Impressions: Mass Effect 2Posted by Eddy on January 27th, 2010
We don’t always write impressions of games that we’re currently playing, but I figured since 15 people on my friends list last night were playing Mass Effect 2, I’d start a little thread about it.
As you all know, I’m a pretty big Bioware fan. I don’t know what it is, but something about their games just grab me in a way other games don’t. With most games, I have to take a break every couple of hours or so. With Mass Effect 2, I played it for 7 hours straight without a break once I got home from work…
So I guess that means I like the game. A lot. I still feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, story wise. Perhaps that’s because I spent over an hour scanning planets for raw materials and looking for sidequests, maybe. I hesitate to gush over the game too much, because admittedly, for the first hour or two I was terribly confused. Gone were many of the RPG elements I loved from the first game. But with them, the awful item management system, confusing menus and cumbersome weapon/armor load-outs. The game is an extremely simplified version of the first, and my worry when I loaded it up and got into the action was that it was much too simple.
Where were my items? Why didn’t I have 10 different skills to choose from? How come I couldn’t manage my party’s armor/equipment? I don’t get experience for the enemies I kill?
These things all confused me. But then the story started moving. And I found myself to feel lots of freedom. I didn’t have to open menus all the time while clearing out enemies. I could customize my armor and weapons like crazy. Instead of changing my character slowly by managing dozens of skills, gameplay changes instantly every time you level up. There are certainly lots of changes to get used to, but I’m really warming up to them. Basically, all there is to worry about now is watching the kick-ass story, hanging out in the awesome universe and blazing through as many bad guys as possible. That’s it.
And the shooting is much improved, as well. The game feels like a real shooter now, with lots of RPG flourishes by way of the biotic abilities. It feels more like a Bioshock or Gears of War than an RPG, and I have to say it’s really enjoyable to clear out a room of enemies, where in the first game it could be a chore.
I think my favorite thing about the game so far though is the game’s universe. What I thought was so underrated about the first game is that it created this really unique setting that was fleshed out with a great backstory and history. The Mass Effect universe felt alive, and I loved being in it. It’s great to return to the same setting, go back and visit old places, see old faces. Everything has changed since the first game, but in so many ways these locales are still familiar. And I care about them. Weird, I know.
Anyway, for all of you that have played the game so far… what do you think? Go!
January 27th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Yeah, it was kind of amazing seeing so many people playing ME2 at once in my friends list. Pretty cool.
Dunno if this happened to anyone else, but for some reason my ME1 character wasn’t recognized in the importer at first. I must have written over the final save or something when I started a new game+.
The solution was to load up the first game and beat the final boss again, which did the trick after it autosaved. Kind of odd, but worth it so I could import my level 50 character and get some extra levels and experience in ME2.
Also, beating Saren was much easier than I remembered. I could swear he whipped my ass several times last year, but this time I beat him handily and took barely any damage.
I haven’t played ME2 enough yet to form a full opinion (my copy wasn’t delivered until 7pm at night!), but I’m thrilled with the control and item management changes they’ve made. Managing 40 million badly sorted items was a nightmare in the first game.
January 27th, 2010 at 10:26 am
The changes are all large enough to make a difference, yet small enough not to comprimise what makes Mass Effect 2 the sequel to Mass Effect. The dialogue interupt system is probably one of the most intuitive add-ons, in my opinion, as it really gives the feeling that (on a whim) you can change the course of everything or just let it slide. Also, the expanded Normandy is a HUGE treat! For once we get to see all the inner works of the ship rather than simply assuming that the crew sleep at their posts
My only fear (even after only 4 hours of playing) is that the game my be over too soon if I play it too much!
January 27th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Be careful Eddy, I hear if you get too absorbed then you’ll start dreaming dialogue trees! *duhn duhn duuuuhn*
This and Splinter Cell Conviction are the two games making me contemplate getting a 360, though I have a PC. I would get them for the PC, but a combination of none of my friends having a gaming PC and these being the perfect excuse to decide my Christmas present early (lol!) make it a tough choice.
January 27th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Bah. Taking out all the RPG elements is lame. Might as well play Gears of War now or something. No EXP for killing enemies? WTF is this?
A cumbersome inventory system is what sets the men from the boys. This game has been dumbed down for the xbot 12 year olds.
Want a real rpg? Something that really makes you think? Nintendogs.
January 27th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
I was sceptically about the changes too (and a bit confused) but they have really grown on me. I also thought that the story would be too short based on how much they give you early on but it has just started to really open up and looks a lot bigger now. I really like the quick time actions they have added and the way the side quests you get on worlds feel like it is a real person that needs help not just another way to get credits.
January 27th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Reach me for a comment in about….2 or 3 weeks and I’ll get back to you. Too. Busy. Playing. *Twitch*
January 28th, 2010 at 1:55 am
I gotta say, 22 hours in already and I’m loving most of it. 12 hours yesterday, 10 today. I’m kinda an achievement whore too, so I’m really trying to explore every nook and cranny of this game and enjoy it for what it’s worth.
Let’s talk good things first. The combat (which was already decent) has a definite huge upgrade with the cover ability and the heavy weapon. I really enjoyed just annihilating enemies with my amped up arsenal, but still felt challenged by the enemies at hand. I really had to use that cover if I wanted to survive, which I really appreciated. Also the new exploration system was excellent: no more repetitive mini-quests to do on every planet, no more silly unnecessary things to do or collect. Everything I did felt like it mattered. The armor customization is also a huge plus, I can now have a pink shepard with purple accents if I really want to. Lemme just skim over the rest of the positives: sidequests for each of your members of your team, quick-time events in the chat, extensive worlds (sort of, I’ll explain that in cons), the story is still kickass, the music is still kickass, voice acting, characters, basically everything is in order. Except for a few minor details, which are the…
CONS: Okay, first, let’s talk Citadel. What happened to the old Citadel I knew and loved? You know? The one with the great views and the giant Mass Relay statue in the middle? 22 hours in and I’ve seen “Zakera Ward,” which I’m not even sure what it is. It’s just not the same, kind of disappointing. And where is this “all-human” council I keep hearing about? Although the racism towards humans does make it funnier. Poor choice of words. Anyway, moving on, where did the weapon customization go? In the first Mass Effect, there were TONS of weapon choices to go through, different upgrades for each, the things that made the RPG what it was. Now, 22 hours in, there’s only two weapons to choose from in each category. Two. That’s absurd.
But those are just small gripes in an overall FANTASTIC game.
PS, there’s still elevators, they just try to mask them really well.
.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:57 am
I forgot about the worlds part in the cons, lemme clarify: There are several places you can now travel to for sales, but the big downslide is the Citadel. That’s what I was getting at. Still, small thing in an otherwise great game. Can’t wait to beat the whole thing and claim DOMINANCE!
January 28th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
@TomMKE
are you saying that you never got to the citadel? or that you do not like the way it looked. if the first that wow that means the game really does change on each play through I got to the citadel early on in my game. if you mean that you don’t like the new look I agree that it would have been nice to revisit the same stuff/people that you had in the first game (like how the Volus that works for the shadow broker is affected by Liara T’Soni). However it makes since because the citadel was sort of destroyed. I mean you walk through that part of the citadel in the end of the first game after Saren, Sovereign, and you have gone through the mass effect portal at Ilos and it looked pretty much trashed to me. I still would like to see the old citadel but I understand the change.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Just from reading Eddy’s post, I’d have to agree with Griever. Sounds like they took out all the stuff that made the first one ‘hardcore’ and made it more accessible to kids – as in me. If the story is great and I don’t have to worry about crazy RPG stuff cloggin up my life, maybe I’ll give this one a chance. Then again I only got an hour into the first and threw it away… Meh, hope it’s fun!
January 29th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Haha well, if the definition of hardcore is a cumbersome inventory system full of barely distinguished items that is a pain in the ass to manage, then “hardcore” can get bent.
The new weapon and armor upgrade system is light years better. You’re automatically given the best possible weapon in your artillery (although you can obviously swap them out once you have more), and you can actually distinguish between the upgrades you are given.
As for not getting exp for killing enemies, it’s a non-issue for me. Enemies that give you exp just promote level grinding, and ME2 seems to be designed so that you don’t need to run around beefing up your character so your ass doesn’t get whipped on the next mission.
Anyone who played ME1 and went to Noveria first because they didn’t know any better understands why this is a good thing. I got four hours into ME1 and got owned by Benezia so many times that I had to re-roll and play differently before the game clicked for me. That’s just bad design, IMHO.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Oh, man, Noveria can go die in a fire. You know who owned me as much as Benezia? That biotic cop in the turian’s office. You know, the office you have to infiltrate so you can get a parking pass?
Man, that world was the gauntlet.
As for Mass Effect 2, one thing I notice is that the longer I play the less I want to stop. I was up till 1 in the morning yesterday (today, technically) because I felt so compelled to keep going.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:19 am
If it makes you feel better I played until 3am… and was at work at 8am. Probably a bad idea to start playing at midnight.
And, yeah, I remember the biotic cop, too, I think I had problems with that as well.
The funniest thing about Noveria was that when I took my second Shepard there (after doing basically everything else in the game that I could), I steamrolled over all the enemies there. It was almost TOO easy.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Bioware games typically don’t have respawning enemies, so level grinding usually is not an option. In fact, one of the things that makes the games tough is utilizing the skills with the limited amount of EXP you can get.
I hate when games change your weapon automatically. I am a big boy, if I want to change weapons, I will do so myself.
January 30th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
I might be a little late to this post but being 7 hours into this game i think its the best product Bioware has made yet. It completely revamps the old ME (which was great) and turns it into something greater. Sniper rifles are useful! Biotic classes seem accessible! You can change your party without having to go on the ship!
February 1st, 2010 at 1:43 am
I wanted to add that all the characters are now equally viable, and you are no longer stuck with characters that you ‘have’ to take. For once you can leave the ship without being forced to take a techi!
Also, it is nice to see that the characters retain their personal style when on the field. I could never understand why Liara, a scientist, was suddenly gearing up in armour and packing significant heat… Sure we don’t look like ass-kicking spec-ops anymore, but we definately retain that A Team look
February 1st, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Has anyone else noticed some funny quotes or nods? For example:
Joker: “come on baby, hold together” reminds me of star wars.
Grunt: I. Am. KROGAN!!!!
There are a couple others but i dont want to say them cause there a bit embedded in the story.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:26 pm
@ glebe: yeah ive noticed some too, even though im a star wars fan, i especially like the nod to star trek by having a Scottish man down in engineering – good ol’ Scotty