Mass Effect 2

[wiggum]

Well I picked it up on Tuesday and I must say that I'm about as happy with this game as I could possibly be. It actually seems like a game company LISTENED. They fixed nearly everything I had an issue with in the previous game, there is almost nothing left for me to complain about! I haven't felt this way since I played Portal.

They made the combat fun, it is not nearly as clunky as it was before. It also seems a lot simpler to issue commands even though they system for doing so is essentially the same.

The Art design of the game has improved dramatically, everything looks so much cooler now. It would be hard for me to fully explain what I didn't like about the designs in the origional game, the word bland seems to cover most of it pretty well though. I'm very pleased to report that is no longer the case.

As far as I know the Mako is gone for good, I hated that stupid thing so much I just hope its burning is video game vehicle hell.

Anyways, if you like the idea of a action RPG set in sci-fi environment you need to get this game!

[FightingSeraph]

I saw the ad for it, and I might check it out...

[The-Mentat]

Well, I can't say I agree with everything you say about Mass Effect 1. I fucking loved it, and it was the best game I've ever played. Never before was I so immersed in a game world. That's what I love about BioWare, they care about story, characters etc. Their games play like interactive movies!:D Also, it helps I'm a huge sci-fi and astronomy geek. As for ME2, I got my PC Collector's Edition yesterday, and wow.. it's so much better than ME1, especially combat-wise. And yea, the art looks better as well.

Anyway, back to playing ME2 ;).

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Love it, just beat it the other day. They've definitely improved on a lot since the first one, dialogue is more interesting, combat is better, graphics are better, story is great, relationship options are more open. Just feels like an overall improvement. I also like how your decisions during the game can drastically effect the outcome of the ending, you never know what will spur a conversation or a mission with helpful upgrades

I only have a couple of complaints, kinda sucks that you no longer have unlimited ammo, I mean technically you DO have unlimited ammo, but you need heat sinks to make the guns work and heat sinks are limited. Though you seem to run across them every couple of seconds so it's not a big deal. The whole place feels more confined, in the first one you could wander all over the Citadel, it just feels like there's less roaming space this time around.

[wiggum]

Well, just to be clear, I wasn't trying to imply that ME1 was a bad game, I just felt that a lot of its brilliance was obscured by its many technical flaws. Now that those flaws have been removed the awesome game can shine through.

I don't really understand why they bothered changing the whole ammo thing with the heat sinks, but it doesn't detract from the game in any way. Scanning planets for resources can be an annoying chore though, in fact its the only thing in the game that really bothers me (but it isn't such an issue once you upgrade the scanner).

I'm pretty sure I'm almost at the end now, and I couldn't be happier with my experience so far.

[Jason Rainville]

I don't really understand why they bothered changing the whole ammo thing with the heat sinks, but it doesn't detract from the game in any way.

At first I didn't either, but I'm pretty sure it's to promote the use of various guns, especially now that they added certain defenses and their counters. The only real thing about weapons I don't like is that the shotgun can't even work at mid range, and because of the limited ammo you don't want to waste shotgun shots on something you might not even hit. This is especially annoying for my Vanguard.

Scanning planets for resources can be an annoying chore though, in fact its the only thing in the game that really bothers me (but it isn't such an issue once you upgrade the scanner).

I'd say that it's a much less annoying chore than scouring a large sandbox area in a horrible vehicle for elements that may or may not be in the unrevealed section of your map. Although it's less engaging than the rest of the game, harvesting mode is done from the galaxy map instead of having to choose the cluster, system, land, drive around for 10 minutes etc...

And yeah, the mining upgrade helps quite a bit :)

[wiggum]

I tend to agree about the shotgun. I also play Vanguard and I'll only equip it if I'm planning on charging into a group of enemies. But the flamethrower also works great for that.

I do have a question though: Are there any other armors in the game? I pre-ordered this from Gamestop and got the Terminus Armor, which is sweet, but I played through the whole game and I didn't even see another set of armor the whole time I played. Are the other armors just Downloadable Content? If so I'm very tempted to get Dragon Age again just to use that sweet Blood Dragon armor...

[Straight Edge Ryan]

I tend to agree about the shotgun. I also play Vanguard and I'll only equip it if I'm planning on charging into a group of enemies. But the flamethrower also works great for that.

I do have a question though: Are there any other armors in the game? I pre-ordered this from Gamestop and got the Terminus Armor, which is sweet, but I played through the whole game and I didn't even see another set of armor the whole time I played. Are the other armors just Downloadable Content? If so I'm very tempted to get Dragon Age again just to use that sweet Blood Dragon armor...

They seem to have done away with the buying and selling armor and weapons system in general. Other than that downloading the Terminus or Blood Dragon armor, the closest thing you can get to getting new armor is buying upgrades in the marketplace, and then equipping them in one of those armor stations in the captains quarters of your ship. The Blood Dragon armor is pretty cool though

[BlightedArt]

Sounds like my kind of game. I rented out ME1 earlier this week to power on through it with a character to take into ME2 (played ME1 before, but on my brothers xbox in another city haha).

Can't wait to play ME2. :)

[wiggum]

They seem to have done away with the buying and selling armor and weapons system in general. Other than that downloading the Terminus or Blood Dragon armor, the closest thing you can get to getting new armor is buying upgrades in the marketplace, and then equipping them in one of those armor stations in the captains quarters of your ship. The Blood Dragon armor is pretty cool though

Okay,that makes sense. I'm a little dissapointed though.

[Jason Rainville]

ARRGG I love this game soooo much.

Beat a normal playthrough with my imported paragon vanguard. He stuck it out and was pretty powerful in the end, but the class would be pretty gimped on higher difficulties, since pretty much every enemy starts out with defenses, and your charge has no effect on them...

I tried a second playthrough using my imported bastard of a renegade soldier. Soldiers are on the whole a bit more boring to play, but having the assault rifle and slomo makes it feel like the ultimate shooter class. The problem I had with this playthrough however was also about the renegade options. I CAN'T be bad in this game! Especially to tali and other old members of the squad. She and the others are just so damn endearing I can't bring myself to tell them off.

So I discarded that playthrough for another time, and started as a female infiltrator (non imported) First I got hit with something that sucks; a non-imported game world has some pretty stupid default decisions made about the last game; wrex is dead, the council dies, and udina was the one put in charge. I'm guessing these shitty choices are to actually get you to finish the first game again, promote its replayability.

BUT, I got hit with the awesomeness of the infiltrator, and I really don't care about those choices, or the fact that I'll be going paragon again and getting pretty much the same ending. The infiltrator is a sniping BEAST, and essentially the space ranger of the game. If you put points into your class combat skill, infiltrators get a few seconds of FREE slowdown whenever they look into their sniper scope! Headshots are practically guaranteed.

On top of that, the tactical cloak can get you out of danger nicely, or behind your enemies. If upgraded you also get an "assasination bonus" and deal extra damage. So much fun.

So, if you want to play a combat character, being a Vanguard or Infiltrator is a lot more fun and varied than soldier. especially Since I played an up and close vanguard, the long range infiltrator is a welcome change of pace.

[Liam Harvey]

Played through while geeking out in the first game upon its release with best friend who lived across the road. Friend now lives on the other side of the country and we geeked out over how different our collective gameplays were and about what the third installment could be like.

*jason, you are right, it is too hard to be mean to Tali and Garrus, they are too cool. Tali took a while to grow on me, but Garrus is my favourite.Wrex is cool too but in ME2 he seems not as cool as in the first game.

Joker on the other hand, who was cool already, became pretty legendary in ME2.

Favourite new members of the selectable ME2 crew anyone?

[Jason Rainville]

Favourite new members of the selectable ME2 crew anyone?

Mordin wins that one by a mile :)

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[Liam Harvey]

In Me1 my faourite Squad members were , Garrus and Wrex, then Tali-or all three at the same time, so hard to put them in order.

from the new squad, my favourite team members were legion, Mordin, Grunt, with thane floating somewhere in the mix.

Everyone had their moments to shine, espescially if, like in my playthrough where everyone lives(YAY)

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Hard to pick a favorite. I really like Tali and Thane though. All the characters are pretty well written really

I kinda wish you could explore the Citadel more like in the first one, I really would have liked to go and see some of the old places, I was expecting to get more hero worship "oh you're commander Shepherd! You saved us from Saren! let me touch your penis!" but I digress. Still an awesome game though!

[chickenundead]

Thane is cool!! I like his background story and appearance. Overall I really love gameplay of both game ME 1 & 2, I don't know actually I'm not kind a 3rd person game maniac, I love FPS but this one is different.
btw did anyone know website where I can find the concept art of this game?

[Hookswords]

My roommate has been getting all excited about ME because his band mate is playing it. I never played the first one. Just one game I never got around to. Must you play through the first one for the second one to make sense, or could I just pick up with ME2 and not feel out of the loop, having not played the first one?

[Jason Rainville]

My roommate has been getting all excited about ME because his band mate is playing it. I never played the first one. Just one game I never got around to. Must you play through the first one for the second one to make sense, or could I just pick up with ME2 and not feel out of the loop, having not played the first one?

It's not exactly a standalone story, a lot of things won't make sense if you go at it without playing the first.

Try to find a story recap online I'd say.

[Straight Edge Ryan]

My roommate has been getting all excited about ME because his band mate is playing it. I never played the first one. Just one game I never got around to. Must you play through the first one for the second one to make sense, or could I just pick up with ME2 and not feel out of the loop, having not played the first one?

I'll sum it up for you real quick:

The council is like the UN of the universe, Spectres are like the secret agents who operate outside the bounds of galactic law. ME starts out with Commander Shepherd going on a mission with a spectre, things go bad, spectre is killed by another rogue spectre, you activate a beacon which gives you visions about a threat. You wanna go after the rogue spectre, no one believes its him, you find proof it is, the council removes his spectre status, you learn about a new threat called the reapers which eradicates all life from the universe once every few centuries, no one believes you about the reapers either. You go on your own through a series of missions and uncover the truth about the reapers (they're big sentient ships that indoctrinate beings into helping them). The rogue spectre eventually attacks the council, you and the fleet defeat him and the reaper, big parade, blue lady touches Shepherds wiener.

Mind you I was summarizing quite a bit

[GriNGo]

Yeah, and also, the background story can change quite a bit depending on what you do on the first ME.

SPOLIER ALERT

For example, in my first playthrough i saved the council in the first game, and everyone was grateful and shit, but in the second playthrough, which i started without using a save from the first game, it turns out i didn't save the council, and helped humanity become bad ass and hated... so everything (in a sense, some dialog, news reports, etc, change quite a bit).

[Brendan N]

Loving it so far - and I haven't even started with the bulk of the story: doing the last of my character help missions now.

Has to be one of the better games I've ever played, and certainly the best of the rpgs. I can't stop being impressed by everything in this game - story, characterization and art + audio direction especially. The game's a bit like a black hole, the more it sucks you in, the (even) more it sucks you in. ADoublePlus.

[Hookswords]

Well, I'm a few hours into the first one. It's funny playing it now for the first time. Because I know that choices I make will change not only this game but the next two, but I dont know what and how, so it's funny contemplating doig certain things. Example. I ran into a guy that wants his wife's body back. She was on the colony with the beacon that the Geth attacked. I go and talk to the guy I need to talk to about getting the body back and he makes a good point about studying the body, and others, to try to make a weapon to defeat the Geth. When I ask how long that would take, he says a few years. Well, now this might be a small thing that never comes up again, or I could be changing the future in the next game or the third to come as far as weapons available to handle the impending doom. It could be nothing, it could be something major. Good times.

So far the only thing I really dont care for is the container decrypting. That little mini game system for unlocking boxes and what not is far too touchy.

[Brendan N]

Hookswords - don't worry too much the small side quests - thinking in terms of Paragon/Renegade should be enough to set your character in the right direction over the next two for you. And whatever gripes you may find with the game, please just press on - the second almost everything is fixed, and it is just too damn good not to have played the first!

Have fun!

[spaztastic]

Ohhh Man I want this game sooooo bad!!! I need to play through ME again first, my saved file was on my bros xbox.

[Carnifex]

currently playing the first one,bought it after reading all these positive reviews here...really intrigued. can't bring myself to be evil either...:)

[MidgardSerpent]

Loving it so far - and I haven't even started with the bulk of the story: doing the last of my character help missions now.


*possible spoiler alert*









That's what I thought, but once you've finished all the loyalty missions you've covered the majority of the story. I didn't have a whole lot to do besides going through the omega 4 relay and finishing the game. Scanned pretty much all of the planets and had a massive surplus of resources. Took me a little over 50 hours from start to finish.

[Jason Rainville]

[b]That's what I thought, but once you've finished all the loyalty missions you've covered the majority of the story.

That's where I think they made a bit of a mistake. The flow of the game is pretty bad compared to the first, pretty much every mission feels like it's the same length, and you're not spending much time anywhere. In the first you'd have your major story/mission scenes at noveria, ferros etc interrupted by smaller side missions on planets or installations. In ME2, the main missions are each fairly short (both the character recruitment and main story triggered missions), the loyalty missions are shorter, and the "side quests" (like finding a credit chit or learning about fish) along with the n7 missions would take you 5 minutes at most. There are no big set pieces to center the story around and it ends up feeling pretty poorly paced.

[Brendan N]

Finished it last night. I have to agree about the pacing now - expected a much longer tail to all the fluff in the game.

But! The last mission is just so epic and well done it more than makes up for any lack in grand over-arching story. I was sitting there, shaking, fiddling, sweating, grinding my teeth and, possibly at the same time, with my jaw on the floor.

This is coming from someone lambasted Crysis and found Oblivion weak; someone who tired of Gears of War and had little good to say of Halo; Call of Duty was a collective immemorable, and the GTA series kinda "meh": if you play one game this year, this should probably be it; there's a lot of feathery stuff, but once you've plucked it, the flesh of it all is the single most superb gaming experience in some time;

Is 3 ready yet?

[Hookswords]

Alright I just beat ME1. It was pretty great. I dig the universe they've made. There were couple elements that were annoying but over all a enjoyable experience. Did anyone get the downloadable content for ME1? And if so how does it work? Can you play them after beating it or do they have to be used and done prior to finishing the game?

looking forward to ME2. Gotta wait for my roommate to finish ME1 though....or only play it when he's not around. <_<

I've been looking at ME2 a little online.... Can you change your class with a save game from ME1? i.e if you were a soldier in ME1 can you become a Vanguard for ME2?

[Straight Edge Ryan]

Alright I just beat ME1. It was pretty great. I dig the universe they've made. There were couple elements that were annoying but over all a enjoyable experience. Did anyone get the downloadable content for ME1? And if so how does it work? Can you play them after beating it or do they have to be used and done prior to finishing the game?

looking forward to ME2. Gotta wait for my roommate to finish ME1 though....or only play it when he's not around. <_<

I've been looking at ME2 a little online.... Can you change your class with a save game from ME1? i.e if you were a soldier in ME1 can you become a Vanguard for ME2?

If the DLC you're referring to is the "Bring down the sky" missions and stuff it should just come up next time you play the game, I think it shows up on the various missions in your journal thingy.

And yes in ME2 you can change your class and everything, you even get the opportunity to change your appearance, which makes it odd when your old crew mates somehow still manage to recognize you, but still!

[hippl5]

I would just like to add: Greatest series in the world. I've have never played a better single player game with such a good story. Shit, I'd pay $500 to play ME3 right now. This has been the only game where I actually care about the characters and storyline. Halo? Story? I just shoot aliens.