Shorty Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 It needed trimming down and refining in a better way than just scrapping various aspects - which seemed like a cop-out and left some voids (especially the Mako)
spirited away Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 The lack of the Mako was a welcome omission. The same applies for the clunky inventory. The game is pretty special, right?
James McGeachie Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 but the mako sucked massive hairy gonads. But is the concept of travelling around a planet in a vehicle exploring its surface a bad idea in itself? No. In other words, it should've been IMPROVED, not REMOVED. There was tons of room for improvement, instead they just sidestepped it and and added in a tacky boring minigame (it is boring, there's no denying it, because it's all the same. There's no variation in scanning).
spirited away Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 I would rather play tightly designed on-foot missions, frankly. How much longer would development have taken to implement that as well?
Solo Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 I do miss the Mako a bit, after all, planet scanning got tedious pretty quick.
Shorty Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 But is the concept of travelling around a planet in a vehicle exploring its surface a bad idea in itself? No. In other words, it should've been IMPROVED, not REMOVED. There was tons of room for improvement, instead they just sidestepped it and and added in a tacky boring minigame (it is boring, there's no denying it, because it's all the same. There's no variation in scanning). Exactly, that's what I was trying to say. They took the easy option by cutting the Mako out of the game, instead of making the effort to make it work. The scanning got boring incredibly fast.
ViPeR Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 I would've much preferred the option to scan the entire planet at once, perhaps at some sort of cost. Leaving manual scanning for radio signals. I really hope it doesn't return in its current form in ME3.
Serebii Posted February 11, 2010 Posted February 11, 2010 Ah but people, they're adding in the Hammerhead Vehicle which is like the Mako in with the DLC in a few weeks
James McGeachie Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 ^But what exactly is it going to be used for? Obviously they didn't design surface areas that you can drive on for every scannable planet, that's too extreme an amount of content for them to just leave out for DLC. I expect the Hammerhead will just be used in a few extra DLC missions and again it'll probably be something more like the Mako's use in missions in the first game (Virmire especially) and less about exploration.
Goafer Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Say what you want about the Mako, but it was far better than moving a crosshair slowly over a blank planet untill something beeps.
Shorty Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 (edited) And I actually liked the mako so it's a glaring omission for me.... Edit: just seen a loading-screen tip that said "purchase star charts to find new places to explore" - has anyone seen any of these? I didn't spot any on my first run through. Edit 2: Ugh, just reached the last room of the Horizon mission on insanity. I really don't think I picked a good class for insanity, sentinel's shields last 2 seconds instead of 1.5, it's pretty negligible. And I took armour ammo as my bonus power on my second playthrough, which is actually a bit sucky. Teammates die so quickly as well... they come out of cover randomly instead of during breaks in fire or when their health/shields are full. Taking down 2 Scions (which lose about 5% health from a warp or incinerate) while a dozen armoured husks are running at you. Too hard! Edited February 13, 2010 by Shorty
Eddage Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Just finished my insanity run, wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be, the second half was easier than the first! Level 5 Widow Sniper Rifle + Warp Ammo + Assassination Cloak = some serious one hit kills (didn't even need the cloak half the time). Throw in some Advanced AI Hacking for Geth and you've got one kick ass Shepard! Oh and of course the Cain for the final boss fight... I'm tempted to go back to the first and just finish off the achievements, apparently Insanity is a breeze compared to the sequel. And I actually liked the mako so it's a glaring omission for me.... Edit: just seen a loading-screen tip that said "purchase star charts to find new places to explore" - has anyone seen any of these? I didn't spot any on my first run through. Edit 2: Ugh, just reached the last room of the Horizon mission on insanity. I really don't think I picked a good class for insanity, sentinel's shields last 2 seconds instead of 1.5, it's pretty negligible. And I took armour ammo as my bonus power on my second playthrough, which is actually a bit sucky. Teammates die so quickly as well... they come out of cover randomly instead of during breaks in fire or when their health/shields are full. Taking down 2 Scions (which lose about 5% health from a warp or incinerate) while a dozen armoured husks are running at you. Too hard! Star Charts can be found on Illium, near where you hail the taxi for Samara's recruit (to the right, right at the far end as you come into that area). As for Horizon... Seriously Infiltrator is your friend. You can snipe both Scion's from the top of the stairs (I found I could actually go down the stairs and just hug the back wall but others say that triggers the Husks) meaning no Husks either You might be able to kill them with another weapon, just with a bit more difficulty. If you find that bit hard just wait until the Praetorian
Serebii Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Wow, there's maps? And new missions...sweet, just as I thought I had done it all
Goafer Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 I just probed Uranus First probe: "Really Commander?" Second probe: "Probing Uranus" Genius.
Serebii Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 I just probed Uranus First probe: "Really Commander?" Second probe: "Probing Uranus" Genius. Classic lol
drahkon Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 I just probed Uranus First probe: "Really Commander?" Second probe: "Probing Uranus" Genius. A shame that this isn't funny in German. Suprisingly I still haven't finished it even though I had so much time to do so...well, maybe I'll play this a bit today.
Shorty Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 *facepalm* Protip. If you go through the game on a second playthrough, don't skip important options for getting paragon/renegade points - and then complete Jack and Miranda's loyalty missions. They go at each other's throats and without a really, really high paragon or renegade score, you can't prevent losing one of their loyalties. Protip 2. Don't do the Pyjack minigame straight after getting Grunt's loyalty. For some reason, a bug locks out his Loyalty power forever if you do this. Failcakes.
Eddage Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 Jesus Christ... I've just started an Insanity run of the first Mass Effect, what a freaking chore it's turning out to be. It's not hard at all, I can use Immunity and become more or less invincible, with a small 2 second gap in between uses. It just takes so fucking long to kill the enemies, it's ridiculous. It should have been called tedious not insanity. Mass Effect 2 got it right with it's insanity setting, yes it's bloody hard but it's still fun!
Shorty Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 Then stop playing asap, start a new character (evil if you did good, vice versa) and take them through it. Play as a sentinel, it's very hard, and you will get whole new conversations so it won't be as dull Also think how much more challenging it will be if you don't already have all the armour and level ups.
Goafer Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 Start of mission: "Serial Sex Murder". Hmm, sounds sexy. Later on: A lesbian sex murderer! Amazing.
drahkon Posted February 20, 2010 Posted February 20, 2010 Just before I wanted to start the Suicide Mission I lost Tali's loyalty -.- Maybe I'll try to get her loyalty back and do some sidequests (I need credits. Some upgrades are soooo expensive...I might need about 400.000...maybe more). And then the scanning... To be honest: I don't want to do the stuff and get right into the Suicide Mission because I just want to finish the goddamn game. This is not as good a game as I thought it would be. From the end of the prologue on I've been extremely disappointed. The only good thing about the game (aside from the prologue) has been: playing as Joker while Collectors are attacking the Normandy. It's kind of weird that I think this was good because you didn't really do anything except walk a brittle bone diseased guy (who I think is the greatest character in ME 1 and 2) and see how you're crew members are kidnapped. I wanted to do 1000/1000 on both MEs but ME2 has actually blasted my love for the games through a mass relay into a distant star cluster with no hope of getting it back in the near future.
Shorty Posted February 20, 2010 Posted February 20, 2010 Wow, I am surprised by that tbh. I expected there to be people who were disappointed by this game but not so completely as that. A shame really because I have enjoyed this one as much as the first, and I was a big fan of the first.
Eddage Posted February 20, 2010 Posted February 20, 2010 Wow, I am surprised by that tbh. I expected there to be people who were disappointed by this game but not so completely as that. A shame really because I have enjoyed this one as much as the first, and I was a big fan of the first. I was a massive fan of the first, and this one just blows it out of the water as far as I'm concerned! Going back and playing the first now seems like such a drag, bloody pop up textures Edit: Gah what's happened to my sig o_O
drahkon Posted February 20, 2010 Posted February 20, 2010 So, I've just finished the game. The ending was partly "yeah", partly "meh". To be more precise: the last boss and music were "yeah", the story was "meh". I don't know...something's missing. Of course I have to agree with the fact that the game builds up to the final part of the trilogy but still... I don't feel like I've accomplished anything (except helping a random guy by killing little ape-like creatures in order to save his storage of food or rescuing half-dead Krogans). The main story felt like it was way too short. I've been recruiting members non stop and it was kind of cool to do their loyalty missions because you could learn stories of their past (or present) and get to know their personality (which I loved) but as I said: the big mission wasn't as big as it has been described (or maybe I didn't get immersed that well). Gameplaywise the game did some things better and some things not so much (what a statement). The fighting was good, no doubt. Maybe some little things here and there (like the non-existent enemy ambushes, since enemy appearances were quite obviously displayed by the placement of boxes and containers that provide cover, or better flying curves of biotic skills) that could have been improved but overall the mechanics worked. Here's a question: Why was there no experience gain when I kill a foe? Really, I missed that. And I also missed loot. With a better inventory loot would have been great. Exploration on planets was fairly limited. Although I don't miss lifeless, mountanious and boring planets that can be traversed by a vehicle that manoeuvres like a rock it would have been nice to see an improved version of this (we'll see what the DLC with the new vehicle brings). Scanning planets for materials sucked. The amount of sidequests is huge. I guess...since I didn't do many. But I don't think that I missed out a lot of new gameplay elements. For a guy like me (at least in my current position which is: I don't have that much time to play games) it is overwhelming. This is not a negative criticism. I like games that have a great amount of content. The problem is that I wouldn't have done many more sidemissions even if I had more time. I just couldn't be arsed. While all this sounds so very negative I'm not saying that I think ME2 is an incredibly bad game. The experience as a whole was mediocre (at least for me). Maybe I was too hyped, or maybe I'm just someone who can never be satisfied with what he's got. And yeah, I'm looking forward to Mass Effect 3.
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