Mass Effect 2 - Review Flood #2

It's almost like the entire internet has stopped for Mass Effect 2, so much as I'd like more diversity in the news, more ME2 will have to do. Another line listing, but this time I'm only going to highlight the more interesting articles.
Figit - not really a review but Tom Chick's list of Ten Things Gone Horribly Wrong in ME2 doesn't paint a positive picture.

9) It's mostly a shooter
The core gameplay in Mass Effect 2 is a cover-based shooter, built around a narrow set of resistance/attack types. There are also exploding barrels. Oh, and ammo is called "thermal clips" for some reason. Bioware occasionally tries to vary the action by adding gimmicks, generally involving a timer bar or limitations on where you can stand. It's decent enough, I suppose. There's nothing inherently wrong with a cover-based shooter. But when you make the core gameplay so simple, it has a ripple effect through the rest of the game world. Everything in Mass Effect 2 has to be related to an anemic shooter.

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• Edge Online - 9/10
• Ars Technica - "Buy"
• AtomicGamer - 96%
• Bit-tech - 10/10
• GameDaily - 10/10
• GameSpy - 5/5
• IncGamers - 9.6/10
• Joystiq - no score, but a closing line of "nothing short of one of the single best games I've ever played"
• ActionTrip - 9.3/10
• MTV - no score but "we're still in January and Mass Effect 2 is easy game of the year material".

More information.

I'm having fun with it so far. But the RPG elements were so dumbed down... It's redicolous when every level costs 1000 experience points and you keep getting 1000 experience points at the finish of each mission. The only other way to get experience is small side tasks which give you measly 40 (wtf???) experience points each.

Each character only gets 4-5 powers to choose from and only 4 ranks in each power.

Inventory is removed. Only Shepard gets different armor suits. Instead we get upgrades with arbitarary (+10% to damage of weapon X, but nothing tells you what the damage of weapon X is to start with). You either find these upgrades in main missions (preset locations) and research them with minerals you get from what looks like a tedious planet scanning mini game or buy them from stores (average store has about 2-3 of those for sale).

This game is simply not an RPG in any way or form.

Thanks for the info Segius. I will be curious what others say. I am not a big shooter fan but since I like a lot of Bioware games ...

I picked up ME1 for $4.99 and it isn't to bad as a diversion or something different to play for a change. However not sure I want to spend full price for ME2 if ... well it is just a shooter with a few RPG accessories.

You made it sound very linear and pre-determined. Is much of the game like that?

Some of Tom's comments lead me to believe he never played ME1.

I've played about 7 hours so far and ME2 is a shooter-RPG hybrid along the lines of Borderlands so far in my view although a bit more towards RPG than Borderlands. It is an RPG and it is a shooter (and a floor wax and dessert topping). It's very similar in that way to Mass Effect 1 so if you played that then you know about where it stands on the "shooter-vs-RPG" scale. I'm enjoying it a whole lot and enjoyed ME1 a whole lot.

ToddMcF2002 said:

Some of Tom's comments lead me to believe he never played ME1.

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Yeah, I'm not sure if he did or not. He says he is "not a fan of the first game," which implies that he played it, but then he complains that the second game assumes a familiarity with the first, which one would assume he had, if he had played the first. I get the feeling he either played only a portion of it or else didn't pay much attention while playing.

How could he have played ME1 and then complain about the unchanged ammo concept? Sort of a dead give away. Also most of the weapon power ups in ME1 were application specific (vs. synthetics, vs. biological, vs. armor etc). He is complaining about things that are not specific to ME2 out of spite or he simply never played ME1.

The ammo concept *has* changed though. In ME1 your guns had infinite ammo, but would overheat if you fired them too much. In ME2, you collect heat sinks which are functionally the same as ammo in every other shooter out there.

NFLed said:

I've played about 7 hours so far and ME2 is a shooter-RPG hybrid along the lines of Borderlands so far in my view although a bit more towards RPG than Borderlands. It is an RPG and it is a shooter (and a floor wax and dessert topping). It's very similar in that way to Mass Effect 1 so if you played that then you know about where it stands on the "shooter-vs-RPG" scale. I'm enjoying it a whole lot and enjoyed ME1 a whole lot.

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Please don't compare ME2 to Borderlands, you're starting to scare me.

Borderlands got my vote for most disappointing game of 2009.

JDR13 said:

Please don't compare ME2 to Borderlands, you're starting to scare me.

Borderlands got my vote for most disappointing game of 2009.

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It's nothing like borderlands(which was more like diablo but with a wasteland like background) It is low on the inventory stuff so far, but honestly I'm not missing it. You sure feel part of the universe and the ship is much better in this then the first. You do feel like you are playing the role of the main character. Its a different aproach for an rpg, but you do have choices and it is alot of fun so far.

Badesumofu said:

The ammo concept *has* changed though. In ME1 your guns had infinite ammo, but would overheat if you fired them too much. In ME2, you collect heat sinks which are functionally the same as ammo in every other shooter out there.

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OK, I just bought it and installed it and haven't played it yet for myself.

JDR13 said:

Please don't compare ME2 to Borderlands, you're starting to scare me.

Borderlands got my vote for most disappointing game of 2009.

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I haven't played ME2 yet, but I guarantee it's nothing like Borderlands (except that it's a shooter + RPG mix). Borderlands had no character development, no storyline, no meaningful choices, no voice acting, and nothing besides loot, loot, and more loot. Borderlands was designed to be an online 4-player co-op shooter, whereas ME is a completely singleplayer experience. I think it's fair to say ME2 is almost nothing like Borderlands, outside the fact that both games attempt to combine shooters and RPGs.

I also can see the point of comparison between Borderlands and Mass Effect 2, as both are Shooter-RPG hybrids which place shooting at priority 1 and RPG elements far below.

Other than that ... not even close - the story focus and, well, pretty much everything else is far superior (so far) in Mass Effect 2.

I don't think I'll miss the inventory stuff. One thing I liked about ME was not having to click to loot. Given that the inventory list was such a pain, this seems like the next logical step. I didn't miss loot in JE.

The thing I look for in an RPG is the ability to play the character the way I want, within the bounds of what makes sense in the context of the world and story. I've often thought that if someone made a shooter that had C&C, it'd be a game I'd really enjoy.

In ME1 the stats and character development were prioritised above the shooting, and as a result the shooting sequences were not that much fun. It seems they realised that they needed to make the game a decent shooter, and in order to do that, they had to streamline some of the RPG elements. It sounds as though they upped the role playing elements in order to comensate and keep the balance between RPG and shooter. If they succeeded, then I can see myself really enjoying this game. I'll find out tomorrow when it unlocks on Steam. 99% preloaded!

JDR13 said:

Please don't compare ME2 to Borderlands, you're starting to scare me.

Borderlands got my vote for most disappointing game of 2009.

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My apologies. Borderlands is nothing like Mass Effect 2 in many ways except that there is a strong shooter element in the RPG or vice-versa depending upon how you look at it. ME2 is very much like ME1 except better (so far).

The game is realy realy good, but again Bioware seems to mess things in the strangest ways...


1- Ammo - honestly, why the thermal clips? sure they are easy to find in most places but why restrict a shotgun to 15 shots (in the beggining) or a sniper rifle to 6 (or something) where you can easily find thermal clips after the combat? its just un unnecessary delay in the search for the next action spot.

2- An RPG has an inventory and loot, period. ME2 has none of it. Its a VERY dumbed down version of an "action-RPG" wich I dislike because it strips a lot on the RPG part.
The inventory on ME1 was terribly massive, in ME2 is non-existent lol.

3- The UI in the space exploration is... terrible. The camera is fixed on the ship and you can't look farther. The Fuel doest have a place. The mining "exploration" is realy tedious.

4- Too few abilities. In ME1 i remember i had to keep track of buttons for offense abilities and defense abilities (shield recharge, etc). In ME2 you have 3-4 buttons to press that most share cooldown and evolve each ability up to 5 levels. Nothing like ME1 in therms of leveling up decisions - Too dumbed down.


However, the game has a lot of good stuff.

1- The dialog quality is brilliant, the story is awesome.
2- There is MUCH more diversity in missions than in ME1
3- The game feels much much bigger than ME1
4- The details in the environments are awesome
5- The action part is surprisingly good. PLaying as a charging vanguard is adrenaline rush
6- The party AI is much better than in ME1. They rarely die and they actualy shoot straight making us realy feel they are working harder


All in all, a very enjoyable game, but a let-down in some chapters. I can't give more than 92% on this game, i had the hope in me to be able to score it around 96-98%, but alas, not possible.

Good to see the party AI is better. How is the enemy AI? Replaying ME1 now on the PC and doing alot of sidemissions and i am floored about the stupidity of the AI.

How is the sidequests in general? Compared to ME? Worth doing?

I am on the fence if i should buy it or not.. Will see when i leave work if i have time or not to pick it up.

The consensus seems to be that this is a shooting game with a story. I usually like those...

So far I also agree that most stuff is improved, but also see enough stuff that shows flaws even early on ... clearly a very good game, but also clear that the 10/10's are the equivalent of fanboi gushing ...

txa1265 said:

… clearly a very good game, but also clear that the 10/10's are the equivalent of fanboi gushing …

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Sounds very similar to another recent Bioware game.

JDR13 said:

Sounds very similar to another recent Bioware game.

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Absolutely agree ... these are both very, very good games but certainly not flawless ...