Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[frogbeastegg]

The game is now officially out in America so it's time for the gameplay thread. As requested by arena patrons, it's a zero spoiler tolerance thread. After precisely one month the thread will relax to the standard spoiler policy. Until that time:

All spoilers must go into spoiler tags!
However small you think the spoiler is, show consideration for your fellow org members and use the tags!
Mark the spoiler with a brief spoiler free description so people can tell whether they have seen that part of the game yet! Example below.

Spoiler for Mass Effect's setting:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's an intentional pastiche of 80's scifi

[Mailman653]

Ah, I was waiting for this thread. I've been glued to the game since I bought it, time sure flys. Still getting used to the controls a bit but so far it's all good. Saw some familiar faces, found out things that made me go wow.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Apparently there are massive issues with the Cerberus Network at each stage of registration, meaning DLC is unavailable for use. The main game is still playable, though.

[Wishazu]

Hopefully cerberus will be working by Friday. The game isn't out over here untill then.

[Monk]

Ahh ME2, how I longed to get this game and how I hated waiting every single day until it was released. It's been a long wait and thanks to the internet hype machine I don't think my expectations could have been any higher going in. Nothing short of being blown away would have satisfied me. I managed to get the game and have played through a sizable portion of it. I will not be discussing plot details, instead i'll be tackling structure, gameplay mechanics and feel. Bear in mind I am going to be generalizing a lot, as this is by and large a first impression

First off the structure of not only the story but the game. Bioware has been following the same formulea for years. Prologue, 4 plot missions, shock mission, final marathon stretch that reveals a huge surprise and leads you to your dramatic ending. That's present in ME2, but it feels as if its been expanded and improved upon somewhat. Yeah you read right - Bioware is actually begining refining the structure of the game. You will see familiarities between this game's mission set up and games like Dragon Age, Kotor, ect, but it was nice to reach what I thought was the end of the game only to find out it was the middle.

The combat in the first game was just terrible. I loved the first and yet I consider its combat to be horribly clunky and near broken. You couldn't depend on your squad mates to do anything so it lead to a lot of micro-managing, and the birth of my much talked about biotic jugglers.

Along comes ME2 and suddenly everything is different. Instead of being based around powers, the combat is now largely focused on cover mechanics.In the first it felt like cover was an after-thought but here it feels wonderfully implemented, cover combat feels very fluid but takes a LOT of getting used to. Once you do, though, don't be surprised if you're itching to get back into the action once you get to a story section. I read an interview that said Bioware spent all of the two years since ME1 working on the combat, and that's exactly what this feels like. The combat in ME2 is a huge plus but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. It still needs a few more steps before it's perfect like the GoW series (yes i just compared ME2's combat system to Gears of War. That is a good thing.)

Mini-games are still a bust in the ME series. The first one introduced a "simon says" decoder with your controller to unlock something. That's gone and instead you get games where the goal is to find matches (match 2 of a kind to unlock a door, ect). It's still painfully simple and doesn't engage you. I felt that I was just having my time wasted by those games Planetary scanning is rather annoying at first. The resource gathering is actually relatively well developed but it can get rather tedious to literally grind out the amounts you need for upgrades. Thankfully most upgrades need reasonable amounts of resource, but some of the later ones take ungodly amounts. I think with a little refinement (less planets with only resources and more with special goodies hidden on them) the scanning could a top notch feature.

Finally the story. I was really worried about halfway through that this game was about to pull a MW2 and go bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S ) but, thankfully, merficully, it did not. However ! The talk that this game can stand on its own plotwise is a rather hurtful lie told by ME2's marketing. If you did not play the first your enjoyment will be seriously impacted here, the amount of character added from importing a save versus not is rather ridiculous. Not to mention the game assumes you know some things right off the bat that you might not if you never played the first. To use an analogy I'm sure will soon be overused, it's like popping in Empire Strikes Back without having ever seen A New Hope. Sure it's still a great movie, but you're gonna be lost on a lot of the smaller things.

If you import a save an amazing thing happens. The more you play with your Shepard the more invested you get. The further and further I got into the game with my canonical ME1 shep, the more this felt like my universe. Like I was the one shaping this galaxy and turning it toward prosperity or mere survival. That was an amazing feeling and why I highly recommend importing. Not only will it serve to help you with the smaller plot threads, but it gives the game a whole new feel.

Those are my first impressions of ME2. Summerized:

Structure: We've seen it before, but it's got a few shiny new twists and turns!
Combat: Vastly improved and fun to take part in.
Mini-games: Hit and miss. Scanning is okay, everything else is juvenile.
Story: It's a second act of a three act play, it can't hide it no matter how much it tries. But still very enjoyable.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Users reporting that the Cerberus Network is fixed. All DLC now available.

[LeftEyeNine]

Is it true that the game itself feels like a form of cinematic art indeed ?

[Crazed Rabbit]

This may fit in the other thread as well, but here's a link to a large repository of saved games from ME1 that allow you to change what decisions you want your Shepard in ME2 to have made in ME1 by choosing different saved game files;
http://www.masseffectsaves.com/

CR

[Mailman653]

Well, I have the 360 version and I saw some threads on the xbox forum about the network not working properly. I suppose I am lucky when I saw that everything worked fine for me. Although I just started up the game and not only was there an update but a new piece of DLC which should of been there yesterday I think; guess they fixed whatever was wrong.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Any one catch those Star Trek references? I had a drink on Omega and Shep said "its...green" ha ha ha. Plus what are the chances you're engineer has that accent? And how about those bathrooms? I guess no one can complain that it's not "realistic" anymore.

[frogbeastegg]

Can someone with the xbox version tell me if achievements still give gameplay bonuses?

I don't expect to be playing this until the middle or end of next week. Nowhere beat amazon.co.uk's low price and their free postage tends to be slow. With a house to furnish I couldn't justify paying anything more than the lowest possible. Can't wait; I loved the original.

[Beskar]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Any one catch those Star Trek references? I had a drink on Omega and Shep said "its...green" ha ha ha. Plus what are the chances you're engineer has that accent? And how about those bathrooms? I guess no one can complain that it's not "realistic" anymore.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I always thought the suits were like the ones from Dune. Hence no need for bathrooms.

[Samurai Waki]

So far I'm VERY Impressed. I agree with pretty much everything Monk has said, unfortunately my old ME1 Save was long gone by the time I got this

[Mailman653]

Well, save your ME2 save this time, I'm more than certain you'll be able to port it onto ME3.

[Wishazu]

I can't wait, just another 31.5 hours before I can pick it up at my local Game. I think the first tough decision I'm going to have to make is which one of my 9 characters from ME1 I'm going to use first.

[Monk]

I already am regretting this but I completely marathoned ME2. Very close to the ending and expect to finish it when I get some time in the next couple days. Stepping away from this game can be tough at times, especially when there's tons to do! Done all the companion quests, love how they feel as integrated into the narrative as the story-missions. The Exploration quests feel a lot better but they could still use work.

It's interesting to see how your relationship with your crew can evolve over the course of the game, even though the loyalty system is a little shallow. If you talk to your crew each will eventually reveal a companion quest, some sooner than others. If you do this quest they become loyal, however, you also have the opportunity to lose loyalty with them by siding against them in a crisis. Various crew members are polar opposites of each other, and after you gain the loyalty of those opposites they will enter a situation where it's up to you to resolve it. You can side with one of them, or with enough charm/intimidate you can convince them to kill each other after the mission. The later of which is the only way to keep them both happy, as siding against someone means you lose their loyalty.

It reminds me of the way they treated Wrex in the first game, a great way to manage your party but I can't help but feel its simple in comparison to the approval system of Dragon Age.

I like the interrupt system in conversations and I think going forward this could be a lot of fun. It really lets the darker (or empathic, if you're paragon) side of your character shine through.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is nothing like pulling a gun on a doom saying krogan and blowing him up with a shot to a gas canister, quipping "You talk too much."

Well, save your ME2 save this time, I'm more than certain you'll be able to port it onto ME3.

The loading screen tooltips lead me to believe you're right.


The only thing I have not liked, aside from mini-games and other minor annoyances...

Romance plot spoilers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The game practically threw my Female Shep at Jacob Taylor. I was flirting with him before I even realized what was going on, and i was having to mash "NO! I DONT WANT IT! NO!" soon after. I guess the designers expect my shep to have some kinda connection with him. Well she doesn't, thank you.

Other than that subplots went as I intended.

Now I should probably get back to working on those various projects due

[Mailman653]

So who heard about the specter who...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Was the first Hanar spectre? ha ha ha, "enkindle this".

@Monk

It is hard to put down indeed, its easy to spend two hours on it and not even realize it. I'm already on the 2nd disk, 360 version. I thinking I should of played on the difficulty that comes after normal, oh well, there's next time....and plenty more, I know I'll be playing it over a few times between now and ME3.

[Monk]

@Monk

It is hard to put down indeed, its easy to spend two hours on it and not even realize it. I'm already on the 2nd disk, 360 version. I thinking I should of played on the difficulty that comes after normal, oh well, there's next time....and plenty more, I know I'll be playing it over a few times between now and ME3.

The biggest strength of the game is how much there is to do, I think. There's exploration and resource mining for when you want something light. Companion quests for when you want something as engaging as the main line (but dont want to advance it) and the main story when you're ready to tackle another major story element. They all feel like they are part of a greater whole, and doing one doesn't make you sigh - wishing you were doing another instead. Resource mining is a great start, but I still think we need more planets with hidden goodies and less planets devoted purely to raw materials.

As for difficulty, Veteran is not tough enough for me, I am hitting the Hardcore setting as soon as I can. I suspect that for many veterans of third person shooters (and those who ever completed insanity on the first game) will feel nothing short of Veteran+ will challenge them.

More on the combat - i like the hard counters introduced to the system. Certain powers are ineffective against shields, otehrs against armor. It makes you think about what to throw at who, and makes you panic a bit when you're getting charged by a krogan with full armor - but your ace in the hole power is ineffective against him. It makes load-outs like my biotic juggling team a lot harder to run. Kudos to Bioware for balancing out combat and keeping guys like me from air-juggling entire rooms at once!

[al Roumi]

Thanks for the info Monk and Mailman, my disk is in the post from amazon.co.uk, due to arrive tomorrow -on UK release day. Not going to get much time on it this weekend though, which is going to be hard for everyone around me probably :D

[Krusader]

Been playing ME2 for a bit and my thoughts.

I am disappointed in Bioware when it comes to the PC edition. There are no mappable keys for weapons, and the spacebar is used for 3 actions when it could have been split up among 3 different keys instead. Plus mousewheel support for menu scrolling and doubleclicking to open things (like messages, codex entries).

Also, the galaxy map thing...maybe it's just me, but I can't understand a damn thing and have absolutely no idea what my fuel consumption is, how much fuel I have and what the percentage indicator in upper left is for. There is no tutorial entries in the Codex either (Codex is also sloppy. No double-click to open and mousewheel can't be used to scroll down or up).
Can't see the value of the "fuel aspect".

The game is fun otherwise, but as I bought it on Steam I actually did not get a manual. I actually like manuals, because I can read them if there is something I don't understand.
I will echo Monk's statements though that combat is more tactical. I have to take cover whenever I get in a gunfight, as otherwise I'll take too much damage and early on you learn to switch between weapons and powers to take out enemies (what to use versus shields, barriers, armor and vorcha/krogan). I also like how squadmates take cover and having autouse of powers enabled, it seems they use them well enough.

[Beskar]

You could use a controller with it, if it is a keyboard problem. They are very comfortable to use. I recommend a xbox360 styled one.

Edit: They included no controller support, even though it is a port?!?! asofhkjshkjsdjkhjksahjhkjsdhfjkdhgkjh

[Wishazu]

Buy a 360 and play it on that.

[Mailman653]

There seems to be less character interaction than there used to be. Rarely have I seen two of Shep's team just randomly chat to each other while you're just doing whatever. As a matter of fact, one of the few times, maybe the only time, I heard two teamates talk was in regards to the elevators.

Still an awesome game though!

[Beskar]

Buy a 360 and play it on that.

No.

[Monk]

Been playing ME2 for a bit and my thoughts.

I am disappointed in Bioware when it comes to the PC edition. There are no mappable keys for weapons, and the spacebar is used for 3 actions when it could have been split up among 3 different keys instead. Plus mousewheel support for menu scrolling and doubleclicking to open things (like messages, codex entries).

Also, the galaxy map thing...maybe it's just me, but I can't understand a damn thing and have absolutely no idea what my fuel consumption is, how much fuel I have and what the percentage indicator in upper left is for. There is no tutorial entries in the Codex either (Codex is also sloppy. No double-click to open and mousewheel can't be used to scroll down or up).
Can't see the value of the "fuel aspect".

Traveling between stars will pop up your fuel gauge and use it up, using Mass Relays and traveling inside a star-system doesn't require fuel. The % is the extent to which you've explored that star system.

There are some tutorials on your private terminal onboard your ship but there's only 3 of them and they largely focus on combat and squad control.

[Kekvit Irae]

For me, the game SUCKS, and here's why:
(copied and modified from my own post on Bioware's forum)

1. Unable to map the Backspace and Delete keys. I use the arrow keys for movement (I hate WASD), and I used Backspace for the tactical HUD and Delete for holstering my weapon in ME1. Why can't I do that here?

2. Unable to remap certain functions. More specifically, during hacking, the Spacebar is still used to select the codes when hacking a bank terminal or similar item, and there is no way to map that function elsewhere. The control scheme makes me wish I bought the 360 version instead.

3. No manual crouch. I don't like using cover just to crouch.

4. Scanning worlds is slower than two Elcor doing the rumpy pumpy. I have to reposition my mouse several times when moving from pole to pole. At the very least, you could have made it only SLIGHTLY slower than moving the mouse when not scanning.

5. Storm uses the same key as Use and Cover. No, I don't want to accidentally go into cover when running. Keep those two keys seperate.

6. Miranda needs to lay off the Botox. There's only so much of that perpetual smirk I can take before I start shooting.

7. I like being able to Storm outside of combat. I don't like being restricted to fatigue outside of combat.

8. Speaking of fatigue, give us the visual indicator back! I don't like having to rely solely on "burst firing" Storm to get across a station quicker just because the only way I can tell if I'm fatigued is a very subtle audio cue. It also doesn't help the deaf ME gamers (of which my roommate is one of).

9. The new health system. Wow, health that regenerates after a few seconds if you don't get shot. I haven't seen this before! Oh wait, I have. In a hundred other games produced this decade.

10. Medigel is worthless now unless you find upgrades or if your squad dies.

11. The cover system is too overused.

12. The lack of an inventory system and weapon/armor mods no longer makes collecting a tactical decision; it removes collecting all-together.

13. The Day One DLC cant hold a candle to the Day One DLC of Dragon Age (the Normandy Crash pack would have made more of an emotional impact if it unlocked half-way through the game, not at the very beginning when the original Normandy was still fresh in our minds).

14. The DLC armor give you no option to remove the helmets. If you want to wear it, you're stuck looking like a crab, a medieval reject, or someone who got lost on his or her way to Red Faction.

15. The human embassy room is the only place on the Presidium you can go to? Lame.

16. This isn't Mass Effect. This is Gears of War.


Love the story and interactions, hate the game.

[rajpoot]

So err, what happens if you let the council die in the first game? Or if they're kept alive? I mean I'm asking for spoilers here, hope that's OK.....I'd be grateful if someone who's already playing could oblige, with tags of course....

[Beskar]

I got Xpadder to work well with the game, which is good. However, still need KB+M for the hacking options.

The skill selection has been completely simplified.

Armour selection has been completely simplified.

Weapon selection has been completely simplified.

You now require Ammo?


Not impressed with that.

[johnhughthom]

You now require Ammo?

Umm, doesn't that go against the lore of the original?

[Krusader]

Been doing the planetary/mineral scan minigame and I'd gladly have the Mako back. It felt boring and I'm probably doing it wrong when I usually use 30 probes per planet.

Mass Effect 2 is still a good game, but I think I won't be looking that forward to Mass Effect 3.

[Beskar]

Umm, doesn't that go against the lore of the original?

Yes. In the original, ammo was basically grains of sand, thus you pretty much had unlimited. The only issue was the overheating of weapons.

They decided now, to add "thermal clips", which they argue keeps the weapon cool enough for a certain amount of shots, which basically means, you got ammo.