Mass Effect 2 - The Many Failures @ InfoAddict

In a sort of anti-review, the InfoAddict highlights a number of design failures in Mass Effect 2 they feel have been overlooked by the gushing mainstream press. They make some good points, although you could obviously write a mirroring article on what BioWare did right. A sample:

Awful Combat Stages
Bioware has a long and strong heritage in producing top-notch RPG games. What they don’t have is much experience making action games, first-person-shooters specifically, and this lack of experience is in full display.
The principal problem is the design of the many combat stages the player will have to deal with. Any time you leave a hallway and enter a large room packed with crates and low walls you know one thing for sure: combat is coming. It’s the same boring environment over and over; crates and low-walls, enemies beginning their rush in the distance and winding their way through a minor maze. No subtlety, no surprises. A shocking lack of design that weakens the entire game.
Just as you know combat is imminent based on nothing more than the layout of a room, you also know there will be zero combat if a room lacks low walls and crates, so the player can relax without fear, which completely ruins any sense of tension or foreboding.
Mass Effect 3 Improvement: Make your zones of combat seamless with the overall design of the map. A player should not be able to visually determine when combat is going to happen, where it’s going to happen, and how it will play out. Avoid crates and low-walls as the only two objects within a combat zone and show me some original ideas.

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More information.

I rather like many of the things he is complaining about. Oh well.

Trelow said:

I rather like many of the things he is complaining about. Oh well.

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Yeah, he's obviously trying to be difficult for hits. It's okay for the game not to be your thing, but some of this is really a reach.

"Abandon the framing of objects and force the player to actually explore and investigate. Add tons of interactive objects so the player has options as to how they want to play."

Yeah, awesome. There's nothing more fun than entering a room and sliding along the walls mashing the activate button until something pops up. What's more, mix in some activations that do nothing but waste your time! Great idea!

If it's really well-hidden, you'll need a guide next to you to find it. If it's not well hidden, might as well draw your attention to it so you don't need to play the 'search the room' minigame every 30 seconds.

Nothing new, Mass Effect 2 is a mediocre shooter with RPG elements and some interesting set pieces, who think combat in ME2 is good obviously never play better shooters in their lives.

No worries. I am sure he will be soundly smitten for the heretical insinuation that ME2 could possibly be anything other than perfect. That being said, most of the criticisms do come off as petty. Particularly when there are actually more valid criticisms that some people might actually have and even dare express.

My main concern with the game is that I stopped playing 3 days ago and don't want to pick it up again heh

I have to thank the OP. They quoted what was probably the most insightful part of the article for their summary. I should have called it quits at that, but sadly I did actually read the rest of the article. A lot of really goofy ideas about game design besides a few good points here and there, but mostly obvious critiques that have to do a little with trading off between breadth of game-play and focus on details.

I do have to agree with moonmonster. The complaint about object framing is, by itself, only slightly silly. The solution the author posited sounded like turning the Normandy into a Starship Titanic style find-the-pixel game to get to the freaking elevator. Yes, I know that's an exaggeration.

There are plenty of real criticisms you could have for this game. There are some good socal criticisms out there- like the fact that they removed same-sex romance options (or even faux same sex) by comparison to the first one. There's the linearity of the combat areas. I don't think I found a combat area in the game where there was more than once potential route besides maybe "this side of a set of pillars or that side." Well that's not true, Zayeed's side mission actually did give you very different ways to play the level based on your moral choice and not just in terms of how it plays out story-wise, but what route you take. That's about it though.

There are some annoying times in the game where it feels like it's putting you on rails. Without spoiling anything, there are instances where conversation choices will launch you directly into a mission and these aren't consistent. In some cases where it is suggested you need to hurry and are not compelled to do so, there are no consequences for lazing about and meandering to other side missions. Other times you are similarly suggested that you must hurry, but rather than piloting yourself to the destination or at least being able to save before clicking on the galaxy map you are launched into the mission immediately. Usually you also find that your auto-save from before said conversation has been overwritten upon the loading of the new mission. This is a minor annoyance in terms of how often it happens, but when it does happen it's more than a little frustrating for a game that otherwise gives you free reign to wander about the galaxy. It should be noted that there is one case where lazing about between being told to hurry somewhere and actually doing does result in horrible consequences. This makes sense, but may annoy some people given how consequence free the game is otherwise when it comes to meandering and taking your time. To be fair though, the game does almost come out and say "THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES IF YOU DON'T GO NOW."


That being said- this is still my favorite game in a very long time.

Planet Survey: Yep, it's pretty dull. It doesn't take as long as driving for eons in the Mako, though.

British Romans: I have to agree but practically *every* science fiction story has this problem. I can go to south about 3000 miles and find people far more alien than almost any science fiction "alien." A proper alien would be as different from us as we are different from a tree. Given how extremely rare that is over all media, I can't see how you can fault ME2 in particular for it.

Obvious Rooms: Yep, it's fairly annoying. ME1 did a far better job at this. ME2 has a new cover system and it wants to make sure you use it EVERY SINGLE TIME you fight.

Show me don't tell me: I'm sorry the author seems unable to gain understanding from reading. Giving all that background via cutscenes would be insanely expensive.

Interface: He's just flat out wrong here. Does he really want them to display all your stats and bonuses at all times!?!? What the Hades for? It's not like this game is terribly difficult.

Environment Interaction: As other people have pointed out: running around a room trying to click on every single thing does not constitute "exploration." Ideally, you would have an environment where you actually could interact with everything there is in a room but computer technology isn't anywhere near that level yet. So we're stuck with only a few 'important things' in a room. Might as well make them obvious.

Stores: Gee, so sorry they put some atmosphere into the game by letting you decorate a little bit.

Time Wasters: He is certainly right here. The mini-games are not handled well at all. I paid to play ME2, not a cheap version of concentration. Mini-games should be SIDE items that you do every now and again as a diversion. Having them be the only way to get at least half the loot in the game is a terrible thing.

Don’t be so process/system driven. Just because one character has a back-story mission doesn’t mean every character needs one.

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Utterly wrong, IMHO. Better to leave a character out than put one in with no backstory.

No stratigic combat: I'm playing on medium and it's pretty easy but what is it like on hard or ultra-hard? Idunno, so I can't really comment.

All iin all, this sounds like just another one of those rebels without a clue. This guy admits to liking absolutely nothing about the game. He goes on about how "the press" is saying the game is perfect - which is an outright lie. Please.

Well, I agree with him more or less completely.

That said, I know Bioware will never go in the direction he's suggesting with this franchise - because they're not about such things.

It's nothing new and for complexity and depth I'm going to look at different markets. I'll play a Bioware game and enjoy its marvellous production values and fast-food story. I will never fathom why intelligent players and veterans of entertainment are so taken with it (liking it? sure - but some of the responses here from veteran players surprise me), but I see no reason to stand in the way of their enjoyment.

It's a subjective thing afterall - but even so, it seems there are others out there with exactly the same thoughts about Mass Effect 2 and what's "wrong" with the industry as a whole.

Makes me feel slightly less isolated

Zloth said:

Ideally, you would have an environment where you actually could interact with everything there is in a room but computer technology isn't anywhere near that level yet.

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Well, it worked in Ultima many many years ago, didn't it?

Environment interaction beyond clicking hotspots would require creative skill, rather than a specialised workforce looking at a rigid design blueprint.

DArtagnan said:

Environment interaction beyond clicking hotspots would require creative skill, rather than a specialised workforce looking at a rigid design blueprint.

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That's more than a little bit of an oversimplification.

jhwisner said:

That's more than a little bit of an oversimplification.

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Simplification is good for getting the point across, though.

Bioware has creative people, no doubt - but their strength is their writing - not engaging or challenging gameplay. ME2 is a terrific movie, less so a game.

So, they've managed to develop a decent shooter using a shooter engine with zillions of dollars in their pockets. That's fine - but it's not what I used to expect from them, that's for sure.

Zloth said:

Time Wasters: He is certainly right here. The mini-games are not handled well at all. I paid to play ME2, not a cheap version of concentration. Mini-games should be SIDE items that you do every now and again as a diversion.

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Careful what you wish for. Bioware has a tendency to confuse improving with removing.

Some of his arguments make a LOT of sense, while others seem to be a bit forced. But I think that this article was written out of frustration. This guys job is to talk about games in a critical way, yet all of a sudden, he sees 10/10's all over the place for ME2 (it's a good game, but the 10/10's don't make any sense at all). I'd find it frustrating because it would seem as if I was trying to do my job as good as possible while everyone else seems to say "Bioware? Make it a 10/10 guys, so everyone's satisfied.". It's like trying to make a good film, and still seeing Avatar getting nominated for an oscar for best film.

I tend to agree with him, although I'm not sure a dedicated article is required.

The UI is horrible, feel like straight console port, can't double click to select items on a PC game is bullshit.

Felix said:

The UI is horrible, feel like straight console port, can't double click to select items on a PC game is bullshit.

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While I found the UI "functional" - there are certain omissions that are simply unfathomable.

1. No shortcut for Journal/Squad/Codex/Etc. - and the "ESC" key is unresponsive just like ME1.

2. No weapon mapping keys beyond "next/previous/last".

3. No one place to assign points/weapons to all squad members.

Really - those are game design 101 failures.

I find it easy to believe ME2 is being overrated again, just like ME. I haven't played ME2 yet, but the main stream reviewers did the same thing to ME, i.e. giving it almost if not perfect scores. ME wasn't even a good shooter, especially for a PC it could have been called poor. It did have an entertaining story and very high production value.

The worst mistake Bioware is making with the ME franchise is not allowing modding, by not letting the fans fix the broken parts of the game they are insuring DA is much more successful long term.

DArtagnan said:

It's a subjective thing afterall - but even so, it seems there are others out there with exactly the same thoughts about Mass Effect 2 and what's "wrong" with the industry as a whole.

Makes me feel slightly less isolated

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It is a tough line to walk ... it is clear that ME2 is a very good game ... yet it is also clear for most folks that there are plenty of flaws. For the latter group, there is a desire to point out those flaws which is met with a reply of being a 'Bioware hater' and so on ... whereas those who called it their favorite game ever are called apologists.

I really enjoy it, but don't see it in any way deserving the pile-on me-too 11/10 bestest EVAR scores it has gotten.