Mass Effect 2,convince me

[Hyper-space]

Personally, when it comes to RPG's i am pretty progressive, and believe that any type of game (whether they be sport, racing or even RTS games) can be an RPG, if the mechanics are there. So seeing a different approach to the admittedly tired formula of RPG's was what sealed the deal in terms of its brilliance.

Good to meet you, too many people are traditionalists. If it doesn't have dice rolls and pages of stats they can't see something for what it is. And that includes a lot of the staff at the escapist. I can't help but be happy seeing your Frank Horrigan avatar while hearing of your open mindedness. A tip of the hat to you sir.

The some 5 years i have been on this site (i was a long time reader of both the articles and the forums) i have noticed the same thing. From hearing people just flat-out deny that opinions are in fact, opinions and not some testament to their superior RPG tastes or whatever to people throwing a hissy-fit over something that was clearly not meant for them, i've seen it all.

And really, its a shame for such a rich genre (if you can even classify it as a genre) to be bogged-down by having to adhere to one specific formula instead of being allowed to spread its wings. Imagine a sports game where you can make your character by choosing "classes" (defense, offense or goal-keeping) and level him up by completing challenges and winning matches, it would kick-ass. There is literally no type of game that cannot be an RPG and if we deny the genre any chance of evolving and deviating from the days of Baldur's gate and Icewind dale we will crush all innovation and art there is to be made with it.

I myself am waiting for the day when a developer gets the "crazy" idea of making an racing-RPG.

 

[Mr Fatherland]

I really enjoyed it, but I can only enjoy it as a soldier. Right now it's in my room and I really want to replay it (I picked it up for £8). But there's no point me playing as a Soldier. And really don't want to play as a biotic. And the other classes are just wishy-washy. The worst thing is I can remember everything that happens. There'll be nothing new for me to do. I think I've got 835G off it and the remaining achievements are from using Biotics skills, barring the downloads. I just can't bring myself to play it.

 

[Hagi]

What I think is so great about Mass Effect is that it's a step in the direction I want games to take.

What I think is so very obvious in the Mass Effect series and by contrast so very lacking in lots of other games is that it was designed as a coherent whole of story, characterisation, action, role-playing and character advancement.

Most games have only background information, Mass Effect has a story.
Most games have only NPCs, Mass Effect has characters.
Most games have only stat building, Mass Effect has character building.

The story, characters and character building (a character is more then 20+ numbers detailing your stats) may not be perfect but they're real.

I'm hoping that eventually with the success of Mass Effect more games will take the route of providing a real story, real characters and real choices. So that eventually gaming can have it's Lord of the Rings, it's Shawnshank Redemption, it's Schindler's List and it's Star Wars equivalent.

 

[Xanadu84]

...Why convince you?

Don't get me wrong, there is many good points to ME2 that are as objectively great as you're going to get in the evaluation of entertainment. The game is well made, and a preponderance of evidence says that it is quality stuff. But once you get past the rather complicated calculus of a game being well designed, you run into the fickle wall of taste. Personal quirks make it so any random individual could very well love a terrible game, or hate a wonderful one. It's less likely, but there are also a lot of people playing games: More then enough for many outliers. There is no reason to convince you to like Mass Effect 2 if you don't, because taste is too unpredictable, and there are enough other games out there to play. If you can acknowledge the good point, then you are good at critically evaluating games. If you can't, then maybe Mass Effect is simply REALLY not your thing, or maybe you just want to have fun with a without breaking it down, which is completely acceptable.

 

[GartarkMusik]

Umm......why should I convince you? If you don't like it, you don't like it. It's easily one of my favorite games, but that's my opinion, and has no bearing on what you think. I thought GTA IV was awful, but everyone else said it was incredible. I really could not get into it, it wasn't fun for me.

 

[Whateveralot]

If the game did not convince you, then we're not going to get you convinced anyway.

 

[Nimcha]

Well at least you played all the way through it before you came to an end conclusion about the game. That's more than a lot of the whiners can say. I'm sorry you spent money on something you didn't enjoy, but it happens sometimes.

 

[RastaBadger]

I played it and found it to be jolly good fun. However I wouldn't call it the best modern game in the last 5 years. It was good but it wasn't THAT good.

 

[Laser Priest]

Because not everyone has the exact same preferences as you?

I, for one, thought the combat was decent and the characters were wonderful. The story was a bit ridiculous, but still well done.

 

[Zenron]

I guess their are two things that I really like Mass Effect 2 more than anything else. I'm pretty sure anything I'm going to say has already been said before, but I'm going to go ahead and reiterate them anyway.

The first thing is the world(or galaxy... whatever). They've scoped out an entire history behind the series. That's not unique, but the history is actually interesting. You can just go through skipping dialogue and not reading stuff, but you'll be missing out. Every race is different, fleshed out with different talents and skills. I took the time to read all the codex pages and I eventually got around to reading the novels and it made the experience so much more immersive(side note: Why does chrome say immersive isn't a word?) to me.

The second thing is the dialogue. I don't think I've ever played another game where I actually care enough about the characters and what they have to say that I'll actually stand around and listen to them talk. It's one of the things that Bioware can do really well. The dialogue is way better in this one than the original as well, the voice acting isn't as wooden and the camera and characters move around when they're talking which makes the conversation much more realistic in comparison to say, any Bethseda game, where the camera is static and you just choose dialogue options from there.

I'm probably a bit biased here thouogh. I've played through the game three times and got all the achievements. This game and Bioshock are the best games I've played in a long time.

 

[mrdude2010]

i wouldn't put it above KOTOR, but i mean it had combat that functioned well and excellent dialogue, as well as well rounded and well voiced characters *shrug* i liked it a lot

 

[Dango]

I hated it.

The gameplay, the story that felt almost non-existent, the characters who were (except for Tali and Garrus) all variations of either "Badass-Manly-Man" or "Badass Sex Appeal", and any of the time it spent trying to be "dark", I couldn't take any of it. And I can not understand why the writing is held so highly, I honestly can't even call it "good".

That said, I loved the original Mass Effect.

 

[DSK-]

I think the story in ME2 is weaker than the original, but it's still a great game. Although I can't bring myself to play it much these days - the gameplay gets broken up way too much by the loading screens for me.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Basically its a way for people to play gears of war, but still be able to look down on fps games.

ME2 has a bad, nonexistant story, characters are cliche and shallow (a fw are good), (or changed for fanservice), dialouge is terrible "look at this, sneaking into the captains quarters, heavy risk. But the priiize", gameplay is like gears, atmosphere is terrible (having shep die in space, then characters just wear gas masks in space... What ?!).

Where do you get the "nonexistant story" part from? Out of thin air?

 

[David Hebda]

well what don't you like about it?>

I didn't like the gameplay, story, or characters, felt it was padded, and it ended with a cliffhanger

However, if you've played it all the way through and didn't like it, I don't see how I could convince you. And why would you want me to?

I'm asking you to explain why you think it's in your top 5 best video games, because I honestly have no idea

Well I loved the game play, storyline, characters, cliffhanger ending and everything in between. Just a matter of personal preference, I guess. I think the question is, so you like games where what you do matters. From what I have seen people who loved early games like Fallout 1 and 2, Arcanum and the like (games where your choices have a huge effect on the story) love the Mass Effect series, but those who love cut and past games with a nice big laid out story in which you are the good guy who will win no matter what... like it less.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Basically its a way for people to play gears of war, but still be able to look down on fps games.

ME2 has a bad, nonexistant story, characters are cliche and shallow (a fw are good), (or changed for fanservice), dialouge is terrible "look at this, sneaking into the captains quarters, heavy risk. But the priiize", gameplay is like gears, atmosphere is terrible (having shep die in space, then characters just wear gas masks in space... What ?!).

Where do you get the "nonexistant story" part from? Out of thin air?

Well, compared to other RPGs. ME2 has a strange episodic format, and if you take out recruitment + loyalty, there isn't a lot of time or resources devoted to the mail plot. Ofc, I think some of the loyalty missions are some of Bioware's best work to date, but they definitely come at the expense of the main plot.

EDIT: Ninja'd by the guy you were responding to

 

[Brandon237]

I loved ME2, the characters and dialogue I thought were done well, the combat was a vast improvement from the first games and I replayed it around 4 times. I found the story interesting, the characters were deeper than in the first game and they FIXED THAT BLOODY INVENTORY CRAP. That was bad in the first game.

Planet scanning was a ball-ache, but the rest was awesome.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Recently a certain game website listed Mass effect 2 as the best modern video game (last 5 years)
I personally don't give any credibility to the site, and only use it as a news site. Even so, it bothered me that mass effect 2 was considered to be the best. I didn't enjoy it at all, and I only forced myself to get through it because everyone else said it was amazing.

I feel like I'm missing something, Why is everyone in love with this game?

I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions.

But really, maybe the game just isn't for you. Mass Effect 2 had solid gameplay, but I especially liked it for the story, setting, and characters. If those don't click with you, maybe the game just isn't for you. Nothing wrong with that. But that still doesn't make it a bad game.