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1. Exploration
A large part of the appeal of space is the utter massiveness of it. It speaks to something deep in our psyche, the sense that it is too grand and wonderful to truly grasp. Say what you want about the Mako sequences of the original Mass Effect, but they gave the game a sense of scope that is missing in this one. There was a certain elegance, a lonely grandeur to being the only living thing on a distant unknown planet. I also think that we as gamers like the sense of freedom, of not always being railroaded to our destination. The key change should have been to add variety to these planets, not cut them altogether.
2. Story
The story of the original Mass Effect was an extremely well done, if predictable, affair. But at least there was a story. In Mass Effect 2, the endgame is clearly visible from the very beginning. What followed in the subsequent hours can only be described as a giant intergalectic Pokemon quest, 30 some-odd hours of collecting and powering up characters. From a lesser studio we would have no reason to complain, but Bioware has such a long history of fascinating tales that I can only wish they had been more ambitious. The game moved in fits and starts, largely because each quest was a discrete mission with no bearing on the overall goal.
3. Relationships
Bioware has become adept at the dialogue of seduction. In fact, they have become so comfortable with this formula that we can now seduce and romance no less than seven characters. However, they have proven to be shockingly tone deaf when it come to dealing with characters already in relationships. In life, as in most art, relationships become truly interesting after a couple has hooked up, when one finds all the hidden flaws and unxepected delights that had been previously hidden. The fact that no dialogue was included even acknowledging your previous relationship is quite frankly unforgivable. Presumably the writers were trying to show a rocky part of the relationship, but even fights and hurt feelings would have preferable to this.
4. Simplicity
I hesitate to include this because it was quite obviously the dev's mantra while making this game. But they took an ideal and ran a little to far with it. Penny Arcade made an apt comparison to Deus Ex 2, another game that streamlined a bit too much. Thankfully we console owners are more forgiving than our PC brethren, who view any retreat from complexity as a form of apostasy. But there is precious little role playing in this role playing game. One of the great features of RPG's is that as the challenge progresses, your toolbox of skills expands accordingly. In Mass Effect 2 my strategy was pretty much the same at level 3 as it was at 23.
5. Immersion
This one is the most difficult to define, but it is also by far the most important. In one sense it is an amalgamation of the previous four items, and something else entirely. It is believability. When a character who professed fierce devotion to me last game can't seem to recall that anything happened, it snaps me out my immersion. When the dev's can be bothered to include both genders of a species, I stop and wonder why. When cities resemble not so much livible entities, but rather meticulously designed corridors to shuttle us to our next checkpoint, it breaks my immersion. When the only house on Omega is the one I am looking for, I feel like stopping and doing something else. This is one reason I enjoyed Assassin's Creed, despite the dev's apparent neglect to include an actual gameplay mechanism. It just felt like I was really in 10th-century Palestine. Believablility should never be sacrificed on the altar of expediency.
All games are just nuts and bolts under the surface, but the truly great ones make efforts to hide these in a seamless gameplay experience. Mass Effect 2, by virtue of packing everything into neat, discretely contained particles, draws attention to these inner mechanisms. After one character I know everything I need to do to obtain the loyalty or pursue a romance with anyone remaining on my team. It is is a kinetically enjoyable, but rather soulless, experience. It has the feel of something that has been thinktanked to death, and any subsequent shards of genius polished off as well. It falls just short of that illusive quality we like to label as 'art'.
Modifié par periaqueductal_gray, 09 février 2010 - 08:00 .
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