#MassEffectMonday
Finished Mass Effect 2 (LE) the other day.
If you want to replay you should read. I will recommend mods.
>Quote from my ME1 review: "From memory, ME2 improves on ME1 massively and I wonder if I still feel like this when I've replayed it. There's certainly a lot of room."
No. No I do not. Certainly, they've tightened up some aspects and by a good margin as well, but they dumbed others down.
>Gunplay and Game mechanics
-Let's start with the obvious: Thermal clips are a straight up downgrade. It's not more tactical, it's less so.
-Shared power cooldowns. No other game does this, and for good reasons. It becomes impossible to combo a dude. Two of the biotic powers are specifically made for this, pull and push. Lift them and fire them off. Not possible anymore. Mod this! (No Shared Power Cooldowns)
-Gun handling generally and heavy weapons spice it up, definitely improved vs ME1
-Difficulty curve is inverted, as is fashionable for RPGs. You can get your ass kicked early on in some situations, but from mid game on it's not a problem. When you mod the power cooldowns, you should bump the difficulty and then it becomes almost fun and almost interesting.
>Exploration and side missions:
-Again, obvious first: the probe mining is stupid. Similar to the rest, you are disallowed from using your skill to progress faster. While the probe is flying you may not move the reticle. While you are scanning, the reticle moves unnecessarily slowly. Get the One Probe All Resources mod! And one for infinite fuel and probes. Don't waste your time, it's not interesting.
-Hammerhead explorations are more of a sidegrade. The vehicle itself, like the Mako, COULD be fun but they nerfed the movement mechanics into the ground. For example, you can't boost and then jump taking the momentum with you. Why? Because by this game the studio was locked in the branching paths emphasis on paths style of "game" design. You're not even allowed to drive how you want.
Missions were okay. Vehicle too squishy, but I see some potential. Bioware apparently didn't, they brought the Mako back for 3.
-Side quests aren't much better than the original. You may percieve them to be because of Loyalty Missions. Those count as Main Quests imo. The actual ones are unvoiced except for the anomaly beacon voicemail. There are barely any characters to interact with. It's a bit more streamlined because you don't have to ride around aimlessly in the Mako to traverse an empty planet. Sick of them by now to tell the truth.
The galaxy feels less mysterious overall, even as you are supposedly on the fringes (You are not)
>UI
Not improved, just changed up so you don't notice. They needed a better inventory handling system and cooler armor. instead they give you DLC armors that force you to keep the helmet on, and remove other options. The main armor has customizable parts and those are cool and enough for this type of game. Hacking and electronics games are no more than a sick joke, as is the probe launching.
Get a minigame autocomplete mod, it's not fun and a waste of time.
Get the one where you need to start the minigame still because enemies can shoot at you. Otherwise it's too much cheese.
>Visuals
You need the Lighting Restoration mod. Even then, LE looks funky sometimes. Generally okay texture work, nothing too jarring. There are character (especially Liara) consistency mods, maybe grab those and 4k texture resamples. If you want that.
Way more punchy and striking than parts of ME1, but loses that clean future feel for a "grungy edge" they were going for. Illium is nice.
Character action alright for the most part, some animations clunky.
>Audio
yeah baby. very solid, even if not as atmospheric and mysterious as ME1
>Writing
To my surprise, this was way worse than I had remembered. There are cool places and characters, and when the worldbuilding works it REALLY works. But the decline is very noticeable. Sometimes it feels like they are cannibalizing their own lore for plot instead of making something new that's cool. Illium is great, Omega works fine. There are a couple of set pieces that just don't work. Compare ME1 Ilos to ME2 "Derelict Reaper" (really nigga?) and visiting the Migrant Fleet, Tuchanka (twice), the ridiculous lamer version of the Citadel, retreading "human colony attacks" etc. Next you're gonna tell me they'll have you go back to Eden Prime for Mass Effect 3 ( 💀 )
Characterization is also a little flat. Shepard feels a lot like Jack Bauer. Sometimes it's cool when he just shoots or tortures the guy instead of running in circles.
>[Ran out of characters. Continued below, with mod list!]
Finished Mass Effect 2 (LE) the other day.
If you want to replay you should read. I will recommend mods.
>Quote from my ME1 review: "From memory, ME2 improves on ME1 massively and I wonder if I still feel like this when I've replayed it. There's certainly a lot of room."
No. No I do not. Certainly, they've tightened up some aspects and by a good margin as well, but they dumbed others down.
>Gunplay and Game mechanics
-Let's start with the obvious: Thermal clips are a straight up downgrade. It's not more tactical, it's less so.
-Shared power cooldowns. No other game does this, and for good reasons. It becomes impossible to combo a dude. Two of the biotic powers are specifically made for this, pull and push. Lift them and fire them off. Not possible anymore. Mod this! (No Shared Power Cooldowns)
-Gun handling generally and heavy weapons spice it up, definitely improved vs ME1
-Difficulty curve is inverted, as is fashionable for RPGs. You can get your ass kicked early on in some situations, but from mid game on it's not a problem. When you mod the power cooldowns, you should bump the difficulty and then it becomes almost fun and almost interesting.
>Exploration and side missions:
-Again, obvious first: the probe mining is stupid. Similar to the rest, you are disallowed from using your skill to progress faster. While the probe is flying you may not move the reticle. While you are scanning, the reticle moves unnecessarily slowly. Get the One Probe All Resources mod! And one for infinite fuel and probes. Don't waste your time, it's not interesting.
-Hammerhead explorations are more of a sidegrade. The vehicle itself, like the Mako, COULD be fun but they nerfed the movement mechanics into the ground. For example, you can't boost and then jump taking the momentum with you. Why? Because by this game the studio was locked in the branching paths emphasis on paths style of "game" design. You're not even allowed to drive how you want.
Missions were okay. Vehicle too squishy, but I see some potential. Bioware apparently didn't, they brought the Mako back for 3.
-Side quests aren't much better than the original. You may percieve them to be because of Loyalty Missions. Those count as Main Quests imo. The actual ones are unvoiced except for the anomaly beacon voicemail. There are barely any characters to interact with. It's a bit more streamlined because you don't have to ride around aimlessly in the Mako to traverse an empty planet. Sick of them by now to tell the truth.
The galaxy feels less mysterious overall, even as you are supposedly on the fringes (You are not)
>UI
Not improved, just changed up so you don't notice. They needed a better inventory handling system and cooler armor. instead they give you DLC armors that force you to keep the helmet on, and remove other options. The main armor has customizable parts and those are cool and enough for this type of game. Hacking and electronics games are no more than a sick joke, as is the probe launching.
Get a minigame autocomplete mod, it's not fun and a waste of time.
Get the one where you need to start the minigame still because enemies can shoot at you. Otherwise it's too much cheese.
>Visuals
You need the Lighting Restoration mod. Even then, LE looks funky sometimes. Generally okay texture work, nothing too jarring. There are character (especially Liara) consistency mods, maybe grab those and 4k texture resamples. If you want that.
Way more punchy and striking than parts of ME1, but loses that clean future feel for a "grungy edge" they were going for. Illium is nice.
Character action alright for the most part, some animations clunky.
>Audio
yeah baby. very solid, even if not as atmospheric and mysterious as ME1
>Writing
To my surprise, this was way worse than I had remembered. There are cool places and characters, and when the worldbuilding works it REALLY works. But the decline is very noticeable. Sometimes it feels like they are cannibalizing their own lore for plot instead of making something new that's cool. Illium is great, Omega works fine. There are a couple of set pieces that just don't work. Compare ME1 Ilos to ME2 "Derelict Reaper" (really nigga?) and visiting the Migrant Fleet, Tuchanka (twice), the ridiculous lamer version of the Citadel, retreading "human colony attacks" etc. Next you're gonna tell me they'll have you go back to Eden Prime for Mass Effect 3 ( 💀 )
Characterization is also a little flat. Shepard feels a lot like Jack Bauer. Sometimes it's cool when he just shoots or tortures the guy instead of running in circles.
>[Ran out of characters. Continued below, with mod list!]
