--I've developed a love/hate relationship with ME2. I'll play though it again, to be sure, as I did with ME 1, but I have a strong preference for ME 1. ME 2 is twice the number of disks, but half as long. I visited 95+% of all explorable planets, and finished every quest I discovered or came through mail or discoveries and completed the game on normal difficulty in just over 12 hours. It took me 21+ hours to finish ME 1 (with Bring Down the Sky) on Hard with all the prior knowledge of where to go, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I like ME 2 well enough, it's still really good, but I wanted to post those things that I really didn't like about ME 2 that have given me concern about what is coming in DLC and ME 3.
The 'away' missions are too short, largely irrelevant and provide virtually nothing to enrich the game experience. There are several planet-side missions that are literally less than 5 minutes start to finish - and I'm not talking about those that are actually timed. The mission to restart the generator to bring back up the shield for the solar observatory took less time to complete than it did to leave and get back to the Normandy (loading times). Not to mention the logic behind such a quest was moronic - who in their right mind would set up a manned solar observatory without the correct maintenance personnel and equipment to fix a mission critical protective barrier in a button pushing sequence a 6 year old could figure out? I could not do 70% of the away missions and walk away feeling like I missed nothing by skipping them. Some credits, a couple of resources, and maybe a weapon upgrade that I could also get elsewhere. Really? I was genuinely expecting more.
The new Normandy is great - but I have 3 pet peeves. Feeding the fish, and yes, I know I can eventually convince Kelly to feed them - but she doesn't do it reliably and EDI, who can hack 8000 alien firewalls simultaneously, can't run a timer that releases fish food? I also miss the stairs on SR1 between the CIC and the Crew Quarters. It was nice not to have to continually zone in and out every time I wanted to move between the 2 most commonly used decks. The other pet peeve was all the locked doors in the beginning - I'm the ****g Captain. But I can't go into the observation deck. Awesome. Locking portions of the ship simply because the character being put in there later on wasn't there yet was stupid. Other observations: personalizing the captain's cabin means nothing if you're the only one in it til after the game is done. I'd be just as happy with the armor locker by the airlock on the CIC and just remove the captain's cabin completely. It's not worth going there if nothing ever happens (and I include the post-game cut scenes in my definition of "nothing ever happening"). I can't even sit down to read my mail. And to be honest, I still don't understand why I, as the captain that everybody has this deep respect for, being a galactic hero and all, has to run my ass all over the ship to talk to people. I have a briefing/comm room. I have a cabin and and office. Why can't I jump on the comm's system and just call the person I want to talk to into my office, or the briefing room? Why can't I, as the captain of the ship and leader of the mission, decide who I have in my briefings and debriefings? RHIP (Rank Has Its Privileges). I've saved the galaxy once, had a secret organization spend billions raising me from the dead and building me a ship to go out and save the galaxy 'again'. But I can't use an intercom to ask the engineer to report to the briefing room. What gives?
The plot advancement missions are also somewhat linear, short, and leave little to the imagination by way of surprises or twists. The only real "cool" one was near the beginning where you first run into Tali. That was kind of nice. Liara's little side-quests were kind of pointless, and Illium was way, way too small. The missions against the collectors I found to be awfully repetitive, with predictable action and obvious solutions. Not saying that every single encounter was that way, but so many of them were that the remainder no longer stand out. The human reaver made me feel like I was fighting a giant sized Terminator, and the right heavy weapon virtually trivialized that encounter.
I came away feeling like ME 2 was less about going after the Collectors and more about character interaction. I don't think, for me at least, that it delivered. Each character, predictably, had an acquisition mission and a loyalty mission, and sure, you can spend lots of time running around the Normandy talking to them, but I never really felt like I developed any kind of relationship with any of them - including the romance lines. The characters all seemed so incredibly stereotypical, and honestly, I felt like there were too many of them. Of them all, the only ones I felt like really added to the experience were Legion and Mordin. Mordin was just cool. The Rogers and Hammerstein bit was awesome. Legion was the only plot twist I didn't see coming. Of the rest, aside from Garrus and Tali, whom I liked well enough from ME 1, I was left with more of a 'meh'. Oh Miranda was played well enough, and she was fine as a romantic interest, but I would have preferred someone less obvious, predictable and more enigmatic. I could play the game and be just has happy with the results if the 'team' was half the size. I'm not referring to the voice acting or portrayals, that was top shelf as always; I'm referring to interaction and their overall placement in the story. If the final scene didn't have certain specialist requirements in order to complete it, most of the characters brought nothing to the experience.
Of the games' mechanics, I felt like too much had been removed from character development. Sure, each time you ranked up a skill, it had an impact, but you're left with too little customization and too much 'template'. Character development had no real depth. I didn't really feel like I was building my own unique experience by the choices I made, it felt more like I was simply choosing between one of three or four flavors. There was little room individuality in the development tree, which made leveling up lose significance. Combat I think was better, particularly sniper rifles. I think shotguns could use some tuning, as I was shooting husks in the head at point blank with a 4/5 researched shotgun, and it was taking follow up shots to kill them, whereas other weapons' headshots were proving more effective. I don't think shotgun damage scaled appropriately at really short ranges where they are supposed to shine. I liked the new armor mechanic, where you just add on to what you have, and you could change the texture and colors, that was nice - except for helmets. I didn't like that you had to wear your helmet outside combat, like when you're in conversations or shopping - it just felt really weird that Shepard is the only one in the entire area wearing a helmet. I also wasn't so crazy about the lack of customization for squad mates. Their shields get 40% stronger, yet they're not even wearing so much as a utility belt? Uh, okay.... I also liked the paragon/renegade decisions where you hit the trigger to perform an action. That was a nice new feature.
The conversations throughout the game seemed a little too...plain? maybe? I can't really put a finger on a good word to describe it, maybe flat would be a better word. The choices were all very apparent - this was paragon, that one was renegade, that one was neutral, that one was antagonist, that one was pacifist. I think overall, with the exception of combat, the entire game lacked the depth and epic experience feeling that ME 1 had. Overly distilled, overly refined and while I hate to use this expression, because I don't think it's entirely accurate, the game felt somewhat "dumbed down".
Which brings me to scanning planets for resources. Let's see, how do you spell useless waste and total time sink? Scanning planets for resources. It was kinda fun the first 30 to 40 seconds. Once you figured out that you simply held down the left trigger and either spun the planet around while you systematically went every other line, or you went up, spin 2 lines, down, spin 2 lines. It became a painful chore. Even when you found an anomaly, having to go find it and launch a probe was a waste of time. If the Normandy was fully crewed, either EDI or a science officer / sensor operator would handle all that. And having to hold the trigger down was a pain - literally. For those of us with greying hair, holding the trigger down for extended periods can generate some discomfort. It would have been nice to be able to squeeze once for on, and then again to turn it off.
Kelly Chambers - Best. Idea. Ever. God thank you for a Yeoman. Especially one like her. Whoever came up with the idea of putting her in should get a raise. And a bonus.
The romance options in ME 2 were obvious, and kinda boring. I'm not going to get dragged down into what goes into the cut scenes except to say ME 1 was best done of ME1, ME2 and DA:O. The game is rated M - you're depicting adults. Either they're gonna do what adults do in an adult-like manner, or they're not. I'd rather have no romance options at all than boring, predictable lines, obvious romance conversation paths, and downplayed cut scenes. I will say the engine room was different, and the dance show was mildly entertaining. Go Yoda - do, or do not...there is no try.
All in all, ME 2 wasn't as good as ME 1. Too many characters, not enough plot, too short, pointless side quests and missions, not enough incentive to explore, overly simplified character development, and a linear, predictable and uninspiring storyline. I am being very critical, largely because I have very high standards for a Bioware title. I did like ME 2, I will play it some more. I also still play ME 1. I think that the development team took the feedback from ME 1 and went a little too far in the other direction. I am hoping the pendulum swings back in ME 3, where things should hit more of a happy medium and the balance hits that magic formula of compelling story, excellent mechanics and rich experiences for the player.
P.S. I was really, really looking forward to seeing/helping out the Consort. I was hugely disappointed I couldn't revisit the Presidium. If you're looking for possible sub-plots and/or romance options for ME 3, she's #1 on my list. Oh, and when do we get to shoot Udina?
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