Others may have mentioned some of these ideas before. If so, consider them even more important.
My thoughts:
- Toggle helmets on/off during missions (we like cool helmets, but we also like to enjoy our Shepard's expressions during conversations. Maybe even show Shepard taking the helmet off before speaking, then putting it back on when done.)
- Faster weapon swap. The combat electrifies in ME2, a lot more than in ME1, but changing weapons mid-fight is still too slow. It might be realistic, but it's slow. It's a shooter, so we need a quick weapon change like in Halo, to respond to the rapidly changing battlefield.
- Here's a game changer: when beginning a new playthrough, allow players to choose whether or not to be able
to save at will. If you turn off the ability to save at will, then you rely solely on the autosave. This means you are less likely to go back and play an encounter again (on that playthrough) to see a different outcome, since it will likely involve an undesirable amount of back-tracking. Why is this important? Your choices will have more weight to them, if you are unable to load a save game that was made five minutes prior, to correct a choice that you are unhappy with. It gives your choices greater persistence, like in an MMO (where you can't save), and thus they carry more weight. Of course, if you want to save at will and see the different outcomes by 're-winding' the game, then you can still do that (just ensure the save mode is turned on). It would just be nice to be able to turn off that temptation as well. I know some people deliberately play Far Cry 2 without saving, in order to give the narrative more weight. This is a similar idea to that.
- Fall animations. I love the new animations in ME2, like when Shepard is caught near a blast, and is physically shaken. BioWare are clearly adding more animations as each game comes, and I can see an obvious area where some nice new animations are needed: when Shepard drops off of a small ledge. At the moment, Shepard goes into a static, standing posture, and simply drops like a stone. Provided Shepard can still drop off small ledges in ME3, I think the game could do with a nice fall animation, which would help us believe that Shepard really is connected to the ground he/she walks on.
- Visit earth. The second game has been and gone, and (unless it appears in DLC), we still haven't been to earth. The codex entries paint an alluring picture of huge megatropolises, a golden age for humanity, and yet poverty is more rife than ever in the slum districts. I'd like to see it. We got to the moon in ME1, so please let us walk on terra firma in ME3 (and Thessia too, if you're feeling generous).
- Consistency with names and portraits: in ME2, you go to the level-up screen, or the weapon selection screen, and everyone is identified by their first name: Garrus, Samara etc. Shepard has first and second names shown on the level-up screen (John Shepard, Jane Shepard etc), and only their second name shown on the weapon selection screen (Shepard). Also, on both these screens, each character is represented by a 2D portrait, whereas Shepard is marked by an N7 logo. These are tiny things, but they hint that Shepard is different to the others, more special somehow. Well yes, that's true, because Shepard is the player character. But I'm all for games that don't make the player feel like the world revolves around them. To simply flag Shepard as 'John', alongside 'Thane', would, in my eyes, be a very small change, but would go a long way to furthering immersion. And with regards to the portrait, the same benefits would be felt, if we saw Shepard's face alongside the others on the weapons menu etc. I assume the N7 logo is used since Shepard can look any which way you want, and so a pre-rendered 2D image cannot be created. Or can it? Soul Calibur IV allows unique characters to be created, and employs some technology to create 2D images of these characters for use on the player select screen. And how is it that the 'Free Your Avatar' software over at www.xbox.com/en-gb/freeyouravatar can create a 2D image of your custom 3D Xbox Avatar? The tech exists, and it would be nice to see this in ME3.
- More dancing! I can't tell you how much fun I had in ME1, when I wanted a break from the story, and went along to Flux to party on the dance floor (often to songs stored on my Xbox hard drive). It was brilliant, and added an important layer to the 'humanity' of the characters. To see Shepard and Ashley Williams grooving away to Cyndi Lauper reminded me that, hey, these are just regular people like you and me (and yes, sometimes they need to unwind). It helped portray their characters. The only problem was that the dancing loop was not infinite, and had to be continually reset. What's more, in ME2, the dancing has been seriously cut-back ('dad dancing' springs to mind, even for a female Shepard, and again, it is not on an infinite loop). In ME3, I'd like to see some extravagant dance moves, and dancing that loops and loops automatically, until I tell it to stop (get the other squad members involved too).
- Remorse. ME2's endgame was fantastic, especially how squad-mate survival was heavily dependent on your actions. The only problem was that when someone died, Shepard didn't seem that bothered. OK, the immediate threat of the Collector base had to be dealt with, and so the commander would naturally be focused on that. And there is the 'funeral' scene, where we see the pods lined up in respect of the dead. But it would've been nice to see Shepard show some actual remorse for individuals lost as a result of the commander's choices (crew-mates chosen, perhaps inappropriately, for the various tasks during the endgame; or crew-mates whose loyalty missions were chosen to be ignored, leading to them possibly perishing in the endgame). Perhaps when Shepard visited the empty room where a dead crew member once resided on the Normandy, a short cutscene could've played, where Shepard was visibly upset by their loss (maybe dependent on Paragon / Renegade scores – a Renegade might not give a damn). I'd like to see such remorse depicted in ME3, if called for. I think it would resonate quite well.
Anyway, there's my lot, and that is after many months of playing ME2. These are quite minor things in the grand scheme of a good game, which shows just how great ME2 really is. Obviously, make the next game great before you even consider my trivial points. But if you've got time to polish, I think some subtle tweaks could go a long way.
Keep up the good work.
Modifié par Methodical Mute, 21 juin 2010 - 09:50 .
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