I think that you guys are being way too hard, here, so it's up to me to take up the banner and defend the games I love, I guess!
Caution: extra long post (sorry, but I had a lot to say). And this post includes spoilers to both ME1 and ME2, that much should be obvious.
1) I loved the MAKO to a start; ANYTHING is more engaging and interesting than planet scanning.
Granted, the Mako is a pain, but there is a way around the aggravation. Just stick the level ground, to the valleys, and stop trying to climb all those mountains. It became a lots less annoying once I stuck to that.
2) In ME1 the galaxy is much better presented; ME2 leaves the planets and places quite empty and cold.
Granted that the universe seems a bit smaller in ME2 than ME1, *but* you have to remember that you're not in the same neighborhood. This is the lawless Terminus systems, rife with deserted planets, perfect for your secluded mercenary base. Citadel Space is far behind now. I will concede, however, that the Citadel was too tiny to my tastes in ME2.
4) Bioware could have just killed Shepard at the end of ME1 with a reaper chunk and still pulled off ME2 just as it was. o_o
Meh, I disagree. You kinda needed the "Normandy attacked by the Collector ship", to add to the storyline, and give the impression that the Collectors, under the influence of Harbinger, have been dogging Shepard all this time, utterly relentless in their pursuit. Also, had Shepard been killed during the Citadel's attack, the Alliance would probably have found his/her body and given him/her a hero's burial, completely with all the pomp he/she deserved. I don't see the Illusive Man coming up to them and saying "say, can I borrow the corpse? We're going to try out this Lazarus Project I've been tinkering with". Nah, Shepard needed to get spaced. Plus, it made for an awesome, gripping opening scene.
6) ME1 enemies are much better. In ME2, neither Harbinger nor the collector general, or anyone else for the matter, really becomes on any level an personal enemy.
I disagree, and here's why: Saren has a sympathetic villain because he was under Sovereign's influence, he couldn't resist the indoctrination process, no matter how hard he tried to convince himself to the contrary. Here, we have an entire race (or the remnants of it, rather), the Protheans, which have been abducted, by the Reapers to carry out their bidding. They have been so twisted by the Reapers, that they're now barely recognizable (I've accepted the theory that the statues on Ilos are an apt description of what the Protheans looked like), and compelled to do the Reapers' horrible dirty work. Every time my Shepard pulls the trigger, she is torn between pity for the members of this once great race and mercy (basically, we're putting them out of their misery). And when she faced scions, she basically has to concentrate on taking it down, so that she doesn't empty her stomach in horror (I mean, seriously, have you *seen* that thing, it's an agglomerate of corpses, it's just... ugh! I'm at a loss for words on how to describe that horrendous thing).
7) ME1 hackery minigames are better. They're occasionally actually challenging, and if not that, then at least they're over faster.
Meh, I think the mini-games are all on par. The ones in ME2 really weren't all *that* long, and at least they were accessible to all classes. (I'm sorry, but you really don't have to be an engineer to solve an alternate version of "Simon".
ME1 plot is better. In it, you meet an enemy, hunt him, and kill him, and oh, you save the galaxy. ME2 is more like... Well, to stick with the Star Wars comparison, it's like tripping an AT-AT walker. Sure, it's cool, and it blows up nicely, but at the bottom of it, it does little to nothing to advance the main storyline.
Gaaah, you heretic! Are you kidding me? In ME1, the quest's title was "race against time", but you could take your bloody time doing it, taking tours around the galaxy! Seriously, though, I'm no downplaying ME1's scenario, all I'm saying it's that they're both just as good and in complete continuity. The threat of the Reapers is still looming over us. In ME1, we were just learning how big a threat this is, and in ME2, the threat is still here, backup is taking its sweet time getting here (thanks a lot Alliance & Council!), and in the meantime, colonies keep getting abducted! (I was going to address Solar's Harper's argument regarding the abductions further down, but I may as well tackle it now) If you take some time to go below deck and listen to what your crew talks about, you'll discover that there are more colonies getting hit while you're traipsing about the galaxy. Freedom's Progress and Horizon you know about, because you've been there, but while you're out collecting companions, the colonies of Ferris Fields and New Canton are hit (that we know of). Who knows what havoc the Reapers via the Collectors are wreaking out there?
9) ME2 Party NPCs seem to have more depth to them. @_@ ALL except Jacob, who is utterly dull, except for the one dialog where you get to bitch about the Shepard gig.
And there is no Wrex. But generally, it's an improvement (Read: Garrus is better xP).
Actually, I'm kinda disappointed how they changed Garrus. I worked so hard in ME1 to show him that revenge is not the answer, that criminals should be brought to justice, not gunned down, blah, blah, and and now... To quote Joker, "It's great Garrus took that stick out of his ass, but now he just wants to beat people to death with it". As for Jacob, I disagree, but maybe that's because I played the romance. Maybe that adds more depth to him, I don't know know. *shrug* Also, perhaps you're under the impression that ME2 companions are more defined because there are more of them. I thought characters in ME1 were nicely done, love 'em or hate 'em (I detested Ashely, sorry, can't hide it): each had its own story, its own culture (just talk to Tali about the Migrant Fleet, I thought it was enlightening). And there are about the same number of conversations in ME1 as in ME2 (about 4, depending on the character).
10) ME2 doesn't get occasional messy noises from it's EAX vs. my soundcard.
Hey! Don't blame the game for your hardware's faults!
Well to sound like a broken recorder, as you no doubt know too well there buddy. ME2 Generic animations = what the hell animators?
At least in my opinion, gets less noticeable in ME2's later sections, but ME1 comes out superior in my book, only because its somewhat rigid animation is at least less annoyingly repetitive to see - especially when you can pretty much come up with the phrase: "Talk talk, Bioware face (blank look), walk off screen slow mode to Disneyland.
*chuckles* You do have a point though, that blank Bioware face *is* kinda disappointing. It's like they beefed up the graphics, made it look a lot better, but lost a bit on the animations. Too bad. Maybe they'll get it juuuust right in ME3, yes?
And on that note, I noticed the gender of Shepard really doesn't effect how they move or sit either, might be a few differences here and there for scenes that are quite clearly not meant for the other gender to enjoy, but err yeah, oh and since Shepard's clothes don't really seem to be at all affected by gravity or anything, I'm starting to think they built the clothes on him/her when being resurrected. Take that for what you will, seems rather worrying to me if they have to answer nature's call though - off camera of course.
Call me crazy, but that's actually one of my pet peeves. In ME1, the dance moves for Female Shepard were actually quite different from Male Shepard's (she rocked, and he just kinda stood there hopping from one foot to the other. Kinda like in real life
). As I tried to show off my groove on Afterlife's dance floor, lo and behold, the Lazarus Project had taken it away!!
(
ie, she now dances like a male Shepard) I felt robbed...
What I find ironic is how shields seem to save characters in-game, yet in cutscenes it's like they suddenly turn them off to get killed like part of some action movie... I mean you'd expect a sniper rifle would make a penetrating shot most of the time, but a handgun?
I'm not sure what character you're referring to, but not all characters have shields (
ie, the female survivor in Jacob's loyalty mission), and I also have this theory that shields are useless at extremely close combat (in cutscenes an the Mass Effect universe, at least), and that a point blank bullet will zing past it. Of course, that's just me.
I personally think Harbinger comes across as a rather shadowy figure, not as much as Sovereign, but certainly with its own flavour. That said the whole idea the "galaxy is at stake" kind of wears off when you get dragged into preforming all the damn loyalty missions and ship upgrade fetching (ie planet mining screen! Only lacking the lemonade of Loading Screen). Good idea, bad execution, possibly a result of time constraints as is usually the case.
Another thing is, the attacks of the Collectors and what-not seem rather predictable, Illusive Man gives you mission, stuff blows up, Shepard goes Rawr!, and EDI inserts classic HAL references following with the saucing of a Scion break-dancing.
In short, plot-point drama with no ounce of surprise about it. If Harbinger is really so interested in Shepard, wouldn't Collectors be actively *hunting* the player whilst harvesting human colonies? And on that note, why are so few colonies getting attack? I thought we were supposed to be saving the human race damnit, not playing resource stockpiling and dramafest 2010!
See above, but I think that colonies keep getting cleaned out while we're taking our sweet time collecting companions and doing their loyalty missions. I'm also convinced that there is an unavoidable discrepancy between the urgency of our mission and the length of our game. If the mission was extremely urgent, and you had to zap through the game, well, that would make for a very short game, right?? Not much to be done about that. Also, if you're very concerned about saving the galaxy, there has been speculation on the BioWare forums that Earth will be at stake in ME3, so that should fill your quota, yes?
(again, it's just speculation at this point)
And while we're on that, you'd think all the mercenaries and criminal outfits you piss off during the game would be more than a little miffed with you and Cerberus at some point. Action and consequence? Please, go here, look badass and shoot up the place, go home for apple pie and maybe a little fishing the Captain's Nest.
Edit: And yeah, I did forget to tsk ME1 on that account as well, overall you can really just argue RPG and shut my argument right up.
I'm going to argue "RPG", so there!
Seriously though, I'm more convinced that the various mercenary groups don't necessarily know that Cerberus was the group that hit them, or that they didn't have the time to send out a warning. Also, I think they operate in different clusters in different star systems, that all have a local guy/girl in charge, and that all answer to the same higher up's, but that don't necessarily communicate with one other. I know this might fall under the "stretching it" category, but it would account for other mercenaries' ignorance, and that's what I'm going with.
Probably worth saying that both seem rather tied in terms of getting the feel of xenophobia in the galaxy. Which is good, considering the times, setting, history, and not to mention it's actually initiated rather splendidly in most cases rather than DA's awkward turn of "HELLO YOU ARE RACE NOT MINE! GARRR! Oh s'cuse me, would you like some pepperoni with them elves-err fish?" Yes I did totally rip that off, apologies.
Actually, that was one of DA:O's major failings in my eyes: I'd be an elf, and the characters would vaguely mention it in passing, and then totally disregard it, because I'd walked up and said I was a Grey Warden (what proof did they have?), all the while kicking their elven servant right in front of me. At least ME2 did a wonderful job in creating the delicate times that are the post-Citadel Geth attack, and the reactions to Shepard are vastly different whether or not you decided to save the Council.
Anywho, enough of me being a jabbermouth, limelight anyone? Fresh mint included but batteries are sold seperately. $_$
Gosh, if you were a jabbermouth, I just wrote a whole freakin' book!
Edited by Eleima, 17 March 2010 - 01:31 AM.