infalible wrote...
This thread amuses me to no end. When a proper RPG gamer says that Mass Effect 2 is missing fundamental elements that make an RPG, they aren't talking out of their behind. They certainly aren't missing the point to any degree. In ME2, the following statement is fact: there are lots of things missing or things that are very simply iterations on quite detailed RPG elements... lots and lots of things. I could list them all off for you but I'm not going to insult your intelligence by doing that. All I will say is: compare games like Neverwinter Nights and Oblivion - even Dragon Age and the original Mass Effect - with Mass Effect 2 and you'll see that the game is treading very fine line between story-driven shooter and story-driven Action-RPG.
And I can understand why Bioware did this. Mass Effect was never about offering the complicated, stat heavy and gear orientated fiasco that a lot of hardcore RPG fans are used to. This wasn't supposed to be another Neverwinter Nights or the sci-fi version of Dragon Age. Bioware are clearly aiming for two distinct franchises with Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Mass Effect is their simple, easy-to-swallow RPG pitched at the fans of games like Halo. It's an amalgamation of popular shooters like Gears of War with the story-driven and inspirational content that Bioware is famous for. Then you have Dragon Age which is clearly pitched at those of us who want more Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale -type games. It's aimed at those of us who like our in-depth class structures, gear orientated game play and traditional RPG-esque feel to our games.
And it's true that a lot of Bioware's long term fans - that haven't been brought on board with Mass Effect - want more of what we loved about the old titles, which Mass Effect isn't delivering right now. And Bioware probably empathise with that notion because they've been delivering that content to us for many years now; they probably realise that a hell of a lot of the people who buy their games will want this. Some elements on their team would probably really love to take Mass Effect in that direction and I would really love to see that happen as well; we all know that the franchise won't end with 3 and that there will be more to it than that, so there's always hope that in the future we'll have that traditional RPG flavour for another Mass Effect game.
So instead of slandering us for pointing out the very valid observation that Mass Effect 2 isn't a true representation of a pure RPG and in fact represents a compromise many of us feel that Bioware should never have had to make, why don't you try to empathise and understand why we are saying it? Why don't you go back and look at the games that fuel the statements we make? That way any slander you levy against us will be educated, rather than ignorant.
And fyi: watering down elements (such as the skill system, inventory system and gear system in Mass Effect 2) isn't, "disguising," and that's a mad thing to claim to be brutally honest. Whoever makes that claim should be ashamed of themselves.
An inventory system and gear an RPG do not make. Resident Evil has inventory and gear systems, you wouldn't call those RPGs would you? Devil May Cry has inventory and gear systems, you wouldn't call that an RPG would you?
The truth is an RPG isn't defined by one single element or another. Just look att he vast differences between all the RPGs out there. Some have certain features and others don't. Mass Effect 2 no longer has a standard inventory system or a standard gear system (although they still exist, they've just been moved to the Normandy), those two features don't all of a sudden make the game only a Shooter.
As far as ME being the representation of a "pure" RPG, I'm sorry but that statement is laughable. If you really think the first game was anywhere close to being comparable to a pen and paper RPG, or even old school Baldur's Gate you must have never played those games.
I do agree on your point that the game is treading the line between being an action/adventure game and really i think thats where Bioware wanted to take the game. Of course I can't speak for them, but when looking back at all the interviews they've doen for both games it seems they have always wanted Mass Effect to blur that line between RPG/Action/Adventure/Shooter. It's one big hybrid bastard of a game....in a good way haha.
Congrats on being one of the few people who argue against the game in a sensible manner however. You have a very well written post!
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