"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite blog on the Internet."
I loved the first Mass Effect despite hating certain design decisions: driving the floaty Mako to collect rocks that had insignificant money and xp values; playing Simon Says for rocks and lockers; unlimited ammo; the utter lack of variety in non-storytime quests, and the overabundance of items and navigation of items. With the exception of Skip Dialogue still being the same button as Confirm, all of this has been addressed in the much superior sequel.
Combat: ammo count is the big change here, and what I find most satisfying is the feedback when baddies are hit with firearms. In the first outing, shooting a baddie was like shooting a wall. Not only do the weapons in ME2 feel considerably heavier, the weight can be seen when baddies are pushed or stunned with each well-placed bullet. The submachine gun is a welcome addition; good as a fallback weapon or for killing swarms of baddies that don’t drop ammo since this gun has the highest max ammo count of the bunch. Plus, I’m getting sick of shotguns even if accompanied by the space adjective.
The biotics (haven’t used tech yet) also seem much more useful this time around; faster cooldown, and now with attacks differentiated by effectiveness against a defense type there is another combat tactic with utility – mainly because biotics don’t consume resources.
My only complaint is one I have with all cover-based games: it’s easy, to the point of tiring, to see an upcoming battle simply by the presence of cover. If I’m running down a hall that contains nothing for me to hide behind, that’s a guarantee I won’t be attacked.
Equip: strange not to have an Equip screen in an RPG yet the absence works. The first game had way too many items – as does every Bioware game. The lack of any true item collecting in ME2 means you spend less time in the Pause menu. In fact, even though the layout of the Pause menu is the same, the only reason to ever bring it up is to save and load. The majority of missions can now be seen on the galaxy map (Christ it was annoying tracking quests in the first game), and all upgrades are done through another menu.
No Mako: I mean, come on. Who the fuck actually liked driving this pile?
Space Dungeon Variety: the game is a lot more segmented. Gone are the elevators, the backtracking in missions. Missions are separate from hubs – unlike the first where, for example, you arrive at Zhu’s Hope only to have to walk to the Mako so you can drive to the Exogeni HQ. If this mission were in the sequel, you’d land on Zhu’s Hope, talk to the quest-giver and then the game would load Exogeni since the HQ would be a different map. I guess the game pampers you, but Christ, I’d rather sit through a loading screen than walk, which is just a poor attempt to invoke a grand adventure.
And what ties the experience together is the ability to import your ME1 saves. Sure, nothing you collected carries over. And yes, importing also makes checks for certain decisions you had made. Yet for me, the look of my character plays a big part. I spent a lot of time customizing my Shepard, and I invested a lot of time into both genders. I’m playing as my Shepard, not the Shepard Bioware created. Customizing appearance is important to me and even more so since this is a space opera, even more so since you see your Shepard from the front more than you do from behind (I never understood the point in changing your char’s appearance in Oblivion or Fallout 3). Usually I’m indifferent about character designs for protagonists – even with Bioware’s Shepard: Marketing Version. Perhaps indifference is too weak; it takes a lot for me to like a char design. The less flash the better. I’m not an adolescent – a woman who covers up can be just as sexy as a woman exposes.
And I have to say, I wouldn’t have invested as much time as I have if the voice actors for Shepard were less than stellar. Jennifer Hale in particular – mesmerizing.
