Mass Effect 2 - thoughts, opinions?

@ RCGodward, if that hotfix you linked is over 100 mb, that's the exact one I downloaded from ATI yesterday.
 
Beat it last night, was awesome no one died in my squad, and I want to start a second play through, which I never really do.
 
Just an FYI, some free DLC was released yesterday. It includes Cerberus Assault Armor and a new shotgun. It's free as long as you have the Cerberus Network.
 
Out of curiosity, how many of you have explored every single planet you can find for fun? There's ALOT of minor side missions to do. Not really story related, but fun all the same.
 
Monkey God said:
Out of curiosity, how many of you have explored every single planet you can find for fun? There's ALOT of minor side missions to do. Not really story related, but fun all the same.
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I explored them all, there's like 10-15 total side missions.
Some of them spawn chains of missions, 3 or 4 missions long. Those are quite fun.

If you don't do them you're actually missing a big chunk of the game, though they don't impact the story at all and some of them are just silly.
 
Yeah, pretty cool stuff. If you go to that asari city, there is a terminal where you can buy maps to 3 new systems.
 
Parmenides said:
Yeah, pretty cool stuff. If you go to that asari city, there is a terminal where you can buy maps to 3 new systems.
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Yeah, no joke. I spent about three hours in total just exhausting all the planets and systems you start with, only to go and unlock ANOTHER FUCKING FIVE OR SOMETHING and have to start all over. Fuck my compulsion to upgrade stuff.
 
Just spent a good five days with this game and loved nearly every bit of it. Though I did find myself having a harder time feeling 'attached' to this sequel. I definitely welcome the new combat system but a few things that continually annoyed me through out the entire game were:

1: GUI: Sure they were going for a minimalist look and Shepard's shield/health bar was fine, but I really wish they would've enhanced it a bit when I had Barrier up like the original and had an actual decreasing life bar for squad mates. Instead of a fading gradient. The radar. Why did BioWare force you to toggle the tactical menu just to check the radar? I enjoyed the seamless assessment of enemy locations without breaking the flow of combat in the original and felt this was unnecessary. Also being unable to map your squad/journal/codex to hot-keys felt like a step back especially when you consider U/J/O (respective keys used in original) keys are unused.

2: Cooldowns. Now I know if we were able to unleash a chain of biotic powers in succession it would be pretty overpowered, I also feel that it also hindered my character as I was planted behind cover waiting for abilities to become available demoting aggressive play. Especially the long cooldown on Barrier. Since this ability played a HUGE role in my play style in the original, I anticipated its return. I enjoyed activating it and charging into enemies unleashing havoc with biotic powers on my Vanguard, but instead I'm met with a long cooldown that shuts everything down. I would have loved to heavy barrier -> area charge -> improved shockwave on higher difficulties.

3: Loot: Yes, yes. I know everyone said this already, but I hope they don't continue this linear upgrade path in the final episode. I loved Mass Effect's inventory system :)o) except for the omni-gel malarkey. Hell I loved being able to customize weapons, armor, and bullets. A feature I wished Borderlands followed.

4: Economy: As I neared the end of the game I found myself with hundreds and thousands of each mineral but barely enough credits to buy some of the final tier upgrades. Maybe I spent too much on fuel and probes? If that's the case why am I being punished because I want to explore? Credits are finite and it would have been nice if you could sell minerals.

Aside from my nit-picks everything else is practically perfect. The toggle cover system felt a bit strange at first when making the jump from the original but it eventually caught on with me. The guns felt great, LOVED the Collector heavy weapon and seamless squad commands. I loved the characters, though not as memorable as the lot in Dragon Age, they still felt very believable. I found myself liking characters I though I'd dislike more than those I though I would like. I found Jack to be a surprisingly interesting character and couldn't really own up to Samara. I guess I was hoping for a Wynne style character in her but was slightly let down. Running into characters from the original was a treat as well. Anyway, off to my next playthrough. :D
 
Wow, this game has to go down as one of the most overrated in history. Many reasons I consider it substandard;

1)combat is annoying, pistols are crap. Also lots of fun using worthless pistols and shotgun against army's of clones wielding assault rifles, rocket launchers and flame throwers.

2)battle music is terrible, horrid next to that of Mass Effect 1

3)its very unstable and buggy, I beat ME1 with my last character to import into ME2. In six hours I never ran into a single hitch or bug. In four hours of ME2 game has bugged out (with me stuck in the ceiling from walking straight down a corridor, needing a reload) and crashed like crazy. Were talking every 10-15 minutes of gameplay at best.

3) the AI is even dumber than before, any feign of intelligence is just scripting. Also the new factions are repetitive and annoying, its great fun listening to the stupid cliche Vorcha screaming "MY PRECIOUS, MY PRECIOUS ARRGGGGH".

4) Almost every damn change in how the game works, feel they were added only for the sake of change. Also many, down to the menus feel like they hardly work.


I'm still gonna try and beat it, but I'm sorry, not an apologist tool who is going to make a case for whats wrong with this game. I don't even care to comment on the storyline till I've beat it. I dunno, its just sad because I really wanted to like this game. Seems to me that bioware listened far to much to the fat idiot fanboy when they decided what input would make the overhaul.
 
Dainas said:
Wow, this game has to go down as one of the most overrated in history. Many reasons I consider it substandard;

1)combat is annoying, pistols are crap. Also lots of fun using worthless pistols and shotgun against army's of clones wielding assault rifles, rocket launchers and flame throwers.

2)battle music is terrible, horrid next to that of Mass Effect 1

3)its very unstable and buggy, I beat ME1 with my last character to import into ME2. In six hours I never ran into a single hitch or bug. In four hours of ME2 game has bugged out (with me stuck in the ceiling from walking straight down a corridor, needing a reload) and crashed like crazy. Were talking every 10-15 minutes of gameplay at best.

3) the AI is even dumber than before, any feign of intelligence is just scripting. Also the new factions are repetitive and annoying, its great fun listening to the stupid cliche Vorcha screaming "MY PRECIOUS, MY PRECIOUS ARRGGGGH".

4) Almost every damn change in how the game works, feel they were added only for the sake of change. Also many, down to the menus feel like they hardly work.


I'm still gonna try and beat it, but I'm sorry, not an apologist tool who is going to make a case for whats wrong with this game. I don't even care to comment on the storyline till I've beat it. I dunno, its just sad because I really wanted to like this game. Seems to me that bioware listened far to much to the fat idiot fanboy when they decided what input would make the overhaul.
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First off, pistols aren't useless, you just don't know how to use them. There's upgrades and you will get a heavy pistol which tears enemies up.

Why would you play Mass Effect 2 for the music? When your shooting a krogan or two does it really matter? Plus it wasn't that bad. I'm in to techno and some of it was pretty good. ;)

Lol I got stuck in the ceiling a couple times myself, just had to make sure I was exactly in the center of the stairs. Watch out when you go down to the bottom of the engineering room (to talk to Jack) that's where I got stuck the most. But hey, every game is going to have at least 1 bug.

I used Thane and Garrus. All of us were using our sniper rifles (I was an infiltrator), and we tore the place up. You can position your team mates, by pressing "B" and "E", and you can tell them to follow by pressing "C". Positioning of your guys helps. IMO I would rather shoot the bad guys because it's more fun. :p

Yea some stuff changed, but once you get into the game it's not bad. Getting rid of the inventory actually worked. In ME1 the whole "Your approaching your 150 limit" was annoying. Otherwise really none of the other menus changed.

It's a great game. Seems like a lot of people are just playing to see what's wrong with it so they can pick at it. :rolleyes: Complaining about it isn't going to make it any more fun. :p You had 3 twice, lol. :D
 
yeah that game was pretty good.

But yeah, I mean in terms of music I think it did a lot for Modern Warfare, which I would consider to be a story/character driven narrative. A good hit of some more heart-stringy music would've made the impact of a few key sequences all the more powerful.

That said, this is the first game I've ever played where I've really wanted to see what happened to some of the characters. Donno, and don't want to know, what this game would look like without Wrex on Tuchanka.

At this point however I think that the Unreal engine is so detrimental to that game It really needs a complete overhaul. For a game as character (more specifically conversationally) driven game as this one you'd think that accurate mouth movements in speech would be one of the things at the top of this games development priorities; nope. Valve has shown us that a whole lot better can be done.

And yeah, @bugs, sorry Bioware I'm gonna have to call that one, whats the term you guys use, "non-shippable"?. It removed me from the experience on three occasions on two of which I rage quitted.
 
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Am I correct in noticing that there is no reason to skip the QTE's that are opposite your 'alignment'?

Secondly, holy load times! Just like ME1. DAO loads seemed a tenth as long on my not-too-shabby rig (below). wtf?
 
ME2 has a bug with load times and dual-cores.
There's an affinity fix out there.
 
Ruiner said:
Am I correct in noticing that there is no reason to skip the QTE's that are opposite your 'alignment'?

Secondly, holy load times! Just like ME1. DAO loads seemed a tenth as long on my not-too-shabby rig (below). wtf?
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No, there is a reason to choose an interrupt even if it's counter to your alignment - it's if you're playing on the highest difficulty level, and the interrupt, by selecting it, would make an upcoming engagement a little easier.

As not to provide a spoiler, I'll give you a generic, made-up example.

Let's say that you're aligned as a Paragon, and a Renegade interrupt occurs in which you're given the opportunity to smash in the face of, say, a Krogan warrior. By selecting this interrupt you'd be making the upcoming battle a lot easier, since you'd be removing one of the toughest warriors from the engagement. You might end up receiving ten or more Renegade points for selecting this particular interrupt, but the tradeoff would be an easier battle.

Really, at the highest level of difficulty, this can make a difference.

For some role-players, this might end up being a tough decision to make. They might want to be a Paragon the entire way - but in selecting the Renegade interrupt certain events might end up having a seemingly more favorable result.

EDIT: Sorry, I might have read your post wrong. It's also worth noting that a Paragon interrupt will often follow a Renegade interrupt, or vice versa, so if you're a Paragon and you select the Renegade option which appears first, then essentially you're precluding yourself from being able to select the Paragon interrupt that would follow.
 
Ruiner said:
Am I correct in noticing that there is no reason to skip the QTE's that are opposite your 'alignment'?

Secondly, holy load times! Just like ME1. DAO loads seemed a tenth as long on my not-too-shabby rig (below). wtf?
Click to expand...

Yep there is a problem with this game and dual-cores. The basic and tedious fix is everytime you load the game, bring up your task manager and set the .exe processor affinity from two cores to one core. Hit OK then open the processor affinity again and set it back to two cores. Boom, load times should be mere seconds now!

Or you can just load the game with:

http://www.playwrite-blog.net/tools...-2-pc-with-massaffinity-fix-those-load-times/

Works wonders.
 
Ruiner said:
Am I correct in noticing that there is no reason to skip the QTE's that are opposite your 'alignment'?

Secondly, holy load times! Just like ME1. DAO loads seemed a tenth as long on my not-too-shabby rig (below). wtf?
Click to expand...

Just don't press anything, they pass and leave you to carry on with the conversation as normal. Took me a while to figure this out, I was punching reporters all over the place until I figured out I could just leave it and carry on talking blue.
 
Thanks for the tips. I haven't found any dual-class interrupts yet (I've just finished the initial Omega missions), but replayed a couple and found them do or do not affairs. You're awarded Paragon/Renegade points or nothing at all.
 
I had my paragon femshep nailing some renegade interrupts for the sheer badassery.

Snapping that guy's neck was one of the best ones.
 
Personally the best game ive played in a very very long time. One of the only highly rated games I found worthy of its praise.
 
Riftsaw said:
I had my paragon femshep nailing some renegade interrupts for the sheer badassery.

Snapping that guy's neck was one of the best ones.
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I think I did something like that, but now I can't remember. Where do you snap a guy's neck?
 
Spoilerz

During Miranda's Loyalty mission when you first encounter the Eclipse Mercs.
 
jojospcs said:
Should I play Mass Effect 1 before getting this?
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It depends on how much time you have - I think that ME2 is much more modern than ME. If this were Bioshock, I'd say go ahead and play the first game. But here it's just not all that necessary.

IMO, 2 is much, much better than 1.
 
jojospcs said:
Should I play Mass Effect 1 before getting this?
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Yes, even if you read summaries you just won't understand or get the same feeling interacting with the characters in-game. Also, why play a default storyline when you can carry your ME1 save file over with the things you have done?
 
Absolutely you should play ME1. The two games are directly connected, to the point where you have the option to import your character from ME1 into ME2. You will get so much more out of the story and characters in ME2 by playing the first one first.

Do yourself a favour and play ME1 first!

I don't know what buddy means by it not feeling modern. There are parts of ME1 that are more impressive than anything I saw in ME2. Mainly the open areas of The Citadel, the story as a whole, and the final act.
 
jojospcs said:
Ok I was thinking about playing the first for a while but just never got around to it.
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many of the issues that people talk about in the original mass effect are non issues on the PC side.

Texture pop-in isn't too much an issue if your running a drive with some half decent read speeds. And control wise the shooting... well, if you have problems shooting on a joystick you're missing the point.

But the micromanagement will be tedious for those not into that kind've thing. I didn't mind it, but it was chore-ish.
 
Just finished the game Friday. 45 hours and 1 minute. I ended up with 100% in every system and didnt loose a single crewmate in the suicide mission. All and all, worth the money.

Now, I did have a few gripes. Like the game crashed three times durning the paythrough. Every time it crashed, I had to reinitialize the Cerebrus network and when I got back into the game, I had lost all my achievements and had to manually load my save points. Also, there was no longer a new save option. If I wanted to save, I had to save over one of the old saves.

Other than that, I loved the story and the new inventory system. The gameplay was polished and I had alot of fun playing it.
 
ballpoint said:
Absolutely you should play ME1. The two games are directly connected, to the point where you have the option to import your character from ME1 into ME2. You will get so much more out of the story and characters in ME2 by playing the first one first.

Do yourself a favour and play ME1 first!

I don't know what buddy means by it not feeling modern. There are parts of ME1 that are more impressive than anything I saw in ME2. Mainly the open areas of The Citadel, the story as a whole, and the final act.
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Fully agreed. ME1 had some VERY impressive areas, ME2 felt a bit more confined in that regard.
 
How did you get to 45 hours? Even doing every single little side quest and anomaly that seems like a lot!
 
Devnull said:
How did you get to 45 hours? Even doing every single little side quest and anomaly that seems like a lot!
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I took my time and explored every nook and cranny and got every upgrade I could and just did every mission. I wanted to savor the game.
 
so did and I think I got like 28 or 30 hours.... went to my savegame before the last mission and then went back over every little thing and I still don't think I could have gotten to 45. I wish it had another 8 or 10 hours of real content.

The wait for ME3 is going to be soooo long.
 
Devnull said:
so did and I think I got like 28 or 30 hours.... went to my savegame before the last mission and then went back over every little thing and I still don't think I could have gotten to 45. I wish it had another 8 or 10 hours of real content.

The wait for ME3 is going to be soooo long.
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I did all the dl content as well but I dont think that would account for 15 or so more hours I got out of it. Ill boot it up tomorrow and take a screen cap of the saved game with 45 hours on it.

Talk about a wait, at least it came before HL2 EP3 :D Hell, we will probably see ME3 before EP3.
 
Devnull said:
How did you get to 45 hours? Even doing every single little side quest and anomaly that seems like a lot!
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My first run took me right at about 45 hours also. 40 to 45 seems to be the norm.
 
it is, I didn't even go out of my way to find everything and my final time was close to that. it's not like I really wanted to savor it, I just don't believe in multiple playthroughs for this kind of thing. so I took my sweet ass time with it, plus mining kind of skews the totals.

this is totally different from people who fully intend to play through it more than once, and just want to see how many ways they can do it. I don't find value in that, to me it's the buildup that makes the game, not subtle variation.
 
There is something really special about the first time through for any game. I've only played one playthrough on ME2. I wanted to start over again after beating the game, but I'm purposefully waiting on it.... so that when I do come back it will feel fresh. I got a little burnt out with Dragon Age trying back to back playthroughs. I don't want to ruin a good thing, so I'm slowly savoring the playthroughs. Maybe I'll wait for another DLC before I run through the whole game again. That or when I finally get a new video card.
 
ive done 2 full playthroughs, first was 28 hours 100% completion with soldier, 2nd was 22 horus 100% completion with infiltrator.

planning a 3rd with adept or vangaurd. alot of the combat i end up running past even on normal, i;ll run and hit the objective and skip killing 20 guys. still havnt done a insanity mode yet. that will proably be my next one.
 
Just finished my first run-through, that was *incredible.* I can't remember a game I have enjoyed so much as this...just wow.
 
dang, thought that upping the difficulty might make the combat more interesting- not so much. Just gives the enemies shields which makes my biotics of much less useful. Also makes you have to use cover more. The cover system is so boring that it makes ME2 feel like a turn-based game.
 
Devnull said:
dang, thought that upping the difficulty might make the combat more interesting- not so much. Just gives the enemies shields which makes my biotics of much less useful. Also makes you have to use cover more. The cover system is so boring that it makes ME2 feel like a turn-based game.
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That's exactly what I thought.

Playing on the normal level seems just about right. If you up the difficult then sometimes you have to rely on the cover system and the pause menu - it just ends up feeling a lot less immediate.

But is this game all about the combat - surely not. It is a role-playing game. And yet after having played games like Risen and Gothic 3, I'm not feeling much role-playing going on here. But for some reason it's still a hell of a lot of fun, this game. It's a bit weird, this one.
 
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