samu_ wrote...
Oblarg wrote...
Gingerwinter wrote...
also, wouldn't it be awesome to be able to build relationships between characters in your crew. set them up on dates and what not.
This is exactly the type of stuff I don't want - Mass Effect should be an epic space opera, not a romance sim. Cut back on the silly nonsense (fish tank, for instance) and focus on actual content.
The plot, for starters, needs to be a hell of a lot stronger in ME3 - ME2s plot, aside from single-tracking you into working for a previously unambiguously evil organization, was illogical and felt like it was more an afterthought that was put in after most of the missions had been developed. That's not how a RPG should feel - the narrative should be central to your motivation for playing the game. In ME2 (and in DA:O, for that matter) the plot was completely absent from most of the game, and the parts which were plot-driven often fell apart or revealed gigantic holes if you analyzed them at all.
I agree 100%. I just finished ME1 and started playing ME2 for the second time (Yeah i played in the wrong order) and the missions of ME2 feel so pointless. In ME1 they lasted for ages and really had feeling to them
The main problem is that what you do for most of the time in ME2 is completely illogical from a plot standpoint. You're given a goal - that is, get past the Omega 3 relay and stop the collectors - and you spend most of the game gathering specialists while you still don't have a clue how they may be helpful in accomplishing that goal (if at all). You never actively gather more information on what you might be up against, you never actively hunt for the collector ship or try to get help from the alliance. No, you go and get a team of badasses who may or may not be useful when the **** hits the fan. You also spend an absurd amount of time scouting planets for resources to upgrade your ship, because obviously, in addition to being more productive than trying to gather information, Cerberus couldn't be asked to make an up-to-date new Normandy, despite being a supposedly unlimited resource generator. You find a derelict reaper, an actual ****ing
reaper, and instead of showing to the council or the alliance to unite them against the threat you
blindly attatch part of it to your ship and blow the rest of it up. That's right - you don't study the IFF system and try to duplicate it so you can send an entire fleet through the relay - no, you hook it right up to your ship, lose most of your crew in the unsurprising aftermath, and then fly through the relay solo, because obviously you're Commander ****ing Shepard and logic won't hold you from beating those silly Collectors to a pulp! Then it just so happens that the collectors have set up their base such that your elite team of commandos are all perfect for the mission (except not quite, because several of them have literally no part to play and leave you wondering why the **** you brought them along). And those upgrades that you installed are all you needed to counter all
two of the collectors' defenses, including that oh-so-indestructible collector ship that was somehow supposed to be a threat to all of Alliance space?
The only plot-driven encounters are forced on you by The Elusive Man (who never really gives a good justification of why you should work for him rather than say "**** off, you're evil" and go back to the Alliance) and, in addition to feeling rushed, are full of inconsistencies and flat out contradictions with previously established plot points. Oh, and the meeting with the ex-crewmember where you basically have to listen to him tell you what an **** you are for working for Cerberus is botched on too many levels than I care to point out.
Anyway, this has turned into a bit of a rant, so I'll include a TL;DR version:
Most of the missions in Mass Effect 2 did absolutely nothing to logically advance the plot. In a supposedly narrative-centric game, this is
terrible design. Please, please, in Mass Effect 3, do not send us on a moronic "gather the allies and solve their emotional crises" quest while completely ignoring the fact that there's supposedly a big bad guy swallowing entire colonies.