Koko.Hekmatyar Posted December 23, 2013 Posted December 23, 2013 That one even I can't pass up, Just like I can't pass up kicking Vega's ass at the start of ME3 With talking about killing Wrex in ME has anyone played the Citidel DLC on a game that has Wrex dead? I always wondered if it was Wreav who saves you from the mercs or if they changed it to a different non krogan character.
ChancellorKremlin Posted December 23, 2013 Author Posted December 23, 2013 The Krogan that never shut up was a fun one too. I always punch Gerrel because he's such a backstabbing douche. I was so glad Tali didn't chastise me. I was like "thank you, he did deserve that, didn't he" lol. Vega takes the rocket launcher if Wrex is dead.
Koko.Hekmatyar Posted December 25, 2013 Posted December 25, 2013 hmm I might have to do a ME 1-3 again and let Wrex bit the big one.
windpl Posted December 25, 2013 Posted December 25, 2013 Who possibly could kill Wrex?! He is one of best characters in ME and best tank in game... He and Garrus makes a dream team.
jxm Posted December 25, 2013 Posted December 25, 2013 Funny, I pretty much agree with all this, especially in regards to ME2. ME3, like you said, I think lacked storyboarding. The "end" should have been one of the first things they decided on, and then built towards that. Rather, it seems like they just kept writing and then ran out of ideas. The "deus ex machina" nature doesn't surprise me, but the way it was handled was so off base the reactions it garnered are unsurprising. I still love the series, but I feel it was let down by the execution to the ending, simple as that. ME4 will probably, unfortunately, not be a retcon of ME3, or a reboot. In some ways, I'm glad they're doing something different, and I look forward to see what they do, so long as they take onboard two things - what made the original ME series great, and how they managed to screw up certain parts of it. If they remember that, then we'll be good to go. Also not so sure about Geralt and Yennefer... ME4, well, I am mostly only curious which colour they choose to continue.Red, the only ending that made half-way any sense in regards to the trilogy and what was told you over and over again by each and every significant character? Or Green, the mambo-jambo let's all become Borg ending? Or Blue the "I am your eternal dead queen Shepard now, bend your knee to my will - Ending? Or the Fuck-you-fans fourth ending? Who knows...I have scenarios in my pocket for everyone of them... On a more serious note though, I am not sure how this mess of a story can be salvaged by now. Sure, they'll find some way, whether or not it makes sense. Most likely a "Dark Age" in the ME-Universe, with most of the informations on the Reaper-War being lost. Easiest way to avoid too many callbacks to the original trilogy. Shepard is a saviour, but nobody knows what happened yadda yadda Reapers gone...oh look a new kind of threat comes out of Dark Space no time for any more questions about the past ("The PAST! Let's go there for answers!" Nah, 'tis a silly place...") *doublesigh* It's just saddening to see how so much potential got lost because of weird writing/story decisions. Of course the ME-Trilogy will always be loved by many. But once you looked beyond the fancy facade and at the trilogy as a whole and at all the WTF-story-moments...it gets somewhat difficult to take it serious anymore... Maybe games that tell one coherent story over the course of three parts are not a good idea...games have different rules than movies and books, and age differently as well. And I am glad they never tried that with Dragon Age and rather have every game with a new hero and storyline. Dragon Age 2 has some problems, but at least it doesn't hurt Origins too much, because it is a seperate storyline being told... That got longer than intended. Boring X-Mas Holidays. Oh and Geralt and Yennefer, I expect both of them to die (again), and live a happy life on the Island in the afterlife. Why? Because it is fitting, a true end to the trilogy and still a bit of tragic...even more tragic when thinking about poor Triss Or some translucent mutant miniature space-hamster just appears and we have to make a decision if Geralt destroys the Wild Hunt but also all the booze in the realms, joins the Wild Hunt and becomes their new king or turns everybody and their mother into Human-Wild Hunt Hybrids...because MAGIC! In that case Yennefer is...well...drinking coffee some place afar and looks dumbly at Geralts Wolf Medaillon (instead of actually helping/saving him or whatever)...damn!!!! I get mad!!!!! Even the new and improved endings in ME3 were dumb as shit!!!!!!! :@ :@ DISCLAIMER: The writer of the above has been transferred to a nearby sanitorium and is provided professional psychological help. We apologize for any kind of inconvenience the above written may have caused you, and wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Hospital Staff
ChancellorKremlin Posted December 27, 2013 Author Posted December 27, 2013 hmm I might have to do a ME 1-3 again and let Wrex bit the big one. Same here. Apparently there are quite a few ways to kill him on Virmire. Renegade Femshep here we come! Who possibly could kill Wrex?! He is one of best characters in ME and best tank in game... He and Garrus makes a dream team. Meh... he was fun, but I wasn't over the moon with him. A bit too "Klingon-esque" for me. ME4, well, I am mostly only curious which colour they choose to continue.Red, the only ending that made half-way any sense in regards to the trilogy and what was told you over and over again by each and every significant character? Or Green, the mambo-jambo let's all become Borg ending? Or Blue the "I am your eternal dead queen Shepard now, bend your knee to my will - Ending? Or the Fuck-you-fans fourth ending? Who knows...I have scenarios in my pocket for everyone of them... If they are smart, I don't think they'll acknowledge any of them. I have a feeling the next games won't be set "post" ME1-3 but during or before. To canonise any of them would just be to rub salt in the wound, rather, let the players choice be the one that matters for him/her and don't force one or another down their throats. You never know though - they could just bite the bullet and ho ahead with it, in which case, A LOT of people will be pissed off. Hard to think of an enemy/story more iconic and terrifying than the "Reapers" though. *doublesigh* It's just saddening to see how so much potential got lost because of weird writing/story decisions. Of course the ME-Trilogy will always be loved by many. But once you looked beyond the fancy facade and at the trilogy as a whole and at all the WTF-story-moments...it gets somewhat difficult to take it serious anymore... I agree, it was very poorly executed and huge writing opportunities were wasted. Like I said, not optimistic about what they are coming up with next, but hey, you never know, they may just surprise us. That got longer than intended. Boring X-Mas Holidays. Oh and Geralt and Yennefer, I expect both of them to die (again), and live a happy life on the Island in the afterlife. Why? Because it is fitting, a true end to the trilogy and still a bit of tragic...even more tragic when thinking about poor Triss True, so long as I have a choice about it, if I want that to be the ending to my Geralt. If they force that on us, I won't be happy. I like Triss, anyway Or some translucent mutant miniature space-hamster just appears and we have to make a decision if Geralt destroys the Wild Hunt but also all the booze in the realms, joins the Wild Hunt and becomes their new king or turns everybody and their mother into Human-Wild Hunt Hybrids...because MAGIC! In that case Yennefer is...well...drinking coffee some place afar and looks dumbly at Geralts Wolf Medaillon (instead of actually helping/saving him or whatever)...damn!!!! I get mad!!!!! Even the new and improved endings in ME3 were dumb as shit!!!!!!! :@ :@ DISCLAIMER: The writer of the above has been transferred to a nearby sanitorium and is provided professional psychological help. We apologize for any kind of inconvenience the above written may have caused you, and wish you all a merry christmas and a happy new year. Hospital Staff lol... Anyway, in other news, here is my belated ME2 review. Should have come out yesterday, but one drink led to another and well... needless to say, I was getting very incoherent half way through - as charming as I may be when intoxicated, I'm sure you wouldn't want to be reading the kind of crap I was coming up with haha, so I took a step back. So here it is. Enjoy!
ChancellorKremlin Posted December 27, 2013 Author Posted December 27, 2013 Right then, first and foremost, Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Jolly Festive Season! Yes, I know today is boxing day, but the Xmas spirit prevails. And so, after gorging myself far too much on all manner of roasts, nuts, berries and fruits of all types to make a Palaeolithic hunter gatherer proud and indulging in enough alcohol to effectively put down a large terrestrial mammal with only minimal fuss, I’ve decided to pen this review, eggnog in hand. I've replayed the game to re-familiarise myself it again since my last playthrough, just to be on the safe side – after all, all my other reviews were penned only after playing said games twice, and this should be no different. So we begin… "When less isn't more" First Impressions: Well, obviously the first thing that struck me was the intro. It was… ballsy, really. I mean, it was definitely a “Woah, did they just do what I think they did?”. To be clearer, as I’ve said elsewhere, I came into the ME universe with little to no spoilers. I watched a Malukah music video where there was a clip of some poor N7 soul being haplessly blasted into space, and I thought – huh, I guess at some point the Normandy is attacked. Can’t wait to see that part… and then BOOM! That’s actually you out there, dying. I was an impressive start to the game. It was well done, atmospheric (not for long!) and just ambitious – killing off your main character right off the bat. I mean… that’s a start! And the bit where you go to the CIC part of the Ship and the whole middle of the ship has been destroyed and you’re out in the vacuum of space, with only your breathing and heartbeat, and no music or sound whatsoever, that was brilliant. Reminded me of 2001: Space Odyssey, which remains one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi movies of all time. I thought yeah, that’s a nice touch. Then you save Joker and the whole thing blows up and you’re blasted out into space, where you see yourself slowly being deprived of oxygen and start to burn up as you begin your atmospheric re-entry. I began to have issue with the ambitiousness of the intro sequence right about there. I’ll delve into more detail in this under “Plot”, but suffice to say – OK, I’m obviously going to be revived somehow, but what sort of implications will this have for the ME universe at large, and the current plot? I’d have to wait and see. Anyway, other things that struck me initially were obviously the jump in graphics, which I found were very good. Facial anims also seem to have been upgraded, which is all the better to impart emotions during those tense or emotional scenes. I suppose I was also struck by how... streamlined, for lack of a better word, a LOT of ME's original features were. The word "butchered" also comes to mind. My abilities screen seems to have suffered some major casualties to be replaced by a few token "powers", to such an extent the label RPG really, if we're going to be perfectly honest, no longer applies, and combat has apparently been reinvented for no apparent reason. I'll go into more details about all of this, suffice to say - this was my first impression - the game shows all the hallmarks and taint of a product acquired and developed under EA's auspices - undercut, streamlined, short and linear. Within the first few missions, I came to eralise about half of what ME1 great and unique had been completely removed from the game, with the other half being worked on - in some cases magnificently - like the dialogue and general grit of the writing, but otherwise, what's left is a thrilling achievement in storytelling and characterisation let down by all the other facets that made ME an interesting and unique game. If this were a book, I'd say it was a good story told badly. Gameplay: Combat in ME1 could have been said to be clunky, while in ME2, combat is more fluid, with clunky moments, I felt. For starters, while ME1's transition from a console to PC port was relatively seamless, the same cannot be said for the PC. There are a number of issues present. By far the most unfuriating one has got to be binding the Spring/Interact/Cover function all into one button. Half the time I found myself locking into cover while trying to retreat from incoming enemies, or worse still, locking into cover during a midsprint, and then having to run the disengage anim while the enemy relentlessly tears into me with bullets. I also really take issue with them removing the crouch button - why? That's my question - why? WHY would they do that? Indirect cover can be an incredibly useful asset (especially so on insanity) and I just can't think of any conceivable reason why they would have to remove that function. Oh, and speaking of removing functions... AMMO MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU HAVE IT!??! Because if you don't, you're fucked. At first I was like, OK, don't see why they did that, but this isn't so bad. THEN I played Mordin's recruitment mission, on Insanity. I must have cleared about 3/4 of the level, and then... the inconceivable happened. I ran out of ammo. I can hear the screams in my sleep. The visions... running around frantically over fallen enemy corpses, hoping to God this one had dropped a thermal clip I could use. No such luck, they're all shooting at me... I feel pain, blood is rushing through my wounds... I'm dying. There is no ammo to be had. ANYWHERE! It is a bad day to be a soldier. I charge one of them and smash into him with my melee. His friend comes over to help and I yell "You want some too!" and bash his head in. None have ammo. Then comes another gangster and promptly guns me down,bloody flying everywhere. Game over. Yes, I am one of those guys who is going to WHINE about the ammo system being changed. Again, WHY! WHY BEAware, WHY!? What was wrong with the original system? I hear a lot about how ME2 was "redesigned" to compete with/copy Gears of War and all that, but I won't comment, because I've never played GoW. A lot of players and reviewers say "Oh, the clips make it more "tactical." Well, you know what? I'm yet to see a news article about how a platoon in Iraq/Afghanistan was wiped out because they ran out of ammo, which is how I've died countless times in the first phases of the game. It probably has something to do with the fact that in real life, people don't waltz around with shields and armour that can soak up one to two clips depending on difficulty level. No, IRL, I usually shoot 1-3 times at you, and you die. That's why a few magazines usually does the job in a firefight. Now imagine a firefight where "a few magazines" is what you need just to get through to the guy's health... so you know, if you're going to make this "tactical" - make it a one shot kill thing, too. Then we'll play. I don't know how it compares to the lower difficulties, but there are parts in ME2 on Insanity where unless you headshot EVERY SINGLE ENEMY as a Soldier, you won't be progressing. And for anyone else who throws the "it's more tactical" excuse at me - you know what? CONSERVING AMMO and "firing in short, controlled bursts" is tactical. It's what I had to do in ME1, and it worked. CROUCHING is tactical. Going into battle with little to no ammo ISN'T tactical. It's fucking stupid. And you know why I'm saying that? Because the Illusive Man can afford billions of credits rebuilding me and giving me a huge new ship, but can't re-supply my heavy weapons. God forbid you do a side-mission where the first three enemies you'll be facing are ALL ATLAS MECHS because you will be fucked. Good luck with that... My problem with this inane and unnecessary decision is two-fold. First, because it is lore-breaking, a regressing transition from a unique concept of weapon mechanics I thought was unique and worked well within the ME universe (solid metal blocks which overheat) to the much more mundane, banal and boring general concept of "ammo clips". It just breaks a key gameplay element that didn't need to be broken. In the two years I've been dead, weapons have gone from basically having infinite ammo to having a very very finite amount of ammo. Who in their right mind would even buy these weapons? Who would upgrade to them? It makes no sense. So yes, that's that rant out of the way. In a lot of ways, I feel ME2 suffers from a lack of scale and grandeur compared to ME1, and this isn't just present in the overall story and direction ME2 took, but even in the little things. The inventory, the RPG element of opening boxes, killing enemies for XP, the very, very limited number of weapons and armour. Allow me to elaborate. The first game, while somewhat rough around the edges, could be said to be "visionary". Instead of refining these rough edges, BEAware decided to cut them off and remove them altogether. The outcome is that we have a game that is far more polished but indescribably "shallower" in almost every regard. Its fair to say it is, really, no longer an RPG, but at best a 3rd person shooter with customisation options. The removal of certain stats and abilities means there isn't a sense of character progression or standard that you can measure your progress with. Enemies no longer give you XP, which while a small thing in itself, removes any sense of accomplishment when killing a large group of enemies or a boss, and there are a lot of both present in the game. Exploration as you know is over. Even within the small, linear and confined levels, there are no boxes or crates or anything to explore - just safes and terminals/PDA's with either money or information. The few items there are, can only be acquired through the stores, and you really have maybe 4-5 suits of armor and a few weapons to choose from. Remember those huge surpluses of ammo, armor, upgrades and all that from ME1, that made you feel like you belonged to a galaxy filled with races, all producing different items and all that? Yep, all that's gone. Here's one set of armour. It makes you look like a medieval knight. Here's a weapon, with a few levels to it. That's it. That entire sense of scale, even if it is economic scale, with all those different brands and corporations and laboratories making arms and armour - they all apparently went bankrupt during your 2 year hiatus. It's not just in the grand scheme of the plot and storytelling that the game regresses and makes you feel like you're in a smaller world, but even trivial things, like I've said - the ammo, items - even things like Medigel. You're now left with a streamlined version that revives squadmates but does little else. Gone are the intricate little stats about how much your medi-gel healed, for how long, between how many squadmates, etc. The mechanics that forced you to spend close attention as to how to spend powers - like healing and being a medic, carrying more medi-gels, keeping track of how each squad-member could heal him/herself. Now all you have are basic "offensive" powers and nothing else - no intimidate, no persuade, no dialogue, hack, encrypt or any other RPG style powers. Just pure, straight, uncut and unadulterated "COMBAT" powers. Not to mention, the game feels a little too concerned with "holding the player's hand" and just flat out being heavy handed. In ME1, you were more or less free to make your own mistakes, and go about spending ability points wisely (or unwisely!) and then having to think about the consequences. ME2, on the other hand, "Oh, so you screwed up these points? No problem, just use this terminal to reset them..." I was like, wait, isn't that usually like an end-game treat the players get? Why am I being given this right now? The same applied to squadmates. It basically meant you couldn't mess up your attributes and skill trees because there was always a way out of it, which was silly. As a result, the game feels a lot shallower for anyone that appreciated those little touches in the RPG department, and a definite departure from the malleability and role playing experience that made ME1 so special. Enemies: Ihave a bone to pick with the enemies of ME2. In short, there aren't enough of them. There are three. THREE types of enemies in ME2. Mechs, Mercenaries, and Collectors. That's it. You'll spend the entire game fighting them in roughly 40 / 40 / 20 proportion. The irony is of course, that the most interesting and presumably plot-essential enemies of the game - the Collectors - are the ones you fight the least. Instead, you'll be treated to countless corridor maps filled to the brim with waves of respawnable "Fenris Mechs" with a few random pick your colour Mercs thrown in. If you're lucky, towards the end, a few commanders and engineers and so on might appear, but that's about it. Seriously, that's it? Given the richness of the enemies opposing you in ME1, this is what I'm stuck with fighting? I mean, yeah, I got it - on the first level, I was in a Medical Facility, and someone sabotaged the whole project and the easiest way to do that is to override the Mechs acting as secutiry. Fair enough. I won't question how mechanics and AI's in general went from being completely looked down upon and mistrusted by Humans and all other civilizations to a basic household item in the space of two years, but OK, I'll roll with it. But then... I found out, actually, it wasn't just level one that had Mechs because it was a space medical station. Oh no. EVERYBODY has Mechs. EVERHWERE. And ALL OF THEM have rebelled. Literally, all of them. I think you find like 5 mechs in the entire game that aren't against you. The rest just become an excuse for a filler enemy that are STREWN throughout every map and level of the game. I just can't describe how disappointed I was on the 2nd level, Freedom's Progress, with the tension building up and the tense music playing (From Alien, nonetheless!) thinking you know, what is lurking around the corner, what in god's name am I going to find... only to bump into those stupid, obnoxious Mechs. I was like... and just like that, the magic is gone. They had a chance of leaving behind some really interesting, Collector like sub-species, or say, an ancient Prothean animal or biological weapon to "clean up the evidence". But nope, it's just Mechs. Again. And literally, they are EVERYWHERE. And they're ALWAYS TURNING ON THEIR HANDLERS... I just found them far too convenient and annoying. I wasn't so much playing Mass Effect 2 as I was playing Mass Effect Mech Attack! ... it was jarring. This would have been ameliorated if there had been at least another set of interesting enemies to go with them,but nope... Mercs. Lots and lots of Mercs... It reminded me of ME3's ending - pick a colour. Any colour you want - from Blue, Green or Red. Great, here are your Mercs - different colours, all the same flavour. Have I mentioned just how much I HATE filler enemies? I hate enemies I can easily categorise. "Here's your horde zombie type (All Mechs)" - "Here's your default trooper type (All Mercs)" - "Here's your boss type (Gunship/Mech Mecha) - and here's your creepy type (all Collectors). I actually thought the game would have probably been better if we just had Collectors. They look better. They kill better. They have better boss enemies (Praetorian, anyone?) and their back-story is way better. Protheans. Harvested and "processed" Protheans, who presumably failed to be deemed adquate enough to be "Ascended." I mean, they make interesting enemies. I just wish I saw more of them, or they had more variety. To give you an example, while I hated Cerberus in ME3, I did like the fact at the very least, they had varied enemies in their ranks. It made fighting them fun and different - guardians, phantoms, Atlas', troopers, engineers, snipers, centurions, etc - all with different abilities which they used frequently and complimented each other. It made combat organic and frantic. In ME2, you have a few mercenaries, none of which ever break cover to advance on you (that is the Mech zombie type job) and besides the engineer/captain/commander which you only face on advanced levels, for the most part, the only tactic you have to employ throughout the whole game is duck, cover, shoot, move on, repeat. Even for a combat back, which ME isn't supposed to be, that is shallow and hollow and it wears very thin after a while - there is no novelty, no challenge, nothing that makes what you're fighting against interesting. If you're lucky, you might bump into some Geth every now and then, but only for a limited time. When you compared this against the backdrop of not only the diversity, but the scope of the enemies you were fighting in ME1 - Geth, Slavers, Mercenaries, Drones, Robots, Mechs, Pirates, Husks, Biotics, Asari Commandos, Rachni, REAPERS! and the like - Mechs, Mercs and Collectors just doesn't cut it. Oh, and before I forget. The rocket spamming? Really? What the hell was that about? An enemy shows up with a rocket launcher, and he's like "HAHA! BEHOLD my rocket launcher that fires EVERY 0.5 SECONDS! MUHAHAHAHAH!!!!1" and just proceeds to spam you with missile after missile after missile, all of which remove you from cover. And it's not like "Oh no, this thing has exploded, and I hath fallen on the ground by the blast" sort of removed from cover, it's more like "Oh no, this rocket has exploded, I guess I better stand up OUT OF COVER for a few seconds to get my bearings and hope nobody shoots me in the meantime..." I mean, seriously, whatever rocket launcher those guys arm themselves, I'll have what they're having! And of course, there was the taunting. The endless, incessant, mind-numbing taunting. I am of course referring to the only Boss like character whose never-ending catchphrase became an instant internet meme - the Collector General himself. I think it's fair to say that -ASSUMING CONTROL! Yes, him. Perhaps it was somewhat good timing that there were so few Collector missions available, given that all you'll be hearing between "TAKE THEM OUT MIRANDA!" and "BANG BANG PULSE BEAM BANG!" is a selection of Collector General Classics, ranging from "I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY!", to the popular "YOU FEEL THIS SHEPARD!" to the ageless "I AM UNSTOPPABLE" and the party favourite, always appropriate "I AM THE HARBINGER OF YOUR PERFECTION!"... which took some doing, but I just about managed to pull some tail at a party with once. I mean, at first I thought it was funny, then I thought it was annoying, and towards the end at the collector base I as actually convinced this is how the Collectors/Reapers jam your radio signals - a frequency that hijacks all others and just spouts out this random nonsense over and over again until you either submit or suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage. I mean... there's the taunting villain trope and there's the trolling villain trope and BEAware have basically taken the latter and added 60% more trololo guy. It was all a little too much... Level Design: I think another major element in leading me to conclude ME2 is a very limiting, "constrained" and streamlined experience were the levels. I mean, levels are perhaps one the biggest pitfalls for ME across the series. The problem I have with ME2's levels is that they are, basically, just huge corridors, with a few crates and stuff very obviously scattered around for cover, pre-scripted waves and waves of respawning enemies, and a boss. At the start, there is a two minute dialogue sequence. At the end, there is a two minute dialogue cut-scene. That's it. Rinse and repeat. Nearly all of the levels, including main missions, felt that way. In a sense, they were just too "formulaic". There was very little room for exploration, and the combat felt far too "scripted". I literally lost count of the time's I entered a room, saw that it was large, saw crates scattered around and thought "Right, I'm spending the next 15 minutes behind cover taking down waves of Fenris Mechs, which will keep spawning for a pre-determined set of time. The fact the enemies are the SAME over and over doesn't help, it just makes you feel you're running and gunning down an alley waiting to get from A to B. And that's without even mentioning the fact the huge levels from ME1 are gone. Exploring them with the MAKO, wasting time, finding planets to land on, all that's been done away with. Even the large levels with the Hammerhead, just feel like huge corridors, with the old "canyons and valleys" trick. Even the simple things, like the skydome and the awesome, awe-inspiring vistas of ME1 are gone, to be replaced with the dark, greyed out, dull and saturated skies that make the mainstay of modern games. The one level I though was an exception to this was "Haestrom" during Dossier: Tali. THAT was a mission that reminded me what ME was about - it was a fun map, action packed, had plenty of character interaction, and was a fun concept. Sadly, it is so conspicuous by the fact it is one of few such levels. Elsewhere, you're left with dark, grim and industrial levels, with little imagination or soul, rehashed a thousand ways and populated with the same variety of enemies, in the same formula of combat, and the same patter of start, middle and end. Given the vast, rich, awe-inspiring and detailed maps ME1 gave us (besides the "indoor" sidequest maps, that is) the selection available in ME2 is disappointing and uninspired. It's not only streamlined, but lacking in imagination. It was like every other shooter before and after it. And that was a shame. - Minigames: Minigames were an aspect of the game I actually enjoyed. What struck me, at first, is how... realistic, they were. As in, hacking depending on compiling different segments of code, or bypassing having to re-wire a circuit board, and scanning having to... well, scan a planet. It was actually very fitting to the lore and universe in a verisimilitude fashion. When you compare this to the "point the arrow in the right direction and shoot" nature of ME1's hacking and encryption mini-games, they are orders of magnitude ahead. And that is where the problem starts, namely, with the planetary scanner. At first, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought the graphic on the side was purely ornamental and a sprite that didn't tell me anything. I then realised that, actually, I am full on scanning this planet quadrant by quadrant, waiting for the tell tale signs of the mineral I'm looking for to spike so I can lay claim to it. Initially, I was very excited. I was like "This is cool!" and yes, it doesn't replace the magic of exploring on foot and on the MAKO as I did in ME1, but it was alright. But... after you've done that for 100x times, to collect those minerals you need for your upgrades... the novelty starts to wear off. Never mind that the PC controls with the mouse are really clunky and heavy. I still don't think I hated it with the fervent passion a lot of other people did, but it was perhaps too clever for its own good. Me, I would have been happy been air-dropped unto a random alien planet with random asteroids falling from the sky around me while I search for minerals the hard way. Have I mentioned how much I liked that about ME1? I have a feeling I might have. Because it was awesome. And it never happened again... - Misc Gameplay Elements: Well... what else? I suppose the porting from the console to the PC suffered quite badly this time round. There were some pretty nasty bugs, like the player suddenly hovering a meter in the air, which was annoying during combat, as it quickly got you killed, but even more during normal walking around, as sometimes there was no coming back and you had to reload the level. The 50 save limit thing was also pretty stupid - given all it takes to fix it is to change a hex flag using ME2 Explorer, you do have to question why the developers didn't just do that from the start? Yes, I like to save often, before every conversation in fact. No, I don't care if you only ever use three saves. Good for you. The fact is, imposing these console restrictions on the PC in this entirely arbitrary manner is lazy when all it takes is for you to change a hex flag. I suppose the UI also suffered quite a bit during the comb-over by EA's streamlining department. Simple things like double-cliking on menus can't be done, you have to press the "click item" button, proceed to "click OK" and so on. You can't even skip by say, pressing enter, you have to click every button. The same applies to return or escape, which can't be done automatically, you have to manually press the keys with the mouse. The same applies to the star map. What I particularly dislike about this though, is that ME1 already addressed these issues. I don't care how it was for the console, when you take on the job to port it to the PC, I expect the job to be done properly. It's only fair. And if the previous iteration of the game already had it - why cut corners now? Another jarring part of the gameplay, at least if you're playing on insanity, is that you can't skip cutscenes. I mean yeah, there is the space bar skip which works sometimes, and I repeat, only sometimes. Most of the times, you're stuck with huge cutscenes you have to watch from scratch, only for some event to happen, baddies to pour in, kill you, and the auto-save to bring you back RIGHT BEFORE the cutscene. I mean... that's just bad planning. If you'er going to have auto-saves, at least put them in sensible places, like RIGHT BEFORE a major fight, not 10 minutes before during a cutscene. I've lost count how many times I've had to watch the same cutscene over and over again... (Arrival, trying to survive the Hordes for example)... this could be mitigated if I were allowed to save during combat, say, right after the cutscene is finished. But nope... they took that away, too. It's like they're punishing the player for failure, or forcing you to constantly watch the same segment in the hopes that this time, "you'll do it right". At the end of the day, I spend more time in between loading screens and watching people talk than I do playing, during particular challenging segments. ME3 partly ameliorates this problem, but not entirely, as there are still unskippable cutscenes, and badly timed save points. The solution, of course, is to be able to save during combat... you know, like you could in ME1 ... Graphics: Graphically, the game is beautiful. For the most part, the texture quality is above average, things like lighting and other effects, like shadows and fire and explosions and so on, were pretty dynamic and immersive. Compared to the ME1, which was a little touch and go in that regard, the game carries itself. Again though, while the game does look visually stunning, with expressive facial animations, beautifully drawn artwork and character design and truly cinematic and engaging cutscenes, there is a certain lack of ... ambition, or awe when it came to rendering certain maps and levels. As I've said, a lot of the maps in ME1 were fairly simple, but very simple things made them excel in immersing you into the world, engaging your brain, making you think of the scope of the accomplishments you've achieved, even if the graphics were a little dated. Like the imaginative sky domes, or the large levels that differed as you changed planets, the different stars hanging over your head, the gas giants, the white dwarfs, etc. Couple that with the expansive horizons, and you had vistas that made you feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things. ME2 unfortunately, while visually superior, lacks in that department, giving you beautiful but cramped environments, with highly detailed canyon like corridor walls, and saturated and unremarkable skies. With a few exceptions, like Haestrom, or that one level with the sandstorm where you have to find out what happened to the crashed ship with lots of ... wait for it, MECHS! ... there is very little imagination involved in presenting the world of ME2. Even the Collector Base, which could have been a turning point, was simply a collection of caves. CAVES! When you consider the menu screen for ME2 has this amazing structure thing looking into a huge field of debris awash in the yellow haze of a star or other, I expect something equally epic at some point the game. Unfortunately, that moment never came. DLC: You know, I know its easy and cheap to take shots at EA for this sort of thing, but really? $1.99 for an alternate appearance pack? $6.99 for a quest mission? 800 Microsoft/BEAware points for "Lair of the Shadow Broker"? I mean... really? You're charging for textures and quests now? This is why I'm against DLC on principal - because, in 99% of the cases, they should either be included in the game, or released free. Either that, or you take your time building an expansion pack - you know, like in the old days, say like, Half Life - Opposing Force, or something like that? Kind of a like a game 1.5, with tons of new content, features, skins, quests, etc. Almost like a new game. Not milking random items, packs and missions for $5 a piece. No, I'm sorry, I hate DLC's, and I don't abide by them. They're a blight on the community which serves only to inflate sales, dupe consumers and further a questionable business practice. That being said, what does ME2 offer in terms of DLC? Well, besides the obvious appearance packs and all that, not a lot, actually. The Kasumi DLC and Zaed DLC were interesting in adding two new characters, though as I will elaborate later, you end up with far too many characters to care, even tough I did quite like Kasumi, and her acquisition and loyalty quests were sufficiently different from the others as to actually make it interesting and worth it, I suppose. She also has some pretty fun things to say on the ship once you get her there, though sadly no "cutscene" convos, shadowing what would become of Ashley Williams in ME3. Zaed, on the other hand, is a standard shoot fest, clearing large areas of mercs and mechs, taking cover, firing, defeating boss, etc squared. All very boring. Wasn't really too keen on him, the obvious "guy with English accent that yells Bastard!" type and all that, seemed like fan service. He has some fun anecdotes on the ship, but nothing I would pay money for - should have been included off the bat in the game full stop. The same applies for Crash Landing, which was short and had no reason to just be part of the game - I mean, it's revisiting your old ship and laying ghosts to rest, why wouldn't Shepard have done that anyway? Besides that, I suppose there is Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival. Of the three, I would only really recommend Lair of the Shadow Broker. Overlord is just yet another shoot fest, with some open maps, including the "Hammerheard" vehicle which doesn't really do anything besides jump and firing in the general vicinity of the enemy. Sadly, the "open map" didn't convince me, and I found the heavy handed nature of the game literally TELLING ME where to look for a scenic spot to be underwhelming. It was something like a waterfall with some clouds. I was like - this is it? THIS is what you've specifically told me that "organics might describe as scenic"? I wanted to tell him I saw much better things in ME1. As always, the big maps don't convince. The only good bit was right at the end when you finally come across the tortured soul, showing again one of the key pitfalls of ME2 in a nutshell - linear combat and boring levels, saved by good writing and compelling characters. Lair of the Shadow Broker was actually really good, and I cherished the chance to encounter Liara again, my old squadmate and friend from ME1. Again, it wasn't perfect. She has changed. I mean... really changed. Shy, sweet, young and naive archaeologist turns psychopath threatening killer changed. It was... jarring to say the least. Thankfully, they didn't go overboard with it, and it was easy to believe that, given the circumstances, she had "mature" somewhat. It was also fun because, you got this really cool level (with a nice sky! Have I mentioned how important skies are?!) with a neat design and a challenging boss. In the end, you get what basically amounts to a "base" and plenty of little features to play around with, including some extra intel on your squadmates, much of which is pretty funny and entertaining - ie Miranda's encounters. This is the kind of DLC I like, the kind that keeps giving even after you've completed it. Liara also has some pretty touching moments, whether she was your LI in ME1 or not, sort of foreshadowing her behaviour in ME3, I suppose. All in all, I really enjoyed it - it was fun, I connected with the characters, and found it rewarding. Arrival on the other hand was yet another shoot fest, with some very limited stealth options, which would have been fun if only there was more of it. At the end of the day, you're shooting through one complex to another, interspersed with a few cutscnes, some dialogue, more shooting, an encounter with the odd Mech and Mecha (very original!) and then finally, Harbinger himself (in hologram) warning that his arrival is imminent. You destroy a Relay in Batarian space which would have acted as a backdoor for the Reapers, kill 300,000 Batarians, and hopefully stall the Reapers. Oh, wait, no, you don't, because in ME3, it turns out all you got was a few weeks or a a month or two at best, and that in that time, nobody did absolutely NOTHING to prepare. In sum, Arrival is basically irrelevant to what happens in ME3. And don't get me started on how the pre-EC endings of ME3 ignore all the lore established by this DLC episode. So you pay money, and get bitchslapped in the face. That's what I pay transient hookers for, not EA. And this is why I think DLC's are really, a waste of space and money. Music & Sound Effects: Well, for the most part, I did enjoy the sound effect and soundtrack of ME2. I mean, it was more towards the "epic" scale than the "creepy and mysterious" scale as ME1's was, but I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing. VA, as always, was spot on, couldn't fault a single person I heard - everyone maybe believe they were those characters and that they were in the situations depicted, so full marks there. On the music front, not a lot of the tracks stuck with me, aside maybe "Humans Are Disappearing" with some lovely piano work, with themes reminiscent of ME1 and the whole "Prothean" skyway demise theme which I like. Oh, "Freedom's Progress" was also really freaky and disturbing, if only because I recognised it as a theme from the BEST sci-fi horror movie every written - Alien - of course, and it was an excellent easter egg and tribute to the late Jerry Goldsmith, composer of that awesome track. Unfortunately, the climatic tension built up by that song didn't last when I met my illusive enemies on that particular level... the vile and vicious Fenris Mechs. What a waste! The "Illusive Man" theme was also pretty good. But a particular favourite of mine has got to be "The End Run" right before you blow up the Collector Base and escape. It's such an epic and satisfying end song, it really encapsulates all that the mission was about - fighting against the odds, succeeding, escaping in the nick of time. It worked for me because in my first playthrough, nobody died - I saved all my crew from the abduction, and had all my squad live through the suicide mission. It was a moment of sheer triumph, and I reveled in it, and the score allowed me to do that. It almost has something "Doctor Who" esque about it, that feeling that in the darkest night, against the most impossible of odds, you have prevailed. I imagine this is the sort of ending and cathartic release a lot of players were expecting for ME3 and were sorely disappointed at not having. Well, if only for that track, I can understand their pain. It was brilliant - seeing the Normandy escape, the blast, the feeling of "mission accomplished"... indescribable, really. And the music absolutely made that moment for me. Plot: The overall plot was perhaps the biggest casualty of the entire "streamlining" process of ME2. Compared to ME1, ME2 has lost a lot of the scope and grandeur of its predecessor. I don't just say this about the small details, like ammo, the removed RPG system, lack of exploration, customisation and all that, but even on the macro scale of story-telling, too. In the previous game, your choices and consequences affected an entire galaxy and your decisions directly affected the fate of humanity in wider Inter-galactic politics. You fought against a vast force of intelligent robotic organisms which have been cleansing the galaxy of life every fifty thousand years. You either save or condemn the council to destruction. You single-handedly battle Sovereign and his minions, you fight Saren hand to hand. You search ancient planets for long extinct civilizations in the hopes of stopping the enemy. You forge alliances and force the Galaxy to come together as one and battle the singular enemy together rather than by themselves. But in ME2... humans are disappearing in colonies. And you investigate. And you find out, actually, the former Protheans turned Reaper slaves are abducting them. To make a "Human-Reaper". A single Reaper. THAT is the whole threat of ME2. ONE reaper. Not the tens of thousands that threatened to invade Galactic space in ME1 through the Citadel. No, just one. In scale and scope, what you do in ME2 is entirely irrelevant to the series. It is a complete departure from the series and the themes that made ME1 special. As I've said, the intro was ballsy, but it did introduce its own set of problems. First and foremost, it invalidated all your achievements in ME1. It kind of felt a bit Alien-3 esque, which regardless of its artistic talents as proclaimed by some, spat straight in the face of all that had been achieved in Aliens. So yeah, humanity's seat on the council, saving the Destiny Ascension, stopping sovereign, getting your crew together, being the first human Specter, etc? Nope, none of that matters now. It does make you wonder if the only motive for the early death scene was to erase your achievements, regardless of how awesome it was. The second problem is, of course, now they've introduced plot immortality into the lore. As in, you cannot be killed. Death is not the end of all things. If they managed to somehow get me back from suffocating in space and apparently entering a planet's atmosphere and burning up in orbit (as they video seems to allude) then really, everything is possible. This is problematic for a variety of reasons, but most of all because really, they can and probably will abuse it whenever they want to revive certain characters they feel like. It's done in every other franchise, I don't see why this one would be different. They'll just "Project Lazarus 2.0" the guy/gal and bring him/her back. You'll see. Thankfully, it wasn't used in ME3. And hopefully, it won't ever be used. It would show a heck of self-restraint from the authors. With luck, the new ME franchise won't use it. But in franchises, it's like time-travel. They don't ever just settle for it once, do they? Before you know it, there are 100x alternate universes and if we're not careful, plot death (as opposed to gameplay death) will just be another case of slap some medigel on him/her and he/she will be right back. A precedent to keep an eye on! I also felt the characters reactions to his death were very... accepting, especially now that you're with Cerberus. The only person to really question any of it - your motivations, if this thing standing in front of her is actually Commander Shepard or some clone, etc - is Ash, but nobody else seems to bothered you're working for the space Nazis. It was a little... jarring. I expected lots more questions, more distrust, more shit, before I could prove it was me. As it is, it was relatively straight-forward. I went from deader than the desiccated fossil of the space Jockey/Engineer in Alien to "And this is my favourite store on the citadel!" far too seamlessly. I did welcome the slight change in tone within the overall game - its still dark and gritty, but has a bit more humour. A lot of that is down to Joker and EDI of course, but I also liked the bits in the Citadel and some of the character interactions when you take them with you. The Elcor Hamlet for example (Ominous Rumination: To Be Or Not To Be!) had me in stitches, as did some other episodes. It didn't go overboard for the most part, and it did make unwinding between more missions fun. In any case, I digress.. So yes, besides the fact what you achieved in ME1 is basically set aside, and that what you're actually doing in ME2 seems rather insignificant by comparison, it is still a decent story. Fairly classic and formulaic mind you - set up a squad, get their loyalty, defeat minor boss, have a sex scene, assault main base, triumph! - but still, fairly good. I suppose one reason why what you did in ME2 didn't really "count" is because ME3 fails to establish it as anything significant. ME3 could have acknowledged that, in some small, or even large form, what you did in ME2 significantly screwed up the Reaper's plans. But no, they basically say "Nothing you did mattered" and the invasion happens all the same. In a lot of ways, there is a "disconnect" between all the titles of the ME franchise, in that one only really quite loosely follows from the other, either ignoring or discarding key events from the previous episode, which is a shame, because is harms the continuity of the story. Character and personal decisions are remembered, but key events in galactic history seem buried in an avalanche of ever-changing plot patters. Thankfully, one aspect of the overall "plot" of ME2 shines through - the characters. - Characters - If there is really anything that redeems ME2, not inasmuch as it is a game, but insofar as it contributes towards the overall plot of the ME universe and franchise, it is the characters. The impression I got, while playing ME2, and which was confirmed on completing ME3, was that really - the sole, tangible purpose of ME2 (whether this was intended by BEAware or not becomes irrelevant) is that it acted as a springboard for your relationships with the characters you meet here. Really, ME3's depth of characterisation and character interaction would not have been possible without ME2. The very structure of ME2's plot points towards this - you spend 2/3 of the game, really, 3/4 of it, collecting your team and prepping them up for the final mission through the "loyalty" quests, which not only serve to build the team spirit and morale and make sure they have a better chance of surviving the "Suicide Mission", but also affect how they react and respond to you in ME3. When you come to grips with the fact that there are in fact very few side-missions in ME2, and that most of them correspond to your squadmates in one form or another, you come to realise they are the key feature of the game, really. Even the suicide mission is a complex and careful calculation about which of them die and which live, and it is said keeping them all alive through a first gameplay is both a complex and nearly impossible endeavor. You really have to pay attention to what they've been saying thoughout the game, keeping tabs and remembering key moments so that, when it boils down to it, you make the right decisions. Miraculously, I managed to keep them all alive and that formed the basis of my new and old companions in ME3. And the characters themselves are pretty diverse, even if only some are bound to get your attention. There are a lot of cardboard cut-outs and a some fan-service (Miranda's ass says hi!) but I don't care. I like Garrus, with his whole "Good cop goes vigilante" routine. I liked Miranda, and especially more her ass. Jacob was alright. Tali, as always, was fun to be around with, and had a cute accent. Joker, if anything, became even more of a comedian. Even EDI's weirdness "All humans on their knees!" was entertaining, and I found the two added an element of humour to the back that was somewhat lacking in the previous installment. Even the "little" characters, like Kelley Chambers, Engineers Donnoley and Daniels, and Dr.Chakwas, provided good padding between the missions, and were memorable in their own right. Even the mess sergeant was fun to interact with. Chakwas, for example, when she opened that bottle of brandy with me. I loved that scene. It was so inconsequential and pretty, such a neat bonding moment. Those are the moments you remember in real life, with friends, never the big occasions where things are supposed to happen and be burned into your memory, but those little, oft-forgotten times, where small and insignificant gestures come to play a big part in how you recall a person or event. It was really well done and put together. I've already mentioned how Kelley made an impact on me, really, only in ME3, through a bad decision I made. It only happened in retrospect, but I was upset. That is the hallmark of a good character, when you really feel for them, without knowing such a feeling was possible. Garrus, though I disliked him in ME1, grew on me. I suppose it was because of the increased interactions, which add a really nice touch and which they thoroughly expanded in ME3 (not for all characters, unfortunately... poor Ash!) And Tali, well, she'll always have a special place in my heart as that sweet girl on her pilgrimage whom I saved and took onboard. I never had her as my LI, but on an alternate playthrough, you get a really beautiful scene on the engine room of the Normandy if you romance her - truly cutting edge cinematic beauty. The same, really, can be said of most LI's in ME2 - Miranda, Samara, Kelley, etc - but Miranda especially in regards to her "sex scene" which the devs really put a lot of effort into. Tali, likewise, is done really well, with her taking off her mask, though you don't see her face, which was both wise and well executed, and sadly undone by the whole "Tali's Face Controversy" in ME3... Oh, did I mention Mordin Solus? Wow. That guy... it's hard to describe, you just have to play ME2 and see for yourself. He's such an amazing character. I'd never thought an alien scientist/marine who suffers from ADD could be so much fun, but boy does he nail it. He's such a complex character, with a well established, believable set of motivations and objectives. What makes him "tick" is both simple and tremendously well executed. His role as a character alone is worth it for the "Scientist Salarian" song. I just.. loved him, thoroughly loved him. It's also important to say this - if you're yet to play ME3 - some of the best scenes of that game involve Tali, Legion and Mordin, so be sure to keep them alive till then! Thane was also another character I enjoyed, even if we didn't get to interact that much. He was relatively straighforward and "simple", but still fairly enigmatic to retain my interest. Grunt on the other hand, was literally, just a "grunt" to me and I found it hard to emphatise with him. Samara was pretty cool, if only really a Jedi/Samurai-esque kind of character. VA for all the actors was perfect though, so no complaints there. If anything, maybe ME2 has too many characters. I found it hard to really identify with all of them. I mean, there's Miranda, Jacob, Thane, Mordin, Kasumi, Zaed, Grunt, Garrus, Tali, Samara, Jack, Legion... it's all a lot to keep track of. You end up bonding with a few characters, and sort of forgetting the rest. In a lot of ways, I suppose that kind of mirrors real life though. And with a few exceptions, the characters themselves are fairly complex - they are by no means superhumans or incredible, they are just normal people trying to get on with their lives. I really enjoyed their respective loyalty missions, even though for the most part, it was just run and gun, because I was actually interacting with those characters, even if just for a short time. I was made to feel like I was bonding with them,e earning their trust, and that made their fight and possible sacrifice on the Suicide Mission all that more heart felt. So really, when it boils down to it, the real plot of ME2 lies with the characters, with the whole Cerberus and Collector thread acting as a backdrop against which these events occur. The treatment given to these characters, for the most part, in ME3 justifies that. They really bring them back and put them back into the game in one form or another so that they are not forgotten, and what you achieved here - not as galactic heroes - but as individuals having each other's backs, is not forgotten. The End: The ending of ME2 is both deserving of praise and ridicule. Ironically, it is exactly at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the ending of ME3. It's a classic case of "poor content but good execution". I mean, I'll cut to the chase - the final boss Human Reaper thing? What was that about? It wasn't so much that it was a "Human-Reaper thing" but more that it was a terminator endoskeleton, sorry, a human skeleton robot, trying to kill you. I mean... robot boss ending? The whole mission was amazing right up to that point. That spoilt it for me, unfortunately. Again, I enjoyed the general gist behind it - liquefying humans to make a Reaper, "ascending them" really, showing how each Reaper is produced, etc. But I mean... without the info you get in ME3, you're basically left wondering if a "Human" Reaper is just a human skeleton in the fetal position which cruising through space looking at stuff to destroy. I mean.. how lame is that? Picture it, it just looks ridiculous. The whole point of the Reapers is that they are somewhat enigmatic - these huge, colossal creatures that resemble a cross between a cuttlefish and a cockroach. I even think the "concept art" of the Human Reaper, with the upper half of the human skeleton, turned backwards within a Reaper "Shell" makes for a more disturbing and intimidating opponent. Something like the concept art below, but obviously in its "early stages": Imagine seeing that to fight against? I would still be a robot, but it would be disturbing and unnerving - seeing the "arms" twisted back the wrong way to act as the "tentacles" of the Reapers? I mean, in ME2 we're hinted at by EDI that this is the "Reaper way of reproduction" which is fair enough, but then in ME3 we're told actually, individual species and actual individuals seem to be preserved at the molecular level to produce the neural cortex of the Reapers. So in essence, every single person is "preserved" as an individual, with all his memories, "self" and "essence" and kept alive that way. In a way, if you think of it, they all become "neurons" to a huge overarching Reaper brain. When I thought about these parallels, given that we have millions of neurons, just like the amount they need to harvest for a single Reaper, I thought it was pretty scary. Imagine, we don't know any different, but what if each Neuron in our brain was a person, an individual, put there against his will to cooperate into something greater than him/herself? How would we even possibly begin to explain to them how we think, act and live? It suddenly gives Sovereign's claims of "There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own, you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension." and all that truly frightening undertones. That he refers our lifespans are composed of decades and that we wither and die - again, what if that's like trying to explain to a cell in your body, which depending on type, have an average life-span of six or so weeks, that as a single entity we live much, much longer? When I stopped to think about it, I was truly troubled. Sadly, the game doesn't delve into this too much until at least ME3, and by then, the game is mired in its own plot/story problems and the whole thing is quietly forgotten. Sadly, I think this was a perfect chance at presenting us with a really frightening, unnerving and potentially existentially threatening enemy, as opposed to say... a giant robot skeleton, which is unfortunately all we get. Anyway, as I've said, this was the fault with the story at large, and not the execution. Because unlike in ME3, the execution to ME2's ending was, to put it bluntly, flawless. Allow me to demonstrate. I mean, is it really surprising that people were pissed off when the ending to ME3 when this was what they had to live up to? The whole thing was one brilliant, engaging, moving, tense and rewarding spectacle. From the behind the scenes loyalty missions that were pretty obvious, to the not so obvious "rescue your crew before its too late" angle. From getting all those upgrades and saving a significant number of your squadmates lived during the space assault to having listened to them carefully throughout the game and figuring out just who is best for each mission and why. The whole mission is an exercise in leadership and decision making. I truly felt like Commander Shepard, and anybody's death from there on out wasn't on them, but on me for putting the wrong people in the wrong place. Seriously, the end segment was just a masterpiece in execution. It wasn't just you against the universe, it was you and your squad. You really felt involved in what was happening, that it wasn't just you and some two other dudes, but the whole team you've spent the whole game putting together, and really, what the game is all about. It really brings the whole team together. Even if the game is a little too short, which it is, if you spend all the time playing the extra missions and side-quests (boring and linear as they are) when you're brought to this moment, going past the Omega 4 Relay and beyond, this is the pinnacle of your achievements and the game reflects that and I think, having played ME3, that is what is so disappointing about that title. ME2's "End Sequence" gives you some really cool cinematics, choices and paths depending on what you did throughout the game and what you accomplished or didn't accomplish. ME3's ending, by comparison, well, did not of that. Is it really any surprise folks were pissed off given the precedent? I mean... that shit was tight, ya dig? I mean, the ending "felt" like an ending. With my squad, I was pitted against increasingly more difficult foes, asked to make command decisions about who does what and who is leading which team, tasked with penetrating an alien base, forced to fight ridiculously large number of Collectors... the whole thing "built up" into a crescendo, right towards the end with the stupid boss. But we shall ignore him, as we have already criticised him, and focus on the events leading up to him. Cool cutscnes, lots of action, ridiculous amounts of "I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY!" and "YOU ARE BACTERIA!" and my personal favourite, "YOU CHALLENGE YOUR OWN ASCENSION SHEPARD!" It all came together to deliver a really engaging, cinematic ending worthy of the feats I'd accomplished throughout the game. And I really don't want to undersell just how complex the whole thing is. I mean, I looked into it, and really there are quite a lot of ways you can screw it all up. At first I thought oh, just do all the loyalty missions, and you will be fine. But that isn't enough. The same applies to trying to save your squad when your ship was captured - you either hurry, or everyone dies. Again, that makes sense within a gameplay perspective you know? If you delay, people die. But the harshest part has got to be, even if you do everything right, if you make the wrong choices when it comes to team management and such, PEOPLE DIE! regardless of their loyalty levels and all that. It makes the final level tremendously difficult to navigate, but also that much more rewarding when you get it right. Right now, I've got ME2's official soundtrack on the background while I sip some Port (my eggnog ran out an hour ago! ) and you know what's just started playing? "Mass Effect 2 - Suicide Mission" - and again, the whole "Doctor Who" feel of it just makes me feel that much prouder and amazing that I managed to survive that mission. It was such a well put together end to a game, where you get to feel your whole achievements and decisions thoughout the game come together as one, that the assault on this huge base can't just be done alone, you need teams, and fire squads, and diversions, and all that that would make a real invasion a reality. The whole thing just feels... believable, and once more, the cutscenes and individual interactions and the NPC prompts as you play the mission really make that final mission, from Tali screaming she is burning up in the vents and forcing you to hurry the fuck up because you don't want her to die, to Samara losing the strength of her barrier because of the repeated attacks, or Garrus fending off the hordes of Husks as he and the others come through the door. The whole thing is one, beautiful, tense moment of your team coming together to beat the odds. Heck, it even allows you to DIE! and still complete the mission if you really sucked at everything and only poor Joker survived to save the day. It even acknowledges that. It shows to me that the team paid attention to the last segment of the game, that they came together, pooled ideas and went for it. It was ambitious, it was well executed, it was a bit silly with the "Human-Reaper" thing, but the culmination of everything up to that point was so potent and well done we can ignore that, for the most part. And then, at the end, we're treated to that amazing cinematic of the squad escaping, jumping into the Normandy and leaving that huge explosion as that awesome music plays in the background and you realise - you've done it, your squad is safe, you killed them all, Harbinger has said his final "RELEASING CONTROL!" and you've won. It was such an amazing feeling. I felt all the inadequacy of the game being washed away by just how penetratingly powerful the ending was, and then I knew... the combat, the UI, the clumsy gameplay mechanics, they were all but crutches upon which the story of Shepard and his friends stood upon. And I could more or less forgive ME2 then. While for many people, the ending of ME3 soured the whole series and ruined the entirety of ME3, for me, perhaps, it is the opposite with ME2. For me, the ending really saved the title from being a totally mediocre and unremarkable title. It was a far-fetched, but brilliant ending, to a decent title. And I was happy with it. Conclusion: As you can see, its very hard for me to summarise my feelings about a game within a few sentences and over a paragraph or two. This is probably why I'd make a lousy games writer - most columns don't support the sort of in-depth scrutiny I like to put games through. The strongest aspects of ME2 were by far the characters, the story and the end sequence. They took those aspects from ME1 which were already great and really polished them to perfection. Sadly, all the other things that made ME1 great - the RPG system, the exploration, the cool combat and UI mechanics, huge maps, tons of sidequests and so forth - didn't make it through the polishing/streamlining department at EA. As a game, it feels a little shallow and undercut, with only the characters and the dialogue holding it up. There's obviously been a lot of focus on the combat, which has been revamped and redone in almost every way imaginable, and the end result is - ironically - a completely linear, sometimes buggy, uninspired slog through corridors fighting hordes of Mechs and other generic enemies. It may be tough, but its not exciting. Not like ME1 was. For all its faults, ME1 one was rough, but it was visionary. Its hard to think of any equally similar epithets to label ME2 as. "Mostly Harmless" comes to mind, but really, it is just a springboard for the final entry in the series. And since we're mentioning it - like I said, ME2's end boss wasn't amazing, but hell, the end sequence was fucking fantastic. It strikes me as strange then that, with BEAware showing how good they can make endings, they managed to royally screw the pooch with ME3. Not just "plot-wise" bad, but "execution" bad too. If anything, it makes the ending to ME2 even better, and that is perhaps the greatest contribution it brings to the series across the the bard. If ME2 were to be dead in the ground and have a headstone, it would say "It Ended Well" - which is more than I can say its successor. All in all, the game is linear, heavy handed, somewhat shallow and generic in parts, only barely held together by its amazing cast of characters, outstanding dialogue and interesting but short main missions. It's hard to shake off the feeling the game was built purely as a "filler" between titles, and that many of the chances it has gone through were arguably unnecessary. The end result is a more polished but shallower game, but obviously one that is vital to any fan of the ME franchise, if only because it sets the foundation for the camaraderie and friendship of your companions in ME3. As I've said, ME2 is really about them, and nothing else. Not even the big last moment decision in the end has any impact whatsoever in ME3 (10 war assets, anyone) - so don't worry about that. Simply basque in the beautiful cutscenes, talk to them, shoot some badies along the way, get intimate with them, enjoy their company, and hope they make it out alive. In a nutshell, that is ME2. Thanks for reading.
Koko.Hekmatyar Posted December 27, 2013 Posted December 27, 2013 The main problem with ammo conservation in ME2 was the varied amount that each weapon could carry depending on your chosen class. As a Soldier you could get the revenant which had the largest ammo capacity 80 round clip 480 reserve next to the Geth pulse rifle same amount that you can only get while playing on insanity unfortunately the revenant has killer recoil even if you have all the rifle stability upgrades, the mattock heavy rifle has a low ammo pool but being a single shot per click rifle it makes it easier to conserve ammo. Shotguns/handguns to me were more or less useless. with the shotgun you have to get in way to close for them to be effective and handguns have no punch unless you are using the Phalanx which is slow firing but has one hell of a punch. SMGs these were the weapons I just sat back and asked WHY....Why did they add SMGs to ME2 they are utterly useless their recoil is way to high making proper aiming damn near impossible and they have no power, not to mention they all have forward hand hold yet the characters all hold them like it's a handgun. Sniper Rifles I didn't really find anything wrong with the sniper rifles if there is one problem with sniper rifles then it isn't with the rifles themselves it's with their animations while behind cover or doing a standing snipe, You may notice that every so often you raise your rifle to shoot and you get swung around so you are now aiming in the wrong direction. this pissed me off and I honestly don't know HOW the QA testers didn't notice it.
jxm Posted December 27, 2013 Posted December 27, 2013 Whoa yeah, I mostly agree with this...very large...wall of text. When ME2 came out I was actually not worried much about the gameplay-changes. For me, while lore-breaking a little, the ammo never was much of a factor. And I kinda liked the way you had to combine your special powers with those of your comrades, though only important in higer difficulty-levels (Miranda attacks the yellow armour bar, then its hitting time with the Sniper rifle etc) I really liked that aspect better then in ME1, where crewmembers just tagged along and I never really cared what they did, The plot however...*sigh*...it is so sad. ME2 could have been such a blast and had some cool ideas. The suicide-mission is great, and I even forgive them the Terminator-Reaper. Because it made at least a little sense that the Harvest of sentient beings was for procreation of the Reaper-Race (iirc the scuttlefishes were considered mostly the outer shell of any Reaper. build around the inner Reaper that always had some resemblance to the harvested race..not sure if that is official though) But why having to recruit a "dirty dozen"? Such a wasted opportunity. If only the game had been about unifying the galaxy just NOW. Travelling in the best Bioware/Dragon Age Tradition from planet to planet to form a Great Alliance...actually taking most ideas from ME3 already to ME2. Cerberus, instead of being the dubious ally, would have done everything to stop you for their own reasons, as they didn't realize they were the ones used as Reaper-Agents. Only towards the end that would have come out to the Illusive Man, seeing his mistake and maybe joining the galaxy with his massive resources...so ME3 would only be the war against the Reapers...which almost felt as a side-plot in ME3 ^^ Also the first hints on how the Reapers could possibly be stopped might have been added here and there. I actually had an idea I consider to be not too bad and quite epic, without too much deus ex machina or convenient super-weapons, though I like the idea of the "crucible" to be a neat trick of the Reapers to give the races some hope, only to shatter them. And lastly, the death of Shepard. I actually am not against it. I liked the "coming back from the dead"-thing. But I had used it NOT in the beginning, it was wasted there IMHO. Why not adding Shepards apparant death at the end? Why not having Shepard fail that last jump every time, no matter how good you played and planned? True, nobody would have believed it anyway that shepard is dead. But damn, what a cliffhanger that could have been. And the outrage and, pardon, the specualtions by everyone how they bring Shepard back, if at all and so forth....but I guess here tastes may likely differ We could have jumped some years ahead by this, into a fully militarized galaxy due to our actions from ME2. And Shepards mortality and all could have been a strong plot-point or at least theme running in the conversations. Hell, maybe even use this whole being dead and returned with Reaper-Tech as a way to solve the ending-crisis...though I got one solution to beat the Reapers epically, as I think at least, without Space Magic and even without much of the cool indoctrination-theory (best thing fans ever came up with and shame on Bioware to not have used that themselves) and actually connencted/embedded into the story FROM ME1 onwards!...all I say is...Crucible is actually a massive Indoc-Weapon + Keepers on the Citadel... And what about Harbinger? Why having him introduced in ME2 as omnipresent being behind the collectors...then he only appears at the very end. Not even confronting us again. Did he lose his voice after talking too much in ME2? Was that Space Kid really any cooler as a villain? That felt like Darth Vader only appears shortly in Return of the Jedi in the throne room, saying hello, nipping on a coffee and vanishing again in the next elevator Another rant by me. Damn I thought I was over this. Say what you want about ME and its pitiful ending, but at least it still has me occupied...that much credit I have to give it...
Angrybird Posted December 30, 2013 Posted December 30, 2013 Those mass effect armours must be really amazing for a human body to survive atmospheric entry and not turn to dust... even though bullets pierce them so easily .
arrow72 Posted December 31, 2013 Posted December 31, 2013 "His"? Let me guess, you play with defaultShep? I started writing a very bitter and spiteful reply here, but that would probably be unfair. Suffice to say, I wish I was in your shoes. I really do. Either having started with ME3, or played the series back to back. With 6 years of character investment, I feel MY Shepard deserved so much more. At no point, EVER, in the series did I even think for a second the hero had to die. I imagined it would be an option, but for it to be the only one? Not in a million years. You see, that character actually became much more important to me than Mordin, and definitely Legion "I want to be a real boy!", and Thane. And well everyone else, even the fucking universe. Because Shepard had earned a rest. After everything, I thought there would be hope for a future. Oh and that breath scene, what a fucking troll. They wanted to kill off Shepard. That breath scene is ambiguous enough that they can hold to that, and let players who desperately wanted Shep to live get the impression of survival. Yeah, I'm still bitter, and I hate it. I'm happy for you though. The magic of the journey died during the final 20 min of ME3 for me, and not because the journey was bad, but because I have seen 2/3 of that journey countless times before ME3 was released. Yeah, I probably should have made it more explicit I played with a default male Shepard. In any case, I'm glad you held back because that would have been unwarranted. I'm starting to see the nature of our disagreement is perhaps philosophical more than anything else, along the same lines of "closure" and people who love/hate it that I raised in the review. I can say now that even if I had played the games when they came out and replayed every game countless times and waited all that time between them, that I would not have been bothered by his death in ME3. I'm just not that big into "happy" endings. I'm more of a "grey area" sort of person, and I found his death to be both in my tastes and far more thematic to the series than having him living would have been. I don't think its a case of "deserved" - this isn't a universe where people get what they deserve, and that's what I like, the grit. Thane, Legion, Mordin, they didn't get what they "deserved" and I'm OK with that. You may agree with that just not Shep, and that's fine, I can see how if that's the stance you take, it would be disappointed. That being said, two things can "fix" that for you. The Mass Effect Happy Ending Mod, and really - you could just take the lifeline BEAware have thrown you in the form of the "breathing" scene. It's not subtle, or ambiguous - its pretty obvious they put it in there for people who "didn't want their Shep to die", like you. Take it or leave it, you have the ending you wanted. Granted, you have to make some pretty hard choices to get there, but then that's how it should be. I told myself that I wouldn't return to this topic after my previous reply, but I just feel there is too much left to be said. You played the game with default male Shepard. Is there a difference between that character and a set-in-stone character like Geralt of Rivia? In your mind that is. Because there is in mine. Not once did I enroll with Sheploo, but I played the game for Shepard. Read that right. I played through the entire series for Shepard. I played to see how the character grew. How I could make the character grow. How other characters reacted to that character I "made". I had a link shared in the original ME3 topic that explained the difference. Geralt is Geralt. Always. But Shepard was mutable, Shepard could have any characteristic you wanted. (at least in ME1). If you are going to railroad a character, then why even give the illusion of choice in the first place? If Sheploo was our only alternative, I am sure the reactions would have been far less severe. The reason "you can say now that even if you had played the games when they came out and replayed countless times and waited all that time between them, that you would not have been bothered by his death in ME3" is because you played an entirely different game. Entirely. I don't give a fuck about Geralt of Rivia. He is there as a guide through the story. Not the story in itself. Kind of similar to Joel of Last of Us, or Booker DeWitt from Infinite. Also "Happy Endings"? Are you for real? Did you even watch the Synthesis ending? BioWare is all but shoving Rainbows and Unicorns down our throat. (As long as you forget about Shepard) You like the "grit"? Did you know Thane? He was an assassin. He killed people for money. Mordin? He died righting a wrong he himself inflicted, or tried to (you bastard). Legion? He betrayed his vision of a future for the Geth (as laid out in ME2) to make them all Real Boys. Way to go hard sci-fi. You see, life has to adhere to the standards we conceive to be correct, otherwise it's not real life. Thanks for hammering that in, ME3. These are all fates of Tragic heroes. Tragic heroes die at the end of stories. That's what they do. To prove a point. If your Shep was an earth-born renegade Butcher of Torfan, then yes death would be a deserved fate. And one that would resonate. If your Shep was a Colonist Paragon with Warhero backstory... then that fate is just... yeah. There is no grit in giving characters their deserved fate. Had Ellie killed Joel for his betrayal at the end, that would actually have been fitting. But the worst is your last paragraph. I have the ending I wanted? Either fanfiction, or slow death? The breath scene is not subtle? Or ambiguous? Why just one breath then. Why not two? Why nothing more than a headless torso stuck in rubble? That is the end of an antagonist. It is sequel bait, AH Jason will return next Friday 13th! Probably. Unless there is no sequel, and people are left to speculate. And if there is speculation, there is ambiguity. And hey.... there will be no more Shepard. No sequel to unravel the mystery that is the breathscene. Had I played defaultShep, Synthesis would be preferred. Had I started the series with ME3, I would have gone for that. Or perhaps Control. Depending on their morality. And I would have enjoyed it. But I did not. I played with a character who deserved a rest, who had done so much for so many, never requiring anything in return. To choose Destroy with someone like that? Like pissing on their grave. Destroy - Kill the Geth, Kill EDI, Kill every living soul left on the Citadel, and leave the Universe without any "relatively" quick way of rebuilding. Control - Kill... none? Citadel is intact and Reapers serve as slaves for their new Master. Either as a force for good, or bad... Synthesis - No... none? Citadel breaks (into intact pieces), and the Reapers awaken to share to glories of eons passed. Edit: Jesus this was a rant.... I don't want to remove it because it actually felt good to write down. But with that said I just hope you'll forgive my confronting tone CK. I can understand if you don't though. I probably wouldn't be able to. At least with something that was so dear to me. Also, just to have it said. My Shepard always chose Synthesis. Even if I, the player, absolutely hate the fate forced upon her, she did it happily for the universe. Kaidan will find a different chick to screw soon enough. I'm just glad I don't have to see it. Oh.. and as a final thought. I do believe I could have been satisfied with Synthesis in the EC, if there had been a decent memorial. A few constipated faces placing a plaque to some random commander Shepard.... well that was extremely underwhelming. Maybe Dragon Age Origins did it too well.
ChancellorKremlin Posted January 2, 2014 Author Posted January 2, 2014 The main problem with ammo conservation in ME2 was the varied amount that each weapon could carry depending on your chosen class. As a Soldier you could get the revenant which had the largest ammo capacity 80 round clip 480 reserve next to the Geth pulse rifle same amount that you can only get while playing on insanity unfortunately the revenant has killer recoil even if you have all the rifle stability upgrades, the mattock heavy rifle has a low ammo pool but being a single shot per click rifle it makes it easier to conserve ammo. Shotguns/handguns to me were more or less useless. with the shotgun you have to get in way to close for them to be effective and handguns have no punch unless you are using the Phalanx which is slow firing but has one hell of a punch. SMGs these were the weapons I just sat back and asked WHY....Why did they add SMGs to ME2 they are utterly useless their recoil is way to high making proper aiming damn near impossible and they have no power, not to mention they all have forward hand hold yet the characters all hold them like it's a handgun. Sniper Rifles I didn't really find anything wrong with the sniper rifles if there is one problem with sniper rifles then it isn't with the rifles themselves it's with their animations while behind cover or doing a standing snipe, You may notice that every so often you raise your rifle to shoot and you get swung around so you are now aiming in the wrong direction. this pissed me off and I honestly don't know HOW the QA testers didn't notice it. I didn't much mind the different classes/weapons thing, even if it reeked of current multiplayer game shooter mechanics, but the ammo thing really annoyed me because it was clearly not tested across harder difficulties. That and I just don't understand how your heavy weapon ammo isn't replenished across missions - having to start a new mission with whatever you were left off last time is ridiculous, especially if you're playing a soldier where few of your weapons/powers damage shields and barriers. I do agree that the recoil on a lot of weapons was ridiculously high, and thankfully tuned in ME3. But all in all, the combat in ME2 for me was a chore to be endured before the next cutscene more than anything else. Whoa yeah, I mostly agree with this...very large...wall of text. Hehe thanks for reading, I got very involved with the games, as you can see! When ME2 came out I was actually not worried much about the gameplay-changes. For me, while lore-breaking a little, the ammo never was much of a factor. And I kinda liked the way you had to combine your special powers with those of your comrades, though only important in higer difficulty-levels (Miranda attacks the yellow armour bar, then its hitting time with the Sniper rifle etc) I really liked that aspect better then in ME1, where crewmembers just tagged along and I never really cared what they did, Yeah, it took me a while to figure that out, and when I did, I was like "Ah, that makes sense now..." but it was one of the few combat gameplay mechanics I enjoyed. Ammo I suppose becomes a factor depending on difficulty, class and powers (or lack thereof) and it becomes really punishing if you play a soldier with little to no offensive powers, on insanity... But why having to recruit a "dirty dozen"? Such a wasted opportunity. If only the game had been about unifying the galaxy just NOW. Travelling in the best Bioware/Dragon Age Tradition from planet to planet to form a Great Alliance...actually taking most ideas from ME3 already to ME2. Cerberus, instead of being the dubious ally, would have done everything to stop you for their own reasons, as they didn't realize they were the ones used as Reaper-Agents. Only towards the end that would have come out to the Illusive Man, seeing his mistake and maybe joining the galaxy with his massive resources...so ME3 would only be the war against the Reapers...which almost felt as a side-plot in ME3 ^^ Yeah, like ME3 was ME2, and ME3 could have been something totally different. I agree with that. I didn't think we needed "such" a large team. I ended up caring for very few of them, and mostly being indifferent to the rest. I also would have liked more immediate confrontation with the Illusive man and cerberus too, maybe testing Miranda and Jacob's loyalty and such, but other than telling him to stuff it every now and then, there was little we could do. It was an unexplored angle. Also the first hints on how the Reapers could possibly be stopped might have been added here and there. I actually had an idea I consider to be not too bad and quite epic, without too much deus ex machina or convenient super-weapons, though I like the idea of the "crucible" to be a neat trick of the Reapers to give the races some hope, only to shatter them. Exactly, it would have been such a WTF moment, but it wouldn't have annoyed the player so much because all he really did was collect war assets for it, there weren't really any "missions" for it. And lastly, the death of Shepard. I actually am not against it. I liked the "coming back from the dead"-thing. But I had used it NOT in the beginning, it was wasted there IMHO. Why not adding Shepards apparant death at the end? Why not having Shepard fail that last jump every time, no matter how good you played and planned? True, nobody would have believed it anyway that shepard is dead. But damn, what a cliffhanger that could have been. And the outrage and, pardon, the specualtions by everyone how they bring Shepard back, if at all and so forth....but I guess here tastes may likely differ That would have been good. It would have put all sorts of pressure on ME3 though, and it is quite possible it would have failed even more as a result. I suppose we'll never know, but I like the way you think. And what about Harbinger? Why having him introduced in ME2 as omnipresent being behind the collectors...then he only appears at the very end. Not even confronting us again. Did he lose his voice after talking too much in ME2? Was that Space Kid really any cooler as a villain? That felt like Darth Vader only appears shortly in Return of the Jedi in the throne room, saying hello, nipping on a coffee and vanishing again in the next elevator I hated that. They made him into such a villain in ME2 only to totally forget him in ME3, such a waste. Another rant by me. Damn I thought I was over this. Say what you want about ME and its pitiful ending, but at least it still has me occupied...that much credit I have to give it... Yeah, as I've said, I'm interesting in seeing what they do next. I still love the franchise, but I do hope they "move on" and create something new, and equally immersive and entertaining. For my part, I am quite happy for Shepard and his journey to end here. I suppose a lot of people have trouble letting it go, but I'm not one of them. Those mass effect armours must be really amazing for a human body to survive atmospheric entry and not turn to dust... even though bullets pierce them so easily . I know, all they had to do was remove that burning effect from the cutscene, but with that in, you have to ask how he didn't disintegrate. Silly oversight. I told myself that I wouldn't return to this topic after my previous reply, but I just feel there is too much left to be said. You played the game with default male Shepard. Is there a difference between that character and a set-in-stone character like Geralt of Rivia? In your mind that is. Because there is in mine. Not once did I enroll with Sheploo, but I played the game for Shepard. Read that right. I played through the entire series for Shepard. I played to see how the character grew. How I could make the character grow. How other characters reacted to that character I "made". I had a link shared in the original ME3 topic that explained the difference. Geralt is Geralt. Always. But Shepard was mutable, Shepard could have any characteristic you wanted. (at least in ME1). If you are going to railroad a character, then why even give the illusion of choice in the first place? If Sheploo was our only alternative, I am sure the reactions would have been far less severe. I can't say I agree. So what, I chose the default face? That changed nothing for me. He was still *my* Shepard because of the choices I made for him throughout the series, and the same for you. His physical appearance, was to me, irrelevant. Geralt is more or less the same. OK, he has that same face for everybody, but you can still choose what actions he takes, who he loves, who he pisses off, how his choices influence the outcomes of both games, etc. The face is really, a very small factor. ME surpasses this by allowing you to customise his face, background and class, but even then, those choices are minor. Its the choices you make throughout the game that define "your" character as being "yours". If the face adds to that, then good for you, but I'm sufficiently happy with my "Default Shep" being my own. Like you, I also played the game to see my character grow and evolve and the consequences of his actions and choices. Your argument that your experience was somehow different to mine is failing to convince me. As far as I can see, you chose a different face, played the same game as me, and had different expectations of the outcome. As I said, a difference in philosophy, and I'm OK with that. The reason "you can say now that even if you had played the games when they came out and replayed countless times and waited all that time between them, that you would not have been bothered by his death in ME3" is because you played an entirely different game. Entirely. I don't give a fuck about Geralt of Rivia. He is there as a guide through the story. Not the story in itself. Kind of similar to Joel of Last of Us, or Booker DeWitt from Infinite. No, we played the same game, with different character expectations. You think your Shep deserved a break, I didn't. One of us didn't get what they wanted. Also "Happy Endings"? Are you for real? Did you even watch the Synthesis ending? BioWare is all but shoving Rainbows and Unicorns down our throat. (As long as you forget about Shepard) Again, I wasn't bothered by the ending. You talk of "Rainbows and Unicorns" but you would have been totally satisfied with Shepard and Garrus sitting on a beach sharing brewskis and living off the flick royalties. Who's really into the "Rainbows and Unicorns" here? You like the "grit"? Did you know Thane? He was an assassin. He killed people for money. Mordin? He died righting a wrong he himself inflicted, or tried to (you bastard). Legion? He betrayed his vision of a future for the Geth (as laid out in ME2) to make them all Real Boys. Way to go hard sci-fi. You see, life has to adhere to the standards we conceive to be correct, otherwise it's not real life. Thanks for hammering that in, ME3. ... I'm not sure what kind of point you're trying to make here. Those things are precisely what constitutes the "grit" of the game, that there is dimension, that not everybody is a goody two shoes. If I were to use your logic, then Shepard definitely deserved to die, because he killed 300,000 people in the "Arrival" DLC. These are all fates of Tragic heroes. Tragic heroes die at the end of stories. That's what they do. To prove a point. If your Shep was an earth-born renegade Butcher of Torfan, then yes death would be a deserved fate. And one that would resonate. If your Shep was a Colonist Paragon with Warhero backstory... then that fate is just... yeah. There is no grit in giving characters their deserved fate. Had Ellie killed Joel for his betrayal at the end, that would actually have been fitting. If anything, that sentence illustrates perfectly why this is a philosophical disagreement. I don't think bad endings are reserved exclusively for bad people, that's not how the world works. Sometimes good people get bad endings. That resonates with me. One of the central themes of ME is sacrifice, and nearly everybody around Shepard goes through it. To me, it was very fitting that in the end, he was required to provide the ultimate sacrifice. You may disagree, and that's fine. Just don't shout at me for pointing out that if you do, its likely because you have a different philosophy to what constitutes a "fitting" ending. But the worst is your last paragraph. I have the ending I wanted? Either fanfiction, or slow death? The breath scene is not subtle? Or ambiguous? Why just one breath then. Why not two? Why nothing more than a headless torso stuck in rubble? That is the end of an antagonist. It is sequel bait, AH Jason will return next Friday 13th! Probably. Unless there is no sequel, and people are left to speculate. And if there is speculation, there is ambiguity. And hey.... there will be no more Shepard. No sequel to unravel the mystery that is the breathscene. You do have the ending you deserve. You especially. Because you're grasping at straws, and vehemently refusing to believe Shepard is alive when it is very clear he is. What slow death? Even on destroy, post EC, the Citadel doesn't explode completely. The lore says the atmosphere is suspended seven meters above the arms and central part of the citadel. If he is breathing, he is alive. Simple as that. Lastly, I don't think it is sequel bait. I hope to God it isn't, and BEAware are hinting heavily his journey is finished. I hope it is. I'm not saying this to antagonise you, but because I feel his journey has been brought to completion, at least for "my Shepard". If it is not for yours, then that is unfortunate. Edit: Jesus this was a rant.... I don't want to remove it because it actually felt good to write down. But with that said I just hope you'll forgive my confronting tone CK. I can understand if you don't though. I probably wouldn't be able to. At least with something that was so dear to me. Also, just to have it said. My Shepard always chose Synthesis. Even if I, the player, absolutely hate the fate forced upon her, she did it happily for the universe. Kaidan will find a different chick to screw soon enough. I'm just glad I don't have to see it. Oh.. and as a final thought. I do believe I could have been satisfied with Synthesis in the EC, if there had been a decent memorial. A few constipated faces placing a plaque to some random commander Shepard.... well that was extremely underwhelming. Maybe Dragon Age Origins did it too well. It's hard not to when the tone you level at me is as if I'd written the endings myself. I'm just saying, I thought it was fitting. My main problem is how terrible executed the whole thing was. It was half-baked. Hell, it wasn't baked at all. I'll be playing DAO soon, so I look forward to discussing that with you in the future...
arrow72 Posted January 11, 2014 Posted January 11, 2014 Yeah, again sorry about getting so emotional. In a few months it will have been 2 years since ME3 released, and I doubt I'll ever think of it in a positive way. Pathetic. Though it seems you misunderstood some of the points I tried to make. I'll try to clear a few up; When I referred to the breath scene as sequel bait, it was in reference to what other movies/series have ended on such a note. There will never be more of Shepard. Why I think the breath scene is ambiguous, is both from ingame and out of game. Shepard is blasted by Harbinger, shot by Marauder Shields, passes out from pain/blood loss and walks head on into an exploding tube (something no one who wants to live would do). Then wakes up alone in rubble on a previously unknown part of the Citadel. Where no one has/had ever been before. An intake of breath is just not enough to suspend my disbelief. Add to that the responses from developers and their cronies (never, ever, thought I'd refer to BioWare that way pre ME3). The original breath scene was only attainable as an easter egg. For people who played through the series AND had high multiplayer readiness. No one else. In 8 endings Shepard definitely dies, no ambiguity. In one there is a breath. For a series of this scope, length and ambition.... that is disappointing. I would dearly have wished to see if your experience differed if you had started in 2008, but looking forward to your experience with DAO! That game is a gem, and I am sure you'll love it!
jxm Posted January 11, 2014 Posted January 11, 2014 Why I think the breath scene is ambiguous, is both from ingame and out of game. Shepard is blasted by Harbinger, shot by Marauder Shields, passes out from pain/blood loss and walks head on into an exploding tube (something no one who wants to live would do). Then wakes up alone in rubble on a previously unknown part of the Citadel. Where no one has/had ever been before. An intake of breath is just not enough to suspend my disbelief. Add to that the responses from developers and their cronies (never, ever, thought I'd refer to BioWare that way pre ME3). The original breath scene was only attainable as an easter egg. For people who played through the series AND had high multiplayer readiness. No one else. In 8 endings Shepard definitely dies, no ambiguity. In one there is a breath. Ah, the breath scene. So many wonderful discussions about that. Is it concrete around Shepards body? Does she lie in the ruins of Earth? Does that mean she never left the planet in the first place, and instead all after Harbingers shot was actually part of the insidious indoctrination? (my favorite and most logical explanation...damn what a lift-off for a sequel or addon that could have made) Yet after all the idiocy from Bioware regarding that scene, and especially after that silly "Name-plaque on memory-wall-scene, I always had this very weird scene in my mind of an extended breath-scene: *camera is moving away, we see Shepard lying under the pile of rubble in full now. She coughs blood, writhes in pain* "Uh...hello...anyone out there? I am still breathing, and feel considerable pain. I destroyed the Reapers, and I can see Alliance-Ships moving out there...so...maybe after you have ended your victory-celebrations you might want to search for me? I am something like...I don't know...the hero of the war or such thing? Damn, my ribs...it really is uncomfortable here.." *camera is moving further away, we see a group of men in grey overalls wielding sci-fi-broomsticks and "caretaker" printed on their backs. They whistle a funny tune and have a relaxed conversation it seems. They eventually leave the scene. The last lights lighting the scene are turned off. A lonley voice can be heard in the darkness: "Hello...HEEEEELLLOOOOO??? Nobody remembers me? If not for me all of you would be Reaper-Fodder now! It was for all of you that I didn't go the easy route to kill myself, turning you all into robots with green magic!!!! *sigh, mumbles to herself* I should have pulled that damn blue switch. Then I would be the friggin' reaper-cyber-queen now and I could show these ungrateful wretches what a real renegade-answer is!" *End-Credits roll* I really hope this is the ending they'll go for when they make a ME-Movie, starring Mike Myers as Male-Shep. "Oh behave, the Illusive Man stole my Mojo!!!!"
Koko.Hekmatyar Posted January 11, 2014 Posted January 11, 2014 I read an article that said Bioware has a working version of ME4 but they are keeping a very tight lid on the particulars of said game. First thing that went through my head was "yeah no shit they are!! The last time they ran at the mouth about a game they made players were told to expect this and that but didn't get it"
Victoria K. Posted January 13, 2014 Posted January 13, 2014 Did read just a bit, must save and take my time to read it in the evening. Almost obscene how much it seems I'm going to agree on this one...
Victoria K. Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 Warning for shameless quoting (entire parts I totally agree with and there is not much left to say). I did some highlighting and replying in place, can't quote all the separate sentences, too much. First Impressions: I came into the ME universe with little to no spoilers. Good for you, that's the benefit to not follow a game at the release which I do as a rule after ME2. We had a little too much of them thanks to EA way to hype and advert. And the bit where you go to the CIC part of the Ship and the whole middle of the ship has been destroyed and you’re out in the vacuum of space, with only your breathing and heartbeat, and no music or sound whatsoever, that was brilliant. Yes, that was pretty good, they put some effort into it and delivered something nice. On a side note, they could have put a f*ing skip to that intro for xbox because modifying straight away the character was impossible and you got to go though the damn thing a hundred of times. Reminded me of 2001: Space Odyssey, which remains one of the most scientifically accurate sci-fi movies of all time. I don't know if it's the most accurate of all time but sure as hell it's one of the most enthralling and I can't avoid to watch it from time to time. Anyway, other things that struck me initially were obviously the jump in graphics, which I found were very good. Facial anims also seem to have been upgraded, which is all the better to impart emotions during those tense or emotional scenes. I suppose I was also struck by how... streamlined, for lack of a better word, a LOT of ME's original features were. The word "butchered" also comes to mind. My abilities screen seems to have suffered some major casualties to be replaced by a few token "powers", to such an extent the label RPG really, if we're going to be perfectly honest, no longer applies, and combat has apparently been reinvented for no apparent reason. I'll go into more details about all of this, suffice to say - this was my first impression - the game shows all the hallmarks and taint of a product acquired and developed under EA's auspices - undercut, streamlined, short and linear. Within the first few missions, I came to eralise about half of what ME1 great and unique had been completely removed from the game, with the other half being worked on - in some cases magnificently - like the dialogue and general grit of the writing, but otherwise, what's left is a thrilling achievement in storytelling and characterisation let down by all the other facets that made ME an interesting and unique game. If this were a book, I'd say it was a good story told badly. The parts I TOTALLY agree on are spotlighted except for single sentences where there is a specific reply. I can't say they have improved the writing, grittier or not, it could be true for the dialogue department but the ME main plot remains unparalleled. I would say ME2 was a bad story told in the best possible way. They did a good job in divert the attention from a plot based on poor ideas. Gameplay: Combat in ME1 could have been said to be clunky, while in ME2, combat is more fluid, with clunky moments, I felt. For starters, while ME1's transition from a console to PC port was relatively seamless, the same cannot be said for the PC. There are a number of issues present. By far the most unfuriating one has got to be binding the Spring/Interact/Cover function all into one button. Half the time I found myself locking into cover while trying to retreat from incoming enemies, or worse still, locking into cover during a midsprint, and then having to run the disengage anim while the enemy relentlessly tears into me with bullets. I also really take issue with them removing the crouch button - why? That's my question - why? WHY would they do that? Indirect cover can be an incredibly useful asset (especially so on insanity) and I just can't think of any conceivable reason why they would have to remove that function. Oh, and speaking of removing functions... I must part ways from this section because I played these games on xbox and things are a bit different. ME2 combat was mostly fun and well designed, I must admit they put a lot of attention on that. With all the love I have for ME and the old inventory and ammo systems (which I prefer), I wouldn't trade the combat system of ME2. I had a good time and took a lot of advantage of class powers/abilities and whatnot in every situation. The team build-up for every mission depending on the enemies was a good element and some strategy on Insanity was totally necessary. I can't be negative on this point. AMMO MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU HAVE IT!??! Because if you don't, you're fucked. At first I was like, OK, don't see why they did that, but this isn't so bad. THEN I played Mordin's recruitment mission, on Insanity. I must have cleared about 3/4 of the level, and then... the inconceivable happened. I ran out of ammo. I can hear the screams in my sleep. The visions... running around frantically over fallen enemy corpses, hoping to God this one had dropped a thermal clip I could use. No such luck, they're all shooting at me... I feel pain, blood is rushing through my wounds... I'm dying. There is no ammo to be had. ANYWHERE! It is a bad day to be a soldier. I charge one of them and smash into him with my melee. His friend comes over to help and I yell "You want some too!" and bash his head in. None have ammo. Then comes another gangster and promptly guns me down,bloody flying everywhere. Game over.Yes, I am one of those guys who is going to WHINE about the ammo system being changed. Again, WHY! WHY BEAware, WHY!? What was wrong with the original system? I hear a lot about how ME2 was "redesigned" to compete with/copy Gears of War and all that, but I won't comment, because I've never played GoW. A lot of players and reviewers say "Oh, the clips make it more "tactical." Well, you know what? I'm yet to see a news article about how a platoon in Iraq/Afghanistan was wiped out because they ran out of ammo, which is how I've died countless times in the first phases of the game. It probably has something to do with the fact that in real life, people don't waltz around with shields and armour that can soak up one to two clips depending on difficulty level. No, IRL, I usually shoot 1-3 times at you, and you die. That's why a few magazines usually does the job in a firefight. Now imagine a firefight where "a few magazines" is what you need just to get through to the guy's health... so you know, if you're going to make this "tactical" - make it a one shot kill thing, too. Then we'll play. Logic. Some of the reasons I like to read what you write. There is a reason though why you don't die for one shot and it resides in the armor ballistic cloth but the argument is solid nonetheless, the clip doesn't make combat more tactical, it feels just wrong within this game context. I don't know how it compares to the lower difficulties, but there are parts in ME2 on Insanity where unless you headshot EVERY SINGLE ENEMY as a Soldier, you won't be progressing. I believe you. Soldier is the only class I didn't play, I may have tried that in ME but not even sure about it. In any case the lack of ammo could screw you pretty badly indeed especially on insanity with a class that relies so much on firepower. And for anyone else who throws the "it's more tactical" excuse at me - you know what? CONSERVING AMMO and "firing in short, controlled bursts" is tactical. It's what I had to do in ME1, and it worked. CROUCHING is tactical. Going into battle with little to no ammo ISN'T tactical. It's fucking stupid. And you know why I'm saying that? Because the Illusive Man can afford billions of credits rebuilding me and giving me a huge new ship, but can't re-supply my heavy weapons. God forbid you do a side-mission where the first three enemies you'll be facing are ALL ATLAS MECHS because you will be fucked. Good luck with that... More logic. My problem with this inane and unnecessary decision is two-fold. First, because it is lore-breaking, a regressing transition from a unique concept of weapon mechanics I thought was unique and worked well within the ME universe (solid metal blocks which overheat) to the much more mundane, banal and boring general concept of "ammo clips". It just breaks a key gameplay element that didn't need to be broken. In the two years I've been dead, weapons have gone from basically having infinite ammo to having a very very finite amount of ammo. Who in their right mind would even buy these weapons? Who would upgrade to them? It makes no sense. So yes, that's that rant out of the way. You can't imagine how much I agree on this one. You did raise one of the points some of the members of the old community pointed out with some rage. They kind of regressed the whole universe in this sense, not only concerning weapons as you already stated with flawless reasoning, think about the armor department. I was furious about it and ranted with no end. In ME we got LIGHT, medium and heavy armor. You remember you weren’t allowed to wear what you want but it comes with classes and no way to get away with that, it was well designed, it's so ridiculous to see a complete biotic character walking around in bulky armor but the point is: where are the light armor in ME2? Removed. Completely. And the worst of that it's not just about one good element removed entirely with no reason from the game, it's about failing to represent advanced technology. The fabric they are made of, take a close look and they give you the perfect feel of some kind of "cyber-fabric". Light, yes, but hell, we are in the future and in space! There is the triple canopy of protection! They forgot the meaning of the suit microframe computers?? Light armor doesn't mean no protection! It means LESS protection and it was the perfect and more logic equipment for biotics and engineers as well. Even playing as Infiltrator, my favorite class, it's not a bad choice to spend points somewhere else and wait to get the medium armor ability! But you know what, this way we got the bulky "badass" armor. It felt like you have to be completely surrounded of iron-ish materials and plastic in order to be protected, the technology has regressed, instead of make things thiner because technology advanced and the micro fabric got improved in barriers and all, they made it thicker to deliver the big bulky armor so appealing to GoW, Halo, and casual gamers. Even the poor Turians, they got medium in ME with the exception of Nihlus I think, and it was much more natural looking and suitable to their physical features, in ME2 all Turians walking around bulky. Oh well. In a lot of ways, I feel ME2 suffers from a lack of scale and grandeur compared to ME1, and this isn't just present in the overall story and direction ME2 took, but even in the little things. The inventory, the RPG element of opening boxes, killing enemies for XP, the very, very limited number of weapons and armour. Allow me to elaborate. The first game, while somewhat rough around the edges, could be said to be "visionary". Quote on everything and the last word is one of my favorite words in life, one I use very seldom and to which I bestow a very deep meaning. Can't even explain to you how much. I would say you topped yourself using it here and I would even take off the double quotes "". Instead of refining these rough edges, BEAware decided to cut them off and remove them altogether. The outcome is that we have a game that is far more polished but indescribably "shallower" in almost every regard. Its fair to say it is, really, no longer an RPG, but at best a 3rd person shooter with customisation options. Exactly. The removal of certain stats and abilities means there isn't a sense of character progression or standard that you can measure your progress with. Enemies no longer give you XP, which while a small thing in itself, removes any sense of accomplishment when killing a large group of enemies or a boss, and there are a lot of both present in the game. Exploration as you know is over. Even within the small, linear and confined levels, there are no boxes or crates or anything to explore - just safes and terminals/PDA's with either money or information. The few items there are, can only be acquired through the stores, and you really have maybe 4-5 suits of armor and a few weapons to choose from. Remember those huge surpluses of ammo, armor, upgrades and all that from ME1, that made you feel like you belonged to a galaxy filled with races, all producing different items and all that? Yep, all that's gone. Here's one set of armour. It makes you look like a medieval knight. Here's a weapon, with a few levels to it. That's it. That entire sense of scale, even if it is economic scale, with all those different brands and corporations and laboratories making arms and armour - they all apparently went bankrupt during your 2 year hiatus. Quoting everything, and the last part on brands and corporations is priceless. It's not just in the grand scheme of the plot and storytelling that the game regresses and makes you feel like you're in a smaller world, but even trivial things, like I've said - the ammo, items - even things like Medigel. You're now left with a streamlined version that revives squadmates but does little else. Gone are the intricate little stats about how much your medi-gel healed, for how long, between how many squadmates, etc. The mechanics that forced you to spend close attention as to how to spend powers - like healing and being a medic, carrying more medi-gels, keeping track of how each squad-member could heal him/herself. Now all you have are basic "offensive" powers and nothing else - no intimidate, no persuade, no dialogue, hack, encrypt or any other RPG style powers. Just pure, straight, uncut and unadulterated "COMBAT" powers. That's it. Aren't you tired to make so much sense? Enemies: Ihave a bone to pick with the enemies of ME2. In short, there aren't enough of them. There are three. THREE types of enemies in ME2. Mechs, Mercenaries, and Collectors. That's it. You'll spend the entire game fighting them in roughly 40 / 40 / 20 proportion. The irony is of course, that the most interesting and presumably plot-essential enemies of the game - the Collectors - are the ones you fight the least. Instead, you'll be treated to countless corridor maps filled to the brim with waves of respawnable "Fenris Mechs" with a few random pick your colour Mercs thrown in. If you're lucky, towards the end, a few commanders and engineers and so on might appear, but that's about it. Seriously, that's it? Given the richness of the enemies opposing you in ME1, this is what I'm stuck with fighting? I mean, yeah, I got it - on the first level, I was in a Medical Facility, and someone sabotaged the whole project and the easiest way to do that is to override the Mechs acting as secutiry. Fair enough. I won't question how mechanics and AI's in general went from being completely looked down upon and mistrusted by Humans and all other civilizations to a basic household item in the space of two years, but OK, I'll roll with it. But then... I found out, actually, it wasn't just level one that had Mechs because it was a space medical station. Oh no. EVERYBODY has Mechs. EVERHWERE. And ALL OF THEM have rebelled. Literally, all of them. I think you find like 5 mechs in the entire game that aren't against you. The rest just become an excuse for a filler enemy that are STREWN throughout every map and level of the game. Couldn't agree more on this.If you're lucky, you might bump into some Geth every now and then, but only for a limited time.When you compared this against the backdrop of not only the diversity, but the scope of the enemies you were fighting in ME1 - Geth, Slavers, Mercenaries, Drones, Robots, Mechs, Pirates, Husks, Biotics, Asari Commandos, Rachni, REAPERS! and the like - Mechs, Mercs and Collectors just doesn't cut it. I still remember the first time I bumped into a Geth Prime in ME, that's was something Oh, and before I forget. The rocket spamming? Really? What the hell was that about? An enemy shows up with a rocket launcher, and he's like "HAHA! BEHOLD my rocket launcher that fires EVERY 0.5 SECONDS! MUHAHAHAHAH!!!!1" and just proceeds to spam you with missile after missile after missile, all of which remove you from cover. And it's not like "Oh no, this thing has exploded, and I hath fallen on the ground by the blast" sort of removed from cover, it's more like "Oh no, this rocket has exploded, I guess I better stand up OUT OF COVER for a few seconds to get my bearings and hope nobody shoots me in the meantime..." I mean, seriously, whatever rocket launcher those guys arm themselves, I'll have what they're having!And of course, there was the taunting. The endless, incessant, mind-numbing taunting. I am of course referring to the only Boss like character whose never-ending catchphrase became an instant internet meme - the Collector General himself. I think it's fair to say that -ASSUMING CONTROL!Yes, him. Perhaps it was somewhat good timing that there were so few Collector missions available, given that all you'll be hearing between "TAKE THEM OUT MIRANDA!" and "BANG BANG PULSE BEAM BANG!" is a selection of Collector General Classics, ranging from "I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY!", to the popular "YOU FEEL THIS SHEPARD!" to the ageless "I AM UNSTOPPABLE" and the party favourite, always appropriate "I AM THE HARBINGER OF YOUR PERFECTION!"... which took some doing, but I just about managed to pull some tail at a party with once. I mean, at first I thought it was funny, then I thought it was annoying, and towards the end at the collector base I as actually convinced this is how the Collectors/Reapers jam your radio signals - a frequency that hijacks all others and just spouts out this random nonsense over and over again until you either submit or suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage. I mean... there's the taunting villain trope and there's the trolling villain trope and BEAware have basically taken the latter and added 60% more trololo guy.It was all a little too much... At moments it was fun to hear that, not on Insanity I must say, overall it's not some of the worst aspects. But yes, you are right and I also lol'd for some of the sentences. Level Design: I think another major element in leading me to conclude ME2 is a very limiting, "constrained" and streamlined experience were the levels. I mean, levels are perhaps one the biggest pitfalls for ME across the series. The problem I have with ME2's levels is that they are, basically, just huge corridors, with a few crates and stuff very obviously scattered around for cover, pre-scripted waves and waves of respawning enemies, and a boss. At the start, there is a two minute dialogue sequence. At the end, there is a two minute dialogue cut-scene. That's it. Rinse and repeat. Nearly all of the levels, including main missions, felt that way. In a sense, they were just too "formulaic". Couldn't agree more on that. I also found the level design pretty poor even though there are few exceptions. Linear waves and corridors apart (I totally agree with you), the biggest disappointment came about cities. You feel like walking around in a box. There is not live, a lot of embellish and npc around but you can't feel a thing about that being a city, the feeling is just wrong. Remember the citadel in ME and how it felt like an actual city with exteriors in the presidium parts and interiors. It's something ME2 lacks badly even with the magnificent "views" trough windows and balconies. It feels so fake. There was very little room for exploration, and the combat felt far too "scripted". I literally lost count of the time's I entered a room, saw that it was large, saw crates scattered around and thought "Right, I'm spending the next 15 minutes behind cover taking down waves of Fenris Mechs, which will keep spawning for a pre-determined set of time. The fact the enemies are the SAME over and over doesn't help, it just makes you feel you're running and gunning down an alley waiting to get from A to B. True. Everything gets pretty linear very soon. And that's without even mentioning the fact the huge levels from ME1 are gone. Exploring them with the MAKO, wasting time, finding planets to land on, all that's been done away with. Even the large levels with the Hammerhead, just feel like huge corridors, with the old "canyons and valleys" trick. Indeed. They did take off something unique that a lot of people missed and gave us a dlc with that little Hammerhead gimmick. Even the simple things, like the skydome and the awesome, awe-inspiring vistas of ME1 are gone, to be replaced with the dark, greyed out, dull and saturated skies that make the mainstay of modern games. Shameless quote with nothing to add. The one level I though was an exception to this was "Haestrom" during Dossier: Tali. THAT was a mission that reminded me what ME was about - it was a fun map, action packed, had plenty of character interaction, and was a fun concept. Sadly, it is so conspicuous by the fact it is one of few such levels. Agreed. Also regarding the enemies that was a pleasant surprise, finally some Geth and some variety. Elsewhere, you're left with dark, grim and industrial levels, with little imagination or soul, rehashed a thousand ways and populated with the same variety of enemies, in the same formula of combat, and the same patter of start, middle and end. Given the vast, rich, awe-inspiring and detailed maps ME1 gave us (besides the "indoor" sidequest maps, that is) the selection available in ME2 is disappointing and uninspired. It's not only streamlined, but lacking in imagination. It was like every other shooter before and after it. And that was a shame. Yes, the lack of unique elements as ME delivered. The sci-fi assets that make you feel in space, what give you that special feeling.- Minigames:Minigames were an aspect of the game I actually enjoyed. What struck me, at first, is how... realistic, they were. As in, hacking depending on compiling different segments of code, or bypassing having to re-wire a circuit board, and scanning having to... well, scan a planet. It was actually very fitting to the lore and universe in a verisimilitude fashion. When you compare this to the "point the arrow in the right direction and shoot" nature of ME1's hacking and encryption mini-games, they are orders of magnitude ahead. I did a lot of decryption in ME and enjoyed it (note that the minigame was totally different for Xbox and pc). A nice surprise has also been the Hanoi Tower in the Noveria Mission. In ME2 me too I was pleased with the minigames, they were totally plausible and fun enough.And that is where the problem starts, namely, with the planetary scanner. At first, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought the graphic on the side was purely ornamental and a sprite that didn't tell me anything. I then realised that, actually, I am full on scanning this planet quadrant by quadrant, waiting for the tell tale signs of the mineral I'm looking for to spike so I can lay claim to it. Initially, I was very excited. I was like "This is cool!" and yes, it doesn't replace the magic of exploring on foot and on the MAKO as I did in ME1, but it was alright. But... after you've done that for 100x times, to collect those minerals you need for your upgrades... the novelty starts to wear off. Never mind that the PC controls with the mouse are really clunky and heavy. I still don't think I hated it with the fervent passion a lot of other people did, but it was perhaps too clever for its own good. Me, I would have been happy been air-dropped unto a random alien planet with random asteroids falling from the sky around me while I search for minerals the hard way. Have I mentioned how much I liked that about ME1? I have a feeling I might have. Because it was awesome. And it never happened again... You nailed it. - Misc Gameplay Elements:Well... what else? I suppose the porting from the console to the PC suffered quite badly this time round. There were some pretty nasty bugs, like the player suddenly hovering a meter in the air, which was annoying during combat, as it quickly got you killed, but even more during normal walking around, as sometimes there was no coming back and you had to reload the level.The 50 save limit thing was also pretty stupid - given all it takes to fix it is to change a hex flag using ME2 Explorer, you do have to question why the developers didn't just do that from the start? Yes, I like to save often, before every conversation in fact. No, I don't care if you only ever use three saves. Good for you. The fact is, imposing these console restrictions on the PC in this entirely arbitrary manner is lazy when all it takes is for you to change a hex flag.I suppose the UI also suffered quite a bit during the comb-over by EA's streamlining department. Simple things like double-cliking on menus can't be done, you have to press the "click item" button, proceed to "click OK" and so on. You can't even skip by say, pressing enter, you have to click every button. The same applies to return or escape, which can't be done automatically, you have to manually press the keys with the mouse. The same applies to the star map. What I particularly dislike about this though, is that ME1 already addressed these issues. I don't care how it was for the console, when you take on the job to port it to the PC, I expect the job to be done properly. It's only fair. And if the previous iteration of the game already had it - why cut corners now? As I said they did a good job on this on console. UI and commands were well designed and I can't say nothing about it. But don't make me start on the new Galaxy Map, it sucked hard on xbox as it sucked on pc, it's one of the first things that comes to mind about dreadful changes they did. Another jarring part of the gameplay, at least if you're playing on insanity, is that you can't skip cutscenes. I mean yeah, there is the space bar skip which works sometimes, and I repeat, only sometimes. Most of the times, you're stuck with huge cutscenes you have to watch from scratch, only for some event to happen, baddies to pour in, kill you, and the auto-save to bring you back RIGHT BEFORE the cutscene. I mean... that's just bad planning. If you'er going to have auto-saves, at least put them in sensible places, like RIGHT BEFORE a major fight, not 10 minutes before during a cutscene. I've lost count how many times I've had to watch the same cutscene over and over again... (Arrival, trying to survive the Hordes for example)... this could be mitigated if I were allowed to save during combat, say, right after the cutscene is finished. But nope... they took that away, too. It's like they're punishing the player for failure, or forcing you to constantly watch the same segment in the hopes that this time, "you'll do it right". At the end of the day, I spend more time in between loading screens and watching people talk than I do playing, during particular challenging segments. Not only for PC, this lack of skipping cutscenes is annoying to say the least. Graphics: Graphically, the game is beautiful. For the most part, the texture quality is above average, things like lighting and other effects, like shadows and fire and explosions and so on, were pretty dynamic and immersive. Compared to the ME1, which was a little touch and go in that regard, the game carries itself. Again though, while the game does look visually stunning, with expressive facial animations, beautifully drawn artwork and character design and truly cinematic and engaging cutscenes, there is a certain lack of ... ambition, or awe when it came to rendering certain maps and levels. I perfectly understand what you mean here with lack of ambition. Kudos to you for the definition, it's totally appropriate. As I've said, a lot of the maps in ME1 were fairly simple, but very simple things made them excel in immersing you into the world, engaging your brain, making you think of the scope of the accomplishments you've achieved, even if the graphics were a little dated. Like the imaginative sky domes, or the large levels that differed as you changed planets, the different stars hanging over your head, the gas giants, the white dwarfs, etc. Couple that with the expansive horizons, and you had vistas that made you feel insignificant in the grand scheme of things. ME2 unfortunately, while visually superior, lacks in that department, giving you beautiful but cramped environments, with highly detailed canyon like corridor walls, and saturated and unremarkable skies. With a few exceptions, like Haestrom, or that one level with the sandstorm where you have to find out what happened to the crashed ship with lots of ... wait for it, MECHS! ... there is very little imagination involved in presenting the world of ME2. Even the Collector Base, which could have been a turning point, was simply a collection of caves. CAVES! When you consider the menu screen for ME2 has this amazing structure thing looking into a huge field of debris awash in the yellow haze of a star or other, I expect something equally epic at some point the game. Unfortunately, that moment never came. I agree on pretty much anything, the collector cruiser had the impressive view of the statis pods and that's it. DLC: You know, I know its easy and cheap to take shots at EA for this sort of thing, but really? Easy it's easy, cheap and EA on the same sentence doesn't sound right except you are referring to quality. I wouldn't define cheap to take shots on them, more a natural consequence given the products they deliver and the way they manage to do it. $1.99 for an alternate appearance pack? $6.99 for a quest mission? 800 Microsoft/BEAware points for "Lair of the Shadow Broker"? I mean... really? You're charging for textures and quests now? This is why I'm against DLC on principal - because, in 99% of the cases, they should either be included in the game, or released free. Either that, or you take your time building an expansion pack - you know, like in the old days, say like, Half Life - Opposing Force, or something like that? Kind of a like a game 1.5, with tons of new content, features, skins, quests, etc. Almost like a new game. Not milking random items, packs and missions for $5 a piece. No, I'm sorry, I hate DLC's, and I don't abide by them. They're a blight on the community which serves only to inflate sales, dupe consumers and further a questionable business practice. My thoughts exactly. Obvious quote but can't avoid it. That being said, what does ME2 offer in terms of DLC? Well, besides the obvious appearance packs and all that, not a lot, actually. The Kasumi DLC and Zaed DLC were interesting in adding two new characters, though as I will elaborate later, you end up with far too many characters to care, even tough I did quite like Kasumi, and her acquisition and loyalty quests were sufficiently different from the others as to actually make it interesting and worth it, I suppose. She also has some pretty fun things to say on the ship once you get her there, though sadly no "cutscene" convos, shadowing what would become of Ashley Williams in ME3. Zaed, on the other hand, is a standard shoot fest, clearing large areas of mercs and mechs, taking cover, firing, defeating boss, etc squared. All very boring. Wasn't really too keen on him, the obvious "guy with English accent that yells Bastard!" type and all that, seemed like fan service. He has some fun anecdotes on the ship, but nothing I would pay money for - should have been included off the bat in the game full stop. Agreed he should have been included but here comes the first BIG disagreement (always on characters I see). I can't bear Kasumi and her jokes. Her recruiting and mission wasn't bad designed but that's it. As opposite to Ashley I don't like how she's written. A very poor writing with no interesting ideas whatsoever, just another catching character the action movies are full of nowadays with no personality and a cheap sense of humor. And I don't mean to disrespect who like her but that's what I think plain and simple. Just different taste and perspectives on who could embody a valid teammate, an interesting character, or even just a pleasant asset in terms of fun and amusement during a mission. On the other hand I totally loved Zaeed, he was one of my favorite characters. Very different from the rest of the bunch, a true human mercenary with some actual harsh background and a truly "based-on-something" experience on the field along with a defined and entertaining personality. A pleasant surprise or me to say the least, also in combat. Besides that, I suppose there is Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival. Of the three, I would only really recommend Lair of the Shadow Broker. Overlord is just yet another shoot fest, with some open maps, including the "Hammerheard" vehicle which doesn't really do anything besides jump and firing in the general vicinity of the enemy. Sadly, the "open map" didn't convince me, and I found the heavy handed nature of the game literally TELLING ME where to look for a scenic spot to be underwhelming. It was something like a waterfall with some clouds. I was like - this is it? THIS is what you've specifically told me that "organics might describe as scenic"? I wanted to tell him I saw much better things in ME1. As always, the big maps don't convince. The only good bit was right at the end when you finally come across the tortured soul, showing again one of the key pitfalls of ME2 in a nutshell - linear combat and boring levels, saved by good writing and compelling characters. Lair of the Shadow Broker was actually really good, and I cherished the chance to encounter Liara again, my old squadmate and friend from ME1. Again, it wasn't perfect. She has changed. I mean... really changed. Shy, sweet, young and naive archaeologist turns psychopath threatening killer changed. It was... jarring to say the least. Thankfully, they didn't go overboard with it, and it was easy to believe that, given the circumstances, she had "mature" somewhat. It was also fun because, you got this really cool level (with a nice sky! Have I mentioned how important skies are?!) with a neat design and a challenging boss. In the end, you get what basically amounts to a "base" and plenty of little features to play around with, including some extra intel on your squadmates, much of which is pretty funny and entertaining - ie Miranda's encounters. This is the kind of DLC I like, the kind that keeps giving even after you've completed it. Liara also has some pretty touching moments, whether she was your LI in ME1 or not, sort of foreshadowing her behaviour in ME3, I suppose. All in all, I really enjoyed it - it was fun, I connected with the characters, and found it rewarding. Arrival on the other hand was yet another shoot fest, with some very limited stealth options, which would have been fun if only there was more of it. At the end of the day, you're shooting through one complex to another, interspersed with a few cutscnes, some dialogue, more shooting, an encounter with the odd Mech and Mecha (very original!) and then finally, Harbinger himself (in hologram) warning that his arrival is imminent. You destroy a Relay in Batarian space which would have acted as a backdoor for the Reapers, kill 300,000 Batarians, and hopefully stall the Reapers.Oh, wait, no, you don't, because in ME3, it turns out all you got was a few weeks or a a month or two at best, and that in that time, nobody did absolutely NOTHING to prepare. In sum, Arrival is basically irrelevant to what happens in ME3. And don't get me started on how the pre-EC endings of ME3 ignore all the lore established by this DLC episode. So you pay money, and get bitchslapped in the face. That's what I pay transient hookers for, not EA. And this is why I think DLC's are really, a waste of space and money. I agree on most of this, just a note about LotSB. It was fun and all, added some spice and boosted emotions of course, but didn't like how they dumbed down dialogues in certain parts, it was a bad sign. The worst when there are forced funny (more or less) interactions between you and Liara that relegate the player to a role of mere spectator. I wasn't pleased at all with that. I don't want to spend much words about Arrival, "lore-breaking" and "useless" are words that sum-it up pretty well and quickly what I think about this plotholes-filled thing. Music & Sound Effects: Well, for the most part, I did enjoy the sound effect and soundtrack of ME2. I mean, it was more towards the "epic" scale than the "creepy and mysterious" scale as ME1's was, but I don't think that was necessarily a bad thing. VA, as always, was spot on, couldn't fault a single person I heard - everyone maybe believe they were those characters and that they were in the situations depicted, so full marks there.On the music front, not a lot of the tracks stuck with me, aside maybe "Humans Are Disappearing" with some lovely piano work, with themes reminiscent of ME1 and the whole "Prothean" skyway demise theme which I like. Oh, "Freedom's Progress" was also really freaky and disturbing, if only because I recognised it as a theme from the BEST sci-fi horror movie every written - Alien - of course, and it was an excellent easter egg and tribute to the late Jerry Goldsmith, composer of that awesome track. Unfortunately, the climatic tension built up by that song didn't last when I met my illusive enemies on that particular level... the vile and vicious Fenris Mechs. What a waste! The "Illusive Man" theme was also pretty good.But a particular favourite of mine has got to be "The End Run" right before you blow up the Collector Base and escape. It's such an epic and satisfying end song, it really encapsulates all that the mission was about - fighting against the odds, succeeding, escaping in the nick of time. It worked for me because in my first playthrough, nobody died - I saved all my crew from the abduction, and had all my squad live through the suicide mission. It was a moment of sheer triumph, and I reveled in it, and the score allowed me to do that. It almost has something "Doctor Who" esque about it, that feeling that in the darkest night, against the most impossible of odds, you have prevailed. I imagine this is the sort of ending and cathartic release a lot of players were expecting for ME3 and were sorely disappointed at not having. Well, if only for that track, I can understand their pain. It was brilliant - seeing the Normandy escape, the blast, the feeling of "mission accomplished"... indescribable, really. And the music absolutely made that moment for me. I find ME music superior in any way, really, but I enjoyed the ME2 one as well, just the former was "epic" for me, the latter "very nice". In ME3 wasn't present the good old Jack Wall to make music, I think it's pretty evident, he really did the job for the first two and he was amazing, another great loss for the franchise, for sure. In ME2 I really appreciated the sound effects, very immersive and let's say… perfect in the various contexts. You wrote "theme from the BEST sci-fi horror movie every written - Alien - of course". Must agree with you. I'm not the biggest fan of Sci-Fi in general and my literary knowledge of the genre is very limited but one of my biggest passions in life are movies and watched a lot of what actually exists of Sci-fi from 50s and even before, I must say Alien is kind of special, I wouldn't add "horror" describing it but still, I must agree with you. Plot: The overall plot was perhaps the biggest casualty of the entire "streamlining" process of ME2. I adore the bluntness here, it just suits the whole meaning. In this sentence alone there is pretty much everything. Compared to ME1, ME2 has lost a lot of the scope and grandeur of its predecessor. I don't just say this about the small details, like ammo, the removed RPG system, lack of exploration, customisation and all that, but even on the macro scale of story-telling, too. In the previous game, your choices and consequences affected an entire galaxy and your decisions directly affected the fate of humanity in wider Inter-galactic politics. You fought against a vast force of intelligent robotic organisms which have been cleansing the galaxy of life every fifty thousand years. You either save or condemn the council to destruction. You single-handedly battle Sovereign and his minions, you fight Saren hand to hand. You search ancient planets for long extinct civilizations in the hopes of stopping the enemy. You forge alliances and force the Galaxy to come together as one and battle the singular enemy together rather than by themselves. But in ME2... humans are disappearing in colonies. And you investigate. And you find out, actually, the former Protheans turned Reaper slaves are abducting them. To make a "Human-Reaper". A single Reaper. THAT is the whole threat of ME2. ONE reaper. Not the tens of thousands that threatened to invade Galactic space in ME1 through the Citadel. No, just one. In scale and scope, what you do in ME2 is entirely irrelevant to the series. It is a complete departure from the series and the themes that made ME1 special. As I've said, the intro was ballsy, but it did introduce its own set of problems. First and foremost, it invalidated all your achievements in ME1. It kind of felt a bit Alien-3 esque, which regardless of its artistic talents as proclaimed by some, spat straight in the face of all that had been achieved in Aliens. So yeah, humanity's seat on the council, saving the Destiny Ascension, stopping sovereign, getting your crew together, being the first human Specter, etc? Nope, none of that matters now. It does make you wonder if the only motive for the early death scene was to erase your achievements, regardless of how awesome it was.The second problem is, of course, now they've introduced plot immortality into the lore. As in, you cannot be killed. Death is not the end of all things. If they managed to somehow get me back from suffocating in space and apparently entering a planet's atmosphere and burning up in orbit (as they video seems to allude) then really, everything is possible. This is problematic for a variety of reasons, but most of all because really, they can and probably will abuse it whenever they want to revive certain characters they feel like. It's done in every other franchise, I don't see why this one would be different. They'll just "Project Lazarus 2.0" the guy/gal and bring him/her back. You'll see. Thankfully, it wasn't used in ME3. And hopefully, it won't ever be used. It would show a heck of self-restraint from the authors. With luck, the new ME franchise won't use it. But in franchises, it's like time-travel. They don't ever just settle for it once, do they? Before you know it, there are 100x alternate universes and if we're not careful, plot death (as opposed to gameplay death) will just be another case of slap some medigel on him/her and he/she will be right back. A precedent to keep an eye on! I also felt the characters reactions to his death were very... accepting, especially now that you're with Cerberus. The only person to really question any of it - your motivations, if this thing standing in front of her is actually Commander Shepard or some clone, etc - is Ash, but nobody else seems to bothered you're working for the space Nazis. It was a little... jarring. I expected lots more questions, more distrust, more shit, before I could prove it was me. As it is, it was relatively straight-forward. I went from deader than the desiccated fossil of the space Jockey/Engineer in Alien to "And this is my favourite store on the citadel!" far too seamlessly. A big "yes, indeed", on these blocks. I did welcome the slight change in tone within the overall game - its still dark and gritty, but has a bit more humour. A lot of that is down to Joker and EDI of course, but I also liked the bits in the Citadel and some of the character interactions when you take them with you. "bits in the Citadel" check "some of the character interactions when you take them with you" check "Joker and EDI..." my goodness… could be because I like to play "serious" characters but I can't stand that kind of humor on my ship, must say this time, unlike for kasumi, I think there is some good in writing and these characters are worth to be where they are, nonetheless not my favorite moments when they interact with each other. So yes, besides the fact what you achieved in ME1 is basically set aside, and that what you're actually doing in ME2 seems rather insignificant by comparison, it is still a decent story. Fairly classic and formulaic mind you - set up a squad, get their loyalty, defeat minor boss, have a sex scene, assault main base, triumph! - but still, fairly good. I suppose one reason why what you did in ME2 didn't really "count" is because ME3 fails to establish it as anything significant. ME3 could have acknowledged that, in some small, or even large form, what you did in ME2 significantly screwed up the Reaper's plans. But no, they basically say "Nothing you did mattered" and the invasion happens all the same. In a lot of ways, there is a "disconnect" between all the titles of the ME franchise, in that one only really quite loosely follows from the other, either ignoring or discarding key events from the previous episode, which is a shame, because is harms the continuity of the story. Character and personal decisions are remembered, but key events in galactic history seem buried in an avalanche of ever-changing plot patters. Thankfully, one aspect of the overall "plot" of ME2 shines through - the characters. - Characters - If there is really anything that redeems ME2, not inasmuch as it is a game, but insofar as it contributes towards the overall plot of the ME universe and franchise, it is the characters. The impression I got, while playing ME2, and which was confirmed on completing ME3, was that really - the sole, tangible purpose of ME2 (whether this was intended by BEAware or not becomes irrelevant) is that it acted as a springboard for your relationships with the characters you meet here. Really, ME3's depth of characterisation and character interaction would not have been possible without ME2. The very structure of ME2's plot points towards this - you spend 2/3 of the game, really, 3/4 of it, collecting your team and prepping them up for the final mission through the "loyalty" quests, which not only serve to build the team spirit and morale and make sure they have a better chance of surviving the "Suicide Mission", but also affect how they react and respond to you in ME3. When you come to grips with the fact that there are in fact very few side-missions in ME2, and that most of them correspond to your squadmates in one form or another, you come to realise they are the key feature of the game, really. Even the suicide mission is a complex and careful calculation about which of them die and which live, and it is said keeping them all alive through a first gameplay is both a complex and nearly impossible endeavor. You really have to pay attention to what they've been saying thoughout the game, keeping tabs and remembering key moments so that, when it boils down to it, you make the right decisions. Miraculously, I managed to keep them all alive and that formed the basis of my new and old companions in ME3. I did put surgical precision on the suicide mission in order to get killed those I didn't like. In any case there are options (the magic word) and you can be pleased in both ways, if you want them all alive or not. Must say I really appreciated that. And the characters themselves are pretty diverse And that was nice indeed. I like Garrus I love Garrus, playing as a male or a female, he's the character I love more. There was Liara in ME but you know how I felt later, she wasn't the same and my affection either. I liked Miranda, and especially more her ass. Miranda was okay for me playing as a female but my male character got her killed in the end. She's gorgeous and he's totally straight but he's not very indulgent on some behaviors and that's it. Jacob was alright. Yes, he got a lot of critics to be boring but I also felt he was all right, a good asset to the team and not annoying. Tali, as always, was fun to be around with, and had a cute accent. I prefer her in ME and got her killed with one of my characters, can't remember which one, probably my male avatar. I find her usually annoying but bearable. Sometimes I like her, when she shows loyalty and affection to Shepard is lovely. But I also liked Legion very much and my sympathy with the Quarians ends where the geths get involved. Joker, if anything, became even more of a comedian. Yes, pretty much. Not one of my favorites, not at all. Btw I like him more in ME2 than ME. Even EDI's weirdness "All humans on their knees!" was entertaining, and I found the two added an element of humour to the back that was somewhat lacking in the previous installment. I would have been more glad without this element of humor but I already said that. Tali, likewise, is done really well, with her taking off her mask, though you don't see her face, which was both wise and well executed, and sadly undone by the whole "Tali's Face Controversy" in ME3... More than "controversy" I would say "scandal". It was just insulting how they managed the whole thing even for non Tali fans. For the rest I will avoid to make take every sentence and comment shortly. I'm with you about some of the characters and I feel the opposite about others, it's not a surprise. Other than Kasumi, there is Mordin I didn't like, I like the concept of this character, not the execution, I find the writing kind of predictable, cliché in several lines. On Grunt I quote you in every word, same for me, just a "grunt". I found Thane amazing and incredibly deep as a character, a very well written and outstanding personality, also a new race, it wasn't easy task to introduce something like this. You wrote "He was relatively straighforward and "simple", but still fairly enigmatic to retain my interest." I think there is nothing that could define that characterization better than that, and that was precisely the objective of his writer. He totally succeeded. Loved Samara also and Jack, two characters you didn't gave lot of attention, I know would have been too long to cover the entire characters section giving to each one the same space but these two were awesome for me. They are written by Kindregan (another one who left and he wasn't present in ME3). About Jack, in the end her fragility behind the roughness is well portrayed, mission after mission, and the final scene if you romance her put in shame the others'. So deep and nicely done, my favorite love scene hands down. I really enjoyed their respective loyalty missions, even though for the most part, it was just run and gun, because I was actually interacting with those characters, even if just for a short time. I was made to feel like I was bonding with them,e earning their trust, and that made their fight and possible sacrifice on the Suicide Mission all that more heart felt. So really, when it boils down to it, the real plot of ME2 lies with the characters, with the whole Cerberus and Collector thread acting as a backdrop against which these events occur. The End: The ending of ME2 is both deserving of praise and ridicule. Another great opening, you are totally good at giving the gist of it in one sentence. Ironically, it is exactly at the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the ending of ME3. It's a classic case of "poor content but good execution". I mean, I'll cut to the chase - the final boss Human Reaper thing? What was that about? It wasn't so much that it was a "Human-Reaper thing" but more that it was a terminator endoskeleton, sorry, a human skeleton robot, trying to kill you. I mean... robot boss ending? The whole mission was amazing right up to that point. It was ambitious, it was well executed, it was a bit silly with the "Human-Reaper" thing, but the culmination of everything up to that point was so potent and well done we can ignore that, for the most part. And then, at the end, we're treated to that amazing cinematic of the squad escaping, jumping into the Normandy and leaving that huge explosion as that awesome music plays in the background and you realise - you've done it, your squad is safe, you killed them all, Harbinger has said his final "RELEASING CONTROL!" and you've won. It was such an amazing feeling. I felt all the inadequacy of the game being washed away by just how penetratingly powerful the ending was, and then I knew... the combat, the UI, the clumsy gameplay mechanics, they were all but crutches upon which the story of Shepard and his friends stood upon. And I could more or less forgive ME2 then. Conclusion: ME1 one was rough, but it was visionary. I can't properly comment on this, I would comment "I love you", but it's not much of use. Let's say it's your golden line without a doubt and that's enough. There are several parts of your review I didn't quoted because I agree or disagree with them in a very slight way it's not worth mention it, I only took what of your thoughts I found very similar or dissimilar to mines. You see there is not so much space for debate because the big differences come about characters alone. Must say it's a quite interesting contrast given how much I appreciate your writing and thinking in reviews, to have some big disagreements on the sole aspect that, in case of serious debating, could bring into a huge range of topics, most of them very distant to gaming in general. Okay, that's all. Until the next one. Thanks for reading. Thanks for writing. Lot of text, hope I didn't messed up colors and lines...
Angrybird Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 If I ever replay the trilogy (not likely) I'll just run this video at the end, 100x better than the original.
Cynical Misanthrope Posted January 24, 2014 Posted January 24, 2014 WOW!! I've been reading all your ME reviews twice. First time, I lost interest due to... Well you know, attention span. And your in depth are really outstanding. There were a few things I did not agreed on, but that is what gaming is all about. If everyone would have same opinions and same answers, it would be pretty dull world. Just as you, I absolutely loved the MAKO missions, I were sad that no such things were present in the rest of the games. And no, Hammerhead does not even come close to that. A friend of mine, he hated it thou. I understand what he mean, because I felt the same. The idea was just glorious, but the implementation of it was bad. But the immersion, to land on the moon (or any other planet/moon) and walk the surface gave me the shivers. In a good way. But it was also there it failed. Going into a building, kill a few things or search the surface for any anomaly felt bland and after a while became boring. Sometimes I just drove around and tried to climb the mountains and see if I could reach the top. To be honest, I thought I were alone in liking the Mako missions, glad I was wrong
jxm Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 To be honest, I thought I were alone in liking the Mako missions, glad I was wrong And here we have it, the ultimate sensation: Both (!) people actually enjoying the endless boring MAKO-Explorations have found each other! And it happened right here, on Lovers Lab! *sniff* Such a moment in history, and I could be a witness of this...
Koko.Hekmatyar Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 I didn't hate the mako missions what I hated was the mako itself.
Cynical Misanthrope Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 To be honest, I thought I were alone in liking the Mako missions, glad I was wrong And here we have it, the ultimate sensation: Both (!) people actually enjoying the endless boring MAKO-Explorations have found each other! And it happened right here, on Lovers Lab! *sniff* Such a moment in history, and I could be a witness of this... Oh my gawd! Must be f8th!111! Well, as I said, I loved the idea. Landing and then explore the planets/moons. I think it's connected to my burning interest IRL = Universe. I spend hours watching documentaries on my PC or on YouTube. Have done so as long as I can remember. I think it's slowly driving me insane. :lol:
jxm Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 Oh my gawd! Must be f8th!111! Well, as I said, I loved the idea. Landing and then explore the planets/moons. I think it's connected to my burning interest IRL = Universe. I spend hours watching documentaries on my PC or on YouTube. Have done so as long as I can remember. I think it's slowly driving me insane. :lol: Well, granted, the Mako-Missions were in fact not too bad. The problem was: the driving drove me insane, and after bumbling across mountains, falling down hundreds of meters and losing any sense of direction it just got on my nerves. Also there just wasn't a lot to discover or sightsee...and the damn lava-graphic-bug that made me drive into death a couple of times, and the skyways....*entersragemode* Something for the MAKO-Fans that love to drive endlessly through the empty landscapes: Mako meets Fallout
ChancellorKremlin Posted January 26, 2014 Author Posted January 26, 2014 Yeah, again sorry about getting so emotional. In a few months it will have been 2 years since ME3 released, and I doubt I'll ever think of it in a positive way. Pathetic. Though it seems you misunderstood some of the points I tried to make. I'll try to clear a few up; When I referred to the breath scene as sequel bait, it was in reference to what other movies/series have ended on such a note. There will never be more of Shepard. Why I think the breath scene is ambiguous, is both from ingame and out of game. Shepard is blasted by Harbinger, shot by Marauder Shields, passes out from pain/blood loss and walks head on into an exploding tube (something no one who wants to live would do). Then wakes up alone in rubble on a previously unknown part of the Citadel. Where no one has/had ever been before. An intake of breath is just not enough to suspend my disbelief. Add to that the responses from developers and their cronies (never, ever, thought I'd refer to BioWare that way pre ME3). The original breath scene was only attainable as an easter egg. For people who played through the series AND had high multiplayer readiness. No one else. In 8 endings Shepard definitely dies, no ambiguity. In one there is a breath. For a series of this scope, length and ambition.... that is disappointing. I would dearly have wished to see if your experience differed if you had started in 2008, but looking forward to your experience with DAO! That game is a gem, and I am sure you'll love it! Ah c'mon man.... surely you can think of it in good terms? It was such a LONG trip... and so many little journeys you know? I just can't see myself spoiling the whole because of a few "incidents" you know? Oh, I know what the "trope" is for the "breath scene". I just don't think they will actually go through with it. I personally think it was just an "easy" way out for people who wanted Shepard to live. I don't think it actually "means" anything for a sequel, but who knows, I could be wrong/ And even then, even if I look outside, I just don't see it. I see it as a sort of "lifeline" for players who wanted him to live, and nothing else. Yes, I see rubble, but just the rubble I'd get if the citadel was blown up and I woke up beside it, which is what happens in the EC. BEAware and their cronies are never going to confirm or deny anything because doing so (deliberate ambiguity) - same as the whole "indoctrination theory bs" - doesn't play to their strengths. They are far better off just not confirming or denying it and letting the userbase destroy itself over it. As for what if I had started earlier... I am going to be honest and say, I don't know. I mean.. maybe, I think maybe I could have felt angrier. It is definitely possible. If I were in your shoes, and had experienced everything, maybe I would have said ME3 was the worst ever. But I don't know, and maybe I will never know! Anyway... DAO, yes, I will try it soon... and I can't *wait* till I play DAO 2 and disagree with you all over again Or who knows, quite possibly we will find common ground! Tune in next and find out Ah, the breath scene. So many wonderful discussions about that. Is it concrete around Shepards body? Does she lie in the ruins of Earth? Does that mean she never left the planet in the first place, and instead all after Harbingers shot was actually part of the insidious indoctrination? (my favorite and most logical explanation...damn what a lift-off for a sequel or addon that could have made) Yet after all the idiocy from Bioware regarding that scene, and especially after that silly "Name-plaque on memory-wall-scene, I always had this very weird scene in my mind of an extended breath-scene: *camera is moving away, we see Shepard lying under the pile of rubble in full now. She coughs blood, writhes in pain* "Uh...hello...anyone out there? I am still breathing, and feel considerable pain. I destroyed the Reapers, and I can see Alliance-Ships moving out there...so...maybe after you have ended your victory-celebrations you might want to search for me? I am something like...I don't know...the hero of the war or such thing? Damn, my ribs...it really is uncomfortable here.." *camera is moving further away, we see a group of men in grey overalls wielding sci-fi-broomsticks and "caretaker" printed on their backs. They whistle a funny tune and have a relaxed conversation it seems. They eventually leave the scene. The last lights lighting the scene are turned off. A lonley voice can be heard in the darkness: "Hello...HEEEEELLLOOOOO??? Nobody remembers me? If not for me all of you would be Reaper-Fodder now! It was for all of you that I didn't go the easy route to kill myself, turning you all into robots with green magic!!!! *sigh, mumbles to herself* I should have pulled that damn blue switch. Then I would be the friggin' reaper-cyber-queen now and I could show these ungrateful wretches what a real renegade-answer is!" *End-Credits roll* I really hope this is the ending they'll go for when they make a ME-Movie, starring Mike Myers as Male-Shep. "Oh behave, the Illusive Man stole my Mojo!!!!" Well I like your alternative. The only problem, as I see it, is that it reveals too much. And that ties right back in to my earlier argument that sometimes, maybe, it is just better to not know what is going on. The hole "being given answers and explained stuff" vs "not being explained stuff and being left in the dark" conundrum. I don't know, I feel the post EC cinematic is fairly explanatory - you decide to fuck up the reapers, blow up their control system thingie, and explode, and end up in a part of the citadel. You already went up there anyway, you shot some stuff up, and you explode, and end up in one of the wings. I just don't see it as that much as a jump. Literally, 100% of the arguments I see about this are pre EC discussions which just intentionally ignore the reality that Shepard was beamed up to the Citadel and did his/her deeds up there, whether it be lie in the sand, blow up, relax, etc. The whole "how did he/she end up back on Earth" thingie just doesn't factor into it. So with that in mind, I don't have a problem with it . I read an article that said Bioware has a working version of ME4 but they are keeping a very tight lid on the particulars of said game. First thing that went through my head was "yeah no shit they are!! The last time they ran at the mouth about a game they made players were told to expect this and that but didn't get it" Well, as I mentioned in my review, they are probably far more worried about leaks. Seriously, it is a legitimate thing to be worried about. Having being involved in that process before, I understand how it can be destructive towards the creative writing process. I do believe that is one of the reasons why they fucked up the writing process of ME3. It wasn't the only reason, but I do believe it was one of the main reasons. So with that in mind, I think it is only natural they protect themselves against that in ME4. Did read just a bit, must save and take my time to read it in the evening. Almost obscene how much it seems I'm going to agree on this one... I like obscene. Obscene is good Warning for shameless quoting (entire parts I totally agree with and there is not much left to say). I've put your reply into a spoiler because I've broken down all the sentences and there's a lot lol. Good for you, that's the benefit to not follow a game at the release which I do as a rule after ME2. We had a little too much of them thanks to EA way to hype and advert. Like I said, I just try to avoid that regardless of who releases it. "Throne Of Lies" and all that On a side note, they could have put a f*ing skip to that intro for xbox because modifying straight away the character was impossible and you got to go though the damn thing a hundred of times. I wouldn't know, I just played PC, but yes I agree - any skip sort of mechanic is to be welcomed regardless of platform! I would say ME2 was a bad story told in the best possible way. They did a good job in divert the attention from a plot based on poor ideas. Yeah, I definitely agree here. They did the best with what they were given, and what they were given with originally wasn't that good! I must part ways from this section because I played these games on xbox and things are a bit different. Inded, like the MAKO missions, I hear console playthroughs aren't the same. With all the love I have for ME and the old inventory and ammo systems (which I prefer), I wouldn't trade the combat system of ME2. Nah, I hated ME 2's combat system. It was terrible. Take cover, wait for 10 minutes, pop out of cover, fire, reload, wait ten minutes. It was far too formulaic and boring. ME1's combat system was annoying but unpredictable, but ME2's was just so silly... I hated every part of it! Logic. Some of the reasons I like to read what you write. The ammo thing really irritated me. It just didn't NEED TO BE CHANGED!!!111 I believe you. Soldier is the only class I didn't play, I may have tried that in ME but not even sure about it. In any case the lack of ammo could screw you pretty badly indeed especially on insanity with a class that relies so much on firepower. I like the challenge. And the game basically said to me "FUCK YOU!" - CHALLENGE is for morons. I was disappointed. }You can't imagine how much I agree on this one. You did raise one of the points some of the members of the old community pointed out with some rage. They kind of regressed the whole universe in this sense, not only concerning weapons as you already stated with flawless reasoning, think about the armor department. I was furious about it and ranted with no end. In ME we got LIGHT, medium and heavy armor. Yeah, it was a perfect system, dumbed down. I just don't know why... why? Why do such a stupid thing? Light armor doesn't mean no protection! It means LESS protection and it was the perfect and more logic equipment for biotics and engineers as well. Exactly! It is there for a reason, it doesn't mean "Oh, just get rid of it!" ... hated that. Even the poor Turians, they got medium in ME with the exception of Nihlus I think, and it was much more natural looking and suitable to their physical features, in ME2 all Turians walking around bulky. Oh well. Quote on everything and the last word is one of my favorite words in life, one I use very seldom and to which I bestow a very deep meaning. Can't even explain to you how much. Quoting everything, and the last part on brands and corporations is priceless. It is almost imperceptible, but the change in the whole corporation/item system does make you feel you are in a smaller universe. I mean, it doesn't even impact your ingame experience that much, it just makes you feel... inferior. It doesn't help, that is for sure! That's it. Aren't you tired to make so much sense? All the time dear. All the time I still remember the first time I bumped into a Geth Prime in ME, that's was something I won't ever forget the first time I came against a Geth ghost, or one of those "elasticky" type enemies. It was awesome! I was like "Finally, here is a challenge worth my time!"... At moments it was fun to hear that, not on Insanity I must say, overall it's not some of the worst aspects. But yes, you are right and I also lol'd for some of the sentences. Couldn't agree more on that. I also found the level design pretty poor even though there are few exceptions. What annoyed me about level design was - "OK, in ME1, it was terrible - so, in ME2, this is what they'll improve on.... nope, actually, we'll take this terrible element in ME1, and make it WORSE... it made me want to cry! Linear waves and corridors apart (I totally agree with you), the biggest disappointment came about cities. You feel like walking around in a box. Same. There was just no sense of grandeur or anything. There is not live, a lot of embellish and npc around but you can't feel a thing about that being a city, the feeling is just wrong. Remember the citadel in ME and how it felt like an actual city with exteriors in the presidium parts and interiors. It's something ME2 lacks badly even with the magnificent "views" trough windows and balconies. It feels so fake. Indeed. They did take off something unique that a lot of people missed and gave us a dlc with that little Hammerhead gimmick. Don't get me started on the Hammerhard gimmick! I did a lot of decryption in ME and enjoyed it (note that the minigame was totally different for Xbox and pc). A nice surprise has also been the Hanoi Tower in the Noveria Mission. Yeah that was fun. Again, I'm not in a position to discuss the individual aspects of the console/PC port, but I actually did enjoy the minigames in ME1. You nailed it. Right!? As I said they did a good job on this on console. UI and commands were well designed and I can't say nothing about it. I'm beginning to wonder if this is why so many people had problems with the handling of the MAKO... I mean, it handled FINE for me on the PC.... I perfectly understand what you mean here with lack of ambition. Kudos to you for the definition, it's totally appropriate. I think it is a hallmark stage of video-game development - they reach a stage, and would rather keep with it than excel, then as a result you have the same old rather than something new and exciting. It's a complicated situation... Agreed he should have been included but here comes the first BIG disagreement (always on characters I see). I'm glad we disagree on something! Otherwise, it would just be freaky... I can't bear Kasumi and her jokes. Her recruiting and mission wasn't bad designed but that's it. Nah, she's alright. Nothing special, but not too bad either... As opposite to Ashley I don't like how she's written. A very poor writing with no interesting ideas whatsoever, just another catching character the action movies are full of nowadays with no personality and a cheap sense of humor. And I don't mean to disrespect who like her but that's what I think plain and simple. But she's a religious zealot who hates Aliens, apparently! I'm sorry, but I just love Ashley. That's how it is! On the other hand I totally loved Zaeed, he was one of my favorite characters. Nah, just a *grunt* sort of character. I was totally bored by him. Maybe it is because I am English, but his accent didn't do it for me! I agree on most of this, just a note about LotSB.... when there are forced funny (more or less) interactions between you and Liara that relegate the player to a role of mere spectator. So, I love Liara too! I adore the bluntness here, it just suits the whole meaning. In this sentence alone there is pretty much everything. Yes... good, good. I did put surgical precision on the suicide mission in order to get killed those I didn't like. The difference here is that regardless of how much I disliked or liked a character, I still wanted them to live. I love Garrus, playing as a male or a female, he's the character I love more. DEATH TO GARRUS! Miranda was okay for me playing as a female but my male character got her killed in the end. Awh... I like Miranda. I prefer her in ME and got her killed with one of my characters, can't remember which one, probably my male avatar. Again, double awh. I like her, simple and complicated at the same time. More than "controversy" I would say "scandal". It was just insulting how they managed the whole thing even for non Tali fans. I wanted to gut them with a dull fish knife, that is how insulted I was. Seriously, I wanted to put their tender bellies to a dull rusted iron like fish knife, spewing their intestines onto the ground. That is my level of hatred. Freaky. I know... , there is Mordin I didn't like, I like the concept of this character, not the execution, I find the writing kind of predictable, cliché in several lines. On Grunt I quote you in every word, same for me, just a "grunt". What... how could you not like Mordin? He was the best of the fuckin' rest man! Mordin was just... yes, predictable, bu still... pretty awesome! So deep and nicely done, my favorite love scene hands down. Really? Were they that good>? Another great opening, you are totally good at giving the gist of it in one sentence. I know lol... they deserved that, both because it is true, and because it hurts as a player There are several parts of your review I didn't quoted because I agree or disagree with them in a very slight way it's not worth mention it, I only took what of your thoughts I found very similar or dissimilar to mines. You see there is not so much space for debate because the big differences come about characters alone. Must say it's a quite interesting contrast given how much I appreciate your writing and thinking in reviews, to have some big disagreements on the sole aspect that, in case of serious debating, could bring into a huge range of topics, most of them very distant to gaming in general. Okay, that's all. Until the next one. Thanks for writing. Thanks for all the scrutiny Victoria K, I really appreciate it! Seriously, I do enjoy listening and hearing to your opinion. If I ever replay the trilogy (not likely) I'll just run this video at the end, 100x better than the original. Hahahaha! that was brilliant! I loved that, seriously entertaining! WOW!! I've been reading all your ME reviews twice. First time, I lost interest due to... Well you know, attention span. And your in depth are really outstanding. There were a few things I did not agreed on, but that is what gaming is all about. If everyone would have same opinions and same answers, it would be pretty dull world. Just as you, I absolutely loved the MAKO missions, I were sad that no such things were present in the rest of the games. And no, Hammerhead does not even come close to that. A friend of mine, he hated it thou. I understand what he mean, because I felt the same. The idea was just glorious, but the implementation of it was bad. But the immersion, to land on the moon (or any other planet/moon) and walk the surface gave me the shivers. In a good way. But it was also there it failed. Going into a building, kill a few things or search the surface for any anomaly felt bland and after a while became boring. Sometimes I just drove around and tried to climb the mountains and see if I could reach the top. To be honest, I thought I were alone in liking the Mako missions, glad I was wrong Yes, yes, YES! You. YOU. Yes, YOU!. Seriously, I can't write in words just how much I agree with you. There was just something about those exploration missions I loved. I can't say what it is, but I loved exploring in the MAKO. And I hear some people had problems with it on consoles, but I think that is jut down to a bad port, because on the keyboard and mouse, it was really brilliant. You sir, you! You are awesome! And I love you, and want yo have you babies! And here we have it, the ultimate sensation: Both (!) people actually enjoying the endless boring MAKO-Explorations have found each other! And it happened right here, on Lovers Lab! *sniff* Such a moment in history, and I could be a witness of this... Well, yeah it is weird, but I have to say... ... this is exactly the kind of misrepresentation that goes on all the time about facts like these. When I was researching data for this ME review, I found actually, there was a considerable divide between MAKO exploration missions, with the only significant difference being whether people liked the handling or not. Ironically, the handling on the PC was better, which is funny, given that the original port was from the console, which actually handled worse... ... so on that note, I'm happy I was a PC user I didn't hate the mako missions what I hated was the mako itself. Indeed, this just makes me think you got a bad case of the -reverse PC port. To be honest, I thought I were alone in liking the Mako missions, glad I was wrong You will never be alone lol Well, as I said, I loved the idea. Landing and then explore the planets/moons. I think it's connected to my burning interest IRL = Universe. I spend hours watching documentaries on my PC or on YouTube. Have done so as long as I can remember. I think it's slowly driving me insane. :lol: Indeed, I thought it was the same motivation. I just love the idea of space exploration, and I loved the idea of going into those landscapes and physically exploring them. I suppose people may have found them boring, but I found them amazing! Something for the MAKO-Fans that love to drive endlessly through the empty landscapes: Mako meets Fallout http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZYT2nYd46o lol, love it! Love every second of it, I suppose this tells everyone where my priorities are!
Cynical Misanthrope Posted January 26, 2014 Posted January 26, 2014 Yes, yes, YES! You. YOU. Yes, YOU!. Seriously, I can't write in words just how much I agree with you. -- Hey hey, you better slow down before you get an heart attack There was just something about those exploration missions I loved. I can't say what it is, but I loved exploring in the MAKO. And I hear some people had problems with it on consoles, but I think that is jut down to a bad port, because on the keyboard and mouse, it was really brilliant. lol, love it! Love every second of it, I suppose this tells everyone where my priorities are! -- Yeah, the steering wasn't to bad at all. Maybe in a few areas. Like in some narrow paths. But it wasn't game breaking. And to be honest, isn't that the fun in all games? Exploring I mean. And In space just makes it much better You sir, you! You are awesome! And I love you, and want yo have you babies! -- Okay, lets do it right here, right now! :heart: You will never be alone lol -- Together we are strong! Indeed, I thought it was the same motivation. I just love the idea of space exploration, and I loved the idea of going into those landscapes and physically exploring them. I suppose people may have found them boring, but I found them amazing! -- Indeed Indeed! You know what? If I were an astronaut with no possibilities to return home. I wouldn't mind. Or I couldn't care less. I mean, I'm already home. Granted, suffocation may not be the best thing to experience, but the sight would be so worth it. Drifting endlessly in space and maybe slam (lol) into a moon
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