periaqueductal_gray wrote...
The excellence of Mass Effect 2 has been well documented. A quick perusal of Game Rankings reveals a littany of celebratory reviews, for the most part well deserved. A lesser product would not be worth this type of analysis. But usually negative feedback is considerably more valuable than positive, so here we go:
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'.
Well, you've put some thought into this, so I'll try to do the same with my 2 cents.
1) Pretty much agree on the space exploration front. I don't really miss the Mako all that much but I didn't hate it either. I think getting rid of planet exploration may have been a case of throwing out the baby with the make bathwater. It would be nice if there were one planet per system that you could explore at surface level without having to get caught up in mountain ranges. Surely there is technology around to make this less tedious than it was in the Mako. I don't consider this a fatal flaw in the game, by any means, but it could be improved.
2) I strongly disagree on this one. I've seen many complain about the story in Mass Effect 2 but I'm just not in that camp. I really think it's great and it fits the traditional format of trilogies. In the middle chapter, the hero's world is thrown into chaos. It is intended to work this way. Things aren't supposed to be nearly as seamless and ordered as in the first chapter. The reason is that you had to wrap things up well in part one to give a satisfying conclusion after introducing the main characters. Now, having done that, you must throw their lives into disarray, so you can put them all back together again once and for all in the conclusion.
I enjoyed meeting the new characters in this one. I cared about them and I felt like the exposition at the beginning reintroduced me to shepard in a very satifying way. The best part, however, was the conclusion. I was totally caught up in the story during the final act. I was concerned not only with the fate of the galaxy but also with the fate of each individual team member. Won't go into details because this is the spoiler-free zone but the decisions they have you make as shepard during the suicide mission really give a sense of personal responsibility for the lives of your team members and crew. Add to that all the new clues linked to the plot and I was thrilled.
3) I'm not sure what you're talking about WRT relationships. The things you say aren't in the game actually are there, to my recollection. Perhaps I'm not reading your post right here.
4) The inventory/level up/skill point system has been streamlined but your toolbox does expand as you progress through the game. You can't customize it as much, though. And I do realize that is driving some people nuts. I can respect that but for me role-playing game means exactly that -- playing a role. and i get that sense from this game more than any other, thanks to the dialogue wheel, the characters and relationships and the immersive sci-fi storyline. So while I would wecome the chance to customize weapons a bit more, it's not really a big deal for me. And I certainly don't want a return to that cumbersome inventory from ME1 (which was a great game, nonetheless).
5) I agree with you hear, sort of, but only to a very limited extent. ME1 was ever so slightly more consistently immersive, IMO, for two reasons: 1) the controls didn't take as long for me to master, so I didn't spend most of my first playthrough figuring out what buttons to push during combat. 2) the collector armor in ME2 covers your face during intense conversation moments. that's just silly. you're trying to make shepard convey emotion and all you is a metal shield. The lack of armor for teammates in space goes along with this. To address your specific points: a) you don't see salarian or krogan women for story reasons. Salarians are mostly male and Krogan women are looked at by the dominant males as breeding machines. I think the choice to keep them out is intentional and underscores some story themes, so good for immersion, not a hindrance to it.
I made a lot of wrong turns my first time through the game (when not using the arrow). I know my sense of direction isn't the best but it's not like there as only one way to go all the time, so this wasn't really a problem for me. c) Omega is a very small space station w/only one dominant figure. I'm not sure where else on that jellyfish rock you'd want to go.
So there's my take. Thanks for your post.
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:devil:
<3:sick:
:innocent:
there is always a middle way, latins said "in medio stat virtus" that means "the virtue is in the middle". You still loot an amount of 1 pistol, why not 4 or 5, why not give the opportunity to have even small differences between weapons and armors in damage/defence stats, but very different appearance?
