Mass Effect 2 - It was good, but not that great

[OniaPL]

You sound pretty bitter with this "pulling punches" stuff. You're making some negative assumptions there. Can I ask what game you'd have preferred?

i may be a bit bitter, but I felt they left out the consequences for all the major choices in ME 1 just so that it can all come down in ME 3. ME 2 rather felt like just a bridge that only connects the first and last game.

I admit, 2010 felt like an rather weak year in gaming, but I personally enjoyed, for example, Red Dead Redemption way more than ME 2.

 

[jtesauro]

I loved Mass Effect 2. It was absolutely my pick for Game of the Year, so I have no issues with that.

Was it groundbreaking? No. Absolutely not. As much as Bioware has become my favorite developer, let's call a spade a spade: This was not a groundbreaking game. Bioware stuck to their strengths, that being story. When it comes to building gameplay systems, they are a traditionally lazy developer.

Let's face it, the action gameplay notwithstanding, the systems we're seeing in ME2, menus, non interactive starships, these are not dissimilar to what we saw in Kotor seven years prior.

A game I happened to love the hell out of, admittedly.

So did Mass Effect 2 reinvent the wheel? No, absolutely not. But this is not necessarily a crime against it. For all that we complain there's not enough innovation in the game industry, remember, in the words of our host; "reinventing the wheel is only exciting the first nine times; after that it'd just be nice to have a damn wheel around when you needed one."

Mass Effect 2 is a damn good wheel.

 

[OniaPL]

Mass Effect 2 is a damn good wheel.

Yes, it is, but it still isn't the wheel of the year.

 

[HeySeansOnline]

It's the Mass Effect 1 sequel first of all, and Mass Effect 1 was brilliant. It also fixed problems of that game, while adding better stuff in place, and increasing the scale. I can't really pick much they did bad, they stuck with what was good and tweaked the bad. At face value it's a perfect sequel.

Granted I expected more, it's no Half Life 2, it didn't make any major strides, it was retread, but a retread of good isn't necesarily bad. Also without much though it can be seen as an amazing game. Once you think about it you realise it wasn't amazing, just good, maybe even great.

The one place it did amazing was the story, great new characters, updates to old ones, alot of new interesting ideas, and the perfect setup for a truly epic finale.

 

[beniki]

Well, the problem here is that you're comparing a shooter to an RPG. Although they appear similar, they're both coming at it from opposite directions.

Gears of War is a skill based shooter, in that the game play of shooting is the main event. It's coming to third person combat from the FPS genre. It emphasises player skill over story telling. That's not to say GoW wasn't good at telling the story, I'm just saying the combat mechanic isn't meant to support it. Rather in that game, the story is there to support the combat.

Mass Effect 2 is a role playing game. It's designed to tell the story first, with combat supporting the story, with it's roots in the old top down, random chance via D20 games. To that end, it's not trying to challenge you in the same way as GoW is doing, it's trying to trick you into believing you are Commander Shepard, space captain hero.

Since your experience of the game was similar to GoW, I'm willing to bet you played as a soldier. This class is very much the spray and pray Rambo style hero. If you want a more tactically inclined play experience, try either the adept or the infiltrator.

But, the real test of Mass Effect 2 should lie in how it made you feel. Did you feel like Rambo stomping down the corridors of an alien ship? But then again, it might just be that you prefer challenging yourself in a shooter, rather than indulging in a bit of role play fantasy.

So there you go. Different design philosophies, and pick the one you like best.

I just cry when I hear someone call ME 2 RPG. It was a shooter with slight rpg- elements. These minor rpg- elements don't give a free pass to Bioware for not really trying with combat.
I think of myself as an RPG player, but in ME I felt like a spectator and not Shepard himself.

But... it is a role playing game.

These 'minor' elements are very subtle ways of creating one. In my case, a simple bullet-time-on-scope mechanic with the infiltrator class let me, a terrible FPS player, become the galaxies best sniper. I was able to role play something I could otherwise not do. Each class has an active and a passive ability which flavours your gaming experience to the type of hero you want to play.

The soldier class, it's true, doesn't have a very good way of doing this. Adrenaline rush is a bit naff as a skill, and the extra passive ability wasn't all that thrilling to the point I can't recall what it was. I think it was a boost to running to cover. If that's the case, then it further reinforces your experience of a cover based shooter. All from a class mechanic!

It's not that they didn't try with combat, they were just trying to achieve something different.

And in the context of combat, I find it difficult to believe you were just spectating as Shepard gunned down those mobs for you. The mechanics aren't that automatic.

 

[Ghengis John]

You sound pretty bitter with this "pulling punches" stuff. You're making some negative assumptions there. Can I ask what game you'd have preferred?

i may be a bit bitter, but I felt they left out the consequences for all the major choices in ME 1 just so that it can all come down in ME 3. ME 2 rather felt like just a bridge that only connects the first and last game.

I admit, 2010 felt like an rather weak year in gaming, but I personally enjoyed, for example, Red Dead Redemption way more than ME 2.

Well that's just personal preference. Which of course brings us to this point: There's plenty of publications and web sites that picked Red Dead for game of the year. Why not just be happy they did instead of demanding it receive universal praise? Do a few votes for another game diminish your experience somehow?

And 2010 for me, saw way too many great games.
Blazblue CS
Pixel.dot Heroes
Red Dead Redemption
Fallout: New Vegas
Plants Vs Zombies.
Minecraft
Limbo
Starcraft 2
Alan Wake
Halo Reach
Dead Rising 2.
Drake's Fortune 2.
Farcry 2.
Civilization 5.
Dance Central.
Fable 3. (ish)

Ect, Ect ect. It was a busy year. I hope next year man you can find more titles that you can enjoy. If things were that bad for you, then just be happy you found a good game.

 

[OniaPL]

You sound pretty bitter with this "pulling punches" stuff. You're making some negative assumptions there. Can I ask what game you'd have preferred?

i may be a bit bitter, but I felt they left out the consequences for all the major choices in ME 1 just so that it can all come down in ME 3. ME 2 rather felt like just a bridge that only connects the first and last game.

I admit, 2010 felt like an rather weak year in gaming, but I personally enjoyed, for example, Red Dead Redemption way more than ME 2.

Well that's just personal preference. Which of course brings us to this point: There's plenty of publications and web sites that picked Red Dead for game of the year. Why not just be happy they did instead of demanding it receive universal praise?

And 2010 for me, saw way too many great games.
Blazblue CS
Pixel.dot Heroes
Red Dead Redemption
Fallout: New Vegas
Plants Vs Zombies.
Minecraft
Limbo
Starcraft 2
Alan Wake
Halo Reach
Dead Rising 2.
Drake's Fortune 2.
Farcry 2.
Civilization 5.

Ect, Ect ect. It was a busy year. I hope next year man you can find more titles that you can enjoy. If things were that bad for you, then just be happy you found a good game.

You have misunderstood me. I don't want RDR to be praised everywhere. What annoys me is that ME 2 receives so much praise and awards like GotY, when it was only all-around average.

Yes, 2010 was a busy year, but I didn't find it to be exactly great. There aren't many games that I felt were very memorable.
Also, I remember playing Farcry 2 ages ago, was it released on PS 3 this year?
Dead Rising 2 was fun, Civ V felt a bit lacking, Starcraft was good. But still, this isn't the year I'll be telling my grandchildren about =P

Edit: @Beniki

I felt like a spectator throughout the game, as I couldnt see myself in Shepard. Often none of the dialogue options he had felt like something I would say.

 

[Ghengis John]

Yes, 2010 was a busy year, but I didn't find it to be exactly great. There aren't many games that I felt were very memorable.
Also, I remember playing Farcry 2 ages ago, was it released on PS 3 this year?
Dead Rising 2 was fun, Civ V felt a bit lacking, Starcraft was good. But still, this isn't the year I'll be telling my grandchildren about =P

Well, you never know. Maybe they'll love to hear the differences between call of duty 58 and call of duty 4. And for me, (don't hate me) Red Dead was ruined by a lot of the character dialogue and repetitive pop goes the weasel combat. (Like the gravedigger, I could not stand him.) But I can still see why people picked it for game of the year. The terrain was beautiful the soundtrack was excellent and the free-roaming aspect was like an Oblivion in the wild west. Bonnie was probably the best written woman I've ever seen in a Rockstar game. Though if you can't accept that some people would have genuinely liked mass effect 2 more for whatever reason I can't convince you it deserved game of the year from anybody and neither can anyone else. It's just the way life is, some people will just like different bands, sports teams and sodas than you do. It doesn't mean anybody's wrong or right. Unless they like Justin Beiber. Then they're just wrong.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

Honestly I think this is more of a personal preference issue. I loved ME2 as well as ME1, I thought they were quite immersive, I found myself actually caring about my crew and my relationships with each of them. I genuinely wanted to complete their loyalty missions and ensure their safety in the final mission. As for the actual game play, the combat is some of the best combat in any RPG or third-person shooter I've ever seen. I played through my first time around as an Adept and it was hilariously entertaining. Aside from the combat, the conversation mechanics while still the same as every other bioware title, were well done and kept me interested. Learning about the back story of characters through conversation with them was particularly interesting.

I could go on, but you get the point; I enjoyed the game very much and apparently you didn't. I don't think you can say that Mass Effect 2 wasn't a great game because there are hundreds of people who think it is, thus all the awards and popularity. I see why you might not like it, but that doesn't change the fact of it's overall reception.

 

[JeanLuc761]

I admit that the characters were pretty good, even though not excellent. Yes, they were above decent.
What was so incredible in the visuals? I don't remember going "Ooooh...." at any point.
"Cutting edge dialogue system"? It was a wheel with a good, neutral and an evil option. And often the answers just lead to the same result. At times, you had to guess what Shepard was going to say.

Well, I don't know about you but I'd say Mass Effect 2 is one of the absolute best looking games out there right now with fantastic art design. As for the dialogue system, sure it sounds simplistic when you put it that way, but the way it's put together and the way it works in the game makes for a very cinematic and immersive experience.

 

[Joshimodo]

Mass Effect 1>Mass Effect 2. By quite a margin.


Great game, either way - But the characters weren't half as good, the story wasn't as interesting, and the gameplay was less impressive (Biotics/Tech being almost entirely useless, strategy wise? Bad idea).

 

[Mikeyfell]

To repeat my question: Yes, ME2 is good, but how can anyone justify calling it the Game of the Year?

well it's my Game of the Year by far (because I'm a Bioware fanboy)

but I can still offer general justification for why it's winning awards left and right

2010 was a shitty year for gaming

all of the sequels to "popular" franchises failed miserably to live up to their predecessor

Spoiler

and more

there was that one totally awesome game that nobody played

Spoiler

nobody respects the XBLA, or PSN enough to honor their games

Spoiler

I don't know why Dead Rising 2 or Bayonetta never go a nod for GOTY, but they didn't

so Game of the Year comes down to Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead Redemption

and Red Dead Redemption was just Grand Theft Auto 4 in the old west. and Grand theft Auto 4 was a terrible game

there's your answer Mass Effect 2 was basically running unopposed

 

[OniaPL]

Yes, 2010 was a busy year, but I didn't find it to be exactly great. There aren't many games that I felt were very memorable.
Also, I remember playing Farcry 2 ages ago, was it released on PS 3 this year?
Dead Rising 2 was fun, Civ V felt a bit lacking, Starcraft was good. But still, this isn't the year I'll be telling my grandchildren about =P

Well, you never know. Maybe they'll love to hear the differences between call of duty 58 and call of duty 4. And for me, (don't hate me) Red Dead was ruined by a lot of the character dialogue and repetitive pop goes the weasel combat. (Like the gravedigger, I could not stand him.) But I can still see why people picked it for game of the year. The terrain was beautiful the soundtrack was excellent and the free-roaming aspect was like an Oblivion in the wild west. Bonnie was probably the best written woman I've ever seen in a Rockstar game. Though if you can't accept that some people would have genuinely liked mass effect 2 more for whatever reason I can't convince you it deserved game of the year from anybody and neither can anyone else. It's just the way life is, some people will just like different bands, sports teams and sodas than you do. It doesn't mean anybody's wrong or right. Unless they like Justin Beiber. Then they're just wrong.

You may be right, it just may be about my personal preference, but I don't see any aspects that ME 2 did so well that it deserves GotY. But yes, it was best sci-fi game.

And at least we can agree about the Justin Bieber part.

 

[Agayek]

From my perspective, ME2 was damn near perfect, in every regard except for the main storyline. The combat was solid, the characters were engaging and interesting, and all of the character-driven missions were fantastic.

Then there's the Collectors, which just shit all over the main story.

 

[Snotnarok]

There's no other game like it. In what other shooting game has the depth of story and number of choices, well acted characters, great visuals and length of gameplay?

Is the combat a little lacking sometimes? Sure but there's no competition to Mass Effect. No Sci-fi game does what it does, hell most fantasy RPGs don't cover some of the things it does.

Does it deserve the hype it gets? Yes I think so. I've yet to play a game like it that's come out in recent years.

 

[Ghengis John]

snip.

Actually I bought Blade Kitten. Good game, and cheap. Sadly, the studio has shut down though so the second half will never arrive. But on Fallout New Vegas, I disagree. As somebody who played fallout one and two in the day and loved them both this felt like coming home again. Gone were the people mysteriously eating 200 year old food, the focus on violence over story and the roulette wheel speech skill. Even Shamus Young, editor who initially panned the game went on to say it's twice the game fallout 3 was. I could go on and on but sufficed to say we'll probably just have to agree to disagree.

And also Dead Rising 2 was totally robbed. I was pretty disappointed to see it didn't get a nod anywhere. Some editors were probably just bad at slicecycles.

 

[OniaPL]

I'm confused, were you playing Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2? Mass Effect's missions weren't nearly as linear, but in Mass Effect 2 you DID have ammo limitations. Normal was a bit simple, but turning up the difficulty one notch seemed to even it out for me.

As far as I remember, only the special hevy weapons had ammo, other weapons just overheated

Nope, all weapons had ammo in Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect had the overheating. I think you need to replay it to get your games straight.

Ah, then excuse me. This is rather embarrassing. >.<

But still, I don't remember running out of ammo, so the spray and pray pretty much applies.