[360] Mass Effect 2 - Skills would do a romance sub-plot but he has work in the morning

Currently playing ME2. Only just finished the first mission.

(Early) spoiler regarding Shepard:

Spoiler:

He/she indeed dies. Right in the opening cutscenes. You still end up playing as him/her because of SCIENCE

Game mechanics:
- It seems like they took out the inventory system COMPLETELY.
- No more infinite ammo. Well, technically you do, but now there's thermal clips which basically work like ammo clips. Enemies drop them.
- Ammo types (incendiary, etc) are now character stat upgrades, not weapon upgrades. (Why?????)
- Enemy closets. Lots of them.
- Am I still playing an RPG?

On the plus side, navigating the galaxy is considerably more interesting. Haven't tried planetary exploration yet.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Spawn closets really? Wtf Bioware. Dp they work differently from CoD or?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

There's doors you can't open. Once you trigger an enemy encounter, those doors periodically let reinforcements through.

More details:
- MAKO is completely gone. In fact there's NO planetary exploration, you either land on a planet for a mission (in a defined perimeter) or you launch "probes" to harvest minerals right on the planet scanning screen.
- Scanning mineral deposits on planets is a huge pain in the ass ARGHAHGAHSG
- My memory of the original ME is rather fuzzy, but I think the missions are a lot more scripted now, with lots of objective updates and checkpoints in between. It almost feels like... Gears of War.

One major improvement: You now get personal messages from various characters you interact with throughout the game, updating you about their status and providing closure after missions and sidequests. It's a great touch and really immerses you in the story.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I did the scanning mini-game on one planet for a few minutes and was pretty much like "wtf". Pretty terrible.

The door and terminal hacking mini-games are vast improvements over the last game, especially the terminal hacking with the scrolling bits of "code".

The enemy spawning has not bothered me, but I will say this: in the mission to acquire the professor character, on Omega, the locations of some of the encounters were brutal, with plenty of ways for the bad guys to flank me. The fact that I jumped right into Insanity difficulty did not help matters. Krogan enemies are (early on) still serious threats, but manageable. I ran into an enemy who was sporting a flamethrower. Since he was the only enemy I had remaining to kill at the time, I kind of approached him lackadaisically, expecting my teammates to draw some of the fire. That was a mistake, as he burned me to the ground in only a few short seconds.

So far, I'm really enjoying the game, the look and feel of it is great. The character interactions, especially between Shepard and Mass Effect the first characters, have been great too. The Miranda Lawson character, voiced by Yvonne Strahovski (<3), is awesome.

There is a lot of "flavor" kind of hanging out along the edges as well, such as news feeds that you hear as you walk through the various locales, usually discussing the fallout from some of the missions undertaken in the first game. There was one that discussed government paid reparations to L2 biotics, as a direct result of the mission in the first game where you rescue a senatorial type guy from a group of angry biotics who were just looking to be heard.

Also, I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite shop on the Citadel.

How ya doing, buddy?

Quote:

Also, I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite shop on the Citadel.

LOL.

failure:

I finally finish the first run through on normal. >w< Lost 2 good man, that really pisses me off.

Did I mention that I freaking HATE zombies? I especially hate coming out of cover to fight them while being shot at. Especially on stages that is designed so that you are being flanked every other wave. <.<;

FELIPE NO

Well, I just completeld my first playthrough, on Insanity. Fully upgraded cryo ammo (set to apply to the entire team) got me through a lot of tough fights, especially when the husks were around. Having three people shooting a husk and freezing it about half a second after its armor goes down is nice.

Outstanding game overall. I think my only real complaint is with the planet scanning/resource gathering minigame. That part sucks. Everything else about the game was great. Great characters, great environments, great music, great combat. I like the changes they made to the combat system. Three types of protection (shield, armor, barrier) each with a specific gun type that is strong against it. It made building a team based on what you expected to fight fun.

Kind of disappointed that they nerfed Tali. She was extremely powerful in ME the first, when you could just lay waste to a battlefield with all of her tech skills, but on this one, she basically sucks.

I managed to get every achievement on my first play except level 30 character, complete a romance subplot, and the one for hitting 20 enemies with two biotic powers at the same time. I got to 16 on that one, simply because I hardly used biotic powers until near the end.

How ya doing, buddy?

I strongly urge you to see the Tali romance, if only for how adorably awkward she is about the whole thing.

Jack is pretty standard fare damaged high school goth girl.

Yeoman is a joke.

And please, for the love of god, play a female Shepard to land Garrus. Hilarity ensues.

Alternatively just look these up on the youtube.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Jack and Tali are the only ones on the fem side that are cool I'm assuming Yeoman is Miranda?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Surely that character who acts as your secretary and annoys you about returning people's emails.

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Kelly, yes. Talk about bland.

My first thought when choosing Tali was "Let's get weird," but the romance with her is very endearing... and weird, yes ("let me do some research to make... this work"). It's the same with Garrus, really. I think their subplots are more fulfilling, even if a bit outlandish.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The Yeoman is a girl named Kelly, who is your personal assistant. If you romance her, she gets much more 'personal' in her assistance. Miranda is your typical cheerleader / rich bitch type.

Also, Mordin is the most awesome party member ever. Just look him up on youtube when he offers medical advice.... or SINGS.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

I strongly urge you to see the Tali romance, if only for how adorably awkward she is about the whole thing.

This is the one I was trying for, but I'm guessing that having a female Shepard disqualified me from the start.

Quote:

And please, for the love of god, play a female Shepard to land Garrus. Hilarity ensues.

I actually started this one, and got to the point where Garrus told me that he'd have to do some research on how to make it work, but at the time, I was still holding out hope that it would let me go after Tali or Miranda. Also oh god gross what the hell. I reloaded a save from a few minutes before I started that conversation.

To all of you people playing on Normal/Veteran, once you get past Freedom's Progress, do all of the enemies start having shield/armor, or just some of them? I started a new Adept on Veteran and none of the robots I ran into up until the boss fight on FP had anything but lonely little red health bars. No armor to speak of. It was....cute.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by GB

My first thought when choosing Tali was "Let's get weird," but the romance with her is very endearing... and weird, yes ("let me do some research to make... this work"). It's the same with Garrus, really. I think their subplots are more fulfilling, even if a bit outlandish.

OK so that's at least two playthroughs I just have to make. Seriously, not even kidding. If I don't see both of those subplots, what was the point of me buying the game?

I can't figure out how Tali's romance is going to work out. Her suit contains an atmosphere Shepard probably* can't breathe, and she can't breathe in regular Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere that suits most sentients. So unless they settle for dirty talking and some webcam cybering...

* I'm currently having this same discussion on another forum. I figure her atmosphere would probably kill most people, but then again... CAN SHEPARD EVEN DIE?

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by russ

This is the one I was trying for, but I'm guessing that having a female Shepard disqualified me from the start.

You mean the developers are open-minded about inter-species relationships, but they DRAW THE LINE at lesbian sex?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Soluzar

*[...] CAN SHEPARD EVEN DIE?

Spoiler about the Justicar:

Spoiler:

I you choose Morinth over Samara and romance her, you get a game over after you do it with her

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

So are the bits of the game where you're not holding hands with aliens any good?

All this talk of digital romance has helped me settle on a thread title at least.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

You mean the developers are open-minded about inter-species relationships, but they DRAW THE LINE at lesbian sex?

I think it is more likely a case of the developers not thinking that would be in line with Tali's character, considering that female Shepards have the option of romance with Kelly Chambers. I guess I'll just have to play a male Shepard for once.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Soluzar

OK so that's at least two playthroughs I just have to make. Seriously, not even kidding. If I don't see both of those subplots, what was the point of me buying the game?

I can't figure out how Tali's romance is going to work out. Her suit contains an atmosphere Shepard probably* can't breathe, and she can't breathe in regular Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere that suits most sentients. So unless they settle for dirty talking and some webcam cybering...

* I'm currently having this same discussion on another forum. I figure her atmosphere would probably kill most people, but then again... CAN SHEPARD EVEN DIE?

Additional Spam:

You mean the developers are open-minded about inter-species relationships, but they DRAW THE LINE at lesbian sex?

No, it's just some characters are bi and some aren't. A female shepard can bed Yeoman Kelly. A female shepard could bed Liara in the first game. But not everyone is gay.

P.S.

If you'd paid attention in the first game, you'd know that Tali doesn't have her own atmosphere, it's just that they spend their whole life on space ships with recycled atmosphere so they have no immune system. Thus the helmet.

P.P.S.

Shin, the title is tits, mate. Unfortunately Mass Effect is like the one game Skills hates.

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Dragon Age has returned a measure of my faith to Bioware, and everyone who has made their opinions known to have disliked the first one for many of the same reasons I did seem to say this one fixes most of them, so I'm willing to give it a shot.

But two midterms and two major assignments due over the course of this week prevent pretty much any buyin', rentin', or otherwise playin' of yee olde space operas, so it's gonna have to wait until at least next Monday.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

No, it's just some characters are bi and some aren't. A female shepard can bed Yeoman Kelly. A female Shepard could bed Liara in the first game. But not everyone is gay.

Yeah. I was just making a cheap wisecrack. However, thanks for clearing that up. I guess Kelly and female Shepard is more definitely lesbian than Liara and Female Shepard since she doesn't really have a gender. Even if she looks female.

Quote:

If you'd paid attention in the first game, you'd know that Tali doesn't have her own atmosphere, it's just that they spend their whole life on space ships with recycled atmosphere so they have no immune system. Thus the helmet.

Oh damn. I don't even know how I missed that particular piece of information. I did pay attention to most stuff, even to the codex entries. Call it sci-fi prejudices? I'm used to seeing aliens in facemasks because they can't breathe what we breathe, a la Babylon 5 to name but one example.

Anyway, thanks for setting me straight a second time.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Shin

So are the bits of the game where you're not holding hands with aliens any good?

The shooting feels more involving this time around. Last time it was kind of weak, like they couldn't be bothered to go all out on the shooting elements. This time around, you can't say that. There's a cover system, you can get headshots. I don't know if other body parts take damage in any special way, but headshots can be an insta-kill which is a big advantage. Last but not least your team mates don't feel quite so fragile this time around. Can't even count the number of times I had to use Unity in the first game, to revive foolish characters who charged in and got blasted to shreds. Not so much, so far in this game.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Soluzar

This time around, you can't say that. There's a cover system, you can get headshots. I don't know if other body parts take damage in any special way, but headshots can be an insta-kill which is a big advantage.

All damage is localised I believe, and you can definitely trip people up by shooting their legs. In fact, with the mechs you can take their legs out completely and they'll start dragging their torsos along with their arms.

The combat is very much improved and whilst I enjoyed it in the first game mostly now it's an absolute blast. For one the biotics have been massively improved and are a lot of fun to play with (you can now curve biotics around things to an extent, so stuff like the biotic Pull can be used to drag enemies out of cover).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Fuck Tali, me and Jack are gonna become pirates
I think I might have led tali on though, Is there gonna be some shitty confrontation now?

Side Note: The sidequest that has you saving the crashing ship made me feel badass. Fuck yeah Death Mask.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Chili

"HOW ABOUT FUCK OFF OR I BREAK YOUR LEGS"
+12 Paragon
"what"

I specific remember something like that where its like this:

[Paragon] Annoyed response
[Neutral] Punch him in the face
[Renegade] Shoot him in the foot

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That would be the encounter with (very minor spoiler I guess)

Spoiler:

Conrad Verner. You know, the guy from the first game who asked for your autograph and wanted to be made your secret assistant Spectre.

Originally Posted by Cadillacs

Dragon Age has returned a measure of my faith to Bioware, and everyone who has made their opinions known to have disliked the first one for many of the same reasons I did seem to say this one fixes most of them, so I'm willing to give it a shot.

- A million bland planets to ride around on in your Mako, only to discover a generic pirate base - FIXED
- Textures STILL trying to load two years later - FIXED
- Garrus being a complete sissy whiner - FIXED
- Elevator rides - replaced with load screens. six of one, half dozen of the other.

Significant annoyance added: resource gathering/planet scanning
Minor problems added: uh, not a whole lot of weapons to choose from, Tali no longer a powerful combatant, no real "on the fly" heals, have to be patient and wait for your shields to recharge (maybe this isn't as much a problem as it is a minor adjustment that you'll have to get used to since it worked differently in the first game)

This time around your teammates' AI is a lot better. They will move around the battefield a lot more independently, instead of kind of sticking inside an invisible ten foot bubble around you, unless you specifically tell them where to go. And you can control each one separately, so if you want your tank to go up front and be a distraction, tell him to go up there while you tell your other guy to go to X flanking position. Your teammates do a decent job of keeping themselves alive, but are definitely not immortal either.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Why doesn't the soundtrack have the songs that are played in the various nightclubs throughout the game. This is bullshit man.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

As regards to the genre, this article brings up a good point...

Quote:

If Mass Effect was a sci-fi shooter saddled with excess RPG micromanagement, Mass Effect 2 is the ideal evolution. If Mass Effect was an RPG that tips its hat to third-person action games, Mass Effect 2 may be less satisfying than expected.

Not exactly earth-shattering, but a good way to describe the game to people who haven't played it and are on the fence after the first one.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.