ME 2 impressions

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n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
I never played the first game (i know, i know), but i'm liking this a lot.

Spent all day today in it!
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
Hint:
Garrus makes an excellent leader with all that C-Sec experience.
I know, but
look what happened to his last team. Apparently Miranda also works, but that seems cheesy since that's the default you're offered
.
 

JoshGuru7

Golden Member
Aug 18, 2001
1,020
1
0
Having just completed ME2, I've reached two conclusions. 1) This is an outstandingly good game and 2) most of the people in this thread are completely crazy.

1) ME2 is a very deep RPG. Loot and squad equipment may be typical conventions of the genre but they do not define what an RPG is: role-playing does. To that end, your decisions in both ME1 and ME2 cause major differences in the plotline and I felt very much connected to each member of the Normandy. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting are all superb and they really made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi epic. In my opinion, the role playing elements were as strong here as they have been in any of Bioware's titles.

2) The scanning minigames are a big improvement over the Mako. You can upgrade it twice (once for scanning speed, once for probe storage) and I get the feeling that people are simply parroting reviews that need to look for things to list on the negative side. Unlike in ME1, in ME2 the map lists the percentage of planets you have visited in that system and the planet itself shows the remaining quality of minerals. This makes it much easier to figure out where you have already been and what is still open for exploration. More importantly, there are far more planets available to scan than necessary in order to afford every single upgrade and so you don't need to waste your time scanning mediocre quality planets. I can see why most reviewers wouldn't pick up on this in limited playtime, but I would think people on this forum would.

3) The combat system is massively upgraded. Storming into a slide behind cover is fantastic, as is the ensuing vault after you mass reave a group of enemies and storm-slide to the next cover point. Being able to control your squad members with Q and E was a great idea and it only takes a little practice to be efficiently flanking the enemies in real time. I also loved putting everybody's powers on my hotbar and removing the need for pausing via the shift screen to issue orders.

4) I loved the ammo addition. One of the things that I didn't like about ME1 was that unlimited ammo meant the guns needed to be weaker/less accurate to compensate (spray and pray). There's a reason that just about every action game ever has included ammo, and it's because it's a constraint that leads to more tactical combat when your shots matter. The real genius to this implementation, however, was in encouraging the use of multiple weapons. Using a single weapon means you may run out of heat coils for it, but alternating between a few gives you plenty of extra cushion. That leads to a lot more variety, and in some of the longer fights I found myself using every single weapon.

I liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 about the same and think they are both great RPGs. I appreciated the differences in both setting and gameplay and I hope that ME3 pushes the FPS/RPG envelope even further when it comes out.
 
Last edited:

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
I'm happy w/ how the game runs too.
As i hate jaggies, i applied the ATi hotfix to allow for forced AA.

So i'm running 4xAA 2560x1600 all maxed except for dynamic shadows; those i had to disable to keep fps decent.

If i daresay, i did a damn good job making my Shepard a cutie.











 

ayabe

Diamond Member
Aug 10, 2005
7,449
0
0
Can't believe so many are finished already. I played all weekend and don't even have my whole team yet.

Anyways, I'm having a blast for the most part. The scanning is....somewhat better than the zero g 1981 moonbuggy extravaganza, but only by a smidge.

Men that play women in RPG's are...weird.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
Like N7, I never played the first ME but I'm loving ME2. ME is a deep and involved game, and I like how well they integrate the secondary stories witch the characters into the main one with the ability to improve on your paragon or renegade skills.

I played 12 hours straight yesterday which is something I have not done since I was 19 years-old. I just kept on wanting to know more about the world(s) around me and how my characters came to be. It really feels like you're immersed in a futuristic type world and I can't really articulate right now how much work they put into this game.

After 20 hours of game play I finished making my team up to crash the collector ship. Should be fun!
 

Zenoth

Diamond Member
Jan 29, 2005
5,201
214
106
People playing ME2 without having played the first one are missing a huge amount of story. I for one am currently replaying ME1 again to "start" a new character for ME2, I'll import him to ME2 and many consequences of my actions for specific events will come along. It's certainly possible to start from zero in ME2 directly but... I wouldn't see what would be the point, unless ME1's graphics and game-play hasn't aged well enough for those players. I must say that re-adapting to ME1's features and game-play mechanics (especially the stupid teammates' A.I, path-finding issues and imprecise cover system) was much harder than I thought it would be, but after two days and now about to go on Feros (just finished Noveria and all side-quests) I find myself just as good as I was when I first played and adapted to it about three years ago, also I play it with the Bring Down the Sky DLC which I had never tried before, and it wasn't bad at all, it took me about one hour and a half to finish, it's good enough considering how ME1 played out.

Anyways... to everyone new to the Mass Effect universe via ME2 who never touched the original before, do yourself a huge favor and at least give it a try. What's more, if you've played ME2 first and then move on to ME1 you will effectively play a "prequel" so to speak, seeing the whole thing quite differently than most who've played ME1 when it was popular (perhaps that's an understatement at this point in time but I for one still like it despite its many flaws).
 

Liet

Golden Member
Jun 9, 2001
1,529
0
0
It would seem that my two biggest, most infuriating problems with ME is still in ME2.

1. Renegade doesn't mean "badass who gets the job done by being a badass", it means "fucking asshole who is an asshole for no good reason"

2. The dialogue wheel doesn't accurately reflect what Shephard is going to say, ESPECIALLY if you select Renegade options frequently. Example: Choose "I gave you an order to get off the ship. Do it!"... which is exactly the kind of badassedness it should be. BUT Shephard actually winds up saying "GODDAMIT I told you to get off, GODDAMIT, I'll drag Joker's sorry crippled ass off this ship!"

See? It's not badass, it's just fucking assholish.

IT IS SO INFURIATING.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Some of the renegade makes you a badass. Plus, you're a badass no matter what you do. There is no pussyfooting around when you pick renegade though.
 

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,665
21
81
The second time around I'm going as the ugliest bitch the world as ever known. It's unfortunate they don't let you change the weight of the character though.
 

Liet

Golden Member
Jun 9, 2001
1,529
0
0
Eh, it ain't pussyfooting, it's just being an asshole needlessly. Why can't I just say "I gave you an order, soldier!" to get someone to get off the ship, instead of randomly insulting Joker by saying I'll go get his "crippled ass"? It's nonsense. I should be a military badass, not a jackass for no good reason except to show the players that Renegade is "evil".

When ME came out I was really hoping there wouldn't be a dumb nonsense "evil" path, just a super practical "I will permit no obstacles to the mission" path. That hope was quickly extinguished.

AND ANOTHER THING!

As mentioned earlier, the GUIs are consolized. Double-clicking should work... I shouldn't have to highlight and option and then move the cursor somewhere else to hit OK. ALSO, Enter and Spacebar don't work to confirm choices... only the mouse. Dumb.

AND ANOTHER THING!

There, glad I got that off my chest.

Consolized clothing. It's a great touch that I can customize armor now... but the armor model choices are severely limited, and Bioware was too lazy to code no-helmets for DLC armor. They clearly coded for the lowest denominator: console users. ATTENTION BIOWARE: My computer has a terabyte of storage, it's OK to give me more than two armor choices, don't pretend I'm a console user who's limited to whatever the DVD disk can hold.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
86
Later in the game, some of the renegade choices are about just getting the job done. Sparing lives can take a back seat to doing stuff. Being "evil" in this game isn't really evil though. It isn't like you are killing random people and overthrowing governments. Renegade is more intimidation.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
9,427
16
81
If you haven't played ME1 first, do so (at least after, and do a new game). There's a followup to almost every sidequest and decision in the original, if only via ship email. Some are quite memorable.
 

Dorkenstein

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2004
3,554
0
0
Haha, yeah, the armor mix and match business felt like they were going for the Need For Speed crowd. No doubt anymore that niche markets are harder to make money off of. Just aim low and wait for the new, mainstream and wet-behind-the-ears gamers to start opening their wallets.

I need to stop dwelling on this. But I'm powerless to change it.
 

Kev

Lifer
Dec 17, 2001
16,367
4
81
As mentioned earlier, the GUIs are consolized. Double-clicking should work... I shouldn't have to highlight and option and then move the cursor somewhere else to hit OK. ALSO, Enter and Spacebar don't work to confirm choices... only the mouse. Dumb.

I hate this too, but I don't see how it is consolized. It was probably just an oversite. Overall I think they nailed the controls for PC, other than this one issue.
 

Spoooon

Lifer
Mar 3, 2000
11,563
203
106
It would seem that my two biggest, most infuriating problems with ME is still in ME2.

1. Renegade doesn't mean "badass who gets the job done by being a badass", it means "fucking asshole who is an asshole for no good reason"

2. The dialogue wheel doesn't accurately reflect what Shephard is going to say, ESPECIALLY if you select Renegade options frequently. Example: Choose "I gave you an order to get off the ship. Do it!"... which is exactly the kind of badassedness it should be. BUT Shephard actually winds up saying "GODDAMIT I told you to get off, GODDAMIT, I'll drag Joker's sorry crippled ass off this ship!"

See? It's not badass, it's just fucking assholish.

IT IS SO INFURIATING.

Agreed. It's hard to be completely renegade because some of the renegade options seem childish. Nowhere near as bad as it was in ME1 in my opinion, but it's still there.
 

coloumb

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,069
0
81
Make sure you keep talking to the Game Dealer in the Citadel... some of his comments are truly hilarious.

Oh..and Jack is awesome [dialog, her random comments, etc.]
 

Raduque

Lifer
Aug 22, 2004
13,140
138
106
Consolized clothing. It's a great touch that I can customize armor now... but the armor model choices are severely limited, and Bioware was too lazy to code no-helmets for DLC armor. They clearly coded for the lowest denominator: console users. ATTENTION BIOWARE: My computer has a terabyte of storage, it's OK to give me more than two armor choices, don't pretend I'm a console user who's limited to whatever the DVD disk can hold.

Protip: Consoles have hard drives now.
 

Liet

Golden Member
Jun 9, 2001
1,529
0
0
Wow, then there's really no excuse for the extremely limited selections, reskins, and, even worse, recolors (LAAAAZZZYYYY), is there?

Hadn't even remembered about the hard drives, thanks.
 

JeffNY35

Senior member
Dec 16, 2009
294
2
76
Having just completed ME2, I've reached two conclusions. 1) This is an outstandingly good game and 2) most of the people in this thread are completely crazy.

1) ME2 is a very deep RPG. Loot and squad equipment may be typical conventions of the genre but they do not define what an RPG is: role-playing does. To that end, your decisions in both ME1 and ME2 cause major differences in the plotline and I felt very much connected to each member of the Normandy. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting are all superb and they really made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi epic. In my opinion, the role playing elements were as strong here as they have been in any of Bioware's titles.

2) The scanning minigames are a big improvement over the Mako. You can upgrade it twice (once for scanning speed, once for probe storage) and I get the feeling that people are simply parroting reviews that need to look for things to list on the negative side. Unlike in ME1, in ME2 the map lists the percentage of planets you have visited in that system and the planet itself shows the remaining quality of minerals. This makes it much easier to figure out where you have already been and what is still open for exploration. More importantly, there are far more planets available to scan than necessary in order to afford every single upgrade and so you don't need to waste your time scanning mediocre quality planets. I can see why most reviewers wouldn't pick up on this in limited playtime, but I would think people on this forum would.

3) The combat system is massively upgraded. Storming into a slide behind cover is fantastic, as is the ensuing vault after you mass reave a group of enemies and storm-slide to the next cover point. Being able to control your squad members with Q and E was a great idea and it only takes a little practice to be efficiently flanking the enemies in real time. I also loved putting everybody's powers on my hotbar and removing the need for pausing via the shift screen to issue orders.

4) I loved the ammo addition. One of the things that I didn't like about ME1 was that unlimited ammo meant the guns needed to be weaker/less accurate to compensate (spray and pray). There's a reason that just about every action game ever has included ammo, and it's because it's a constraint that leads to more tactical combat when your shots matter. The real genius to this implementation, however, was in encouraging the use of multiple weapons. Using a single weapon means you may run out of heat coils for it, but alternating between a few gives you plenty of extra cushion. That leads to a lot more variety, and in some of the longer fights I found myself using every single weapon.

I liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 about the same and think they are both great RPGs. I appreciated the differences in both setting and gameplay and I hope that ME3 pushes the FPS/RPG envelope even further when it comes out.

Great reply and I agree whole heartedly with your points. I have not finished the game, but I am far enough in to ask - how do you STORM SLIDE? I almost cant believe I do not already know how - or how I missed this
 

Liet

Golden Member
Jun 9, 2001
1,529
0
0
It may be that only Soldiers can do it (that's what I'm playing as), but you just hold Space and you run, and if it's towards cover you slide into it. Pretty cool.
 

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Jan 2, 2006
10,455
35
91
Having just completed ME2, I've reached two conclusions. 1) This is an outstandingly good game and 2) most of the people in this thread are completely crazy.

1) ME2 is a very deep RPG. Loot and squad equipment may be typical conventions of the genre but they do not define what an RPG is: role-playing does. To that end, your decisions in both ME1 and ME2 cause major differences in the plotline and I felt very much connected to each member of the Normandy. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting are all superb and they really made me feel like I was in the middle of a sci-fi epic. In my opinion, the role playing elements were as strong here as they have been in any of Bioware's titles. The plot, cinematics, and voice acting ARE superb, but think of how much better the game would be if they used this stuff for better sex scenes! GAWD. Wasted potential. Fail. Miranda is SO HOT. I don't want to go through all those amazing RPG elements just to get rewarded with a
fully clothed sex scene!

2) The scanning minigames are a big improvement over the Mako. You can upgrade it twice (once for scanning speed, once for probe storage) and I get the feeling that people are simply parroting reviews that need to look for things to list on the negative side. Unlike in ME1, in ME2 the map lists the percentage of planets you have visited in that system and the planet itself shows the remaining quality of minerals. This makes it much easier to figure out where you have already been and what is still open for exploration. More importantly, there are far more planets available to scan than necessary in order to afford every single upgrade and so you don't need to waste your time scanning mediocre quality planets. I can see why most reviewers wouldn't pick up on this in limited playtime, but I would think people on this forum would. The scanning minigames suck because they don't incorporate hot chicks.

3) The combat system is massively upgraded. Storming into a slide behind cover is fantastic, as is the ensuing vault after you mass reave a group of enemies and storm-slide to the next cover point. Being able to control your squad members with Q and E was a great idea and it only takes a little practice to be efficiently flanking the enemies in real time. I also loved putting everybody's powers on my hotbar and removing the need for pausing via the shift screen to issue orders. Shepard can't run worth crap. After a few feet he's winded.
I wish they had a sex scene with Yoeman Kelly because she's hot.

4) I loved the ammo addition. One of the things that I didn't like about ME1 was that unlimited ammo meant the guns needed to be weaker/less accurate to compensate (spray and pray). There's a reason that just about every action game ever has included ammo, and it's because it's a constraint that leads to more tactical combat when your shots matter. The real genius to this implementation, however, was in encouraging the use of multiple weapons. Using a single weapon means you may run out of heat coils for it, but alternating between a few gives you plenty of extra cushion. That leads to a lot more variety, and in some of the longer fights I found myself using every single weapon. I HATE running out of ammo! The game's rationale for switching to thermal clips is garbage when you're playing on Insanity and find yourself plinking away at close range enemies with the sniper rifle because that's all you've got left for clips. If you're in the Mass Effect universe, why would the universe forsake guns with UNLIMITED ammo over ones that rely on thermal clips to keep running? And why do you have to go through the cycle of "lean backward," "lean forward," and finally "tip" just to see the front side of an ugly stripper for a couple seconds? And why can't Miranda dance with you in the clubs? I wanna see her bust out those Asari moves! GOD I HATE THIS GAME.

I liked Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 about the same and think they are both great RPGs. I appreciated the differences in both setting and gameplay and I hope that ME3 pushes the FPS/RPG envelope even further when it comes out.Yeah, ME3 better have real sex scenes. Right now the game is pretty pointless.
All that time to build up a relationship with super hot Miranda only to seen barely anything.

Sigh....
 
Last edited:

Maximilian

Lifer
Feb 8, 2004
12,604
15
81
I'm happy w/ how the game runs too.
As i hate jaggies, i applied the ATi hotfix to allow for forced AA.

So i'm running 4xAA 2560x1600 all maxed except for dynamic shadows; those i had to disable to keep fps decent.

If i daresay, i did a damn good job making my Shepard a cutie.


Nice camel toe miranda
 

jinsaotomex4

Member
May 19, 2008
114
0
0
Certain UI decisions aside, ME2 is a complete improvement over ME1. The Mako missions in ME1 were dull, every single one of them (I would rather drive around than do the missions). You went in to a building and you had the choice of all of 2 buildings with different crate placement. A lot of the moves had very long cooldowns before, now these moves can be used very frequently (thank you shockwave spam!). The addition of squad ammo is a very welcome addition. Ammo to use vs shielded targets and armored targets is always available to you provided you are willing to customize your characters a certain way. The perk system is infinitely better, just get your teammates to loyal and you can unlock their loyal skill, by comparison, the ME1 skill perks were just a grind. You can also respec your character if you are having issues in order to pick up skills that will help you out in specific parts of the game.

There might be less weapons but the weapons actually feel different from one another and have different uses. In ME1 you just used the one with the better stats and the best mod + ammo combo. ME2 integrates weapon bonuses on top of specific weapon perks making the guns worthwhile to at least try out. Heavy weaponry is infinitely better than grenades, as each one is different and fun to use.

The planet scanning system is 'meh' at best. It gets very boring, quickly, specially when you get all the upgrades for the Normandy, all weapons, armor and such. Still better than the Mako. The new crew is definitely more involved than the old, specially since there are a few character interaction scenes where you must use your paragon/renegade skills to end an argument, or you will be forced to make some tough choices.

If you skipped ME1, you are not doing yourself any favors. Nearly EVERY single action from ME1 carries over to ME2 in some way shape or form. This includes main quest choices, side quests, planet exploration to random NPC choices (for example, if you complete the abortion related quest in ME1, you can see the NPCs arguing over the kid again in ME2).

As far as romances go, they are more interesting than ME1 as they are unlocked via loyalty + casual conversation. The choices for Shepard are pretty interesting regardless of genre. Female Shepard and male Shepard approach relationships in very different ways though. Male feels more like a pimp, while female tends to feel a bit dominating, not that I am complaining.

My only complaint is... where's ME3?!
 
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