There, I did it. In a moment of weakness I got ME2 and played it with an imported character (adept), paragon route. In short: great game,
9/10. Now I can at last make informed comments that aren't only based on speculation and hearsay.
The Good
Nothing much to add here that hasn't already been said by others. Better than ME1 in all aspects. Yes, even things being cut wasn't bad for the game, although with some things I'd rather they had actually
improved them. Great visuals. I still love the title theme, though the rest of the music didn't stand out too much. Pacing was nice.
The Bad
This is where I'd like to comment on the RPG issue. I'm sticking to my previous opinion. To me, ME2 is not an RPG (in the classical sense), although I can definitely see why others might be inclined to feel otherwise. Interestingly, it felt in parts more RPGish than its predecessor. I greatly enjoyed the three main hubs (Citadel, Omega, Illium) and the freedom of choice in regard to traveling between the stars. The skill system, while reduced in scope, was also more focused than the wishy-washy approach in ME1.
The missions themselves were completely linear cover-shooter material — while fun they didn't really provide any choice whatsoever (I'm thinking mostly of different paths here). Mini games were completely superfluous in an RPG sense and didn't add anything but a little (sometimes tedious) diversion, because they weren't based on any sort of character skill or class — everyone could do them and upgrades came more or less automatically.
ME2 is an Action-Adventure-Interactive-Movie-RPG-Shooter sort of game. It's interesting to compare ME2 to the Action RPG Diablo. Where Diablo focuses almost exlusively on loot (and character building and skills) and offers nearly no NPC interaction or Dialogue, ME2 is completely different — it focuses almost completely on NPC interaction and dialogue (and some limited character building and skills) and offers nearly no loot or item upgrades.
To put this in a quick comparison list:
1. Diablo = Action RPG. Focus on loot and character building. Rest is action.
2. ME2 = Shooter/IM RPG. Focus on NPC interaction and dialogue. Rest is action.
3. Bloodlines = FPS/RPG hybrid. Good all around package, I'd even go as far as calling it a modern RPG.
So why is all of this bad? It isn't really, but I think it is important to give context to games that deviate from the "RPG norm" (no, I don't know a definition for that). ME2 offers a subset of RPG elements that are very well developed, but neglects others. If there
is something bad about it, it's that I would have prefered ME2 to be more like Bloodlines/Deus Ex/System Shock, with different paths to solve missions and the character skills to go along with it, i.e. not all combat-related.
For the game it is, however, ME2 is pretty darn good.
The Ugly
Anderson can look away here.
— ME2 suffered a lot from consolitis. QA for the PC version of ME2 was apparently non-existant. The reason it worked out well anyway was probably because the underlying game was already pretty good and polished. But still …
- No mouse wheel support in menus. Seriously, what the …?
- No keyboard shortcuts to access menu items like journal, skills etc. — they were only accessible via the main menu (ESC).
- No keyboard shortcuts to change weapons. Had to press shift and then point and click. Cumbersome.
- Remapped keyboard shortcuts weren't reflected in in-game tooltips. I was told to press certain keys for a some actions that had completely different functions in my setup.
- Limit of 50 savegame slots. Seriously, what the …?
- Only automatic savegame naming, no way to give them your own title. So you could end up with dozens of savegames that were all called "On the Normandy".
- Too narrow FOV. Might look good on a TV that's far away, but on a big monitor directly in front of you it felt very claustrophobic. Was ok for cutscenes, but for the shooting/exploring parts they should increase it or make it customizable.
- Planet scanning with a mouse didn't work out too well. Way too much movement required.
I had expected at least some of these points to be addressed in the first patch, but there was nothing …
