Mass Effect 2 gameplay thread

[a completely inoffensive name]

Heaven forbid you just stay in cover and wait for natural breaks in the shooting.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Also, I am planning on playing with a imported ME1 perfect paragon character that I downloaded from an awesome website that hosts different versions of ME1 shepard, gonna see what the difference is between import and starting brand new. I hear it's night and day.

[al Roumi]

Also, I am planning on playing with a imported ME1 perfect paragon character that I downloaded from an awesome website that hosts different versions of ME1 shepard, gonna see what the difference is between import and starting brand new. I hear it's night and day.

Well being still-mid way through my first game, with an imported Renegade Shep (who had enough "moral" points left to save the council), I can't make a compariosn, but I can give you an inkling:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A fair bit of work seems to have gone in to linking the two episodes -this you've probably already seen even with a new Shep. I have to say, I think almost every quest you completed in ME1 is at least footnoted in ME2. This comes out in the game on the lightest side with an email of thanks, through minor encounters to mini quests (e.g. Conrad V and the investigator from Noveria). Some characters from ME1 are built right in to the main plot (e.g. Nassana, Harkin).

I'm sure you'll get the same kinds of spam email and quests irrespective of importing or not, but the difference between an import or new Shep are in the dialogue and relationships you have with these people. I do find it more satisfying to note what I've done, and have at times felt a pang of guilt at being a hard-ass in ME1.

Then again, there are more opportunities to be blunt and rude in ME2. The interrupts are a good idea and fun, the only one I haven't used so far is...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

When Miranda shoots Nikahl (sp?) on Illium, he had it coming.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Heaven forbid you just stay in cover and wait for natural breaks in the shooting.

Yes, because removing the red veins now means I'm invincible and don't have to do that.

Well I played a fair bit last night and here's my impressions (not much in the way of spoilers, just didn't want to take up too much space);

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I really like the new squad ordering system. Easy to order your 'henchmen' around in real time. I'm liking the new characters as well.

Overall, they have simplified the interesting stuff and added complexity to the boring stuff. The last game had too many different brands of armor; one was usually the best and the rest just got in the way of collecting that good armor. Same with the weapons. So now they've done away with inventory completely, instead of just reducing the different brands of armor.

I also like being able to significantly change how weapons worked with the mods you could add. Now you can't, though you are provided with weapons that are actually different, instead of just reskinned versions, in terms of rate of fire and damage.

As was mentioned, this is now a cover shooter. I don't think I like it as much. In ME1 I'd run around dodging enemy attacks and crouching behind cover while using the various powers. Here, because of the mechanics you get killed quickly if you're caught by a couple mooks in the open. So the order of the day is to go to a new planet, get behind cover, shoot at the enemy when they pop up from the cover they're behind, get shot a couple times, duck back behind cover, repeat until all enemies dead then go to another planet. Because you're really only using the mouse to attack, and not any keys to move, it's less exciting.

Why can't games just provide crouch and lean options and let you use cover more freely, instead of this 'sticky' sort of cover? Not being able to crouch if you're not right behind cover in this game is perplexing. And now we have ammo, which is odd. The first game had the neat overheating concept, and fun ways to manipulate it with mods. But reloading isn't as bad as the limits to how much ammo you can carry. It's a shame.

And then we have the added complexity in areas like moving around the galaxy and planet scanning. I have to ask why. The old system functioned fine, and I don't see any improvements offered by having to pilot the Normandy around, only added time. And then we've got planet scanning, which is like a mini-game, except boring and tedious. Why would they force Shepard, on a ship with a full crew, to personally scan a planet and direct probes? I guess they felt they couldn't simply reward clicking on one survey button with a heap of resoruces, so they added the price of tedium.

The whole fuel system is annoying; for one when you run out, you simply jump FTL to the nearest fuel store. Why can't you just FTL to other star systems? Fuel and lame scanning simply act as a disincentive to explore.

Oh well, I should've known not to expect great combat. I did get the game mainly for the story.

Question about planet-scanning; is it necessary to get enough resources, or are the resources you gather not completely necessary to getting enough upgrades? I don't want to spend a bunch of time having to do an ensign's job.

CR