112 réponses à ce sujet

[Kuseikos]

Look, I have just bought the trilogy, and that's because recently I read how Femshep is one of the best characters ever appeared on a videogame.

And when I started ME1, darn was it good! Epic, cohesive story, magnificent character... Femshep is of course the only possible Shepard, being the thug alternative totally uninteresting like all other male characters of action games. I couldn't stop! I explored every single planet, did every single side mission even before attempting to visit any of the three major story driven spots... I felt I was immersed in a magnificent world of politics, intrigue, and I got the honor to be first human spectre. I was working for the Alliance first and for the Council later, and of course, I did save the Council! How could my 100% Paragon Femshep leave the Council to its destiny? The ending... it was epic, magnificent, unforgettable! That was the best game I ever played, possibly. A masterpiece!

 

Then along came ME2.

I stared in horror as Shepard apparently died at the beginning of the game, then someone brought her back to life only to discover that...

Cerberus? What?

My heroic soldier that saved the Council and longed to prolong the battle against the Reapers with all the support of alien militaries, with the support of council and Alliance... forced to work for a bunch of terrorist scum?

What's worse, my Shepard was forced to leave behind a squad of respected heroes only to recruit a gang of disreputable lawbreakers I would rather throw off the the Normandy! Talk about that genocide murderer Mordin, or even worse, that unspeakable scum of Zaeed (may I be damned if I even let him on a single mission EVER). Two nazi terrorists I should care to help and even win their loyalties? Are we kidding?

And what about all the help I am supposed to give Cerberus? I was once happy I could send some data I found over to the Alliance, because if one thing is true about the hero my Shepard is, that is she is a loyal soldier of the Galactic Council and nazi racist organizations like Cerberus are her next target soon after the Reapers are dead.

No way. Shepard cannot work for terrorists, she should be given the option to work with the Council to solve this new threat, which is by the way lacking the cohesive feel of the ME1 story.

Over there, in ME1, I had one evil guy, Saren, to hunt down through the galaxy, and incredible discoveries on the way there. Magnificent job!

Over here, where's the bad guy? Where the nemesis? The only nemesis I see here is that old lunatic sitting in front of a huge burning star, the one I would be glad to shoot first, right before I'm shooting his two footlickers and that genocidal murderer he placed on my ship!

Helping Mordin? Seriously? I am going to shoot his servant and put some right in this bloody universe! I am surrounded by scum and forced to work for the ultimate scum of the galaxy... this is not fun. I keep it going only because I am waiting to see if I can redeem my Shepard and destroy Cerberus. I don't know how the story goes on, but I am hoping hardcore I can get rid of all this scum and return to be the beacon of the human race, right there in the centre of the political stage... Why did you do this Bioware? You created a universe so complex in magnitude and relationship among alien races that if felt like Star Trek, only to throw everything into the worst of Star Wars?

I feel no compel to explore, no reason to talk to those squad members I find despicable to the very last of them, saving Garrus and perhaps Tari, whom I haven't recruited yet.

I am just going through this horrible story hoping it will get better eventually, and give me a chance to feel morally uplifted as ME1 so egregiously did.

I just felt the need to express my utmost disappointment.

[Vazgen]

I suggest talking to squadmates regardless. I think that's one thing that keeps it all together in the game. Story can't compare to ME1 or ME3, you get railroaded a lot, your character is presented as a badass, even if he was not one in ME1. The squadmates are amazing though, almost all of them. Oh, and the hub worlds. You won't find anything close to Omega or Ilium in the whole trilogy.

[God]

Your Shepard sucks. My Shepard would kick his ass. Then he'd shoot Anderscum and kiss Miranda, then take Cerberus to the stars.

 

HUMANITY FIRST!

 

Also, why does this feel like a troll post?

 

You don't know me. You'll learn. I'm going to school you about Cerberus and why your feelings are wrong. 

 

I am God, your lord and savior, and I proclaim Cerberus to be my worthy inheritors. Nah, I'm just one of the most (in)famous Cerberus defenders on the BW boards.

[Current Future]

Look, I have just bought the trilogy, and that's because recently I read how Femshep is one of the best characters ever appeared on a videogame.

And when I started ME1, darn was it good! Epic, cohesive story, magnificent character... Femshep is of course the only possible Shepard, being the thug alternative totally uninteresting like all other male characters of action games.

Agreed, FemShep is the only way to play.  Whether I wanted to be direct or even playful, Hale brought her A-game.  All Meer was good at (as Shepard only - his NPCs were outstanding) was Anger and Apathy.

 

Then along came ME2.

I stared in horror as Shepard apparently died at the beginning of the game, then someone brought her back to life only to discover that...

 

Say no more; I'm with you 95%.

1. Killing Shepard
2. Reincarnation via Cerberus
3. Agreeing to work for Cerberus so fast; this made the Sole Survivor origin unplayable, granted it was my least picked origin, but still...
4. Setting up the Reapers as the galactic threat, then throwing a more powerful enemy at us, which work for the Reapers?  Where's the logic there?
5. The Council still ignoring the Reaper threat.

I abhorred every one of these decisions, and this is only in the games 1st Act!  I could go on, I just don't want to.

 

I feel no compel to explore, no reason to talk to those squad members I find despicable to the very last of them, saving Garrus and perhaps Tari, whom I haven't recruited yet.

 

Don't take it out on the squad members.  To me they were, by far, the best* parts of the game.  But if Mordin can't make you laugh, I don't know what to tell you.

 

_{*except for Jacob & Jack}

[cap and gown]

 

I am God, your lord and savior,

 

No, that was your son. You, sir, are the one who damned us all to hell. And, as we will find out in the next episode of my playthrough, "God is Dead."

[RanetheViking]

I stopped reading after you said FemSep was the only possible Shepard.

 

Toodles.

[God]

Yeah, this guy sounds like a troll.

[God]

No, that was your son. You, sir, are the one who damned us all to hell. And, as we will find out in the next episode of my playthrough, "God is Dead."

 

You damned yourselves to hell. You didn't listen to what I said about Apples.

 

Granted, if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have Strongbow or Angry Orchard.

[KaiserShep]

Lol, it's hard to not see this as a troll post. Surrounded by scum? While an argument can be made for Zaeed and Jack, the Illusive Man saw to it to surround Shepard with people who were specifically NOT scum so s/he would have an easier time cooperating.

Tari? Kuseikos pls.

[themikefest]

My femshep liked working with Cerberus in ME2. She likes Miranda and TIM

[sjsharp2011]

My femshep liked working with Cerberus in ME2. She likes Miranda and TIM

My current Shep's only doing it as he feels he has no other choice

[God]

My current Shep's only doing it as he feels he has no other choice

 

My Shepard started because he felt there was no other choice.

 

He stayed because he came to believe there was no better choice.

[Rasande]

The whole Cerberus thing wasn't all that great, i'd rather have the council acknowleging the reaper threat and sending Shep on some kind of under the table black ops in the Terminus systems, going all space Jack Bauer on space pirates. Or something... To be honest the entire story was pretty crap.

The characters are preatty great though so you should definently give them a chance, even if the token love interests are pretty bland, especially Jacob. I'm still amazed they managed to somehow make him even more boring in ME3.

 

But the whole "do whatever it takes to save the galaxy" is kind of a ME thing, for me anyway, and i know they were playing with the idea to have Shep go all Saren and get a bunch of reaper implants, since they wanted to get Shep in a end justefies the means situation i think i prefer Cerberus.

 

Honestly though, if you think ME2 is too morally ambigious and gloomy you shouldn't play ME3 for more than 30min without a box of chocholate and a kitten to help you through it. For the ending you may need some valium or atleast 3 more kittens.

[Ice Cold J]

Give it a chance. Realize that you are doing the right thing with the wrong people. Would you rather have millions or billions of people abducted?

 

The story does get better. It's not as good as ME1, but you will see things start to come together if you keep playing.

[God]

If I had to guess, this is also going to end up as an orphan post: Someone doesn't like something, gets on the computer, creates an account, makes a statement, then gets off after venting and forgets about it forever, thus never responding to whatever feedback is given.

[Kuseikos]

*Some spoilers alert*

uhm...

no, not quite. Not a troll, really, and not here to vent inanily.

 

I have read your comments and I have a few lines to add:

 

- surrounded by scum: that was true, in fact, to the point I had arrived. You have to understand, that after playing through ME1, which is and remains one of the best RPGs I have ever played. This is quite important to me, because I wouldn't even be playing the sequel if I didn't think so highly of ME1. Eventually, however, I have come to meet the Justicar, who's the first character I meet that makes sense aboard our starship. Up to when I wrote the first post, I was surrounded by a complete failure (Jacob), a terrorist that is spying on me on behalf of an evil mastermind (Miranda), The Ultimate Scum (Zaeed), a sociopath criminal (Jack), a mass murderer (Mordin) and, thanks ME1, at least Garrus. Finding a companion to Garrus in such an Ocean Eleven's environment was next to impossible. Until I found out that the sociopath criminal is an enemy of Cerberus, therefore a friend of mine. But I have a Justicar now, and it was at least somewhat rewarding to play the "loyalty quest" for her. As for the others, it has to remain well clear that the likes of Zaeed or Mordin or that assassin Thane are *not* coming with me. My Shepard would have *never* sided with Cerberus, much less with so little thinking.

 

- Poor story: that remains true. It is actually even worse by now. When I saw "loyalty" on the squad screen, I suddenly thought: "wow, how cool: by RPing with these characters I could make them more loyal or otherwise, go figure how much more interesting the conversation with them is going to be!"

Sigh...

It all boiled down to this: do a quest with a lot of shooting, get the squad member, do a side quest for the squad member generally involving some more shooting, and poof! the squad member is loyal now. Like, mark checkbox one, mark checkbox two. Done.

One thing for sure, I am *not* doing anything to win the loyalty of Zaeed or Mordin, I still do not want them in my squad.

 

- And that leads us to the next serious problem of this game, RPing wise. Let's admit it, ME1 was great RPing. Ok, maybe not perfect, maybe not the very best RPing has to offer, but hey, choices did matter! As the story evolved, you could really make your Shepard be what you want *her* to be (no, sorry man, only one Shepard, and not only thanks to the magnificent voice acting, which is still unsurpassed in ME2). A lot of character development, granted, with a lot of combat-focused stats, but with charm and intimidation to balance that out. Combat, maybe, is better in ME2, but combat is not the main focus on a RPG. Think of all the different kind of missions you could have on the citadel, including helping (or betraying, for that matter) a gambler, siding with a Salarian that would scan the Keepers, or choose not to... plenty of exploration. Maybe slow, maybe it did feel a bit weird the galaxy was built on three buildings only, but it still felt like good RPing, with most of what you'd expect in a good RPing game. And there was a cohesive story to stick to. Gawd, how I hated Saren... you have no idea!

And then, what do we have here? We are led by the nose, literally, with scarce and scarcely relevant side quests, through a story that lacks intensity, mostly illogical to the very start where Shepard, knowing what kind of monsters lure among the crew of Cerberus, accepts to work for the likes of them. If anything, Bioware should have given us the option to choose to work for the Council instead, leading us to the same conclusion, if that was really necessary. But again, RPGs do not lead the main character by the nose like that: I was even forced to talk to the IM when I wanted to let him wait and rot on that chair while I finished my job on Ilium (nice job on that planet Bioware).

And why on Earth being disappointed at the blatant betrayal of that rotting scum of the IM counts as renegade points? That BS about end justifying the means only proves once more his lack of ethics and gives my Shepard one reason more to hate him: so why on Earth should my just disdain for his blatant break of all ethical codes of the galaxy count as "renegade points"? I would rather say that nodding at him complacently after such an obviously unethical betrayal (I am talking about that "go-aboard-the-Collectors-vessel" mission) would count as renegade points!

*shaking head*

This game is a complete frustration. I hope I am not going to be forced to play all the side quests of the squad members, because my Shepard is not going to help out the likes of Zaeed or Mordin, or even Thane for that matter. What was Bioware thinking, I have no idea.

 

But this leads to the point that ME2 fails at being a good RPG. It is obviously toned down in comparison with ME1, with much less character development, much less weapon tuning, much less stuff to buy in shops (shops in RPGs are supposed to grant a lot of choices, but over here there's so little to buy that shops are forced to sell pretty pointless decoration), but a lot more focus on shooting. And if it was all about third person shooting, which is not RPing at all, there are better games with a better story, not that I am much of a fun of shooters - somewhat, they tend to end up with you shooting too much and thinking too little.

 

I am not saying ME is bad. I haven't even finished this frustrating chapter, and I have high hopes for the third installment. ME1 is magnificent, but ME2 is just disappointing, in every possible way.

 

and that of course, is my opinion.

No trolls here, anyway, don't worry. I am open to discussion.

[Kuseikos]

(a bit out of topic, no, I am not a newbie to Bioware: I was a very active member on the original Neverwinter Nights forum, which is also one of the best games I ever played and in fact I have been a fan of Bioware ever since. However, I am no longer able to connect to Bioware forums with that old account, which I haven't used since 2003 anyway. I felt the urge to express my disappointment, much as this comes late since the game is old by now and I don't know who's still playing it, because Bioware gave me ME1, which made me stare in awe to the point that I really jumped on the chair when that bastard Saren shot himself, and I was literally standing up when Joker led the Normandy and the army of the Alliance to shoot down that effed up Reaper scum! When the evil monster crashed down, I was applauding, and for a moment I really feared my Shepard hero was seriously injured when she wasn't there after that monster was destroyed. The politics, the relationships among the species, the characteristics of each individual and their cultural links and backgrounds... everything was awe-inspiring, and last, but not the least, Saren was one of the best nemesis I have ever met. After such a magnificent experience, being thrown into this incredible and unexpected disappointment was too much to bear without a word)

[luckybaer]

I guess I just don't pay much attention to some of the details, because I don't find myself disappointed by the kinds of things the OP mentions.  That's not a knock against the OP - or me!

 

In fact, I really like ME2 (never played ME1 much), and I am going through another playthrough right now.  Just finished rescuing Garrus and meeting Yeoman Kelly Chambers.  

[Rasande]

ME2 is where many writing problems started and in my opinion is mostly to blame for why the entire trilogy feels less cohesive as a whole.

However i think putting Shepard in difficult situations is a great oppertunity for RP'ing, even if not everything always goes your way or there isn't a clear right choice(or it's not availible to you). I even think the latter is a good thing, i like the fact that sometimes you don't have full control over a situation and you haveto find a way to deal with it, it's more down to earth and a chance to explore or evolve your character.

This is one of my favorite parts of ME3 where the choices are considerably more difficult, it made me think about long term vs short term payoffs and where to draw a line of how far your character is willing to go. Your characters philosophical outlook and ethics will come even more in question, even in less serious situations like when a self aware AI keeps bugging you with existential questsions(one of my favorite parts in the entire series) that made me think of not only Shepards view on it but my own aswell.

 

However i get that for some RPGs are nice escapes where you have great control over how you want the story to play out or want an upplifting fairytale to relax with. I however love moral ambiguity and balancing what's ethical and what's practical and played my main Shep as mostly renegade with a heafty dose of paragon, so ME2 and 3 fit me like a glove. Though i am a cynical **** and spend most of my free time throwing rocks at happy school children. Innocent little shits!

 

I'd also curb my hopes abit for ME3 if i were you, the nuts and bolts rpg and game mechanics are much improved over ME2. Much deeper customization of your class with several diffirent meaningful ways to play it, an infiltrator can for example be played as a standard backlines sniper or a character that focuses more on CQC with melee attacks and shotguns, a mix of both or something in between with more armor pices to mix and match and a metric shitton of diffirent guns to choose from.

Seriously, it's like that scene from the Matrix but in space and Morpheus wants to bang you.

 

But you have even less control over the story or what Shep says also everything she has done so far and her responsibileties is starting to weigh heavy on her so the general atmosphere is abit... opressive, it's not like Dark Souls or anything but still pretty severe and gloomy. I loved it, but judging from your posts that might not be your cup of tea.

 

Also i know alot of players feel restricted by the renegade/paragon system and feel they need to focus on one or the other but try not to think about it too much.

You will get renegade points for beeing anti-authoritan and forcefull/decisive aswell as callous and violent, just have a head canon on who your Shepard is and pick whichever option best fits the character at that moment rather than which option coincides most with their overall moral outlook and ignore any points you may gain or miss out on.

For example one of my more paragon aligned Shepards with a Colonist backround wasn't about too show any pirates,slavers or Batarians much compassion.

[Kuseikos]

I find Rasande's opinion particularly interesting and I believe I should answer him directly.

 

I would like to point out one thing, that I am not against gloomy atmospheres per se. A well written story is a well written story, but leading the character by the nose hardly is a well written story. I have a feeling that Bioware thought something like "hey, let's go sort of 'Dirty Dozen' or 'Ocean's Eleven' with this character, sure enough lots of people will enjoy a shooter game with some little RP and lots of ambiguous characters!"

That's not, in my opinion, how Mass Effect should have developed. If my original Shepard were one of those immoral renegades (I am trying to go renegade in my current playthrough ME1, but I find it very hard at times to accept staring at my character behaving so blatantly immorally, so I don't know if I can keep it like that till the end, maybe I'll have to soften her a bit before the end just to stand her...)... if my original Shepard were one of those, by definition, perhaps I wouldn't have liked the first game as much, but ME2 would perhaps fit that type more, just perhaps. All that Cerberus stuff, those morally ambiguous characters, that ends justify the means philosophy, that would perhaps fit with a renegade badass. But a Paragon Shepard? I feel like I am moving through total decay pouring some inane goodhearted actions like some kind of hopeless Mother Theresa wasting her time on lost causes. Feels like they are trying to push me to go renegade at all costs, because that's how they see Shepard, but then, what's the point with an RPG? Just make a Halo-like game. I totally love the Paragon / Renegade axis, exactly like I was totally cool with the Chaos/Law and Good/Evil axes in D&D (being an old fan of D&D in fact). But they must provide me a story that does fit my Paragon character. They can't push Cerberus (which I happen to hate even in RL by now) on me and expect Shepard to accept it. Maybe, just maybe, the only Shepard I have that is going renegade in ME1 (like I said, with great effort on my part) might have some logical fit in that kind of story. Although I tend to see renegade more as like "still willing to do the right thing, just using the wrong attitude and methods perhaps". Which still leaves some questions on Shepard joining Cerberus.

 

Aside from this frustrating fact (which is making my playthrough a real pain, driven forward basically by 1. the fact that I paid for this game and 2. the fact that I want to move to ME3 because I still nurture hopes for it, expecially after your post), there is the fact that ME2 is, by definition, scarce RP, or poor RP. I am a hardcore RPG fan. Talk about those nerds that love stats, character building, weapon customization, character customization, hard choices that do lead the story to different paths at the cost of missing some content. I am much less a shooter game fan, but in ME1 (I will never stop praising Bioware for ME1) the two elements were reasonably balanced in my opinion. Enough shooting, enough RPing and ... a story that was really "wow" from the start to the end. 

This is what I feel is a big shortcoming of ME2: no real RPing, oversimplified character stats, no room to actually build the loyalty of your companions step by step, through dialogue... or even by taking them into mission. Wouldn't it be great, if loyalty could increase a bit each time you chose that squad member, and led him through the mission in a way he or she enjoyed? Like, "you behave too much Paragon, I am too much of a Renegade so, I am sorry but my loyalty drops down and down... to the point where I take my leave from your vessel and your squad". That would be totally cool and would make me feel like I am really interacting with my squad, I am building some relationship with them, I am sorting out who's who and who's going to be on my side.

A Paragon Shepard would start off revived by the Council instead of Cerberus, assigned a mission in Terminus by Counselor Anderson perhaps, and instead of receiving a list of squad members chosen by TIM, she would actually meet potential squad members on various worlds, deciding to bring aboard the ones she chooses. A Paragon would take the Justicar, a Renegade perhaps would go nicely with that Zaeed thing (I wish I could just seal his door: I occasionally pass too close to it and it opens, revealing his obnoxious presence aboard, that I am trying hard to forget). 

That is how I thought ME2 should have been. 

[sjsharp2011]

I guess I just don't pay much attention to some of the details, because I don't find myself disappointed by the kinds of things the OP mentions.  That's not a knock against the OP - or me!
 
In fact, I really like ME2 (never played ME1 much), and I am going through another playthrough right now.  Just finished rescuing Garrus and meeting Yeoman Kelly Chambers.

Yeah I'm playing through again myself atm on the Citadel just about to do Garrus's and Thane's loyalty missions.

[God]

Your Shepard fails at life.

 

Breaking character here:

 

I'd love to have a debate with the OP on this issue, as I do find myself completely at odds with his opinions. Especially about Cerberus and the squadmates. 

 

I feel the morality is forced with paragon and renegade, and am glad that they make Renegade a more practical choice.

 

OP, I would change the dichotomy of paragon/renegade from such childish and irrelevant, subjective terms like good/evil to more realistic terms of 'idealistic/practical'.

 

Renegade works. Why? Because I'm not getting emotional or angry or upset or whatever about anything. Renegades do what they have to do and move on. Logical, Rational, brutal, and cruel, but always practical.

 

Well, until ME3. 

 

And the reason we think you're trolling is the almost hilarious amount of one-sided rambling and loaded dialogue pronouncing that your opinion is more or less objective. Thus, yes, we see a troll.

[Kuseikos]

well, if you see a troll, I can't help you out of it. But having met real trolls, I can assure you I don't belong to the group. I wouldn't waste my time trolling a board, considering how happy I'd be to shut them out of any board.

 

Nonetheless, I think I have given a rather precise idea of what kind of ME2 I would have hoped for, with more RPing, less lead-me-by-the-nose, less shooting, more interactivity, and incidentally, more choice: this is what we mostly lack. I cannot choose to work for the Council, I cannot choose to shoot Miranda in the head (Jacob isn't worth the cost of the bullet), I cannot choose what kind of people I want to take aboard. Why should I obey TIM? I don't want to. I know my character would never do it. I was so totally with Tari when she reminded my Shepard what Cerberus actually is, and I felt the desperate need for an option to tell her "look, you are totally right, it's just Bioware forcing me to do this, they have scripted my inability to choose for the right!"

But I can't. This is not good RPing. RP Games shouldn't frustrate your character like that.

[God]

I disagree vehemently with this assertion and want to point out that despite narrative railroading (which is necessary to actually get the plot going somewhere). 

 

The choices that you want are irrational, incompetent, and senseless. Who's going to help you when you ****** off TIM? The council? The alliance? Please. They're too high on the smell of their own butts to understand the issue. At best, you'll be swept under the rug and put in some building for a year while the Reapers come and wipe you out anyway. Plus, you'll find out in ME3 just how useful they really are. 

 

Why should you obey TIM? Because he's the only one willing to obey and believe in you. He's the one giving you the chance to 'set things right'. He's the one giving you the chance to go above your irrational dislike and stop the Reapers.

 

RP'ing should not be what you think it should be. It should be about taking on a role to fulfill a narrative in, not used as a catch all to play an MMO to get happy feel-goodies.

[Kuseikos]

I see that you complete fail to see my point, and that's mostly because you apparently like playing as a badass. Which is something I might respect, even if I am not attracted to that style of playing.

 

Now, I have played further into the game and I can point that:

 

1. definitely, the misunderstanding begins with calling ME2 an RPG, when, in fact, it's a shooter game with a very limited amount of RPG elements within. The RPG mechanics are exceptionally dumbed down, compared to the previous installment of the game, resulting in a game where the character development is reduced to only a few combat-oriented skills, with just 4 grades to buy. This leaves very little room to actual character building, as there's just this Paragon/Renegade, incidentally a purely passive stat, to define who your character is. This is consistent with the general direction taken, to make ME2 much more of a shooter game and much less of an RPG. This is also reflected by the totally dumbed down weapon customization system

 

2. the limited ammo mechanics is unnecessary and inconsistent with previous instalments of the game. ME1 had the heating system that not only worked fine, but offered an innovative approach to weaponry. On the other hand, ME2, being engineered to be more appealing to shooter fans, has limited ammos. This is a minor hassle, given that I usually one ends up finding enough clips to keep playing, apart from the hassle to actually go and collect the clipses while in fight. But it *is* a hassle, and an unnecessary one since ME1 had a better system in place already. It is obvious that this change was introduced just to push ME2 towards the shooter side of the spectrum and away from the RPG world

 

3. the fact that this is hardly an RPG and mostly a shooter game is also reflected by the fact that virtually every single mission, whether they are so called "loyalty" missions, story-oriented missions or side quests whatsoever, it is next-to-impossible to avoid extensive, in my opinion repetitive and boring, shooting. Even the Tali loyalty quest, which could have been played out in court with immense RP potential, was toned down and turned into the nth shooting massacre. Shooting is even less fun, because the limited ammo system forces weapons on you that your character might not be proficient with, if this were a real RPG. In fact, in general, I prefer to play sniper types, and when allowed to, I spend points in sniper rifles to the expenses of close-combat abilities that I enjoy less. In ME2, however, we fall short of the possibility to engineer our character, as it normally happens with pure shooter games, and therefore proficiency in a weapon of choice has disappeared, and it all boils down to the usual shooter mechanics. 

 

4. Story wise, Bioware fails to deliver a game that is story driven with a specific nemesis to chase. The story is also lacking the subtleties of the original game, the political balance between the races, the traits that gave a soul and a color to a world that breathed of its own. Over here, we are thrown into a much simpler world, as it normally happens in shooter games, with the main focus being on, well, shooting, of course. Character relationship is also stripped of depth by reducing loyalty to a matter of shooting some enemies and get the "loyalty checkbox" filled. Another opportunity for great RPing that goes awaste .

 

5. the greatest mistake of all, is of course calling this game an RPG, and then force a number of choices upon you, that are potentially inconsistent with the character you have built. It is completely senseless that Shepard works for Cerberus, unless Shepard was a racist terrorist since the beginning; but in ME1 we are given an option to make our character the Shepard we want, we *can* after all engineer our Shepard to our likings, and this is not taken into consideration when we are forced to work for the likes of Cerberus in ME2. Inconsistencies are even absurd at times: we know that Cerberus is a bunch of Nazis, and still a Cerberus ship comes and goes in the citadel like it was normal? We know that they are racist bastards, and still aliens welcome Shepard and even choose to work for her, knowing that Cerberus is inclined to exterminate all other races? As bad as it is to work for the racist bastards, a good RPG would leave you the chance to choose to work with Cerberus, if so you wish, but then you'd have to deal with the fact that you *are* on the side of racist bastards, and can't expect the world around you to be cool with it. This lack of consistency makes the whole plot nonsensical to the very basics, even if my Shepard were one of those renegade bastards that would be happy to join Cerberus if given a chance.

 

So what's the problem in the end? The problem is that this is not an RPG, it's mostly a shooter game with very limited, scarce and often inconsistence RPG elements. It doesn't stand up to the comparison with ME1 because it simply falls in another category of gaming. While ME1 is a gorgeous RPG with a depth that was rarely seen before, ME2 is mostly an action game with some story within and very little RPG mechanics to offer. 

 

I am even more disappointed because the potential for a great game was there, but as the game develops it's more and more clear that ME was simply dumbed down to appeal to fast-pace shooter gamers, as if they didn't have enough to play with ...