Mass Effect 2 from a ME1 veteran perspective.

Just started to play ME2 yesterday on my X360 and I really need to say some things about the game.
Yes, it is a great game, no doubt about it. However, there is a bad aftertaste if you pick it up right after having enjoyed mastering the first game.
If you'd like to know why, read on.

First play session - up to recruiting the second char.

Imported save bonus from ME1 level 60 Renegade shepard

+4000xp (start at lvl 5)
+50,000 credits
+10,000 element zero, Iridium, Palladium, Platinum
+93 Paragon (I wasn't only renegade)
+190 Renegade

Import save bonus for Rich ME1 character

+100,000 credits

Playing as default Shepard - Soldier


COMBAT

The most annoying aspect is the complete removal of the life bar combined with the aspect change of the shield one.
This led me to be totally unaware of the damage taken until it was too late to do anything. I really felt disconnected from my character's health status, which is really a bad feeling when playing a FPS.
Not to mention frustrating. Yes, that's it. Frustration is a notion that came often when first playing.

If you don't know already (as I didn't when launching the game), ME2 has adopted the Gear of War way of managing damage. It shows a red tinted motif on screen when you take heavy damage, which gradually goes away when you rest behind cover.
One problem for me was that its appearance is close to the one when you use the 'slow time' skill. When you begin the game , you don't notice the transition between 'slow time' on-screen effect and the 'you're taking damage' one. So the few seconds of 'slow time' end without you noticing, and suddenly you're dead without having realized what was going on (taking damage instead of being in slow time).
Frustrating.

It isn't that this system of health monitoring is totally new to me.
I've finished Gears Of War more than 15 times in insanity (I have a co-op buddy).
But in Gears, you constantly move from cover to cover. The playability, speed of movement, weapon lethality, etc ... are different.
And you don't have shields !!!
In Mass Effect, you have shields and you are way less dependent on cover contrary to Gears. It allows you to move and act less 'contrived' ... provided you have an accurate reading of your shield and health which wasn't the case at all for me.

There are times in ME2 when you will take damage for any number of reasons. What can you do if you are in a straight section without cover ?
Let me explain : in mass effect 1 when you are taking heavy damage, you can recharge your shields with a skill.
You can then use adrenaline skill to reset your skill timer and have all your skills ready to use again immediately.
No cover, under fire and already wounded in ME2 ? you're basically fucked.
Frustrating.


WEAPONS

So, we go from this is the future - no ammo needed, just watch out for temporary overheating to :
back to the past - you need ammo, we just like to call it cooling clips or whatever.
The end result : when you start to have fun with a weapon you will run out of ammo. You won't be able to use it.
This is a seismic rift in the ME1 gameplay.
That is a Halo 3 level of suckiness.
I have done a whole playthrough of ME1 insanity mode using only the sniper rifle, and here I have only 10 rounds on it before I have to go scavenging ammo boxes from enemies. Which I cannot do if I haven't killed all of them within 10 shots.
Frustrating. Seriously.


TEAMMATES


Sometimes they will push ahead of me, sometimes they will just stay behind for no apparent reasons, which gives the same disconnect feeling I get from my own character health and status.
Most of the time, I have no idea what the hell they are doing or where they are. Radical departure from ME1 behaviour.



MAP

Ok, so here I am in Omega, a city area. Let me pull out the map. Let's see, I need to go there. Mmh ? I can't move the map at all.
Well, I just need to put a marker where I want to go, and the direction will be indicated on screen.
Nope. Not in ME2. No city map marker. too convenient. Just find your own way by trial and error, dumbass.
Frustrating.
(on the contrary, in-combat guidance to objective with a push of the stick is excellent)



SCANNING PLANETS


So that's what is supposed to replace setting foot on alien worlds ?
Looking up to an alien sky, with those different from earth atmosphere colors, giant planets in the sky or twin suns, getting that otherwordly feeling.
The little tingling in the back "Isn't this area a good spot for a thresher maw to attack" or "isn't this probe a Geth ambush".
All of this and more replaced by moving a round cursor around a planet's schematic ?
Seriously ... what a shame.




EXPERIENCE


You get no XP from hacking or unlocking crates/safes/doors etc. You don't get gear either. You only get a token amount of money.
Why should we care at all doing them ? seriously.
To illustrate better the difference between the two games :

ME1 is a like an independent consultant job.
The more you work, the more you get.
The more you unlock probes/safes/etc, the more XP you get, the more gear you get, the more powerful you get.
Strong incentive to do everything is the game.

ME2 is like a public servant job.
Whether you explore find and unlock everything in the level, you'll get the statutory, union approved, contract detailed, standard 1000 xp at the end of the level.
Why the heck would I bother unlock a safe again ?
Weak incentive to do anything but press forward.

ME2 feels like a shooter on rails by comparison to ME1




All these things have convinced me of one thing.
BioWare has no spine.

I can understand the objective of making a game enjoyed by the most people, but to lobotimize it to that extent ? No.


Of course I still strongly recommend ME2 to everyone.
It is marvelous on so many points.
Lots of things have been made better from the previous opus.

But for people who have just played the first game, the transition may require more adaptation time and efforts than when going from Gears of War 1 to 2, which was an absolutely seamless experience.

 

I respect your opinions, but I am going to offer a few counter-points, I am not trying to start an argument, just offering a differing view:
COMBAT: I never once missed the absence of the health bar. In reality you have many more cues that you are being hit than the 'red state' of near death. YOu will see your toon take flinch and be knocked back when hit. Also, your will hear cues about your shield level and such. For me, this made the immersion into the character much more complete, you need to be aware of all the cues that are offered.

WEAPONS: Yah, I am not a big fan of the 'pick up crap on the way' type set up. But in the end, switch weapons when your ammo is low. ANd I never went more than a few moments without being able to reload a weapon via the 'found' clips. I think I like the overheating mechanic better, it made you pay attention, slow your rate of fire occasionally and such.

TEAMMATES: Oh man, I think you have stumbled on to something here that you are not getting. The teammates do not all act the same. THere are a couple that will constantly outrun you in battle and if you let them do it too often they will die (alot). There are also a couple that tend to stay a bit too far back when the shit hit the fan. You need to figure out the individual personalities and actively control your team via the Q and E command buttons. I will admit though, there were a few spots where the team bugged out and did not follow correctly (like going down a series of ramps, they stayed at the top as I went down, I think this was a Y-axis bug, had to fix it by issuing Q and E commands at the bottom). The way the team characters act is much more individual and unique in this game.

MAP: There are like 3 zones where there is an actual overhead map. They aren't huge so I don't think anyone could become disoriented and lose themselves in there. Also, even in those zones, if you are doing a mission the Objective marker will show if you press M.

SCANNING PLANETS: One of the criticisms of ME1 was the amount of empty planets. WHy should I go to Planet X jsut to find out is has a name and ammonia in the atmosphere?? They tried to make something interactive for every planet in the game and this is what they came up with. Personally, my criticism isn't with the scanning, it is with the amount of planets that are just fluff. I think you could cut down the size by a third and still have a complete game. All I can think is that they have some plan for utilizing the size of the universe in the game (let's at least hope they have some DLC to utilize some of the wasted space).

EXPERIENCE: If there had been a problem with gaining experience I would probably agree whole-heartedly on your points here. But there is no problem gaining experience, the new mechanic does not hold you back in any way. It is merely 'different', not better or worse. I finished my first playthrough at lvl 28 and it appears as though lvl 30 is the max. I think ME1 took 2 playthroughs to max out level, and I think the same is true here.

I don't think the game is lobotomized at all. It has some differing mechanics from ME1 for sure, but all in all, most of them are there to keep the player immersed in the game which is where this title shines. I would have been disappointed had this been just a retooling of ME1 with some new colored armors. I think most of the changes were for the good.

 

I'm not really sure why you're complaining about the lifebars, but it is likely because you hadn't played for very long before coming to the conclusions on that point. In truth, they made the lifebars larger and more noticeable. You have 1 layer of shielding (whether it be Armor/Barrier/Shield, the generic term is always "shields") and 1 layer of health under it. I had heard that for the soldier, the regen time for the shielding was like fighting in the trenches which can be frustrating.

In truth, the damage is pretty even during a given playthrough of a difficulty. From this, you can gauge "well on blah, i can stand up and fire a salvo with my ai buddies.. and sit back down while it regens". The real difference with the lifebars is that the health ALSO regens rather than requiring medi-gel (Unity).

Also, there are so many places to take cover in that it's insane. There are some levels where it is sub-optimal, but you can hardly blame them for not making it easy mode. Additionally, there are only a few hallways in which you are assaulted with enemies and the cover is either at the end of the hallway (storm to it) or at the beginning (retreat back to it).


As for the weapon system, they had to change it.. plain and simple. They may not have chosen the best system in the world, but for the sake of gameplay it had to be changed. Example: in ME1 (as a vanguard) I could get out of the mako and fight a Geth Colossus with my shotgun or pistol from the distance of nearly half a valley. It would take forever to kill it, but I could easily do it and did so due to the experience bonus for not being in the mako. This turned the game into less about strategy and more into super-pimping a single weapon to faceroll the game with. While I miss my shotgun of death in ME2, I enjoy actually switching between weapons and having specific uses for them (my hand cannon strips off shields, shotgun for large enemies and bosses, smg short bursts for everything else).

Personally, I imported from ME1 and started on Hardcore.. so I can feel your frustrations because the difficulty can get quite vicious while you're trying to max out a couple of skills... but after that the game is much more enjoyable. Now, i'm off to continue dying in Insanity ;p

 

Just want to say also when you get hit, aside from the " I'm about to die " red screen of death, is when you get hit your controller vibrates (if you are on 360), or as Seven said - your Shepard will yell "SHIELDS DOWN!" or "I LOST SHIELDS", and if you don't have shields he will say "TAKING HEAVY FIRE!". I don't have a problem with the health bar. Sometimes it is a bit too late when I am getting pelted, but it needs to be challenging.

Also, control your teammates manually, I ALWAYS put them behind cover because they are mostly dumbasses. On Insanity it is a MUST, and they normally die in long fights, but I need them very badly in situations.

Why would I unlock crates? Well because I need credits. Credits aren't in as much of an abundance as in ME1 (the 9999999 I had after the first run), at the end of my first play-through in ME2 I wasn't able to upgrade 2-3 things because I didn't have enough credits, and YES I did ALL the missions, explored 100% of all systems to do the sidequests, and did decently on hacking everything I could fine and I was still short a few credits to get all 100% upgrades... I WAS CLOSE, but not 100%.

It bugged me at first that I didn't get XP for everything but in the long term, that's not how the character leveling process is tailored in this game; just because its different - doesn't make it bad.

The Map didn't bug me, for the times you needed it - if you couldn't figure out where you were in the small cities / worlds then you got a problem. The zones that had maps weren't big enough to have to worry about marking on it - like the Citadel or Large Exploration worlds in ME1. Plus, if you really just needed to know what direction to walk, you could click down on your right direction pad (whatever its called) to bring up the objective marker. Also, if you don't really know where you are, walk around - part of RPGs is the exploration part, its not going to kill you to walk around a town without a map. You might find some interesting things just taking a hike.

The weapon thermal clips I agree on it being kinda backwards, but I WILL say that I utilize my ammo more efficiently. Especially with my heavy pistol. I make better shots in long fights cause I can't just sit there and wait for overheat to go away, in ME1 on insanity I would throw up Barrier and just run around with an assault rifle with heat dampening clips on and it was so easy mode. Thermal clips and the new cover system actually takes a bit of strategy.

Scanning planets was cool the first 3 times, its a pain in the ass and I really dislike it.

Aside from you saying that Bioware has no spine? I think that's a little harsh, they took what the majority of players said about ME1 (likes and dislikes) and adapted ME2 to it, in other words, they catered to their fans/playerbase. Now, don't get me wrong - I miss a lot of the traditional RPG aspects that ME1 had, but ME2 is a great game, and the story is the most important thing about this series, and I'm not going to let a little watering down of some aspects from the first one with additions to some new mechanics make me not enjoy the game, its fantastic - the ending was marvelous and quite shocking (as well as most of the other parts too)

That's all for now. Happy hunting!

 

First, I would like to thank you all for your posts, and for seeing that I wasn't bashing the game.

This is a key point you are referring to, and I'd like to expand on it.

My philosophy of gameplay design is to provide a variety of different ways to play and not force a particular one on the player.
Let him choose what he likes best, let the possiblities open.
This has two advantages :

1/ This allows people to use what is the most fun for them.

_ex:
In ME1 I did all the game with sniper rifle. It takes more time than say, assault rifle, but using this weapon is what is the most fun for me. The games allows me to do that.
In ME2, I have 10 shots. period. And each ammo clip only recharges one shot. I'm screwed by the game design.

2/ This allows people to self-regulate the difficulty.

If you have found a fun setup/combo, but it makes the game too easy, what prevents you from using a less easy setup ?
With a game open in its ways, you have the possibility to self-adjust your setup/combo efficiency to find balance between difficulty and fun. Not too easy, not to hard, yet challenging.
ex_
in ME1, I kept using the sniper rifle even in close combat quarters. By discovering the use of heavy explosive ammo rounds, I was able to blast off incoming enemies by shooting without aim at their feet and toss them flying back. Incredibly fun and challenging. No biotic needed


To sum up, open gameplay allows you to find and use what is the most fun for you among a variety of different ways.
It allows game balance to be made by the player.

I found a lot of it in ME1, and regrets its lack of in ME2.

Agreed. Story and characters are the only reason I keep playing.

Mordin is so funny, I crack up every time I can talk to him.
(The scale-itch disease/varren talk had me ROTFL)

 

I know it's a small point, but there is an upgraded sniper rifle in the game that has 60 shots. None of the guns you start with are particularly spectacular, but they do get upgraded through the course of the game.

 

I also find the UI to be a tad dumber now, my teammates seem to die so much they will run out into the open when they have low health and its kinda frustrating.

 

I did my first run on Normal, took my soldier from ME1, default Male Shep.
You tend to 'slo-mo' and shoot your way thru. But that changed on my second run.

On Insane you really learn to use your squad mates. Place them estrategically on the battlefield and use their powers wisely. Every enemy has at least an armor or a shield in Insane, so it's a must to take squadmates that can provide you easy methods to take these down.
Sending them to cover with < and > on the dpad is very convenient. With v you make them regroup with you, and ^ to attack a target.

You have cover everywhere. And I mean EVERYWHERE. It's not as obvious as Gears of wars, but when you get into a room and see a bunch of boxes randomly placed on the floor, you know it's going to get nasty. I found myself retreating many times, as enemies do push you instead of just staying in cover and shoot at you.
The life/shield/barrier is ok. Health Regen is present in every FPS nowadays.

The weapons departament is lacking in quantity, but not quality. You get a couple of semi-automatic sniper rifles in disc 2. They are also the best way to take out heavy mechs imo.

Cities are not that complicated. They are really, really small, and once you've been there a couple of times, you wont need to look at the map anymore. I liked the older citadel tho.

Scanning planets for minerals is tedious on the Xbox yes, but not on the PC.
Also the side missions you find on some of them are much more enjoyable than ME1's. Each nebula has 1 or 2 planets with anomalities, and some of them are questlines that foward you to newer locations or solar sistems. (Still can't find the planet that Aria gave me lol)


And yeah, have you tried any other class? Soldier is pretty standard, but the other clases play much more diferent, and you actually have to adapt your strategies and teammates on higher dificulty levels if you want to live.

 

I'm taking a break from playing ME2. I haven't finished it once yet, which prevents me from joining other ME2 discussion threads as I don't want to run into spoilers.

There was one thing that annoyed me scenario-wise in ME1. Something that didn't make sense.
Something that I had to make effort not to think about, something where I had to 'switch-off' my brain about, in order to continue enjoying the game.

When a big menace (convict escapes, bank robbery, etc ..) is on the loose in our everyday lives, what does the police do ?
They position themselves at crossroads. Roadblocks there.

Now, let's go back to the ME universe.
Mass relays are the one and only route out of a star cluster.
There is absolutely no other way.
The perfect crossroad/roadblock configuration.
Saren, Sovereign and the Geth can travel freely through the galaxy and no one thinks about positioning ships at each relay to blockade them, or at least check what ships goes through ?

Relays are not monitored by default for traffic going through ? What the hell ?

This is what I had to stop thinking about while playing ME1. I was able to do it and enjoy the game.

Now, I have this problem with ME2, a hundredfold.
So many stupid things littering the otherwise enjoyable parts of it are spoiling it.
I'll cite two.

First, Shepard is the goddam hero of the galaxy. he saved every organic being.
The fact he can go in the citadel and not induce a public gathering and exclamations by his mere presence is unthinkable.
It would have been easy to correct this scenario fault. If the player chooses the same face as his ME1 save, Shepard uses an holographic device that temporarily gives him the apparence of someone else. (Or any other device/mask/whetever to the same effect) and shows his true face on purpose when needed or aboard normandy/on missions.

Second, The one thing that just boggled my mind.
Legion. Once you have recruited him, you can take him with you when going to the citadel.
Now, I want you to picture this in your mind.
A

Spoiler

Geth

walking around in the Citadel.
A fricking bloody

Spoiler

Geth

walking around in the Citadel !! And no one notices/bothers. Even go through like security like a walk in the park.
The

Spoiler

Geth

are feared and loathed throughout the galaxy.
They even were slaughtering people

Spoiler

on the citadel just two years past, impaling people on giant spikes right on the presidium !!

And one of those is just walking in the citadel !!!!

Sorry BioWare, but that is just too much for me. Seriously.

 

Oh, but the best about Legion is taking him to the flotilla... oh boy.

If you really think about that stuff, taking Mordin or Garrus to Tuchanka should make some Krogans get mad. In fact, you can head a conversation between 2 krogans about different ways of killing turians.

I'm not so sure about Mass Relays. They never said anything about their crew, if it heven has a crew (maybe only Keepers), or if they can monitor ships passing by. or at least get a record of ships that passed thru it. Sovereign was a reaper, so he could do as he pleased with the relays, and remember thet the alliance fleet only damaged him when Shepard took Sovereign's shields off by killing Zombie Saren or something.

But anyway, it's a great game experience.

 

Really, you can do that ? OMG, ROTFL ...

You're right.

What I missed from Tuchanka though was that you can't keep Urz with you.
It would have been AWESOME as the captain's pet/normandy mascot !!
No, we get a lame hamster instead ...

I was thinking of positioning a probe near each relay together with an FTL comm buoy.
The probe records and transmits in real time which vessel get out/in of the relay it is positioned to observe.

 

tbh, I was more confused at people that DID recognize me because I was wearing a helmet the whole time... and in wildly different armor (blood dragon armor) without bioscanning or something. I also chalked up the lack of publicity to the fact that I slaughter everyone, people were cowering! ;p

to be fair, he isn't just walking in the citadel... he's part of a group you're bringing into the station. As you stated before, you aren't really using any means to mask yourself with the exception of differing armor (as I stated!). Add to the fact that everyone goes crying to C-Sec for anything (if you've seen those sidequests), people would probably think "oh Shepard captured

Spoiler

a geth

and is bringing it in for the good of the galaxy, blahblahblah." or "C-Sec cleared these guys, they must be working for the council to bring that thing in".

Although it would have been nice to get some unique ambient yells or something when you bring things that you just KNOW would piss off an area, it's not THAT immersion breaking when you realize how connected you (Shepard) really are.

I'm not sure how it plays out when you land on Tuchanka if you let Wrex die in ME1, since I kept him around, but in my playthrough Wrex allowed me to come in and do whatever, even going so far as to interrupt his own conversation (not that he was particularly interested in it) with a fellow ranking krogan. Plus most of the Krogans wouldn't talk to me anyway, so it's not too far off ;p

Three things here:

1) the space hamster is awesome.

2) The only relay they would really have to monitor is the Omega 4 Relay, but with the unknown numbers of the Reapers and how much effort it took to down Sovereign (which was truly only because you killed Saren, disabling Sovereign the ship). It might help notify the relatively helpless systems that they are utterly screwed, but I doubt much beyond that. Maybe if the buoy paged you when it went down they might stand a chance ;p

3)

Spoiler

Your ship has an outbreak of Scale Itch on it, I wouldn't want any other living creatures on board with THAT in mind.

 

Just beat second play-through on my Sentinel and got my Insanity achievement.
Finally 51/51 achievements and I can take a break from it now until it gets closer to ME3, or I get bored ;]

Vanguard, then Sentinel. Going to try Infiltrator next!

 

It's not just any space hamster. It's a miniature giant space hamster.

Minsc would be proud.

 

I always did imagine it going for my eyes, but being thwarted by the glass walls.

 

Actually Tali will tell her combat drone to go for the eyes. She says "Go for the optics, Chikktika! Go for the optics!"
(Reference not only to Boo, but also Chikktika Fastpaws)

 

I love Minsc.

 

The only thing about ME2 that really bugged me was the lack of banter between the characters. In ME1 your party members were always striking up conversations with one another... in ME2? Not so much.

 

Wrex is tEh RoXxoRs !!




Oh, and the music during battles sucks much of the time. Generic crap.
A big change from the atmosphere soundtrack or epic battle themes of the first game.

ME2 is the first fps where I felt something was wrong, stopped shooting, and then realized the problem : how crappy the music was.

 

I loved the music, tbh. :O