Yes, I know I’m a little obsessed. Anyway, BioWare have released the slightest snippets of pre-rendered CG footage regarding an upcoming game, which will be announced at the Video Game Awards on Dec 11th.
What’s got the fans all worked up is the chap’s rifle - it’s the M-29 Incisor sniper rifle from Mass Effect 2.
The thing that’s great about Bioware is that no matter what they release, whether it’s ME3, DA2, KOTOR3, JE2 or a brand new IP, I’ll love it. These guys are complete geniuses.
Depends what you liked/disliked about ME. In my opinion they kept everything good and tossed out all the bad stuff so it was an incredible improvement.
Pros:
[ul]
[li]Combat improved[/li][li]More cinematic experience - You get to feel like much more of a badass[/li][li]All dialog options result in different spoken lines - Actually, dialog is just improved all around[/li][li]Much more Normandy conversations[/li][li]No repetetive side-quests[/li][li]Even more replayability (three romances per gender! Every character can die!)[/li][/ul]
Cons:
[ul]
[li]Introduction of stupid thermal clip system that doesn’t quite mesh with prior fluff[/li][li]Liara is butchered in ME2 (repaired in DLC) (maybe not a big deal to you but I really loved Liara)[/li][li]The overall story/goal/mission isn’t as compelling as it was in the first game - Especially in the first half of the game. ME1 had a really nice lead-up to the real story while ME2 just sort of throws you in[/li][li]Dumb mining minigame[/li][/ul]
But all of that is meaningless. All that really matters is…
Concur with the above, i also couldn’t finish Mass Effect. Mass effect 2 is much better. Just read the wikipedia/youtube the plot of the first game and dive into the sequel.
ME2 uses the save of the first game! If you really want to get attached the story you should feel like the way things are in the second game are because of your decisions in the first (regardless of how small the consequences of your actions in the first game actually are).
I didn’t mind the Mako stuff at all, except where you had to get to places on the other side of steep mountains. And I enjoyed rolling up to a location and finding a bunch of clowns standing behind some barrier, and I’d take aim with the cannon vaporizing the personell and blowing away their crappy barrier.
A matter of taste. In my opinion they took a lot of what that sucked about ME1 and made it worse. Then took a lot of what was good about ME1 and made it better.
My biggest complaints would be that they simplified the level up system, which was already too simple for my taste. They made it so you have to pause to see the minimap/radar or whatever it was. And the worst part is the combat. It was improved by making headshots actually matter(yay) but way worsened by the level design. Nearly every battle was a shooting gallery. Take cover and kill 3 enemies. Wait a few seconds for more to spawn. Kill a few more. Wait for more to spawn. Repeat. Often for 7-8 cycles and the game wont let you proceed until you’ve waited them all out. And you cant save in battle and count as “in battle” even while waiting between waves. It was very annoying and completely destroyed the pace of the game. Compare that to ME1 where virtually every enemy was preplaced so you could just kill them and move on. And the handful of areas where the enemies did spawn were more fun and exciting simple because the rest of the game didn’t work like that. They also got rid of weapon mods and I rather liked weapon mods. And indeed got rid of weapons and armour that you could collect and use pretty much entirely.
The overall plot ended up being pretty moronic too. A number of the writing choices were baffling and unnecessarily ridiculous. I can’t really say much more than that with out going into major spoiler areas. But a number of the non-plot relevant story lines are very well done. Better than anything I’ve yet seen in a video game.
Overall I was disappointed. I didn’t really like ME1 all that much but it was just good enough that I figured if they improved the game much at all for the sequel it would be great. Sadly overall I think they made it worse in more ways than they made it better. But it was a close thing.
I rather liked the Mako and missed it a little. The only problem with it was that you had to use it just soooooooo often. Especially if you’re a completest and go to every planet. And it never changes. The Mako would have been awesome if you had some upgrades you could purchase. Or a handful of variants that behaved slightly differently.
Yeah, I played part of the demo and found the dialogue and story intriguing but the combat incredibly static - duck behind cover, shoot at the targets, repeat. Didn’t even finish the demo.
it’s made more interesting with the biotic powers, but it’s no gears of war. Overall I loved the damn game, though. easily a competitor for 2010’s GOTY
ME2 is my game of the year for 2010, and is one of those rare sequels that dramatically improves on an already-excellent original. I can’t wait to see what Bioware does for ME3. This has the potential to be the greatest RPG trilogy of all time, IMO.
