Mass Effect 2

[miffy495]

I did a bunch of loyalty missions last night, and goddamn this game just keeps getting better. After the set on Tuchanka, (heh, the spelling suggestion for "Tuchanka" is "Buchanan") I now have so much love for Mordin. What a fantastically realized character. I even like Jack quite a bit more than I thought I would. She's still a bit grating, but now that her loyalty mission is done, she doesn't even seem to be yelling dumb shit as often in the middle of a fight. Archangel's was great too.

The only one I wasn't all that interested in was Grunt, which was too bad as he has some potential as a character. Fighting a few waves of Tuchankan wildlife just didn't interest me that much. Especially since it's the same wildlife that happens to be on every damn planet. Seriously, with so much attention to detail everywhere else, why is it that so many planets in the ME universe just happened to evolve the exact same fauna. I'm thinking here of the Varren, Thresher Maws, and those monkey things I can't remember the name of. In ME1 the only place that had Varren was Feros and I thought they were native. Sure, Thresher Maws were anywhere you could land the Mako, but whatever. That's fine. All the planets are height maps anyway, I didn't expect they'd bother to create individual wildlife for a height map. Now it's just beginning to feel really artificial and kinda lame. Oh well.

[Corduroy Cape]

I don't want to read any of this thread in fear of spoilers but I'm just curious how is the SPACE in Mass Effect 2?

The first game had some amazing moments with the music (see here, and here) and some of the visuals where pretty evocative too. How is this in the second game compared to the first?

[Murdoc]

I don't want to read any of this thread in fear of spoilers but I'm just curious how is the SPACE in Mass Effect 2?

The first game had some amazing moments with the music (see here, and here) and some of the visuals where pretty evocative too. How is this in the second game compared to the first?

It has it's moments and a lot of them are cool; but that tone/mood is gone. Which isn't surprising. The music is good, but a lot of it is not very distinct.

You know how Gears of War has those post fx filter options? I'd love a music/intense blue fill light on characters option.... I really miss it.

[eljay]

Seriously, with so much attention to detail everywhere else, why is it that so many planets in the ME universe just happened to evolve the exact same fauna. I'm thinking here of the Varren, Thresher Maws, and those monkey things I can't remember the name of.

Batarian's keep Varren as pets and if I recall correctly they tried to damage a lot of other ecosystems by introducing them or something.... it's all in the codex

Not that I'm defending it, but the answer to "why?" is in the game.

[dpp]

If I had to give this game a score from 0-10, I'd deduct 1 point no matter what just because of Jack. Worst game character EVER.

[Sombre]

If I had to give this game a score from 0-10, I'd deduct 1 point no matter what just because of Jack. Worst game character EVER.

My -1 would be the shitty awful graphic engine. I've had eyes not be in their sockets, heads on completely back to front, and eyes just being fucked up

[Thyroid]

Do I have to play the first one to get this? I'm too lazy to Google. The mechanics are apparently the first one improved, so. Can't be bothered playing two of the same thing. Should I just skip this one and get the first?

[miffy495]

I still think that any gamer interested in wonderfully realized game worlds should play Mass Effect. I also can't imagine enjoying 2 nearly as much as I have without having the background from the first game. So yes, play Mass Effect. I actually am really starting to want to go back and replay it (AGAIN) after finishing ME2, then taking a new character through both games. It's simply so fucking good.

DPP, you don't think you're being a bit harsh on Jack there? The trailer was horrible, and I can certainly see how that could colour your opinion of the character, but in the game world she's a bit stereotypical but actually has some nuance and a decent (if contrived) backstory. She's certainly not a deal-breaker in any sense of the term. I can see her at worst being a minor temporary distraction from the best parts of the game. I play strict boyscout Paragon, so maybe if you're Renegade she becomes more obnoxious to fit you, but I've had no problems with anything related to her that wasn't her stupid debut trailer and curious choice of attire. Now that I've done her loyalty mission, she at least wears a tank top.

Eljay: ok, I'll buy that the Batarians may have introduced Varren to different worlds in a "Bart Simpson brings a frog to Australia" kind of way, but how do you explain those anteater/monkey things that are common pests freaking everywhere? I want more things like those giant crabs walking around the beaches of Virmire in ME1 that didn't appear anywhere else.

[Murdoc]

but how do you explain those anteater/monkey things that are common pests freaking everywhere?

Art assets are expensive. Which was the answer you knew, but didn't want, it does kind of suck.

Not to pee ont he parade of the ME universe; because I fucking love atmosphere and realized worlds, but go back to Kotor 1, take a screenshot of every key location, slap a gaussian blur on it, and you'll probably find the colour/lighting palette for every location in mass Effect.

I think it works awesome, but when my mind wanders to that on "happy tropical world 04" I get a bit sad.

[brkl]

It is good. I can't read this thread.

[dpp]

About Jack, the storyline gives every chance for her to change from the "badass bitch" persona to anything that would be an improvement, which would make her a deeper, better designed character. But no, even after her loyalty quest she keeps denying what happened and in every sentence she has to throw in an F-bomb or Shit for badass-bitchiness sake.

On the other hand, Thane is a great character. Best one in the bunch, followed by Mordin and Miranda.

[Squid Division]

It's funny how the exact same situation with two different characters worked/didn't work with me. I had kept pretty clear of spoilers mostly from lack of interest, so I didn't know a lot about the characters that would be in the game. I knew that

Garrus

would be coming back and I knew about Subject Zero from the trailer and from the Thumbs, but it was really weird when I encountered these characters in the game.

Doing the Archangel quest to get the character I kept thinking it was

Thane

because it sounded like what I had heard and seen about him. But then going through the mission I talked to the Krogan guy who had fought him face to face and he revealed Archangel was

a turian

and at first I thought it was just some kind of paranoia thing where he was just making it up. Then suddenly I remembered

Garrus

and everything clicked.

It was awesome pulling all those references about vigilante justice from ME1 and how Garrus must have just gone Rogue after the Normandy was lost, and rediscovering him made me like him way more than I ever did in ME1.

Subject Zero was the complete opposite since the mission has you hunting

Jack

. So when I finally get to the big reveal and it's Subject Zero, my excitement for finding a new character was completely crushed.

Side Note: Anyone else disappointed in Samara's ridiculous fake-boob-revealing dress? I was excited to get her until I saw what she was wearing.

Come on Bioware, stop putting this crap in your games.

[elmuerte]

I miss the musical atmosphere in ME2.

One thing I really like is the room of the illusive man.

[Murdoc]

Side Note: Anyone else disappointed in Samara's ridiculous fake-boob-revealing dress? I was excited to get her until I saw what she was wearing.

Come on Bioware, stop putting this crap in your games.

Agreed. I mean warrior monk, and theres nothing wrong with justifying a highly sexualized race, or even an empowered women using it; but as soon as I saw her the very thing I criticized Miranda for was basically blown up by 11.

Also I thought it was funnier the alternative outfit for Miranda is

A lot more whore-ish/Catwomenish especially after someone in that mission called her out on whoring around in that outfit... that at least made it a nice tip of the hat from someone at Bioware

About Jack's starting location I was a little disappointed in seeing/experiencing it after hearing the description.

About Archangel, I had no knowledge on it, and I may have picked up on it after talking with the bloodpack krogan, but I was surprised and smiled when it all came together after seeing him.

[lobotomy42]

Art assets are expensive. Which was the answer you knew, but didn't want, it does kind of suck.

Not to pee ont he parade of the ME universe; because I fucking love atmosphere and realized worlds, but go back to Kotor 1, take a screenshot of every key location, slap a gaussian blur on it, and you'll probably find the colour/lighting palette for every location in mass Effect.

I think it works awesome, but when my mind wanders to that on "happy tropical world 04" I get a bit sad.

I'm not sure what this means. There are only so many colors, and only so many combinations of colors that look good together.

KotOR had a small city-planet, a field/farmer planet, an evil Sith world, a water planet, a forest planet, a desert planet, and a giant evil space station at the end. ME2 has a lot more locations than that. I don't think too many of them correlate that precisely - either visually or functionally - unless you want to make comparisons as vague as "Taris and Ilium are both big cities" or "Ilium and Manaan are both blue." If anything, the planets in ME2 look and feel a lot more similar to each other than they do to planets in KotOR. Or am I completely misunderstanding?

[lobotomy42]

Do I have to play the first one to get this? I'm too lazy to Google. The mechanics are apparently the first one improved, so. Can't be bothered playing two of the same thing. Should I just skip this one and get the first?

You should play the first game, I don't think this would be half as fun without doing so.

Also, as mentioned previously, read this article. The mechanics are not "the first one improved," unless by "improved" you mean "they changed every fucking thing."

Here's the choice quote:

It's worth listing Mass Effect 2's noticeably altered mechanics, because direct sequels released two years later are rarely overhauled this comprehensively. They include the following: experience point gain and leveling, skill trees, mission resolution, combat and cover, squad combat control, equipment management, weapon upgrades, squadmate weapon choices, interplanetary travel, clothing and armor customization, hacking and decryption mini-games, resource management, minor planet exploration, and probably more.

[Murdoc]

Well I finished it; I'll say this non-spoiler; it at least didn't kick me in the balls repeatedly from a fiction standpoint like Dragon Age did.

edit: apparently some of this ended up being spoilers...

Sooo...

The pacing was kind of odd on this game, one part enjoyable, one part lack luster. I'm not looking for twists or anything, but just certain moments that were present in the game could have had a little more gravity to them and help punch up the beats. Collectors = Protheans; this could have been described later in the game or given a more monumental realization; similar to ME1 when you found out the Protheans were in hiding and slowly died off from the VI... that was just saddening and momentous.

Human Reapers; I laughed out loud, mostly because of the ridiculous design and the line delivered by Shepherd "It's not just a reaper, its a Human Reaper!"... the "fight" was equally retarded.

Harbinger: I missed having an enemy I could talk to, a single entity to place blame; this is what harbinger was here for. I like how they are setting him up for the sequel, but I wanted more out of this; I would have liked dialog exchange, a 1 on 1 and then a realization he isn't the entity I thought he was.

[/spoilers]

Now I am sad because it will be 1-3 years away for another Mass Effect; it will also apparently be on the 360 which means I will need to by another as my current box almost didn't make it.

Ending play time: 45h 11m... I live a sad, sad life.

My favorite new character by far is Modrin, so well realized in personality and history, it's crazy. I mean jesus, the conversations with him were itneresting and hilarious; at one point he's

Thinking I was hitting on him, another hes signing Gilbert and Sullivan... in a superbly directed sequence(loved how the camera focused on him and created a weird, bouncy version of Spike Lees trick)

...just amazing.

I missed my Krogan from the first one, I think that was one of the small issues I had with the original Mass Effect, was being told about my crews troubles and homelands, for some reason I just expected I would go there and solve their problems. ME2 at least gives me a chance to visit these places and discover more about them; I've come to the conclusion I liked not being able to fix everything and that their paths are their own... but man do I miss him. Grunt, however, was an OK replacement for the first while, but after the loyalty mission

which was a pretty good "passing of the torch" he sort of just mellowed out. I like'd the Nietzche-ism about Grunt; he is the uber-man, the doctor totally hammered that point in, but then when you release him from the tube he tops it off with a typical nihilist personality... I thought that was pretty awesome and wanted to explore this guys spiritual journey.

I'll do another playthrough, or several, over the next few years, I really like the idea of going back to ME1 and doing them side by side... I'll try that at least once. I'm curious about some other characters that I liked but didn't get a chance to talk to much, Thane and Samara... which brings up an odd/neat thing...

[spoilers] I was playing space asshole Shepherd, but even then I don't intentionally just hit down all the time, I have my limits and dispositions; I might be a dick, but I won't fuck over my own crew... except Samara. We were doing the loyalty mission; which was cool but could have totally been expanded, and I get this option to kill her and take on her demon daughter. I normally wouldn't do this as I see no reason to for a space asshole or paragon, I was more curious as to what happens if you do... and yep, you kill her and the daughter impersonates the mother except when commenting about things in locations and talking with you. This was really cool, but really limited the character as it wasn't a fully realized/implemented

The old crew... One half of me is happy that people went their own way, another part of me is sad I couldn't' get the old crew back together. The bits of info I did pick up was the old crew was gone, so it was nice that some of them came back, all of them made a cameo. I'm also a little disappointed they couldn't handle the differences between who's alive and who's dead, they basically wrote them out of the game and it made very little difference either way.

The two that joined...

I played with Garrus a lot from the first and I liked him, I was surprised he showed up so early and while I was playing my renegade character I was a bit sad for him. I made him into what he is, being a renegade I told him about skirting around the law and just killing criminals and now here he is stewing in his own mess, broken and disillusioned. Poor guy.

Tali: I never used this character once in the first game, I thought the quarians were super interesting and liked what she had going on, but her class was never useful to my play style, so she basically sat in the bottom of the ship being ignored. Well in ME2 her class was actually useful and the character was consistent with the first.

I want to go out and say she is the only one from the old crew that chose to stand by you and go on this mission; everyone was too caught up in their own bs and garrus just needed his life saved and get the hell out of omega. So I thought that was cool that even if you saved a life, they could have ran off back to wherever but they chose to stay.

The loyalty mission was totally cool too, glad I got to go there, nice environments, good plot points, cameos by the dude that played Kain in LoK(and whatshisfuck from DA) and Morrigan from DA (Benzia from the first) which kind of points to more plot with them in the third.

This all kind of added up to the relationship option for me. I liked the character and I liked the fact it wasn't totally based on TnA, in fact when I found out you couldn't even have relations with a quarian I was like "Yay, a personal bond with a character that can be about personality and not sex"... and then she just pops a few antibiotics and we do it... thanks Bioware... at least you could have showed us what she looks like.

But either way, I thought that was the most interesting relationship route as the other two that seemed totally intended for that didn't interest me and we're pretty titted out.

More about the end brings up some issues with me...

They essentially do the same thing where you chose who dies, only instead of between 2-3 characters, I saw a massive friggin list which basically screamed "These characters will not be any significant part of ME3" and that just kind of sucked, because I liked a lot of them.

There was a lot of choices at the end and I still don't know what difference it makes and why there were so many... maybe it depends on who lives and dies if you pick the "wrong" people; but that will only mean that most of these characters will not be returning in the third... again making me sad. Since the crew seemed a lot bigger this time, I just didn't get to know a lot of them.

Also, Jacob died, I took the chance and I hoped he did, so boring. Let that be a lesson for any human soldiers joining the crew, we already have one, it's me, and I will risk your life carelessly.

Also, my friend was wondering what is Cerberus really up to and I don't really think it's that complicated. I mean you have to work for them in ME2, but you ever read those reports on the network in the menu? It's always about atrocities and crimes they are committing, not to mention all the shit from The first one and all the shit you find about this one. I'm glad that the conflict between you and them didn't boil over in this, as I was totally expecting to get screwed over by them or the AI. But, yeah, they are Cerberus, it's in their name, they aren't evil or up to anything, they like power and technology and don't give a shit where it comes from.

Again, I'm renegade but theres two things I don't budge on, killing AI/Reapers/Geth and giving leeway to Batarians(killed my parents, etc..)

So that's my decision and I told the martin sheen to fuck off at the end, which was fun... though I really wanted more of an option to turn his own people against him, kill him, and take over Cerberus to make it a respectable group.

First up with be public relations rebranding with the name, I suggest Unicorn.

***

E2 has a lot more locations than that. I don't think too many of them correlate that precisely - either visually or functionally - unless you want to make comparisons as vague as "Taris and Ilium are both big cities" or "Ilium and Manaan are both blue."

I was speaking for the colour palette specifically, not any similarities between the physical locations. The colours choices for different environments are surprisingly similar between ME2 and Kotor 1; I can't say that about ME1 and Kotor 1.

Maybe it's just my personal aesthetic but I found locations to "feel" similar because of the choices of specific combination of colors, I've seen Bioware recycle these before in their games, but it seemed very similiar/often in ME2.

[Lu]

Also, Jacob died, I took the chance and I hoped he did, so boring. Let that be a lesson for any human soldiers joining the crew, we already have one, it's me, and I will risk your life carelessly.

Hahaha, poor Jacob. HE JUST WANTED HIS FATHERS LOVE.

So in the end, of your entire crew, who lived and who died?

I was so nervous during the last act, having to pick people to lead the different teams. The tension that picking the wrong person might get others killed... I really wanted everyone to come out okay. Luckily, they all did.

I really wonder in how far you fuck up your own play through for ME3 if you let all those characters die.

[lobotomy42]

More about the end brings up some issues with me... They essentially do the same thing where you chose who dies, only instead of between 2-3 characters, I saw a massive friggin list which basically screamed "These characters will not be any significant part of ME3" and that just kind of sucked, because I liked a lot of them.

It's possible for any and all characters in ME2 to die in the endgame, including Shepard. I don't think that means none of these characters will be important in ME3. As you mentioned, they're clearly setting stuff up with the Quarians, for example. Conversely, having survived ME1 didn't guarantee importance in ME2 for Liara. I think it would be possible for these characters to carry-over into ME3, but be absent or replaced if they died. It would also be narratively weird to have spent all of ME2 building up your squad from the best of the best, and then in ME3 suddenly decide "You know what? Second best is good enough for me. Let's go recruit ten all new characters for no reason."

[Kolzig]

Weeeeeeell here's a basic question.

How long do you think Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are in average if I would go just by the main quest?

I haven't played either of these, but just in case if I will in the future it would be fun to know about the size of these games.

[juv3nal]

I miss the musical atmosphere in ME2.

I take it you haven't encountered the Gilbert & Sullivan scene?

[Sombre]

Just about to do my 4th "sitdown" with the game, I think I can finish it today, it feels like it's coming to a close now. Need to get the RF connector thing, but I'm still doing loyalty missions. On that note, it annoys me how

You can fucking fail Thanes mission. The doors slowed me down, and I lost sight of my mark, and he yelled at me so much I got stressed out and failed it. That was dumb

.

Really enjoying it so far, but there are some super awesome/horrible bugs. Upside down heads, heads on back to front, eyes going CRAZY...basic head issues. And sometimes my dudes get stuck on walls and...stop working:tmeh:

[elmuerte]

I take it you haven't encountered the Gilbert & Sullivan scene?

Guess not, I've only picked up the 3 crew mates on Omega

[Murdoc]

Let's go recruit ten all new characters for no reason."

Well that's sort of what I'm worried about, because really they did it for odds sake, potentially 50% of players let X character die; so to include X character in any meaningful way would require a lot of resources and then the massive headache that you now have potentially 10 of these to deal with, i'm wondering if they will just axe them or give them cameos, ala ME2.

Also, there is no way to know how ME3 will continue on; I'm assuming they are going to have to do something like ME2 where you start your shepherd from scratch again... but whatever could be the reason this time?

It'll be very interesting to find out how they deal with starting game Shepherd and the potential possibily half your crew is dead but still actually include them as full on characters for those who are not.

PiratePoo: Yeah thats what I was guessing those decisions could go horribly wrong, luckily I picked the right decisions (I guess in the exception of jacob, but technically it was the right decision for me) so I didn't really understand the point of deciding.

Kolzig: I'm pretty sure if you flew through ME1 it could be done in around 6-8 hours; from what I'm seeing from other people ME2 could be accomplished in 12-17.

juv3nal: As entioned i loved it, but I don't think thats what elmuerte was mentioning. Me1 had this throw back scifi music, I mentioned it was a bit like what was coming out in the 80s as a lot of it reminded me almost of john carpenter type stuff. There's a few tracks in ME2 that felt like the original, but they were very low key in comparison.

Oh and a quick thought:

In the end I didn't side with Martin Sheen, because really, I'm a space asshole, but I don't go screwing around with crazy technology. However I think my Paragon Shepherd would; it's this weird reversal where I think blind altruism would make Paragon Shepherd to salvage reaper technology in order to fight them... that's the sort of stuff that kind of gets into that Dragon Age grey area, even if I'm just supplying the context and motives in my head.

Edited February 4, 2010 by Murdoc

[SoulChicken]

I picked up Samara last night, my last hire before IFF and I've just been going around lazily like I did back in the Citadel in ME1.

I really think all the stuff that Chris loved in the Citadel in ME1 is here in ME2, its just split over 3 cities. I got a bunch of little quests to do for people and got that same vibe I did in the Citadel. Probably spent the same amount of hours doing all that walking and talking as I did in ME. Illium was the most rich in this regard.

When I really think about it I can't think what the Citadel had in ME1 that isnt here in ME2 and done just as well. Yet I do feel a little of there being something different...

The game definitely rushes you along and it took me forcefully putting the breaks on and decide to saunter around before going to the IFF thing (or whatever its called.) The first game kind of encouraged you to do this where as this game made me feel a little guilty for not rushing to save the galaxy.

I wish I had more to do with my gang of buddies now I have them together, I'm enjoying things so much, I dont want to jump back on the collectors story train and end the game yet. I guess thats whats making me look forward to another playthrough, play on a harder level to make the combat more challenging and pick up my gang in a different order so the ones I picked up towards the end in this one get more play. I dont want it to be over : (

edit: I loved hearing the old Mass Effect music play when I bumped into Ashley on that planet. Then I remembered how much I regretted not letting her die on Virmire because she is shit.

Another favorite moment was in Omega when I walked back to the Normandy, you look through this grimy long window and its right there, my massive spaceship! Then there's a couple of panes missing so you can look through there and see it clearly. I guess it just made my ship feel very real and properly docked on the outside of this space station. Kind of the cool factor of seeing a massive Navy ship docked in the real world.

Edited February 4, 2010 by SoulChicken