81 réponses à ce sujet

[Kaylord]

I am not used to taking so long to finish a game, but, you know, getting older and having a demanding job and a wife makes time a precious resource. So. Finally finished, and I crave for some more time to play it anew.

Since the mid 80s, I am into PC games and have played my share of great evergreens. It is fantastic to experience the almost movie-like quality of modern, story driven games. But at the same time, I see many old virtues disappear without any good reason.

Here my impressions:

Fantastic story, fantastic cinematic screenplay, fantastic characters and animation. Really. Fantastic.

Some plot holes are annoying, though:

- Council politics are poorly covered. Of course there is distrust after the top Spectre disappears for two years and the appears with a big powerful cerberus ship in tow. But the matter is handled too superficially to be believable; a council would not simply ignore, they would, as the absolute minimum, investigate.

- Same holds true for the Alliance. Shepard can´t even get rid of the N7 logo on his uniform. Except for a monument on the crash site, the Alliance doesn´t add anything.

- Romances of ME1 were poorly transferred. At least some time together after a happy reunion would have been appropriate. This could have been nicely expressed with a love scene.

- Dead reaper had a wonderful ghostly atmosphere which could have been explored a lot more. The trap by activating the mass effect shields, as well as the presence of a geth ship, is not really explained.


OTOH, the gameplay - as opposed to the cinematic part - seemed to me a big setback, throwing overboard developments which took place over many game generations, and replacing them with virtually nothing instead:

- The game structure seems to suffer more and more. Like DA, we have to stop by certain points to collect some stuff or squadmates and then to a fireworks conclusion. Compared with "old games" like BG1 oder BG2, this becomes boring pretty fast. It´s time for some new old ideals of free exploration coming back here.

- Inventory gone and replaced by one of the most superficial upgrade systems I have ever seen. This is arcade game niveau, folks! I expect this of old console games, but not on a high-standard PC game.

- Much advertised customization of armor is disappointing. Adding non-customizable DLC-armor adds insult to the injury. Finally, removing the helmet toggle is exemplary for lack of sense for good game-play details.

- Character screen. Armor/Weapon equipment. Journal. Well, to quote a review I read somewhere: "If you have to access in-game information via escape key, someone did not deserve his employment as a GUI designer." Besides, the effect of having no traditional inventory is that you can only change equipment on certain choke points in the game. I fail to see how this could be an improvement to gameplay.

- Heat-Sinks: Since so many RPG mechanics were removed, compared to ME1, can anybody tell me why an ammo-system is supposed to add to the game-experience? It is not coherent, it is not logical, it even contradicts the self-imposed designer philosophy! For example, the inventory and loot system was gimped because it allegedly did not add to "game-play-experience". So, having to look for ammo all the time does?

- Steering Vehicles: I know, many players hated the Mako. But this was IMO only because of the largely uninspired mission design (but I liked it anymway). The fact itself that you could mount and actively use a vehicle to do missions was a very good feature. So, completey removing vehicle missions is a big letdown for me. Patching in a 5 mission pack with the hammerhead seems to be a weak sollution. This vehicle is by no means integrated into the game in terms of the main story line.

- Mining: This is what the reknown game designers of Bioware call the exciting exploration part of the game? For me, this is more boring than driving with the Mako through some high-res graphic landscape with fantastic alien-world night skies. Remember this red planet with two mighty suns looming in the sky? Or that big, almost sky filling planet? I really miss that feeling of being really far far away on an alien planet a lot! It doesn´t come up in ME2´s "mission tunnels".


So bottomline; while it is a great game with an almost movie-like flow, the game mechanics seem to me a shortcoming in almost every aspect. Perhaps it has to do with the modern short-term attention fashion which hails from console gaming. But in my eyes, Bioware is seriously loosing its competence to do good *PC* games.

[Vena_86]

Agreed

Kaylord wrote...
- Steering Vehicles: I know, many players hated the Mako. But this was IMO only because of the largely uninspired mission design (but I liked it anymway). The fact itself that you could mount and actively use a vehicle to do missions was a very good feature. So, completey removing vehicle missions is a big letdown for me. Patching in a 5 mission pack with the hammerhead seems to be a weak sollution. This vehicle is by no means integrated into the game in terms of the main story line.

- Mining: This is what the reknown game designers of Bioware call the exciting exploration part of the game? For me, this is more boring than driving with the Mako through some high-res graphic landscape with fantastic alien-world night skies. Remember this red planet with two mighty suns looming in the sky? Or that big, almost sky filling planet? I really miss that feeling of being really far far away on an alien planet a lot! It doesn´t come up in ME2´s "mission tunnels".


So bottomline; while it is a great game with an almost movie-like flow, the game mechanics seem to me a shortcoming in almost every aspect. Perhaps it has to do with the modern short-term attention fashion which hails from console gaming. But in my eyes, Bioware is seriously loosing its competence to do good *PC* games.

specially this

[Dark Glasses]

Vena_86 wrote...

Agreed

Kaylord wrote...
- Steering Vehicles: I know, many players hated the Mako. But this was IMO only because of the largely uninspired mission design (but I liked it anymway). The fact itself that you could mount and actively use a vehicle to do missions was a very good feature. So, completey removing vehicle missions is a big letdown for me. Patching in a 5 mission pack with the hammerhead seems to be a weak sollution. This vehicle is by no means integrated into the game in terms of the main story line.

- Mining: This is what the reknown game designers of Bioware call the exciting exploration part of the game? For me, this is more boring than driving with the Mako through some high-res graphic landscape with fantastic alien-world night skies. Remember this red planet with two mighty suns looming in the sky? Or that big, almost sky filling planet? I really miss that feeling of being really far far away on an alien planet a lot! It doesn´t come up in ME2´s "mission tunnels".


So bottomline; while it is a great game with an almost movie-like flow, the game mechanics seem to me a shortcoming in almost every aspect. Perhaps it has to do with the modern short-term attention fashion which hails from console gaming. But in my eyes, Bioware is seriously loosing its competence to do good *PC* games.

specially this

Agreed.

[Dokteur Kill]

Sums up my feelings pretty well as well.



Great game all in all, but could have used a bit more polish in some areas.

[GueRakun]

Agreed, it definitely is a good game, which gives me a fun experience. But on some gameplay mechanic it feels arcadey, and without customization of armor or item, it is not a wholly fulfilling experience. Too bad.

[Varenus Luckmann]

I have nothing to add at this junction. I agree completely.

[HTTP 404]

I agree with all your points except the ammo and inventory system. The ammo experience makes it possible to conserve my shots and aim better because I only have so much. to have limitless ammo like in ME1 just allowed me to blindfire a tough situation away.



I disagree and agree with your take on the inventory system. It does seem dumbed down for upgrades and I would like them to expand on it maybe even develop upgrade trees for your weapons and squadmates as an example. I agreed on point by how many different weapons you could choose from in ME2, it was simple and realistic. I never understood how you could access dozens of weapons while on a mission. Makes sense to choose your loadout before a mission like in real life.



although no two levels were alike in ME2 (which was a nice surprise), I do miss roaming around the landscape in the mako on an alien planet. Hopefully this upcoming DLC changes that.

[Flash_in_the_flesh]

Agree with everything but I'm a big fan of ammo system. It is a gameplay improvement and its introduction is explained in Codex.

Edit: oh, and I'd surely enjoy more inventory options but even at this state I find ME2 inventory much better than in ME1. ME1 was about collecting heaps of junk when the majority of players only used 2 brands of armor and 1 brand of weapon.

Modifié par Flash_in_the_flesh, 02 mars 2010 - 05:50 .

[Dethateer]

Err, the Geth ship attached to the Reaper was explained. Well, it would be, if you ever wondered how Legion got there in the first place.
The Hammerhead was supposed to be in the game in the first place, it was removed due to time constraints, most likely, and.... well, I pretty much agree with the rest, except for the ammo part. The only weapons I had trouble with when it came to ammo were the Vindicator and Carnifex.

Modifié par Dethateer, 02 mars 2010 - 06:22 .

[Samael77]

Have to agree with this review. Good job.

[masterjedirobyn]

I have to take offense at the way you make console gamers sound...as if PC games are the only *true* games. And blaming the 'dumbing down' of the game elements on console influence? come on.

[Dethateer]

Console games really are more dumbed down than PC games. You have more resources to work with on a PC than on a console, not to mention the amount of keys on a keyboard + mouse + various other peripherals versus one controller.

[AsheraII]

As another 80's gamer, I'd like to add how horrible the hacking and bypass minigames are.



Hacking: Too easy. Might be my past as a programmer, though I doubt that. It's basically a matter of not touching the red squares and selecting the right code fragments as they come up. I liked the idea though, so maybe they could work a bit more on the idea.



Bypassing: This is more like a lottery than an actual game. If you get 1 pair that has its parts placed far from each other, it gets hard. If you get 2 pairs that have their parts placed more than half a screen from eachother, it gets impossible. So running into a bypass object is usually a moment where you save the game and just retry untill you get an easy layout, since the layouts are completely random. So this minigame could do with a little easy-ing things up, llike making the connection timer last slightly longer for pairs that are far from eachother. It doesn't have to be much really, just about an extra 0.15 - 0.2 seconds for every quarter of the screen the two nodes are apart should do the trick just fine. It will stay hard, but much less random.

[Dethateer]

Fun fact. You can hover the cursor over a peg to see its type. Both suck, though, they get boring fast.

[Wolfehunter]

Good review. I agree! Being an old school gamer myself. This game feels rushed.. To many RPG elements removed. It is closer to an arcade game. I hope bioware doesn't dumb down ME3 more... We might as well play pong in 3D..hehehe.

[miltos33]

I don't think that our fellow console gamers should necessarily be offended when somebody says that recent games have been dumbed down to appeal to the console market. It is a fact that the PC is much more advanced, resourceful, and versatile than the consoles. It is also a fact that developers who don't make MMOs they have to dumb down their games these days so that they can also appeal to the console market and remain commercially viable. All recent RPGs by Bethesda and Bioware have been streamlined and dumbed down for that reason alone.

[jacksmedula1]

OP... did you really play the game and critique the whole thing as you went? Why dont you try looking at the game for what is, instead of what it isnt.



For the inventory crowd... once you got your spectre weapons/fric mat/colossus, what did you do with your inventory?

[Ryzaki]

miltos33 wrote...

I don't think that our fellow console gamers should necessarily be offended when somebody says that recent games have been dumbed down to appeal to the console market. It is a fact that the PC is much more advanced, resourceful, and versatile than the consoles. It is also a fact that developers who don't make MMOs they have to dumb down their games these days so that they can also appeal to the console market and remain commercially viable. All recent RPGs by Bethesda and Bioware have been streamlined and dumbed down for that reason alone.

I agree with this and I'm (mostly) a console gamer myself. Let's be realistic people PCs are simply better now one might fight consoles more comfortable and convient but when it comes to graphics and power? PCs win by a mile.

[SimonTheFrog]

I agree to the OP.

I see why developers dumbing down the gameplay to appeal to a wider market. But they got to be careful. Even the wider market will feel insulted and bored if it realizes the lack of gameplay options and strategy.
For example i can see that they got rid of the inventory system and replaced it by "upgrades" that are in fixed locations in the maps. But for the player there is nothing to decide about items or upgrades. There is always the more the better. And the armor is all irrelevant. I tried several combination of armor on my hero. It just doesn't have any decisive impact. The same goes for squad powers. You are able to max 3 of 4. There's basically nothing to think about, too.

The whole aspect of tactics is reduced to squadmate selection and pausing the battle to give your squadmates the orders to move or attack. That's it.

I fear that a lot of people will find this insufficiant and over-simplified in the long run. Even among the "wider" gamermarkets.

Modifié par SimonTheFrog, 02 mars 2010 - 07:18 .

[Collider]

- Council politics are poorly covered. Of course there is distrust after the top Spectre disappears for two years and the appears with a big powerful cerberus ship in tow. But the matter is handled too superficially to be believable; a council would not simply ignore, they would, as the absolute minimum, investigate.

The Council being stubborn and useless is a plot device. If they DID do something about it, there would be no Mass Effect. There is no game if the Council says "Alright Shepard, we'll take it from here."

- Romances of ME1 were poorly transferred. At least some time together after a happy reunion would have been appropriate. This could have been nicely expressed with a love scene.

Kaidan and Ashley are both annoyed that Shepard is working with Cerberus. They also have jobs to do with the alliance. Had they not been annoyed with Shepard for joining Cerberus, they would have less of a reason not to join Shepard.

Liara is too busy tracking down the Shadow Broker. She wants revenge. It has consumed her.

And if they did join Shepard, if they follow the same rules as the other characters, they could die - which is clearly what the developers don't want. They want Kaidan, Ashley and Liara to survive as they both important roles in ME3.

The game structure seems to suffer more and more. Like DA, we have to stop by certain points to collect some stuff or squadmates and then to a fireworks conclusion. Compared with "old games" like BG1 oder BG2, this becomes boring pretty fast. It´s time for some new old ideals of free exploration coming back here.

If isn't broken, don't fix it. I love this style.

- Inventory gone and replaced by one of the most superficial upgrade systems I have ever seen. This is arcade game niveau, folks! I expect this of old console games, but not on a high-standard PC game.

The inventory in ME1 was a nightmare. Most of the time I was just selling millions upon millions of junk items through an extremely annoying interface or omnigelling them. Omnigel being almost completely useless.

- Much advertised customization of armor is disappointing.

The fact that we have segmented armor and can color them as we please isn't disappointing, it's awesome.

Finally, removing the helmet toggle is exemplary for lack of sense for good game-play details.

- Heat-Sinks: Since so many RPG mechanics were removed, compared to ME1, can anybody tell me why an ammo-system is supposed to add to the game-experience? It is not coherent, it is not logical, it even contradicts the self-imposed designer philosophy! For example, the inventory and loot system was gimped because it allegedly did not add to "game-play-experience". So, having to look for ammo all the time does?

You're not looking for ammo all the time. At all. You're not shooting at crates or checking boxes for ammo, ammo drops under enemies when they die. Ammo isn't hard to find.

- Mining: This is what the reknown game designers of Bioware call the exciting exploration part of the game? For me, this is more boring than driving with the Mako through some high-res graphic landscape with fantastic alien-world night skies. Remember this red planet with two mighty suns looming in the sky? Or that big, almost sky filling planet? I really miss that feeling of being really far far away on an alien planet a lot! It doesn´t come up in ME2´s "mission tunnels".

Definitely not more boring. Scanning isn't fun, but driving the mako up jagged mountains in incredibly boring planets is even more boring. The former is easy to do, the latter is just annoying.

Modifié par Collider, 02 mars 2010 - 07:18 .

[Br0th3rGr1mm]

I am also a fellow old time PC gamer, and while some of your issues are valid, how could you overlook the fact that this series was fully and completely intended to be a console only (X360 exlcusive, in fact) game?  I hate to break it to you, but the days of PC games being more sophisticated than console games is over.  The vast majority of the money to be made in this industry is in the consoles and PC gamers (myself included) had best be happy someone higher up hasn't weighted the support and development costs of PC games too closely or the PC versions won't even be co-developed or ported.

Even the original ME was never supose to be an RPG like BG....hell, Shepherd is a gender choice and visual edit shy of being a JRPG typical main character.  I think there are far too many people trying to shoehorn the ME series into something it never was....a western, D&D style RPG.

[ImperialOperative]

XxTaLoNxX wrote...

@Collider: We understand... BioWare made ME2 for gamers just like you. Gamers who like simplification of gameplay mechanics and narrow and nearly useless inventory systems. We also understand that there was a minority of players who didn't like the Mako in comparison to gamers who enjoyed it but wished it was better implemented.

You breaking his entire quote down to express your minority opinion isn't going to help ME3 be better than ME2. What it is going to perhaps do is convince BioWare that they made the correct design decisions, when clearly according to the majority.. they did not.

Majority = 15 cats on the forums?

lulz

ME3 they need to instill an AD&D 2 system, and forced isometric camera.  Game will only be good once they do that.  Turn based of course.

Modifié par ImperialOperative, 02 mars 2010 - 07:36 .

[MonkeyLungs]

jacksmedula1 wrote...

OP... did you really play the game and critique the whole thing as you went? Why dont you try looking at the game for what is, instead of what it isnt.

For the inventory crowd... once you got your spectre weapons/fric mat/colossus, what did you do with your inventory?

Not all my ME1 game complete characters have Colossus. Some have Mantis or Predator  ... Ursa X is even very good. I think my engineer finished the game using Mercenary X. Further, you could equip all your squaddies with armor so the next best to what my Shep had went to whomever else could use it. I do have 1 game with pretty much everyone in Colossus though ... they are my superhero squad!

Frictionless materials is the bad choice in my opinion, especially on higher difficulties for ME1. I prefer 2 scram rails and snowblind rounds/shredder VII/Tungsten VII in my Assualt Rifle. Way more damage. With Shredder or Tungsten there is concern for overheating but burst fire is fine and the damage is noticeably better. With Snowblind the reduced RoF also drastically reduces the chance of overheat.