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[neomagic9]

This is my feedback to the goals outlined in Christina Norman's Presentation.  I am responding to whether or not these goals were accomplished not questioning the goals themselves.  Let me know if you agree or think im way off.


Dear Chirstina Norman and Bioware Team,

    I would like to start by
congratulating you and Bioware for producing an amazing game, Mass
Effect 2.  I have long been a fan of Bioware and I feel the Mass Effect
franchise is one of the best yet.  I was reading through the slides you
posted from your talk at this year’s GDC conference.  I want to thank
you for making these slides publicly available as they provide
justification, insight and reason behind some of the most controversial
decisions that went into Mass Effect 2.  I would like to provide
feedback on these slides and the decisions made by Bioware.

    First
and foremost, I would like to acknowledge and commend Bioware’s risk
taking and innovation in game design.  The decision to forget labels and
have no “sacred cows” contrasts strongly against a number of recent
games that reuse a “successful formula”.  The design of Mass Effect 2
certainly glows against the dim backdrop of the majority of other RPGs. 
Mass Effect 2 represents the pinnacle for cinematic storytelling,
character interaction, and engaging real time combat.  I am excited to
see where the design team will take the game in Mass Effect 3.  With
respect to the goals for Mass Effect 2, more satisfying combat, better
balance, and better inventory, the design goals of were accomplished to
an extent.

COMBAT
    Mass Effect 2 provides visceral and intensely fun
shooter combat.  While not a true first or third person shooter, Mass
Effect 2 provides shooter game play on par with games like Gears of War
and other top games.  The goals established for more satisfying combat
were unquestionably achieved.  All weapons now fit the universe and
characters that use them.  No longer is a specter agent unable to shoot
with a modicum of accuracy due to a “lack of training”.  The cover
system provides an intuitive, realistic system.  The intense feel of
combat, however, was hit or miss for me.  Depending on the difficulty,
the battles either proved trivial or overly difficult.  On veteran
difficulty, I was able to easily best my foe, while I repeatedly died on
hardcore difficulty.  Moreover, the battles became slightly repetitive
after an enemy was introduced.  For example, the first encounter with a
YMIR mech proved extremely intense and trilling; by the end, however,
the YMIR seemed commonplace and no more challenging mech took its
place.  The lack of enemy variety became exacerbated by a lack of weapon
variety.  Facing off against the Blue Suns with the same basic weapons
for the hundredth time became uninteresting.  Overall, however, the
combat was intense and kept my interest as the game progressed.

BALANCE
   
In terms of balance, Mass Effect 2 shines.  The systems of resists,
powers, classes, and weapons all integrate to provide a unique and
satisfying experience.  The combat proved almost like a puzzle rather
than a straight spray and pray shooter.  My criticism of the balance is
it’s the limiting nature.  Because a global cool down was implemented, I
often felt that I was unable to use a power when I needed it most. 
When playing as an infiltrator, for example, I would cloak, take a
sniper shot and then try to finish my opponent with incineration. 
Because of the long cool down from cloaking, I would be forced to take
cover while my powers cooled down.  I understand that a global cool down
was used to make the game more real time and easier to balance, but I
believe better options exist.  An alternate scheme to both the Mass
Effect 1 and 2 implementations would be to use 2 cool down meters.  One
meter would track tech abilities and the other would track biotic
abilities.  This implementation also fits in more closely with the IP as
biotics use an implant and tech powers use the omni-tool.  Pure
characters like the Engineer and Adept would have two meters of the same
type.  The second cool down meter for pure characters would allow
flexibility to use one strong but long cool down power with weak quick
powers.  Furthermore, the lack of weapon variety seemed limiting.  With
only two or three weapons in a given category, I felt that combat had a
tendency to become stale.  For the most part, the balance of Mass Effect
2 provided consistent and engaging game play.

INVENTORY
    The area in which I
feel the design team made the most significant progress yet failed to
meet their goals is the inventory system.  The inventory system in Mass
Effect 1 was broken and the new system in Mass Effect 2 does remedy many
of the shortcomings of its predecessor.  In an attempt to atone for the
superfluity of the original, Mass Effect 2’s system overcompensated to
the point of non-existence.  Though nothing could be simpler than no
inventory, a pillar of role playing games becomes obscured.  While most
role playing games try to achieve the pillars of exploration, story,
progression, and collection, Mass Effect 2 essentially removed the last
pillar.  Despite facing off against numerous enemies, I never once
received any useful items after a fight.  With the piles of assault
rifles, pistols, and the like lying around, it seems odd that I needed
to wait to collect an extra weapon.  If the upgrade system was meant to
bolster this final pillar, the system only helped transparently.  The
upgrade system in Mass Effect 2 provided me no satisfaction.  While I
was upgrade all my weapons, the upgrades had little visible impact.  As
the enemies scaled in difficulty, so did my weapons.  To remedy this, I
suggest a system similar to that used with armor.  Allow weapon
customization with different researched or purchased components.  Each
weapon would have several upgrade slots (barrel, trigger, stock,
magazine) and an applied upgrade would change the weapon model to
visibly indicate its presence. In this way, weapon customizations could
have a meaningful, personal change. If a tactical scope is added to an
assault rifle, the stock slot would be filled, a scope would appear on
the rifle and the accuracy statistic of the rifle would increase by 10
percent.  This could even allow the option to zoom in with the rifle or
affect other behavior depending on the upgrade.  I realize that this
complicates party upgrades; however, upgrades would now have meaning. 
Implementing upgrades like armor allows for relatively few weapons to
feel like many more without adding significant clutter.  Beyond weapon
upgrades, I am unsure why visible biotic implant and omni-tool upgrades
are absent.  Mass effect 2 provided researchable tech/biotic power and
cool down upgrades but failed to ground these in the game world.  I
would have preferred to buy a new model of omni-tool or biotic implant
to gain these benefits.  The models of implants and omni-tools could
also provided visual feedback based on biotic glow and omni-tool shape
and color.  The other pillar that became abstracted due to the
streamlined game design is progression.  For the most part, character
development in Mass Effect 2 is vastly superior to its predecessor.  The
inclusion of ammo powers instead of additional tech or biotic powers
baffles me.  I fail to understand how different ammo types in the world
are linked to a character.  Instead, ammo should be handled in mission
using the weapon selection wheel.  When selecting a weapon, a user could
hold down “a” over a weapon to expand the wheel and select a different
ammo type.  This would free up a skill slot for a more character
dependent power or skill and allow for faster selection of ammo types
for multiple weapons.  To replace ammo skill progression, improved ammo
types could be researched, found, or purchased.   The inventory system,
while sufficient, is the area which could be most improved.

    In
all, Mass Effect 2 represents a sharp game play divide with Mass Effect
1.  Naturally decisions of this magnitude are polarizing.  I personally
congratulate you and the design team for taking a chance and designing
without bounds.  The resulting game design provides a fresh design and a
beacon for future role playing games. Not without flaw, the revised
game acts as starting point that needs expanded into a more robust and
meaningful system.  Combat needs more exciting enemies, greater weapon
variation, and perhaps more fined tuned difficulties.  The system of
powers and balance needs expanded to not feel limiting and
constricting.  The inventory system needs meaningful and impactful
substance. With these design ideas in mind, Mass Effect 3 has the
potential to outshine even Mass Effect 2.

    The Mass Effect team
has truly produced a great game with an epic narrative, interesting
character, and fun combat.  You and your design team set out to achieve
several goals for Mass Effect 2 and, in my opinion, succeeded in most
regards.  I understand design has an iterative nature and always
continues.  I am thoroughly impressed with Bioware’s work and their
commitment to fan input.  The slide which shows the areas for
improvement demonstrates an incredible attention to the criticisms and
ideas of reviewers and players.  I understand that my ideas are likely
not novel and have likely been discussed internally, on the forums, or
elsewhere.  Mass Effect 2 is an incredible game that leaves me in
anticipation for the third part.  Because of this, I felt it necessary
to commend you on the work you have completed and provide feedback for
the third installment.  I hope this feedback helps guide the design team
and helps enable Bioware to continue produces games of the highest
caliber. Thank you again for your commitment to your fans and devotion
to video game development.


Thank You for Your Time,
Neomagic9