92 réponses à ce sujet

[OasisForever1991]

As a basis of intent for anyone this is my opinion of the games to lead into questions of what the vision and feeling it is that Mass Effect 1 and 2 is and what it gives you and what ME3 might to going into in terms of vision and feeling of the ME universe.

ME1 has the feeling of the Mass
Effect universe and also it makes you feel even MORE connected with the
story and the characters and everything Mass Effect than ME2 did. ME2
felt so "automatic". It was hard for me to feel the sense of exploration
and the greater feeling of being Commander Shepard. And I say "being"
Shepard because I didn't really feel like "I" was Shepard or you know
that "this is my character" in ME2 because of this "automatic" (in a
way) story.

ME2 cannot come close to the feeling ME1 gave you
about being in the Normandy and exploring the universe, running around
Noveria for the first time and saying to yourself and really feeling this planet or ariving on the The Big C for the first time and
actually feeling Humans are aprat of this Galactic society, trying to
get a foot hold in this great we just dicovered.

For me it all
comes down to this:

For me it's all about the feeling. Because I never
got any REAL feeling from a video game untill ME1 and I hated to see
that go in ME2 and that's the only thing I cared about was the MASS
EFFECT FEELING of this great SCi-FI Isaac Asimov high minded novel video
game that is Mass Effect 1..............IMO

And the only I didn't
like was it didn't give me that Mass Effect FEELING. It is not about
weapons or clothes or custimization or whatever. Bioware has told us
what ME2 is. And it might just be the kindia greyed out texture of things or the "old" lighting that was used in ME1 to make this feeling about a real invisioned place from a Sci Fi book.

I watched the Making of Mass Effect from the first game and was totally into the fact of what they looked at for the vision and what came out. ME1 has a real figure about it and ME2 just polished it. I hated to say ME2 doesn't have that "space feeling" or what have you but I think it is the re-defined and REfined lighting and everything in between, left, right and strait forward and back that made ME2 loose some magic vs. ME1

What do you think about this? From the first art work that was based on 80's Sci-Fi sleek looking design, to the first visions of the story gathered from everyone working on ME1 and everything in-between to come out to this final product, to ME2 wich was in a way a better overal game with everything polished and a good story( abit straight forward and controlling) but you see my point.

What do you think of the vision of Mass Effect and the feeling it gives you, and what do you see comming for the vision and feeling for Mass Effect 3?



Please keep on topic please.
EDIT: text got scrambled sorry.

Modifié par OasisForever1991, 11 mars 2010 - 07:47 .

[Tazzmission]

i felt mass effect 2 had a more emotional story to it. for starters you get to recruit your own crew and get to hear storys from them about there pasts. now i loved mass effect one for what it is and was it has a amazing story but i just felt mass 2 was more storied around the human race actually being noticed in the universe... because remember in me1 the council was sketchy on humans

[SimonTheFrog]

A lot of people are complaining about the lack of "exploration" as in actually going somewhere and search for goodies and secrets.

If they had included planets again than this would probably helped preserving the feeling you are talking about. Because everything else seems pretty much the same to me. From this perspective, i mean.



But i can see why they cut the planets. They were pretty ugly, mostly, and many people hated them. So they decided to do less locations but the ones that are there are perfectly scripted and pretty dense. This certainly has its appeal, too.



Maybe there's something in the middle that would be the most satisfying solution for most players.

[Tazzmission]

SimonTheFrog wrote...

A lot of people are complaining about the lack of "exploration" as in actually going somewhere and search for goodies and secrets.
If they had included planets again than this would probably helped preserving the feeling you are talking about. Because everything else seems pretty much the same to me. From this perspective, i mean.

But i can see why they cut the planets. They were pretty ugly, mostly, and many people hated them. So they decided to do less locations but the ones that are there are perfectly scripted and pretty dense. This certainly has its appeal, too.

Maybe there's something in the middle that would be the most satisfying solution for most players.

well dont forget wich people have forgotten that the game is on 2 disks for crying out lod. so bioware probably had tocut the content of certain things just to make the charachter back stories work

[TJSolo]

Tazzmission wrote...

i felt mass effect 2 had a more emotional story to it. for starters you get to recruit your own crew and get to hear storys from them about there pasts. now i loved mass effect one for what it is and was it has a amazing story but i just felt mass 2 was more storied around the human race actually being noticed in the universe... because remember in me1 the council was sketchy on humans

Uh? So in ME1 you didn't get to recruit your own crew and hear their past stories? 
What game have I been playing.

ME2 I didn't feel the struggle of humans trying to get noticed by the galaxy as strongly as ME1.
Hell ME2 used humans as a plot device but not in an emotional enough way for me to care and felt like "humans" could have been subbed for any other sentient species and the story would have remained the same.

[OasisForever1991]

TJSolo wrote...

Tazzmission wrote...

i felt mass effect 2 had a more emotional story to it. for starters you get to recruit your own crew and get to hear storys from them about there pasts. now i loved mass effect one for what it is and was it has a amazing story but i just felt mass 2 was more storied around the human race actually being noticed in the universe... because remember in me1 the council was sketchy on humans

Uh? So in ME1 you didn't get to recruit your own crew and hear their past stories? 
What game have I been playing.

ME2 I didn't feel the struggle of humans trying to get noticed by the galaxy as strongly as ME1.
Hell ME2 used humans as a plot device but not in an emotional enough way for me to care and felt like "humans" could have been subbed for any other sentient species and the story would have remained the same.

I can see both of your points but or me ME1 I just felt like I was friends with my crew more you know? A little bit more than 1 vs 2. But as for Humans: I think ME1 you felt it as in ME2 you did but it wasn't necessary for the Humans to gain loyalty from anyone or like to get into power or something like that because I didn't feel like ME1's story really impacted ME's universe (well maybe the reapers but that's another thread on it's own right? haha). I felt no one really took anyone all that seriously, or Shepard. But I can see both your points. It's just certain thing didn't get much attention too personnelly or in they way we all look at it from our point of views. It's cool though.

[Hulluliini]

I think one problem is the immersion getting broken by the mission end screens, loading screens and stuff. That, and some of the sidequests were ridiculous, like loading a mech with power cells so it can blast through stone and you'll get 3000 worth of some mineral??



The planets looked much more different this time around and had the potential to give that feel, but I guess the immersion breaking devices toned that down mayhaps..

[Meistr_Chef]

From an atmospheric and general "feel" for the tone of the game, it's Mass Effect 2 all the way for me.



Let's start with my overview of some levels. Omega is amazing. It really felt seedy, and as I approached the Afterlife bar the thumping sounds really enveloped me. Once I got into the bar, it almost felt like I was in a real bar, except techno futuristic. Anyone who's been in a few bars knows what this feeling is like, this pulsing ambience, and Afterlife nails it. The other standouts are the trash planet where I found myself marvelling at the scale of the disarray of the place, despite knowing that the level itself isn't that big. Illium felt like a darker and more developed Noveria. And so it goes. At every step I marvel at how much the design team was able to pull out of the limited level areas and make them feel unique and otherwordly. Tali's loyalty mission had so many quarians in one scene my jaw almost dropped; even some of the grander scenes in Mass Effect 1 like the spectre induction scene there were only a few people in the wide shots. So now when I play Mass Effect 1 the levels just seem a bit less lively, a little more sterile. This is probably by design but I can't help but notice that Bioware has managed to squeeze more out of each level per unit hardware performance they can afford.



Aside from the levels themselves, the pacing of the story starts off explosively, and though it understandably slows down mid-game to allow you to do your thing, the streamlined (pessimists will call it dumbed-down) game mechanics allow me to play more loosely and feel the urgency of the situation. I'll try not to spoil too much but seeing Bioware experiment with time-based consequences is amazing. It's not that great yet in its current form in Mass Effect 2 but the potential to polish it up is staggering; I've never seen it done in other RPG games (though I admit I have missed some big ones over the years so I could be wrong here).

[Meistr_Chef]

TJSolo wrote...

Tazzmission wrote...

i felt mass effect 2 had a more emotional story to it. for starters you get to recruit your own crew and get to hear storys from them about there pasts. now i loved mass effect one for what it is and was it has a amazing story but i just felt mass 2 was more storied around the human race actually being noticed in the universe... because remember in me1 the council was sketchy on humans

Uh? So in ME1 you didn't get to recruit your own crew and hear their past stories? 
What game have I been playing.

ME2 I didn't feel the struggle of humans trying to get noticed by the galaxy as strongly as ME1.
Hell ME2 used humans as a plot device but not in an emotional enough way for me to care and felt like "humans" could have been subbed for any other sentient species and the story would have remained the same.

I think it's great that for a change humans are in the unconventional position of power in the galaxy. Storywise, this is both an unexpected gift and possibly danger to humanity. In Mass Effect 1 humans kept getting shut out, and with a few big chance events, humans were thrust up into eminence. The resulting strains between humans and other aliens are hinted in the game and in the novels. To me this makes for a fresher take then being the underdog race in the universe.

Modifié par Meistr_Chef, 11 mars 2010 - 10:08 .

[Kalfear]

TJSolo wrote...

Uh? So in ME1 you didn't get to recruit your own crew and hear their past stories? 
What game have I been playing.

ME2 I didn't feel the struggle of humans trying to get noticed by the galaxy as strongly as ME1.
Hell ME2 used humans as a plot device but not in an emotional enough way for me to care and felt like "humans" could have been subbed for any other sentient species and the story would have remained the same.

I just smile and nod at the "ME2 was perfect and had more RPG and emotional connection then ME1" crowd. They posting to get a rise outta anyone that care about RPG elements and the emotional connection in games. Kids will be kids.

ME2 definately didnt have the emotional connection ME1 had. When I had to pick who lives and dies in ME1, it was a hard choice that I struggled with (unless romancing Ashley that specific play through). And Im not even a real Kaiden fan but there was a connection to him thats 100% lacking from the ME2 characters.

Dont get me wrong, I wanted to like the ME2 characters and struggled all game trying to build that emotional connection. In the end, it just wasnt there sadly.
In my signature is a productive thread I started that addressed many of these communication and lack of emotion concerns and offered up suggestions I had for ME3 on how to create a emotional connection and make players care about whats happening in game.
Lets face it, for the shooter shoot bang bang crowd, ME2 story is earth shattering because its more then they normally put up with in a game. For RPG players, we all want more. ME2 left us flat when all was said and done.

I really hope Bioware has noticed the endless comments through out the internet on issues like the OP brings up cause if they deliver anouther shooter heavy, RPG lite ME3, I personally think they will do serious harm to their company over all by ruining their good name.
The fixes are easy and there is no shortage of threads telling them about it, question is will they listen or will they just pacify themselves with the brainless minority  going "Game is perfect and I had more emotional connection then ME1". Lip service is just that, and it always meaningless and worthless.

[DarthCaine]

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

That FEELING is just nostalgia. It's the same reason no RPG can match my KOTOR FEELING

ME2 is far from perfect, but it's also far more improved than ME1 in every area

Ultimatelly it's the majority that matters the most and the majority says ME2 is better (check out my poll and GameSpot's user score)

Modifié par DarthCaine, 11 mars 2010 - 10:51 .

[Too Few Names]

I love RPGs and if the story is weak I can't get into it. I found ME2 was far from weak. I found myself more invested in my crew. In ME1 they were just there - there was less effort in recruiting them and just the assumption they would follow me on this mission. That said, I wouldn't change anything about it, but I don't think ME2 lacked character connection. Some I loved and some I didn't care about like in all games.



I've noticed people saying the lack of planetary exploration took away the RPG elements, but both ME games were written as a race against time with specific mission - yet you could wander off to a random star cluster in ME1 and mess about for a while. If you are in a race against time, aimless exploration shouldn't exist. Because of the more linear aspects of ME2, I think they still gave the sense of exploration without the feeling that I am being slack in saving the galxy.



I think that gives the game more feeling and the need for allies willing to go on a suicide mission more important. I think they loyalty quests give the exploration without the 'random enounter' feel. You've got a little bit of time to take care of what matters most to you... what is it gonna be?

[Meistr_Chef]

Too Few Names wrote...

I love RPGs and if the story is weak I can't get into it. I found ME2 was far from weak. I found myself more invested in my crew. In ME1 they were just there - there was less effort in recruiting them and just the assumption they would follow me on this mission. That said, I wouldn't change anything about it, but I don't think ME2 lacked character connection. Some I loved and some I didn't care about like in all games.

I've noticed people saying the lack of planetary exploration took away the RPG elements, but both ME games were written as a race against time with specific mission - yet you could wander off to a random star cluster in ME1 and mess about for a while. If you are in a race against time, aimless exploration shouldn't exist. Because of the more linear aspects of ME2, I think they still gave the sense of exploration without the feeling that I am being slack in saving the galxy.

I think that gives the game more feeling and the need for allies willing to go on a suicide mission more important. I think they loyalty quests give the exploration without the 'random enounter' feel. You've got a little bit of time to take care of what matters most to you... what is it gonna be?

Agreed. There is a tradeoff between development time, designing more levels for freeplay, and focusing your efforts on the main threads. Bioware clearly went for focusing on the main missions and upping the combat experience and it irked enough of the people who love the more typical laid-back ME1. I cannot agree with that. ME1 lacked any sense of urgency now that I have seen it improved with ME2. Most RPGs I've played just talk the talk but don't walk the walk. All the text dialogue options in the world doesn't mean anything when you're allowed to freewheel around in side missions without a care. ME2 almost demands that you take it seriously; again this is at the cost of alienating fans of a more traditional RPG gaming.

edit: the best part is the loyalty missions all tie in closely with the team and they integrate nicely with the overall universe which enhances the impact of the main narrative.

Modifié par Meistr_Chef, 11 mars 2010 - 10:54 .

[fLoki]

Hulluliini wrote...

I think one problem is the immersion getting broken by the mission end screens, loading screens and stuff. That, and some of the sidequests were ridiculous, like loading a mech with power cells so it can blast through stone and you'll get 3000 worth of some mineral??

The planets looked much more different this time around and had the potential to give that feel, but I guess the immersion breaking devices toned that down mayhaps..

Id say the flow breaks on those indeed.. Just gives out feel that we are playing disjointed levels and not that we are in a world. Some people say they hate lifts but i think they made Me1 feel large to me.
And about DarthCaines poll, 5th comment under it kinda blows its credibility.. For me anyways

[Sigma Tauri]

SimonTheFrog wrote...
But i can see why they cut the planets. They were pretty ugly, mostly, and many people hated them. So they decided to do less locations but the ones that are there are perfectly scripted and pretty dense. This certainly has its appeal, too.

Bioware didn't do anything wrong how they represented the UNC planets. They were exactly what dead planets should be, desolate, ugly, but alien at the same time. What was bad was it was huge wilderness that was hard to travel in with a vehicle that's hard to control, just to visit a single location with only a pre-fabricated building or mine for one short side-quest. They were however extremely atmospheric. For example, when you look at Altahe's sky, you see Ontahe floating above you so closely. It was menacing because it looked like the planet was about to crash. However, you're also at awe because you're seeing another heavenly body's features from the surface of a planet. It's just a texture, but it added to the atmosphere.

[SurfaceBeneath]

DarthCaine wrote...

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

But BG IS the best RPG ever!!

Far better than BG2. Whoever made that game sold out to the mainstream.

[SimonTheFrog]

About the squadmates. I agree that recruiting them for ME1 felt significantly different from ME2. In ME2 it sometimes felt like a grocery list. At least the first playthrough. After i shared a game or two with all of them and i "knew" them better, it got much less like shopping and more like recruiting friends. But i remember that my first playthrough felt a bit weird.



But in ME1 the crewmembers were tossed at you, which felt strange too. I played renegade once and rejected each new member but nobody cared ^^. Especially Wrex is strange if you ignore him.



But because they were fewer in numbers and more dialogs (or did it only feel that way? i have never actually counted), especially Liara, Kaidan and Ash, they grew closer during the game. Especially compared the LI's in ME2 that you can't or won't pursue the extra mile.



I agree that many planets were great to visit. I was just saying what i think was the reason for cutting them. I fear that the firewalker planets will not bring the old feeling back either. But like i said, it's not all bad.

[OasisForever1991]

SimonTheFrog wrote...

About the squadmates. I agree that recruiting them for ME1 felt significantly different from ME2. In ME2 it sometimes felt like a grocery list. At least the first playthrough. After i shared a game or two with all of them and i "knew" them better, it got much less like shopping and more like recruiting friends. But i remember that my first playthrough felt a bit weird.

But in ME1 the crewmembers were tossed at you, which felt strange too. I played renegade once and rejected each new member but nobody cared ^^. Especially Wrex is strange if you ignore him.

But because they were fewer in numbers and more dialogs (or did it only feel that way? i have never actually counted), especially Liara, Kaidan and Ash, they grew closer during the game. Especially compared the LI's in ME2 that you can't or won't pursue the extra mile.

I agree that many planets were great to visit. I was just saying what i think was the reason for cutting them. I fear that the firewalker planets will not bring the old feeling back either. But like i said, it's not all bad.

When you say closer, I can understand that. For me when I think of the frst games squad and being closer: it felt as if there weren't in a way tossed at you I think they just came out you know? Cause you got to admit for ME1 everything was new and things needed to be just opened up for you. But the "grocery" list feel for it was a sense that I just had to have these guys. But I understand why and it's all godd but after I got done with cd one and was going after the rest I got bored. Everytime I got bored going to pick them up. I can't really describe "borring" for a word in Mass Effect but...I think there's a degree of borring for everyone somehwere in the game.

[Lusitanum]

Kalfear wrote...

TJSolo wrote...

Uh? So in ME1 you didn't get to recruit your own crew and hear their past stories? 
What game have I been playing.

ME2 I didn't feel the struggle of humans trying to get noticed by the galaxy as strongly as ME1.
Hell ME2 used humans as a plot device but not in an emotional enough way for me to care and felt like "humans" could have been subbed for any other sentient species and the story would have remained the same.

I just smile and nod at the "ME2 was perfect and had more RPG and emotional connection then ME1" crowd. They posting to get a rise outta anyone that care about RPG elements and the emotional connection in games. Kids will be kids.

Funny, I get the same feeling with all the elitist jerks that keep putting themselves on a pedestal of intelectual brilliance because they feel they're superior to the "stupid kids" that don't agree with them.

And good God, is there a crapload of them for people who are just playing videogames. <_<

SurfaceBeneath wrote...

But
BG IS the best RPG ever!!

Far better
than BG2. Whoever made that game sold out to the mainstream.

See what I mean? 

BG was a pain just to understand the ruleset, the characters looked they were waving wood sticks on a fight and tactics amounted almost to nothing before the almighty random roll of the die.

This doesn't mean that BG was in any way a bad game. I really liked it, but no game with these kinds of flaws can ever be considered the "BEST RPG EVAR!!"

Modifié par Lusitanum, 11 mars 2010 - 08:24 .

[sirandar]

I kind of agree with the OP, but ME2 definitely had it's charms. Some parts of the game did have amazing "feeling". Omega and some parts of the MQ



After 2 play-throughs and a lot of thought I have come to the conclusion that I liked ME1 a fair bit better than ME2 and that is primarily due to the loss of specific RPG elements in ME2



The inventory, ammo, armor, weapons and other loot lost in ME2 I couldn't care less about. Actually I wish Bioware would remake ME1 with ME2 features. The combat was also better in ME2 IMO although it had some issues.



What I missed most about ME1 was the freedom and it's rebellious nature. ME2 forces me to serve Cerebus ..... all roleplay ends there. It was still fun but not as a RPG for me.



The best part of ME1 was getting to stick it to the Alliance and council and striking out on your own, master of your own destiny. I felt it and never wanted it to end.



In this aspect ME2 didn't even come close, the ship ever felt like it was your ship and I never really felt like the real captain even though Bioware did put some effort to try to make me feel like one in ME2. It was Cerebus's ship with Cerebus's spyware and Cerebus's crew. I hated being the Elusive mans lackey even with the paltry renegade aspect related to him. Bioware could have saved the day if Shep had a direct conflict with the Elusive Man 1/2 way through the game and Shep was given the choice to eliminate him. I was his lackey right to the end.

[KotOREffecT]

DarthCaine wrote...

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

That FEELING is just nostalgia. It's the same reason no RPG can match my KOTOR FEELING

ME2 is far from perfect, but it's also far more improved than ME1 in every area

Ultimatelly it's the majority that matters the most and the majority says ME2 is better (check out my poll and GameSpot's user score)

Bro, I so agree with this. I think a lot of people are nostalgia tripping and it gets taken out on ME 2, which isn't right because besides story, which was more fulfilling and epic in ME 1, ME 2 did a lot of things better than ME 1 and continued great things like great music. ME 2 suffers in the story department a bit because its the middle act/bridge to ME 3, so BioWare just tryed to expand on that the best they could with the whole Collectors part, and decided to throw in the whole recruiting aspect to build it up to the dramatic final mission where no one is suppose to make it, which was not bad at all and both added great depth to ME 2 and its overall story and character development.

By the way, KotOR > Them all

End nostalgia trip.

[Lusitanum]

KotOREffecT wrote...

Bro, I so agree with this. I think a lot of people are nostalgia tripping and it gets taken out on ME 2, which isn't right

[...]

By the way, KotOR > Them all

End nostalgia trip.

I liked the irony of the contradiction.

[Tasker]

DarthCaine wrote...

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

That FEELING is just nostalgia. It's the same reason no RPG can match my KOTOR FEELING

Sorry but I have to comment on this...

I agree with the OP about the overall feeling of the game, but it's not nostalgia.
 
How can it be nostalgia when I played ME1 nonstop for 2 weeks immediately prior to playing ME2?
How can it be nostalgia when I left ME2 after my second playthrough to go back to ME1 because it was a much richer experiance?



Disregarding the game mechanics and which was best of the 2 games, ME2s story structure is very poor compaired to ME1.

ME1 had a sense of the mystery and fear of the unknown about it, it was full of -  What will I find? What is Saren  upto?  ME2 is just a boring - Here's what you have to do, now do it.

ME1 contains that great sense of awe that truley awsome RPGs tend to have and I think it's down to the fact that the story flows from location to location with purpose and drama, whereas ME2 come across as being disjointed and episodic.

ME1 character recruitment was almost organic, even though we knew who they were in advance thanks to Biowares pre-release info, stumbling upon the team mates as we were doing other missions added to the overall experiance.

ME2 having so many  - Go here for person A - and - Go there and get person B - missions, hurt the game and made it seem much more disjointed and formulaic than it could have been. 

The simple act of ditching the dossier system and merging a few the recruitment missions into each other, then having them placed for you to stumble across as you went about doing something else, would have done wonders for the feel of the game?  The way they introduced Legion was a perfect example of this, and for me, the mystery of Legion should have been woven more into the rest of the game. 

Having Legion popup during crucial parts of other missions to help Shepard from a distance would have added drama and mystery.  - Who sent it?  Why is it helping me?  Why does it have N7 armour? 

Also, Instead of the upgrade conversation trees, Bioware could have used the need to upgrade the Normandy as a means to furthur the plot and add a sense of drama. 

Something like - 

TIM speaking with you after he gives you the Normandy and telling you that although it's the most advanced ship ever built, the Normandy isn't not up to the job of taking on the collectors. However, his sources have informed him of of an illegal weapons lab on Omega that has been working on a fancy weapon doodad that you could "borrow". 

When you get there you find the Garrus mission as it currently stands in ME2 but the area he's holed up in is the weapons lab TIM mentioned.

Making your way to him, you find out that the mercs are just using the frontal assaut to distract Garrus from realising that they've hired an assassin to kill Garrus.

The assassin turns out to be Thane, which gives the game drama and adds an added dilema.
 
- Do you help Thane? Do you help Garrus? Or is there a way to recruit them both?

As for the doodad...

- Will you escape with it?  Will you have to leave it behind?  Or will the mercs destroy it before you get a chance to  run off with it?


Now, i'm not a writer and the idea obviously would need planning out propperly, but who can say that something like that wouldn't have been more engrosing than ME2s - Go here and get person  - Go there and get person B -  missions?



ME2 whilst a good game, to me just feels flung together at the last moment.  Almost as if one day an EA exec asked - "So, hows Mass Effect 2 comming along, you must be nearly finished by now?"  and Bioware thinking - "Oh crap, we haven't started it yet, we were too busy playing Gears of War.  We better think of something quick."

Modifié par Orkboy, 11 mars 2010 - 10:05 .

[Jaysonie]

Orkboy wrote...

DarthCaine wrote...

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

That FEELING is just nostalgia. It's the same reason no RPG can match my KOTOR FEELING

Sorry but I have to comment on this...

I agree with the OP about the overall feeling of the game, but it's not nostalgia.
 
How can it be nostalgia when I played ME1 nonstop for 2 weeks immediately prior to playing ME2?
How can it be nostalgia when I left ME2 after my second playthrough to go back to ME1 because it was a much richer experiance?



Disregarding the game mechanics and which was best of the 2 games, ME2s story structure is very poor compaired to ME1.

ME1 had a sense of the mystery and fear of the unknown about it, it was full of -  What will I find? What is Saren  upto?  ME2 is just a boring - Here's what you have to do, now do it.

ME1 contains that great sense of awe that truley awsome RPGs tend to have and I think it's down to the fact that the story flows from location to location with purpose and drama, whereas ME2 come across as being disjointed and episodic.

ME1 character recruitment was almost organic, even though we knew who they were in advance thanks to Biowares pre-release info, stumbling upon the team mates as we were doing other missions added to the overall experiance.

ME2 having so many  - Go here for person A - and - Go there and get person B - missions, hurt the game and made it seem much more disjointed and formulaic than it could have been. 

The simple act of ditching the dossier system and merging a few the recruitment missions into each other, then having them placed for you to stumble across as you went about doing something else, would have done wonders for the feel of the game?  The way they introduced Legion was a perfect example of this, and for me, the mystery of Legion should have been woven more into the rest of the game. 

Having Legion popup during crucial parts of other missions to help Shepard from a distance would have added drama and mystery.  - Who sent it?  Why is it helping me?  Why does it have N7 armour? 

Also, Instead of the upgrade conversation trees, Bioware could have used the need to upgrade the Normandy as a means to furthur the plot and add a sense of drama. 

Something like - 

TIM speaking with you after he gives you the Normandy and telling you that although it's the most advanced ship ever built, the Normandy isn't not up to the job of taking on the collectors. However, his sources have informed him of of an illegal weapons lab on Omega that has been working on a fancy weapon doodad that you could "borrow". 

When you get there you find the Garrus mission as it currently stands in ME2 but the area he's holed up in is the weapons lab TIM mentioned.

Making your way to him, you find out that the mercs are just using the frontal assaut to distract Garrus from realising that they've hired an assassin to kill Garrus.

The assassin turns out to be Thane, which gives the game drama and adds an added dilema.
 
- Do you help Thane? Do you help Garrus? Or is there a way to recruit them both?

As for the doodad...

- Will you escape with it?  Will you have to leave it behind?  Or will the mercs destroy it before you get a chance to  run off with it?


Now, i'm not a writer and the idea obviously would need planning out propperly, but who can say that something like that wouldn't have been more engrosing than ME2s - Go here and get person  - Go there and get person B -  missions?



ME2 whilst a good game, to me just feels flung together at the last moment.  Almost as if one day an EA exec asked - "So, hows Mass Effect 2 comming along, you must be nearly finished by now?"  and Bioware thinking - "Oh crap, we haven't started it yet, we were too busy playing Gears of War.  We better think of something quick."

No, it dosent. Atleast to me, and im guessing quite a few people aswell.

[KotOREffecT]

Jaysonie wrote...

Orkboy wrote...

DarthCaine wrote...

The only reason why someone thinks ME1 is more emotional is nostalgia. It's the same reason why people say BG is the best RPG ever

That FEELING is just nostalgia. It's the same reason no RPG can match my KOTOR FEELING

Sorry but I have to comment on this...

I agree with the OP about the overall feeling of the game, but it's not nostalgia.
 
How can it be nostalgia when I played ME1 nonstop for 2 weeks immediately prior to playing ME2?
How can it be nostalgia when I left ME2 after my second playthrough to go back to ME1 because it was a much richer experiance?

ME2 whilst a good game, to me just feels flung together at the last moment.  Almost as if one day an EA exec asked - "So, hows Mass Effect 2 comming along, you must be nearly finished by now?"  and Bioware thinking - "Oh crap, we haven't started it yet, we were too busy playing Gears of War.  We better think of something quick."

No, it dosent. Atleast to me, and im guessing quite a few people aswell.

For a lot of people.