Mass Effect 2 *Possible Spoilers (starting page 6)*

[Combine 017]

You hate it? Personally I think its pretty cool. Its easy to do and only takes me about 5 mins, but i kind of cheat when doing it. I dont hold down LT the entire time slowly going about, I just tap it for a sec, see if I get a reading then move up along the axis and do it across the entire planet. I also only scan the readings if they are really high, unless they are Eezo, that shit is hard to come by.

Also, that free DLC is up now today.
And, I switched to the second disc last night, now im wondering if ill ever switch back to the first one again or if I just keep playing on the second, cause I dont want to really install both of them to my HD.

[DarkMaster]

The scanning is terrible, I'll admit. I'd much rather explore a near desolate planet than do this. Exploration in general seems to be toned down, and that's the main reason I play RPGs. And there's no real reward for exploring main areas either, pretty much everything you find just gives you a few credits, big deal. I also hate waiting til the end of a mission to get experience...

I know this is a great game for what it is, and a major improvement over the first game in many ways, but I'm really disappointed in the way they dumbed down things. The inventory/loot mechanics of the first game are pretty broken if you look at them now, but rather than improve upon those aspects they just decided to remove them entirely. Rather than make exploration more interesting and rewarding, they removed it.

We have enough third-person shooters out there already, the combat needed major improvements but not at the expense of reduced RPG elements, those are what should've been focused on. Having just played Uncharted 2, the third-person shooting controls aren't even anywhere near as streamlined or intuitive as that, so in turn we have a game that's trying to be as good as other games from a combat perspective, but in many ways is completely missing out on what made it different and much more special than those other games in the first place.

Still awesomely cinematic and highly enjoyable overall, though. Just breaks my role-playing gamers heart.

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by DarkMaster

The scanning is terrible, I'll admit. I'd much rather explore a near desolate planet than do this. Exploration in general seems to be toned down, and that's the main reason I play RPGs. And there's no real reward for exploring main areas either, pretty much everything you find just gives you a few credits, big deal. I also hate waiting til the end of a mission to get experience...

I know this is a great game for what it is, and a major improvement over the first game in many ways, but I'm really disappointed in the way they dumbed down things. The inventory/loot mechanics of the first game are pretty broken if you look at them now, but rather than improve upon those aspects they just decided to remove them entirely. Rather than make exploration more interesting and rewarding, they removed it.

We have enough third-person shooters out there already, the combat needed major improvements but not at the expense of reduced RPG elements, those are what should've been focused on. Having just played Uncharted 2, the third-person shooting controls aren't even anywhere near as streamlined or intuitive as that, so in turn we have a game that's trying to be as good as other games from a combat perspective, but in many ways is completely missing out on what made it different and much more special than those other games in the first place.

Still awesomely cinematic and highly enjoyable overall, though. Just breaks my role-playing gamers heart.

While I agree with you to some extent, isn't the entire point of a role playing game to "play a role"? To that end, Mass Effect 2 does this better than possibly any other game in existence, with all of the dialog trees and choices.

We've lost some of the typical RPG elements, but I don't feel like those elements are what define an RPG.

[Combine 017]

I dont know what the second disk is for really, i havnt been playing for that long, and even then, ive been doing a lot of exploring. I thought the second disk would have come in later on but I dont think ill be switching back to the first one again anytime soon.

[DarkMaster]

I just switched to the second disc. Apparently you'll switch back and forth at least once.

[Fox 6]

Game is nothing short of amazing. Loved the whole mission where you get Archangel.........


I also bought a "Space Hamster"!

[Combine 017]

Epic.

[Fox 6]

"You're working too hard."

Also all you scanner whiners should just suck it up because I just got my hand on a nuclear weapon

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

"You're working too hard."

Also all you scanner whiners should just suck it up because I just got my hand on a nuclear weapon

I got that weapon as well, but it still doesn't justify scanning. I just learned to listen to music/watch youtube while scanning. Its tedious and boring. And I've ran into like 6-7 side missions so far, which isn't even that great of a %.

Anyhow, beat the game, clocked in a little around 30 hours. The game was good, but some parts such as the scanning and The Terminator end-boss and the really loose plot left a sour taste in my mouth.

And not much of a negative/positive, but this is probably the loosest use of an RPG I've ever played. Listening to a podcast, they summed it up nicely, "Gears of War with dialogue trees."

Good game though. Really enjoyable.

[Fox 6]

just beat it......... speechless. What a game. Simply amazing.


Big ending spoilers

I loved the game, so awesome. The only thing i didnt like was losing 2 members. I lost Mordin whom i sent through the tube. Then I lost Zaeed leading the distraction group the second time you had to choose who you wanted. There is a way to let everyone live, there is an achievement for it. Anyone else have any better luck?

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

just beat it......... speechless. What a game. Simply amazing.


Big ending spoilers

I loved the game, so awesome. The only thing i didnt like was losing 2 members. I lost Mordin whom i sent through the tube. Then I lost Zaeed leading the distraction group the second time you had to choose who you wanted. There is a way to let everyone live, there is an achievement for it. Anyone else have any better luck?

I only lost one member, Thane who I sent through the pipes,
I had Samara lead the second team.

Then had her use the biotics and Jacob to escort the crew back to the ship

[DarkMaster]

Alright so some of this is kind of spoilery I guess, not really though, but maybe don't read unless you're a decent ways into the game. Can't believe I've beat it in a week, I never play through games this long in such a short time, but because I rented it I played it a hell of a lot. Also because it was awesome.


Just wanted to lend some overall thoughts on the game. I tried to think of the game before playing it as an RPG in a more traditional sense, like Dragon Age, because that's what I thought they'd be doing with the game. Turns out it wasn't, so while it's not what I initially expected, it was still an excellent experience. A damn good length for this type of game and lots of things to do.

I don't think much needs to be said on why the game is good, I'll just offer a few complaints I had.

The scanning. I've no doubt in my mind that they're going to axe this for the third game. Not in any way enjoyable. I like the idea of searching for minerals, but this is not a fun way to do it. I'm also less motivated to play through the game again because there's no way I'd spend any time scanning and thus lose out on upgrades.

Kind of too many squad members to be honest. I'm not sure who to axe, definitely not Mordin, but the Krogan for instance was basically a much less interesting Wrex and seemed to be there purely to fill an arbitrary role of a Krogan squad member. The game was more about recruiting people then going through a central plotline, not necessarily a bad thing, just wanted more core story I guess.

And on the subject of squad members, my main complaint with ME1's story was that the crew members didn't really talk to each other, outside of Shepard talking to them. They're all loners isolated in their own parts of the ship. The same can be said for ME2, and that's a little disappointing.

My one last kinda upset with the game was that the choices I made in the first game weren't really that important to shaping much in this one. Aside from whether or not to save the council, not much was really impacting on the story. For instance, the decision whether or not to save the Rachni race seemed completely irrelevant, except for some random NPC who shows up in a city and says thank you for saving them. In fact there were a lot of NPCs who showed up in random places and were like "oh hi remember me, you chose not to kill me on that research lab" and it's like, oh okay, good to see you? Who cares.

Overall awesome, though. Yeah.

[Fox 6]

Originally Posted by DarkMaster

For instance, the decision whether or not to save the Rachni race seemed completely irrelevant, except for some random NPC who shows up in a city and says thank you for saving them.

I just got to this part on my second play through



She carrys the queens message that she is thankful for your aid and that when you need help she'll come to your aid, so maybe the Rachni will show up in the third game?

Sounded like that anyways. If they dont ill be pretty pissed

[dropCGCF]

WHAT A GAME.
I'm not normally one for RPGs, and I didn't want to have the same technical problems that I had in the first one (saved in an elevator, corrupted my game saves), but I loved this game.

[Combine 017]

Why would you save in an elevator?