The GHZ Forum

So what's the word on Mass Effect 2? I loved the first one, but the previews I've watched of the sequel make it look kind of... ridiculous. I prefer to think that marketing has simply distorted it to appeal to a demographic that I fall well outside of and the game proper is different from what the previews would have me believe.

The game is cool, right?

The advert was kind of juvenile.

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/18/mass- ... n-vanilla/

Haha, lesbian aliens.

Bioware's full of nerds.

The combat has been streamlined. There's a lot more "ooh, we're edgy" and "lol, injokes!" than it's predecessor. Also, the part where you control the ship is a bit ridiculous. Instead of just taking a look at the map and telling Seth GreenJoker where to go, you manually fly the ship. Which uses gas. So if you're not sure where you're going... I waste enough money on gas in real life, and I don't even own a car right now. I don't have time for this tom-foolery.

But I still played the thing until my eyes started to fall out, so.

OH WAIT I FORGOT THE MOST ANNOYING PART. You have "ammo" now. Instead of a cool-down period, when your gun gets too hot, you have to eject the "thermal cartridge" and insert a new one. Because apparently FANS are too low tech for combat.

ETA: Goddamn BB code bullshit. What's wrong with HTML, I'd like to know.

There's a lot more "ooh, we're edgy"

Yeah, that's the shit that's been bothering me. The first one was just kind of beautiful in a sci-fi Shenmue kind of way, but now this one looks presumptuous. Those character introduction trailers inparticular were horrible.



It's also just now occured to me that for the rest of my life I will never be able to describe a game without referencing Shenmue.

Pretty soon you won't be able to describe your own life without referencing Shenmue.

Don't say that name so loud, bro!

You're not winning anything for saying it this time!

Segaholic2 wrote:

Delphine wrote:it's

MAYBE THAT'S WHAT I MEANT MOTHERFUCKER

p.s. I love watching people smoke in space. The whole wasting a limited oxygen supply thing is pretty damn funny.

Maybe they have space-age recycling machines that turn cigarette smoke into delicious air.

Or it's space magic.

"But wouldn't they blow up in an all oxygen environment?"
"Probably. But it's an easy fix. One line of dialogue. 'Thank God we invented the... you know, whatever device.'"

Jeez, smokes are really that important for some people.

"Goddammit, turn this thing around; I left my camels on the Moon."

I'm several hours in now, and things get better after you leave Omega, and find other squad members beyond the boring, lifeless ones you start with. Even the DLC character is more likable than those two.

There's a fine line between dark themes and 'edgy', and the game spends most of that time straddling that line. For every moment I fine myself genuinely immersed in the story and characters, there's a jarring moment that I feel I would enjoy more if I were twelve years old.

There are a lot of neat little details that I'm glad they added in -- there's a picture of your love interest from ME1 on your desk, you can purchase fish for the tank in your quarters, you can talk to a much wider variety of crew members than before. They did away with the planetary exploration and replaced it with a ridiculous scanning minigame, but there are side missions that actually let you land on planets and explore them, which was part of why I liked ME1 so much in the first place.

Still, there's plenty of game left, so I'll see how I feel when I've finished.

What was the development history like? Is it the same team, same directors? Or new people on either side? Did EA leave some kind of dickprint against BioWare's wishes, or did someone on the team really wake up one morning and decide that Mass Effect needed a bald, heavily tattooed woman?

I am apprehensive, but some of it still looks really awesome. Please keep me posted.

All right, I'm getting towards the end of the game, and as long as the ending itself doesn't piss me off, I'm satisfied with ME2.

It's bizarre; it's as if, for the first few hours, they hadn't gotten a handle on the tone they wanted to use to tell the story, and instead of going back and fixing it once they knew what they were doing, they left it a mess. Once you start picking up other squad members, the story improves dramatically. Even the sidequests help along the narrative of the universe, if not necessarily the story.

The loyalty quests are the real meat of the game, although I'm still not sure how I feel about such an obvious mechanic – talk to character, obtain loyalty quest, don't do anything completely stupid, gain character's loyalty. (If you gain Subject Zero's loyalty you can make her wear a shirt, which is a plus. She doesn't put on a wig, however.)

Don't anyone tell BioWare I like the game afterall – the whole company is getting a little[/] full of themselves.