Snap Judgments: Mass Effect 2

Section: 

Time Played: 4 Hours
Relevant Biases: Past criticism of Bioware games, preference for shooters
Platform: PC

Mass Effect 2 is far from a perfect game, and it still commits a few of the relevant sins that have long established a Bioware game. It offers an illusion of freedom in a tightly confined world that is ever nudging you toward its desired goals through linear spaces. The world never quite feels real and lived in so much as a set piece through which to absorb the story, and at least through the first few hours of the game the gray areas between good and evil aren’t as conflicting as I might have hoped.

But, where I was always battling with Mass Effect to get past what I saw as its shortcomings, the sophomore effort is so packed with atmosphere and improvements that problems have been barely a blip on my radar. Bioware has rightly stopped futzing around trying to be all things to all people and clearly established Mass Effect 2 as a story-driven shooter first with RPG frosting on top. For me, this was totally the right call.

The game opens with such force, awe inspiring moments that make you stop and simply stare at the world around you as it crumbles in fire and metal from the git-go, that you must actively resist declaring Mass Effect 2 game of the year before even arriving at the splash screen. Like a great episode of Battlestar Galactica where you get to the opening credits and feel like you’ve already watched seven episodes worth of good sci-fi, Mass Effect 2 doesn’t ask you to come in so much as it attaches hooks of pleasure to your eyeballs and drags you through the door by your faceholes!

Yes, I just said faceholes. Deal.

People can talk all they want about graphical improvements and AI teammates, but this game succeeds in what I think is now the most important factor in narrative driven games: acting. Scenes aren’t just set up as instances of action and inaction, so much as they are directed and framed in a theatrical sense. Staging and blocking are considered during crucial interactions, and characters are framed in ways that add weight and tension. All of this is only bolstered by top shelf voice talent including Martin Sheen in a prominent role.

All glory to the directors, artists and animators who breathed life into these characters. Silky smooth performance on my laptop with nary a glitch or bug to be found only helps the case.

I’m an angry, bitter old gamer whose sense of innocence has long since been buried under the memories of countless disappointments. It’s been a long time since I’ve sat at work and daydreamed about getting home to find out what happens next. I wonder how quickly I can get the kids to bed. Commander Shepherd’s gots killin’ to do.

Comments

Mass Effect 2 doesn’t ask you to come in so much as it attaches hooks of pleasure to your eyeballs and drags you through the door by your faceholes!

Sigged!

I'm chomping at the bit waiting for my copy to arrive from Amazon, especially since I just replayed ME1 and actually finished the storyline this time.

so how do I skep ME1 and just play ME2?

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat at worked and daydreamed about getting home to find out what happens next. I wonder how quickly I can get home. Commander Shepherd’s gots killin’ to do.

With a small change because I don't have kids, that was my entire day at work.

so how do I skep ME1 and just play ME2?

While I wasn't able to import my ME1 character -- played the first one on the 360 instead of the PC -- it is a little hard to imagine not being lost from the start without the context of the first game. I'm sure it stands on its own, but there is substantially more value for people who have played the previous version.

I agree with your assessment. Once I got past the fact that the RPG elements have been reduced, I started enjoying myself much more...

...but I still miss the loot.

For the PC, there are websites out there that has provided a bunch of save games.

Google search results here for those that either deleted the old saved games, or moved from 360 to PC.

I can't vouch for the safety of those sites, so user beware.

Elysium wrote:
so how do I skep ME1 and just play ME2?

While I wasn't able to import my ME1 character -- played the first one on the 360 instead of the PC -- it is a little hard to imagine not being lost from the start without the context of the first game. I'm sure it stands on its own, but there is substantially more value for people who have played the previous version.

To get caught up on what happened in ME1 without playing the game, I'd suggest watching this walkthrough playlist at Youtube.

Elysium wrote:
so how do I skep ME1 and just play ME2?

While I wasn't able to import my ME1 character -- played the first one on the 360 instead of the PC -- it is a little hard to imagine not being lost from the start without the context of the first game. I'm sure it stands on its own, but there is substantially more value for people who have played the previous version.

Actually, Tycho over on Penny Arcade just posted a link to a repository of Mass Effect PC saves for just such an occasion. You can pick from all the major plot decisions to choose how you want to affect your ME2 game.

Still waiting to hear about the inventory management for the 360.

Dammit. I was going to just keep replaying Dragon Age until this game hit the bargain bin.

Now my resolve wavers.

I guess in haste at some point I restarted my mass effect game character on a second play through in an effort to get to level 60 (never did). But I didn't keep a save of just finishing the first play through. So when I start ME2(on 360) I didn't have any 'Finished' save file to pull from, kinda disapointed but not enough to finish ME over again before poping in ME2. I just started up a new game made him look like my Shepard and gave him the same background as I had before. I know I'm losing some value but so far I am really enjoying playing this movie, er game.

wordsmythe wrote:

Still waiting to hear about the inventory management for the 360.

There's no inventory!

You can do some crew customizing on-board your ship, but no more reducing 50 things to omni-gel, one by one by freakin' one. I love it.

Clemenstation wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Still waiting to hear about the inventory management for the 360.

There's no inventory!

You can do some crew customizing on-board your ship, but no more reducing 50 things to omni-gel, one by one by freakin' one. I love it.

From what I can see, it seems that you upgrade your ammo types rather than getting new guns and such.

Clemenstation wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Still waiting to hear about the inventory management for the 360.

There's no inventory!

You can do some crew customizing on-board your ship, but no more reducing 50 things to omni-gel, one by one by freakin' one. I love it.

Do you have to visit each crew member's locker, or is there a central location for upgrading everyone?

Mere Anarchy wrote:

From what I can see, it seems that you upgrade your ammo types rather than getting new guns and such.

Ammo types (cryo, inferno, etc) are now activated skills rather than equippables. It looks like you can upgrade guns...

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Do you have to visit each crew member's locker, or is there a central location for upgrading everyone?

...From a single menu! You still have to walk to the armory, but it's not far from the galactic map. No elevator required.

Clemenstation wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Still waiting to hear about the inventory management for the 360.

There's no inventory!

You can do some crew customizing on-board your ship, but no more reducing 50 things to omni-gel, one by one by freakin' one. I love it.

Wah? No inventory?

I hated the inventory management system of the first game as much as anybody, but... does this mean there's no phat lewtz to acquire?

gore wrote:

Wah? No inventory?
I hated the inventory management system of the first game as much as anybody, but... does this mean there's no phat lewtz to acquire?

Most of the lewtz seems to be in the form of money and resources used to build and upgrade items. It's not that there isn't an inventory per se, you just can't access it outside your ship. When you purchase new armor or weapons the merchant sends them directly to the Normandy, you can't just equip them then and there, which is a bit annoying but not a deal-breaker.

ruhk wrote:
gore wrote:

Wah? No inventory?
I hated the inventory management system of the first game as much as anybody, but... does this mean there's no phat lewtz to acquire?

Most of the lewtz seems to be in the form of money and resources used to build and upgrade items. It's not that there isn't an inventory per se, you just can't access it outside your ship. When you purchase new armor or weapons the merchant sends them directly to the Normandy, you can't just equip them then and there, which is a bit annoying but not a deal-breaker.

Intriguing. It certainly makes more sense than lugging a U-Haul full of gear around with you, but I'm not sure yet how I feel about this. I played the PC version of the first game, and I felt that it struck a very good balance with its mix of RPG and shooter components.

Elysium says this game swings more shootery than the first game, and "no inventory" would certainly fit in with that picture. I guess I need to really think about whether I'm OK with this direction; I'm not sure how much further away from traditional RPG I want it to swing.

I spent most of yesterday like a fox in a trap gnawing my leg off, trying to figure out how I could play this. Sadly, neither of my PCs will handle it, and I have no Xbox. I am, indeed, the saddest of pandas.

The first game's "loot" was nothing special, I thought. Good riddance to it and the poorly-handled (even on PC) inventory system the game had.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:

I spent most of yesterday like a fox in a trap gnawing my leg off, trying to figure out how I could play this. Sadly, neither of my PCs will handle it, and I have no Xbox. I am, indeed, the saddest of pandas.

A solution to your problem.

ruhk wrote:
gore wrote:

Wah? No inventory?
I hated the inventory management system of the first game as much as anybody, but... does this mean there's no phat lewtz to acquire?

Most of the lewtz seems to be in the form of money and resources used to build and upgrade items. It's not that there isn't an inventory per se, you just can't access it outside your ship. When you purchase new armor or weapons the merchant sends them directly to the Normandy, you can't just equip them then and there, which is a bit annoying but not a deal-breaker.

Just to clarify, you don't always have to go back to the Normandy to change equipment. You can change weapons at any weapons locker, and any time you're prompted to choose your party members you should be able to choose their (and your) weapon loadout. As far as I can tell, though, you do have to go back to the ship to change armor.

The first game barely had "loot." Sure, there were different armor and weapons, but they all looked the same, basically, with just stat differences. I didn't exactly get excited to get a new kind of ammo or weapon upgrade.

I like the way ME2 handles it. You find a gun, and it's either a substantial upgrade or substantially different from what you already have. You can then upgrade from there. I don't need to find 100 "Plasma Rays of Hop Scotch" that I'm just going to sell. Make it easy on me.

Hefty prices to eat just before tax time, especially for only 2 games. But believe me, I considered it.

TheCounselor wrote:

I like the way ME2 handles it. You find a gun, and it's either a substantial upgrade or substantially different from what you already have.

Yeah, I like how there seems to be a lot of variation within weapon classes. In ME1 a new sniper rifle was always the same weapon with slightly better stats. In ME2 I only have two sniper rifles so far, but one is single-fire with 10 rounds per clip, and the other fires 3-shot bursts with a 45-round clip.

Clemenstation wrote:
Mere Anarchy wrote:

From what I can see, it seems that you upgrade your ammo types rather than getting new guns and such.

Ammo types (cryo, inferno, etc) are now activated skills rather than equippables. It looks like you can upgrade guns...

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Do you have to visit each crew member's locker, or is there a central location for upgrading everyone?

...From a single menu! You still have to walk to the armory, but it's not far from the galactic map. No elevator required.

You will also have a chance to revise your load out after the party selection screen when leaving the ship or after aquiring a new party member. But if you want to review what every possible character(you have attained) you can do it at the armory.

Haven't seen anything to give them different armor, only weapons, but I am only a few hours in myself and might have missed it. Any one know if different armor can be given to crew?

Did anyone with the 360 version install to HardDrive?

I was unsure after my multi-disc Forza3 debacle where I installed it through the 360 system but Forza3 wouldn’t recognize it because they had their own in-game install to HD program. I had to delete from the 360 memory and re-install in-game.

I didn’t see a menu option for this so I’m hoping just to install both discs like any other game.

gore wrote:

Dammit. I was going to just keep replaying Dragon Age until this game hit the bargain bin.

Now my resolve wavers.

Same here - plus I am buying/selling a home... Must resist!

I like the format of the "Snap Judgement" - am I right in thinking that these are new? If so, I'd love to see more of them in the future, particularly if paired with a Perspectives piece a few weeks later.

Angry Ginger wrote:

Did anyone with the 360 version install to HardDrive?

I was unsure after my multi-disc Forza3 debacle where I installed it through the 360 system but Forza3 wouldn’t recognize it because they had their own in-game install to HD program. I had to delete from the 360 memory and re-install in-game.

I didn’t see a menu option for this so I’m hoping just to install both discs like any other game.

Installed and it works fine, takes up 12 gigs. Doesn't preclude you from having to switch discs, though.