Mass Effect 2 - Episode 1
It's here it's here it's here!
Welcome to Mass Effect 2. Also known as Holy Crap Look How Much Better The Graphics Are, also known as Yay My Guns Work Right Again, also known as I Love Grenade Launchers.
I just want to run down some things that are different from the first game, in terms of game play, so that you'll understand what's going on.
First, remember how in 1 if I fired my gun too long it overheated and beeped at me and I had to wait for it to cool down or switch to a new one? That's gone. Instead for 2 (and 3) I'll be picking up 'thermal clips'. Thermal clips keep guns from overheating. If I run out, I can't fire, and I have to find more (or switch to a new gun). So it's not ammo, but it's basically ammo. It sounds like a bad deal at first - losing unlimited ammo for crap you have to pick up all the time? But trust me, it's more than worth it to be able to open my assault rifle into a bad guy's face without stopping. See alternate title above.
Another weapons change from 1 - there actually were various modifications and different ammo types you could choose, but you had to go into a menu and then a sub menu to switch and I didn't do it often and edited it out when I did. And it didn't effect what the gun looked like. In 2 and 3 your ammo modifications are a little different. They appear in your weapons/power screen/whatever you want to call it. So I can switch between different ammo mods in battle very quickly. They also color the gun. If I'm using warp ammo, a favorite of mine (I believe the tech explanation is a mass effect field coating the bullets, or something....it kills things faster, that's all I know) there will be some glowing purple parts on my gun. If I use incendiary ammo, red glowing parts. Etc.
And speaking of that weapons/power screen - in 1 I had a radar in the corner of my screen that showed me enemies and pointed me towards my next objective, and it was on screen all the time. In 2 and 3 I still have it, but I have to go to that weapons/power screen to see it. So that'll be popping up more often if I need to check where I'm going on want to see where the enemies are.
Finally, 2 and 3 have paragon and renegade interrupts. That is, at various points of the game, you may see a picture flash on the screen of a computer mouse - if it's on the left side of the screen and flashing red, it's a renegade interrupt, and I click the left button of my mouse to use it. If it's flashing on the right side and it's blue, it's a paragon interrupt, and I click the right mouse button to use it. Interrupts are just that - they interrupt whatever is going on (usually dialogue) with a paragon or renegade action or dialogue. You get extra paragon/renegade points for taking them. Obviously I take a lot of the paragon interrupts, but I take a few renegade ones too. Because they're usually funny.
And once again, the first mission(s) have prompts to make sure I know how to use my controls. Can't turn em off, sorry. And some of them are vocal in this game, so when I do something really fast and the person telling me how to do it doesn't get to finish before I've done it, they just get cut off and it sounds weird, but whatever, I'm not slowing down for them.
And now, for some post watching thoughts! No spoilers for future episodes, just this one, once you watch it's safe to read.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
So yeah, lets raise a toast to the dearly departed dead: To Pressly, other Normandy crew members, and mostly to Shepard's badass eyebrow scar. Fuck you Cerberus, I liked that scar. I mean, thanks for the whole bringing me back from the dead bit, but did I ask you to fix my scar? No. No I did not. Bite me.
Ahem.
Anyway, there you have it. A lot of changes for Shepard to deal with all at once. For the record, I tear up EVERY SINGLE TIME during the reveal of the new Normandy. But then, I'm not particularly emotionally stable when it comes to this series.
I didn't go through a lot of the investigating dialogue at the very beginning because a lot of it is info you get/can get later in a more interesting/organic way - I just don't think Shepard would stop to ask that many questions while mechs were actively firing on them, and if you skip asking questions when you first run into Jacob, but ask him questions after you kill the mechs/before you go for Wilson, some of the dialogue assumes you DID ask him those first questions. "You said I'd been gone for two years..." Uh, no, no he didn't, I didn't have that conversation with him. I like saving that reveal for later, so goodbye to THAT dialogue.
Not a lot else for me to say right away. Not many differences because of past decisions to point out or anything like that, yet. Although obviously if you kill Kaidan, Ashley's the one talking to you at the beginning. Oh, and the renegade response to finding out Joker isn't leaving? "Get to the shuttles, I'll haul Joker's crippled ass out of here." Yup.
My one last bit in this long post - my very good friend theinsomniakid is currently doing a playthrough of Mass Effect 2 while medicated for tourettes. She's recording the audio, and editing together short highlight episodes. I'll be posting links to the appropriate episodes. They're short, usually around 5 or 6 minutes. She has a warning at the beginning for spoilers (among other things) - I will listen to each episode before I link - if there are any spoilers mentioned, I will warn you to avoid that episode instead of linking to it.
There are actually several episode to cover what I included in ep 1.
I had this a little messed up before, please be careful if you're following her on tumblr now to avoid spoiling yourself.
Episode 1 Pt 1 | Episode 1 Pt 2 | Episode 2 - will go up shortly Episode 2 covers the last half of this episode and the first half of episode 2 so will be linked with episode 2.
Welcome to Mass Effect 2. Also known as Holy Crap Look How Much Better The Graphics Are, also known as Yay My Guns Work Right Again, also known as I Love Grenade Launchers.
I just want to run down some things that are different from the first game, in terms of game play, so that you'll understand what's going on.
First, remember how in 1 if I fired my gun too long it overheated and beeped at me and I had to wait for it to cool down or switch to a new one? That's gone. Instead for 2 (and 3) I'll be picking up 'thermal clips'. Thermal clips keep guns from overheating. If I run out, I can't fire, and I have to find more (or switch to a new gun). So it's not ammo, but it's basically ammo. It sounds like a bad deal at first - losing unlimited ammo for crap you have to pick up all the time? But trust me, it's more than worth it to be able to open my assault rifle into a bad guy's face without stopping. See alternate title above.
Another weapons change from 1 - there actually were various modifications and different ammo types you could choose, but you had to go into a menu and then a sub menu to switch and I didn't do it often and edited it out when I did. And it didn't effect what the gun looked like. In 2 and 3 your ammo modifications are a little different. They appear in your weapons/power screen/whatever you want to call it. So I can switch between different ammo mods in battle very quickly. They also color the gun. If I'm using warp ammo, a favorite of mine (I believe the tech explanation is a mass effect field coating the bullets, or something....it kills things faster, that's all I know) there will be some glowing purple parts on my gun. If I use incendiary ammo, red glowing parts. Etc.
And speaking of that weapons/power screen - in 1 I had a radar in the corner of my screen that showed me enemies and pointed me towards my next objective, and it was on screen all the time. In 2 and 3 I still have it, but I have to go to that weapons/power screen to see it. So that'll be popping up more often if I need to check where I'm going on want to see where the enemies are.
Finally, 2 and 3 have paragon and renegade interrupts. That is, at various points of the game, you may see a picture flash on the screen of a computer mouse - if it's on the left side of the screen and flashing red, it's a renegade interrupt, and I click the left button of my mouse to use it. If it's flashing on the right side and it's blue, it's a paragon interrupt, and I click the right mouse button to use it. Interrupts are just that - they interrupt whatever is going on (usually dialogue) with a paragon or renegade action or dialogue. You get extra paragon/renegade points for taking them. Obviously I take a lot of the paragon interrupts, but I take a few renegade ones too. Because they're usually funny.
And once again, the first mission(s) have prompts to make sure I know how to use my controls. Can't turn em off, sorry. And some of them are vocal in this game, so when I do something really fast and the person telling me how to do it doesn't get to finish before I've done it, they just get cut off and it sounds weird, but whatever, I'm not slowing down for them.
Click to viewAnd now, for some post watching thoughts! No spoilers for future episodes, just this one, once you watch it's safe to read.
[Spoiler (click to open)]
So yeah, lets raise a toast to the dearly departed dead: To Pressly, other Normandy crew members, and mostly to Shepard's badass eyebrow scar. Fuck you Cerberus, I liked that scar. I mean, thanks for the whole bringing me back from the dead bit, but did I ask you to fix my scar? No. No I did not. Bite me.
Ahem.
Anyway, there you have it. A lot of changes for Shepard to deal with all at once. For the record, I tear up EVERY SINGLE TIME during the reveal of the new Normandy. But then, I'm not particularly emotionally stable when it comes to this series.
I didn't go through a lot of the investigating dialogue at the very beginning because a lot of it is info you get/can get later in a more interesting/organic way - I just don't think Shepard would stop to ask that many questions while mechs were actively firing on them, and if you skip asking questions when you first run into Jacob, but ask him questions after you kill the mechs/before you go for Wilson, some of the dialogue assumes you DID ask him those first questions. "You said I'd been gone for two years..." Uh, no, no he didn't, I didn't have that conversation with him. I like saving that reveal for later, so goodbye to THAT dialogue.
Not a lot else for me to say right away. Not many differences because of past decisions to point out or anything like that, yet. Although obviously if you kill Kaidan, Ashley's the one talking to you at the beginning. Oh, and the renegade response to finding out Joker isn't leaving? "Get to the shuttles, I'll haul Joker's crippled ass out of here." Yup.
My one last bit in this long post - my very good friend theinsomniakid is currently doing a playthrough of Mass Effect 2 while medicated for tourettes. She's recording the audio, and editing together short highlight episodes. I'll be posting links to the appropriate episodes. They're short, usually around 5 or 6 minutes. She has a warning at the beginning for spoilers (among other things) - I will listen to each episode before I link - if there are any spoilers mentioned, I will warn you to avoid that episode instead of linking to it.
There are actually several episode to cover what I included in ep 1.
I had this a little messed up before, please be careful if you're following her on tumblr now to avoid spoiling yourself.
Episode 1 Pt 1 | Episode 1 Pt 2 | Episode 2 - will go up shortly Episode 2 covers the last half of this episode and the first half of episode 2 so will be linked with episode 2.