Not sure exactly what to reply to here, so I'll just post my thoughts independent from what has been said thus far. In my opinion, most of the changes from ME1 to ME2 are for the better, and by a great deal. Some of the main things I thought were improved upon:
1) I never saw the appeal in jogging at a very slow pace from one end of the massive Citadel to the other, then returning all the way back to complete a small sidequest for someone--Or even a required quest, at several instances throughout the game. The same goes for elevators; they were alright when your squadmates actually had humorous or insightful things to say, except only a couple elevators had that feature. And the conversations were only about half the time it took for the elevator to creep to its destination. In brief, ME2's smaller, more stylized hub areas like Omega are much preferable to ME1's generally oversized, more-of-the-same single hub. (Don't get me wrong, a big hub isn't bad, but when you're constantly being sent to the other end of the Citadel or in-between the fast travel spots...it gets very bland.)
2) The combat is better in nearly every way. People cry that the weapons should just overheat rather than use specifically tracked ammo, but I found that it took both more tactics and manual prowess to win using the limited ammunition system. In ME1, I found that it would often take ridiculous quantities of bullets to kill standard enemies like Krogan, which is generally awkward. Especially when they can just turn around and one-shot you with a rocket, while you're at full health and shields. The whole damage is simply better-balanced in ME2, and I liked the more clearly-defined sorts of vitality on enemies (Health, armor, shields, barriers). The cover system was silly in ME1 (just about never any benefit to using it), and the enemy behavior was suicidally odd. One common "trick" was where they would randomly rush at you, hipfiring with precision accuracy, whilst your squadmates stare as if nothing is going on. When they can do that while moving at your sprint speed, it's pretty damn difficult to counter The. AI brings me to point 3.
3) Friendly AI is much improved in ME2. It's certainly not perfect, but letting you bind a single key to each squadmate and then having a single recall bind is both easy to use and effective for maneuvering around any technical difficulties they would experience without direction. In ME1, you could only order both squadmates at a time without the use of pausing. Also, the ability to map specific squadmate abilities alongside your own greatly speeds up the pace of combat, which is a change for the better. There is effectively no difference between me tapping 7 to have Mordin drop an Incinerate on somebody, and pausing to look around and have him do the same thing. Diehard RPG fans will say one takes thought and skillz whereas the other is a stupid shooter mechanic, but if that "stupid shooter mechanic" greatly improves the flow of gameplay, I'll take it along with all the other changes to combat.
I do prefer the system of each ability having its own cooldown to ME2's unified timers, but perhaps ME3 could use a bit of both; individually-recharging abilities that also take a certain amount of, say, "energy" to use. This allows you to string multiple powers together, but at the cost of some of this hypothetical new stat, which would regenerate constantly. Effectively combines the best of both systems--ME1's tactical strings of powers and ME2's prevention of power overuse.
4) When removing the entire basis for an inventory system actually improves a game, something was very wrong with the original inventory system. I dreaded going to stores in ME1, as I'd have to sort through the thousands of Avenger V assault rifles and generic ammo mods to get some decent cash. For some reason, there was no end to the random underpowered weapons and Mk IV AP Rounds, yet I had to search across entire planets to find a single suit of Quarian armor and some different omni-tools. Better hope none of that stuff gets sold by accident, since the inventory sale list isn't organized and that Quarian armor with the omni-tools could wind up right in the middle of the Avenger V's you're selling. The entire inventory system was poorly-executed to the point of being 100% unnecessary, as demonstrated by Mass Effect 2.
5) Squadmates are much more interesting in ME2. That's not to say that ME1 didn't have some absolutely
brilliant characters, but they seemed even better on the whole in ME2. I sort of liked Tali and Garrus throughout ME1, but it wasn't until ME2 that I really started to love them. Some of the new characters are also great--Legion, Thane, and Mordin come to mind. Their backstories are filled in much more through the loyalty mission system, and their dialogue on the ship is much more interesting. For instance, I noticed that a lot of Wrex's conversations in ME1 don't give you anything unique to say; it's either "tell me a story" or "goodbye". Wrex is epic, but Shepard doesn't get many interesting responses to him.
Anyway...on the subject of the Mako, I'm indfferent. It had a good basis, but the nearly identical and completely barren planets made exploration something of a bore. Except when
this happens, but, y'know, you can't always count on a glitch for a breath of fresh air. On the whole, therefore, I think Mass Effect 2 greatly improved on the first game and it's good to see that C. Hudson has no plans to make major changes.
Modifié par Water Dumple, 11 août 2010 - 08:32 .
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