Mass Effect 2

[jUmpSt0p]

I've now almost 25 hours in and this game hasn't stopped Kikkin Ass yet!
I've got all of the team so far except One member, but I've done a good bit of mining so far and have made a lot of upgrades.

it's just an excellent ride all around. the game is so gripping! really feel like I'm just sucked in by the mood, presentation, story, characters... and the missions are all really fun so far, with varied environments and unique twists thrown into the different levels.

next stop, gotta get my last team member, complete all the Loyalty Missions, and then stomp some Collector tail.

 

[Maniacal]

Really enjoying and loving ME2, huge improvements in most every area!

Only a few things bug me;

The scanning has to GO! Horrible waste of time. And it also lets you scan a planet which, according to its description, has such a strong magnetic field SCANNERS DON'T WORK.

Armour: I was at first a bit confused but it makes much more sense not to always be changing your suit of armour entirely but modifying it over time. However, more upgrades for you and your party members would be appreciated. A few more varieties of guns would be nice as well but I don't really mind it that much.

I do wish the global cooldown wasn't there, though I don't use my powers much as a soldier.

I quite enjoy listening to the various news broadcasts and/or running into people whom I helped in Mass Effect 1, although further interaction would have been nice its good enough.

 

[jUmpSt0p]

I beat it finally on Monday. good ending...

got a bit easy towards the end. would love to play it again on Insane difficulty, but it was a rental and I had to return it...

managed to get out with everyone alive at the end, after a few attempts changing up the specialists...

 

[GoodSarmatian]

A question from someone who doesn't have his his old ME saves anymore (damn thing crashed during a profile update and I lost all careers ): If you start a game with a new character does it let you choose between the paragon and one of the renegade endings and things like if the rachni queen is alive or does the game just make assumptions about Shepards past actions ?

 

[Captain2]

It makes assumptions, I believe without a past save that the Rachni queen is dead, the Council was killed, you picked Ambassador Udina to lead the council, Kaidan died and so on

 

[Rub'Rum]

It makes assumptions, I believe without a past save that the Rachni queen is dead, the Council was killed, you picked Ambassador Udina to lead the council, Kaidan died and so on

Wow that's like the reverse of what I actually did in my game. Oh wait no I did let the council die, although I can't for the life of me remember why I chose that. My decision was probably "oh I'm a paragon I have to save more people than just the council", but now ME2 makes me feel like an alien hating human promoting bigot.

 

[Captain2]

I wish I could see what happens if they're alive, probably still hate you immensely

 

[steviejay]

They do.

Completed it after about 50 odd hours of game play, done pretty much everything there was to do in it and can honestly say I've not enjoyed a game as much in a long time. I think it might become one of those games I have which I bring out every now and again to play just because I enjoyed it so much (very exclusive list, I think Final Fantasy VII, Oblivion and Secret of Mana are the only other games really on it).

Kept a purely goodie attitude throughout and I loved the story. The combat felt sort of like Gears of War 1. Not quite as fluid as Gears of War 2 but certainly an improvement on Mass Effect 1.

Although a point of note, did anyone else make the connection that Shepard is pretty much just a s*xual deviant? Honestly, is there any tail he won't chase? I think him and Zapp Brannigan should form a club. I was expecting the ending to be Shepard saying 'We stopped the Collectors, but the Reavers are still out there. However I did make it with a hot alien babe. And in the end, is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars? Garrus, I'm asking you a question "

 

[ArneHD]

To be honest, I thought it was pretty shallow. The whole game up until the last few missions seemed cheep and rushed. The few final missions were kickass though.

So Mass Effect 2 in one sentence: A mediocre game with an awesome ending.

Edit: I found the game enjoyable, but not replayable. Playing through it once to get the plot and more or less going for one hundred percent completion, I don't really find the NPCs deep enough to warrant playing through more than once.

 

[Maniacal]

Huh, wow you had really high expectations didn't you Arne? I found the game awesome from beginning to end, with most (except that damn planet scanner) of the lame crap cut out. Most of the characters are excellently done and probably some of Bioware's best yet.


Also as a note on killing the council, if you let them die you kill more than just the council, the Destiny Ascension has (or had) a crew of 10,000.

And either way it really doesn't matter if you save them or not, the fleet still destroys Sovereign in the same amount of time.

It is MUCH better to have saves from ME1, all the side missions you did will be mentioned at the very least, I keep getting e-mails from people I had helped (or pissed off), hear things on the news, and even run into a few of them.

 

[ArneHD]

Huh, wow you had really high expectations didn't you Arne? I found the game awesome from beginning to end, with most (except that damn planet scanner) of the lame crap cut out. Most of the characters are excellently done and probably some of Bioware's best yet.

I don't think I had high expectations, I don't really follow Bioware to any extent. I don't know what it was that put me off the characters. Maybe it was Miranda, as I have an irrational hatred of Australian accents in American works. I don't know why, but whenever there is an Australian accent in American dominated works, it annoys me.

 

[Maniacal]

Bioware is Canadian although yeah most of their voice actors have american accents >_<. And you Sir have a very, very strange problem there. I greatly appreciate a variety of accents, especially non-american accents. Plus, this is the future, humanity has spread pretty far, I fail to see why she can't have a different accent.

Anyways, must suck having an issue like that.

 

[jUmpSt0p]

looking back I do feel like it was a little bit light on Combat, and not much variety in the enemies... really could have used a few more big battles, IMO, against the Geth especially.. that one fight against the Geth Colossus was my favorite.

I guess I just could have used a couple more steps in the Main Questline.. once you recruited your crew, and got them loyal, it was like okay, Omega Relay, endgame, here we go... a bit too quick I think.

however, I think the whole point of the game is to replay it on Hardcore/Insanity with the same character after you beat it. clearly, the campaign is too short to fully level Shephard or the crew.

 

[ArneHD]

Bioware is Canadian although yeah most of their voice actors have american accents >_<. And you Sir have a very, very strange problem there. I greatly appreciate a variety of accents, especially non-american accents. Plus, this is the future, humanity has spread pretty far, I fail to see why she can't have a different accent.

Anyways, must suck having an issue like that.

I think the whole thing is because people with Australian and British accents tend to get stereotyped in American works. If they have a non-american accent, they are going to be non-american whites just to show diversity or some such rubbish. They tend to be, more than others, flat characters.

Edit: Combat is not really what I enjoy in a game, what I liked about Mass Effect 1 was the exploration and the NPCs and the whole "build your character" thing. I also kinda liked improving equipment, even if it was marginal improvements. I guess I liked the RPG elements more than the action, and with ME2 leaning more in the action than on the RPG side, yeah, I'm not going to enjoy it as much.

 

[Oruc]

A question from someone who doesn't have his his old ME saves anymore (damn thing crashed during a profile update and I lost all careers ): If you start a game with a new character does it let you choose between the paragon and one of the renegade endings and things like if the rachni queen is alive or does the game just make assumptions about Shepards past actions ?

This may have already been mentioned but you can get savegames from here http://www.masseffectsaves.com

 

[Rub'Rum]

The developers stated that Mass Effect 3 is easier to develop because they don't have to worry about continuity into the next game (since ME 3 will be the last game in the trilogy).

That's utterly depressing. They can't just toss away a great game setting/universe like that. I really hope there's a second series in the same universe or something. Considering the quality of story-telling and the cool characters.

As for ME 2, I think they did something great by doing away with the annoying inventory system of the first game. I think for future RPGs, the "camp (Dragon Age)" or "spaceship" thing BioWare is going for is a good thing to consider. Load-outs upon discovering items or prototypes in the game is a good idea (everybody can equip a prototype that you found, studied, reproduced)... However... There is a severe lack of choice, and basically no armor types in Mass Effect 2. Basically, everything is an upgrade and you always have enough resources to buy pretty much everything. You can easily get all items too. So for me, they need to keep the load-out system (not have to worry about an inventory system, and space in backpacks, and switching on the battle field), but they need to put a lot more effort in having actual choice, variety, and all that.

Anyway, I'm almost at the end, not done yet...

 

[MobBoss]

Is this similar to Dragon Age, but in a sci-fi setting? Same style of gameplay?

 

[Rub'Rum]

Is this similar to Dragon Age, but in a sci-fi setting? Same style of gameplay?

It's the same developers so... It's very similar in terms of party relationships, characters, and all. But I'd say there is much less orientation on skills, items and character builds, and more focus on third-person shooting, giving orders to your squad, and story-telling.

I liked both games a lot, but Mass Effect 2 gets the edge.

 

[Maniacal]

Dragon Age and Mass Effect have completely different gameplay, the former being a 3rd person shooter rpg and the latter being an isometric/over-the-shoulder RPG. The only similarity is that they are excellently written.

 

[ugabug]

is the game that different if you're continuing on from ME?

I ask because I played the first on the PC and since that PC ceases to exist I dont have my save game anymore, I'm going to have to play the second on my xbox

I am in the same situation except i got the first one on my X-box 360 but that isn't working anymore so now i have to get the second one for my PC.