[Game] Mass Effect 2

A cut and paste from another forum...

I am finding ME1 better.

Most of the "improvements" are not better in ME2.

And there are far more bugs in ME2 than ME1. Could be that I got ME2 when it was $20 and had a bunch of patches.

Graphically, the games are 90% the same on the PC.

So the game will not feel that inferior if you play it.


Things I don't like about ME2:

1) The spring, action, and going into cover mode is all done by one button. Sometimes when I try and, I accidentally hit a wall. This throws me into cover mode, exposed to enemy fire. The whole point of getting behind cover is not to get shot... this has killed me more times than anything else.

2) Sometimes you will fly into the air and get stuck. Only way to fix this is to reload the last save game.

3) Dialogue gets cut off now.

4) Player movement in cut scenes is no longer fluid and skips around often times. I get 60 frame rates, for what it is worth.

5) With subtitles enabled, sometimes the subtitles leave big black bars behind them.

6) Hardly any weapons. There were too many weapons in ME1, but now there are so few.

7) No more weapon attachments.

8) No more Mako (at least not so far), and no vehicles sequences. Exploring worlds, for the few that you can, is just more action. I miss driving around on planets looking for things.

9) Sometimes when you are behind cover, your powers do not work. Sometimes they do.

And many other things.


Overall, a good game though. But, I can't imagine the story would even be half interesting if you did not play ME1.

My current character ported over from ME1:




Will replay my first character from ME1 next:

A "true" sequel in every sense of the word. Improved on everything from ME and made it better. Like the Terminator 2 of video game sequels.

I would first like to say that I really love the new Normandy. They pretty much removed everything about it that I hated in the original Mass Effect, most considerably the elevator that you had to take to reach the cargo hold. On the 360, it seemed like an eternity that the elevator was in motion. Yeoman Chambers is also a nice addition and adds more life to the ship. Most importantly, I'm glad that they removed the Mako, which I found to be the most annoying thing in the original Mass Effect. I suppose I'll be fine if they add a similar vehicle in Mass Effect 3, but I hope that there won't be mandatory driving sequences.

I really enjoyed the story, and found myself constantly questioning motives behind certain characters. And as with other Bioware games, the voice work is well done. The special effects are amazing and bring metropolitan worlds such as the Citadel and Ilium to life. If only we could be able to re-visit an updated Chora's Den, or more of the Presidium however. I also appreciate the work put into each of the non-explorable planets in the game, though I think I am the only one who reads the descriptions for them.

And inevitably there are problems with the game. The graphical glitches that occur in some areas with characters' eyes and clothes are still present from Mass Effect. There are also other glitches in cutscenes and during gameplay. Also disappointing is the lack of anti-aliasing, which we should have the option of enabling without using a program like nHancer.

game was really disappointing.. story was ok at best, alittle less of a story and the game would have been bad.
The game feels so dumbed down, no inventory system, you cant modify teammates, you cant talk to them outside the ship, your teammates feel more like mute bodyguards then your soldiers/friends.
The weapons research system is so dumb, why not just have you find a weapon and.. USE IT?
Scanning planets must be the most boring thing ive ever done in a game, its just so dull and stupid that evantually I just gave up.
Combat is so ****ing easy, even on Hard level. Most enemies are just too ****ing stupid to do anything when you are in cover and a simple assault rifle kills everyone (even giant machines),
conclusion - 6.5/10

imo - Dragon Age is 10 times better

The new Normandy still requires an elevator to go to the 4 different levels of the ship.

I miss the Mako to as it changed up the pace. Exploring the different worlds was fun, and often times a nice break from the action. The unimportant planets in ME2 are small and all filled with more action. The controls worked great for the Mako as well - something that can't be said for Shepard in ME2.

How they can break the controls from ME1 is really amazing.

Much better than ME1. The combat was fun and had great atmosphere during firefights, huge improvement from ME1. Story was awesome also, I liked how it focused on the characters. I like how there was no stupid and useless inventory. I liked the ammo system, forced you to use different guns during firefights. There were much more variety in guns than in ME1, I don't know what game you guys played. If you think having same gun with different stats is cool then I guess you like ME1 system better, but if you actually like having different guns then ME2 is better.

I think it took me 30 hours to play through(and I didn't do the "scan planet for sidequests"), which was maybe 10hours less than Dragon age.

Reddog said:

I hated the Mako controls in ME1, it was like the vehicles in Gears of War where the controls are relative to the camera. So if you are looking at the vehicle side on and you press up it will swing around and start driving away from the camera etc. I always preferred the Battlefield vehicle relative style, 'up is always forward, down is always reverse, left always turns left, right always turns right'. Camera relative controls make it a ***** to try to be driving one way while shooting in another direction with your turret.

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Funny thing is, that is how the controls for Shepard works in ME2. I don't see anyone complaining.

But yea, I agree with you. But most games are switching to this method.

But it could have been worse. There are games where you turn your vehicle with the mouse.

Flogger23m said:

The new Normandy still requires an elevator to go to the 4 different levels of the ship.

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Yes, but the load time is about one to two seconds.

But I think I will have to agree with Klaus that Dragon Age is better. Perhaps for Mass Effect 3 they will combine the best of both games.

Volodnikov said:

But I think I will have to agree with Klaus that Dragon Age is better. Perhaps for Mass Effect 3 they will combine the best of both games.

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That would be the logical solution.

Either that or it will continue down the Consoles-Abyss and will be made for people who find words to give them headaches.

I am loving this game. I have it on 360. My biggest complaint though is the lack of true exploration like the first game had. Say what you will about ME1 having a bunch of cookie-cutter planets with nothing on them other than crashed spacecraft and prefab bases, but at least you could explore. You felt like you were actually exploring unknown worlds, cruising around in the mako.

Maybe it's because I'm such a space fanatic that I liked it so much. I explored every single planet my first playthrough of ME1. I'm finding the exploration in ME2 is very boring. Sure you find anomalies every now and then but when you're forced to only land on the planets with anomalies, there is no exploration just combat.

I think ME1 had four things going for it: story, conversation, exploration, and combat. ME2 has really removed the exploration part and I think it hurts the game's epic-ness. I hope they bring it back for ME3.

Other than that, I really love this game. Currently trying to wrap up all side quests before...getting that thing that I think starts off the end-game.

I hate how 2 people cant speak together
if someone says something important "SHEPHERD YOU HAVE TO.."
and then someone in the background says "Man I think I ate bad pickes", then that someone cuts what that important guy was saying.

Klaus said:

I hate how 2 people cant speak together
if someone says something important "SHEPHERD YOU HAVE TO.."
and then someone in the background says "Man I think I ate bad pickes", then that someone cuts what that important guy was saying.

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?

Must be your computer
Also it just seems that you're concentrating on every negative thing in the game and forgetting to play and enjoy it.

I'm on the fence about MS2, right now I like most of the gameplay changes, but I'm not liking the much darker tone the story has taken. So far I have done the initial recruitment's and most loyalty side missions. So I'm only about a 1/3 done (almost 20 hours in, meaning 1/3 done for a completionist), my opinions will likely change when I complete the game.

Anyways, I'm going to break this down into a pro's and con's list just so it is easier to read without me putting in pointless filler sentences to make everything fit together. Possible spoilers below.

Pro's:

• Vastly improved graphics, while loading times may be slightly longer (360 version), there is no more texture loading during cut scenes (only happened once so far).
• Renegade actions and dialogue choices aren't always pure evil anymore, they are mostly logical (Ex: shooting two Krogan's after they are ordered to attack but before they can draw their weapons) and borderline paragon sometimes.
• Facial scars healing/worsening depending on paragon/renegade score is a neat effect.
• Changing of ammo types in real time makes fighting a combination of organics and synthetics fun, instead of the frustrating chore of switching out every teammates ammo type manually as in MS1.
• Finally resources are worth collecting.
• Squad mates mostly take correct cover positions. Actually I have yet to experience an enemy taking a horrible cover position. Only squad mates seem to have difficulties sometimes.
• The new Normandy looks great, plus the more logical layout helps with atmosphere (I could hardly believe the main reactor was a single room away from the cargo bay in the first Normandy, vulnerable much?)

Con's:

• Gunshots sound more like lasers from other Sci-Fi games and most have a higher pitch (very noticeable when there a lot of assault rifles involved).
• The starting off amount of TC (thermal clips) capacity is too small. Need more TC capacity upgrades (this I am saying even though I have the Terminus armor with is 10% increase in TC capacity).
• 50,000 platinum to get rid of facial scars!
• Who in this universe isn't part of some genetic/biotic experiments? This is way overused, three of the initial squad mates have this back story and once you include Shepard's "resurrection", MS universe canon is taking the hit on this one (explaining why it is super easy to make fully grown Krogan army's in no time would be appreciated as well).
• Shepard's "resurrection" is the largest problem for me, once you establish that someone can be brought back to life (I'm not referring to being drowned for a few minutes and getting mouth to mouth, plummeting to the ground from orbit is a whole other level of dead), then death loses its sense of permanence, you just need to spend over 4 billion credits to get them back. It hurts MS canon and I believe it is a stumbling block to an otherwise great opening sequence.
• Upgrades should be made more clear as to how dependent they are on other upgrades BEFORE you buy them. I have a about 5+ things in almost every research category that I haven't found the lower rank of yet to unlock them.
• Interrupt system sometimes requires lightning speed on the player's part. There are a couple occasions I had to go back and do a whole cut scene over again because the time for interrupt was so short.

Other thoughts:

• The whole galaxy converted to TC's in two years? No one saw any benefit of the old thermal regulating system? I believe the old system should still be in use, or possibly a starting off point. Making the TC system an upgrade or possibly just another personal preference option for you to make a choice about.
• No access to the Presidium? The underbelly of the Citadel was nice to see but it pales in comparison to the grandeur of the Presidium.
• Shepard is still a commander? Granted your not in the Alliance anymore, but I would have my Cerberus crew call me captain, given the option.

Xendance said:

?

Must be your computer
Also it just seems that you're concentrating on every negative thing in the game and forgetting to play and enjoy it.

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It's like this on 360 too. I don't know how many times EDI has been telling me something about my mission only to have some idiot in the background say something irrelevant and cut her off and she never finishes.

Well, I just finished ME2.

Story wise, ME1 is better. It actually felt like I was apart of something. In ME2, there is not much of a central story. Infact, there hardly are any missions that pertain to the overall story.

Your team members have a little more depth to them, but in the grand scheme of things, their individual stories do not matter much and are easily forgotten.

The overall story in ME2 feels like a bunch of non-relevant stories loosely stringed together.

The very ending was not that interesting either. I found the ending of ME1 much more epic.

In short the bugs, steps back in many areas, and finally the graphics that hardly changed, I do not feel that this game is as good as the first.

That being said, overall, I do think it is a great game. If you played ME1, then defiantly get this.

If you have not played ME1 but want ME2, get ME1 first. You'll be lost without the story from the first game.

Klaus said:

I hate how 2 people cant speak together
if someone says something important "SHEPHERD YOU HAVE TO.."
and then someone in the background says "Man I think I ate bad pickes", then that someone cuts what that important guy was saying.

Click to expand...

I hate this to. Happened to me a lot. Tons of other bugs that were not present in ME1 (patched).

In the end of the day what I really hated about this game is that the "thinking" factor is COMPLETELY gone. The game literally spells out for you where you need to go next, you can disconnect your brain and just follow where the game sends you! Sure sometimes you need to choose between dilemmas but thats not really thinking.
The gamers generation nowdays are people who say "WORDS?? THEY GIVE ME HEADACHES"
*sigh*

Agreed. The bulk of this game is a bunch of quests to gain the loyalty of team members. The worst is SPOIIIIIIIIIIIILEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR



Tali's loyalty quest is ****ing bull****. I'm pretty sure I just saved her from the Geth and then I have to go and gain her loyalty? Not to mention the first game...****!

I didn't mind a couple loyalty quests, but seriously, having to do all of them was tedious after the third or fourth one. Mainly because it's all "go here, fight these dudes, do this, win". I felt like it was really lacking. The lack of MAKO exploration (whether you liked it or not), I think, was a HUGE disappointment. There was no exploration. Finding N7 missions/anomalies was a let down, because the missions were cut and dry, short, and boring.

Overall, I really liked this game, though. Mass Effect 1 was superior though, in story, and mechanics. I do enjoy the upgrade/resource system. But I miss the exploration aspect a LOT, and the story was really lacking. There's only really about four quests that have to do with anything heavy, the rest is 20 hours worth of filler.