Terror_K wrote...
If I was pulling this out of my arse, then how come a lot of fans are being alienated? Firstly, one can debate whether these shooter mechanics are actually good or fitting in the first place. Especially when several RPG factors have been thrown out with the bathwater to be replaced by them.
Fans don't hate everything in a sequel that's different, but they will often hate things they feel go against the grain or the spirit of the previous game, and many feel the oversimplification and increase of shooter elements at the expense of previously existing RPG ones does this.
Most people realise ME1 was flawed, but it tried damn it, and many thus feel it needed some patching up rather than chucking out and a complete revamp.
Old fans don't necessarily dislike popular things either, but the original Mass Effect was a very nerdy game, incorporating Science Fiction with an RPG: two things that are generally most enjoyed by nerd culture, who in most cases don't like mainstream things and prefer a more intellectual form of entertainment than the common public. ME2 however seems to try and bring itself further away from its initial nerdish leanings to appeal to a more mainstream audience, hence a lot of nerds being rather pissed that their series has be dumbed-down for Joe Public.
Thankfully the narrative has mostly stayed in tact with regards to this, but the gameplay mechanics have been streamlined so as not to scare off the average gamer of today who generally doesn't play RPGs, and BioWare have admitted as much themselves... so I'm not exactly pulling this out of my arse.
I find it funny that Christina Norman had Einstein's quote about making things "as simple as possible, but not simpler" when many (including myself) feel that the ME2 team did make things "simpler" in the end. Streamling is one thing, but there's a fine line between streamlining to make existing things better and more efficient and dumbing-down to the point where they become overly simple.
Simply put (pardon the term...) BioWare went too far.
+1 for Nerdy Games!!!
However, I think it is possible that some of the new elements in the game, news kiosk's & planet scanning in particular, were simply (ugh!) included to try to differentiate the 2 games from one another. I can't help but hold out hope that planet scanning may have some relation to the final chapter's plot.
In addition, I am inclined to think the action mechanics were a fully realized and validly applied upgrade to an already great game. But, it seems, after 2 years or so of Dev time Bioware needed to release a game to appease EA's financials rather than their fan base. Something had to give, right? It couldn't be the narrative. So it was the depth and complexity (RPG elements) of the game that suffered.
Again, reinventing the wheel was not necessary in this case. I don't think there are too many folks out there who would call ME1 a failure. As I mentioned in previous posts, IGN gave ME1 a score of 9.4. For all the bother with reinventing the wheel, what in the end was gained? The new ME2 scored a 9.6 at IGN. And, without access to the financials of a subsidiary of EA it is impossible to determine if the increased review score actually led to an increase in revenue from the first iteration of the trilogy. They are in business after all.
But, as Christina mentions in her slides, the review scores did play a part in the logic to reconfigure ME1 as more of a shooter and less of an RPG. It seems to me Bioware placed too much faith in the opinions of the FPS crowd to their own detriment. Admittedly I was asleep at the wheel and did not pay too much attention to the old ME1 message boards. I figured (wrongly) that Bioware would continue making games their way and not pay too much attention to these message boards. Boy was I wrong! I distinctly recall the FPS nits complaining on how ME1 was not like the other shooters they had played, as if this was a bad thing.
Perhaps if I keep posting the same opinion, over and over again, Bioware will count my posts to be representative of the RPG fan base and maybe include some of the old, supposedly boring, elements back into this fantastic series for the final installment.
Ultimately I do think there were major improvements in ME2. For instance I do think the combat is better realized in ME2. I do, however reject the notion that the shooting mechanics have been dramatically improved. I am referring to the Tech and Biotic powers. They have definitely been improved. The game also looks great. The environments are stunning. The character art is fantastic.
On the downside, ME2's narrative has I think suffered a bit due to the lack of complexity in the game. I have struggled a bit to identify why I may have been more interested by ME1 as opposed to ME2. I think it does have something to do with the lack of inventory and customization that is available. What I referring to is immersion. The old inventory of ME1 was more than just loot to the Reader. Now I know there are those out there who will say, "this is a game, I didn't come here to read". Well that really is a shame because now all the so-called Nerdy elements have been relegated to the planet scanning thing which currently seems pointless. (By the way, the News Kiosks seem pointless also) What I mean is I have absolutely no motivation to read about a planet, scan it, and then simply (ugh!) fly away. The new game has given me very little reason to be interested in the planets I am spending so much time "exploring". Compared to the old, supposedly bad, inventory where the narrative behind some of the weapons/items led me to believe there was going to be more to the story of the various corporate factions, not substantially less, in the next chapter. Ultimately it was the variety of the items in the game that led to a richer and more immersive experience. Ergo, I had a reason to care who the Elkos Combine was because I was using their crap. Get it?
Now, I suppose, to Bioware's credit it would have been horribly difficult to create an interconnected chain of loosely related events that spanned this many planets and corporations of ME1. But, if planet scanning and news kiosks are such a huge component to this game (ME2), then I can only hope the move to these in-game elements will this time lead to a richer, and yes, nerdier (sp?) experience in the final episode. I can only wait and hope this wish is fulfilled. Sadly if another major shift in the strategy occurs for the final release Bioware will be unduely delayed in their release date and EA will be forced to dispense with the offending institution. How dare Bioware actually make games that are intellectually stimulating as well as fun to play?
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