Updated opinion on Mass Effect 2
Feb. 3rd, 2010 03:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inanedirkThere were a lot of negative points about the game in my "first impressions" post, but as it turns out, most of them don't much matter.
Scanning planets for resources is still a pain in the ass, but it seems that the developers had the same opinion - there's plenty of resources to find, I'd guess spread on all explorable planets is about 10x the resources you need to max out your equipment and research. Basically you just fully exploit a few "rich" planets and you're done for the game. Only one element is a little harder to find, but you don't need as much of it as with the other resources.
The combat system is more action oriented, but once you get used to it, it works just fine. Enemies don't often actually surprise you, and you get used to using the special powers effectively (which IMO is easier to accomplish than it was in ME1).
And if you die, it's not too bad either, since the game seems to frequently save in the background during short breaks in combat, so you don't lose much if you die.
Building up your team is very predictable. When you start the game, you get "dossiers" of potential candidates, who you then visit and do something for them / help them / whatever to have them join.
The thing is, even though it always follows the same basic pattern (find character → quest → character joins), the quests themselves are diverse and very well-made.
Then after the character joins your team, they approach you asking a personal favour. You do that quest too, and they become "loyal", meaning an additional powerful ability for them.
You could say that this kind of predictability gets boring, but it doesn't really. It helps you getting to know your team members.
And I guess here's the most important aspect why the game works: The writing and voice acting is brilliant.
There's just one aspect that I found a little disappointing. When you start the game, there's a lot of empty spaces in the squad selection screen. Some areas are highlighted, and you quickly discover that those highlighted areas represent the characters you've got dossiers on. After a while, more empty areas are highlighted, since you just got a batch of new dossiers.
One space stays dark for quite some time though. But thanks to the advertising campaign prior to release, you know who will be occupying that space.
It's supposed to be a secret that you discover in-game, but even I knew in advance what was going on, and I wasn't really following rumours or announcements about the game last year.
So, that's a pity. Better luck next time trying to keep a secret.
It also feels like I'm missing a few dialog options when talking to Tali ... But maybe that issue will be resolved later on ...
Done rambling. Bed now.
Scanning planets for resources is still a pain in the ass, but it seems that the developers had the same opinion - there's plenty of resources to find, I'd guess spread on all explorable planets is about 10x the resources you need to max out your equipment and research. Basically you just fully exploit a few "rich" planets and you're done for the game. Only one element is a little harder to find, but you don't need as much of it as with the other resources.
The combat system is more action oriented, but once you get used to it, it works just fine. Enemies don't often actually surprise you, and you get used to using the special powers effectively (which IMO is easier to accomplish than it was in ME1).
And if you die, it's not too bad either, since the game seems to frequently save in the background during short breaks in combat, so you don't lose much if you die.
Building up your team is very predictable. When you start the game, you get "dossiers" of potential candidates, who you then visit and do something for them / help them / whatever to have them join.
The thing is, even though it always follows the same basic pattern (find character → quest → character joins), the quests themselves are diverse and very well-made.
Then after the character joins your team, they approach you asking a personal favour. You do that quest too, and they become "loyal", meaning an additional powerful ability for them.
You could say that this kind of predictability gets boring, but it doesn't really. It helps you getting to know your team members.
And I guess here's the most important aspect why the game works: The writing and voice acting is brilliant.
There's just one aspect that I found a little disappointing. When you start the game, there's a lot of empty spaces in the squad selection screen. Some areas are highlighted, and you quickly discover that those highlighted areas represent the characters you've got dossiers on. After a while, more empty areas are highlighted, since you just got a batch of new dossiers.
One space stays dark for quite some time though. But thanks to the advertising campaign prior to release, you know who will be occupying that space.
It's supposed to be a secret that you discover in-game, but even I knew in advance what was going on, and I wasn't really following rumours or announcements about the game last year.
So, that's a pity. Better luck next time trying to keep a secret.
It also feels like I'm missing a few dialog options when talking to Tali ... But maybe that issue will be resolved later on ...
Done rambling. Bed now.
