Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[frogbeastegg]

Finally! 15 hours on and it's picking up. I have enough upgrades that the combat is a little less bad, Ilium is loaded with absolutely brilliant interactions and dialogue (I want that bartender in my party, now!) and the 'gone for shopping effect' may have finally ended. Miranda's personal quest made her more bearable.

I have decided that I also dislike the global power cooldown which replaces the individual power cooldown of the first game. It seems like I am always waiting for my squad to let 12 seconds pass so I can get them to try again (they keep hitting walls instead of targets) or that the opportunity created by using one power goes unexploited because I can't follow it up with a different power for a long time. Or the AI uses a power and I have to wait for 12 seconds to pass before I can ask for the one I need them to use. It also makes power combos next to impossible. I miss hitting big nasties with overload -> warp. No way to influence cooldown times either.

spoilers for a meeting on Horizon

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Kaiden was delighted to see Shepard instead of the usual "Meh" reaction. Then he realised who she was working for and there was a nicely done argument about it, with him saying all the things I have been. Cue massive falling out and him leaving. He sent an email later, apologising and asking for time to get used to the idea of Shepard being alive. AND this when he already knew I might be alive!

spoilers for a person you meet on Ilium

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Liara was also very happy to see me, and didn't act as though I'd been off shopping for a weekend.

It's more like going from "Military forces" to "CIA or some other black ops agency".

Cerberus are a completely independent, self funded political and paramilitary organisation which likes to perform terrorist attacks, illegal experiments, torture people, assassinate, murder, blackmail, intimidate, and has a political ideology which says "This one tiny group which is the same as us is fine, everyone else is so much rubbish lying in our way and needs to be removed."

It's like going from the army to the IRA, Nazis, Al Quaeda or similar extreme group.

It's also a group which spent a lot of the last game trying to kill my Shepard and crew, and which killed people she knew and liked. And she joins up because the man in charge of the organisation claims they are doing good against an unsubstantiated threat. She doesn't question much, she doesn't demand proof, she doesn't try to join any alternate group, and she doesn't even question their improbable story about the Lazerus project. No, she just nods her little head and goes "Ok." Brain damaged.



What is this frogger mini game people keep mentioning? The only mini game I remember in ME1 is Simon says to hack or open locks. Is it something they added for the PC port?

[Kekvit Irae]

What is this frogger mini game people keep mentioning? The only mini game I remember in ME1 is Simon says to hack or open locks. Is it something they added for the PC port?

The yellow blocks are stationary and simply block your path with no further disadvantage. The red blocks circle around and will take you to the outer ring if hit. The objective is to get the curser to the inner ring. Harder difficulty locks have more blocks of both colors.


And there's already a mod out for the ammo. It turns the ammo into the pre-release version, which regenerates on its own.

http://www.annakie.com/me/mods.htm

SUMMARY:
This mod restores Mass Effect 2 to the hybrid ammo system seen in some of the earlier preview videos: you can fire until you run out of ammo and eject your clip like in this game, but you can also sit and have it recover with time.

Note that in this version there is no longer a way to manually reload your weapon, but there is still tactical benefit in that you can choose to either reload a clip or wait a bit for it to reload. Even with no clips in your weapon, the slow reload will still work - but will still be less effective than simply finding a new clip.

INSTALLATION:
- Drop this in your Mass Effect 2 install folder and it should work from there

UNINSTALLATION:
- Head to Mass Effect 2\BioGame\Config\Pc\Cooked and delete Coalesced.ini, then rename the included backup to Coalesced.ini, and you're golden.

FUTURE PLANS/CONTACT:
- This mod makes many weapons reaaaally unbalanced, especially those with high ammo capacities like the SMG - it simply replenishes ammo too fast, and that can't be slowed down without crippling other guns. Possible workarounds would be to lower SMG ammo capacity or to increase it for other guns. Tell me what you think.

[Beskar]

Frogbeastegg was the frogger champion in High School and won a few national awards for her abilities.

[frogbeastegg]

I see. Huh, glad that wasn't in the console version.

Frogbeastegg was the frogger champion in High School and won a few national awards for her abilities.

I doubt I've played more than 20 minutes of Frogger if you added up all its various incarnations. Arcade games aren't my thing; too simple, too repetitive, and I don't care about high scores. Not fond of falling block puzzles or match 3 games either. Drives me crazy when games shoehorn in obligatory mini games based on these styles.

Besides, I get enough of the 'frog attempts to cross busy road without dying' thing on my walk to work and back.



I've done a few more hours and I have to say that ME2 is on a definite upward curve. The second tier of party members are thus far more interesting than the first, the personal missions reveal some juicy stuff about the first tier of party members, and the game overall is that little bit more enjoyable. The illogical is being shoved into the background more, and people are finally asking the questions I'd expected to see in the first hours. Scary thought: I completed my Insanity run of ME1 in 8 hours. It's taken twice that time for ME2 to get good.

[Mailman653]

If you talk to Joker after a mission, you can ask him what he thinks of the crew, and he will give you an opinion of the two people you went on the mission with. Speaking of Joker, I think him and EDI go well together.

[Krusader]

If you talk to Joker after a mission, you can ask him what he thinks of the crew, and he will give you an opinion of the two people you went on the mission with. Speaking of Joker, I think him and EDI go well together.

Aye. But also occasionally run past the two engineers. They will have comments on new squadmates, ship upgrades and such.

[Kekvit Irae]

Aye. But also occasionally run past the two engineers. They will have comments on new squadmates, ship upgrades and such.

Gabby: Did you know that there's a woman down in the engine?
Kenneth: If she touches anything, I'm going to go down there and kick her off the ship!
Gabby: She's also wearing nothing from the waist up but tattoos.
Kenneth: Oh, well then, I might have to go down there and greet her.
Gabby: Did I mention she can rip you in two with her biotics?
Kenneth: Damn it, woman! Stop teasing me!

I love those two.



EDIT: Also, I am sad that the achievements do absolutely nothing in the game anymore. I miss all the little benefits they gave you in ME1.

[Ironside]

It's also a group which spent a lot of the last game trying to kill my Shepard and crew, and which killed people she knew and liked. And she joins up because the man in charge of the organisation claims they are doing good against an unsubstantiated threat. She doesn't question much, she doesn't demand proof, she doesn't try to join any alternate group, and she doesn't even question their improbable story about the Lazerus project. No, she just nods her little head and goes "Ok." Brain damaged.

I think that you end up with plenty (I suspect more than two) of your old crew members, makes the transition a bit more easy. If plenty of your old crew joins a faction that tried to kill them earlier, they probably had a good reason. And they can comfirm that the Lazerous project is what they say it is.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you remeber passing out due to suffication and add that no mysterious vessel picked you up moments after (which you can confirm by the people in the life pods), you can conclude that you were dead, really dead.

And you get the idea that the council wouldn't help you with any more resources than what you already got (spectre status+ ship with crew+ better intel).
You can be quite clear that it's an alliance of convenience (well rather desperation) during several conversations if you want to as well.
So stretching, but not brain damaged.

[rajpoot]

When I tried the planetary scanning mini game, the first thought I had was that the chaps over at Bioware had done it out of spite, to make all the critics of ME1's Mako relent their comments. Then I remembered that it was Bioware and they're a decent lot who make nice games, so they must have had other reasons....
Anyway,
Likes -
The story.
The larger number of companions.
The way ME1's small decisions actually matter (I wish I had my own save games....)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It was a great fuzzy feeling to get a message from the Rachni queen and see Shiala on Illium....

Dislikes -
New combat system.
Ammo system.
The new mini games.....give me the old one any day.
Lack of inventory.

Mass Effect wasn't about the combat, it was about the nice story and the characters......they shouldn't have changed that....I mean the characters are still pretty engaging, but the combat has become rather complicated for my tastes....

[frogbeastegg]

The best tip for the planetry scan mini game is to tap the scan button instead of holding it while moving the cursor about. Makes it all go much faster. Also check the research console after recruiting the assassin ...



To be clear, I dislike the Cerberus thing at the start because Shepard does not have good motivation at the time when she signs up, not because I don't want to play along. It's an idea that has a lot of potential, and I hate the fact it starts out with a great big "DUR!" and then has to spend hours recovering from that.

I think that you end up with plenty (I suspect more than two) of your old crew members, makes the transition a bit more easy. If plenty of your old crew joins a faction that tried to kill them earlier, they probably had a good reason.

If anything I find that makes it worse. None of my crew have given me a truly sound reason for joining. I hear a lot of "I'm here because you're here." and "Didn't get to run off and hunt reapers, and this untrustworthy organisation said that they would so I swapped sides because everyone knows liars can be believed." or "Cerberus has cool toys, wee!" She doesn't get to meet them until after she's signed the dotted line, either.

From Shepard's POV at the start of the game, she's got nothing to work on other than the word of a guy she should not trust, and the fact she's being kept - or held - in a medical facility by an organisation that does nasty experiments on living people. If anything it would be natural for her to assume she was a prisoner and had been tortured or experimented on. Especially with that first wake up scene, which she remembers when she wakes up the second time. And the logical, immediate source of a pick up ship is the only other ship she knew to be in the area at the time. That would be her attacker. Shepard is eager and happy to take Cerberus' word for everything. She isn't given proof of anything at this point; the Illusive Man could be doing the old "[lie]Yes, we fight to save the galaxy!" dialogue option for all she knows.

She has absolutely no reason to trust the Illusive Man, and no reason to roll over and play ball so quickly. But the dialogue choices are "Ok!" and "Ok, cool!" No option for even a token refusal.

And you get the idea that the council wouldn't help you with any more resources than what you already got (spectre status+ ship with crew+ better intel).

For a paragon Shepard that's all the more reason to baulk at joining. Besides, it's the Illusive Man who tells her that. Would he say otherwise at that time?

ou can be quite clear that it's an alliance of convenience (well rather desperation) during several conversations if you want to as well.

Only after I'd joined up and done some missions. At the start, when it would have made the most sense, I couldn't question at all. I got to be more sceptical about joining the Spectres in the first game than I did about signing up with Cerberus.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Is there any way to remove those vastly moronic red veins that infest your screen whenever you get critically injured?!

I just quit w/o saving because I absolutely could not stand them.

EDIT: Oh, SON OF A *#@)($&@(%)*&(. Apparently there's no way to remove it and fanboys and devs just say "Don't get shot".

Were I a violent man and they in the same room, I'd shoot them in the kneecaps.

SECOND EDIT: And then I'd say, "Oh, don't like it? Don't get shot."

CR

[Mailman653]

If you have the PC version, maybe you can find a mod for it?

[Crazed Rabbit]

If you have the PC version, maybe you can find a mod for it?

I'm looking, haven't found anything yet. I'm still hoping there's just some file I can delete and make the horribleness go away.

Seriously, I'm not playing again until I fix this. I didn't get a 1960x1080 2ms monitor just to see it covered with chicken entrails.

CR

[Beskar]

I'm looking, haven't found anything yet. I'm still hoping there's just some file I can delete and make the horribleness go away.

Seriously, I'm not playing again until I fix this. I didn't get a 1960x1080 2ms monitor just to see it covered with chicken entrails.

CR

Could be worse, you could get shot once then have to wait around in the medical ward for a few hours for some stitches, etc, then get charged $500 or so for the service. Could be an expensive line of work.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Is there any way to remove those vastly moronic red veins that infest your screen whenever you get critically injured?!

I just quit w/o saving because I absolutely could not stand them.

EDIT: Oh, SON OF A *#@)($&@(%)*&(. Apparently there's no way to remove it and fanboys and devs just say "Don't get shot".

Were I a violent man and they in the same room, I'd shoot them in the kneecaps.

SECOND EDIT: And then I'd say, "Oh, don't like it? Don't get shot."

CR

How did you survive playing Gears of War and Call of Duty?