Mass Effect 2 almost final thoughts and a new character is created...

Well I polished off my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2 last weekend on hardcore.  I enjoyed it very much.  The universe is safe again...for now...dun dun dun.  The last section of Mass Effect 2 is actually one the better endings to an RPG out there, even though it's a cliffhanger.  I'd love to discuss the plot and what happens to characters but I don't want to spoil it for anyone else.

I decided to begin a whole new character in the ME-verse and downloaded Mass Effect.  Last night I created "The Inquisitor" - a ruthless Earthborn adept with nothing but disdain for xenos and weakness in humans.  I'm gonna play him pure Renegade (my other character is a Paragon...for the most part).  He's a really ugly fucker, scarred and beady-eyed, with a potato nose.

Now the first time I played through ME I was kind of disappointed.  This time around I am really enjoying myself and have been noticing some remarkable differences between ME and ME2.  The main difference is in the first game there's a great deal of control over your character's skills, armor capabilities, combat prowess, even what kind of upgrades and gizmos you can equip on weapons and armor.  Personally I love tinkering with my character and equipment - it goes with the territory of being an RPG-hound and is still one of favorite things about Elder Scrolls IV. 

In comparison there is minmal tinkering with any item, armor, or character in Mass Effect 2.  Sure you can upgrade weapons and armor to a certain extent, however you cannot change any character's armor.  You can equip some different types of armor on your PC but once you get decent armor you never change it again.

This may sound like a petty argument to most of you but I view it as one of the downsides of blockbuster games.  In order to make a game accessable to the masses (no pun intended) fiddly elements (item selection/equipment/character stats) need to be streamlined.  In some cases it works, in ME2 skills and biotics are far easier and faster to use than in ME.  However, removing in-depth customization of a character and their gear takes a major element of challenge out of a RPG, tactically and otherwise. 

I will make one more complaint about ME2.  There ain't grenades!  There are grenades in ME!  Jeez, Bioware - did the grenades not test well?

Okay one more gripe, squad control stinks and especially stinks in comparison to ME. 

More reviews to follow re: ME & ME2

ps: the story of ME2 is truly great and one of the best I've ever played through despite gripes about gameplay.

Mass Effect 2 (2010) Bioware, XBOX 360: First Impressions in five hours

Mass Effect 2...I don't even know where to begin this review.  My review of Mass Effect was generally so-so.  I enjoyed the game but wasn't overly impressed.  I only really started getting excited about ME2 while playing the hell out of Dragon Age: Origins.  ME2 is a different animal than DA:O though both games were made by the same company.

Here are some of my first impressions (good and bad in the first five hours)

1. Jennifer Hale is back as the female voice of Commander Shepard.  Jennifer Hale is one of my all time favorite female voice actors. 
2. ME2 is shockingly gorgeous.  While there are some problems with human character's mouths looking a little weird everything else is astounding.  The alien races are totally believeable and in some cases, horrendous to look at.  The evironments keep making me stop and look around like some hayseed who just left Tattooine. 
3. Scanning planets instead of driving around in the MAKO makes me very happy.  Systematic scanning with a grid method?  Planet mining?  I don't like those things, nooooo.  Snickering when I see a planet's status after mining listed as depleted?  Not me...
4. Combat is pretty intense.  Insanely enough, Bioware managed to perfectly capture the thrill of 3rd person actioners in an RPG.  Two tastes greats that taste great together?  Damn right.
5. Downside to squad control:  I haven't gotten the mechanics of moving the squad around as easily as with tactical shooters - leap-frogging the squad and getting squaddies into postition.  Personally I'd be content to use them to draw enemy fire. 
6. Upside to squad combat:  So far I've only had to minimally baby-sit my crew.  What's cool is that they are just using their skills without me having to poke them with a stick.
7. Here's an insane revelation: ME2 has a cover system that works in combat.  No really.  I need more combat time to really get the mechanics of it but so far I am very pleased.
8. Story, voice acting (all characters), and the characters themselves (human and non) are top-shelf.  I am really looking forward to expanding the story.
9. I worry about game length.  Mass Effect I tore through in forty hours.  That being said, Mass Effect 2 is two fucking discs.  Two.  Dos.  Aweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesome.