Phatose on 4/2/2010 at 06:13
All true, and all hopefully will be fixed. The missing weapon hotkeys didn't actually affect me much - the swap to last weapon is enough for an infiltrator who only uses 2 weapons on a regular basis anyway.
I'm take back some of what I said about biotics. I still don't much care for playing one myself, but npc biotics function differently then player biotics. Pull Field/Unstable Warp is a very effective 1-2 punch on groups, and in most cases the shielded types are dumb enough to stand next to a combo target.
Pull Field, and to a lesser extent shockwave, deserve a special mention. For reasons never explained, any time a husk doesn't have at least one foot on the ground, it instantly dies. Since those things are always swarming you and don't have shielding (at least, on normal), those become area affect death spells. Pull field is easier to aim though, and has a shorter cool down.
Jokerman on 4/2/2010 at 09:09
Quote Posted by Judith
I've been playing the game for about 5 hours and I haven't seen anything that Bioware hasn't done yet. The graphics and loading times/texture popping has been addressed, the design and lightning is beaufitful as always, voice acting is great. But the plot and the gameplay, eh... I really liked the game mechanics in ME 1, just hated the mini-games, but those were optional. Now I need to play mini-games to make progress with upgrades, weapons somehow now use ammo clips (yeah, I know the bullshit about the cooling system), and I feel like I'm playing CoD in KOTOR environments designed up to date (Horizon is Dantoine, Omega is Taris, etc.). Still enjoying it, but much less than the first game, at least for now.
Well... the humor got tweaked a bit...
(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZfB1N3GSYE)
smallfry on 4/2/2010 at 21:10
Well I'm a little over 4 hours in. This game is GREAT! At first I was a little worried about all the stupid tutorial things you have to do (this door will only open if you put your two teammates at these exact locations... blah), the constant achievement popups (is there a way to turn these off?), and all the mini-games you have to do (I like the hacking mini game where you have to match the code, but I wish these things were based on character skills instead like RPGs in the past). And, the combat felt weird at first, but I've grown to like it way more than the first, with a few exceptions: ammo clips (I quite liked the cooldown system of the first game), your powers (seems like every power uses the same cooldown timer. I preferred the first where each power has its own cooldown timer but they were much longer. Also, each character doesn't have very many powers compared to ME1, but maybe they'll learn get more as the game progresses?)
But yeah, I'm REALLY enjoying the dialog, the new characters as well as the old characters, the interesting plot, the new locations... even though I'm complaining a lot, so far I've been having more fun than I've had in years with a single-player game, probably since Vampire: Bloodlines.
Judith on 4/2/2010 at 22:20
The humor definitely got better. Joker has stepped onto the scene and his lines are nice touch, but my absolute favorite right now is Mordin. His C3PO-like attitude and fast talking adds amazing charm to this character.
I also got used to the new mechanics. I made a mistake of starting on hardcore difficulty, which can be a little frustrating for a low-level infiltrator class without some substantial upgrades. I'm level 15 right now and the Veteran difficulty seems about right for me.
Phatose on 4/2/2010 at 23:02
It has some great lines. The tali/garrus conversation on Citadel, Mordin singing pirates of penzance, telling Joker to stop flirting with the ship.
Judith on 5/2/2010 at 00:56
Oh, and I wouldn't say that the choices and playing the first game/importing save doesn't matter that much. There are moments and places where ME 1 veterans really get appreciated. Some bits are smaller (like radio broadcast about your choices from the past), some topics from the first game are extended, you're even to take part in solving further problems related to the ME 1 quests. The general amount of connections is between the two games is IMO pretty large. If you're really into this world, learning a bit more about it is a nice reward itself. While the first game's lore (and a few locales from ME 2 as well) keep reminding you that this is a KOTOR/SW inspired world, but ME 2 presentation convinces you that this is a separate, living world with rich and interesting background. In a way (level design mostly) this is KOTOR 3, yet a bit more dark than SW series.
Jason Moyer on 5/2/2010 at 21:52
I haven't really posted many opinions because I was replaying ME to get my paragon Liara-banging Shephard together (also working on a female, renagade Liara-banging Shephard right now) but I'm approximately 6 hours in and, man, I love this game. A part of me was initially put off by the changes they made, my initial reaction being "OMG DUMBED DOWN LOLZ", but really in streamlining so many aspects of the game, they've made the experience a lot better overall.
Things I don't like: The entire buy fuel/probes-->rape planets for resources-->buy fuel/probes thing which wastes more time than driving the Mako did. I think a lot of the model/texture/animation work looks worse than the first game (especially facially - facial animations were always hit or miss in the first game, but they seem more miss to me in the second one). I hate not having a map during the mission sequences, especially since the level design is a lot more interesting than normal Bioware stuff so it's easy to miss things unless you keep bringing up the objective arrow and making sure you thoroughly search areas before going in that direction. I don't like the totally shameless camel toe that what's-her-face-with-the-tits is sporting (how the hell did that make it into the final build, anyway?). I don't like the default key bindings and how the tutorials don't notice that I've set everything up so it controls similarly to ME1.
Things I do like are probably too long to list. I like the self-contained mission structure. I really like the overall level design, and there are moments in certain areas where I walk through a door and I'm looking at something that's SystemShock2-concept-art quality. I like that, even as a Paragon, the game has a really grim feel to it. I like how there are constant, at times almost borderline subconscious, references to things you did and/or experienced in the first game and how they rarely feel like half-assed Star Wars-prequel-trilogy style fanservice. I like the total mindfuck of who I'm working for now. I like totally not seeing the [spoiler]Archangel[/spoiler] bit coming at all. I like having party influence, although I'm not far enough into the game to see how it actually works. I like the writing. I like the humor. I like how well-optimized the engine is (interface quirks aside), especially after playing the glitchy-soundfest that ME1 is. I like the NPC's I've interacted with so far, party and otherwise.
Anyway, not ready to say it's the best game I've ever played, but even 5-6 hours in it's up there. Very very nice game, and while I've been a fan of Bioware since they ditched the isometric camera, this and DAO are very pleasant derivations from the game-design rut they seemed stuck in during the last generation of games.
Jokerman on 5/2/2010 at 23:07
Quote Posted by Judith
Oh, and I wouldn't say that the choices and playing the first game/importing save doesn't matter that much. There are moments and places where ME 1 veterans really get appreciated. Some bits are smaller (like radio broadcast about your choices from the past), some topics from the first game are extended, you're even to take part in solving further problems related to the ME 1 quests. The general amount of connections is between the two games is IMO pretty large. If you're really into this world, learning a bit more about it is a nice reward itself.
And running into all those ME1 NPCs really makes you realize what a small place our galaxy is...
:D
Malf on 6/2/2010 at 01:07
Joker's moment in the spotlight is aces.
"What the shit!"
Big spoiler:
I was sad to lose so many crew members there, especially the two engineers and Dr. Chakwas :(
Phatose on 6/2/2010 at 02:38
Quote Posted by Malf
Joker's moment in the spotlight is aces.
"What the shit!"
Big spoiler:
I was sad to lose so many crew members there, especially the two engineers and Dr. Chakwas :([spoiler]So go get them back. Immediately, if you intend to have them live.[/spoiler]
