Mass Effect 2

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 12:16 pm Post subject: Mass Effect 2

This is easily one of the most anticipated games this year and a follow up to one of he best games I've ever played. Can it honestly live up to its predecessor? Well, that's complicatd seeing as how this is a slightly different creature in some ways.

Wheras the original was still technically a shooter, it had little in common with most games in that genre, thanks to the RPG elements. ME2, on the other hand, is a third person shooter with a few RPG elements sprinkled on top. Weapons run on ammo this time around, so you can't fight with your favorite weapon indefinitely. That means that if you aren't that good of a shot and really like the assault rifles, you'll be using a pistol to clean up after it's gone empty. Granted you have AI teammates who will help you, but they're not meant to take out the really hard enemies like snipers or bosses.

The loading times are irritating as hell for someone who has played the original. Anyone who is familiar with the original remembers how the game would preload quickly before a stage and textures would load up while you started playing. It wasn't pretty at times, but you didn't spend alot of time sitting on your ass. Fans of the first griped about the textures loading while they played. As a result, this time the developers for ME2 decided to preload everything in a level before you start playing. That basically means that the loading times are long now because too many people whined about their detail and normal maps loading less than instantaneously. This is what happens when you let non-designers influence design. It's especially charming when you're playing a harder enemy encounter and might need to take a few tries to get it right. You'll need to sit through the same loading screen for the entire level over and over just to fight in one boss room.

I may sound like I hate this game, but that's completely untrue. I've been enjoying it quite a bit since I picked it up and am actually learning how to shoot confidently with a joystick for the first time since the N64. I just get irritated at developers trying to fix what really wasn't broken, especially when some of the fixes just affect aesthetics. If you liked the first one, from what I can tell from 5 hours of gameplay, you'll enjoy this one too. It's still story driven and they really shelled out money for good voice talent. You can only compare it to the first in so many ways. At this point, it's like comparing apples to oranges. Very beautiful and fun apples and oranges.

RK-Mara · Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:35 am Post subject:

I think Mass Effect 2 is a better game than the original. Not a better RPG, but a better game. The game has been streamlined but this is one of the rare cases when it's only a good thing. Many of the features in the original were mediocre at best and now all the unnecessary parts have been taken out, leaving only the most vital parts and improving on them.

The story and narrative are gold just like in the first one, but this time around the combat is fun as well. Individual missions feel like you are playing a shooter but that's because the level design is so much better than in the first one. In Mass Effect, shooting felt really mediocre and out of place, now I actually believe it belongs in the game.

There were only a few cases when I ran out of ammo for the assault rifle. The rifles are accurate, ammo plentiful and ME2 isn't the first shooter I've played. In the end the addition of ammunition, or exchangeable cooling rods to be exact, didn't really change much for me. Oh yes, might have something to do with me being a biotic user. I often took down entire groups of enemies without even firing a shot.

I personally had no problems with the load times. Sure, they were quite frequent but loading was fast, even on my three (or is it four now?) year old PC.
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Vlad Piranha · Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:41 am Post subject:

I probably should have mentioned that I was reviewing the Xbox 360 version to clarify, but you're right about pretty much everything. I play a soldier class, so pure shooting is what I do. I've never let myself run out of ammo entirely for the rifle, but only 15 shots for the shotgun is insane. In any case, I agree that this game plays better than the original. Alot of the inventory problems are simply gone, since you don't pick up useless items constantly. Replacing that with the option to buy upgrades for weapons is a much better idea than the original's system. I imagine that the PC version is even better with a mouse and keyboard.