Okay... Wow.
Picked up and played through Mass Effect 2, and I am impressed.
The first game had a good story, but the gameplay was lacking. The driving on a planet's surface was poor, the side missions were repetitive in theme and the actual rooms used, and the PC port was buggy.
ME2 adopts the third-person shooter gameplay more fully, which isn't my favorite but works perfectly well. Scanning planets for resources still gets tedious - I bet they'll change that in the third installment. Combat is... somewhat predictable in that if you see cover, you're likely to be using it. But the game still plays well and definitely better than the first.
The story, though... wow. Bioware gets kudos. Playing the game, I felt I actually could roleplay my character (in this case, very much a "good guy," but still able to take the hard line once in a while) and even the small decisions felt like they made a difference. Importing a ME1 playthrough, I frequently heard about or saw the results of decisions I'd made in that game, too. The story was continuing. The pacing of it was generally good, though I feel a little put-upon when I'm going about my side-questy business and suddenly I'm sucked into a primary quest. But really, the story works. Most of it is very cinematic, especially in how the end plays out section by section. And the setting itself is rich with realistic-feeling "grey" conflicts, where neither side is clearly right when you understand them.
I don't think it would have had as much impact playing it without having played the first one, though. Part of the awesomeness was the feeling of "coming home" in seeing old characters and old relationships. Tali was always my favorite from the first, and having her back on the team was great. But even without that, there's something interesting to find in almost all the main team members, new and old. I was surprised by the depths of Mordin's conflicted feelings about his actions. Grunt is, perhaps, the weakest point to me - he feels rather one-dimensional. Still, as a whole, your companions in the game are done remarkably well.
I could go on about specifics, but I don't want to spoil anything. It's games like this that make me think if anyone can actually blend MMORPGs with strong storylines better than has been done thusfar, Bioware would indeed be the company to do it. Mass Effect 2 is a great game, simply put.
The first game had a good story, but the gameplay was lacking. The driving on a planet's surface was poor, the side missions were repetitive in theme and the actual rooms used, and the PC port was buggy.
ME2 adopts the third-person shooter gameplay more fully, which isn't my favorite but works perfectly well. Scanning planets for resources still gets tedious - I bet they'll change that in the third installment. Combat is... somewhat predictable in that if you see cover, you're likely to be using it. But the game still plays well and definitely better than the first.
The story, though... wow. Bioware gets kudos. Playing the game, I felt I actually could roleplay my character (in this case, very much a "good guy," but still able to take the hard line once in a while) and even the small decisions felt like they made a difference. Importing a ME1 playthrough, I frequently heard about or saw the results of decisions I'd made in that game, too. The story was continuing. The pacing of it was generally good, though I feel a little put-upon when I'm going about my side-questy business and suddenly I'm sucked into a primary quest. But really, the story works. Most of it is very cinematic, especially in how the end plays out section by section. And the setting itself is rich with realistic-feeling "grey" conflicts, where neither side is clearly right when you understand them.
I don't think it would have had as much impact playing it without having played the first one, though. Part of the awesomeness was the feeling of "coming home" in seeing old characters and old relationships. Tali was always my favorite from the first, and having her back on the team was great. But even without that, there's something interesting to find in almost all the main team members, new and old. I was surprised by the depths of Mordin's conflicted feelings about his actions. Grunt is, perhaps, the weakest point to me - he feels rather one-dimensional. Still, as a whole, your companions in the game are done remarkably well.
I could go on about specifics, but I don't want to spoil anything. It's games like this that make me think if anyone can actually blend MMORPGs with strong storylines better than has been done thusfar, Bioware would indeed be the company to do it. Mass Effect 2 is a great game, simply put.
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