Mass Effect 2
Been playing Mass Effect 2.
Now I know I'm not exactly timely on this, since at least one of my friends is on his third run through the game and I only finished it up last night, but hey, this is my blog, not everyone else's.
I don't think I can honestly begin without observing that I was probably less excited for this game than most of the rest of the people I game with. Sure, I liked Mass Effect 1 in spite of its flaws, and sure, Bioware games are generally something I enjoy (in spite, again, of their flaws), but the elephant in the room here is that they're almost always flawed in some way. KotOR, Jade Empire, and the original Mass Effect all had a fairly rapid price plummet within a year or so of release--I paid no more than $20 for the first two on that list--and while I really, really enjoyed Dragon Age, it wasn't a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.
Another factor in this is that I just don't tend to get overly excited about things that aren't available yet. I've had several friends who mistake that for not caring at all. To me, though, a game or movie or what have you that's not out for six months isn't worth getting riled up over. Ask me a month, a week before release, and I'll have some interest, but more than that and you're likely to find me in media blackout mode. I don't go digging up info on possible sequels or upcoming things well in advance of release because there's invariably something else cool coming out for me to be excited about NOW. There's an episode of Firefly where the crew transports cattle, and River is fascinated by the cows once they're unloaded. Mal says something about how she didn't give a damn while they were on the ship, and River's response is basically that while they were on the ship, they weren't cows, they were waiting. It's something like that, basically.
Anyway, I'm really getting into a digression there. Again, my blog. So, I wasn't really going into ME2 with a boatload of excitement. The first game was fun but the universe felt sterile, partly from the repeated environments used, partly from the fact that Bioware were using it to set up the setting in our minds. Add to that the fact that Dragon Age had really spoiled me story-wise, but had some of the most wooden character animations I can remember,--I remember thinking that even KotOR had been less bland in that department--and didn't exactly have a setting that screamed originality...I wasn't expecting a huge boatload of improvement, or a very inspired setting going into this.
I've got to admit my surprise at how much more interesting and organic the universe felt this time around. Every environment I experienced throughout was unique and attractive, and felt more lived in than those in the original. There were lots of crates scattered around so that cover would exist in fights, sure, and you can reliably predict when you're going to be attacked because you can see the cover coming up, but it's a definite improvement from the first game's three basic room layouts repeated ad nauseam. We get to see the underbelly of the universe that they showed us the high-wages version of in the first game, and we spend more time interacting with criminals and mercenary groups than with politicians.
My fears about the character animations were removed almost out the gate as well. They really made a damn good showing of making conversations feel dynamic, instead of happening between two heads on sticks. Camera angles change, go for closeups, or provide wide angle shots. Characters sit, stand, crouch, shove each other, take drags on cigarettes, or invite you to walk with them while you talk. Scripted, sure, but I'm not sure why none of this was in Dragon Age, I really am not.
The new party...well my first impression was that they were going for some sort of darker, sexier, edgier game with this. I'd seen screenshots of Samara and thought "great, an Asarii who's saying she'll do anything I tell her, and showing off that much cleavage", heard about Subject Zero/Jack, heard about the assassin--and that idea wasn't that appealing to me. (The Asarii are for the record among my least favourite things about the setting, since they come across to me as existing entirely as fanservice.) I'll admit my interest piqued when I learned that Tali, easily my favorite character from the original, would be a party member. When actually playing, though, even the characters I specifically hated at the beginning grew on me throughout, and I have to say I like the majority of the new cast.
The new combat system is a mixed blessing, though. I'm not that great at shooters at the best of times, and usually avoid them because of it. It took me a bit of time to unlearn the tactics I used in the first game (go in shooting, spam medi-gel) and there were some very frustrating deaths as a result until I learned to pace myself. All in all I'd say it's a better, stronger system than the first game's, even if it does lead to obvious encounter-points thanks to all the cover dropped for you to hang behind.
I'm not all sunshine and lollipops about the game, though, and I'll tell you why: the scanning of planets. First ME, they used a system where you'd scan a planet, then (usually) land in the Mako, your all-terrain vehicle, and drive around for twenty minutes or whatever going to points of interest on the map, which usually weren't all that interesting, and provided a bit of experience and credits, plus access to some of the most samey environments around. This time you don't land unless there's a mission on there, and none of the missions I encountered were anything but unique environments. However, when there aren't missions--and this is the majority of the planets you'll encounter--you basically get to do a bit of planetary phrenology. You move a cursor around the entire planet slowly, scanning for "valuable minerals" of four varieties, which you retrieve somehow by simply launching a probe to the planet's surface.
Okay, so we're flying around trying to save the galaxy, on the budget of a private interest group that has "billions of credits" of income per year, according to the game, and every minute wasted is a minute another human colony can be abducted in its entirety...so of course we're gonna strip mine every planet we pass, including several inhabited colony worlds, because we need to upgrade our ship. Sure is a shame we don't have ludicrously wealthy backers with a vested interest in seeing that we succeed, I bet they'd be able to fund us just BUYING the materials we need--oh wait, shit, we do have that, and they don't do that. What's worse is that the scanning minigame seems to be accepted by a lot of people as being okay simply because it's not as bad as driving around a barren landscape in the Mako.
Sure, it's less tedious...but it's still tedious, and it's still really damn stupid for narrative reasons. It sure as hell doesn't add anything INTERESTING from a gameplay perspective, either. I find it really difficult to justify the existence of the scanning system within the game for any reason, and have to conclude that Bioware didn't know what the fuck to put in to let us explore planets without it involving driving around a big empty space, and just settled on the stupid planet thing.
In terms of plot structure, too, you're not going to find anything surprising. Bioware has been putting out the same story for years now and this is not that shockingly different. If you like Bioware's story structure, that's fine, if you don't, this won't change your mind.
One interesting thing before I wrap this up--because of how it takes the choices you made in the first game into account, everyone I know has had different experiences at different points in the game. It's a very personal experience that this game offers, because of its branching based off your previous choices. That said, I started play with a character I'd created within Mass Effect 2--a male, because I hadn't finished ME1 with one yet and wanted to see the Tali romance. The default choices weren't the ones I would have made and while I got to play Shepard how I wanted during ME2, it still felt vaguely as if I were wearing someone else's pants. They fit, but they weren't mine, and that was icky.
And...okay just one more note--you can make a guy who looks like Kevin Sorbo and put him in a sleeveless muscle shirt. The Further Space Adventures of Space Hercules In Space, anyone? Seriously, running him around dressed like that and being pure Paragon made it feel like I was going to round a corner and see the scowling Renegade face of Tyr Anasazi at some points in the game...
Now I know I'm not exactly timely on this, since at least one of my friends is on his third run through the game and I only finished it up last night, but hey, this is my blog, not everyone else's.
I don't think I can honestly begin without observing that I was probably less excited for this game than most of the rest of the people I game with. Sure, I liked Mass Effect 1 in spite of its flaws, and sure, Bioware games are generally something I enjoy (in spite, again, of their flaws), but the elephant in the room here is that they're almost always flawed in some way. KotOR, Jade Empire, and the original Mass Effect all had a fairly rapid price plummet within a year or so of release--I paid no more than $20 for the first two on that list--and while I really, really enjoyed Dragon Age, it wasn't a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination.
Another factor in this is that I just don't tend to get overly excited about things that aren't available yet. I've had several friends who mistake that for not caring at all. To me, though, a game or movie or what have you that's not out for six months isn't worth getting riled up over. Ask me a month, a week before release, and I'll have some interest, but more than that and you're likely to find me in media blackout mode. I don't go digging up info on possible sequels or upcoming things well in advance of release because there's invariably something else cool coming out for me to be excited about NOW. There's an episode of Firefly where the crew transports cattle, and River is fascinated by the cows once they're unloaded. Mal says something about how she didn't give a damn while they were on the ship, and River's response is basically that while they were on the ship, they weren't cows, they were waiting. It's something like that, basically.
Anyway, I'm really getting into a digression there. Again, my blog. So, I wasn't really going into ME2 with a boatload of excitement. The first game was fun but the universe felt sterile, partly from the repeated environments used, partly from the fact that Bioware were using it to set up the setting in our minds. Add to that the fact that Dragon Age had really spoiled me story-wise, but had some of the most wooden character animations I can remember,--I remember thinking that even KotOR had been less bland in that department--and didn't exactly have a setting that screamed originality...I wasn't expecting a huge boatload of improvement, or a very inspired setting going into this.
I've got to admit my surprise at how much more interesting and organic the universe felt this time around. Every environment I experienced throughout was unique and attractive, and felt more lived in than those in the original. There were lots of crates scattered around so that cover would exist in fights, sure, and you can reliably predict when you're going to be attacked because you can see the cover coming up, but it's a definite improvement from the first game's three basic room layouts repeated ad nauseam. We get to see the underbelly of the universe that they showed us the high-wages version of in the first game, and we spend more time interacting with criminals and mercenary groups than with politicians.
My fears about the character animations were removed almost out the gate as well. They really made a damn good showing of making conversations feel dynamic, instead of happening between two heads on sticks. Camera angles change, go for closeups, or provide wide angle shots. Characters sit, stand, crouch, shove each other, take drags on cigarettes, or invite you to walk with them while you talk. Scripted, sure, but I'm not sure why none of this was in Dragon Age, I really am not.
The new party...well my first impression was that they were going for some sort of darker, sexier, edgier game with this. I'd seen screenshots of Samara and thought "great, an Asarii who's saying she'll do anything I tell her, and showing off that much cleavage", heard about Subject Zero/Jack, heard about the assassin--and that idea wasn't that appealing to me. (The Asarii are for the record among my least favourite things about the setting, since they come across to me as existing entirely as fanservice.) I'll admit my interest piqued when I learned that Tali, easily my favorite character from the original, would be a party member. When actually playing, though, even the characters I specifically hated at the beginning grew on me throughout, and I have to say I like the majority of the new cast.
The new combat system is a mixed blessing, though. I'm not that great at shooters at the best of times, and usually avoid them because of it. It took me a bit of time to unlearn the tactics I used in the first game (go in shooting, spam medi-gel) and there were some very frustrating deaths as a result until I learned to pace myself. All in all I'd say it's a better, stronger system than the first game's, even if it does lead to obvious encounter-points thanks to all the cover dropped for you to hang behind.
I'm not all sunshine and lollipops about the game, though, and I'll tell you why: the scanning of planets. First ME, they used a system where you'd scan a planet, then (usually) land in the Mako, your all-terrain vehicle, and drive around for twenty minutes or whatever going to points of interest on the map, which usually weren't all that interesting, and provided a bit of experience and credits, plus access to some of the most samey environments around. This time you don't land unless there's a mission on there, and none of the missions I encountered were anything but unique environments. However, when there aren't missions--and this is the majority of the planets you'll encounter--you basically get to do a bit of planetary phrenology. You move a cursor around the entire planet slowly, scanning for "valuable minerals" of four varieties, which you retrieve somehow by simply launching a probe to the planet's surface.
Okay, so we're flying around trying to save the galaxy, on the budget of a private interest group that has "billions of credits" of income per year, according to the game, and every minute wasted is a minute another human colony can be abducted in its entirety...so of course we're gonna strip mine every planet we pass, including several inhabited colony worlds, because we need to upgrade our ship. Sure is a shame we don't have ludicrously wealthy backers with a vested interest in seeing that we succeed, I bet they'd be able to fund us just BUYING the materials we need--oh wait, shit, we do have that, and they don't do that. What's worse is that the scanning minigame seems to be accepted by a lot of people as being okay simply because it's not as bad as driving around a barren landscape in the Mako.
Sure, it's less tedious...but it's still tedious, and it's still really damn stupid for narrative reasons. It sure as hell doesn't add anything INTERESTING from a gameplay perspective, either. I find it really difficult to justify the existence of the scanning system within the game for any reason, and have to conclude that Bioware didn't know what the fuck to put in to let us explore planets without it involving driving around a big empty space, and just settled on the stupid planet thing.
In terms of plot structure, too, you're not going to find anything surprising. Bioware has been putting out the same story for years now and this is not that shockingly different. If you like Bioware's story structure, that's fine, if you don't, this won't change your mind.
One interesting thing before I wrap this up--because of how it takes the choices you made in the first game into account, everyone I know has had different experiences at different points in the game. It's a very personal experience that this game offers, because of its branching based off your previous choices. That said, I started play with a character I'd created within Mass Effect 2--a male, because I hadn't finished ME1 with one yet and wanted to see the Tali romance. The default choices weren't the ones I would have made and while I got to play Shepard how I wanted during ME2, it still felt vaguely as if I were wearing someone else's pants. They fit, but they weren't mine, and that was icky.
And...okay just one more note--you can make a guy who looks like Kevin Sorbo and put him in a sleeveless muscle shirt. The Further Space Adventures of Space Hercules In Space, anyone? Seriously, running him around dressed like that and being pure Paragon made it feel like I was going to round a corner and see the scowling Renegade face of Tyr Anasazi at some points in the game...