Very dramatic opening to Mass Effect 2… Get to see the Normandy blown to bits, get to briefly play as Shepard while you rescue Joker… Then you see Shepard die heroically. I hadn’t read too much about ME2, so this came as a bit of a surprise. Especially since I’d gone to the trouble of importing my saved game from ME1.
But that little dilemma was resolved nicely when Cerberus brought Shepard back from the dead. And the station under siege made a nice intro/tutorial to ME2.
I can’t say that I was too happy with some of the changes to the core game systems. The shooter mechanics seem to work much better. It’s easier getting in and out of cover. It’s easier to actually shoot people. The game plays more like a decent shooter, than some kind of half-assed monstrosity.
But the RPG elements have suffered some for it. You don’t have individual weapon skills anymore. You don’t put points into shotguns or pistols. Damage bonuses are kind of generically rolled into your class skills. And there are fewer skills in general. I’m playing a Vanguard… And in ME1 I had some skills like Barrier that are now gone. Instead I’ve just got a few skills. Which leaves me less room to really customize my character.
The whole paragon/renegade/charm/intimidate thing is handled differently. You don’t have charm and intimidate skills to level up. Instead, your actions give you paragon or renegade points… And those points unlock dialogue options that used to be unlocked by the charm and intimidate skills.
Equipment is a bit odd, too. You don’t have weapon mods anymore… There’s bonuses that you can research, and some characters have the ability to modify their weapons as a skill… But there are no mods to purchase and equip. There’s no real weapons or armor to purchase and equip either. You can buy bits and pieces… But everything is basically available to everyone. I don’t have to track down a heavy pistol for everyone in my team. Just finding one is enough to equip everyone. And there’s nothing to sell back to the merchants, so the only income you’ve got is from missions.
I can’t say I’m a big fan of the new Normandy. It’s bigger… But it doesn’t seem like the size really has much of a purpose. It used to be a nice little recon ship. Now it’s too big and awkward to land on most planets, so I wind up flying around in a shuttle a lot. The Mako is gone, too. I’m not sure how I feel about that… I never got very good at driving it around, but it was still kind of neat.
I hate having to buy fuel. That’s just plain annoying. And I’m not sure exactly what the new flight mechanic is supposed to do for me. Is there a reason why I can’t just select a planet and say “go there”? Planetary exploration is a pain, too. Slowly spinning that globe around, lobbing probes here and there… Ug. Seems like a step backwards to me.
The graphics are very pretty. Very nice. I really like some of the updates. Although I’m a little disappointed that you can’t really change the appearance of your team members. Yeah, they can get an alternate outfit or two… But I liked being able to give them whole new looks with different suits of armor before.
The game feels more linear to me. The Illusive man hands out those dossiers and you’re just supposed to go pick people up. Then you hit some trigger point and you’re hauled off to go fight the Collectors. Can’t delay, can’t go anywhere else, just off to see the Collectors.
I understand it from a plot perspective… It’s a time-critical situation. They’re attacking a colony and you need to get there before it is too late. But from a gameplay perspective it’s lousy. I don’t like losing control of my character/ship in a game that is trying to give me the illusion of being in control. Makes me start second-guessing what missions I take and how I do them. Do I really want to do that side-mission? Do I really want to pick up that team member? Or is that going to put me one step closer to being railroaded towards the end of the game?
I like that there’s more stuff going on. More team members to choose from… More variety to them, too. Lots of side-missions. Lots of stuff to run into during planetary exploration. The only problem is that I’m constantly worried about triggering something and getting dragged into a plot-essential mission before I’m ready.
There are a few plot-related things I’m not too happy about…
I romanced Liara in the first game, and she’s basically not in the sequel. Yeah, you run into her on Ilium, and there’s some dialogue and missions. But she’s all but removed from the game. I was a little disappointed at that. Especially with how cold she was when I finally met her again. I guess I was expecting a warmer reception… Maybe a continuation of the romance… Something more than a couple generic quests that could’ve been handed out by any NPC on the planet.
I like how my decisions have carried over. How the council is still alive, and that greasy politician isn’t the human council member. I like running into some of the folks that I saved/spared in ME1. But it’s getting a little ridiculous. I mean… Everyone I saved/spared is showing up somewhere. Must be a very small galaxy.
I didn’t like running into Ashley after the collector attack. How she managed to avoid the Collectors was never really explained. I mean… We even see her get paralyzed by the swarm during the cut-scene. I kind of expected to have to rescue her from the ship or something. And she’s just right there, yelling at me. Which seems a little odd, too, considering how much we went through in the first game. You’d think she’d be a little more willing to trust my judgment.
The attitude of the galaxy as a whole is interesting, too. They’ve swept the whole Reaper thing under the rug. Convinced everyone that it was just Saren and some Geth. Which is interesting. It’s a neat spin on things. It’s kind of fun to see everyone in denial, to have the inside scoop on some kind of conspiracy type thing. It’s kind of fun to feel the frustration of trying to warn people and being told to just run along and worry about my little Human problems.
It’s weird though… Shepard saved the Citadel, and then was dead for two years, and everyone kind of takes it in stride. You show up somewhere and they’re all “I thought you were dead … Oh well, guess we were wrong.” Seems like there’d be a little more drama if the savior of the Citadel rose from the grave… Maybe a parade or something…
I’m not liking how much time I’m spending dealing with mercs. In ME1 the main threat was Saren, his Geth, and a few Krogan mercs thrown in for flavor. So I was constantly shooting these synthetic monsters who were out to destroy the galaxy. There was a certain amount of drama inherent in fighting the Geth, wherever they showed up.
This time around it seems like I’m fighting mercs more often than not. Yeah, there are the Collectors… But they’re only showing up in the plot-essential missions. And the Geth have only showed up in one or two missions. Usually I’m dealing with mercs. Just random thugs being paid to harass somebody. Seems far less heroic.
Ultimately, I’m having a good time. And I’m really enjoying the universe. I like how what I did in ME1 is affecting my ME2 game. And I’m very curious to see what happens in ME3 eventually… How all my decisions accumulate into some final resolution.
ME3/Origin
