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[SierraKhaar]

Just finished Mass Effect 2, Female 60% Paragon 30% Renegade, Soldier, Earthborn, Sole Survivor, Rescued the council, Wrex alive and Kaidan dead.
On my second run with a Male on Veteran and trying to be more Renegade but it seems like impossible.
 
I will not really do a review here or something, since I'm a man of improvement and detail.
I will basically write what the developer team did right and what they’ve still been doing wrong since Mass Effect 1 and of course new mistakes.
This is not a bash party in the form of words, I love the game!
It’s just some details and stuff that needs to be redone or thought of from the developers.

Remember, I am not born in England or America so my English may or may not be perfect.

I also want to add that I’m a big fan of the franchise and played almost every good game since 2000 even though I played a lot few years earlier but not as much as later so I’m a huge HC gamer too.
I have Mass Effect Collector’s Edition for the Xbox 360, the guide and the first two books.

The Edition of Mass Effect 2 is Collector’s edition for PC.

I hope you keep doing Mass Effect for the PC.
I know the PC market is not as hot mostly because of the pirates but keep pushing free DLC’s and more will buy it.
And when am I going to see a Normandy plastic model? (PS: If anyone from Bioware actually reads this, Bandai would a good idea to call right now.)

Before you start reading my critics, know that I understand the concept behind Mass Effect 2.
You have been dead for two years, things have changed and universe is still facing the reaper threat and things are not as “happy” as it was.
It’s darker and death lurks behind every corner.

But I get the feeling that this game was rushed out with the sec bots and everything.
There is too much things that are more cool then realistic, to the point where many things become cheesy and the references are way too obvious.
Like where you help Tali and there is a Quarian fighting a geth “tank”.
If you are going to make him sound like a random US marine soldier, why use aliens at all?
Then we got some comments that feels like to familiar to some other game, movie, quote or just are too cliché.

Mass Effect was unique but Mass Effect 2 feels a middle landing and I am being held prisoner on this plane that you call Mass Effect.
I feel like you told me in ME1, this is our destination, then you pull this middle landing thing and now I can’t get my bearings right.
I went from preventing a Synthetic/organic warship aka reapers killing all life I know, to stop an organic race to make their own Terminator-shooting-stuff-out-of-his-mouth reaper that eat human goo for breakfast.
I just feel like its way way way to cliché and not well thought out.

Even if it may sound like I don’t like the game, it’s because I grown so hard on the Mass Effect (That did not really sound right) universe that this second part almost feels like a tumor, a middle landing.
And what is the reason behind releasing 47 videos (source: GameTrailers) within less than a year where you spoil the game a lot?

But since the first game and books were so awesome I will put faith in the third part and hope that you expand the universe even more and make an awesome *cough* MMO *cough* sequel to the trilogy later on.
(and hopefully not make some mistakes you already done).

I also want to say that the new HUD command, menu graphics and eyes in the game are a huge improvement.
The in game graphics are amazing too AND the textures loads like they should.


Minigames
When you exit them too soon after completed them you get an red screen, you get the items/credits but the red screen is annoying and should not be hard to fix.


Shepard face
Why can’t I (in neither Mass Effect nor Mass Effect 2) use the default face and edit it, or add scars too the male character?
If I remember correctly my female character could have scars but for some reason males can’t have it.
Please fix this in patch!

Follow-up
When I run around with Shepard he/she seems to look down in a strange angle which makes him/her look like a retard.
This is also something that has to be fixed.

Follow-up eye lid
The inside of the eyelid looks very bad on Ashley and female character.
Compare it to Jack or Miranda where they have black makeup, it looks a hell lot better.

Follow-up Liara
I found this very cute but Liara has a tendency to close her right lower eye lid when talking to Shepard.
Made me laugh because I started to think about that nut crazy fella in Ice Age.

Teeth
I know that you done a huge job on making the eyes as realistic as possible.
I think the next step is the teeth because sometimes it just looks wrong.


Female hair
I don’t know if this also happens to male hair but sometimes the skin goes right through the hair during a dialogue making it look just bad, needs to be fixed.


Buffs during dialogues
They should be disabled as soon as an player enters a dialogue.
Being invisible kind of disturbs the mood.


The helmet issue.
I wanted to use Death Mask or whatever it’s called when I found it in Mass Effect 2.
But the backset is that I don’t want to run around with a mask when running around in a club or talking to an NPC.
It just feels very wrong and the character loses all personality and breaks the whole gaming illusion.
So I played through without 10% bonus in talking even though I might’ve needed it.

Follow-up
I also think that in some cities you shouldn’t be able to walk around with an armor and bunch of guns.
Casual wear and a pistol would be more realistic.
I mean imagine a soldier with full gear walking around in a mall, just doesn’t quite feel right.
Even worse if two full gear aliens run around him.

Grand Theft Auto style intro
when you get onboard the Normandy you have different slides that show “this is an elevator”, “this is the galaxy map”.
They are a complete rip-off of GTA and just look bad and do not apply well to the Mass Effect 2 presentation.
I hope this is taken away from Mass Effect 2 or at least not used again.


Lesbian Romance.
I was surprised to see that there was no possible lesbian romance in the game. I really tried, trust me. I’m not a pervert but when Liara basically ignored me it broke my little lesbian heart.
And there was no other lesbian around, I never felt that a character could be so much in love that it feels so lonely in the end when no one comes to comfort her.

You should have almost skipped the love part for the male too in this game because that time when Ms. Shepard walks into the cabin (imagine Liara’s portrait on the desk) and there is no one around, it strengthen my belief that this might be the end of Shepard and that the collector’s is about to get their ass kicked, I was bummed out when it happened but when I looked back it built my characters resolve even more then I thought.

But I get the feeling the only reason it was present on Mass Effect was to create reaction and talk around the game.
And now it feels like you are saying to the fans "our brand is strong enough, we don’t need that anymore".
We want lesbian relations back or at least flirts even if you gave me a beautiful feeling of loneliness.


No obvious consequences or turns?
This is actually a big issue for all games so Mass Effect is not new to this critic. Very few games have multiple paths that don’t lead to the same path.

But it’s not that I’m complaining about, it’s that the small paths throughout the game do not seem to matter of your actions.

Either I say something smart or put a bullet in his brain, only difference is the time to do the different.
Few times I’ve seen the choice bite your ass later on (the big Mass Effect decisions transferred to Mass Effect 2 does not count here).

Follow-up
I think you should have the possibility to ****** someone off that’s about to give you mission to the point where you might not get the item or the experience.
Maybe you were not able to help Grunt, so after that starts to berserk in battle and is ignoring you, maybe even starts a fight-to-the-death onboard the ship.


Mako vs. Drones.
The drones are a more realistic way to get resources for upgrading but I still miss the Mako.
It was a way to slow down the pace and it’s being replaced by frustrating probe launching.
Not relaxing at all but I’m appreciating the new realistic function even if it takes up to much game time.

Follow-up
When finding an transmission on planets, skip the whole indicator thing and just stick with following the
sound.

Follow-up
When probing, every probe should make it easier to find other resources on the planet somehow.
Because its way to much time spent on probing.



"The only time I am devoured by the environments is either in the cut scenes or outside the windows in the game, I find that sad and tragic considering which developer made this game."
Best description on how I feel about the level design in the game.
The locations, the lightning, the feeling of each “place” have their own unique style.
And I am really being devoured by the maps but the small amount of surface you are able to cover and experience is extremely claustrophobic (same in Mass Effect).

Only place that was very open is in the Citadel but there wasn’t enough movement around to keep the illusion of a massive station with millions of citizen.
I feel like I’m pending between being a small fish in a huge beautiful bowl to looking at it from a window.

Follow-up more crowds
Even if they don’t talk or do much dynamic stuff, simple having 50 extra NPC’s walking around makes a lot of difference in a game.
The scene in one of the Hitman games where you have to push through crowds of people really made a difference and would too in Flux or Afterlife in Mass Effect 2.

Follow-up Migrant Fleet
In Mass Effect: Ascension you get to read about the Migrant Fleet, how grand and crowded all the ships and people are.
In Mass Effect 2? Not so much.
Nether the fleet or the interior of it was crowded, what I remember from Mass Effect: Ascension the guys boarding the ship saw that many of the citizens was surprised and there was a big ruckus about it.
In Mass Effect 2? Not so much.
You would have think that showing the Migrant Fleet in a game would be grand since you wrote about it or correctly, approved the writing.
Only time there was a crowd in the game was during the Tali trial.
I may take this too far here but I found it important since it does concern a lot of parts of the game and would make a better impact.


The crewmember missions
I think that these missions were way to obvious to do.
All you did was wait for a while then everyone wanted to talk to you about something, of course they wanted you to go somewhere kill about 30 NPC’s then you had their loyalty.
If Mass Effect 3 will be similar I hope that it’s more dynamic and won’t only be done by killing.
Maybe by talking or making the character “open up” *cough* Jack or completing a main mission in a certain way can get you loyalty or disloyalty.
Even if I appreciate that you have taken away those generic missions that were found in Mass Effect, this new mission type still needs some more dynamic.

Follow-up Legion
I think this “surprise” follower was an awesome addition to the team.
But I feel like you should have added options to ask him/they? The reason why the geth was 50/50 about the decision you have to make, that way the player would have been able to understand the geth better.

But the Legion also strengthens my belief that this game was a bit rushed and too “cool”.
It’s like a squad from USA recruits an terrorist without much question.
The geth took a lot of lives and I’m running around with one, shouldn’t that cause problems in certain areas?

Follow-up
The followers should be able to walk around the ship and come to talk to you, more dynamic!

Prothean
I like the idea how you play with the Prothean/Human thing.
That humans may come from Protheans, kind of plays with the whole existence philosophy and that is something I think you should keep pushing but not shove.
You were on the right way with it but Protheans that’s been re-engineered by reapers to make a Terminator-shooting-stuff-out-of-his-mouth “reaper” kind of took a sledgehammer and crushed my vision of Mass Effect.

Mass Effect inventory system
I know it, the fans know it and you know it. The inventory system in Mass Effect was bad.
The problem in the first game was a bad management system for the huge amount of items.
And the problem in the second is that it’s not passionate.
Two or three guns of each type are not enough (read follow-up).
I understand the logic behind your choice but I still feel like there’s a big issue with the whole weapon and armor management system.

What was nice with the armors in Mass Effect was that most looked good.
But in the second I think the best LOOKING armor was the N7, the rest is not as awesome.
Even less for female character.
And that’s a big bummer because armors with bonuses should look better.

Follow-up Inventory system suggestion
I know this is a huge trend right now but customizing your weapon is the best way.
Instead of forcing the player to choose between three assault rifles that’s very different from one and another, let’s say since Shepard is an VIP he only wants the best from 5 different weapon corporations where each have their specialty.
Then let the player add parts to increase accuracy or range etc. to make the gun more personal (color and patterns too of course).
Because it feels so stupid that the armor system has better customizing options then the weapons.
Also add the possibility too add a grenade launcher, skip the heavy weapon for the soldier and give it to the rest classes.
Follow-up Discount
Also if Shepard uses more than one gun (most of the time) from the same corporation he gets a discount.
Then the player can balance the importance of price or taste.
 
Upgrading
I need to know, did the whole development team play the flash game “Upgrade Complete”?
All you do in the game is upgrade everything and I feel that Mass Effect is not that far away from it.
Half of the game is spent on finding stuff then gathering stuff so you can upgrade stuff.
I can buy that you need to upgrade for the huge threat to humankind but this takes too much time of the game.
I’ll rather have the horrible inventory system from the first game then running around for resources all the time to upgrade my weapons (even though I became preeetty good at it).


Mini-Games
I love that you skipped the skills needed to hack things.
But more mini-games like in Mass Effect where you have to navigate through things.
Even though I like the new mini-games.


Optimize better!
I feel like no beta testers were present when you made Mass Effect 2.
The total lack of keyboard and scroll use confuses me.
Especially when it worked excellent in the first game when using the mouse buttons to zoom in and out of solar systems.
And why take away the crouch?
I felt awesome when going from crouch to sprint in the first game and was very disappointed to see that you take away that function.
And please don’t have a button that does three different things when you map control for the PC.

It might work well on console but irritates PC users.

DLC
Many PC gamers are against DLC because they think it’s something that should have been there in the beginning.
I agree with them but at the same time, I think you should have more DLC where you have to connect to a social network monitored by you (this DLC should of course be free).
That way you can encourage pirates (aka harmless cheap gamers) to buy the game.
I feel like everyone that has played Mass Effect 2 without buying it should *insert random way to die*.

Of course there are people that lacks internet but that’s a huge minority, even less if you only think about those with a strong PC or an Xbox 360.


Spectre vs. Cerberus
I don’t understand how the council let me be a Spectre.
I wish there was more missions and story involving the conflicts between council and Cerberus.
Less upgrading-mania and more gameplay stuff guys.
 
Fan Requests
When I played Mass Effect 2 I could help but feel like you have taking fan requests too serious.
Instead I think you should really analyze what’s really wrong with the mechanic.
An example, don’t take away a crappy inventory system only to turn it into an upgrading-mania (Sorry, I’ll try to stop mention that).


Followers = WTF
Sometimes I wonder how stupid my followers are.
Here I am running around with the perfect human female and the best assassin out there.
Still it takes them forever to move where I want and to shot.
Shouldn’t my elite followers take more action then the enemy AI?
I feel like I’m trying to save the galaxy with a bunch of retarded kids (sorry if I sounded like a jerk but it kind of gives you an honest picture of how the friendly AI acts).
The only good followers in the game are the snipers.
Since either they pop up and shot only one shot with a pistol/shotgun or they do it with a sniper rifle which takes a lot more damage.
As it is now all they are good for are their special powers and funny comments.
 
Dynamic.
This is something Mass Effect needs, more things that happened around the environment.
Maybe the Krogan sees a pillar that’s badly damaged and decides to tip it over the enemies.
Or Drell says he found a good sniping spot and runs away etc. (this should of course happened in a way where it does not feel scripted.)

And that goes for everything else too, just add more dynamic to the game, maybe watching a spaceship dock at the dock, just cool random sci-fi things (if you had ships dock randomly in the citadel in the first game it would be so awesome.)

Follow-up I should go
Please add more dynamic in the ending of conversations, please!

NPC Interaction.
Sometimes I feel like the NPC onboard on the Normandy really didn’t have a clue what was happening in the ship.
I mean Tali did not care when Legion joined up, the engineers did not mention that suddenly a quarian worked next to them.
Even though they don’t seem to be afraid to say what’s on their mind.
Same thing with other things, no one seemed to care about things they should.

Follow-up Cards game.
I was very disappointed when they said I could play cards with the engineers.
Because I couldn’t!
Imagine how cool it would be to sit at a table with the engineers, Miranda, Jack and Quarian.
And just watch how they react and stuff.
Hearing Jack say “Damn that Quarian is good at bluffing.”
Maybe in practical use it’s a bad idea but admit that it sounds epic.
 
Anderson
No offence but can anyone tell this guy to get a facial reconstruction?
I still have the picture in my head of his expression in the end of the first game that almost made me wet my pants of laughter.
He looked like that weird fella in Ice Age.
He should look more like Keith David, with that enormous smile and charisma.


Miranda
Is it just me or is this voice actor bad on balancing between American and Australian accent?


Biotic’s
They should be more transparent.
Watching blue stuff fly all over the place looks good but it’s not very realistic.
The blue should only be visible with certain military grade equipment.


That’s it for me, as I said I found this game to be awesome but I believe it would be better if it hadn’t been a middle landing.
Best of luck in future Mass Effect games and remember, I will watch every step and turn you make.

I should go.


 
Without wax.
Sierra Khaar