No joke. Although it’s pretty fun to just chain headshots on normal with your shields never dropping. Something tells me this game wasn’t tuned for the precision of a mouse.
A friend of mine has a site where she is collecting save game states of people who have saved them from Mass Effect 1. This will allow you to continue, so to speak, if you have lost your old save, or in my case, played it originally on the 360. The URL is http://www.annakie.com/me/home.htm
The only downside is that you cannot change the name of your character, but you can still reselect your class. Starting with one of these will give you a nice chunk of credits and minerals and will bypass the ‘character creation questions’ as those would be determined from your actions of the original. What I did was pick one that most closely resembled my original (paragon, relationship, etc.).
The characters of ME1 did not grab me in the least, and that is not happening here, I think it’s from all the armor and gadgets we are wearing, huge turnoff.
Some of the NPC dialog is rather funny. “Those Asari-Hanar porn games they sell in Shin Akiba are really nasty.”
Not once you got to level 25 or so…
But ME2 is a cakewalk. Perhaps they dumbed it down to give it broader appeal, but it’s just too damn easy. My sniper rifle makes short work of baddies, and when I run out of bullets my handgun cleans up the rest. And the “Bosses” (and I use the term loosely) are a joke. The only way I can tell them from other mobs on the screen is by name; they all go down just as quickly.
Oh good. :)
After picking up the first 4 crewmembers past the first 2, I think the comba and stats have been a little too oversimplified from ME1.
Not enough powers, not enough things to do in combat besides Space Rock Paper Scissors combat, most of which I’ve just passed by gratitous application of rock.
Now that I’m commanding this new Normandy 2, I feel suitably equipped to search for V’Ger.
Also, I wake up on a hospital bed and the first thing I see is Michael Jackson. What a nightmare.
The game definitely gets easier as you progress, but there were still a handful of bosses that were frustratingly difficult.
I remember going after the Matriarch first and wanting to toss my computer out the window, she was so hard as a first boss.
After playing an hour I am torn.
On one hand, Mass Effect 2 has awesome styling. I love everything about the fiction and how it is delivered. The beginning was a lot cooler than I expected. I also love that my Mass Effect 1 character transfered.
On the other hand, I really miss the RPG elements. I hate to admit it but Tom is right, the game losses something when it became a shooter. Also it isn’t a great port. It lets rebind keys but when you are in game and it prompts you to press a key, the prompt is for the default, not the key you configured.
Third hand, I’m really beginning to get hooked on GFWL and really miss it when it isn’t there.
Oh yeah, she’s a tough bitch. I think I had to do that fight 3-4 times on my first run through. The trick is to run to the other side of the room, so that the rachni tank shields you from her biotics. Then take out her flunkies, and her last.
Of course, when you’re doing a new game+ with a level 55 Shepard, you can just waltz up and shoot her in the face. :) (Not that it does anything, because you still have to kill her flunkies first, but it’s a good feeling.)
And speaking of difficulty, I just got killed twice while picking up Mordin! Man, they really overhauled the shooter part. No more running and gunning, which has been my preferred option since the days of Doom 2. Now you actually have to think about cover and not just circle-strafe everything.
Is there any way to adjust mouse sensitivity? Mine’s way too sluggish.
Hm, so far I like the RPG elements. The dialogues are better constructed than before, and I particularly love being able to interrupt a conversation.
… unless by RPG elements you mean the skills, levels and loot. In which case, play Guild Wars. That cured me of my desire ever to do level and gear grinding again!
They did say you could interrupt a conversation in this one, but that hasn’t been my experience so far. Is it just specific ones or something?
Yeah, only at specific times. You’ll see icons in the lower left or right corner of the screen. When you see them, hit the left/right mouse button (on the PC) or left/right trigger (on 360) and Shepard will cut the other guy off.
Best one I’ve had so far: in Omega Station, you meet a young kid who wants to sign up as a merc. He’s obviously in over his head, but he’s too cocky to listen to you, and waves his gun in your face. You can interrupt, whereupon Shepard steps up while he’s ranting, swiftly grabs the gun and disarms him, and tells him to go home. Then later, on board the Normandy, you get a message from him apologising for being an idiot. Aww.
You should’ve gotten the chance to an interrupt during the very first mission The Illusive Man sends you on.
I’m liking the story and the characters of this one. The writing is as sharp as, or sharper than, ever. There are just these completely offhand comments that just kill me. After disappointing a krogan with bad news, he turns to his friend and says, “I’ll never understand these aliens.”
The animation is also fantastic with especially amazing faces, especially after Dragon Age’s cavalcade of freaks. There are lots of moments where there’s a lot of unnecessary moving around. Like they overreacted to comments that ME1 had too much of two people just looking at eachother, so they addressed it by making sure every conversation with Aria involves her doing fucking laps around you. Still, it averages as great and there are some moments, like the clear, wordless surprise from a quarian when you mention the pilgrimage, that are nothing short of spectacular.
I’m liking the story and the characters. I miss some from ME1, but I always felt that the fact that you accidentally run into almost the entire cast on the Citadel was a little gamey, so having to go find your people in this one appeals a little more. I don’t know how you could hate them. Sure, it’s a set of proper villains, but they’re all very good villains. Even characters like Zero, who looked so shitty in the goddam promo materials, make for great additions. As far as characters go, my only real disappointment is that Zaeed doesn’t seem to be nearly as well integrated as Shale was to DA. So far I can’t converse with Zaeed, he just comments on things in his room. Which is too bad, cos he’s gotta be the ugliest human model they’ve done yet.
I’ve found some of the one-off shout outs to ME1 to be a little stretched. A guy you helped in ME1 e-mails you to say thanks. You coincidentally run into several people whose lives you ruined or saved, one after the other. It’s a bit much. Since I did a replay as a total renegade for my second run through of ME1, I forgot how many people I spared as a paragon. I keep running into them and thinking ‘didn’t I shoot you in the face?’.
If you aren’t listening to the background conversations that pop up while you’re just walking around, you’re probably missing some of the game’s best dialog. Listening in while a couple of krogan discuss lovemaking technique is downright disturbing.
Oh, and Miranda’s pants are amazing. They’re just … man, life in space is okay, folks. It’s okay.
haha noticed that as well.
Miranda has the face of Yvonne Strahovski, jet black hair, and the body of a 19-year-old Playboy bunny.
She is perfection incarnate.
Thanks for that SPOILER in the non-spoiler thread, hong. There’s no way I’m buying the game now.
Only too true, probably the only dialog that seems genuine to me. Of course, my opinion of the main story dialog is far worse then yours. There is zero sense of self-awareness or humor in any of it. I still have trouble believing uh (non-spoiler thread and all) “Mr. E” isn’t a joke character.
I’m enjoying the game okay, but the piles of praise on the story are really confusing to me, at least so far.