
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Really can't wait to play this game. ME1 was definate favorite of mine. However, I picked up ME2 along with Darksiders and have been putting all of my spare time into that. I figured if I played ME2 first, Darksiders wouldn't get touched for another couple of months.
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I am near DC and we are getting 30 inches of snow dumped on us. On the way home from work yesterday I was going to pick this up so I would have something to do. For whatever reason, I didn't. Blah.... Can't go anywhere.
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Did they just remove all the RPG elements? How much of the game is just a shooter now?
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Did they just remove all the RPG elements? How much of the game is just a shooter now?
There's less customization options, sure.
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Just beat it. The ending of the game is pretty intense. I wont give out any spoilers, but I totally got the no one left behind achievement first go around! Yeah!
Also, in regards to the RPG elements, it honestly SEEMS like there's less customization, but in my opinion there isnt. That's because the 4th tier of each ability gives you an option to evolve it, plus later on, you can add abilities of other characters to your main character at the cost of resources.
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Exactly. In my opinion they just streamlined the entire experience to make it the best it can be.
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I have no probs with the upgrade idea. I still can't get over the "Mission Complete" screen. Waiting until the end of a mission to level up isn't good. The action portions are much smoother. I've decided to create a female Shepherd, cause the male's voice acting gets awful.
All this said, right now I thinking 4/5 on it. If I want a more traditional RPG, I go somewhere else. This is an action heavy ActionRPG. I'm a bit sad they dialed it back away from the RPG a bit, but I can deal. The story is still good.
The loyalty thing was made too easy though. I do 1 quest, and they love me forever? No matter how big of an ass I am? Seriously, some of these characters should tell me to F off.
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The loyalty thing was made too easy though. I do 1 quest, and they love me forever? No matter how big of an ass I am? Seriously, some of these characters should tell me to F off.
This is one area, in my opinion, where Dragon Age is superior. In that game, when you did a character's particular quest, it made them like you more, but it wasn't the end-all for everything. Here in Mass Effect 2, it felt slightly off, not to mention formulaic
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I'm now playing through the game as a female adept, and having a blast at it. I think you don't really get used to Mass Effect's interface until you use a biotic. My soldier just shot stuff. Now I'm actually using all my team's powers all the time. It's great fun.
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Well, I decided to play ME2 for a bit instead of writing this week but here are my thoughts.
Gameplay-wise, massive improvement. I did not miss the clunky inventory interface as well as the piles of guns you sold every time you went to the shop. I did miss the upgrade system with guns but it's mostly replaced with ammo powers and a simpler upgrade system. The gunplay feels much better and thermal clips force you to switch between guns when/if they run low.
Story-wise, it's quite an improvement. Plot-wise however, it feels more clunky but that's due to the mission structure which really annoys me. It streamlines things and puts it all together, but at the cost of being able to do whatever the hell you wanted. Furthermore, plot progression really hampers things. You get an optional character to recruit near the end of the game but due to the way the progression is set up, you can only get one mission done with him without negative plot consequences.
Love the conversations as well as the Paragon/Renegade interrupt that should have been in the first game.
Altogether, a great improvement but it has its disappointing moments from streamlining.
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I am having a hard time finding motivation to keep playing this. See, because every time I start to get into the thin story, I need to scan planets to improve my stuff. And scanning planets is horribly done. All it does is add false time to the game. Sure, I could spend a lot of time in a row just getting scanning done, but that will drive me to murder.
Heavy Rain is coming in the mail any day now, at which point I will be switching games until I can work up the drive to play through the rest of ME2.