Mass Effect 2

started my thrid playthrough after a 3 week hiatus. fuck i forgot how engrossing this game can get. accidently played for like 7 straight hours.

At least it's not as bad as WoW. In WoW you can accidentally your entire life.
 
It's amazing that the game is such a success, even though it fails in every individual category.

The story is just so simplistic. Yes, they have made up a huge background (which is all told in dialogues or the codex), but as far as the game play goes, there's no real drama. Situations feel made up and those supposedly difficult moral decisions are worthy of a fairy tale for 5 year olds. And they largely have no effect. The plot is pretty rigid, it might as well be a book. And if it was a book it would suuuuck, because it's so shallow. Yes, I know there are different endings, and I haven't finished the game, but I'm talking about the bulk of the time spent with the game here.

The action is acceptable, but it's nothing compared to proper FPS games. Your team is mostly meaningless, you can get through the whole game with one pistol and nobody on backup. Just hide - wait - shoot - repeat. Yes, the team makes it faster, but it never feels necessary.

RPG? Please... On this account it fails the most. Leveling system is there just to occupy more of your time, weapon upgrades are tedious and unrewarding. They even got rid of ME1's side quests. Yes, they were all created by a copy-paste, but maybe improving instead of removing would be a better solution? Instead they added the resource harvesting, which is fun for about 2 planets. After that you need to have a major case of OCD to be bothered with them.

They tried to make team members' stories a bit deeper, and they succeeded to some extend. But it still frustrates me that everything has to conform with one game mechanic. You find a team member. He occupies a certain place on the ship. He can teach you to get certain upgrades. After a while he presents you with a personal problem and upon completing said quest you gain his loyalty (and oh so important alt costume). Repeat ten times. This same pattern makes me dissociated from the characters, they feel unreal, they feel like a checklist. I love the illusive man thought, in addition to having a badass appearance and voice, his missions are always surprising and original, which is what this game misses so much.

And then the universe! The whole known universe at your disposal, sounds EPIC! Then you realize there are only a handful of planets you can visit. And upon visiting them you're presented with a 4 room location (but honestly, it's a huge colony! There rest is just irrelevant to the story so stay in those 4 rooms). Pathetic. This applies to both games, but at least in ME1 there was Citadel, which is just ridiculous now.

So where does this game excel in the end? Just the graphics? The money spent on all the actors? Will anyone be bothered to replay it in 5-10 years?

Surprisingly I still enjoyed ME1 a lot, and did complete it. But I'm not sure I want to spend any more time with ME2, it already feels extremely repetitive for the reasons stated above.

Very good points. I think definitely the saving grace of this game is the capacious amount of polish that makes it stand out from the pack, the writing and interactions with characters (Mordin and Joker in particular), and the background that the universe is set in (the Codex is like its own minigame).

It definitely doesn't have that epic "world-changing" impact that games like ME1 or Dragon Age had, but then again I don't think Bioware were going for that this time.
 
In my mind, Mass Effect 1 reminded me of Final Fantasy IV--amazing story in an amazing universe. Mass Effect 2 reminded me of Final Fantasy VI--more sophisticated combat, but the plot is largely a framework for individual character side-quests. Both are fun in their own way.

Regardless, I will buy Mass Effect III the day it comes out. If I have to buy a new computer to run it, I will.

EDIT: I fully realize that the analogy in this post makes me the geekiest of geeks.
 
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Duly noted ;)

If the combat system and graphics of Mass Effect 2 were mixed with the story and characters of Mass Effect 1, I think you would have action RPG perfection.

This may seem silly, but one of the biggest let-downs of Mass Effect 2 for me was the Citadel. In the first game, it's like New York City. Floating. In space. In ME2, it feels like a small office building. All sense of its size is completely lost.

On the plus side, I love the sniper slow-down when playing as an Infiltrator in ME2. Allows for some incredibly cinematic kill-shots, as well as allowing mediocre gamers like myself to actually hit stuff ;)
 
Maaaan I'm getting annoyed with Morinth. She won't join me, because the stupid game has decided to level speechchecks in the game, so even though I'm 4/5 renegade, I need 5/5 renegade because of the imminent vicinity to the suicide mission launch. This is annoying.
 
Maaaan I'm getting annoyed with Morinth. She won't join me, because the stupid game has decided to level speechchecks in the game, so even though I'm 4/5 renegade, I need 5/5 renegade because of the imminent vicinity to the suicide mission launch. This is annoying.

Just download Gibbed Save Editor (scroll down to Tools) and give yourself the necessary Renegade points.

Yes, its borderline cheating, but to each their own.
 
Maaaan I'm getting annoyed with Morinth. She won't join me, because the stupid game has decided to level speechchecks in the game, so even though I'm 4/5 renegade, I need 5/5 renegade because of the imminent vicinity to the suicide mission launch. This is annoying.

If you haven't already, get the Retain Powers upgrade from the research terminal, max out your class power, and choose whichever specialisation will give you the bigger bonus on morality points - it works in retrospect!

I'm in the same situation, but with that trick and doing pretty much every other mission that will give you renegade points, I got my bar maxed out. ;)
 
Hmm, I need to use gibbed then to give me more paragon points to finally charm Miranda out of hating me before the last mission. I accidentally sided with Jack even though I hate that punk bitch.

Btw you can go to http://www.masseffect2faces.com/ and get some good looking presets for your shepard. Also, additional hairstyles are unlockable with gibbed.
 
Super spoilers, but who cares. Shepard is still a jerk.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4[/YOUTUBE]
 
Thanks for the tool, I had to add stupid amounts of renegae points (had 780 or so) and I played cautiosly at first but even 1000 points didnt get me Morinth. 1500 did though. The only remaining mission was the suicide mission, so you need a full bar by that point.

So I finally finished the second playthrough and did the renegade ending
and I noticed the sun behind the illusive man was still red. I wonder what's up with that

Also, don't romance the fishy guy.
 
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[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwzoedQ_ZQ8[/YOUTUBE]

:D
 
Has anyone else noticed that, when you download DLC (I've downloaded Zaeed, Normandy Crash, and a suit of armor whose name I forget), you have to "authenticate with the Cerberus Network" every time you play, or else you can't open any save games where you've done the DLC? Seems to me that the DLC are functioning as Assassin's-Creed-II-style DRM, and I'm not a fan.
 
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