617 réponses à ce sujet

[Red_warning]

Fragzone

http://www.fz.se/spel/mass-effect-2

5/5

One of Sweden's largest gaming websites.

[GaDun]

 I've played ME1 for like 4 times and enjoyed it. Now i started ME2 and couldn't find the reasons to continue it. It's a trend lately to kill a good PC game to change it to be more console-like or just for the sadistic pleasure to destroy something good. I hardly can consider ME2 as a sequel of ME1, the gameplay is totally changed. Is like a futuristic MW2 wannabe with some remains of ME1. Even the technological part went down introducing the "ammo" element, what happened ? a regression in science? I understand the need of limiting the use of launchers, but you could limit the ammo thing only for launchers...       The lack of items (yes ma'am i like the epics) so rich in the first part like weapons, weapons upgrades, armors, killed the RPG part for me, even the skills are fewer. The scan thing instead exploring planets made me feel like having a job not playing and is frustrating. What happened with the originality so common at Bioware? And the story is so much like the first part. Another alien specie attacking human colonies, another crew recruitment, again a mission with no support of the council or the other species in the alliance. I'm sorry to say it, but I honestly regret i bought the game. 

[Homebound]

Youtube Personality SXEphil
www.youtube.com/watch

[jkstexas2001]

GaDun wrote...

 I've played ME1 for like 4 times and enjoyed it. Now i started ME2 and couldn't find the reasons to continue it. It's a trend lately to kill a good PC game to change it to be more console-like or just for the sadistic pleasure to destroy something good. I hardly can consider ME2 as a sequel of ME1, the gameplay is totally changed. Is like a futuristic MW2 wannabe with some remains of ME1. Even the technological part went down introducing the "ammo" element, what happened ? a regression in science? I understand the need of limiting the use of launchers, but you could limit the ammo thing only for launchers...       The lack of items (yes ma'am i like the epics) so rich in the first part like weapons, weapons upgrades, armors, killed the RPG part for me, even the skills are fewer. The scan thing instead exploring planets made me feel like having a job not playing and is frustrating. What happened with the originality so common at Bioware? And the story is so much like the first part. Another alien specie attacking human colonies, another crew recruitment, again a mission with no support of the council or the other species in the alliance. I'm sorry to say it, but I honestly regret i bought the game. 

Yep.  What made ME1 special is absent in ME2

Modifié par jkstexas2001, 10 février 2010 - 07:20 .

[Red_warning]

GaDun wrote...

 I've played ME1 for like 4 times and enjoyed it. Now i started ME2 and couldn't find the reasons to continue it. It's a trend lately to kill a good PC game to change it to be more console-like or just for the sadistic pleasure to destroy something good. I hardly can consider ME2 as a sequel of ME1, the gameplay is totally changed. Is like a futuristic MW2 wannabe with some remains of ME1. Even the technological part went down introducing the "ammo" element, what happened ? a regression in science? I understand the need of limiting the use of launchers, but you could limit the ammo thing only for launchers...       The lack of items (yes ma'am i like the epics) so rich in the first part like weapons, weapons upgrades, armors, killed the RPG part for me, even the skills are fewer. The scan thing instead exploring planets made me feel like having a job not playing and is frustrating. What happened with the originality so common at Bioware? And the story is so much like the first part. Another alien specie attacking human colonies, another crew recruitment, again a mission with no support of the council or the other species in the alliance. I'm sorry to say it, but I honestly regret i bought the game. 

Killing it by making is more console-like? The Mass effect series were never intended for PC to begin with.

[Kroniker81]

Gosh, how I hate these rating inflations.
Back in 2000 +/- games with a score of 90% give or take were games which actually set really new and high standards for their genre and were true innnovations like Deus Ex 1 or System Shock 2. Some games who did this did not even get such a score like PS:T.
Now every game with some bling bling graphics and a modicum of story telling gets it shoved up their a***.
While the ME series is well made and enjoyable it is far from being such a game of true innovations.

Red_warning wrote...

Killing it by making is more console-like? The Mass effect series were never intended for PC to begin with.

And you have some sort of argument to prove your statement in any way, sir?

Modifié par Kroniker81, 11 février 2010 - 08:58 .

[TuringPoint]

^ I kind of agree with Kroniker. Deus Ex was quite awesome. Speaking for ME 2, I'd consider it closer to Deus Ex in terms of RPG interest. People who ignore what's going on under the hood in ME 2 don't like it, because it's not like the first game.

No recent Bioware game has the sort of adventurous spirit Deus Ex or, I assume SS 2 did.  Developers don't have the same sort of ambition that they used to, and it's sad.  Everything is focused on making games cinematic.  I enjoy cinematic, but I recognize that it's something different from a Deus Ex or the original Fallout franchise.  FO3 does not measure up, nor does Bioshock or any other game.  

BioWare games have a formula.  A good formula, but all of their games have still followed the same basic formula - and Mass Effect is the first series to attempt to expand that formula into a trilogy setting, or to attempt vehicle exploration and combat.  So while not as unique as some previous games, Mass Effect at least tries.

Mass Effect was originally planned as a 360 exclusive title. If you don't know this you're just a newbie. Go use the search function on the old forums or google the original announcements for Mass Effect 1 - it's your problem that you don't know Mass Effect was originally not going to be coming to the PC. That part is EA's fault.

Modifié par Alocormin, 11 février 2010 - 10:34 .

[Kroniker81]

Exactly. Since the KotoR series Bioware games have not developed really a lot. Bioware is great at story telling and presenting characters.
But the game world is always incredibly small and confined which is very bad for space faring Sci Fi since the best trait of those is this vast space let you feel like you explore infinity and the RPG system has been degrading to be more and more meaningless.

Modifié par Kroniker81, 11 février 2010 - 10:41 .

[newcomplex]

Kroniker81 wrote...

Exactly. Since the KotoR series
Bioware games have not developed really a lot. Bioware is great at story
telling and presenting characters.
But the game world is always
incredibly small and confined which is very bad for space faring Sci Fi
since the best trait of those is this vast space let you feel like you
explore infinity and the RPG system has been degrading to be more and
more meaningless.

Biowares impeded development is because they have no direct competitors in their meta-genre.     Nobody else makes RPG's where the core princepal is open ended storytelling and character development.

We clearly enjoy that niche genre, so Bioware has little incentive to expand those core princepals, instead they only have incentives to dilute those core princepals for mass consumption through increased accessibility.  

Modifié par newcomplex, 12 février 2010 - 12:31 .

[newcomplex]

double post =_=

Modifié par newcomplex, 11 février 2010 - 11:27 .

[Roger Haagensen]

EmSai Mass Effect 2 Review 9.8 score. (out of 10.0)

The review is a continuation of sorts of the ME1 review, some text has been duplicated to avoid forcing people to read the ME1 and ME2 reviews. Close to spoiler free.

And a note to people looking at the scores. By default I give a game a perfect ten in categories like Sound, Graphics, Story, Design, and Total (misnomer as it's not really a sum).
Any flaws worth noting (in my eyes) subtracts from the score, the best analogy would be health bars I guess. *laughs* ooh, now there's an idea for score graphics.. Hmmm.

Modifié par LordRescator, 12 février 2010 - 01:20 .

[DESTRUCT D]

HE FORGET TO MENTION GT REVIEW 9.7 I USUALLY CHECK GAMETRAILERS FOR GOOD REVIEWS.

[theamazingy2]

Another review of Mass Effect 2 came today courtesy of Pads & Panels, which gave it 4 out of 5 Stars.

http://www.padsandpanels.com/?p=7506

[Burdokva]

Here’s my in-depth review of Mass Effect 2. I hope this doesn’t sound too negative, I greatly enjoyed ME2 and I’m simply going to lay out things that I think could be improved.

Mass Effect 2 starts off with a bang, in an incredible way. Probably the best intro to a BioWare game I’ve played, topping even the incredibly atmospheric prologue of the original ME. However, after the first few minutes, I think the tutorial/first-hour section is by far ME2’s weakest point. That section is probably the “uncanny valley” of the sequel and I think this is where most people who don’t like the game decide it’s broken. Yes, it’s a familiar setting but it’s also very different in how it plays and you’re forced to quickly adapt.

Gameplay:
Ammo imbued system – I love it. I simply think people should view it as a more intuitive way to change ammo than with the inventory rather than as actual skills. And I’m pretty sure thats what it was intended to be. As for progression in the ammo system, it’s the equivalent to buying more advanced ammo – again, a different mechanic but with the exact same result as “inventory ammo” – cryo, disruptor etc. However, it’s restrictive on the squad members. At least on combat oriented specialists we should be able to choose what type of ammo imbuing power they have from a few possible options. Looking forward to seeing it implemented in ME3.

Reload system – this is what I don’t like that much. Yes, it does give a certain “flow” to the combat, but even with the effort of the writing team it somehow doesn’t fit quite smoothly. The overload system was good and actually gave unique feeling to ME. Some weapons definitely feel better with reloading – the snipers especially. The assault rifles/submachine guns not so much… When I first heard about the reload mechanic, I though it would be integrated into the overload one, not replace it. Here’s my suggestion – allow the player to choose between the two systems. Either have alternative sets of weapons that use overload or reload system, or make it so that in battle (once the gun overheats) you can:
a) eject the heat sink – quickly cools down and reloads, but you have to find new ones but with each ejected sink you have lower ammo capacity in the current “clip” (less sinks in the gun, less heat storage ability);
OR
let the sinks vent the heat like in ME – slower, you’re exposed to fire, but no worries about finding ammo or quicker overheating time;

I really hoped for an integrated system. I’m sure it would have been very hard to implement, but it would have made everyone happy. And it would give incredible depth and variation to the game-play - essentially you decide how to handle it “on the spot” – not to mention making ME an absolutely unique combat experience. Please, consider this for ME3.

Inventory – I like that you either have to research on the Normandy or buy upgrades from stores. However, there’s some linearity to the upgrade system on the armor and weapons. Maybe upgrades alternative – each weapon has a limited number of upgrade slot and you have to choose between damage increase, accuracy, clip size etc. I wouldn’t mind if it stays as is, though. Customization for the default N7 is absolutely great and the unique 3D models and skins for new armor pieces give variety.
The DLC armors could get the ability to toggle the helmet (resulting in a stats penalty) and maybe up to two customizable pieces per armor. The Collectors armor is fine as is, as it should be experimental alien technology (I’m a CE owner).

New pop-ups are somewhat intrusive when using the Normandy research terminal. Please, let us toggle them off when researching… I can remember what I just bought 3 seconds ago (and I can review it via the Upgrade terminal, so it’s redundant).

  Squad inventory - Please, let us have some control over the squad’s equipment – what they wear, visually and stats wise - a simplified versions of Shepard’s N7 armor with just a couple, alternative (either this that) customizable pieces. Let’s take Garrus for example:

Upgrade 1: Shield shoulder padding +10 shields;
OR
Upgrade 2: Stabilizer gauntlets +10 sniper damage/higher accuracy;

This in addition to the researchable squad upgrades. Plus an automatic toggle for fully enclosed suits for the extreme environments/vacuum missions for all squad members (Grunt for example switches to a full helmet, but still has his biceps/triceps exposed). 
I really like the diverse look and the design of the characters, but certain situations just don’t fit – imagine the cult “suit up, we’re going outside!” elevator scene during the Citadel battle with the current barely equipped squad members. Total immersion breaker.

 Exploration and scanning – The N7 missions are great and improve upon the original uncharted worlds. Scanning is nice but does get a bit tedious after a while. I would suggest having far less “Rich” planets that are worthy of scanning, but each one would give far higher yields of resources to decrease the overall time spent with the scanning mini-game. And toggle button for the scanner – on/off. 

In all honesty, I miss the Mako. I liked it as a concept, the controls on the PC weren’t bad and the vistas on the uncharted world were great – what let it down was hunting for resources that had no real value and the overly mountainous terrain on some worlds. With the new great N7 mission, though, I would welcome a vehicle (the Hammerhead) and the ability to explore uncharted planets. In that sense real exploration is rather lacking in ME2…

Conversations – I truly enjoy the new Paragon/Renegade system. Honestly, I didn’t feel it as a game-play mechanic at all, it was very subtle. The dialogue and cut-scenes were smooth and natural; the way the camera moves, the huge number of animated gestures and facial expressions makes for an incredibly immersive experience.

Technical:
Controls – I immediately switched the “Left Shift” key with the “Spacebar”, far better and easier to play without straining the thumb – for me at least it’s easier to use. One complaint here, but why are there no hotkeys for the Journal and Codex? I had to manually enter through the main menu each time. And BioWare, please, add a toggle for walking/running. Sprint/burst is ok and requires precise timing, but keyboards are not analogue gamepads and after you twist your fingers for minutes to walk around the Ciadel (constantly holding “Ctrl”) it just starts hurting your fingers. Please, add this as a patch!

Graphics –ME is still a beautiful game, even if the Xbox port textures don’t hold up so well in close-up. But the sequel is gorgeous – no texture pop-ins, no FPS drops on certain planets, quick load times. Thumbs up for the programmers and graphics artists, every criticism in ME is taken into account and fixed and overall frame-rate is smoother! Even the PhysX thing isn’t all that bad; although as a third-party program it caused some problems on my ATI Radeon GPU and required me to install ME2 twice to run it properly. One major bug though – there’s some heavy graphical distortion during Garrus’ loyalty mission that requires patching.

Applauds on the new art style, too. It’s both familiar and different than the bluish hues and the metallic feel of the original (as suppose it’s essentially the different visual “themes” of the Geth and the Collectors). Looking forward to see how ME3 looks, thematic-wise.

On the technical level, would it be possible to implement optional AA in the PC version of Mass Effect 3? I know the engine is licensed, but even forcing AA with my GPU drivers doesn’t produce the same quality and performance results as with a dedicated in-game AA feature.

Audio – ME had an incredibly buggy 5.1 audio for the PC. It’s now smooth, positional, doesn’t crack. Sound design and effects are great (the snipers sound incredibly powerful and clear this time) and I found the soundtrack to work incredibly well in the game, especially the livelier themes like “Tali” and “Normandy Reborn”. Everything here expands and enriches the setting based in previous themes and sounds, rather than just re-inventing it. Applauds!

I’d like to specially mention one of BioWare’s traditionally finest areas – the voice acting was incredible and trumps even the high standard of ME! There were less out-of-place lines (probably less last time editing?) and the recording team and actors did a fantastic job –Meer and Hale felt more comfortable as Shepard, but Liz Sroka and Brandon Keener absolutely stole the show for me. Above all, I like the fact that the stars of the cast are more than there for the names – they actually give an incredible performance. Martin Sheen almost made me forgive my parent’s awful smoking habit. He even makes it look cool… I hope the entire cast returns for the last chapter.

Story: Solid story and interesting characters. I found ME2, despite the darker theme, to be funnier overall than the original ME. It was nice to see many returning NPCs such as the all-time favorite Conrad Verner (who has obviously learned how to be truly extreme)!

The loyalty missions are very nice. Most of all I enjoyed the diversity between each and that they didn’t necessarily require using brute force – tracking a suspect or seducing a target in a club can be a great relief from the combat heavy sections. The pacing and overall proportion between fighting and dialogue was also better than the original in my opinion. 

The new squad members (and Garrus and Tali as returning) were handled with great care and were very enjoyable and very emotionally engaging with their loyalty quests (which were far more morally ambiguous and challenging than I expected). The Normandy also feels greatly improved; everything from the crew to the composition of the ship (actual living quarters, toilets etc.) was better. Thumbs up here, the player is truly motivated to preserve his crew and squad trough the final mission.

I have to criticize the lack of inter-squad conversations in some situations. Loyalty missions and the rivalry between certain characters were great, but I cringed how apparently neither of my old squad members noticed when I took Garrus and Tali with me – and I did that specifically, as a sort of “reunion” expecting a few special dialogue lines. It’s a bit sad you can’t pursue a more friendly relation to some characters that are potential romance option, but I guess it has a resonance with reality… 

Finally, something that bothered me is the sudden initiation of the Reaper IFF sequence – not to spoil anything, but I did the mission rather early on to acquire Legion. To my surprise (even after picking up the option “We still need to build our team, don’t install it for now EDI”) after a single completed loyalty mission the IFF sequence triggered – while I still had five loyalty missions to complete and it cost me my crew. It brings an interesting element of surprise, but it can be a nasty surprise in the beginning/first play-through…

The last mission was a blast though! And an absolutely stunning end-game cliffhanger…

I hope I didn’t sound too negative, there’s just a lot of room for improvement, even though it’s clear ME2 has taken into account criticism of the first game and built upon it.

Modifié par Burdokva, 13 février 2010 - 12:24 .

[Sloul]

French Press:

- Jeuxvideo.com (fr): 18/20
- Jeuxvideo.fr (fr): 4/5
- Gamekult (fr): 7/10
- Jeuxactu.com (fr): 17/20
- CanardPC (fr): 9/10
- Joystick (fr): 16/20
- PC Jeux (fr): 93%

Modifié par Sloul, 13 février 2010 - 07:54 .

[Jaysonie]

Kroniker81 wrote...

Gosh, how I hate these rating inflations.
Back in 2000 +/- games with a score of 90% give or take were games which actually set really new and high standards for their genre and were true innnovations like Deus Ex 1 or System Shock 2. Some games who did this did not even get such a score like PS:T.
Now every game with some bling bling graphics and a modicum of story telling gets it shoved up their a***.
While the ME series is well made and enjoyable it is far from being such a game of true innovations.

Red_warning wrote...

Killing it by making is more console-like? The Mass effect series were never intended for PC to begin with.

And you have some sort of argument to prove your statement in any way, sir?

The game was origanlly a 360 exclusive but when EA bought bioware they released a Pc version.

[Matt VT Schlo]

Ok, finished my Mass Effect 2 inital playthrough. Did every mission, unexplored and known. Ended up with a Level 30 Vanguard and got the 'Left No One Behind' trophy. Very enjoyable game overall.

Pros: loved the new graphics, controls, characters. Voice acting is still excellent......personally, I had no issues with the streamlined (ie dumbed down) RPG elements.....

Cons: Characters are very well done, varied and the moral decisions you have to make are fascinating.

While the stories of the crew are very interesting and very engaging, I did find the overall 'BIG PICTURE" story arc to be somewhat disappointing due to lack of collector/reaper missions. The first game did a nice job of giving you smaller missions THEN the big story arc ones - they were pretty well laid out with that one. Here, its one giant roaster mission. Get this person, get that person. AND While there are some collector missions, we needed about another half dozen in my book.

The whole game is working toward the one goal: go thru the Omega 4 relay. It would have been worth it if there were 5 hours of mission at that point, but there wasnt. Maybe an hours mission at best. It was tough on Veteran, but not that tough

I expected the story to play more with the 'Are Cerebus the ultimate evil organization or just misunderstood' element a lot more than they did. I figured we would be questioning 'is this really Shepard?" way more than we were given. Some of this felt like a wonderfully missed opportunity in my book. I suspect that once this one is played right before Mass Effect 3,  it'll feel a lot more satisfying. As a stand alone game, it is lacking. The behind the scenes DVD kept reinterating this is like the Empire Strikes Back, yet that had a more comprehensive, stand alone tale.

Pretty cool: If you port a Mass Effect 1 character over, the game does a nice job of bringing back a lot of familiar faces;  at times, it seemed like there were too many. For such a big universe, it was amazing how small if felt due to these cameos, but I sure cannot fault Bioware for giving fans these little moments. I very much enjoyed some of them. Ironically, my inital Level 60 Mass Effect game did not get recognized in the ME2 game, so while I've always romanced Liara in all games but one, I had to do without that storyline in ME2, which was my only disappointment regarding the 'port' system

Mini games: I had no issue with minigames with the possible exception of planet scanning. I actually enjoyed the planet scanning elements. Yes, they did get tedious at times, but personally, I really, really missed the Makko. Bioware did not need to due away with this completely. They just needed to add variety to those type missions. The unexplored missions we got in this one were great...so, if you scanned every planet, you got a decent amout of extra missions. Just wished you could have jumped in your Makko

So, all in all, very fun game, but I would rename this one 'MASS EFFECT 3: The Prequel to the next game' due to the minimal 'BIG PICTURE' story arc. We mostly got story on the background of our new crew. We'll see how many of them are actually squadmates next game. I sure hope we DO NOT have to recruit a new crew for the next game!

Modifié par Matt VT Schlo, 13 février 2010 - 10:30 .

[Fluwm]

Here's MY review.

I'd really appreciate any comments on it. Loved the game.

[Matt VT Schlo]

Fluwm wrote...

Here's MY review.

I'd really appreciate any comments on it. Loved the game.

I am a little harder on the story, given how thin it is when comparing it to the overall plot, but damn, thats a review!!!! Very well written

[TheOtherWind]

GaDun wrote...

 I've played ME1 for like 4 times and enjoyed it. Now i started ME2 and couldn't find the reasons to continue it. It's a trend lately to kill a good PC game to change it to be more console-like or just for the sadistic pleasure to destroy something good. I hardly can consider ME2 as a sequel of ME1, the gameplay is totally changed. Is like a futuristic MW2 wannabe with some remains of ME1. Even the technological part went down introducing the "ammo" element, what happened ? a regression in science? I understand the need of limiting the use of launchers, but you could limit the ammo thing only for launchers...       The lack of items (yes ma'am i like the epics) so rich in the first part like weapons, weapons upgrades, armors, killed the RPG part for me, even the skills are fewer. The scan thing instead exploring planets made me feel like having a job not playing and is frustrating. What happened with the originality so common at Bioware? And the story is so much like the first part. Another alien specie attacking human colonies, another crew recruitment, again a mission with no support of the council or the other species in the alliance. I'm sorry to say it, but I honestly regret i bought the game. 

Mass effect started on 360. I blame EA personally, they made it more casualized for the majority.

[risbolla]

I wouldn't rate any game released in the last decade on complexity, innovation and replayability since these properties haven't been selling points since the video game industry got a taste of the broader demographic - or the frat boys if you will - instead of the niche connoiseurs which were the sweaty dorks that were the only ones allowed to play video games before. You'd be hard pressed to be an innovator in gameplay these days when all conventional games have been tried and done to death. Complex gameplay just doesn't sell as good as simplicity, so thanks for that, capitalism. Replayability would require non-linearity, which takes too many resources to develop and doesn't sit well with the critics. I don't really judge games by gameplay anymore at all, sad to say - it's all interactive movies anyway.

I'll still have to go on about the one gripe I have  with Mass Effect which I find entirely unforgivable, namely the terrible waste of a setting. The series so called sci-fi setting is one of the worst insults to the setting I've ever come across, and I've read my fair share of bad sci-fi. The greatest offender of the setting is the story. The story doesn't call for the setting, you could easily tell the exact same story enclosed in our own time at earth, the only thing the setting does is elevate it to a larger scale. Humanity is an elevation of the western world. The reapers are an elevation of a global threat, let's for the sake of the argument just call it global warming. The geth are an elevation of a man made problem, let's call it famine. Quarians are and elevation of gypsies and Romani. The rest of the sapient species are equally stereotypical trash which it doesn't really take a genius to place, and don't even get me started on the batarians.

The setting has become a selling point and a convenience. It allows BioWare to be offensive without offending anyone (I'm still amazed how easily they got away with the batarians) and sell more copies due to the flashy setting. That is not how you use a setting, a setting is meant as an enabler to tell a story which can't be told in more conventional settings, but that's the entertainment industry for you. The Mass Effect series is the video game industry's equivalent of the movie industry's Avatar/space Pocahontas. Honestly, there's infinite possibilites with a sci-fi setting, and instead you tell a story which would fit much better into other settings. Who is to blame for this? You could blame the BioWare for giving the audience what it likes, you could blame the target demographic for being mouth breathing retards, you could blame capitalism for making it necessary to expand outside of a niche demographic to a far too broad demographic.

It's a relatively good game. Relative being the key word here. It's one of the best games I've played the last decade, but that only serves to chisel the last letter in the gravestone of the greater gaming era - the one between arcade gaming and the large demographic games. R.I.P. emergent gameplay, from this point and onwards the corporate ****s know just what sells. I'll let Mass Effect serve as a testimony to the death of gaming. It left a bitter aftertaste when you think about how good a game that budget could have made, but didn't because of the direction the industry is moving towards. That, or I'm just a bitter, nostalgic ****** who should grow up and find a new hobby.

[Fluwm]

risbolla, I do think you're letting nostalgia color your vision a bit. While, yes, this is the generation of super-generic gaming (Gears, Ratchet, Dragon Age and every single FPS) we're also seeing more innovation now than we've ever seen before. Games like Flower, Scribblenauts, Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, and Valkyria Chronicles are all introducing new gameplay elements that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.



I often feel the same as you--and actually spent a good bit of time describing that feeling in my review (and thanks Matt, for the compliment). The thing is, right now, gameplay-wise, we're getting some of the very best games... and a some of the very worst. The infuriating thing for me, and anyone else that's been gaming for a long time, is that while virtually every aspect of the industry has shown immense improvement over the past decade... the writing has gotten worse and worse.



I'd point at DA:O as the quintessential example of this.



To a degree, Mass Effect 2 suffers from bad writing. The main plot is slapshod and cliched (though thankfully not quite so much as DAO) and not at all interesting. The smaller-scale stuff, though, is handled pretty good. The character interaction, party quests, etc. all rival (or even surpass) that of the best games in history.



It's just that when we oldtypes play a game with such a shoddy main plot, we can't help but think back to all those older, cheaper, smaller games that managed to be so vastly superior in that department. A good bit of bitterness is, I think, understandable.

[Bobby360]

I just wanted to say hello, introduce myself, and compliment BioWare for it's fantastic game. I have played all the Half-Life & Doom series to last a life time. This one takes the prize. Terrific story line, graphics, and sound. I have been waiting for a publisher/developer worthy of this praise for years.

Although fighting is the only way to win, I especially like that you don't always have to fight throughout the entire game. That kind of stuff bores me. This game actually lets you ineract by others means (mining, shopping, and general exploration). This is a long awaited additional welcome to RPG's. I never played ME-1, but I assume it must have been equally good, less the graphics. As you can see in my previous two games listed, I love space RPG's, simulations, and strategies. Many games wore out their welcome with me in this respect, but ME2 has me HOOKED!


Once again let  me express my thanks. You can now sleep knowing that you have delivered something the people want..... At least this person, and I'm looking forward to an expansion, or ME3

[Jebel Krong]

well i finally got round to writing my own review for the game: http://jebelkrong.bl...-my-review.html if anyone's interested.

[Dexter111]

Seeing as that other thread sunk like a rock within mere seconds/minutes I'm going to go ahead and add it to this one here xD Happy for any Feedback

If you want to read it in its full glory with more pictures and better formatting (which this forum doesn’t seem to allow) head over here: http://www.escapistm...t-PC-Pro-Contra

The good:

• It is even more immersive and gripping than the first part and has a lot of well known and generally better voice actors (most of them from a lot of different Sci-Fi series), some of the more prominent ones being Yvonne Strahovsky (Chuck), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica); Adam Baldwin (Firefly/Day Break/Chuck); Martin Sheen and a lot of others like Michael Dorn (TNG/DS9); Claudia Black (Farscape/StarGate) and Armin Shimerman (DS9) are even used for minor roles making the voice-acting a thing of beauty. The facial expressions and general animation (maybe aside of the hair) also seemed better compared to the first.
  
• They expanded upon the already great lore of the first game and made it more “real” and tangible, I can’t really explain it but it felt more like an experience than a video game in comparison to the first.
  
  The much better graphics and use of general resources may have had a big part in that. Most of the new worlds seemed more “alive” with all the effects and lighting improved upon and a healthy use of holograms, post processing and lively backgrounds. Some of the planets would appear to be right out of a Star Wars movie. Others were now teeming with plant and animal life.
  
  The “Mass Effect” universe also generally started to take shape in front of me in this game, while it only gave hints of its potential in the first part… And with that it also became very apparent why Bioware wanted to make Mass Effect in the first place. It is not just another one of those “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” games some developer no one remembers did, it is Bioware’s “Mass Effect”, which also already spawned off some books, comics and might be made into a movie soon. Also Bioware themselves mentioned that even after Mass Effect 3 ends, they’re long not done with the universe and will expand on it, maybe even as early as the beginning of 2011.
  
• Bioware finally stopped pretending and mainly made it into a 3rd person shooter (not that it was much of anything else to begin with, but some people kept imagining it to be, now they even lost that illusion).
  
  Honestly I was very skeptic of this myself at first, especially because in Interviews the Developers openly compared it to titles like “Halo” and “Gears of War”, but it actually works! It’s got about as much customization as Dead Space, Bioshock or Wolfenstein left and not much more. It got rid of features like Inventory, most character advancement and added things like Ammunition and Reloading your weapon to the plate instead. The cover system also takes a much more prominent role with Automatic Shield and Health-Regeneration while in it.
  
  But the truly great parts like the interesting characters, the plot, the dialogue and the Alignment-options stayed onboard or were even expanded upon and this just WORKS so much better for the type of game they are trying to make (an immersive movie experience) than Mass Effect 1 ever did. It is still no Baldur’s Gate (the story-book/fantasy tale approach) which I will always hold dear but I like it also. Although I still can’t completely agree with the cover-system. I don’t know if a more “classic” approach e.g. actually using objects and the environment like corners, walls etc. as cover wouldn’t have been better than the “Gears of War”-method where you press a button and are in cover. I guess that works better on consoles but on the PC…
  
• Removing the inventory system and getting rid of the equipment-micromanagement on your companions was a good decision. It rarely seemed anything more than a chore to go through that HUGE item-list just to equip the best ones on all your teammates and sell everything else in Mass Effect 1 (especially because there weren’t any “unique” weapons, that did anything special aside of the Specter-gear, now there are).
  
  There’s also generally less items but the game is better for it… instead of having to pick up/loot and sell all that vendor-crap constantly they got rid of it and introduced construction plans instead… Some weapons and armors are for Shepard alone, some benefit the whole crew… as soon as you find them, they can be equipped on everyone. And they are and actually feel unique in the way they handle and the tactics they enable.
  
  On the armor side of things there is mainly the N7 armor with modular “Add-Ons” you can change however you want (different helmets, colors and different parts like legs or gauntlets with different stats). This also seemed like the better overall choice and preferable to having to wear an armor one doesn’t like (from the design or color: pink) because it has better stats. The only detriment is that while using any of the “Bonus” armors Shepard doesn’t take his helmet off, not even while talking to people or when he’s having a few drinks at a bar… It seemed/and looked somewhat silly and it is rather pointless to work on all the emotional and facial expressions (mostly ranging from angry to surprised and angry) if he is wearing a helmet all of the time and you can’t see them, so I usually went with the N7 armor and an eye-piece during the largest part of the game.
  
• Looking back, they fixed a lot of the time-sinks that were there in the first game: They got rid of the elevators, loading is much faster, you don’t have to search for blinking lights on the space map anymore, you can skip cut scenes (especially the docking videos) and single dialogues with space, you are able to sprint out of combat now and after you complete a mission in any area, you get teleported back to the ship instantly (after you are done exploring or if there’s nothing left to explore) so you don’t have to walk all the way back.
  
• The Hacking/Bypassing Minigames are better and not as annoying as in the first part, Bypassing is like playing a round of “memory” and isn’t on EVERY single object and Hacking isn’t overly complicated and you won’t find it on every terminal either (although I could imagine colorblind people having a problem with that game)
  
• Even the previous “random terrain generator” planet exploration and MAKO missions are (thankfully) gone and the new ones at least all have a short back-story to them, play differently, are more varied and have 1-2 cut scenes thrown in as plot advancement, unlike the first part where you just had to shoot a lot of aliens on a barren rock somewhere over and over, they were actually FUN to explore and play.
  
• You encounter a lot of people you met in the first part and having different saves/your decisions in Mass Effect 1 actually make somewhat of a difference and it doesn’t seem like a “total reboot” like in most games. While there’s nothing game-changing about it, I think that this is the first time a system like this has been properly done (if anyone knows better feel free to correct me, it is also funny that you as a player might remember some or have forgotten other characters and events because it has been about 2 years ago now… which is about the same amount of time Shepard lay dormant in a big fridge somewhere).
  
  The downside to all of this is that if you don’t have an ME1 save ready anymore you will have to start with predefined choices. Some kind of questionnaire on the big things before you start the game might have been the better choice to implement so you aren’t “forced” in a world you didn’t leave that way and miss out on certain things.
  
• The companions are more numerous and seem more fleshed out almost all around… and the best ones from the first one have stayed onboard: (Garrus and Tali) aside of Wrex and Liara got replaced by Samara
  
• Your companions are a lot more useful now aside of a few situations (especially when encountering the big stuff like Heavy Mechs) where they do tend to act a little stupid and run right into the line of fire, but it is a big improvement overall in that they search cover for themselves and actually help you kill enemies instead of watching you doing it.
  
• The game has one of the few well implemented and not annoying uses of QTE, by choosing whether to press a button or not and perform a “Good” or a “Bad” action (where applicable)
  
• Boo is back!

The bad:

• They left out most of the skill-customization and made it overly simple, this could be regarded as both good and bad, it does fit in more with the “Shooter” concept of the game and the Levels you are gaining don’t seem to that big of a deal anymore (Upgrades are a lot more important), but especially continuing as a Soldier from Mass Effect 1 there were mostly just different Ammo types aside from the “Adrenaline” ability (which slows down time) and not much else, which was a little disappointing.
  
• If I’d have to pick the one and only worst thing about the game it’d have to obviously be the Planet Scanning (whoever made that decision deserves a special place in Designer-hell right with the guy that introduced the random-planet-Mako-drops in the first part). The only redeeming thing about it, is that it takes less time than having to drive around with the Mako shooting enemies all day but it seems so unnecessary…
  
  It is not only bad from a gameplay point of view but it also totally breaks the otherwise Epic storyline with unneeded downtime if you want your team to actually survive or be better in combat by having to Research things. Buying fuel and drones also falls under this category and seems like another filler just for the sake of the bigger one, you have to return back to another system to fill up on them after you ran out… It is also an uncontrollable money-sink, some players might fly around less and be able to buy more items, and others fly around more and can buy less because they’re spending lots of credits on filling up their engines.
  
  
  
  Imagine the red line being a plot of an engaging movie or book,
  then blue would resemble Mass Effect 2 a lot more with all the downtime throughout.
  
  
  It is hard for me to grasp why they decided this was a necessary step for padding the game at all (not much unlike the Random Terrain Generator planets in ME1), the story is so enthralling at times that you just want to go on but then you’re supposed to play a horrible Minigame a few dozen times to be able to.
  
  Picture this: You want to go to the cinema and watch a movie you have really anticipated for months, you get your food, get through the damned commercials and all that and watch about 20 minutes of it and you’re really into it, the suspense is killing you… then BAM!
  You are being presented with a screen and a basic D-Pad control pops out from the seat in front of you. A message is displayed on the screen, telling you that you have to play 10 rounds of Tetris and make it to a certain number of points till you can go on watching the movie… Wouldn’t that be awesome?
  
  I was constantly thinking about using some sort of Trainer to get over this,
  but in the end put up with it and mined a few dozen star-clusters empty.
  
  
  
  Hell if I didn’t know better I might think they’re putting those annoyances in on purpose so they have a sure shot way for the sequels to be better than the prequels but then that’d be stupid…
  
  How about getting rid of those “fillers” altogether next time or at least coming up with something awesome like Pazaak or Pod-Racing in KOTOR, how about some ship-to-ship combat mini game and this time around NOT overusing it?
  
• The UI also left some things to be desired, I wouldn’t go as far as to write an entire 3-part dissertation about it but it could have been improved, especially for the PC.
  
  In some regards I thought they even made a few steps back, for example I couldn’t use my mouse-scroll on about any of menu items and text-windows that had a slider. The Codex is obviously conceived with a Controller in mind because it immediately changes subject if you use the slider to scroll at all. Even the On/Off buttons in the Options aren’t clickable and can only be changed with the left/right arrows. The team-members character sheets also don’t seem to be as easily accessible as in the first (Point & Click), there is no Drop-Down Menu for changing weapons quickly during the Weapons-Loadout Screen, one always has to press “Select” and “Accept” etc. There are no Hot-keys for easy weapon change, only for abilities. The “Planetary Mining Minigame” bar fills up to 25000 but you can mine a lot more than that and even need more for certain Upgrades… you get the picture
  
• The main storyline of ME2 was generally more “engaging” for me, but aside of the 4-5 main story missions the entire game is basically comprised of a lot of “Find companion” --> “Do loyalty quest” missions. While this might be nice at first it degrades into a certain “pattern” fast and there’s not that much else to do, the few side quests available are hardly worth mentioning because they usually consist of you finding and giving someone an item you found on one of said missions.
  A little more variety would be desirable. And even then, there’s not exactly many of them.
  
• They need to diversify a little more in the interior design department, Omega, the Citadel, Illium, the Quarian Fleet etc. look very similar (ground, windows, doors) with a few different symbols and lighting making most of the “difference”. Take a note from Star Trek/Wars for example with different design philosophies and technologies for different races.
  
• The Codex is still there but it seems to have regressed backwards from what it was in the first game, a lot of it is directly imported from ME1 and there are just a few dozen new entries with speech while the rest falls into the “unimportant” TAB you have to read yourself.
  
• Oh yes and one of the first things I wanted to do after starting up the game was to jump. Why can’t I jump? Let me jump! :/

Basically the game is an improvement from the first one through and through but it could have done with a little more polish.

Modifié par Dexter111, 15 février 2010 - 04:43 .