Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[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?

[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.

[Greyblades]

Huh, It would make more sense, in-universe anyway, if they were energy cells, unlimited bullets dont mean squat if you dont have energy to propel them.

[frogbeastegg]

The game arrived yesterday, by some miracle of postal competence. I'm 5 hours in. The things I like are all to be expected because they're obvious. Things like how closely it ties in to the original game, the cinematic conversations, the little touches such as my Shepard having a picture of Kaiden in her quarters, etc.

The things I'm not liking, oh boy.

I hate the new interface. Tiny, hard to see, missing information that I relied on in the first game.

The new style area map. Again, tiny. It takes up less than 1/4 of my screen and can't be zoomed in on.

My squad seems to be hyperactive and loves to run off leaving me alone in combat while they stand behind a pillar on the far side of the area doing nothing.

I hate, hate, hate the new ammo system! It adds nothing and cramps my gameplay quite badly. "Oh look, a perfect situation for me to go sniper and support my team as they close in with biotics and tech powers. Oh look, 5 shots later and I'm out of ammo. Back to plugging away with the pistol it is, then. Weee!"

Gun balance so far is even worse than the first game. Sniper and pistol are useful, everything else either does fractional damage or is inaccurate as heck. The assault rifle takes an entire clip to drop a single weak enemy, assuming you burst fire and aim carefully. I used to rely on my assault rifle.

I miss customising my weapons.

[Oliver Twist] Please, sir, I want some loot.[/Oliver Twist]

What's with the waves of individual enemies coming out of a 'locked' door in the combat area to replace ones which died?

I despise the new galaxy map. it's rubbish, confusing, needless, and horrible to deal with.

The new mini games can get deleted now, please, All rubbish, all a pain to play, and all completely needless. I was sick to death of planet scanning before I'd finished my first one, and the other two aren't any better.

Can I turn the tutorial off now please? How about Now? Now? Please, shut up and stop spamming me with messages about how to breathe!

But they wont tell me about the things which could have used explanation. Like how the crappy new mini games work.

Speaking of messages, some flash up on screen for less than a second. These are the ones I want to read. Others in the same type of box sit there for ages. These are the ones I do not want to read.

No in-party banter while travelling.

I don't like any of the party members I've found so far. I've got 4.

Oh goodie, I have some levels to spend at the beginning because I ported my game over. Let's see what we've got. Four abilities?! FOUR!? Each with four levels!? That's IT!? And some of those levels cost more points than I gain per level up so it appears that I'm going to spend a lot of time with the interface flashing and nagging at me to spend points when I can't because I need to save up.

Paragon and renegade points shower down on Shepard like confetti. My paragon bar is nearly 1/3 full already! Aligned dialogue options are everywhere and are always guaranteed and easy to get. Blergh. I got a discount in every single shop in that first major area simply by walking around and using the paragon option, and then waltzed around successfully charming people in situations where it made no sense whatsoever. Those options used to be a bit special, and had requirements before you could use them.

Why does Shepard still move so slowly?

Observation: sticking several zeroes on the price of every item does not make the start of th game epic or high level. It makes it a pain to keep track of how much money you have because someone chose to use microfont 2.0 so my resource pool requires a magnifying glass to be readable.

What was the point of that dramatic beginning? Everything which is lost is handed right back 5 minutes later.

And the big hairy deal which is destroying my enjoyment of the plot thus far: who I'm working with and how it was done. Shepard basically shrugs her shoulders and says "Ok." and that's it, I'm working for one of the major enemies in the first game. A corp which killed people Shepard liked, tried to kill her, which committed a bunch of completely hideous experiments, and was the space going equivalent to the nazis. I'm blaming it on brain damage during the reconstruction.

Which reminds me, the whole lazerus concept is ludicrous even for space opera.

Thought for the day: Why does the game wait until I put the controller down to relax during a cutscene before offering an interrupt? Does it have a sensor which checks if Im still holding the controller before triggering them?

Where are the side quests? I've been to and scoured the citadel, my ship and the first real planet/asteroid base thingy and I've turned up a bare handful.

Why is Shepard and crew obsessed with drawing their weapons in certain designated areas? I'll clear all of the enemies out and then each time I talk to someone or interact with something they draw their weapons again. So I have to put them away again. For no reason.

No mako? But some of the coolest moments from the first game involved the mako. :(

And why is barely anyone surprised or pleased to see Shepard? They act like she was tagged with week long quarantine for a cold instead of KIA.

[White_eyes:D]

And the big hairy deal which is destroying my enjoyment of the plot thus far: who I'm working with and how it was done. Shepard basically shrugs her shoulders and says "Ok." and that's it, I'm working for one of the major enemies in the first game. A corp which killed people Shepard liked, tried to kill her, which committed a bunch of completely hideous experiments, and was the space going equivalent to the nazis. I'm blaming it on brain damage during the reconstruction.

Which reminds me, the whole lazerus concept is ludicrous even for space opera.

And why is barely anyone surprised or pleased to see Shepard? They act like she was tagged with week long quarantine for a cold instead of KIA.

I am guessing you didn't talk to about 90% of the Crew.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Most of them were thrown away by the "Alliance and Council" because they supported Shepard's opinion about the "Reapers returning". As you play though the game you will see that "Cerberus" is the only one willing to do anything about them.(As far as I could see)

About the KIA thing...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I am guessing they didn't see your corpse or something. I recall Joker or someone mentioned that the "Alliance" tried to sweep the "Reaper threat" under the rug(By saying Shepard was KIA right away)."Much easier to blame pirates and slavers" -The Illusive man

[Kekvit Irae]

The new mini games can get deleted now, please, All rubbish, all a pain to play, and all completely needless. I was sick to death of planet scanning before I'd finished my first one, and the other two aren't any better.

They are annoying, but are certainly more logical than playing Simon (360) or Frogger (PC).

No in-party banter while travelling.

It depends on where you're at and who you're with. Garrus and Tali have a really amusing conversation at the Citadel when walking up/down the stairs.

Garrus: Don't you miss our conversations in the elevators?
Tali: No.
Garrus: I could ask about your immunity, or what's under your mask.
Tali: I have a shotgun.
Garrus: Maybe some other time.

Oh goodie, I have some levels to spend at the beginning because I ported my game over. Let's see what we've got. Four abilities?! FOUR!? Each with four levels!? That's IT!? And some of those levels cost more points than I gain per level up so it appears that I'm going to spend a lot of time with the interface flashing and nagging at me to spend points when I can't because I need to save up.

Another thing I hated. I liked having a lot of skills, even if they were mostly weapons. It gave me a choice. You CAN, however, research a fifth skill of your choice once you get the research data, and you're not stuck with that skill if you don't like it.

Paragon and renegade points shower down on Shepard like confetti. My paragon bar is nearly 1/3 full already! Aligned dialogue options are everywhere and are always guaranteed and easy to get. Blergh. I got a discount in every single shop in that first major area simply by walking around and using the paragon option, and then waltzed around successfully charming people in situations where it made no sense whatsoever. Those options used to be a bit special, and had requirements before you could use them.

To be fair, the new Paragon/Renegade QTEs are pretty nice. But... you don't need any points to do them, and they will always work regardless of your Paragon/Renegade status.

What was the point of that dramatic beginning? Everything which is lost is handed right back 5 minutes later.

Convenient plot point to get rid of all the characters we loved and bring in others we don't. At least Tali is back.

Where are the side quests? I've been to and scoured the citadel, my ship and the first real planet/asteroid base thingy and I've turned up a bare handful.

There are actually quite a few sidequests in the game. Just not a lot in the first area. You can also find them by visiting uncharted worlds. You'll need to scan them to find them, but if EDI doesn't say anything about "Anomoly Detected", there's no sidequest there.

No mako? But some of the coolest moments from the first game involved the mako. :(

I enjoy the lack of the M35 "Drunken Monkey" Mako. I don't like how it was replaced by the new galaxy travel system.


EDIT: Oh, and another thing I'll add to the list of things I don't like about the game. The damn fish! You have to go up to your cabin to feed them every five minutes or they die. At least Kelly will feed them for you if you get her in the sack, but that's midway through the game. Fortunately, my hamster doesn't require feeding. I'm going to make a new ME2 character based off of Minsc and do nothing but look at my new space hamster.

[gaelic cowboy]

I ended up finishing it there last tuesday night at about 5 in the morning god I have not done that for years.

I am already salivating for the last one its sad I know.

The planetary scanning is pants get rid it Bioware or reform it at the least and another minor quibble the lack of a baddie to boo at like Saren kind of felt a bit lacking for me but overall its my game of the year already

[gaelic cowboy]

I feel this might have significance later

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I am guessing everyone has kind of copped it but I think that saving the Rachni and rewriting the Geth will be rewarded with them saving the council later in ME3 my guess is they plus the Krogan will fulfill the ewok role so to speak against the Reapers

I have just realised that I both love and hate this game as in I hate the silly stuff we can do without like minigames but I am in love with the story and interaction .

To be honest if there were only four weapons and one suit of armor for the character I would not mind in the slightest.

Still my favorite game of the year even with all the things I hate in it and reading the thread I realised there were a lot of them I hated I still cant wait for the next instalment of the story.

[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.

[Kekvit Irae]

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....

Nothing major. Whether or not the Council lives or dies has no effect on the game. I haven't played through with an "evil" character on Mass Effect 1 and exported it to Mass Effect 2 yet, so I only know of the "good" playthrough. Making a pre-generated character instead of an imported character will always result in the Council dying.

Council lives:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Minor dialogue throughout the game, and you get to briefly speak with the Council and Ambassador Udina/Anderson (again, depending on who you choose in ME1) about reinstatement to the Spectres once you arrive on the Presidium. They become so arrogant, it's almost worth killing them in ME1, as they outright refuse to acknowledge everything about the Reapers. They believe Sovereign was a highly-advanced Geth ship rather than a Reaper. Choosing to be reinstated into the Spectres has no effect on gameplay either.

[Mailman653]

I finished the game earlier today, it was awesome! I'm gonna totally go through it again soon. I could of sworn ME1 was longer eventhough this game has two disks, I couldn't put either game down yet I recall ME1 lasting longer, I don't know.

I don't like how you get notified for side missions though, in ME1 if you were in a system you'd get a distress call or get a com signal from the Alliance about something they want you to check out. In ME2, if you don't go out looking for it, you'll never find it cause hardly anyone tells you, hey this is going on in that planet or something, check it out. Although I suppose it goes back to the theme of the game, mission first, everyone else second.

[Kekvit Irae]

Apparently not EVERYTHING in ME1 transfers over smoothly in ME2. When I met Conrad the fan in Illium, he told me I shoved a gun in his face (the Renegade option in ME1) two years ago. My character is pure Paragon, and certainly didn't choose the Renegade choice, so maybe the writers got sloppy about him.

[rajpoot]

@ Kekvit Irae
Thank you. I was going to download a ME1 save file you know, so I thought might as well as download the one which gives the best paragon results in ME2.