Given how amazing the game is gonna be, I'm a bit surprised that there isn't a thread up about Mass Effect 2 yet, although I suppose it is because it is about a month left untill it's released. But for me, that isn't a long time, it's an extremely short time, and I'm hyped atm more than ever before for any game. (No kidding) ME2 might be the best game yet. (Well, it will be released before SC2 and D3, so , but even then it might compete with them I think)
During the year 2007, I began seeing footage of a little game called Mass Effect. I thought it looked pretty cool, and knowing that Bioware had a tendency of creating epic RPG's (Baldur's Gate ftw) I was a bit curious. However, I had plenty of other games to play at the time, after all, it was a hell of a lot of good games in '07, so ME slipped by me. And so it remained untill early 2009 when I got curious again, and decided to buy it for my PC, and I was just amazed by how awesome it was, especially given that it was 2 years old at the time.
Not long after, rumors talked about an upcoming sequel, ME2, as well as that ME was a trilogy so yet another one would eventually follow. Over the past 8 months or so, I've constantly been following Bioware's process with the game, and now it's final that the game will be out January 26th 2010 in North America, and January 29th 2010 in Europe. (The rest of the world I'm not sure, but I think it's the 29th as well) And to give myself, and the rest of you a lovely christmas present, today the Mass Effect 2 official Cinematic Trailer has been released, and let me tell you: IT IS AWESOME!!!
After watching something like that, I just don't know what to say other than "wow". The game itself might be a month late for Christmas, but does it really matter when it looks as awesome as this?
Anyway, let's move on. As far as I know, the same classes that existed in the original will take place here, but instead of having like 10 or so different skills, here you only have like 6, but they are WAY more specialized, and look ridiculously cool at times. They've also changed the firing system. Instead of having a cooldown-based ammo system, you now have the more traditional limited ammo system. Personally, I don't really understand why. With the new Heavy Weapons it makes sense of course, but for smaller firearms, they should have almost limitless ammo. Check the Codex in ME1 and you'll see why.
Moving on, for those of you who don't know there are three groups within the classes in ME: Combat, Tech and Biotic. The Soldier is 100% Combat, the Engineer is 100% Tech, and the Adept is 100% Biotic. In addition to this, the Infiltrator is 50% Combat/50% Tech, the Sentinel is 50% Biotic/50% Tech, and finally the Vanguard is 50% Combat/ 50% Biotic. This system makes a very good attempt at enabling you to create your personal favourite very exactly. As far as I can say about the classes in ME1, the more Combat based classes made for a simpler, and overall easier gameplay, while the Tech and especially Biotic made for a more advanced, more time-demanding gameplay. However, you died a lot less as a Biotic and it was a hell of a lot more fun. Personally, I think the Sentinel was easily the funniest to play. Going around on Insanity is not exactly easy at times, but it really helps when you can steer the enemies any which way you like. As far as ME2 goes, well I'm not sure whether or not you can change class or not after you've imported a character from the original, but it won't really matter to me, because I'll probably play as Sentinel again anyway. Not sure if it's the best choice, but I think it's the most fun, and a little extra challenge is never wrong, right? Ok, sometimes maybe but that's beside the point. Anyway, which are your favourite classes and what do you think of ME2 in general?
Poll: Favourite Class in ME1? (Vote): Soldier (Vote): Engineer (Vote): Adept (Vote): Infiltrator (Vote): Sentinel (Vote): Vanguard
About the Classes in ME2, here are the preview videos of all the Classes. (At the time, the Soldier is the only one which haven't recieved an official preview, but given that it is the simplest Class, and you get to see it in a lot of other videos as well, you can probably figure out sort of what it will be. I'll add its video to the OP if it gets released. The Infiltrator got its video today.) Edit: The Vanguard now has 2 videos: Edit 2: All classes now have their respective walkthroughs:
Poll: Favorite Class in ME2? (You think) (Vote): Soldier (Vote): Engineer (Vote): Adept (Vote): Infiltrator (Vote): Sentinel (Vote): Vanguard
About the companions in the original, they were really deep. You could get in touch with your partners like never before and really understand them. So far, only Tali and Garrus have been confirmed to exist in ME2, the others... tbh, I don't think so. Why? Well: + Show Spoiler +
Ashley/Kaidan couldn't really be in the game given that one of them has to die at the end of ME1. I don't really see how Bioware intend to add or remove a character completly from the beginning of the game. It might be possible, but I highly doubt it. Liara would be a logical asset to the team, but they've already confirmed Samara as one of your squadmates, and somehow I don't think you will have 2 Asari in your squad. A shame really, I really liked Li'. Although... Samara has bigger bewbies o.0 Finally, Wrex couldn't possibly be in the game. First of all, just as with Liara, there already is another person confirmed of the same species; in this case Krogan in the form of Grunt. And most importantly, if you're clumsy and arrogant, there is a chance you might actually get into a fight with Wrex in the original while on Virmire where he'll get killed either by yourself or Ashley. Thus, just like with the Ashley/Kaidan scenario, I don't think Bioware will remove a character fully just because of a mistake you made, while others will get him all along.
As far as ME2 goes, I think you will have 12 squadmates in total, twice as many as the original, although you still only have 2 + yourself at a time. (Like it should be imo, especially with the new squad-command system, which looks awesome btw.) The ones who are revealed are:
1. Samara 2. Subject Zero 3. Thane 4. Grunt 5. Tali'Zorah 6. Garrus 7. Miranda Lawson (Gorgeous imo)
(Post if I forgot anyone) There are also times where you can see other people in your squad which seem really shallow and quiet, so I suspect they are only temporary characters, just like Jenkins was in the original.
I'll update the poll below if any new squadmate is revealed.
Poll: Favourite squadmate in ME2? (Vote): Samara (Vote): Subject Zero (Vote): Thane (Vote): Grunt (Vote): Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya (Vote): Garrus Vakarian (Vote): Miranda Lawson
Another thing that's really cool about Mass Effect it the way your morality works. While it is true that many games have the possibility to play as both the good or evil side, in Mass Effect you always play on the good side, but not necessarilly in a good way. It's the so called Paragon/Renegade system, and it's awesome. Paragon points are earned by doing good deeds, and charming people, while Renegade points (and by that I do NOT mean points that's on the run o.0) are earned by being rude, impolite, ill-mannered, and downright threating people. Overall, I personally think Paragon is the better choice. First and formost; it's much more humane, and unless you're a sadist, it makes you feel as if you've done what you would have done irl. However, Renegade can be really funny at times, like when you are being interviewed by an anoying reporter, you can skip the whole conversation by punching her in the belly instead.
If anyone is interested, and is still playing ME1, or intends to replay it before the sequel comes out, I know of two points in the game where you can glitch the game in order to recieve infinte Paragon/Renegade points. + Show Spoiler +
The first one is during the UNC-assignment Lost Module, on the beautiful planet Eletania. Note: You can only get infinte Paragon points here. If you find the space-monkey carrying the data module in the mine WITHOUT killing any space-monkey during the entire quest you recieve 2 Paragon points for doing so. Immediately after grabbing the module, make a quick save, and then reload it. You can now pick up the data module again and recieve new Paragon points. Then you can repeat this endlessly. Note, for some reason you only have ro reload once. After that you can just spam the use-key on the space-monkey and you'll reciev points all the time. The second way works with both Paragon and Renegade, but you need lvl 5 Charm/Intimidate in order to do so. (At least I think it was lvl 5, could be 6 as well.) While on Noveria and convincing Lorik Qui'nn to testify against Anoleis you can do this: 1. Convince him to testify against Anoleis. 2. Talk to him again. 3. Choose Investigate, and then Matriarch Benezia. 4. Choose Another Question. You can now convince him to testify again and again if you repeat this, and every time you do so, you recieve a HUGE bonus in Paragon/Renegade. 25 points I think it was.
ME2 promises to be one of, if not the best game I've ever seen. Just look at the cast! It's ridiculous!
new (i think?) 12 minute demo from gamespot, not much content shown tho but o well. I really enjoyed the first one but definitely room for improvement in the exploration/driving/combat animations. When you play through insanity its awkward to shoot an enemy for so long and they have no reaction at all unless you use biotics never finished an insanity run because of this but doesn't really apply as much when playing on normal-hardcore. Looking forward for ME2 tho looks like they are working on their weakness.. fucken elevators
The women doing the voice for the adept IS SOOO TILTING WTF
it's an Adept not an addit
otherwise the game looks interesting and i am really glad they reworked the inventory system selling was basically scroooollllllllll click sell scroooooooolllllll click sell, over 50 items, it was really bad. and i loved the elevator banter, but iirc they sometimes sat in silence, which is horrible, and made me wish they never added the stupid elevator
i hope they take the character development more seriously this time
Haha great to see more Mass Effect fans on TL ^^. I personally have a Vanguard lv 56 ATM and am playing on hardcore. I always have Wrex and Garrus with me on every assignment. I never really liked the other squadmates =(. Anyway, you will be able to transfer your Shepard into ME2. The only thing really that will transfer over is if you were lv 50/60, paragon/renegade, and the choices you made in ME1+ Show Spoiler +
if you killed wrex, killed off ashley or kaiden, released/killed the rachni queen, and your love interest, if you chose to save the council, who you chose for the human representative etc.
You will be able to "respec" your class from X to Y, also you will be able to change the appearance of your Shepard.
As for ME2, I dunno if I'll change anything. I'm also not too fond of the crew(squadmates) that have been revealed so far. But I'm looking forward to continuing the story.
Edit: So, yeah, i was wrong on the whole "change gender" thing, but the other things are spot on.
for some reason I'm not too incredibly exciting for this game though I LOVED the first one, I'm just not sure if the experience is gonna be different enough, if they've changed enough except for the story obviously. Still, a must buy game for me
On December 23 2009 21:37 wingedpts wrote: new (i think?) 12 minute demo from gamespot, not much content shown tho but o well. I really enjoyed the first one but definitely room for improvement in the exploration/driving/combat animations. When you play through insanity its awkward to shoot an enemy for so long and they have no reaction at all unless you use biotics never finished an insanity run because of this but doesn't really apply as much when playing on normal-hardcore. Looking forward for ME2 tho looks like they are working on their weakness.. fucken elevators
Yes, the video was released yesterday. The Normandy looks huge now. But what's wrong with the elevators? The music was soooo funny xD
On December 23 2009 22:44 Etherone wrote: The women doing the voice for the adept IS SOOO TILTING WTF
it's an Adept not an addit
otherwise the game looks interesting and i am really glad they reworked the inventory system selling was basically scroooollllllllll click sell scroooooooolllllll click sell, over 50 items, it was really bad. and i loved the elevator banter, but iirc they sometimes sat in silence, which is horrible, and made me wish they never added the stupid elevator
i hope they take the character development more seriously this time
Yeah, I agree, the selling system was soooooooooooo lame.
On December 23 2009 23:10 Latham wrote: if you killed wrex, killed off ashley or kaiden, released/killed the rachni queen, and your love interest. You will be able to "respec" your class from X to Y, also you will be able to change the gender/appearance of your Shepard.
Ehh... most of this I already knew, but just wait a minute... if your love interest actions will carry over and you will be able to respec your gender... ehhh... does this mean that you could technically become a homosexual? o.0 (If you were female and with Liara in the first you still were not lesbian, but this...)
i would be worried if the statement "more action" came from square, as they said it for ff13 and now look at this shit, but in bioware i trust. dragon age was the best rpg experience since secret of mana.
Yeah, I think they did the right thing in adding ammo and removing that weapon heat-up system. It will make you actually think about what you're about to do. You'll be more engaged in combat that way. I'd still like to see the buy/sell UI though, and the supposed customization screen. Anyway, the initial level cap is supposed to be a lot lower than before (the power gamer achievement is lv30...). They also promised us a lot more of DLC content with variety.
I haven't been paying much attention to the development of mass effect 2, but I'm going to buy it for sure. My favorite class in ME1 was infiltrator. I think it will end up being the same in the second, but we'll see. I'm happy to see Garrus making a return. I'm not quite sure why, but he was my favorite squadmate in the first. But yeah, this is a definite must buy for me; I loved the first one.
I actually didn't like the original Mass Effect that much. I disliked a couple elements of combat (e.g. Biotic powers didn't get nearly enough development), and starting a 2nd playthrough really highlights the weaknesses of the game. There are large segments of the dialogue where your choice of action--good or evil, or anything in between--makes absolutely no difference in how the dialogue plays out. Shepherd even says the SAME LINES when you choose different dialogue choices. When you subtract out those fake choices, the number of real ones left, IMO, that drive the game as an RPG just aren't enough.
That said, Dragon Age gives me some hope for this game. I'll stick with my stance of "cautiously optimistic".
On December 24 2009 00:55 orgolove wrote: It's SO lame that they aren't releasing any mod tools for this game.... Ughhhhh
This is probably my biggest quip with the game.
On December 24 2009 01:40 Corvi wrote: i would be worried if the statement "more action" came from square, as they said it for ff13 and now look at this shit, but in bioware i trust. dragon age was the best rpg experience since secret of mana.
Er...what? That's just blatantly not true, and even a Bioware fan would disagree, seeing as both Baldur's Gate games were released in that time span.
Had a lot of fun with a sentinel with singularity in the first game. But I'll probably start with an infiltrator like I did last time before trying other classes.
Played the first game as a Sentinel with Liara and Tali'Zoran as squadmates and i intend to do it the same way in the sequal. That setups just gives you hilarious control and fun gameplay.
If there's one thing that I didn't like about Mass Effect 1, it's the Argo. Sure it's a pretty cool vehicle, but having to drive for 2-3 minutes between each objective got boring pretty quickly. The Argo sections on the main mission planets were pretty nicely done though.
I have to disagree with the OP on whether or not Bioware will cut Ashley/Kaiden/Wrex from ME2. After all, they've made a big deal about having your decisions from the first game carry over, so it wouldn't make sense for these characters to just disappear.
Kaiden, by the way, was my least favorite character in Mass Effect. They tried to make him seem like the strong, silent type, but it just came off as being snobby to me. His usefulness in combat left something to be desired as well. At least it made my choice at the end pretty easy.
Looking forward to some Rachni Queen goodness in ME2. Hopefully letting her go won't come back to bite me in the ass. =)
On December 26 2009 15:01 Spazer wrote: If there's one thing that I didn't like about Mass Effect 1, it's the Argo. Sure it's a pretty cool vehicle, but having to drive for 2-3 minutes between each objective got boring pretty quickly. The Argo sections on the main mission planets were pretty nicely done though.
? Ehh... what's Argo? Argos Rho Cluster? Sounds like you're referring to the Mako, or?
And while I see your point of it being a pretty long way to drive at times, if you just check the map when you land on an uncharted world and just drive from location to location, then you're missing the point. With the Mako, you should explore on your own. Try to find locations that aren't visible on the map, but only on the radar, and some aren't visible at all other than with your eyes alone.
Sounds like you were just rushing to get OFF the planet instead of acctually show interest in what was ON it...
I swear, I loved the concept of uncharted worlds, I really did. But when every and I mean EVERY planet you land on is a mountain range, and every second cliff you climb is a 89,5 degrees tilted, it quickly becomes monotone and becomes a nuisance rather than an interesting part of the game.
I mean, why can't they implement a few FLAT planets, or semi-flat with post-meteor craters with them? Or some big planet that was cover with an ocean, but now the water dried up or some shit, and it just leave a big canyon on the majority of the map with the remains(bones) of dead animals scattered around? Or an actual level with water? You wouldn't need to even implement anything new, and say that the mako drives on the bottom, and your environmental suits are water proof with an inbuilt oxygen tank and gravity boots or some shit.
On December 29 2009 04:15 Latham wrote: I swear, I loved the concept of uncharted worlds, I really did. But when every and I mean EVERY planet you land on is a mountain range, and every second cliff you climb is a 89,5 degrees tilted, it quickly becomes monotone and becomes a nuisance rather than an interesting part of the game.
I mean, why can't they implement a few FLAT planets, or semi-flat with post-meteor craters with them? Or some big planet that was cover with an ocean, but now the water dried up or some shit, and it just leave a big canyon on the majority of the map with the remains(bones) of dead animals scattered around? Or an actual level with water? You wouldn't need to even implement anything new, and say that the mako drives on the bottom, and your environmental suits are water proof with an inbuilt oxygen tank and gravity boots or some shit.
Now just wait a minute... The key to it all is... In my opinion, it really is... Well Bioware intended to... To be honest, I think...
Yeah some variety would be nice. But I had a lot of fun driving around as it was. I liked driving around like a maniac trying to get the mako to roll. It was always satisfying when it happened.
Biotics were so OP in ME1. I used to disable entire armies with their abilities, and it made the game ridiculously easy. The only annoying thing is that you had to be in the line of sight of the enemy to use the biotic abilities.
Now you can aim your biotic abilities by curving their trajectory so they are going to be even more OP.
On December 29 2009 04:15 Latham wrote: I swear, I loved the concept of uncharted worlds, I really did. But when every and I mean EVERY planet you land on is a mountain range, and every second cliff you climb is a 89,5 degrees tilted, it quickly becomes monotone and becomes a nuisance rather than an interesting part of the game.
I mean, why can't they implement a few FLAT planets, or semi-flat with post-meteor craters with them? Or some big planet that was cover with an ocean, but now the water dried up or some shit, and it just leave a big canyon on the majority of the map with the remains(bones) of dead animals scattered around? Or an actual level with water? You wouldn't need to even implement anything new, and say that the mako drives on the bottom, and your environmental suits are water proof with an inbuilt oxygen tank and gravity boots or some shit.
I hated the mako with a passion. I remember going through a level when a single tire touched a lava tile-set (I couldn't even tell it was lava because it looked brown) and I insta-died. Also I kept trying to flip the mako just to see the ridiculous physics that the game would make up to keep it from landing on its back.
I've seen/tried about half those things, but still LOL, you gotta love how Shephard ignores the council. "That never gets old sir." Being renegade can be so funny at times^^ Oh, and I think they missed (Correct me if I'm wrong) the scene when you threaten Emily Wong for cash, that's pretty damn funny too.
[QUOTE]On December 29 2009 01:40 HaXXspetten wrote: [quote]On December 26 2009 15:01 Spazer wrote: Sounds like you were just rushing to get OFF the planet instead of acctually show interest in what was ON it...[/QUOTE] If only there were interesting things on the planets in the first place...
On December 26 2009 15:01 Spazer wrote: If there's one thing that I didn't like about Mass Effect 1, it's the Argo. Sure it's a pretty cool vehicle, but having to drive for 2-3 minutes between each objective got boring pretty quickly. The Argo sections on the main mission planets were pretty nicely done though.
? Ehh... what's Argo? Argos Rho Cluster? Sounds like you're referring to the Mako, or?
And while I see your point of it being a pretty long way to drive at times, if you just check the map when you land on an uncharted world and just drive from location to location, then you're missing the point. With the Mako, you should explore on your own. Try to find locations that aren't visible on the map, but only on the radar, and some aren't visible at all other than with your eyes alone.
Sounds like you were just rushing to get OFF the planet instead of acctually show interest in what was ON it...
Oh wow, I did mean the Mako. The Argo's from a Star Trek movie. =/
Anyway, there's only so much exploration you can do in the game. The only things you have to find are mineral deposits and crashed probes (which sometimes aren't marked I think. Can't remember). About 3/4 of the way through the game, you're pretty much rolling in cash, so there's no point to finding the deposits. The random mods you pick up from the probes are also usually junk. So really, there's not much point in wandering. Also, the scenery is just... blah. Most of the time it's just rocks after rocks after rocks. Speaking of which, it's excruciatingly slow trying to climb up those steep slopes. I can't believe they actually forced players to climb up stuff like that in parts of the game.
Edit: "I THOUGHT YOU WERE A HERO! HEROES DON'T DO THINGS LIKE THIS!" Okay. Totally going for Renegade next time.
Unser Gefecht macht deutlich, dass Mass Effect 2 erheblich actionlastiger daherkommt als sein Vorgänger. Verstärkt wird dieser Eindruck durch Shepards ersten Rangaufstieg. Wo in Mass Effect pro Charakterklasse mehr als ein Dutzend Fertigkeiten in bis zu zwölf Stufen ausgebaut werden konnten, stehen nun nur noch sechs Talente à vier Levels zur Auswahl. Weniger Talente, weniger Ausbaustufen -- Mass Effect wird mehr und mehr zum Shooter.Weniger Talente, weniger Ausbaustufen -- Mass Effect wird mehr und mehr zum Shooter. Die Spezialisierungen auf bestimmte Waffentypen hat Bioware ebenso entfernt wie den individuellen Ausbau von Lebenspunkten und Rüstungswerten. Das Resultat: Mass Effect 2 bewegt sich weg vom Rollenspiel hin zum Shooter. Eine seltsame Design-Entscheidung, immerhin war vielen Fans bereits das erste Mass Effect zu seicht.
I picked out this part because it makes me somewhat worried about the game, these are the main things it says: "There is a much bigger emphasis on action, this impression is strengthened (or sth) by our first level up: instead of 12 skills like in ME 1 you now only have 6 á 4 levels -> less skills, more levels for each skill, Mass Effect is becoming more and more of a Shooter. Specialisation on certain types of weaponry as well as invidual enhancement of hit points and armor points were removed RPG-> Shooter, a strange decision in design since many fans already thought the first Mass Effect was too simple."
I suck at translating but you get the point. I still think it'll be a very good game but I really dont like the sound of that :/
^ That's probably the only thing I've noticed about ME2 that I'm disappointed with. Only 6 skills with 4 levels... meh.
Other than that, what you're saying about RPG-> Shooter, in that case I disagree. ME2 will have a lot more shooting than ME1, but also a lot more RPG elements. A LOT more. So imo, the downscaled classes is the only drawback so far.
I was disappointed at first by the reduction in skills. And I'm still not sure how having only 6 will play out. But having fewer levels per skill makes sense, I think. It's not as though those intermediate levels for skills in ME1 were doing anything. Sure, you could toss a couple points here or there and get a few more shields or a little more damage, but it was mainly about getting to breakpoints for better abilities or maxing out for full effect, and you don't need so many ranks per skill for that.
^ I can't recall actually seing the difference between each skillevel among the skills in ME2, but almost certainly, they are, as you say, breakpoints alone. If you see it that way, in the original you had 12 levels, with 3 different breakpoints. That makes 4 "Major-skillevels" per skill. (Remember, the first point is not a breakpoint, but it's still a "Major-skillevel" since you actually learn the ability) In ME2, you will only have 4 skillevels in total, but those will all be "Major-skillpoints".
Overall, having a thinner (horizontally) skilltree probably won't be a drawback, although I still can't really find any good reason to make it shorter. (vertically)
Then again, given how many different weapon-classes there will be, it makes sense that they removed them from the skilltree, and the "class-skill" (soldier, engineer etc) gets removed entirely due to not having breakpoints, Spectre-training suffers the same fate.
So that sort of redeems itself as well... except for one thing...
WHERE is Charm & Intimidation? -.- I know that it doesn't have breakpoints and I can't see how it would, but srsly, if it isn't on the skilltree, it raises the question:
As long as that doesn't mean cutting down on the story, which I doubt more and more every day, than it really isn't all that bad to make it more shooter-based.
Come to think of it, it's kinda hard to find anything about ME2 that is not good.
On January 06 2010 04:02 HaXXspetten wrote: ^ That's probably the only thing I've noticed about ME2 that I'm disappointed with. Only 6 skills with 4 levels... meh.
Other than that, what you're saying about RPG-> Shooter, in that case I disagree. ME2 will have a lot more shooting than ME1, but also a lot more RPG elements. A LOT more. So imo, the downscaled classes is the only drawback so far.
Like what? I certainly agree that more action is a good thing if there's also more RPG elements, I just havent read anything about added RPG elements. Btw I didnt say it was going RPG->Shooter, the article did. (But the one who wrote the article supported that cause he didnt care much about RPGs..)
Well for example, I have read that the game will be so big that it will span across 2 dvd's, and given that regardless of how efficient the shooter-system is, it doesn't take up all that much space, you can imagine how much RPG they've fitted into the rest.
On December 30 2009 09:30 geetarzero wrote: i think just about everyone that played the first game had wrex and garrus as their favorite party members...
No, I had Garrus and the Asarian doctor wherever possible.The reason is a role-playing related one: Turians and Asarians are two of the three original big nigs, the third one has no representation in my team so the choice is easy to make.
On January 06 2010 06:16 motbob wrote: I'm down with them focusing more on the shooter aspect! That was a weak part of ME1 and I'm glad they're spending time to fix it.
This. I remember using the sniper rifle and aiming directly at one of the enemies, and the shot would just miss because I hadn't upgraded the sniper proficiency. The only reason I'm even considering buying the game is because the combat looks so much better. I'm just a little gunshy because I think I'm getting sick of the stock Bioware storyline.
On January 06 2010 06:16 motbob wrote: I'm down with them focusing more on the shooter aspect! That was a weak part of ME1 and I'm glad they're spending time to fix it.
No, I had Garrus and the Asarian doctor wherever possible.The reason is a role-playing related one: Turians and Asarians are two of the three original big nigs, the third one has no representation in my team so the choice is easy to make.
On January 06 2010 06:16 motbob wrote: I'm down with them focusing more on the shooter aspect! That was a weak part of ME1 and I'm glad they're spending time to fix it.
This. I remember using the sniper rifle and aiming directly at one of the enemies, and the shot would just miss because I hadn't upgraded the sniper proficiency. The only reason I'm even considering buying the game is because the combat looks so much better. I'm just a little gunshy because I think I'm getting sick of the stock Bioware storyline.
That's why you play Biotic- and Tech-classes instead.
On January 06 2010 20:32 HaXXspetten wrote: Well for example, I have read that the game will be so big that it will span across 2 dvd's, and given that regardless of how efficient the shooter-system is, it doesn't take up all that much space, you can imagine how much RPG they've fitted into the rest.
That means that there's a lot of content and more story but other than that it doesnt mean there's any more RPG elements added to the game. It could for example just mean that this is a really large story based action shooter (its not obviously but you know what I mean)
I think I mostly played with Liara and the Krogan, though I definitely liked Garrus and conversations with him were always quite interesting. Mh I also must have had Tali several times cause with out her I wouldnt have any tech dude (me = Vanguard)
On January 06 2010 06:16 motbob wrote: I'm down with them focusing more on the shooter aspect! That was a weak part of ME1 and I'm glad they're spending time to fix it.
No, I had Garrus and the Asarian doctor wherever possible.The reason is a role-playing related one: Turians and Asarians are two of the three original big nigs, the third one has no representation in my team so the choice is easy to make.
On January 06 2010 06:16 motbob wrote: I'm down with them focusing more on the shooter aspect! That was a weak part of ME1 and I'm glad they're spending time to fix it.
This. I remember using the sniper rifle and aiming directly at one of the enemies, and the shot would just miss because I hadn't upgraded the sniper proficiency. The only reason I'm even considering buying the game is because the combat looks so much better. I'm just a little gunshy because I think I'm getting sick of the stock Bioware storyline.
That's why you play Biotic- and Tech-classes instead.
Yeah I figured that out during the first play through
On January 06 2010 20:32 HaXXspetten wrote: Well for example, I have read that the game will be so big that it will span across 2 dvd's, and given that regardless of how efficient the shooter-system is, it doesn't take up all that much space, you can imagine how much RPG they've fitted into the rest.
That means that there's a lot of content and more story but other than that it doesnt mean there's any more RPG elements added to the game. It could for example just mean that this is a really large story based action shooter (its not obviously but you know what I mean)
Only time will tell I suppose.
I think I mostly played with Liara and the Krogan, though I definitely liked Garrus and conversations with him were always quite interesting. Mh I also must have had Tali several times cause with out her I wouldnt have any tech dude (me = Vanguard)
Wrex...
And yes, having Tali helps immensely versus Geth. There's nothing sweeter than maxing out AI Hacking for her and turn the biggest droids against eachother.
Hm makes me a bit miffed I deleted ME1 after beating it, don't think I saved my character or anything ;P
Anyhow, as long as every side mission isn't a cut-and-paste job of the last one, and the non-quest planets are inhabited by something more than monkeys and un-fucking-believably poor excuses for mountains, I'll be happy.
Basically what Latham said. I liked the game, but it had some really frustrating/bad parts.
Also, and this is a really tilting part of Dragon age as well, I want unlimited inventory =[ There is nothing I hate more than having to throw shit away constantly because you pick up so many god damn items.
On January 07 2010 02:53 FrozenArbiter wrote: Also, and this is a really tilting part of Dragon age as well, I want unlimited inventory =[ There is nothing I hate more than having to throw shit away constantly because you pick up so many god damn items.
Did you download the party chest mod? Bioware released it for free, and that basically gives you unlimited inventory.
Oh man, i'm so pumped for this game that I'm skipping every post/news event/preview so the plot isn't ruined for me. Man, I can't wait . Bioware puts out such good quality games (especially comparatively), and the atmosphere/plot/in depth nature of the first was so good. I just hope I'm not disappointed.
On January 07 2010 02:53 FrozenArbiter wrote: Also, and this is a really tilting part of Dragon age as well, I want unlimited inventory =[ There is nothing I hate more than having to throw shit away constantly because you pick up so many god damn items.
Did you download the party chest mod? Bioware released it for free, and that basically gives you unlimited inventory.
You mean the one at Warden's Keep? It has a limit, too. (It's hard to hit, but it's there.)
On January 07 2010 02:53 FrozenArbiter wrote: Also, and this is a really tilting part of Dragon age as well, I want unlimited inventory =[ There is nothing I hate more than having to throw shit away constantly because you pick up so many god damn items.
Did you download the party chest mod? Bioware released it for free, and that basically gives you unlimited inventory.
You mean the one at Warden's Keep? It has a limit, too. (It's hard to hit, but it's there.)
No, there's another one that you don't need to pay for that Bioware devs released, and it shows up in your camp. It's got a limit too, but it's more convenient than Warden's Keep, and between the two, you've got more than you could ever possibly need.
Oh I didn't know they'd done that. Cool. And I agree, you've got way more storage than you could need. Keep every named item and you should still have room in even one of the two chests.
Update everyone. The Vanguard has gotten a second class walkthrough... well, ok: the first one was more like a demonstration than a walkthrough, but regardless: I've added to the OP along with the other ones.
Cloak and Charge seems like the coolest abilities so far. (Infiltrator and Vanguard) Still think the versatility of the Sentinel takes the cake atm, but we won't really know until the game gets released.
Have they said anything about improved AI or the ability to give your party more complicated commands? I've been playing through ME1 the past few days, and the AI really seems terrible. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Dragon Age, but it seems like you can't get the most out of your party members classes in the first game.
On January 07 2010 21:21 sixghost wrote: Have they said anything about improved AI or the ability to give your party more complicated commands? I've been playing through ME1 the past few days, and the AI really seems terrible. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Dragon Age, but it seems like you can't get the most out of your party members classes in the first game.
From what I've read the enemies' AI will be vastly improved (in their own words). It will hide more effectively behind things, and shouldn't charge as much ;p. As for squad AI you will be able to tell them to use what ability on which enemy( you could already do that in ME1 but now it's supposed to be a lot easier and more intuitive). But advanced commands like "hide behind THIS crate" or "provide covering fire" are not implemented as far as I know.
I know it becomes tiring to hear "I will destroy you!" in every fight you drag yourself into or your squadies shooting the wall instead of the enemies ;p
On January 07 2010 21:21 sixghost wrote: Have they said anything about improved AI or the ability to give your party more complicated commands? I've been playing through ME1 the past few days, and the AI really seems terrible. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Dragon Age, but it seems like you can't get the most out of your party members classes in the first game.
In fact, yes they have expanded on it quite a bit. Let me see if I can find a link/video...
Well, this one is 4 months old, and is filmed by someones video camera, so it's not very good, but I can say that I've read that you will be able to give advanced commands to your squad individually without having to pause the game. The AI has also recieved huge upgrades according to Bioware, not sure where I heard that last part though. Think it was the one where you and Garrus fight of a bunch of Meks, but I'm not sure. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pax-09-mass-effect/55644
I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Well, I knew that the skill "First Aid" didn't exist anymore, but using medi-gel as revival, I really had no idea. But it makes sense since Spectre Training is out (Unity) and I think it's a good idea. Got any link to that forum?
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
Huh. Interesting.They removed a minigame which required skillpoints and added a new minigame that does not. Hard to say what I think of this since I haven't seen the mingame, but fine with me.
Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
Yeah, well that I knew. -.-
Wait a minute, 2 types of ammo? Looks like a lot more than that to me. If you check the video I linked on last page for example, (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/pax-09-mass-effect/55644) and pause the video at 01:00, you can see that several of the icons looks like ammo, 6 to be precise. That signifies that you will find ammo just like weapons and armor, but instead of applying it directly to the weapons themselves as upgrades, you can now just switch around however- and whenever you like. Alternavely, maybe you just buy the ammo itself like a infinite supply at some special shop like the Normandy Requisitions Officer, and the ammo itself takes no room.
On January 07 2010 21:21 sixghost wrote: Have they said anything about improved AI or the ability to give your party more complicated commands? I've been playing through ME1 the past few days, and the AI really seems terrible. Maybe I've just been spoiled by Dragon Age, but it seems like you can't get the most out of your party members classes in the first game.
I'm glad i'm not the only one who loved the "tactics" in Dragon Age. Whilst it was a massive step forward there is still a lot that could be improved; I hope they build on that sort of system.
I didn't really use the tactics in dragon age much. I just handed out all my orders besides auto attacking manually (with a lot of pausing). It is just the way I'm used to playing those kind of RPGs since the good old days of BG and IWD. If I was going to do another playthrough I'd probably use tactics to save some time though.
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome.
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome
Ok, then it makes more sense.
And yes, he does really command his squadmates individually with pretty advanced commands. Will be fun to try out different team-based tactics
Oh, and about that link; /sarcasm: What!? You seriously mean you went to the official Mass Effect forums on Bioware.com? Wow, I would never have guessed that!
I meant which part of the ME2 thread on the ME forums...
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome.
You can order your squad to move to specific spots in the first game, but you can't do it for each individual member, and it's more of just a suggestion of where to go, it's virtually useless.. Hopefully it doesn't work like crap in ME2.
Pretty much every class is fun to a certain extent except the Soldier imo. Maybe in ME2 it'll work, but still meh
If you play to have fun and feel like you're doing cool special moves, then you pretty much have to play the Adept/Sentinel/Vanguard. (Maybe Infiltrator, but I never really liked the sniping unless you had it maxed out.)
Unser Gefecht macht deutlich, dass Mass Effect 2 erheblich actionlastiger daherkommt als sein Vorgänger. Verstärkt wird dieser Eindruck durch Shepards ersten Rangaufstieg. Wo in Mass Effect pro Charakterklasse mehr als ein Dutzend Fertigkeiten in bis zu zwölf Stufen ausgebaut werden konnten, stehen nun nur noch sechs Talente à vier Levels zur Auswahl. Weniger Talente, weniger Ausbaustufen -- Mass Effect wird mehr und mehr zum Shooter.Weniger Talente, weniger Ausbaustufen -- Mass Effect wird mehr und mehr zum Shooter. Die Spezialisierungen auf bestimmte Waffentypen hat Bioware ebenso entfernt wie den individuellen Ausbau von Lebenspunkten und Rüstungswerten. Das Resultat: Mass Effect 2 bewegt sich weg vom Rollenspiel hin zum Shooter. Eine seltsame Design-Entscheidung, immerhin war vielen Fans bereits das erste Mass Effect zu seicht.
I picked out this part because it makes me somewhat worried about the game, these are the main things it says: "There is a much bigger emphasis on action, this impression is strengthened (or sth) by our first level up: instead of 12 skills like in ME 1 you now only have 6 á 4 levels -> less skills, more levels for each skill, Mass Effect is becoming more and more of a Shooter. Specialisation on certain types of weaponry as well as invidual enhancement of hit points and armor points were removed RPG-> Shooter, a strange decision in design since many fans already thought the first Mass Effect was too simple."
I suck at translating but you get the point. I still think it'll be a very good game but I really dont like the sound of that :/
Dammit! I enjoyed ME1 because it was far so from a shooting games. I HATE SHOOTING GAMES in general. Shooting was the biggest element I dislike about GT4. If I wanted to play an action shooter, I would play Halo or MW2 instead.
With all the changes and dumbing down, I fear ME2 won't be how I expect it to be.
^ See it from Bioware's perspective: Some people say rpg's>fps's, others say fps's>rpg's. You can never please everyone, so they're trying to make ME2 as balanced as possible between the two.
On second thought, neither ME nor ME2 had/will have any first person shooting...
On January 09 2010 00:05 HaXXspetten wrote: ^ See it from Bioware's perspective: Some people say rpg's>fps's, others say fps's>rpg's. You can never please everyone, so they're trying to make ME2 as balanced as possible between the two.
On second thought, neither ME nor ME2 had/will have any first person shooting...
Yeah but it would be retarded to start a RPG series and then turn it into a shooter game
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
O_o I don't think any of these changes are good. The first one means no skill required->more like halo/gears of war the second one is still a minigame like in ME1 except you now dont need any skill -> less of an RPG again the third one if I understand correctly means now there's a choice between just 2 types of ammo instead of loads and loads of ammo types in ME 1.
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome.
On January 09 2010 00:05 HaXXspetten wrote: ^ See it from Bioware's perspective: Some people say rpg's>fps's, others say fps's>rpg's. You can never please everyone, so they're trying to make ME2 as balanced as possible between the two.
On second thought, neither ME nor ME2 had/will have any first person shooting...
Yeah but it would be retarded to start a RPG series and then turn it into a shooter game
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
O_o I don't think any of these changes are good. The first one means no skill required->more like halo/gears of war the second one is still a minigame like in ME1 except you now dont need any skill -> less of an RPG again the third one if I understand correctly means now there's a choice between just 2 types of ammo instead of loads and loads of ammo types in ME 1.
Agreed. Having many options is one of the best things about ME1. Even though there are many skills that some people don't use, it doesn't mean the skill is useless. Some people may find a use for it. For year in BW, aribiters and dark archons were thought to be the most useless units. Also I'm feeling ME2 may end up with less sidequest for the wrong reasons. The sidequests are not as epic and somewhat plain compared to the main quest, but by being so numerous we learn a lot more about the world of ME and how characters interact with another. With so many planets and characters, the scope of ME is huge and epic compared to other games. I can understand not putting in all the stuff they wanted due to the scale of the game, but for a sequel Bioware should be adding, not taking away.
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome.
yeah so for my character it's still suddenly just the choice between 2 ammo types instead of lots. Btw, I usually dont care much about this as long as the gameplay works but how does it logically make sense that each class has 2 ammo types? In an rpg, different ammo types are something that anybody should be able to just pick up and as long as he can use the weapon, should be able to use. But no, you're a vanguard you can't use cryo ammo because... vanguards already have cold skin... uh....
It's not like you have unlimited ammo anyways. Changing ammo types into skills is the worst decision ever. Oh yeah, closely followed by thermal clips.. Oh my lord.
And regarding that video: Normally the classes get 2 ammos as skills. Like the vanguard gets cryo+incinerate ammo while the infiltrator if I remember correctly gets disruptor+cryo. It is my belief that, in that video you linked, the Shepard is a Solider class and has access to 3 types of ammo(IMO only soldiers have 3 types of ammo, other classes get 2 types, and further evidence is that that Shepard has that "slow down time Matrix style skill" that has the icon of immunity which is Soldier class exclusive only) but in total there are I think 6 types of ammo.
I've read somewhere on that forum that, you will find ammo clips on enemies but you use them yourself as disruptor or w/e your class can mod ammo into.
But what is really interesting is that he DOES give orders to his squadmates where to position themselves O.o. If that is the case, it's really awesome.
yeah so for my character it's still suddenly just the choice between 2 ammo types instead of lots. Btw, I usually dont care much about this as long as the gameplay works but how does it logically make sense that each class has 2 ammo types? In an rpg, different ammo types are something that anybody should be able to just pick up and as long as he can use the weapon, should be able to use. But no, you're a vanguard you can't use cryo ammo because... vanguards already have cold skin... uh....
You wanna blame logic in a sci-fi game? o.0
Jokes aside, you can always post a complaint on the ME forums...
On January 09 2010 00:05 HaXXspetten wrote: ^ See it from Bioware's perspective: Some people say rpg's>fps's, others say fps's>rpg's. You can never please everyone, so they're trying to make ME2 as balanced as possible between the two.
On second thought, neither ME nor ME2 had/will have any first person shooting...
Yeah but it would be retarded to start a RPG series and then turn it into a shooter game
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
O_o I don't think any of these changes are good. The first one means no skill required->more like halo/gears of war the second one is still a minigame like in ME1 except you now dont need any skill -> less of an RPG again the third one if I understand correctly means now there's a choice between just 2 types of ammo instead of loads and loads of ammo types in ME 1.
Agreed. Having many options is one of the best things about ME1. Even though there are many skills that some people don't use, it doesn't mean the skill is useless. Some people may find a use for it. For year in BW, aribiters and dark archons were thought to be the most useless units. Also I'm feeling ME2 may end up with less sidequest for the wrong reasons. The sidequests are not as epic and somewhat plain compared to the main quest, but by being so numerous we learn a lot more about the world of ME and how characters interact with another. With so many planets and characters, the scope of ME is huge and epic compared to other games. I can understand not putting in all the stuff they wanted due to the scale of the game, but for a sequel Bioware should be adding, not taking away.
While I do see where you're coming from I disagree. One of the (in my option addicting) points of RPGs is to create perfect builds. Maximize effectiveness and minimize downtime between each kill or battle. While having many skills to tinker with and mix and match is very fun but also it has it's flaws. When you have many skills it's generally hard to balance their usefulness and effectiveness. With a certain playstyle, some skills become redundant, just straight out useless, or there are better alternatives.
While I cannot comment on the number of sidequests because there has been virtually 0 information about it released I do believe that fewer more immersive and captivating the player's interest quests is a better solution than putting in 50 or so shallow sidequests with a copy/paste dungeon layout and copy/paste worlds just changing the textures.
I also cannot recall any of your so called "interactions between characters" on sidequests. The only NPC interactions I've seen were on the citadel while going places in an elevator and after completing missions/objectives in the main storyline. If by interactions you mean Wrex saying "This was my kind of mission. Kill lots of geth and end things with a big boom. I'm going to miss slaughtering them like this". It applies to I think every character you choose as a squadmate. I think more of it as the squadmate "giving their option on the mission" rather than an interaction since no one ever comments on what they say. While it is fun to hear their option, and usually that line of text reflects the NPCs general attitude, it is just a gimmick leading to nowhere in character development. You can't comment on what they say, and other squadies don't comment also.
Now concerning the medi-gel and other things: I find it good they actually found a use for it this time around. Battles will be more dynamic and strategic with having more threat from the enemies and cover will play a bigger role because you can't insta-heal for a lot of HP. This system I think is good because it's a high risk high reward one. As for the mini games: If I want to play with a very combat based class/squad, and want say Wrex+Ashely with me while being a soldier/vanguard why am I supposed to be penalized for it in the form of restricting me from 3/4 of the items in the game (Admit it, 3/4 of the items you get come from locked crates or other things). Why am I supposed to be pigeon-holed into choosing a squadie/class that has the ability to open crates just to get decent gear? As for the ammo, the only ammo I ever used were Tungsten rounds (30% more dmg vs synthetics) and Shredder rounds (up to 40% on "living" targets) so I could care less about that.
Basically ME2 is being compressed into a very dynamic game if you take into consideration ME1. Only the "triangle" skills are left, the level cap is lower, there is an ammo system, and many other things. I personally find that very suiting for me, but again, I do somewhat feel bad for numbing down the skill tree.
I apologise for the length of the post, It just came out this way .
On January 09 2010 00:05 HaXXspetten wrote: ^ See it from Bioware's perspective: Some people say rpg's>fps's, others say fps's>rpg's. You can never please everyone, so they're trying to make ME2 as balanced as possible between the two.
On second thought, neither ME nor ME2 had/will have any first person shooting...
Yeah but it would be retarded to start a RPG series and then turn it into a shooter game
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: I don't know if this info will interest anyone, but I've just read this over at the ME official forums and I got excited:
"First Aid no longer exists, instead your health regenerates and you use medi-gel to revive fallen squadmates as a replacement for Unity from the first game.
Opening locked containers is no longer tied to decryption and electronics, which have been removed as well. Locked containers are now opened with a new and supposedly fun minigame."
On January 07 2010 23:38 Latham wrote: Also(if you've been following the development even just a little you should know this), now you don't upgrade your weapons with ammo mods like you did in ME1. Ammo (generally 2 different types of ammo) became a skill for shepard.
O_o I don't think any of these changes are good. The first one means no skill required->more like halo/gears of war the second one is still a minigame like in ME1 except you now dont need any skill -> less of an RPG again the third one if I understand correctly means now there's a choice between just 2 types of ammo instead of loads and loads of ammo types in ME 1.
Agreed. Having many options is one of the best things about ME1. Even though there are many skills that some people don't use, it doesn't mean the skill is useless. Some people may find a use for it. For year in BW, aribiters and dark archons were thought to be the most useless units. Also I'm feeling ME2 may end up with less sidequest for the wrong reasons. The sidequests are not as epic and somewhat plain compared to the main quest, but by being so numerous we learn a lot more about the world of ME and how characters interact with another. With so many planets and characters, the scope of ME is huge and epic compared to other games. I can understand not putting in all the stuff they wanted due to the scale of the game, but for a sequel Bioware should be adding, not taking away.
While I do see where you're coming from I disagree. One of the (in my option addicting) points of RPGs is to create perfect builds. Maximize effectiveness and minimize downtime between each kill or battle. While having many skills to tinker with and mix and match is very fun but also it has it's flaws. When you have many skills it's generally hard to balance their usefulness and effectiveness. With a certain playstyle, some skills become redundant, just straight out useless, or there are better alternatives.
While I cannot comment on the number of sidequests because there has been virtually 0 information about it released I do believe that fewer more immersive and captivating the player's interest quests is a better solution than putting in 50 or so shallow sidequests with a copy/paste dungeon layout and copy/paste worlds just changing the textures.
I also cannot recall any of your so called "interactions between characters" on sidequests. The only NPC interactions I've seen were on the citadel while going places in an elevator and after completing missions/objectives in the main storyline. If by interactions you mean Wrex saying "This was my kind of mission. Kill lots of geth and end things with a big boom. I'm going to miss slaughtering them like this". It applies to I think every character you choose as a squadmate. I think more of it as the squadmate "giving their option on the mission" rather than an interaction since no one ever comments on what they say. While it is fun to hear their option, and usually that line of text reflects the NPCs general attitude, it is just a gimmick leading to nowhere in character development. You can't comment on what they say, and other squadies don't comment also.
Now concerning the medi-gel and other things: I find it good they actually found a use for it this time around. Battles will be more dynamic and strategic with having more threat from the enemies and cover will play a bigger role because you can't insta-heal for a lot of HP. This system I think is good because it's a high risk high reward one. As for the mini games: If I want to play with a very combat based class/squad, and want say Wrex+Ashely with me while being a soldier/vanguard why am I supposed to be penalized for it in the form of restricting me from 3/4 of the items in the game (Admit it, 3/4 of the items you get come from locked crates or other things). Why am I supposed to be pigeon-holed into choosing a squadie/class that has the ability to open crates just to get decent gear? As for the ammo, the only ammo I ever used were Tungsten rounds (30% more dmg vs synthetics) and Shredder rounds (up to 40% on "living" targets) so I could care less about that.
Basically ME2 is being compressed into a very dynamic game if you take into consideration ME1. Only the "triangle" skills are left, the level cap is lower, there is an ammo system, and many other things. I personally find that very suiting for me, but again, I do somewhat feel bad for numbing down the skill tree.
I apologise for the length of the post, It just came out this way .
No need to apologize, it just means that you put your mind at work. O_O I know how it is; When I made the OP, I just wanted to say: "You can discuss your thoughts on Mass Effect 2 in here" and look how that turned out o.0
Anyway, as far as the rpg/shooter discussion, I'm gonna take your side in this. (You should be honored, lmao) The whole character interaction on side quests isn't really that much, except for Family Armor and Find Dr. Saleon. (Man, how come I remember so god damn much. Srsly, I can name every single cluster and quest/assignment without hesitation... think I geeked the original to much) Bioware has, however, said that said many of the sidequests, although seemingly irrelevant, will have some effect in ME2; for example, whether or not you were an ass to that little annoying bastard Conrad, (You know, the so-called fan) will determine the outcome of when you meet him next, which Bioware has already admitted will happen in ME2.
What's next... let's see... ah, whether or not skills should be required when you decrypt locked containers. My personal experience in ME1 was that as long as you're a/an Engineer/Infiltrator/Sentinel, that never really was a problem, which for me was the nail in the coffin to why I prefer Sentinel over Vanguard. It's a pain in the ass to always either bring Tali along just so she can decrypt everything or be forced to leave stuff behind. Although I still think that Infiltrator and Sentinel looks like the coolest classes in ME2, (Okay, now that the Vanguard's second video has come out, I gotta say it looks pretty damn awesome as well.) so it wouldn't have been a problem for them anyway, I still think Bioware made the right choice in removing the skill-required decrypt system.
Finally as far as ammo goes, to me, there were really only 3 really good ammo-types in ME1, the first two you've already mentioned. Shredder and Tungsten rounds were just kick-ass versus organic/mechanic enemies. But I'm still a bit curious... at least when you play on Insanity, why would you not want to use High Explosive Rounds? (Except for Assualt Rifles of course, that's a horrible combination) They have over 4 meters of AoE! I mean, equipping Wrex with a shotgun with HE-rounds were just brutal, enemies literally disintegrated upon impact. For snipers, well, they overheat in like two shots anyway, so you might as well make it a rifle with only perks to increase damage and don't care about overheating. It may end up with 0,3 shots before overheat, but that still counts as one, the only difference being that you PWN everything you hit. As far as pistols go, HE-rounds is not that great, except if you play Sentinel. Then it's awesome once you figure out the tactic. Basically, you fire 4-5 shots before the weapon overheats, (Depending on the upgrades) and then spam every biotic- and tech-power you have until it cools down again, and then keep shooting more. The most awesome class I've ever had was based on a patended class build found on the "Gold Standard Class Builds"-thread on Mass Effect Wiki, which, for some reason was closed, so I can't link it. But basically, the most important parts are: 1. Take Singularity as your extra skill. (You need the achievement, so you must play a little Adept first.) 2. Take Bastion as your class-specialization. 3. Max out Singularity, Stasis, Bastion, Barrier, and do as much as possible in the other skills as well, at least fill in all the breakpoints you can.
Basically, when Bastion is lvl 12, your abilities recharge in under 20 seconds. That means that if you cast one spell, than cast the next one and so on, by the time your final one is cast, the first one has recharged again. You can cast abilities endlessly, no exagguration. Oh, and do as I said earlier about HE-rounds with your pistol as well. Another fun thing is that with Bastion comes two new special abilities: Barrier- & Stasis-Specialization. The first one makes you nigh-invincible. In addition to adding 25% more shields to your already lvl 12 Barrier, (Now 1250 pts!!!) it now regenerates fucking 40pts per second. Even cooler, Stasis Specialization is the most awesome things ever. I mean it. It enables you and your squad to attack stasised enemies. Do you have any idea how awesome that is on Insanity, where everybody just runs for cover to regenerate. Would be even more awesome in SC though...
On January 09 2010 01:44 Latham wrote: I apologise for the length of the post, It just came out this way .
Oops, I did it again. o.0 Without thinking I wrote a guide to the most awesome build I know of... oh well, got a bit carried away there... but that's what happens man.
Edit: I think I have a problem... seems like I have an addiction to finish what I'm writing without ever taking a break... like here I had to go to the bathroom badly for the last 5 minutes of writing, but I just couldn't separate from my keyboard...
Hmm, I never used HE rounds, even on my sentinel. I like the idea, but I just stuck with shredder/tungsten. (I also always stuck with assault rifles on Wrex et al. because that let them shoot indefinitely so I didn't have to think.)
I do agree that bastion sentinels with singularity are cool, though I never really needed barrier, because singularity lift stasis throw neural shock keep you pretty safe. (Also, with all the recharge reduction, lift can indefinitely shut down Saren or a colossus or whatever, which completely trivializes things like the last fight.)
Yeah, I know, but imagine a ME-PvP, what could possibly defeat that build? Just cast Stasis, (With Specialization) and pump HE-rounds into enemies essentially makes them helpless.
And another thing: I know you might think that if you play Sentinel, you should bring along Ashley & Wrex, or maybe Garrus as protection. That is a mistake. Do the complete opposite. When I did this build, I realized that the easiest was going with Kaidan/Liara. Why? Well, first of all, it was funny as ****. Most importantly though, your enemies never got the chance to attack. (Except for drones, who are immune to biotics, hate those things) Think about it, you can toss around your enemies like toys. The pure biotic force is ridiculous:
3 Throw 3 Lift 3 Warp 2 Singularity 3 Stasis
You get the idea... Only problem was that when both Li' and I used Singularity at the same time, sometimes enemies would be thrown so far away that they'd bug themselves inside walls and crates etc...
I would have done that, but I had just completed a playthrough as an adept with Liara and Tali and I wanted to do something else. Having that much crowd control is nuts, even just with an adept and Liara, but it was kind of fun to do it all on my own, too. (I played my sentinel with Wrex and Garrus.)
Honestly the only thing I didn't like about stasis mastery was that my squad wouldn't attack stasised enemies. That's why I used lift more. (Singularity is awesome but affects fewer enemies.)
Man, I'm starting to remember why I soured on this game the more I play it. The combat just breaks down so much as it gets harder. Between the AI and the god awful shooting it's starting to get so frustrating during combat.
Combat AI for your squad really drove me nuts sometimes. Also the godawful inventory. I hope they'll have at least fixed those when they're breaking everything else -.-
We all know Subject Zero like a badass bitch, (Personally, I never really liked her) and if you watch this new vid, she's pretty much... well, a badass bitch... like, even more than before...
On January 12 2010 22:38 HaXXspetten wrote: We all know Subject Zero like a badass bitch, (Personally, I never really liked her) and if you watch this new vid, she's pretty much... well, a badass bitch... like, even more than before...
That character seems so lame :/
Although those facial animations in the interview sequences look fucking phenomenal.
On January 12 2010 22:38 HaXXspetten wrote: We all know Subject Zero like a badass bitch, (Personally, I never really liked her) and if you watch this new vid, she's pretty much... well, a badass bitch... like, even more than before...
That character seems so lame :/
Although those facial animations in the interview sequences look fucking phenomenal.
I would just like to say that I really hope that level of facial expression becomes the norm sooner rather than later, because that would be a great tool to help a player to empathize with characters.
edit: i guess ill add that they need to higher some writers, that character looks sooooo one dimensional.
Wow, new vid released today, and I gotta say, this one was really cool. Lots of info, both from Casey Hudson, and from the video itself. Also, during the times they show Casey on camera, look at the monitor behind him. At one time, 2:28-2:40, I saw some kind of minigame that might be the new decryption game, but that's just a hunch. Anyway, watch this.
Nice, although that was a user-movie, so this is before the official release of the video. I'll update the OP with the HD-version as soon as it's available, probably tomorrow.
Personally, I think the Soldier is the least fun class to play, although I gotta say that it looks a hell of a lot better than the ME1-Soldier.
Edit: Lol, wut. I went to check on http://masseffect.bioware.com/ to see if they had said anything about the Soldier there, but the website was down atm. I gotta say, Bioware's pretty funny at times. Here's what it said:
Our Apologies Sorry folks; those pesky Gnomes are banging away at the giant; steam-producing clockwork computers we keep in the basement guarded by Swikky the dire squirrel. We will be back up as soon as we can.
Edit 2: Ok, Bioware's back online, and yes, the video exists there as well. Still no sign of it on GT though.
Mh does anyone know what happens when you played through the game, then replayed the game but only finished like a 3rd of it and then use that savegame for mass effect 2? What happens to all those things that I did in the first try but didnt even get to in the second one?
On January 14 2010 06:31 7mk wrote: Mh does anyone know what happens when you played through the game, then replayed the game but only finished like a 3rd of it and then use that savegame for mass effect 2? What happens to all those things that I did in the first try but didnt even get to in the second one?
The game makes a save when you finish the game ( when you get the picture of shepard, a space station and a planet in the background (red if you were renegade and blue if you were a paragon).
Only that save can be used in ME2. If you almost completed it again, it doesn't matter. Only that save, that is made at the very end of your playthrough will matter.
You choose which "saved game" to continue. Either your play through 1 or play through 2. You can choose to import them both (actually you can import as many as you want playthroughs) but they don't interact with each other in any way, even if they were succesive play thoroughs
Not sure, Bioware hasn't released everything about the transfer yet, but I know it's one specific savefile you're supposed to transfer, so I suspect it's the last one in your game, and therefore, if you transfer your last savefile from your first playthrough, those decitions alone should affect ME2. (Can't guarantee this, but I'm 80% sure this is the case.)
On January 14 2010 06:31 7mk wrote: Mh does anyone know what happens when you played through the game, then replayed the game but only finished like a 3rd of it and then use that savegame for mass effect 2? What happens to all those things that I did in the first try but didnt even get to in the second one?
The game makes a save when you finish the game ( when you get the picture of shepard, a speace station and a planet in the background (red if you were renegade and blue if you were a paragon).
Only that save can be used in ME2. If you almost completed it again, it doesn't matter. Only that save, that is made at the very end of your playthrough will matter.
K, thanks for clearing that up. Got any link to any confirmation? (I don't disbelieve you, I was quite sure of the same myself, but still)
And speaking of the Paragon/Renegade-Ending screen, I've heard that if you get the exact same amount of Paragon & Renegade points when you finish the game, you will get an Easter Egg banner instead, which is purple and has some cool stuff on it, but I've never been able to find a pic of it, and even though I've tried it myself by getting 100% Paragon & 100% Renegade, apperantly that didn't count, because since you can get more pts than the scale shows, it didn't count as the same amount. Anyone else here that has seen the pic I'm refering to?
Oh, and the HD-Soldier Trailer just popped up on GT. Adding it to OP.
On January 14 2010 06:31 7mk wrote: Mh does anyone know what happens when you played through the game, then replayed the game but only finished like a 3rd of it and then use that savegame for mass effect 2? What happens to all those things that I did in the first try but didnt even get to in the second one?
The game makes a save when you finish the game ( when you get the picture of shepard, a speace station and a planet in the background (red if you were renegade and blue if you were a paragon).
Only that save can be used in ME2. If you almost completed it again, it doesn't matter. Only that save, that is made at the very end of your playthrough will matter.
K, thanks for clearing that up. Got any link to any confirmation? (I don't disbelieve you, I was quite sure of the same myself, but still)
Does anyone know if you transfer your ME1 save it'll let you reroll your character? I don't really want to play a soldier again.
You'll be able to change that and much more. Your class, your gender, your appearance etc. Pretty much everything you got to decide when you started ME1 will reappear here. The only thing you can't do as I know of is changing your background (Earthborn/Colonist/Spacer & War Hero/Sole Survivor/Ruthless), since your background now is ME1.
Edit:
On December 23 2009 23:10 Latham wrote: Haha great to see more Mass Effect fans on TL ^^. I personally have a Vanguard lv 56 ATM and am playing on hardcore. I always have Wrex and Garrus with me on every assignment. I never really liked the other squadmates =(. Anyway, you will be able to transfer your Shepard into ME2. The only thing really that will transfer over is if you were lv 50/60, paragon/renegade, and the choices you made in ME1
if you killed wrex, killed off ashley or kaiden, released/killed the rachni queen, and your love interest, if you chose to save the council, who you chose for the human representative etc. You will be able to "respec" your class from X to Y, also you will be able to change the appearance of your Shepard.
As for ME2, I dunno if I'll change anything. I'm also not too fond of the crew(squadmates) that have been revealed so far. But I'm looking forward to continuing the story.
Edit: So, yeah, i was wrong on the whole "change gender" thing, but the other things are spot on.
What he said. (Guys, even though I made the OP, remember to check all of Latham's posts as well, seems the two of us are most updated here o.0)
And I can't help but notice: At the end of the vid, you see
Ashley. Now, I've heard that most of the love interests will be characters that aren't part of your squad so that they won't permanently die. Does that mean Ash' is one of 'em?
On January 14 2010 06:31 7mk wrote: Mh does anyone know what happens when you played through the game, then replayed the game but only finished like a 3rd of it and then use that savegame for mass effect 2? What happens to all those things that I did in the first try but didnt even get to in the second one?
The game makes a save when you finish the game ( when you get the picture of shepard, a speace station and a planet in the background (red if you were renegade and blue if you were a paragon).
Only that save can be used in ME2. If you almost completed it again, it doesn't matter. Only that save, that is made at the very end of your playthrough will matter.
K, thanks for clearing that up. Got any link to any confirmation? (I don't disbelieve you, I was quite sure of the same myself, but still)
Does anyone know if you transfer your ME1 save it'll let you reroll your character? I don't really want to play a soldier again.
I didn't bother posting at the time, 'cause it wasn't that awesome, but I'd recommend you to watch it now, just so you can watch the awesome part 2 that was released today:
Since we're posting new things, here is a real gem with a lot of SPOILERS: http://tvgry.pl/?ID=808 It shows the gameplay, the new mini-games, uncharted worlds and more! And a few interesting thing are said, I'll translate: + Show Spoiler +
You manually control the Normandy. You have limited gas and need to refill every now and then. To explore an uncharted world, you come up to a planet, send out a probe and then play a mini game like a scan, to find the anomaly(which is the point of interest where you will land) As always you choose 2 squad members to go on the mission with you. Once you're done with that you choose your gear (weapons). Now here is gets complicated. The narrator says that there are very few options on weapons available. He also says that when you equip them for a mission. They don't show you the stats like damage, clip size, shots before overheating etc. There is no Mako. No driving around searching the map. You land exactly where the action is going to be. There are less side missions, but they are all unique and varied between eachother. You burn through ammo clips fast, but you also find them very often. each weapon has it's own ammo.
On January 19 2010 06:07 Latham wrote: Since we're posting new things, here is a real gem with a lot of SPOILERS: http://tvgry.pl/?ID=808 It shows the gameplay, the new mini-games, uncharted worlds and more! And a few interesting thing are said, I'll translate: + Show Spoiler +
You manually control the Normandy. You have limited gas and need to refill every now and then. To explore an uncharted world, you come up to a planet, send out a probe and then play a mini game like a scan, to find the anomaly(which is the point of interest where you will land) As always you choose 2 squad members to go on the mission with you. Once you're done with that you choose your gear (weapons). Now here is gets complicated. The narrator says that there are very few options on weapons available. He also says that when you equip them for a mission. They don't show you the stats like damage, clip size, shots before overheating etc. There is no Mako. No driving around searching the map. You land exactly where the action is going to be. There are less side missions, but they are all unique and varied between eachother. You burn through ammo clips fast, but you also find them very often. each weapon has it's own ammo.
Hope you liked the spoilers as much as I did ^^.
Latham, this thread wouldn't be the same without you.
Srsly though, although everything was in Polish, () I gotta say that that was like opening a dictionary as far as new info goes. I mean most of these things is just things you've read, but damn, now that you get to see them, they look amazing!
Let's make a point-to-point sum-up, shall we? 1. About the Normandy, that much I knew, although it looks sort of like Sid Meier's Pirates to me. o.0 That's not a bad thing however. Should be cool. 2. Scanning the planets, well Bioware has only showed us like 5 second clips of it, so this really surprised me about how much you could do with it. HYPE!!! 3. LOL at the loading info. "There are no decent galactic dating services. To have a shot at romance, you need to talk to people." 4. The squad: I knew that you would have ten to choose from, but not who all of them were. The 6 I mentioned in the OP were the ones that Bioware has publicly mentioned, but here, and also in many other clips, Mordin and Jacob are in your squad. The final two are still a mystery. Oh, and dit it just say that Subject Zero's real name was Jack? What!? 5. Changing loadout just before landing. Huh. Not expected, but I guess it's much better than having to go down to the engineering bay just to fix it manually, so I'm happy. 6.
there are very few options on weapons available. He also says that when you equip them for a mission. They don't show you the stats like damage, clip size, shots before overheating etc.
Interesting. 7. No Mako? Huh. I swear I saw Shephard and his squad standing beside the Mako on an uncharted world in a previous video. Not sure which though. Hmm... this one's up in the air... 8. New decryption system looks fun. 9.
There are less side missions, but they are all unique and varied between eachother. You burn through ammo clips fast, but you also find them very often. each weapon has it's own ammo.
Okay, not much to say about that that hasn't already been said. 10. Shephard looks like a cyborg in that vid. o.0 11. Combat looks sexy as always. 12. Really like all the details in the terrain. Not just the graphical things, but also the minor bridge controls, explosive devices, etc. 13. That Target Code minigame looked like... I don't know, like nothing I've ever seen before, and I don't really understand it either. Latham, care to translate? + Show Spoiler +
Pretty please with a li'l jelly on top?
14. Throughout the video, Shephard keeps picking up stuff that adds cash or updates his Journal etc. Does that mean that there are like achievement hunter style easter eggs to find? 15. Okay, so he got a bunch of credits and then left? Was that it? Or was there any real story involved in this little hideout? 16. Anyone know what the little shuttle is called? 17. Having a Mission Completesum-up screen seems pretty cool. Don't know why really, but I've always liked that. Feels like you get to take pride in what you've just acomplished. xD 18. Shephard looks KICK-ASS in a science-suit.
Wow, I'll adress your questions, since you asked so nicely :p.
Actually I was hanging around the Bioware boards and I probably have a good educated guess who are the last 2 squad members: The 8 visible there + + Show Spoiler +
Tali who has been confirmed by bioware themselves and Legion, that geth that is stalking you, if you want proof, here it is: http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/mass-effect-2/achievements/ It shows that there are 2 specific odd achievements: Friend or Foe, and A house divided. Notice that they have the exact same value as the "recuit X" and "Gain the trust of X" achievements
Also Bioware confirmed there will be 1 DLC squad member at launch, and the DLC will "most likely" be free or in their own exact words: "The DLC crew member will not be charged money for" And yeah, SuZe (Subject Zero's name is indeed Jack)
There might be a Mako in a few very specific missions(my personal guess, of course), but overall for uncharted worlds as far as the narrator says, there isn't one.
Indeed the decryption now looks mega fun. And that Target mini-game is also a type of decryption mini game. I'll translate what the narrator had to say about that target mini game "There is a picture in the top part of the mini game. I assume he's talking about that small brick with a wall of text on it. Basically the texts scroll down, and you have to find a picture that matches (or in this case, 3 picutres that match) the original one on top. Btw, that the exact same principle like in that "hacking game". You look at the pictures showed when you hover your mouse over them, and look for a matching one. It's the same principle here.
Yeah I think they really did a nice job on the graphics :p
As far as Achievements go see for yourself I provided the link to the achivements.
In that mission yes, he got 2000 kilograms or whatever of Platinium (mineral, just like the one you had to mine in ME1) got some credits and left. The minerals will be used to upgrade your gear as you have heard in those videos you posted or in this one (sorry forgot which one's you posted, but i saw them both ) http://www.shackvideo.com/?id=16646
In other missions you will get information, maybe some link to one of your squadmate's past, money, minerals, sub-plots etc.
oh yeah, if you're interested in more information, check out this dude's youtube page. He has almost every video about mass effect 2 http://www.youtube.com/user/javierabegazo
What can I say? Thanks a lot! How come you find everything on so different places all the time? I usually focus on the bigger websites (Like Bioware and Gametrailers in particular) and check very often, (and I mean very often) but you just find awesome stuff on websites that are small and unheard of. (In comparison at least)
The difference between the 26th and 29th wouldn't really be big for me. I'm working during the week and would have little time to play anyway.
On January 20 2010 02:32 Slow Motion wrote: I hate getting gas in real life and I'll probably hate it in this game too.
Yeah, this sounds like it will sort of be a hassle. I don't also see the point about controlling the ship manually, unless they are going to tie it in in some important fashion. I mean, you aren't the pilot of the ship after all, you pick where to go and Joker (i think that was his name at least) flies you there. It seems like a "oh that's kind of cool" feature that is actually pretty useless.
I know the feeling.. I find myself "missing" ME2 lol
I just beat darksiders and I can't play bayonetta often enough cause it is at my gf's house where I don't get to play very often Girls think "playing" is a 30 min session.. I obviously would want to game longer than that arrg
On January 20 2010 03:41 {88}iNcontroL wrote: I know the feeling.. I find myself "missing" ME2 lol
I just beat darksiders and I can't play bayonetta often enough cause it is at my gf's house where I don't get to play very often Girls think "playing" is a 30 min session.. I obviously would want to game longer than that arrg
Wow, Bioware's really marketing like crazy these last days. Part 3 of the Sci vs Fi Doc was just released. (I didn't even know they were going to make one) Haven't actually watched it yet, but given how awesome the last one was, I have high hopes.
Edit: Watched it. Wow, that was just as awesome as the last one. James Kyson Lee a.k.a. Ando (from Heroes) was there, (wtf) Grunt awakened from a cryo-pod, you'll get to see Shephard vs Kalisah Al-Jilani round 2,Miranda is half-naked and really intimate at one point, Nikole is gorgeous, and so on...
just preordered, can't wait. For anyone from europe, your best bet is to order from amazon.co.uk where the game costs 27 pounds (1 pound= 1.15 euro atm), so you save around 10 bucks even with higher shipping cost.
The system requirements for PC aren't bad except for the HDD space. That is pretty crazy haha. I'm going to be playin on xbox though. I know this game would probably be better for PC, but I'm trying to bolster my 360 library a little bit so I feel justified for having one haha.
On January 23 2010 01:34 789 wrote: Holy shit really? I've never seen a 2 disc 360 game before. I'm sure there might be one out there, but I haven't heard of any.
Wasn't Lost Oddysey 4 discs?
That seems pretty weird that an open world game would have a 2nd disc. I wonder if the 2nd disc is a forced install like Forza 3, then you only use disc 1 to play the actual game.
On January 23 2010 01:04 789 wrote: I know this game would probably be better for PC, but I'm trying to bolster my 360 library a little bit so I feel justified for having one haha.
You're going to spend more money on a version you think will be worse so that you feel better about owning a 360? Really? It's just entertainment, so as long as it makes you happy, go for it, but that sounds bizarre to me.
On January 23 2010 01:34 789 wrote: Holy shit really? I've never seen a 2 disc 360 game before. I'm sure there might be one out there, but I haven't heard of any.
Wasn't Lost Oddysey 4 discs?
That seems pretty weird that an open world game would have a 2nd disc. I wonder if the 2nd disc is a forced install like Forza 3, then you only use disc 1 to play the actual game.
I'm 95% sure that you will only use the 2nd disc during the install.
On January 23 2010 01:04 789 wrote: I know this game would probably be better for PC, but I'm trying to bolster my 360 library a little bit so I feel justified for having one haha.
You're going to spend more money on a version you think will be worse so that you feel better about owning a 360? Really? It's just entertainment, so as long as it makes you happy, go for it, but that sounds bizarre to me.
I was thinking exactly the same... who are you trying to prove yourself to?
Hey, guys, I'm back with more spoiler-tastic videos for your and my enjoyment. If you can't wait for the release, and also don't mind being spoiled about the major plot have a look here: Just so it's clear, I'll repeat myself again, 1 more time: MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD http://www.justin.tv/clip/cadf6901823c6456
video on that site cover: recruiting videos, romance videos.
On January 23 2010 01:04 789 wrote: I know this game would probably be better for PC, but I'm trying to bolster my 360 library a little bit so I feel justified for having one haha.
You're going to spend more money on a version you think will be worse so that you feel better about owning a 360? Really? It's just entertainment, so as long as it makes you happy, go for it, but that sounds bizarre to me.
10 dollars isn't a big deal. I've played mass effect 1 on 360 before and it works out pretty well. I also have another reason to buy it on 360 that might seem odd. I ride a stationary bike while playing console games, mostly while just playing single player though. It is a good way to find time to excerise, a game that I'm sure to dump a lot of time into, this 10$ becomes a worthwhile investment.
It's true, $10 is not a big deal. And the exercise makes a lot of sense. The clearly superior option, though, is to hook your computer up to your television and mount a keyboard and mouse on the bike.
just incase you didn't know, and the only reason you're leaning towards the xbox version is the controller/playing while exercising thing, you can buy a usb 360 controller and play that on your pc.
since it's probably going to be cheaper to upgrade your comp (the specs aren't that high), just thought you should know.
my friend has been playing this the past 3 days and says it's huge, feels 2x as big as me1.
The other reason is also I don't have any good high quality HD cables to go from my computer to my TV. I'd have to purchase them to do anything like this. This is the first game that i'll buy for 360 instead of PC for this reason. 10$ is cheaper than HD cables. (I only currently have an S-Video cable to go from PC to TV.)
On January 23 2010 03:42 789 wrote: The other reason is also I don't have any good high quality HD cables to go from my computer to my TV. I'd have to purchase them to do anything like this. This is the first game that i'll buy for 360 instead of PC for this reason. 10$ is cheaper than HD cables. (I only currently have an S-Video cable to go from PC to TV.)
On January 23 2010 01:34 789 wrote: Holy shit really? I've never seen a 2 disc 360 game before. I'm sure there might be one out there, but I haven't heard of any.
Wasn't Lost Oddysey 4 discs?
That seems pretty weird that an open world game would have a 2nd disc. I wonder if the 2nd disc is a forced install like Forza 3, then you only use disc 1 to play the actual game.
I believe Lost Oddysey had a lot of full motion videos (prerendered videos) which eats up a lot of space. Final Fantasy 13 is the same way. The extra disk for those games doesn't mean more gameplay content, but more prerendered videos to watch. I am curious what the 2nd disk of ME2 will be like.
On January 23 2010 04:12 Pyrthas wrote: Man what a derail this has been.
Yeah, I'm not sure why so many people keep trying to convince me I need the PC version instead of the Xbox version.
Edit: I mean, there are other factors that I haven't been bringing up yet. It's not like I made a knee jerk reaction. For instance I'd probably have to significantly rearrange my appartment to make the set up work, or buy a USB extension cable for the controller. The possibility of lending the game to my friend later, who is of lesser means (can't really afford to buy games often since he got laid of awhile back) and whos PC would be incapable of running the game. Trust me, I've considered the options and just spending 10$ extra on the xbox version is the simplest.
On January 23 2010 04:12 Pyrthas wrote: Man what a derail this has been.
I usually don't mind people getting slightly offtopic, but when over 10% of the thread (at least something as big as this one) is about THIS, then something's really derailed...
Dude you don't need to apologize. I made a throwaway reply and then the Internet (edit: which, of course, well-meaningly knows your life better than you do) took over. It's not your fault for saying something on topic.
On topic: A friend sent me this interview with Mark Meer, which I guess is interesting. I'm more interested in his improv now, anyway.
Can anyone expand on exactly what the Cerberus Network thing is going to do? As far as I can tell it's just a fancy way of saying that they will be making DLC for the game, and maybe allow you to upload stupid pictures of your Shepard.
Crap, just got this game via EA download for $5. Played for 4 hours last night but at the start I was hurrying and didn't see you could customize your role so I'm just a soldier. I don't really want to have to re-do that though.
On January 24 2010 02:45 Jonoman92 wrote: Crap, just got this game via EA download for $5. Played for 4 hours last night but at the start I was hurrying and didn't see you could customize your role so I'm just a soldier. I don't really want to have to re-do that though.
If you have the time, it's worth it. Soldier is the least interesting class to play, since the shooting in ME1 is so sub-par.
On January 24 2010 02:02 Manit0u wrote: Where's the poll option "I won't buy ME 2 because ME 1 was boring"?
It is right next to the "Why the hell are you checkin on and posting about a game you won't buy, just get out" option.
I was just offering my opinion. So many people think that ME was the greatest RPG (or one of) to be ever released. I have to disagree, it was rather short and dull. I just hope they won't make the same mistake in the sequel.
On January 24 2010 02:45 Jonoman92 wrote: Crap, just got this game via EA download for $5. Played for 4 hours last night but at the start I was hurrying and didn't see you could customize your role so I'm just a soldier. I don't really want to have to re-do that though.
If you have the time, it's worth it. Soldier is the least interesting class to play, since the shooting in ME1 is so sub-par.
Thanks for your post. I was gonna screw it and just play on but upon seeing how huge this star map n' all is I'll just restart.
On January 24 2010 02:02 Manit0u wrote: Where's the poll option "I won't buy ME 2 because ME 1 was boring"?
It is right next to the "Why the hell are you checkin on and posting about a game you won't buy, just get out" option.
I was just offering my opinion. So many people think that ME was the greatest RPG (or one of) to be ever released. I have to disagree, it was rather short and dull. I just hope they won't make the same mistake in the sequel.
Well I'm not one of those people championing ME1 as one of the best of all time (my favorite is still BG2 - a game I still play through once every 1-2 years). You should have offered your opinion in a more contructive manner, the way you did came off as trolling. As long as the story is good; I think it will be a good game.
My friend mentioned Mass Effect 2 comming out recently, and I had no clue about 1, so I was bit skeptical at first not really knowing what it was about. All I know is from a short review I've seen on zero punctuation review, claiming it's awefully dialog based, tainted with bad AI etc etc. Oh man was I pleasantly suprised after just picking it up from him to try it out, all in all, the game is quite an experiance. You'd have to be an rpg fan and coupled with that somehow into the whole 'space' theme, but if you are, I can say it's the best rpg I've ever played for the limited amount of hours I got to experience it sofar.
There are some flaws in 1, but nothing that hasn't been mentioned before and ironed out in 2, I just can't imagine how awesome part 2 will be and it's comming out so soon, probably not enough time to finish it, but hey at least I know it will be worth the money.
Since I enjoy bit min/maxing, and trying out everything, rerolled about 4 times till the ship part just seeing every ability and what I like best. Vanguard seemed to me the most awesome combining the soldier with the adept, pistol still packs quite a punch, and with bit practice it seems to be a formidable weapon. Love how you can blow all your adept abilities and recharge them in one hit with that tactical ability (name escaping me), just makes things so much better.
From short looking into ME2, it seems most abilities have gotten their recharge abilities heavily reduced, with a small reduction in aoe or some other ability that was OP and abused and others improved. This seems to end up with an excellent mix of story telling, fast paced action, and just great atmosphere. I'm soo hooked.
On January 24 2010 04:39 banana wrote: My friend mentioned Mass Effect 2 comming out recently, and I had no clue about 1, so I was bit skeptical at first not really knowing what it was about. All I know is from a short review I've seen on zero punctuation review, claiming it's awefully dialog based, tainted with bad AI etc etc. Oh man was I pleasantly suprised after just picking it up from him to try it out, all in all, the game is quite an experiance. You'd have to be an rpg fan and coupled with that somehow into the whole 'space' theme, but if you are, I can say it's the best rpg I've ever played for the limited amount of hours I got to experience it sofar.
There are some flaws in 1, but nothing that hasn't been mentioned before and ironed out in 2, I just can't imagine how awesome part 2 will be and it's comming out so soon, probably not enough time to finish it, but hey at least I know it will be worth the money.
Since I enjoy bit min/maxing, and trying out everything, rerolled about 4 times till the ship part just seeing every ability and what I like best. Vanguard seemed to me the most awesome combining the soldier with the adept, pistol still packs quite a punch, and with bit practice it seems to be a formidable weapon. Love how you can blow all your adept abilities and recharge them in one hit with that tactical ability (name escaping me), just makes things so much better.
From short looking into ME2, it seems most abilities have gotten their recharge abilities heavily reduced, with a small reduction in aoe or some other ability that was OP and abused and others improved. This seems to end up with an excellent mix of story telling, fast paced action, and just great atmosphere. I'm soo hooked.
I'm glad they are fleshing out the combination classes (infiltrator, vanguard, sentinel) to make them more like full classes, rather than just the lower tier abilities from the 2 classes they are combining. I always stuck with the pure classes because they ability unique to those were usually the best ability from their branch.
Kinda suprising they already announced part 3 and it's aspiring release date to be end of 2011 - begin 2012. Seems fast compared to most 'great' rpgs of the past.
On January 24 2010 05:00 banana wrote: Kinda suprising they already announced part 3 and it's aspiring release date to be end of 2011 - begin 2012. Seems fast compared to most 'great' rpgs of the past.
Well ME2 is coming out super early in 2010, so that's almost 2 years of development, and ME1 came out late 2007, which is a little longer than 2 years, so it's not that weird.
Also, the ME games aren't as cinematic heavy as alot of RPGs like the FFs, so I assume it doesn't take them as long to make.
Well, apart from TES III: Morrowind and RSV, I've had a rather bad experience with most games that were released to both consoles and PC (and the worst are usually console -> PC). Console controller really takes out a lot of UI/control options that would be really welcome on the PC.
Looks like I will have to run out and get the first game to play so I can play the next and have a flow across them rather than do the reverse. Game looks incredible from what I have see so far.
On January 24 2010 06:47 Manit0u wrote: Well, apart from TES III: Morrowind and RSV, I've had a rather bad experience with most games that were released to both consoles and PC (and the worst are usually console -> PC). Console controller really takes out a lot of UI/control options that would be really welcome on the PC.
What about dragon age? Clearly that game wasnt badly influenced despite being released for consoles too imo.
On January 24 2010 04:51 sixghost wrote: I always stuck with the pure classes because they ability unique to those were usually the best ability from their branch.
Heavy armor isn't that great, and singularity or hacking could be chosen as a bonus talent.
Oh, I guess assault rifle is unique to the soldier too. Meh, if you're going to max out a weapon, you're better off with pistol. AR is a decent bonus talent for adepts, but there's really no point in using it with any other class.
On January 24 2010 04:51 sixghost wrote: I always stuck with the pure classes because they ability unique to those were usually the best ability from their branch.
Heavy armor isn't that great, and singularity or hacking could be chosen as a bonus talent.
Oh, I guess assault rifle is unique to the soldier too. Meh, if you're going to max out a weapon, you're better off with pistol. AR is a decent bonus talent for adepts, but there's really no point in using it with any other class.
Don't you have to unlock those on previous playthroughs though? Also, I was talking more about the adrenaline skill for soldiers, mostly for recharging carnage/marksman/overkill. At least in the early/mid game using those is the only way to use assault rifles with any accuracy. Once you can buy the spectre weapons all those weapon abilities become pretty useless though.
My recent playthrough I used Adept and picked assault rifles, it was pretty OP once I got the spectre rifle and the geth rifle.
I'm curious how fun the infiltrator will be in ME2. That was easily the least fun class in the first game, by nature of how fucking awful the sniping was in ME1.
On January 24 2010 04:51 sixghost wrote: I always stuck with the pure classes because they ability unique to those were usually the best ability from their branch.
Heavy armor isn't that great, and singularity or hacking could be chosen as a bonus talent.
Oh, I guess assault rifle is unique to the soldier too. Meh, if you're going to max out a weapon, you're better off with pistol. AR is a decent bonus talent for adepts, but there's really no point in using it with any other class.
Don't you have to unlock those on previous playthroughs though?
yes
Also, I was talking more about the adrenaline skill for soldiers, mostly for recharging carnage/marksman/overkill. At least in the early/mid game using those is the only way to use assault rifles with any accuracy. Once you can buy the spectre weapons all those weapon abilities become pretty useless though.
Adrenaline rush is not unique to soldiers though. Vanguards get it too and, in fact, they make much better use of it. use marksman, spam biotics, adrenaline rush, spam biotics again
Weapon abilities don't become useless.
I'm curious how fun the infiltrator will be in ME2. That was easily the least fun class in the first game, by nature of how fucking awful the sniping was in ME1.
Think of the infiltrator as an engineer with medium armor, immunity (aka godmode), and the ability to out-damage any class except for maybe a commando soldier, depending on the time periods involved
actually, think of the infiltrator as better than the engineer in every regard
Now that the game is up in about 9001 different configurations all over torrent trackers, it seems obvious that unlike ME1, this game can be cracked. I'm currently in the process of acquiring it, it should be done in a few hours.
On January 24 2010 11:47 ghermination wrote: Now that the game is up in about 9001 different configurations all over torrent trackers, it seems obvious that unlike ME1, this game can be cracked.
all games can be cracked. a few just took a bit longer, like gta4 or me1.
i think EA's decision to barely use any copy protection for me2 was to get better reputation among the pc gamers. also i think it's kind of test, because many claimed they only pirate, because they dont want drm and other crap spying on their computer (which is one hell of a good reason imho). i think they deserves some respect for that.
God damn this game is baller. I enjoyed ME1 but I didn't think it was amazing or anything but so far, ME2 has blown my mind. biotic and tech powers are actually very useful now and out of the classes I've tried (Infiltrator, Soldier, Sentinel and Adept) they are all extremely fun and effective in combat.
So far my ONLY significant complaint is the god damn radial dialogue menus. Ugh, I had console UIs in PC games.
Graphics look awesome, cinematics are badass, and the combat is intense.
It is shaping up to be one of the best games of this year imo.
On January 24 2010 14:05 AraqirG wrote: Ok, so I bought it on steam, but I couldn't wait until Tuesday, so I've been playing a cracked copy until I then.
God damn this game is baller. I enjoyed ME1 but I didn't think it was amazing or anything but so far, ME2 has blown my mind. biotic and tech powers are actually very useful now and out of the classes I've tried (Infiltrator, Soldier, Sentinel and Adept) they are all extremely fun and effective in combat.
So far my ONLY significant complaint is the god damn radial dialogue menus. Ugh, I had console UIs in PC games.
Graphics look awesome, cinematics are badass, and the combat is intense.
It is shaping up to be one of the best games of this year imo.
Wait, you assumed a game by Bioware WOULDN'T be a game of the year? Heresy.
Actually I'm a bit disappointed with it. Went from a great action-RPG to a great action game with very few RPG elements. The character development system is way waaaaaaay too simple, there's no inventory (which i find horrible, looking for better equipments is one of the most fun parts in an RPG for me) and instead there's a silly upgrade system. And they added ammo for weapons, which I find completely annoying *and* less deep than the overheat system in the first game. Yay for only having 10 sniper rifle rounds at a time :/
That being said, the atmosphere is still there, the story seems to be as captivating as ever and overall it's a very good game... just not really an RPG, but an action game. A very good action game, mind you but... I love RPGs more :[
Just one question. How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
On January 24 2010 20:24 orgolove wrote: Just one question. How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
I'm an honest individual, and am thus actually buying the game, so I can't really help you if I haven't tried it.
Anyway, just wanted to inform you all about something on Tuesday that GT has in store for whoever wants to check it out and doesn't mind being spoiled on the first hour of ME2. (Thus, I personally won't watch it, but if you feel like it, go ahead.)
There obviously are people in this thread that have progressed quite a bit.
So my question remains.
How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
SIgh, I figured it out. It seems to be extremely tedious. You just have to keep scanning.
On January 24 2010 20:45 orgolove wrote: There obviously are people in this thread that have progressed quite a bit.
So my question remains.
How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
you have to scan for the white dot (theres an arrow on the scaner pointing the way)
The game is really awesome, I started playing yesterday after the MSL finals (ended around 12:30 CET) and didn't turn the game of until 4:30 in the morning.
it is allot better than the first one, much more smooth with the level ups and especially your gear. I love that I don't have to brows throe 98798687596 ammo/weapon mods to get an effective weapon for the situation I just activate the ammo skill and I got the right set up.
On January 24 2010 20:45 orgolove wrote: There obviously are people in this thread that have progressed quite a bit.
So my question remains.
How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
Sigh, I figured it out. It seems to be extremely tedious. You just have to keep scanning.
That's weird, in my version u can only survey a planet once, and land on it either straight away or after the first surveying. I played soldier and always with Garrus and Ashley, and in ME2 I will stick to Garrus and swap to Miranda. Guess I like f*ckable companions...
I have a little question to ask to people who pirate the game : did the heavy weapon avalaibe for each class i mean i know u will be able to wear it but will u able to be accurate with it
Ending was okayishhh, felt a bit too easy though, just the same old Collector enemies. Wanted to encounter some of those that you saw in the ship when you ran around with Joker during the attack. I mean after all it was their main ship but it felt like the same as when you first encountered them :/
The partner side missions felt a bit flat too, most of them were laid out in the same way too, go to planet, shoot some stuff, get a cutscene after which they become "loyal" to you. Even if it'd just been codex entries more information and backstory would have been so good.
Kinda got too excited about going through the Omega 4 relay too, thought it'd be some real epic mindblowing shit inside the galactic core with the reapers and all... And in the end it turned out to be just more insect grunts to fight, and that skeletor end boss which was piss easy.
The Illusive Man felt so weak too, I chose to blow up the Collector base and he was just like "okay" and that was it. All the encounters with him felt like he'd be some uber powerful boss kind of guy, but in the end he really had no control at all. I really hope they evolve him some more in ME3, it really felt like he was going to have another card up his sleeve but it fell flat in the end.
All in all, felt like a getting a good movie turned off halfway through and having to wait two years to continue it. Kinda like how I felt after Mass Effect 1
I thought maybe I would torrent a copy before the game hit stores, but it's not going well. 1000+ seeds, nearly 25,000 peers, and my dl speed is <10 kb/s. It's shot up to 60 a few times, but it invariably drops back down.
I'm not sure what's going on. I suspect it's a problem with this particular file as I tested another torrent, openoffice, and got a constant 60+ kb/s. Whatever, it's not like I don't buy bioware games. I guess I'll have to wait an extra day.
On January 25 2010 08:26 Mindcrime wrote: I thought maybe I would torrent a copy before the game hit stores, but it's not going well. 1000+ seeds, nearly 25,000 peers, and my dl speed is <10 kb/s. It's shot up to 60 a few times, but it invariably drops back down.
I'm not sure what's going on. I suspect it's a problem with this particular file as I tested another torrent, openoffice, and got a constant 60+ kb/s. Whatever, it's not like I don't buy bioware games. I guess I'll have to wait an extra day.
demonoid has a english version that's 4gb. The 14gb version on public trackers includes all languages...i'm getting around 160kb/sec down
Ending was okayishhh, felt a bit too easy though, just the same old Collector enemies. Wanted to encounter some of those that you saw in the ship when you ran around with Joker during the attack. I mean after all it was their main ship but it felt like the same as when you first encountered them :/
The partner side missions felt a bit flat too, most of them were laid out in the same way too, go to planet, shoot some stuff, get a cutscene after which they become "loyal" to you. Even if it'd just been codex entries more information and backstory would have been so good.
Kinda got too excited about going through the Omega 4 relay too, thought it'd be some real epic mindblowing shit inside the galactic core with the reapers and all... And in the end it turned out to be just more insect grunts to fight, and that skeletor end boss which was piss easy.
The Illusive Man felt so weak too, I chose to blow up the Collector base and he was just like "okay" and that was it. All the encounters with him felt like he'd be some uber powerful boss kind of guy, but in the end he really had no control at all. I really hope they evolve him some more in ME3, it really felt like he was going to have another card up his sleeve but it fell flat in the end.
All in all, felt like a getting a good movie turned off halfway through and having to wait two years to continue it. Kinda like how I felt after Mass Effect 1
I can't say I didn't enjoy the game, but it wasn't as good as ME1. Instead of fixing things like the inventory and the mako, they just gutted those aspects entirely. That kind of pissed me off. The combat was better in general but I felt like they turned it into Gears of War more than they tried to refine the rpg elements
Story wise, you spend 80% of the time just picking up characters and not really progressing the story. This was probably the worst offender of all Bioware games when it comes to the "go to 3 places, then storyline, etc" progression. You don't have to ever work to develop the relationships with your teammates either. They just all tell you about their own little quest after a pre determined amount of time. Then they are suddenly "loyal"
Plot wise it seems like we are right back at where we were when ME1 ended because so little of the game actually dealt with the plot
The game is either designed with the intent of being fleshed out with tons and tons of DLC (theres virtually no guns/armor/interesting upgrades) or they are just going the complete opposite direction than what I liked about ME1. I don't even feel like I'm advancing my character on my own, I jump through their hoops in the guise of missions and I get a You Win screen telling me I leveled up, then it doesn't let me go back to the place.
On January 24 2010 20:45 orgolove wrote: There obviously are people in this thread that have progressed quite a bit.
So my question remains.
How the heck do I land on a planet? Do I need to install the DLC? I keep getting messages that anomaly has been detected on a planet, but all I can do is just right click - scan and left click - launch probe. I can't do anything else, so I can't do the black guy's loyalty quest.
SIgh, I figured it out. It seems to be extremely tedious. You just have to keep scanning.
If you get the scanner upgrade it only takes a few seconds to find the dot
On January 24 2010 22:22 orgolove wrote: To unlock the extra skills, do you have to go through the specific loyalty quests for each party member associated with the extra skill?
Yep each loyal party member gives you one bonus skill.
Ending was okayishhh, felt a bit too easy though, just the same old Collector enemies. Wanted to encounter some of those that you saw in the ship when you ran around with Joker during the attack. I mean after all it was their main ship but it felt like the same as when you first encountered them :/
The partner side missions felt a bit flat too, most of them were laid out in the same way too, go to planet, shoot some stuff, get a cutscene after which they become "loyal" to you. Even if it'd just been codex entries more information and backstory would have been so good.
Kinda got too excited about going through the Omega 4 relay too, thought it'd be some real epic mindblowing shit inside the galactic core with the reapers and all... And in the end it turned out to be just more insect grunts to fight, and that skeletor end boss which was piss easy.
The Illusive Man felt so weak too, I chose to blow up the Collector base and he was just like "okay" and that was it. All the encounters with him felt like he'd be some uber powerful boss kind of guy, but in the end he really had no control at all. I really hope they evolve him some more in ME3, it really felt like he was going to have another card up his sleeve but it fell flat in the end.
All in all, felt like a getting a good movie turned off halfway through and having to wait two years to continue it. Kinda like how I felt after Mass Effect 1
Took me around 17 hours to beat the first one.. sounds in line.
Ending was okayishhh, felt a bit too easy though, just the same old Collector enemies. Wanted to encounter some of those that you saw in the ship when you ran around with Joker during the attack. I mean after all it was their main ship but it felt like the same as when you first encountered them :/
The partner side missions felt a bit flat too, most of them were laid out in the same way too, go to planet, shoot some stuff, get a cutscene after which they become "loyal" to you. Even if it'd just been codex entries more information and backstory would have been so good.
Kinda got too excited about going through the Omega 4 relay too, thought it'd be some real epic mindblowing shit inside the galactic core with the reapers and all... And in the end it turned out to be just more insect grunts to fight, and that skeletor end boss which was piss easy.
The Illusive Man felt so weak too, I chose to blow up the Collector base and he was just like "okay" and that was it. All the encounters with him felt like he'd be some uber powerful boss kind of guy, but in the end he really had no control at all. I really hope they evolve him some more in ME3, it really felt like he was going to have another card up his sleeve but it fell flat in the end.
All in all, felt like a getting a good movie turned off halfway through and having to wait two years to continue it. Kinda like how I felt after Mass Effect 1
I can't say I didn't enjoy the game, but it wasn't as good as ME1. Instead of fixing things like the inventory and the mako, they just gutted those aspects entirely. That kind of pissed me off. The combat was better in general but I felt like they turned it into Gears of War more than they tried to refine the rpg elements
Story wise, you spend 80% of the time just picking up characters and not really progressing the story. This was probably the worst offender of all Bioware games when it comes to the "go to 3 places, then storyline, etc" progression. You don't have to ever work to develop the relationships with your teammates either. They just all tell you about their own little quest after a pre determined amount of time. Then they are suddenly "loyal"
Plot wise it seems like we are right back at where we were when ME1 ended because so little of the game actually dealt with the plot
The game is either designed with the intent of being fleshed out with tons and tons of DLC (theres virtually no guns/armor/interesting upgrades) or they are just going the complete opposite direction than what I liked about ME1. I don't even feel like I'm advancing my character on my own, I jump through their hoops in the guise of missions and I get a You Win screen telling me I leveled up, then it doesn't let me go back to the place.
Still worth playing. I liked ME1 more though.
These 2 posts basicly sum my own experience with ME2.
Since I've only completed ME1 recently, and ME2 came out soon after, I must say they cut pretty deep into character depth and specialization. Not having any loot in the game, but just 'researching' upgrades feels really lame, since most upgrades are just percentage boosts, and you really don't notice it since the game is more of a shooter now with massive battles.
I do enjoy the new powers, but classes like the adept feel very weird now since all abilities share cooldowns on a single character, I'm pretty sure they could have found a better mix between abilities and cooldowns, not as extreme as part 1 (~1min, overlap possible) or part 2 (~3-12 seconds, no everlapping).
Scanning planets minigame...
I felt so empty after visiting most shops and finding maybe 1-2 usefull things to purchase, and rest just beeing 1-2 random like a book or miniquest ingredient.
All in all, I'm not that big on shooters, I do enjoy them with enough character customization or power customization, but mostly only last for that long. Game is pretty enjoyable in it's own way, but I would rather have had a continuation and fixes from part 1, and more customization options not less. In the end I think the way it aimed for is to simplify it more for the console.
I got it 2 days ago and have really enjoyed it, its certainly not perfect but it is very polished and the combat is very entertaining. I though ME1 was very boring, as I am more of a D2 kind of guy, but ME2 's action aspect is good enough for me to really like, even though I wish SOOOOO hard that they had put in more skills and randomized weapon drops. It would make this game actually amazing.
Disclaimer: I don't give 3 shits about story, its all gameplay for me, but the characters are very cool
A lot of what I'm hearing bums me out. The lack of loot is especially disturbing to me. I really like loot! I'm not a huge shooter fan myself, so I don't know how I feel about ME2 being more shooter than RPG. I usually only pick up shooters once in a great while - like right now I play MW2, but it is the first COD game I've owned. I'm still willing to give it a try before judging it though. I feel like they should have fixed up some of the RPG elements that weren't quite there yet in ME1, instead of gutting them out. Oh well, I'm sure it will still be a fun game.
I have to agree that the story is kind of rubbish, since it doesn't deal with the main enemy of the game, just their minions, who suddenly started abducting human colonies. It's like DAO, hurr durr the darkspawn suddenly appeared, now go and kill them.
Just a quick question to those who've played already... is it necessary to thoroughly scan and probe all the planets for resources, assuming you want to get as many upgrades as possible for your final team (that is, skipping upgrades that don't affect your final team)? It's a hefty pain in the ass and I just want to know if I can just stop doing it at some point.
I just finished it, using soldier imported from ME1.
The game is great, it's a good sequel, keeps the nice atmosphere from ME1.
EchOne, nah, you don't need to do all the upgrades. To be honest the upgrades don't really matter, ain't much of a difference. I didn't have the patience to do enough scanning for resources. + Show Spoiler +
I didn't like the fact that it has too few missions (at least it seems so to me) especially those "unofficial" missions when you go scan planets, find anomalies, land and find something new... too few like per average only one planet per region (i did scout ALL planets in the game).
Too few things you can do on planets where you dock, too few things to buy in the stores (i would've loved to have way more fish types for my aquarium).
And what is with that sex scene between shepard and miranda? The sex scene between shepart and ash in ME1 was way better. They have a mature rating anyway so they could've at least made some damn decent sex scenes, i expected to see miranda get fucked ever since the game started, and all i get to see is her bra? That sucked. I mean, they made miranda look so damn awesome and all game made scenes focus on her great ass and tits and when you get to fuck her, she doesn't even take her clothes off.
Also hanging on close to the last idea, i was expecting to fuck kelly as well and i'm pretty disappointed it doesn't happen. As for morinth, i would've let my character die once just to see how he dies during sex.
Other things i didn't like: - too few weapons - hoped to see more talking characters - shops didn't bring in new items - hard to make credits. i was lucky i had a very rich character from ME1 otherwise i probably wouldn't have had enough to buy everything i find
I don't understand why it's always limited to a 3 char group? Would've been way nicer to have all of your team come with you on missions even if that'd mean they have to make enemies much stronger.
And yeah, almost forgot. The WORSE THING, is that the car is gone... that awesome vehicle, mako or whatever was called.. it isn't anymore. WTF? i LOVED IT IN ME1. Landing with it on all sort of planets and driving around was great. Bad move on their side.
Parts of the story i didn't get. It felt like people were just ignorant. So everyone thought you got killed but when they met you they say just "cool, you're alive"... damn. I was expecting "OMGWTGBBQ you alive????!!!!". And what was with the end? I mean, i was expecting endless waves of enemies...
And a couple of tips: - feed the fish after each mission or they'll die. the hamster can't be fed so don't worry about him - if you need lots of credits and have time go on tuchanka (or whatever, the krog planet) at the gambling pit fights and bet on the red varren (it always wins). Easy 250cred. You can do it about 100 times in 5min (just space space space space). - aim for the head, headshot deals more damage - if you play soldier, max the adrenaline rush asap, that skill is absolutely imba, it can even make you invulnerable for 3 seconds at level 4.
Well, I finished the game today after starting a character, getting about halfway through and figuring out whats good, then starting a new character. (Its how I usually play RPG's)
Meh..
I had a good time at the beginning, but there just isn't much substance to the game, there aren't enough abilities and there is basically no gear, which is lame. I tried all the heavy weapons, which just aren't very interesting because you only really use them to kill bosses (and they are ALL way overpowered). I got like all the uprades that mattered, which is boring because they don't actually change gameplay, just damage. The game definitely got a ton shittier near the end, The final boss was a fucking joke (and dumb), as was the whole final mission.
If the game just had like 5 different weapons per type and a couple different pieces of armor it would be 100% better.
The mining "game" was absolutely TERRIBLE, I have never seen such an unenjoyable grindtastic task. It was bad at the beginning, and by the time I got to the end I guarantee you will hate the shit out of it.
Going all over the fucking place to find stores that sell upgrades was gay too, and then walking all the way back to the ship....
It was just...shallow.
BTW, if you use shotguns and get the Claymore heavy, it is way OP, as is the skill Reave during the end of the game. You can charge in and oneshot a Harbinger, or kill it with reave in like 2 hits.
Then I was going to start a new playthrough to see how the snipers were, and they made me watch the whole intro cutscene and walk through the burning ship AGAIN, unskippable. I was like fuck that and just quit. So I guess no second play...
I was having fun for the first few hours, but after its over, it was pretty bad.
Yup, ME is a clone of diablo, thanks for your awesome post.
On another note, pika spoiled for me , but I'm loving this game so much.
If you pay attention, the rather large and in-depth post right above that is my impression of the game. While the short interjection afterward is expressing my neverending love for the Diablo franchise, in contrast to ME.
The game is really fun so far. The combat still doesn't hold up to other cover based 3rd person shooters, but god damn if it isn't worlds better than ME1. Combine that with the other shit that Bioware does well every game and ME2 is looking pretty great.
Also, does anyone know if you can control the arc of your biotics?
Bioware lied about system requirements. My 4 year old pc with a p4 and geforece 8400gs runs the game. Although, performance is significantly worse in some areas than others...
I picked one of my ME saves at random. It was a paragon adept, so that is what I am currently playing.
It was worth it. I want to hurry up and kick some Reaper ass!
Oh, and the game is moddable lololol. I "rebalanced" the biotics by removing the cooldowns of all party powers. Hahaha, talk about being a mage in a sci fi game.
Oh, and you can change the rate of fire/damage/attack range/accuracy decay rate of all the weapons in the game as well.
On January 27 2010 16:55 orgolove wrote: Just finished the game on insanity.
It was worth it. I want to hurry up and kick some Reaper ass!
Oh, and the game is moddable lololol. I "rebalanced" the biotics by removing the cooldowns of all party powers. Hahaha, talk about being a mage in a sci fi game.
Oh, and you can change the rate of fire/damage/attack range/accuracy decay rate of all the weapons in the game as well.
What's the point in playing it on insanity if you're gonna mod it to be easy?
Finished the game as soldier, 100% all missions completed. Such an awesome awesome game. I stayed loyal to Liara from ME1 so instead of a romance scene I got a scene where Shepard looks at her picture on his desk. Looks promising for ME3.
Starting a female playthrough now, probably as vanguard.
Haha, I can't stop and laugh when I see the contrasts in this thread. Some people claiming it's terribad and others that it's awesome. What tips the scale is that people who say this game is terrible/not good actually go into a lengthy posts describing why it is so while people who claim for it to be awesome just post 1 liners about their delight with the game.
I'm not reading the thread right now because I just started the game last night and there appear to be a lot of spoilers (I really like playing the game through at least once without knowing anything). However, up until now, the game is pretty fun, the story is interesting (if a bit similar to ME1 so far), and the game looks and runs amazingly well on my 3 yr old system. I'll try to contribute a more substantive opinion later.
On January 28 2010 01:01 Manit0u wrote: Haha, I can't stop and laugh when I see the contrasts in this thread. Some people claiming it's terribad and others that it's awesome. What tips the scale is that people who say this game is terrible/not good actually go into a lengthy posts describing why it is so while people who claim for it to be awesome just post 1 liners about their delight with the game.
Because the people who like the game don't feel compelled to right a nerd rage dissertation on why the game is overhyped.
On January 28 2010 01:01 Manit0u wrote: Haha, I can't stop and laugh when I see the contrasts in this thread. Some people claiming it's terribad and others that it's awesome. What tips the scale is that people who say this game is terrible/not good actually go into a lengthy posts describing why it is so while people who claim for it to be awesome just post 1 liners about their delight with the game.
I've seen people complain about parts of the game and indepthly so. I agree with some of their complaints, but as I feel so far and they say - it is still a pretty good game. I can only remember one post here off the top of my head when they say the game was bad. Secondly, others have been right so far. It is common for someone who enjoys something not to take the time to say a lot about it, not just in video games. Most people take the time to review things when they have something bad to say about it. Basically ... I have no idea what you're trying to accomplish in this thread. You've said you won't buy the game because you're sure it will be bad - that's fine whatever, everyone has their opinion. But you continue to post seemingly trying to convince others a game THAT YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED is bad. It makes no sense whatsoever. What are you trolling?
On January 27 2010 23:24 Corvi wrote: i started as engineer and played like 4 hours. combat drone (mine is rank 2) seems to be so bad to me! gosh ...
can some high level engineer tell me, if it eventually gets better?
i love the engineer mentality and playstyle, so i made an engineer, but noticed that combat drone does very little damage to nonshields...still, it pulls opponents out of cover, so i thought it was useful. at lvl 4, if you upgrade attack drone, it definitely does enough damage to be worth it imo, doing ~1/5 of enemy hp every shot and castable at any enemy position. idk about exploding drone though, will try it on a respec.
imo, the classes don't differ that much in effectiveness (playing on veteran) and the classes are more for playstyle/feel...the story and world here is much more engaging than a normal rpg.
so lots of people say that the engineer class is weak, but i like it...drone is interesting if not super-badass (wish it actually had a decent graphic) and cryoblast/overload are really useful situationally.
I can understand why some people might not like the changes, but overall this is an amazing game and better than the first.
An amazing story (and ending), combat is fast paced and challenging (you die a lot faster in this game), the ammo system just adds another layer to combat and forces you to think, the mini-games aren't that bad imo (just spam probes man), the new characters are awesomeee (Mordin, Grunt, Miranda etc... love them all), and the grahpics are amazing.
There are only 2 things I have serious misgivings about.
1. They needed to do a lot more in terms of drama when we meet our old friends. We're gone for 2 years, supposedly dead, and most everyone you meet from your old ship or old friends don't even act suprised and usually don't really care that you're back (which is meh).
2. The fact that armor and weapon customization is basically gone. In ME1, one of the best parts was finding all the best armors and getting the best sets from the best corporations. In this game, the amount of armor is SIGNIFICANTLY less (as well as weapons), and there are no longer "stats" on armor, but rather a few, usually bad, bonuses. Basically, the only way you pick armor in game is based on looks since the armor stats (bonuses) are usually minor. The same applies to weapons. The only diff to them now is basically which style you like most. A burst rifle or a auto? A high dmg 1 shot sniper or 5 shot lower dmg one? A rocket launcher or a ray gun? There are no stats on the weapons . This aspect is too much FPS and too little RPG.
Overall amazing game setting up for an epic finale in ME3.
The game has indeed been massively simplified since ME1 but I don't care. Equipment and upgrades and stuff bores me to death. Some years ago spending hours optimizing my char in games was what I liked the most but nowadays I can't stand it anymore. I even finished the game with an equal Paragon and Renegade score because I didn't give a shit about grinding one or the other and just did what felt natural to me on each occasion.
The gameplay is very dynamic and very entertaining. Much better than ME1 overall. I'm really satisfied. My major complaint is that as an adept I didn't have enough points to diversify so I ended up spamming the same one or two techniques for the entire game. But maybe I'm to blame here since I skipped nearly all the secondary quests.
Miranda excepted. Like Jack from day one I just couldn't stand the Cerberus bitch and said fuck you to the obvious romance option. That leads me to my major complaint. WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I GET LIARA BACK INTO MY TEAM? And all that just to defeat the Shadow Broker. Granted his name is cool but who cares when reapers are threatening the galaxy? I was fucking pissed. At least my savegame is ready for her when ME3 comes.
All the cutscenes with Thane are so fucking cool, holy shit. I never took him into my team though - Grunt+Legion all the way.
ugh what's with this fleet of Reapers? Is this just to build up hype or what? I'll read the thread entirely to see if people already started theorizing about this.
It was good. I certainly didn't like it any better then the first game. To be honest, it suffers from being the "middle child". While playing the game, I grasped a real feeling of scale, and epicness, but the suddenness of the ending put everything into very narrow perspective. Build a team> Make each loyal> Kill final boss. Human reaper didn't seem to fit the theme of the reapers at all to me. It just seems like a cool idea for a final boss. The way they link it to the story is honestly weak. If they model reapers over the race killed to make them, what the fuck was the reaper from the last game? A slug? And all the reapers during the end credit looked the same...
I also am one of those who absolutely loved the driving/planet exploring from the first game. It just made it feel bigger. Even if there was shit all on some planets, the fact that you could land on them made the game feel so... Full.
The combat is better, without a doubt, but the skill system and inventory system nearly killed the game for me. Only 2 guns per type or so to collect? That's not more weapons than ME1. I liked putting skills into guns, charm, abilities, etc. It forced you into making real decisions. I liked that.
It's a great game, but they removed a lot of what I had expected from it. Maybe ME3 will be as great as my dreams.
On January 29 2010 07:52 Matoo- wrote: About the ending, + Show Spoiler +
ugh what's with this fleet of Reapers? Is this just to build up hype or what? I'll read the thread entirely to see if people already started theorizing about this.
was wondering this too, or if there's some simple explanation that i just didn't catch.
I'm a little behind everyone else in here. Just completed mass effect 1. It was a little shorter than I'd thought but even when I try to do side missions and stuff I am always too compelled by wanting to find out what happens and I follow the plot line. Only took like ~12 hours.
I'll definitely give mass effect 2 a play through but I might wait for a sale first. Torrents don't work too well here at school and meh, that's stealing anyway.
zomg just youtube'd and not only can male Commander Shepard get it on with Liara but the female one can too in a lesbo sex scene! Wow.... if someone had bet me 100 dollars there was a possibility for alesbian cut scene in that game I would've taken it... Oh and wtf... the human chick Ashley was not hot and annoying as all hell. Why the hell did I save her instead of Kaiden t.t He was a good heroic guy. But the scene of him dying was pathetic.
While the story was on the whole was, good, it felt a little disconnected. While we know that the reapers are behind everything, there just wasn't any active involvment from them making it a little lame. Also the lack of any council involvement (atleast when I loaded from my saved game when I killed them in ME1) once again, made the game feel a little disconnected. The storyline is something I would've expected to see in an expansion and what I mean by that is, expansions a lot of the time while relating to the normal game, take kind of a inconsequential side plot.
Everything else about ME2 is simply a refined version of ME1. The removal of the item system, the mako, and probably some other things that don't come to mind is nice since they were all failures by design.
Sniper rifles once again seem imba, since there is nothing really stopping you from taking cover and headshot your enemies when you feel like it. If I wasn't playing me2 on an 8400m graphics card that occasionally has the frame rate crash to 15ish making aiming difficult, the game would've even been easier. On that note, for the most part the game played at a decent frame rate. The unreal 3 engine isn't that demanding.
The side missions of ME2 seemed a little lamer than the ME1 were. Not 100% sure about that, haven't played me1 in a while, but I think that's the case. I think there were also fewer, but this is nothing to worry about that much.
I probably will replay the game sometime, maybe when more dlc comes out. On that note, while I did buy the game, I am not going to pay for dlc, so I will be pirating that aspect.
Just completed it, They took away a lot of the things i liked from mass effect one,
vehicles, items, customized things.
I also felt the story was much weaker, but the game was still very good. From a lot of official reviews I have seen they are over rating it quite a bit. it's an 8/10 for me, lots of people are giving it 10.
and mass effect 1 was a 9 for me, i feel this is slightly inferior overall, though superior in a few regards. i.e graphicss, atmosphere, characters.
(All of this is obviously just my personal opinion)
Don't get me wrong even though it seams that I complain about nearly everything it is by no means a bad game but it is nowhere near the first Mass Effect.
Major spoilers/Wall of text ahead. Oh and I refer to Shepard as she since I've played as female nearly every time I played ME except for the very first time when it came out.
Some of these feelings/complaints maybe coloured/increased by the fact that I had played through ME1 the days before ME2 came out in anticipation, to update on the story and to get a save-file to transfer, so it makes it very easy to compare and in an sequel you expect the things not quite right in the first one fixed and maybe some new stuff added.
Yes the inventory system wasn't very good in ME1 and it could get boring driving around planet with the mako (although that is mostly the design of the planets fault not the mako itself I found it easy to drive and fun like when you were fighting a Thresher Maw) sure there were things not working properly in ME1 but you don't remove them entirely they should be fixed.
I agree with all the other complaints. I really miss a real inventory, real loot. real customisation. Any good reason to not have the hide helmet option? That effectively killed all the "dlc-armour" I cannot stand walking around with an ugly helmet on especially inside then you are talking to people. So that means that you only have one armour choice (yes there are a few different choices to leg, chest, etc. but the all look pretty much the same) the only thing you can do is to change the colours on it.
I also feel that the characters from ME1 (excluding Garrus and Tali and maybe Liara not really good but not as bad as others) got really screwed over, were little interaction and generally not at all surprised to see Shepard, -"Oh hi there Shep, heard you were dead" -"nah I got better" -"k, why working for Cerberus, you traitor!" -"saving the galaxy and stuff, you know the usual" -"I serve the Alliance and I practically hate you now, bye".
Can't say I like what they did to Liara but there's at least an explanation. So hell-bent on taking down the Shadow broker for what he did to her/Shep/some friend of Liara. I know that she blames herself for giving you to Cerberus and all but she could easy of a bit and maybe come with and save the galaxy like old times after Shep assures her she did the right thing in giving her to Cerberus especially if Liara were the romantic interest in ME1.
The first time I had to do the crappy minigame to get minerals I got really bored and by the end of the game I was ready to blow my head off at the thought of it. No question it is the most horrendous absolutely mind blowingly awful time-sink ever. The mako was way superior even if you had to scale Mt. Everest with it at times. Why couldn't you buy minerals, you know on super important time sensitive mission here do not really have time to mine my own minerals to build weapons, or at least trade one mineral for another some of them very nearly impossible to get enough of. (Wouldn't it be hilarious that when a team of military people get a mission in real life they start by mining ore for iron/steel and pump oil for plastic and then build their weapons before doing the actual mission)
While we are on the subject on weapons. BIG WTF!. In the first game they explain that they don't have to worry about ammo any more since they developed a new system that allowed for thousands of rounds to be stored inside the guns. Now they suddenly came up with the genius idea of thermal clips which has exactly the same limitations they where trying to get away from. Real smart. There are some serious lore issues with this, starting with that it is far inferior and if someone came up with the idea of introducing ammo clips again would be laughed out of the planing room of "the Big Weapons Corp".
The weapons in ME1 could, if managed correctly, be fired indefinitely. An assault rifle in ME1 could fire around 40 rounds in a row before overheating but if you let of the trigger even half a second it would cool down rather rapidly so fire in rather long burst and it wont stop firing. You could even upgrade some weapons with extra heatsinks to make them fire indefinitely without pauses.
Then moving on the the issue of the whole frikkin galaxy have switched weapons systems in 2 year, yeah seams very impossible. Not to mention the fact that it isn't even touched upon except for the codec entry, which I don't buy, So the weapon I used to kill an Reaper/Geth tricked-out Saren robot two years ago isn't powerful enough and we have to start using crappy thermal clips to remove heat faster which in turn allows for higher velocity rounds (=more dmg) yeah I have a bit of a problem with that.
This would be something Shepard should comment about.
-"So I been gone for 2 years and you people managed to regress weapons technology a 100 years. Good work!"
Didn't like the new flight system, what the **** is the pilot for when it still have to fly and refuel it myself? I'm the Captain/Commander and the pilot should fly where I tell him to.
Does anybody know a good reason as to why they removed crouch? I sure can't think of one. Why isn't the radar visible at all times and why isn't there (nearly) any maps more? Might have something to do with hiding how small most planets/side-mission sites actually were, often no more then a couple of rooms and a short walk from the shuttle to the front door of wherever you are going.
This sure feel much smaller then ME1, there you had big planets to explore, while tedious at times, mostly enjoyable. Not to mention how small the citadel is, a few stores, a bar and the Human embassy room nearly no side-missions compare that to ME1 citadel which was huge and had lots of side-mission and people to talk to. All the major cities were pretty much the same as well (Nos Astra, Omega even the Krogan city to some extent) a few stores and a bar with very few people you're able to talk to and very few side-missions.
All that aside the thing that got to me the most (and I don't think have been mentioned already) is the quality of the port from 360, they didn't even bother to map the various menus (quest, char, encyclopaedia thingy...) to keys. I mean how hard can it be to bind the quest (or journal) page to "J" ? It's a pretty standard thing in PC RPGs even ported ones. There's mouse acceleration as well. The original ME port was much better and BW didn't even port that in-house (Demiurge Studios ported ME1 to PC).
The crappy console "trademark" all-in-one button is still there, when I play something on a PC with hundreds of keys you don't have to mash everything into one. I don't want to run, hide, open doors and the "use-key" to be the same key, it can get really annoying at times. I do understand the need for it on the 360 but when you make a port to PC we should at least be able to expect descent controls.
Well that might be enough complaining for now. Now to the good parts.
The fighting system is better now, direct aiming. (thermal clips still suck though) but biotics is nerfed alot and having the ammo type being an "talent" and taking points is a bad idea especially since it triggers global cool down when changed.
I liked the new crew for the most part, Mordin is awesome! He sings Gilbert and Sullivan it's hilarious. Tali and Garrus are really good as well. Both the recruitment quest and the various run ins before that (with Tali) and the loyalty quest. Tali's trial was very good and it was cool to finally see the inside of the Flotilla. (Might have to step on the grenade and play a male shepard, notably inferior voice acting, to romance Tali she's just so mysterious and sweet.)
Really liked Kelly so open about races and people (still worked with Cerberus, but I guess she's right loving humanity doesn't exclude loving the other races as well), not to mention flirty and "kinda" romance option. The engineers had some really good/funny conversations.
Thane and Jack (Subject Zero) are really interesting and Legion give invaluable insight into Geth-society. Can get some good dialogue if you bring Legion onto the Quarian Flotilla. Samara/Morinth, Miranda and Grunt are good. Didn't really like Jacob not sure why.
Not sure what to think of story, the "official" story missions were very good but spending the majority of the game head-hunting people only to do one mission but as long as we don't get screwed out of the crew in ME3 again I guess it's ok.
Final level was great, will have people trying to figure out exactly what triggered the various events to happen and why for awhile. Ending itself was somewhat anticlimactic. But a good build-up for ME3.
Squad cyro ammo is pretty ridiculous. When combined with all the other abilities of the party - you can disable a large chunk of the opposition forces. I'm nearing the end of the game (at least I think - I'm just about finished with gathering the team and getting them all loyal) and I really like the game so far. It improved some things over ME1 - like the shooting mechanics and I think the atmosphere is a bit better. There are some things I think they took a step back in though like scaling back some of the RPG elements and the game just feels smaller. Overall I think ME1 was a better game, but ME2 was pretty good as well.
All I can say is that scanner mini game better not return. It is tedious and boring (I feel it has no place in a game) luckily you don't really need upgrades unless you're playing on higher difficulties. Also the balance which you find minerals is off - I have well over 100,000 iridium but am hurting for platinum. Some sort of system where you could trade between minerals would have been nice. The bypass and hacking mini games weren't bad - because they were short and didn't break the flow of the game. Scanning the planets disrupts the flow way too much.
i loved the scanner mini game <3 felt really in tune with the universe...idk i didnt really get a sense of urgency from the game esp since i was playing it on break and did most of the story stuff (ie the IFF) right at the end, after i was done with the rest of the game. so while in the "building your team and getting ready mode," taking a break from the missions to play a minigame that rewarded you with huge upgrades was really fun =)
i thought the whole game was great in the immersion/sense of universe actually...i didnt play me1 so i didnt have the continuity/lore issues that some people had and the combat was fluid, the "acting" superb (gestures in conversation looked fantastic) and the charlie sheen character kept me on my toes every time i saw him. the ship felt really alive and amazing, talking to each character, though i wish they all had more scripts (i hate to come back from a mission and check with a character and not have a script update, though i guess it has to happen at some point).
just wish there was more content =/// thought the game was kinda short and the ending was pretty abrupt, but well i did spend over 30 hours on it anyway. my #1 complaint is actually that i wish they had told me to get my ass in gear and go full renegade or paragon from the start, i didnt so i was half a box short of having enough renegade to get morinth and i did pretty much all possible quests before doing samara's. damn. combat is so fun though that i might replay and fix some mistakes...maybe after a few months when i get another break.
i give it a 9/10. best single player rpg experience i've had, actually.
Only had sex with tali, couldhave with miranda but she wanted me to dump tali and I couldn't bring myself to doing that. I get too attached even in video games roflflfl
FUCKING LOVED THIS GAME.
I will write a more in depth review but I am thoroughly jacked for ME3 + Show Spoiler +
fucked up the relationship with miranda over fucking jack, i hate jack what crappy character.
and now i finished the game and have done EVERYTHING and i STILL don't have enough paragon points to persuade her via the alignment dialogue. its total bullshit they would do this to me. also i really find the whole scanning procedure tedious as hell.
other then that i guess the game was too short.
oh and to people who go adept, the shockwave power is far from a freight train ....
On February 02 2010 09:15 Kennigit wrote: MIRANDA IS SUCH A BITCH!
Finished it today - amazing game. 10/10.
How could you say that! I loved her loyalty mission. Her 'Thank you Shepard" speeches were among the best. I didn't like Jacob because he felt too copy and past from Kaiden in the ME1, and I disliked him.
I loved Grunt's loyalty mission the best, if only too listen too him talk during it. "MORE!!!"
how can all you guys say that tali was awesome and miranda was a bitch? i played the renegade "get er done" options and miranda was totally cool with everything while tali acted like a moral moron. i even told the geth to scan her shit after i told her he wouldnt =).
:-/ ME2 was such a disappointment. The RPG part of the game is just terrible, this game ugh... I can't believe they did what they did. The story is an abomination.
Combat is really top notch tho! I love the combat sooo much. It's just disappointing that they added single skill casting. They replaced casting individual slow recharge with fast group recharge... how does that make things better? You're still waiting for your skills just as much as the original.
I don't have much hope for ME3... I think the combat will get better but the story will be a lot worse.
On February 02 2010 13:48 noClue wrote: :-/ ME2 was such a disappointment. The RPG part of the game is just terrible, this game ugh... I can't believe they did what they did. The story is an abomination.
Actually, from what I've played, I like the direction they moved with ME2. ME1 always felt too schizophrenic to me--not enough shooter to be great as a shooter, and not enough RPG to be great as an RPG (honestly, the "RPG" of ME1 was pretty mediocre; this becomes especially apparent when, upon a second playthrough, you realize that 95% of choices you made didn't matter--e.g. dialogues that give the same responses, or near-identical responses with token changes). ME2 feels like they've got a better idea of what they want the game to be, and stripped out the extra baggage.
Yeah I agree that ME2 feels better in all aspects. I just have a problem with how they approach the story. It's terrible... there are about 4 missions that progress the story then the game is over. Then they used all these side quests and recruiting teammates as fillers. That's all fine and dandy, the quests weren't that bad, but ME1 did the story much better. Here you have to collect allies and do loyalty quests in order to completely everything perfectly. All these things however have absolutely nothing to do with the story. In ME1 it was smoother and much more well thought out. You gathered all your allies within the progression of the story.
Thats just one issue I had with it, there's still a bunch more but yeah :-/. Wish they would've worked on that a bit. On this topic tho think about the ending of ME2... ME3 won't have much story at all, it's prolly end up playing like Halo's story lol, so bad.
That's Bioware for you though. IMO Bioware games should be rated around 8. Simply because there is usually a lot wrong with some portion of the game, but theres always another area which is so good it makes reviews overlook all the problems.
jack died when my ship got shot and the assassin died opening the door for me.. but he was terminal so I voted him in knowing he'd die roflflf (he was awesome too).
And I failed his loyalty mission so he wasn't as awesome as h e could have been.
The only thing I saw as a real improvement (other than the combat) was the interrupt things for paragon/renegade. That was kind of something they said would be in ME1 but they cut it out. However, the paragon interrupts are just not nearly as good as the renegade ones.
The actual paragon/renegade choices I didn't like, and the idea of a progress bar for them I still am against. It encourages you to be an asshole to everyone or let people walk all over you. There's no incentive to play a character that for instance is an asshole to your enemies, and is merciful to innocent people, which is a far more reasonable character disposition than the typical Bioware good/neutral/bad dialogue options. If you do that you end up not being able to max one and lose out on dialogue options.
Lack of inv sucked etc, the leveling system wasnt great either. Why not a simple tech tree type level option like every diablo clone can manage to have so there is some customization in your character and their skills. Maybe even some stat distribution. Even moron console players can figure that stuff out and it really adds to the RPG elements, rather than just gut everything and turn the game into gears of war with dialogue options
Unless you're masochistic, my recommendation is: DON'T
I don't mean to brag, but I'd consider myself fairly pro at ME. I've finished ME1 on Insanity 4 times I think without problem. In my first playthrough of ME2 I played on Veteran, and I could say that it was slightly easy, but pretty good for entertainment value. Then, when I finished the game, I had finished every single challenge there was except for Insanity. So I figured: if I'm gonna get that achievement, I might as well make it with a lvl 30 character. So I replayed the same gal' with the same class etc, and even though you have so many advantages when you know what's coming, I gotta say: ME2 on Insanity is just brutal. I mean, you will win the battles, but they might take 15 minutes each. And you won't be able to save during them. One mistake... and you gotta do it all over again. Fortunaly, I played Sentinel (Tech Armor ftw) and took Barrier/Fortification/Geth Shield Boost as my extra skill. (Doesn't matter which one, they are almost identical) Thus, I had a huge amount of extra defence... and still... get out of cover for 3 seconds, BAM, you're dead. Now, all of this was really really hard, but I managed to survive... the problem is the fights that were considered hard during my first playthrough. In those situations, on Insanity, you're fucked. You can't do a damn thing. Well, ok, there is ONE thing, but you can only do it rarely, and that's to use the M-920 Cain and nuke the fuck out of everyone. That always works, regardless of difficulty, and since you get to keep the weapons when you replay, you'll have it from the get-go. (Well, at least untill you get on to the Normandy SR2, before that you can't change your loadout, which is a big problem) However, there is not nearly enough ammo in the game to enable you to use it as much as you need to. When you're out of ammo, no tactic/squad works, etc, the game is too hard.
Short version: Don't play on Insanity. It's no fun.
I played the game mostly for the storyline, which is exceptional. Stats, skills and mechanics, no matter how you make those, you will have people who are dissapointed, so we might as well to leave it as it is. Only thing I didn't like was the 3 types of ammo upgrades on Shepard, as if they couldn't figure any more interesting, even if not so useful, abilities for the soldier.
Does anyone agree with me that the removal of an inventory system was a good thing? To me it was just a waste of time in me1 having to go through every weapon/armor finding the best one and pawning the rest. It's not like there was anything intellectual about that process.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy inventory systems and customization for many games, but I think me2 was better without one.
On February 06 2010 21:46 ejac wrote: Does anyone agree with me that the removal of an inventory system was a good thing? To me it was just a waste of time in me1 having to go through every weapon/armor finding the best one and pawning the rest. It's not like there was anything intellectual about that process.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy inventory systems and customization for many games, but I think me2 was better without one.
I don't think anyone believes the ME1 inventory system was good. But the decision to completely remove the inventory entirely wasn't the way to go. You can't customize your teammates (the alternate outfit is a joke) you can't customize weapons etc. It's really a shame and removes depth from the game
On February 06 2010 19:38 HaXXspetten wrote: Anyone else tried the game on Insanity yet?
I did my first playthrough on insanity. First I sucked and died a lot because I didn't know how to play. I was too conservative with ammo (I was an infiltrator, and I was especially too conservative with my widowmaker), and it took me a while to figure out what exactly I needed out of my group. But I got better eventually. You're absolutely right; gotta be careful, gotta stay in cover. Get caught out for a little bit, you're probably going to get stunned by a warp or a rocket or whatever, and then everyone will shoot you and you'll die.
Now I'm playing an adept. I almost never die. But that's really because I make fewer mistakes. Whenever I get a little too aggressive and push up too far or something, bam, I get caught and I'm dead. Oops. Also it's because I know what the fights coming up are so I can prepare better for them, and I've gotten over trying to conserve ammo (which also comes from knowing the fights, because I know where I can get more ammo), and I have a better idea how to build my team, and so on. *shrug* I've never played anything but insanity in me2, but I'm having fun with it. (There was a whole lot of swearing early on, though, when I really had no idea what I was doing.)
Also, I've still never really ever used heavy weapons. That Cain sounds fun. Oh well. Singularity is fun, too. (So is running through lots of fights with cloak...)
Edit: I can see the benefit of taking a defensive power for your bonus, but I never have. Went with reave on my infiltrator and energy drain on my adept so I could more easily soften people up for singularity. In both cases, but especially with my adept, most fights involve spamming warp/reave/overload/energy drain/concussive shot (I bring Miranda and either Garrus or Samara, depending on the enemies; Miranda stays on loyalty missions) to get folks close to their health, then spamming singularity followed by warp/throw/bullets to kill them all. I do still shoot people's shields/barriers/armor (use an smg for all of them; too lazy to switch), but as you were saying, you have to be quick. You get a bit of a feel for how long you can last, though, I think. I usually end up back in cover with about 2/5 of my health left.
On February 06 2010 19:38 HaXXspetten wrote: Anyone else tried the game on Insanity yet?
Unless you're masochistic, my recommendation is: DON'T
I don't mean to brag, but I'd consider myself fairly pro at ME. I've finished ME1 on Insanity 4 times I think without problem. In my first playthrough of ME2 I played on Veteran, and I could say that it was slightly easy, but pretty good for entertainment value. Then, when I finished the game, I had finished every single challenge there was except for Insanity. So I figured: if I'm gonna get that achievement, I might as well make it with a lvl 30 character. So I replayed the same gal' with the same class etc, and even though you have so many advantages when you know what's coming, I gotta say: ME2 on Insanity is just brutal. I mean, you will win the battles, but they might take 15 minutes each. And you won't be able to save during them. One mistake... and you gotta do it all over again. Fortunaly, I played Sentinel (Tech Armor ftw) and took Barrier/Fortification/Geth Shield Boost as my extra skill. (Doesn't matter which one, they are almost identical) Thus, I had a huge amount of extra defence... and still... get out of cover for 3 seconds, BAM, you're dead. Now, all of this was really really hard, but I managed to survive... the problem is the fights that were considered hard during my first playthrough. In those situations, on Insanity, you're fucked. You can't do a damn thing. Well, ok, there is ONE thing, but you can only do it rarely, and that's to use the M-920 Cain and nuke the fuck out of everyone. That always works, regardless of difficulty, and since you get to keep the weapons when you replay, you'll have it from the get-go. (Well, at least untill you get on to the Normandy SR2, before that you can't change your loadout, which is a big problem) However, there is not nearly enough ammo in the game to enable you to use it as much as you need to. When you're out of ammo, no tactic/squad works, etc, the game is too hard.
Short version: Don't play on Insanity. It's no fun.
Really? I finished today earlier on Insanity and thought it was a bit too easy. I didn't even use the Advanced Train thingy to get extra skills mainly because I was too lazy and too didn't even notice it till I realized I had like 200-300k of each Ore except Element Zero and started mass upgrading stuff. (I thought upgrades etc costed Credits, and I was like ''no way I'mma pay!'') I also played Sentinel and yes, that Tech armor is good, but tbh, had I been a Soldier / Inflintator I'd think I would have had an easier time. The pistols / Uzi is a bit too weak for my taste. And Heavy Pistol has no where near enough ammo to make it on Insanity. Sentinel really shines though end-game when you got all those cooldown upgrades and stuff.
Only time I ran in to trouble was when I met Heavy Mechs (2x) or Praetorians, and it usually took me a few tries before I managed to get through them, nothing impossible though. Oh and the final part of saving Garrus was a pain too. Also sometimes the (Mechs especially) bug out so they don't rush for you but instead just stand, makes them easy pickings.
Usually if my party members died, I just soloed through the fightning parts, and waited for them to auto-rez. I always saved my Medi-Gel for the final fights.
One thing pissed me off was when I was fightning against Heavy Troopers. Those damn Rockets kept knockingback my Teammates from their cover, and their of course too dumb to return to cover afterwards, they just stand there, so I always had to kept putting them back, by clicking Shift and hope they make it before they get raped. (Main reason why I usually ended up soloing numerous fight parts, they died and I didn't want to waste Medi-Gel.)
Anyways, I'll be replaying it again, loved this game, can't wait for ME3.
On February 06 2010 19:38 HaXXspetten wrote: Anyone else tried the game on Insanity yet?
Unless you're masochistic, my recommendation is: DON'T
I don't mean to brag, but I'd consider myself fairly pro at ME. I've finished ME1 on Insanity 4 times I think without problem. In my first playthrough of ME2 I played on Veteran, and I could say that it was slightly easy, but pretty good for entertainment value. Then, when I finished the game, I had finished every single challenge there was except for Insanity. So I figured: if I'm gonna get that achievement, I might as well make it with a lvl 30 character. So I replayed the same gal' with the same class etc, and even though you have so many advantages when you know what's coming, I gotta say: ME2 on Insanity is just brutal. I mean, you will win the battles, but they might take 15 minutes each. And you won't be able to save during them. One mistake... and you gotta do it all over again. Fortunaly, I played Sentinel (Tech Armor ftw) and took Barrier/Fortification/Geth Shield Boost as my extra skill. (Doesn't matter which one, they are almost identical) Thus, I had a huge amount of extra defence... and still... get out of cover for 3 seconds, BAM, you're dead. Now, all of this was really really hard, but I managed to survive... the problem is the fights that were considered hard during my first playthrough. In those situations, on Insanity, you're fucked. You can't do a damn thing. Well, ok, there is ONE thing, but you can only do it rarely, and that's to use the M-920 Cain and nuke the fuck out of everyone. That always works, regardless of difficulty, and since you get to keep the weapons when you replay, you'll have it from the get-go. (Well, at least untill you get on to the Normandy SR2, before that you can't change your loadout, which is a big problem) However, there is not nearly enough ammo in the game to enable you to use it as much as you need to. When you're out of ammo, no tactic/squad works, etc, the game is too hard.
Short version: Don't play on Insanity. It's no fun.
im good on my way to manage it on insanity :p i think some scenarios are almost impossible so i had to abuse sniping a little (attacking units so far away that they won't attack you)
Yesss heavy troops screw your allies up so much. I kill them as soon as I can. I also agree on not using medi-gel. In most cases, if they've died, they're likely to die again in 2 seconds if you revive them anyway.
Heavy mechs are hilarious with an infiltrator because you can get them to stop moving. I would pop out of cover, shoot them, hide. They would shoot a rocket, which takes a while. Before they can start moving again, I'd cloak; enemies won't continue chasing you down if you're cloaked. Then pop out and shoot them again. Repeat until they're dead. Works all right for Praetorians, too. Shoot, they come after you; cloak, they go chase your allies; repeat. With a little luck you can keep them far enough away from everyone so they don't get their barrier back up.
I'm looking forward to playing a sentinel next and spamming the hell out of powers. Probably take reave so I can throw it and overload around.
Also agree on pistol ammo. I occasionally use my hand cannon to headshot vorcha or harbingers, but that's about it. Usually I just stick with my smg.
Overall a great game, while it has its flaws I think the destructoid review pretty much hits the nail on the head.
There are always plot pieces and character interactions to bitch about, so I'll throw one out there. Miranda, who obviously is the hottest piece of ass, is also ridiculous in the sense that there's no chemistry between the characters romance it seems. It seems (I've only played through as a dude, I tend not to play as the chick), the only love interest that makes sense is Tali. All of the other ones seemed forced.
We get it. Miranda is confident, and hot, and like all characters have some emotional scarring. Jack is a lost child, but still fucking crazy and I'd have thrown her out an airlock to avoid possible killing of crew members if it were an option. Tali is the only one who seems generally interested in you and actually likes you; not just some crazy bitch latching onto your nuts.
I'll also give props to Mass Effect 2 in the plot twist department. They didn't have to throw endless, repetitive plot twists for shock and awe value as the game developed. There are obviously a couple of points that stand out, but not non-stop which is a plague upon writing for games it seems. I was so expecting more twists and turns that I had anticipated changes that I expected to happen. However, I was pleasantly surprised when they kept it flowing and nice instead of all over the place.
edit for this addon: I forgot to mention my absolute, 100% favorite thing that they improved on. Your teammates aren't useless. Seriously, in virtually every game with AI helping you in combat they're largely useless. They'll get in the way, die fast, make stupid ideas etc... They don't at all. I find myself in hard encounters using my teammates for a large chunk of the work.
2nd addon: The first time I fired the Cain I shit my pants with laughter at the outcome.
On February 03 2010 07:00 {88}iNcontroL wrote: jack died when my ship got shot and the assassin died opening the door for me.. but he was terminal so I voted him in knowing he'd die roflflf (he was awesome too).
And I failed his loyalty mission so he wasn't as awesome as h e could have been.
Haha, I chose the assassin as well to open the door. I felt really bad initially, because I had no idea he would get killed, but I also forgot at the time that he was terminal. If you put it this way, the decision was a good one . At least now, he died in battle instead of in bed to an illness. Also, Tali is too awesome
Finally got a chance to finish this game. WOW. Loved it. Did a full 100% everything paragon. Time to whip out my renegade now and start killing everyone in the universe this play through.
I was really disappointed that I had to pick Jacob, Garrus, or Miranda as leaders at the end. Easily my three least favorite characters besides the DLC dude.
Mordin and Thane stole the show with their voice acting / cutscenes. Super hard on when Thane dropped out of the ceiling. I really hope ME3 lets you custom pick from all the buddies you made in the universe next time. I need a Wrex Mordin Sheppard team and a Thane Liara Sheppard team.
Inc i think you can reduce casualties like that if you make sure you have all the ship upgrades, i only lost people once inside the collector base. The people who died for me were Thane (sent him through the shaft, thought it was perfect because he was an assasin + terminal anyway), Mordin (NOOO!!!!! FUCK I LOVED HIM) and Miranda, which i was really dissappointed about too. At least she got the chance to realise that Cerberus advancing humanity at any cost isn't always a good thing (using the collector base, which i destroyed >:D)
On February 06 2010 19:38 HaXXspetten wrote: Anyone else tried the game on Insanity yet?
Unless you're masochistic, my recommendation is: DON'T
I don't mean to brag, but I'd consider myself fairly pro at ME. I've finished ME1 on Insanity 4 times I think without problem. In my first playthrough of ME2 I played on Veteran, and I could say that it was slightly easy, but pretty good for entertainment value. Then, when I finished the game, I had finished every single challenge there was except for Insanity. So I figured: if I'm gonna get that achievement, I might as well make it with a lvl 30 character. So I replayed the same gal' with the same class etc, and even though you have so many advantages when you know what's coming, I gotta say: ME2 on Insanity is just brutal. I mean, you will win the battles, but they might take 15 minutes each. And you won't be able to save during them. One mistake... and you gotta do it all over again. Fortunaly, I played Sentinel (Tech Armor ftw) and took Barrier/Fortification/Geth Shield Boost as my extra skill. (Doesn't matter which one, they are almost identical) Thus, I had a huge amount of extra defence... and still... get out of cover for 3 seconds, BAM, you're dead. Now, all of this was really really hard, but I managed to survive... the problem is the fights that were considered hard during my first playthrough. In those situations, on Insanity, you're fucked. You can't do a damn thing. Well, ok, there is ONE thing, but you can only do it rarely, and that's to use the M-920 Cain and nuke the fuck out of everyone. That always works, regardless of difficulty, and since you get to keep the weapons when you replay, you'll have it from the get-go. (Well, at least untill you get on to the Normandy SR2, before that you can't change your loadout, which is a big problem) However, there is not nearly enough ammo in the game to enable you to use it as much as you need to. When you're out of ammo, no tactic/squad works, etc, the game is too hard.
Short version: Don't play on Insanity. It's no fun.
Really? I finished today earlier on Insanity and thought it was a bit too easy. I didn't even use the Advanced Train thingy to get extra skills mainly because I was too lazy and too didn't even notice it till I realized I had like 200-300k of each Ore except Element Zero and started mass upgrading stuff. (I thought upgrades etc costed Credits, and I was like ''no way I'mma pay!'') I also played Sentinel and yes, that Tech armor is good, but tbh, had I been a Soldier / Inflintator I'd think I would have had an easier time. The pistols / Uzi is a bit too weak for my taste. And Heavy Pistol has no where near enough ammo to make it on Insanity. Sentinel really shines though end-game when you got all those cooldown upgrades and stuff.
Only time I ran in to trouble was when I met Heavy Mechs (2x) or Praetorians, and it usually took me a few tries before I managed to get through them, nothing impossible though. Oh and the final part of saving Garrus was a pain too. Also sometimes the (Mechs especially) bug out so they don't rush for you but instead just stand, makes them easy pickings.
Usually if my party members died, I just soloed through the fightning parts, and waited for them to auto-rez. I always saved my Medi-Gel for the final fights.
One thing pissed me off was when I was fightning against Heavy Troopers. Those damn Rockets kept knockingback my Teammates from their cover, and their of course too dumb to return to cover afterwards, they just stand there, so I always had to kept putting them back, by clicking Shift and hope they make it before they get raped. (Main reason why I usually ended up soloing numerous fight parts, they died and I didn't want to waste Medi-Gel.)
Anyways, I'll be replaying it again, loved this game, can't wait for ME3.
Had major problems with that as well. Then I pretty much said: Fuck this, pulled out Cain, nuked everyone in the entire room, and rushed for the door. I gave the guys trying to come through the death stare, I'll tell ya.
Edit: Oh, and can someone tell me how the hell you won against those three simultanious YMIR's on that little sidequest to to pick up some stockpiles on a remote world provided by Aria? (On Insanity ofc) I was out out of ammo with Cain at the time, so I had no Heavy Weapons either, and no matter what I did, eventually, all three of them would gang up and surround me. I even fell victim to what I think was a glitch: If a mech shot a rocket on the far side of the rocks I was covering behind, I still got knocked back and mowed down by the minigun. I mean, really? I wasn't even close to being hit...
On February 06 2010 19:38 HaXXspetten wrote: Anyone else tried the game on Insanity yet?
Unless you're masochistic, my recommendation is: DON'T
I don't mean to brag, but I'd consider myself fairly pro at ME. I've finished ME1 on Insanity 4 times I think without problem. In my first playthrough of ME2 I played on Veteran, and I could say that it was slightly easy, but pretty good for entertainment value. Then, when I finished the game, I had finished every single challenge there was except for Insanity. So I figured: if I'm gonna get that achievement, I might as well make it with a lvl 30 character. So I replayed the same gal' with the same class etc, and even though you have so many advantages when you know what's coming, I gotta say: ME2 on Insanity is just brutal. I mean, you will win the battles, but they might take 15 minutes each. And you won't be able to save during them. One mistake... and you gotta do it all over again. Fortunaly, I played Sentinel (Tech Armor ftw) and took Barrier/Fortification/Geth Shield Boost as my extra skill. (Doesn't matter which one, they are almost identical) Thus, I had a huge amount of extra defence... and still... get out of cover for 3 seconds, BAM, you're dead. Now, all of this was really really hard, but I managed to survive... the problem is the fights that were considered hard during my first playthrough. In those situations, on Insanity, you're fucked. You can't do a damn thing. Well, ok, there is ONE thing, but you can only do it rarely, and that's to use the M-920 Cain and nuke the fuck out of everyone. That always works, regardless of difficulty, and since you get to keep the weapons when you replay, you'll have it from the get-go. (Well, at least untill you get on to the Normandy SR2, before that you can't change your loadout, which is a big problem) However, there is not nearly enough ammo in the game to enable you to use it as much as you need to. When you're out of ammo, no tactic/squad works, etc, the game is too hard.
Short version: Don't play on Insanity. It's no fun.
Really? I finished today earlier on Insanity and thought it was a bit too easy. I didn't even use the Advanced Train thingy to get extra skills mainly because I was too lazy and too didn't even notice it till I realized I had like 200-300k of each Ore except Element Zero and started mass upgrading stuff. (I thought upgrades etc costed Credits, and I was like ''no way I'mma pay!'') I also played Sentinel and yes, that Tech armor is good, but tbh, had I been a Soldier / Inflintator I'd think I would have had an easier time. The pistols / Uzi is a bit too weak for my taste. And Heavy Pistol has no where near enough ammo to make it on Insanity. Sentinel really shines though end-game when you got all those cooldown upgrades and stuff.
Only time I ran in to trouble was when I met Heavy Mechs (2x) or Praetorians, and it usually took me a few tries before I managed to get through them, nothing impossible though. Oh and the final part of saving Garrus was a pain too. Also sometimes the (Mechs especially) bug out so they don't rush for you but instead just stand, makes them easy pickings.
Usually if my party members died, I just soloed through the fightning parts, and waited for them to auto-rez. I always saved my Medi-Gel for the final fights.
One thing pissed me off was when I was fightning against Heavy Troopers. Those damn Rockets kept knockingback my Teammates from their cover, and their of course too dumb to return to cover afterwards, they just stand there, so I always had to kept putting them back, by clicking Shift and hope they make it before they get raped. (Main reason why I usually ended up soloing numerous fight parts, they died and I didn't want to waste Medi-Gel.)
Anyways, I'll be replaying it again, loved this game, can't wait for ME3.
Edit: Oh, and can someone tell me how the hell you won against those three simultanious YMIR's on that little sidequest to to pick up some stockpiles on a remote world provided by Aria? (On Insanity ofc) I was out out of ammo with Cain at the time, so I had no Heavy Weapons either, and no matter what I did, eventually, all three of them would gang up and surround me. I even fell victim to what I think was a glitch: If a mech shot a rocket on the far side of the rocks I was covering behind, I still got knocked back and mowed down by the minigun. I mean, really? I wasn't even close to being hit...
I wasn't able to save dick for the crates I think, but my strategy involved getting 1 weak then provoking a 2nd. When the second approached I finished off the weak one with a headshot to make it explode nearby. It does the same thing as the Cane, so byebye Ymir. It took a lot of attempts though.
Also, just my opinion, but playing through as a soldier now and I have to say it's by far my least favorite class. It's effective, but relying 100% on ammo on insane makes it extremely difficult in fights. You pretty much have to spend the whole time sniping and hoping you never get charged or it's game over. I'm not even sure I'll finish it w/ Soldier and just start as the last class I haven't played yet. I'm sure later in the game when I have a shit ton of weapon upgrades it will be more effective, but it still feels underwhelming.
I think the "suicide mission" person HAS to die. I also think at least 1 gets wrapped up in the swarm? Maybe a way to prevent this.
Also if you get the d/l character he dies every time I think? Possibly wrong on that. I also spoke with a guy today at gamestop who said his "jack" died after a big battle.. so maybe some group thing determines that too? I dunno.. jack died on the ship for me and thane was killed at the door so those were the only 2 that weren't "loyal" so everyone else lived for me.
On February 07 2010 18:07 {88}iNcontroL wrote: yeah upgrading the ship saves a life at least.
I think the "suicide mission" person HAS to die. I also think at least 1 gets wrapped up in the swarm? Maybe a way to prevent this.
Also if you get the d/l character he dies every time I think? Possibly wrong on that. I also spoke with a guy today at gamestop who said his "jack" died after a big battle.. so maybe some group thing determines that too? I dunno.. jack died on the ship for me and thane was killed at the door so those were the only 2 that weren't "loyal" so everyone else lived for me.
I haven't had anybody die any of the times I've completed it except once, and going in I knew they'd die.... because I think the Jack character sucks balls and didn't want her on my ship anymore.
Upgrades + loyalty quests + picking the right team = no deaths.
edit: Can't say about the DLC character, don't have it. But it'd be strange if he was a guaranteed death.
On February 07 2010 18:07 {88}iNcontroL wrote: yeah upgrading the ship saves a life at least.
I think the "suicide mission" person HAS to die. I also think at least 1 gets wrapped up in the swarm? Maybe a way to prevent this.
Also if you get the d/l character he dies every time I think? Possibly wrong on that. I also spoke with a guy today at gamestop who said his "jack" died after a big battle.. so maybe some group thing determines that too? I dunno.. jack died on the ship for me and thane was killed at the door so those were the only 2 that weren't "loyal" so everyone else lived for me.
I haven't had anybody die any of the times I've completed it except once, and going in I knew they'd die.... because I think the Jack character sucks balls and didn't want her on my ship anymore.
Upgrades + loyalty quests + picking the right team = no deaths.
edit: Can't say about the DLC character, don't have it. But it'd be strange if he was a guaranteed death.
Getting the No One Left Behind Achievement isn't very hard really. You just have to know what you're doing. As far as Zaeed Massani goes, he's survived every time for me.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Honestly, is there something wrong with me if this almost made me cry? -.-
Also, in case you didn't know, it's possible to kill off Samara and get Morinth to join you crew instead during Samara's loyalty mission. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I'm really tempted to. No, not because I want a sexually addicted Asari in my crew , but because of her loyalty-skill. You recieve it right away, and just look at it!
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Prefered ME1 to this one. Despite the very needed improvement of the combat portion, rpg elements and story suffered a bit too much.
It was way too easy and even unlocking the other difficulties doesn't really matter because I have no desire to play it again. Bad choice to restrict them if the only settings you keep accessible are this ridiculous. The end mission and especially the "boss" were quite a big disappointment.
I think if they did a better job on the main story in -combination- with the vastly superior characters and fighting then this game would truly be a masterpiece. As it is, you don't feel moved in the same way you did during ME1. The Illusive Man, in particular, doesn't reveal enough about his motivations and when he does they are too vague. He saved Sheppard to save all of humanity, but if Sheppard dies he doesn't care and he'll move on.
My hunch is that Liara will come back in ME3 and drop the "bomb" that he is the Shadow Broker. You'll probably have to fight your way to her and kill/save her. There will be a huge bust up with the Council over leading the reapers back and the entire Alliance will turn against you. It'll be your crew and pockets of resistance / supporters scattered everywhere that you need to unite against the reapers.
As for the final mission - You need to bring a "leader" when they ask for people to lead the other squads, anyone else - even loyal guys - will die. The game counts Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus as leaders. The tech expert is pretty obvious, Tali or Legion. The biotic worked with Samara and Jack for me.. I didn't try all of them though. I'm guessing if the people in your final team aren't loyal they die in the fall and Sheppard dies if neither one of your allies make it back to the ship to pull you up.
On February 08 2010 00:10 Fzero wrote: I think if they did a better job on the main story in -combination- with the vastly superior characters and fighting then this game would truly be a masterpiece. As it is, you don't feel moved in the same way you did during ME1. The Illusive Man, in particular, doesn't reveal enough about his motivations and when he does they are too vague. He saved Sheppard to save all of humanity, but if Sheppard dies he doesn't care and he'll move on.
My hunch is that Liara will come back in ME3 and drop the "bomb" that he is the Shadow Broker. You'll probably have to fight your way to her and kill/save her. There will be a huge bust up with the Council over leading the reapers back and the entire Alliance will turn against you. It'll be your crew and pockets of resistance / supporters scattered everywhere that you need to unite against the reapers.
As for the final mission - You need to bring a "leader" when they ask for people to lead the other squads, anyone else - even loyal guys - will die. The game counts Miranda, Jacob, and Garrus as leaders. The tech expert is pretty obvious, Tali or Legion. The biotic worked with Samara and Jack for me.. I didn't try all of them though. I'm guessing if the people in your final team aren't loyal they die in the fall and Sheppard dies if neither one of your allies make it back to the ship to pull you up.
I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Edit: it still doesn't feel like things change that much when you played different. But i love the whole wrex thing.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Actually, you can't If you (Shepard) died in ME2, you won't be able to use that save for ME3. It was noted by Bioware.
On February 07 2010 19:08 Fishball wrote: You guys should try out the "everyone dies, including Shepard" ending. At the end, only poor Joker is left.
I found out about this ending when I was checking cut scenes that I've missed in my play through, was kind of surprised.
When mass effect 3 is released I'll have that as one of my save files to import. I'll come back as mother fucking Robocop. Nobody fucks with a Shepard/Murphy hybrid.
Honestly, is there something wrong with me if this almost made me cry? -.-
Nothing wrong! Had my game ended like that for real, I probably would have shed a tear and said to myself: ''Well, I fucked that up.''
lol, it's pretty hard to end up like that. What did you screw up? In order to get everyone wiped out, you need to not upgrade your ship, not do any of the loyalty quests, and assign the characters to the wrong positions every time. Unless you were doing it for shitz and giggles...
9/10 Tali - By far the most emotionally driven character in the cast. Her voice acting by Liz Sroka is just superb. I can't get over how well everything involving Tali was done. She'll be a big part of ME3 again I'm going to assume. Think about how many scenes she's had over the two games. She outs Saren for working with the Geth the first time you meet her. She shows up in the first mission of ME2 involved with the first time you see the Collectors. You save her on a planet where the star is about to explode. Her loyalty mission is galactic in scale, either encouraging or discouraging a Quarian v Geth war. She's just way up there in the interesting character scale. I took a point away because she isn't really all that good at actually fighting in either game.
7/10 Wrex - By far the best character to have in your squad in ME1. Totally destroys anything he comes across and he never, ever dies. Comic timing is great, and the genophage backstory is a main feature in both titles. He can't join your crew in ME2, which sucks - but he is leading a krogan reunion on his home planet. He doesn't get involved enough in Grunt or Mordin's loyalty missions on the planet, which leaves you with a "what the hell" sort of attitude. That being said, one of the main decisions in ME1 was whether or not to kill him on Virmire. I have a feeling he'll be back in part three.
7/10 Garrus - Has a role on your team in both games, but is always in the backseat. He has a sweeeeeeeeet reveal in a ME2 cutscene where he's sniping kids for fun. They could have done a bit more with his past. You don't really know much about Garrus besides the fact that he's a "get the job done, fuck the rules" dude - for the good guys. He's still useful in combat in both games, and the Turians in general are a pretty badass race. He has some of the best "idle/elevator" comments too. His loyalty mission is a big let down. Harkin didn't matter enough in ME1 to be a big character in ME2.
6/10 Liara - One of the best companions in ME1, probably the most romanced character, had some of the best dialogue on missions, and was just far superior to anyone else if you needed biotics. Not a team member in ME2 and not even interesting. Really really upsetting that she only has about 20 lines of dialogue total. Depending on your romance options/dialogue choices - you might not even really get a good explanation of her motivations. Illium was easily the least interesting city to explore and all of the characters there were extremely bland until you meet Thane and Samara.
3/10 Kaiden / 4/10 Ashley - Boring placeholder characters. Ashley has a decent voice actor at least which makes her painfully dull stories worth listening to. Both of them show up in ME2 for a criminally negligent display of thanks to Sheppard for saving their asses. They save the galaxy in ME1, lose their captain on a ship, and get saved again by said captain only to say "Oh my god, Cerberus - we hate you!" and storm off. Ugh.
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4/10 Grunt - Not enough story with Grunt. You get that he's supposed to be perfect, but nobody likes perfection. He's too quick to trust for a Krogan and you never get any details about why he's helping you when the entire Krogan race needs him. After his loyalty mission, that would've been a good spot to have some Grunt / Wrex dialogue about the future of the Krogan race and what needs to be done. Maybe you could influence Wrex to use Grunt to help or even a renegade option to oust Wrex as the leader. Didn't really ever use Grunt, so I can't comment on his effectiveness - but his skill choices were pretty bland.
2/10 Jacob - Jesus christ. Why is this guy in the game? Did anyone find anything to do with Jacob interesting? I'd love to hear some people's evidence for why they brought this guy or why they even listened to his backstory/loyalty story with any conviction. I tried to get him killed in the final mission and he didn't die, so hopefully he gets lost somewhere between here and ME3.
6/10 Jack - It was pretty refreshing to hear the type of dialogue that Bioware made Courtenay Taylor use for this game. Why they made Jack so incredibly childish is a little strange though. The loyalty mission for Jack was pretty good as far as character development goes, and Jack was a Beeeeeeeeeeeast on your team. There was something offputting about her though. The appearance and introduction of Jack don't really match with her quick change in attitude I guess. The prison mission and backstory make you think she'll be a badass killer and she turns out to be a wimp who pouts too much that's so strong she can't be stopped. Not exactly endearing.
7/10 Legion - Maybe its just because I'm a nerd, but I loved Legion. His score is only a seven because you don't get to use him much, but daaaaaaaaamn was he cool. I loved the mission where you get him, and his loyalty mission was even better. I think the hive mind geth have a much more interesting conflict than the overarching reaper scare, for instance. The reapers using human DNA to create what looked like a metallic terminator? What? Anyway - the widow is one of the best weapons in the game, and the combat drone is really effective on the missions where you can use Legion to distract the harbinger. Have a feeling he won't be back, though. Seemed like a one time deal.
6/10 Miranda - I didn't hate her like a bunch of other people here seemed to, but I also think she was pitifully weak for being raised by Cerberus since childhood. It didn't really make sense that she wasn't more ruthless/forceful. She should have definitely been the renegade enforcement of the Illusive Man's will - not some babbling pretty woman that agrees with everything Sheppard does in the end. Boring skillset and Slam one of the worst skills. Advantage of being able to play her all game, but why? So many other choices.
It seems like you only played through the Jack storyline on a paragon playthrough. Her late game demeanor is a mirror of Shepard's. If you're renegade she pretty much stays the same asshole as she was when she first joins. This gets magnified even more if you do the relationship storyline with her. Which is pretty believable given how fucked up a life she had.
She was easily the character I was least interested in pre-release, but she turned out to be have some actual depth, which is more than you can say for some of the other characters.
mordin, tali, garrus, jack, legion, joker/edi, and the two engineers by tali were all awesome grunt was just ok samara, jacob, miranda, thane weren't so great.
Well with Jacob ... there wasn't alot of depth - but I think that was kind of the point. He is a straight forward character that you already know what he's all about the first time you meet him. Not that I think it's a good thing ... they could have pulled it off and still made him a bit more interesting. An example would be Minsc from BG1/2. You instantly know what he's about the first time you meet him and the character doesn't have much depth. But Minsc is still presented in an interesting and comical way.
On February 08 2010 01:29 Sandrosuperstar wrote: I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Er, that would just be the KotOR plot twist recycled. I don't see how that would be awesome.
Of course, seeing as Bioware seems to have no qualms recycling story elements, it's not altogether impossible.
On February 08 2010 01:29 Sandrosuperstar wrote: I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Er, that would just be the KotOR plot twist recycled. I don't see how that would be awesome.
Of course, seeing as Bioware seems to have no qualms recycling story elements, it's not altogether impossible.
Nah, it would be the KotOR twist if it turned out that Shepard was a Reaper.
On February 08 2010 04:50 sixghost wrote: It seems like you only played through the Jack storyline on a paragon playthrough. Her late game demeanor is a mirror of Shepard's. If you're renegade she pretty much stays the same asshole as she was when she first joins. This gets magnified even more if you do the relationship storyline with her. Which is pretty believable given how fucked up a life she had.
She was easily the character I was least interested in pre-release, but she turned out to be have some actual depth, which is more than you can say for some of the other characters.
mordin, tali, garrus, jack, legion, joker/edi, and the two engineers by tali were all awesome grunt was just ok samara, jacob, miranda, thane weren't so great.
It's true, I don't have Jack yet on my renegade playthrough. I'm sure my opinion will change after I finish this one.
On February 08 2010 04:15 Fzero wrote: Some thoughts about the game.
I agree about Tali, I even ended up in romance with her, because of how charming she was.
Mordin is 10/10 definitely, after I've seen trailers I was "surely this guy aint on my team!", but he is fokin amazing.
I don't agree about Slam, I played default character, and only better skill for my play style was warp ammo, but still I take slam because seeing the enemies flying around makes me happy like a child.
And krogans suck. I know they make funny comments, but they're just disgusting.
Great, great game. So polished and so beautiful. The amount of scripted scenes and voice acting is just staggering.
I enjoyed ME2 a lot more than ME1 because I'm starting to find the inventory/skills/armory fiddling in RPG games tedious and this one was more action packed. I played as a soldier and treated the game more like a more traditional FPS with huge depth. In particular, the downsizing of the main hub areas such as Citadel was a huge improvement. Less walking around countless flights of stairs and through billions of doors to do quests. So the game was a lot more fun.
Except planet scanning. That got old really fast. It was worse than the buggy in ME1..
Overall though Bioware did great. I can't wait for ME3.
Also, ME2 ran better than ME1... ?!?. (ME1 kept overheating my graphics card and shutting down my comp)
On February 08 2010 01:29 Sandrosuperstar wrote: I really agree with this post, personally i think the most awsome twist they could give ME3 would be something like shepard is the shadowbroker only before mass1 you removed your memory or something and that you play as shepard a little in the beginning or not at all if he died and then you play as a new character that is contacted by the shadowbrokers organisation. THAT would be awsome :3
Er, that would just be the KotOR plot twist recycled. I don't see how that would be awesome.
Of course, seeing as Bioware seems to have no qualms recycling story elements, it's not altogether impossible.
lol :D i played kotor a million years ago. dont remember a thing about the story. But they really shouldnt just go the obvious way with the story. Like it would be awesome if you find undisputeble evidence the first part of the game to convince the council and then the council actually do something for a change, something big.
I mean there are tons to do with the game so they shouldn't do shepard+2 buddies against the world. It never felt like the council and the alliance backed me up during the story
I think I'm about 3/4 done with the game. My main complaint is sometimes you can get stuck in weird places where you are somehow allowed to walk in thin air and can't get out so you just have to load your most recent save. Has happened like 3 times over the course of the game so far to me.
Also, I did Jack's help mission but she's still not loyal, what a bitch. And are we supposed to be able to recruit Liara... think I messed that up lol. She isn't attractive in this game anyway... she's gotten cold and her appearance changed a lot in 2 years.
On February 09 2010 04:49 Jonoman92 wrote: I think I'm about 3/4 done with the game. My main complaint is sometimes you can get stuck in weird places where you are somehow allowed to walk in thin air and can't get out so you just have to load your most recent save. Has happened like 3 times over the course of the game so far to me.
Also, I did Jack's help mission but she's still not loyal, what a bitch. And are we supposed to be able to recruit Liara... think I messed that up lol. She isn't attractive in this game anyway... she's gotten cold and her appearance changed a lot in 2 years.
No you can't get Liara, and you can't complete jacks sidequest without her being loyal. You might have lost it a bit after when Miranda and Jack were fighting back on the ship, unless you have a ton of paragon/renegade points, you lose the loyalty of whoever you don't side with.
is nobody else having problems with this game? first there was no way to play the game, it kept freezing at the loading screen, I looked for solutions online and saw you had to put -nomoviestartup in the shortcut config. Now I ran into another problem, the screen goes black whenever i try to enter the citadel, anyone knows how to proceed? This really sucks. Also, my character has been floating up and getting stuck at various places, it seems a bit buggy overall.
I beat the game with a lvl 25 infiltrator, and then used the save to go try insanity difficulty HOLY CRAP I like the analogy posted on another forum: "It feels like you're throwing plastic forks at power armour" Definitely a tonne of fun, but I'm stuck on the defend the sensor tower in horizon right now.
A lot of fun running around with stealth trying to survive and pick off enemies with the sniper.
For anyone who is going to do an insanity run, I highly suggest maxing out a heavy incinerate/warp/overload to spam so you don't waste all your ammo on one or 2 guys.
I'm wondering how many people you can get killed and still survive yourself, essentially setting up ME3 to be kinda fucked up depending on how much stuff carries over...
On February 09 2010 08:25 Shiladie wrote: I'm wondering how many people you can get killed and still survive yourself, essentially setting up ME3 to be kinda fucked up depending on how much stuff carries over...
I read a theory that to survive you need 1 Loyal member to survive, who will pull you up in the end. Basing on that, everybody but one I suppose. =o
On February 09 2010 05:51 Shauni wrote: is nobody else having problems with this game? first there was no way to play the game, it kept freezing at the loading screen, I looked for solutions online and saw you had to put -nomoviestartup in the shortcut config. Now I ran into another problem, the screen goes black whenever i try to enter the citadel, anyone knows how to proceed? This really sucks. Also, my character has been floating up and getting stuck at various places, it seems a bit buggy overall.
How strange. I never encountered your first problem of freezes at the loading screen.
BUT, I had the second problem where screen went black at the Citadel (and also Omega). This was solved by REMOVING -nomoviestartup in the shortcut. (I had previously put that in to remove the Bioware and EA ads at the beginning but it turns out it fucks around with ALL the cinematics including all the landing sequences.) Removing -nomoviestartup solved the problem instantly for me.
I worry you're in a Catch22 situation..i.e you get the first bug back when you fix the second... Good luck tho.
I've got a question for those who imported a ME1 character into ME2.
Long story short, I didn't own my own xbox when I played and beat ME1. I do now, so I had no save file to import into ME2. I think I'm going to buy ME1 after I finish ME2 (shortly) and play through ME1 to get my own decisions into the storyline instead of the stock decisions. I'm wondering what all gets imported when you do so. I know the storyline choices you made does, but what else? I've heard you can change your class in the beginning. What about credits? Level? Paragon/Renegade? Is there anything else major that gets imported or not imported?
Basically you gain a lot of credits (which you need), lots of minerals (you don't need), 5 levels, and some paragon or renegade. You also get a lot of callbacks to ME1 throughout the galaxy if you import a character.
Thanks man, I also wanted to buy ME1 and play again because it's been a few years (I only got to beat it once near when it came out) and I really enjoyed the game. I plan on doing a straight play through both games with one character - think I'll roll vanguard.
Well, since there are so many posts about preferences, I might as well throw some polls up:
We'll start up with the most obvious one:
Poll: Mass Effect 1 or 2? (Vote): Mass Effect 1 (Vote): Mass Effect 2
My opinion: I loved both of them, both for different as well as similar reasons. I don't really need to explain why, right? I mean, the reasons are in-game so... anyway, if I'm gonna choose one of them, I think I'm gonna say Mass Effect 2. For me, I'd say ME1 was about 9,3/10 and ME2 was about 9,6/10.
Moving on, I posted this one in my OP as well, but back then (December 23rd) I only knew of like 7 squad members. Now that the game is out, we all know the 12 possible squadmates. And since TL has a maximum poll-option number of 12 as well, I might as well throw up a new poll about it:
Poll: Favorite squadmate in Mass Effect 2? (Vote): Jacob Taylor - Human (Vote): Miranda Lawson - Human (Vote): Zaeed Massani - Human (Vote): Dr. Mordin Solus - Salarian (Vote): Garrus Vakarian - Turian (Vote): Jack a.k.a. Subject Zero - Human (Vote): Grunt - Krogan (Vote): Thane Krios - Drell (Vote): Samara - Asari (Vote): Morinth - Asari (Vote): Tali'Zorah vas Normandy - Quarian (Vote): Legion - Geth
My opinion: Might as well rate the lot. Jacob was meh. 3/10 Miranda was pretty decent. If anything her abilities were kickass.8/10 Zaeed was pretty badass, but since he's DLC, he just doesn't have enough work put into him. 6/10 Mordin is hilarious. Don't even question it. I <3 him. 10/10 Garrus is cool as always. Nothing special, but you can't dislike him. 8/10 Subject Zero was cool, but waaaaayyy to much of a bitch for my tastes. 4/10 Grunt is decent, but I prefered Wrex. 5/10 Thane... I've played as a girl having a relationship with him and I highly recommend you try it. Thane is by far the most emotional and spiritual character of them all. Not only do I find him really cool in combat, he also has a really cool voice, and the cutscenes in which he is having flashbacks are just Hollywood written all over it. In short, I love everything about Thane, and he is definately my favorite in the game. 10/10 Samara, well, you can just feel how powerful and serious she is. Not sure what to think about her overall though, I haven't really made up my mind yet. This one's up for debate. 6/10 Morinth, I haven't played with her yet, I'm gonna wait until my next playthrough as a total badass 100% Renegade, but from what I've seen and read of her, she seems cool, but not better than Samara. 5/10 Tali... who doesn't love Tali? Not much to say about her tbh. She lacks that wow-feeling to make her perfect, but she's flawless. 9,5/10 Legion is just cool. I spent as much as possible just listening to his... it's words. Bioware really did a great job this character given how unexpected it was. 9,5/10
What else can we make polls on... how about this one:
Poll: Favourite Planet-analysis? (Vote): M35 Mako (Vote): Scan + Touchdown via Kodiak Drop Shuttle
My opinion: Well, neither are perfect. I'm gonna say that option 2 barely wins. The scanning was retarded without the Advanced Mineral Scanner and the double probe supply limit, but once you had that it was ok. At least it was way easier to abort when you felt that you had enough than going around with the Mako. Not to say that the Mako itself wasn't fun to drive, but rather that the planets in ME1 was so bad. This one is more a poll of who fails more than who wins more tbh.
What about guns then? And please, don't choose which class you think is best. Choose the one you think is the most well-done and the most fun to use. Note: I kept the Heavy Weapons out of this one since it's a bit offtopic imo.
My opinion: Not sure really. They are about even to me. If I'm forced to pick one, I'd pick SMG, simply because I like the Tempest. Other than that, I don't really have a clear opinion.
My opinion: Firestorm and Avalanche are useless imo. Grenade/Missile are pretty good. Nothing special, but they're good. But really, the two clear winners are the M-920 and the Particle Beam. If you are playing on Veteran or lower, I'd recommend the Particle Beam. Using the Cain is just overkill. On Hardcore and not to mention Insanity, the Cain is your best friend. Regardless of difficulty, the M-920 one-shots everything within like 10 meters. Let's face it, it's a nuke. The only exceptions are The Thresher Maw and The Final Boss who only loses half their life-bars. (Which still is a fuckload of damage) The obvious problem with the M-920 is that it takes 5 seconds to fire, and requires 100 Heavy Weapon Ammo per shot. Still, it's worth the effort, given that the Particle Beam is simply to weak on Insanity.
Mass effect 1. I'm more of an RPG fan than a shooter fan ... so I liked more in depth RPG elements than the improved shooting mechanics. The scale of ME1 is also alot larger. The levels and cities are just a lot bigger, more to explore. The atmosphere was probably a little bit better in the second one - it felt darker. While you and the universe are in danger in both of them - ME1 just lacked that sense of danger and the dingy and darkness of some of the locations. Overall, they are close, but I prefer ME1.
Garrus. He was my favorite in ME1 and I liked where they went with his development between games and into ME2. It felt like sort of a natural progression of his personality and the things he want through in ME1 and with his whole loyalty side quest plot.
Scanning, I liked the scanning for anomaly part - I just wish the random missions you found were larger. They were so quick and short. I also wish they would have kept at least 1 mako scene in the game as a part of a mission. I hated scanning for minerals though, it was very tedious compared to the albeit flawed alternative of driving around on near identical worlds in the mako. At least driving in the maco you could fuck around a bit and make it fun.
Sniper Rifles. I just love the Viper sniper rifles, firing of long range rounds in rapid succession - devastating multiple targets before they are really in range to fight back is always fun. One of my favorite things to do was (as an infiltrator) was to roll with garrus and thane both using snipers with me. We had all the damage types covered and also abilities to damage and HP type. There was enough disables to go around between thane (heavy throw) and me using squad cyro rounds and a disabler as an added abilities. With three snipers you can REALLY thin the numbers out before the fight really "begins." I wouldn' recommend it for insanity - but it was a lot of fun none the less.
Cain. It is just so sweet and powerful when you use it. I just wish you could fire partially charged shots with it - less powerful but takes less ammo, maybe you can and I just don't know how?
I didn't import my save because I wanted to try a different class but all the pre-made decision suck. The douchbag politician guy is on the council instead of Anderson, you killed Wrex, and you chose to save Ashley instead of Kaiden...
On February 10 2010 01:34 Jonoman92 wrote: I didn't import my save because I wanted to try a different class but all the pre-made decision suck. The douchbag politician guy is on the council instead of Anderson, you killed Wrex, and you chose to save Ashley instead of Kaiden...
Pretty sure that when you transfer your old save, you can reroll your class.
Man, all those votes for the particle beam, and it always seemed worthless to me. The damage was terrible compared to, say, any of my powers. And it wasn't really any better than any guns I had. Maybe it's different on other difficulties?
I didn't vote on heavy weapons, though, 'cause I never really used any. They all seemed terribly mediocre. (I used the missile launcher a couple times; it was a nice way to quickly do a little damage to the thresher maw.)
Edit: Favorite squad mate, we going with favorite to bring along (Miranda, then Samara) or favorite character (I dunno, I don't really think about it very much. And do we mean person you like the most or person you thought was the best character?).
On February 10 2010 01:34 Jonoman92 wrote: I didn't import my save because I wanted to try a different class but all the pre-made decision suck. The douchbag politician guy is on the council instead of Anderson, you killed Wrex, and you chose to save Ashley instead of Kaiden...
You only import saves for the decisions and Paragon / Renegade. You can still choose a new class and appearance in ME2 even if you were something else in ME1.
On February 10 2010 02:23 Pyrthas wrote: Man, all those votes for the particle beam, and it always seemed worthless to me. The damage was terrible compared to, say, any of my powers. And it wasn't really any better than any guns I had. Maybe it's different on other difficulties?
I didn't vote on heavy weapons, though, 'cause I never really used any. They all seemed terribly mediocre. (I used the missile launcher a couple times; it was a nice way to quickly do a little damage to the thresher maw.)
Edit: Favorite squad mate, we going with favorite to bring along (Miranda, then Samara) or favorite character (I dunno, I don't really think about it very much. And do we mean person you like the most or person you thought was the best character?).
The one you like the most. If it was about who was best I'd say Miranda. Heavy Overload, Heavy Warp, Heavy Slam = Nice.
First time i used cain i was suprised i didn't have enough ammo (158%, but nothing happened) i also played on insanity so i just stood there trying to fire and died. then i guessed you had to wait a little and doged bullets while shooting and BAM litterally everyone died, the enemy me and my m8s just blew up and i just couldn't stop laughing. xD the mission was in the beginning of the "stop the ship thats taken by the blue suns mission"
Anybody who doesn't pick the sniper rifle as their favorite weapon hasn't gotten the Widow Anti-Material Rifle yet. Couple it with adrenaline rush or assassin's cloak and you 1 shot 1/2 of the enemies in the game on insanity. It's so satisfying firing some smg rounds to take off Harbringer's shield and then taking his whole armor bar in 1 shot.
Shotguns are great, but on higher difficulty getting to really use them often is near impossible at times. On easier play throughs the shotgun is the way to go and just mow your enemies down at close quarter. On insanity using it leaves you too exposed and will result in your death very often I find. It still serves a purpose; just not as much.
Cane is definitely the coolest and most fun heavy weapon. The way the particle beam operates I feel makes is better overall in most encounters almost solely on the ammo consumption.
My favorite crew member is reeeeeally tough. Grunt wasn't as cool as Wrex. But if Wrex was the name of my amp it would go up to 11, so it's not a fair comparison and Grunt will wall up short; even though he was awesome. Garrus is still a badass but his story line and conversation additions are really, really short compared to virtually everybody else. Tali is the coolest chick to have a romance with and bots are pretty cool. Legion is unique but getting him so close to the end puts a damper on getting to use him as much as you'd like. Which brings us to the best: Mordin. He and Wrex are the only characters in either game where not only did I talk to them to advance the story, but because I was genuinely looking forward to learning more about than and hear their stories.
Oh yeah: The scanner system is extremely flawed. However, it is much better than the Mako. Both are repetitive most of the time, but at least scanning has a higher purpose than just driving around on ugly, uncharted worlds.
On February 10 2010 01:34 Jonoman92 wrote: I didn't import my save because I wanted to try a different class but all the pre-made decision suck. The douchbag politician guy is on the council instead of Anderson, you killed Wrex, and you chose to save Ashley instead of Kaiden...
You only import saves for the decisions and Paragon / Renegade. You can still choose a new class and appearance in ME2 even if you were something else in ME1.
Oh I didn't realize there was that option. I'm playing on Veteran difficulty right now but if I try playing through it again on a harder one I'll import my old file I guess.
I just beat horizon on insanity very difficult section, but with enough willingness to cheese your way through it's a cake-walk. Here's my guide to the Horizon defence of the com tower section:
When you hack the door leading here, you will get the autosave, I actually stealthed my way here, sniped the few enemies in range, and hacked the door, dieing just after doing so, but reloading right at the open door.
Killing the scions before they aggro: One scion is barely visible around the tower, and a lot of guides mention how you can kill one beforehand, but it's easy to kill both, without firing a shot yourself. Send your allies right next to the top of the stairs on the right side, and then to the platform with the box on it to the right while they are on there way there, send them just to the right of the middle platform and watch them kill the scions while they just stand there not attacking (sending them straight in didn't seem to work)
Once both scions are dead, walk in, and the husk wave doesn't even spawn activate the tower and spam f5 en ensure a quicksave before the first wave comes. as soon as possible sprint back to the enterence, and a bit to the right, there is a pickup truck you can dump your allies in, and all the enemies won't follow, they'll sit in the middle of the room stafeing back and forth. Move up to the pile of tires and pick them off one by one with squad powers (incinerate/warp/concusive shot etc) so you don't waste ammo. Your allies should sit back in the truck.
Once you kill the last one, you'll get a brief respite and your allies will suddenly run up to you. don't wait around, immediately sprint to the far side. On the right hand side there is an L shaped barricade, dump your allies behind it and repeat the same process as before, as the enemies will not advance on your position.
For the last tank, put your allies a distance away, not really important where, just in range for them to shoot, but only barely, and then you run circles around the truck near the back right corner (it has boxes on it and some boxes in front of it. The floating tank thing shouldn't ever go after your allies and you can slowly pick it to pieces, I would advise hitting it with an incinerate as soon as it's barrier goes down, just in case it recharges it's barricade you want to make progress on it's armour each time.
So there you go, the absolute cheap ass wtf way to beat the hardest section in insanity mode.
I found horizon fairly easy. Like, assuming you're not 100% swarmed by enemies escaping and storming towards new cover is extremely easy to do to create distance between the husks and the boss thingy. Once you're at distance you have all day to pop out and start taking off its its barrier. I think the biggest way to make it easy on yourself is knowing when the barrier is going to drop so you have full time to beat the crap out of its armor. The hardest fight I had on insanity was probably the final boss on the Grunt/Okeer stage.
Just finished. I thought the story of the first game was way more enthralling but I guess that's to be expected somewhat since everything was totally new and exciting.
I'm considering playing through on the hardest difficulty on a class that can use a sniper rifle though. I feel like sniper rifle/assault rifle is best combo but soldier is the only one who can get that, or maybe infiltrator when they have the option to get another weapon type.
Also, I thought the whole planet scanning for resources was rather tedious. At first I went to every system and planet and stocked a ton of everything (except Element Zero because that wasn't too abundant) and then got sick of doing it. Luckily the 200k of each was enough to last the whole game.
I thought the Mako was more fun because pwning in combat with it was such domination.
My favorite parts were hobbling with Joker when the Normandy II is invaded and my top favorite part was hands down the "level" where you board the ship that has the IFF and are bombarded by husks/abdominations/(Fat guys who shoot ice.) It just really got me immersed for some reason.
Anyone else creeped out by when EDI says:
"bla bla it will take some time before the IFF is installed: (radical change in voice) I suggest you take your next mission in the shuttle" I though that my ship was hacked and I was uber screwed lol.
I wish they had developed EDI a little more. Near the end of the game she became more important and you noticed something about her/it. However, early on I felt she didn't bring anything and instead just felt out of place in the game. Hope in ME3 she's around; maybe she'll make a body and her and Legion will get down. bow-chika-wow-wow
On February 10 2010 18:04 I_Love_Bacon wrote: I wish they had developed EDI a little more. Near the end of the game she became more important and you noticed something about her/it. However, early on I felt she didn't bring anything and instead just felt out of place in the game. Hope in ME3 she's around; maybe she'll make a body and her and Legion will get down. bow-chika-wow-wow
The new armor is ok, but you can do better than it by customizing all the parts of your armor yourself. The shogun is a nice upgrade for shotgun using members though.
So I finally got around to finishing the game last night, made it through the suicide mission with no casualties, hurray!
Now my plan is to buy ME1 (I've played and beaten it, but don't own it) and play that through then import that character into ME2 and beat the game again with that character. That way I'll be ready for ME3 comes out - with all the decisions and storyline picked the way I want it.
My next plan after I finish insanity is to do a run through on easy with a vanguard (the one with the biotic charge) and be a pure melee character, just get in there and beat the crap out of people.
edit: that is, if SC2 beta hasn't come out and pulled me away from all other gaming...
Yeah my next class is going to be vanguard. The combo of doing like a pull (from a squadmate) + charge looks funny. I want to do it on the heretic station (low gravity level) and see the geth just go flying.
It'll be like hitting a home run in T-ball, cept I'd be the bat.
On February 11 2010 03:04 789 wrote: Yeah my next class is going to be vanguard. The combo of doing like a pull (from a squadmate) + charge looks funny. I want to do it on the heretic station (low gravity level) and see the geth just go flying.
It'll be like hitting a home run in T-ball, cept I'd be the bat.
On February 10 2010 18:04 I_Love_Bacon wrote: I wish they had developed EDI a little more. Near the end of the game she became more important and you noticed something about her/it. However, early on I felt she didn't bring anything and instead just felt out of place in the game. Hope in ME3 she's around; maybe she'll make a body and her and Legion will get down. bow-chika-wow-wow
Did you ever go visit her in the cockpit?
I'm aware of her interactions; especially later on in the game with her little dialogue with joker had me laughing a bit. I like the character and I like some of her interactions; but given how much of a role she played later on a little more in the middle of the game would have been nice.
You won't be lost at all. But, as people have said, playing ME1 first should make the ME2 experience even better. And ME1 is a very good game in its own right. It's worth playing, at least for the main story. (Edit: And it should be dirt cheap.)
Unfortunately, I didn't like ME2 nearly as much as I did ME1. A great feeling I had while playing the original was that there was the thrill of constantly finding better and better guns and weapons, while at the same time being able to customize them to suit myself depending on what I was fighting. However, such a thing is absent in this game, there are, what, basically three weapons for each type?
Moreover, I hated the introduction of ammo in the game. It severely limited the guns I wanted to use, and I basically plowed through the entire game using only my submachine gun, while only my sniper rifle for sub-bosses. I mean, I realize that they want you to use variety. But I didn't choose the Infiltrator class to use my submachine gun for 80% of the game. I wanted to use the rifle, and I really felt limited, especially when you only have 10 bullets at the start, and 13 max. Perhaps I could've used it more with no problem, but then you never know when you have to fight another boss or get more ammo, so you end up hoarding it a lot more than you may have needed to.
For some reason, I felt the graphics were kind of lacking, and I played the game at fairly high quality. It didn't seem too much of an improvement over the previous.
I thought the plot was okay, but the whole entire getting each member of the team and then doing their loyalty missions felt so redundant to me. It felt like I was doing the exact same thing over and over again. It was an absolute relief when I was doing Thane's loyalty mission that I didn't have to grind through five minutes of my life again.
On February 12 2010 13:18 DarkOptik wrote: Unfortunately, I didn't like ME2 nearly as much as I did ME1. A great feeling I had while playing the original was that there was the thrill of constantly finding better and better guns and weapons, while at the same time being able to customize them to suit myself depending on what I was fighting. However, such a thing is absent in this game, there are, what, basically three weapons for each type?
Moreover, I hated the introduction of ammo in the game. It severely limited the guns I wanted to use, and I basically plowed through the entire game using only my submachine gun, while only my sniper rifle for sub-bosses. I mean, I realize that they want you to use variety. But I didn't choose the Infiltrator class to use my submachine gun for 80% of the game. I wanted to use the rifle, and I really felt limited, especially when you only have 10 bullets at the start, and 13 max. Perhaps I could've used it more with no problem, but then you never know when you have to fight another boss or get more ammo, so you end up hoarding it a lot more than you may have needed to.
For some reason, I felt the graphics were kind of lacking, and I played the game at fairly high quality. It didn't seem too much of an improvement over the previous.
I thought the plot was okay, but the whole entire getting each member of the team and then doing their loyalty missions felt so redundant to me. It felt like I was doing the exact same thing over and over again. It was an absolute relief when I was doing Thane's loyalty mission that I didn't have to grind through five minutes of my life again.
You honestly enjoyed finding new weapons in ME1? Every gun was just a carbon copy of the same model with a new color and different stats. If the loot aspect of the first game was as cool as something like Borderlands that would be great, but it was a complete throwaway to me.
There's fucking ammo everywhere. Basically every enemy drops ammo, and there's ammo sitting everywhere in the combat areas. It's even more prevalent in boss ares too.
Go compare ME1 and 2 side by side if you think the graphics aren't better. How did you not enjoy the loyalty missions? Maybe a few were sort of boring, but those missions were the heart of the game. Maybe games like ME just aren't for you.
On February 12 2010 13:18 DarkOptik wrote:Moreover, I hated the introduction of ammo in the game. It severely limited the guns I wanted to use, and I basically plowed through the entire game using only my submachine gun, while only my sniper rifle for sub-bosses. I mean, I realize that they want you to use variety. But I didn't choose the Infiltrator class to use my submachine gun for 80% of the game. I wanted to use the rifle, and I really felt limited, especially when you only have 10 bullets at the start, and 13 max. Perhaps I could've used it more with no problem, but then you never know when you have to fight another boss or get more ammo, so you end up hoarding it a lot more than you may have needed to.
For some reason, I felt the graphics were kind of lacking, and I played the game at fairly high quality. It didn't seem too much of an improvement over the previous.
Then you played the class wrong. This is a personal issue; not a game issue. I played through as an Infiltrator and 60% of enemy kills were probably all sniper shots. The remaining 40% all spread out between incinerate, heavy pistol, and sub-machine gun well in last of those 3.
If you didn't think the graphics were a huge step up then you either weren't running them on higher settings or simply weren't looking.
I agree with you on the loyalty missions to an extent. However, the reason there are loyalty missions is because in mass effect 1 to learn about characters you just talked to them aimlessly about their past and their race. While that's fine and dandy to learn the galaxy, when ME3 comes out I better not be randomly talking to Quarians and still getting information about what a pilgrimage is or how the Genophage effects the Krogan. People are too hard on ME2's story. Of course it's inferior to the first games; how can it not be? It's a brand new universe the first time you play it and everything is interesting or exciting. I'd be hard pressed to think of any legitimate sequels to games where the plot improved from one game to the next.
I enjoyed finding new weapons on ME1 for the same reason that people in Diablo like finding new loot. Does getting Tal Rasha's Wrappings significantly change any of your skills? No, it just makes you stronger so you kill shit faster/more easily. The same principle is applied to the guns.
And really? You liked the loot aspect in Borderlands? I thought it was much of the same as Mass Effect 1 actually: you find a lot of shit, most of which is useless, and most of them are a carbon copy of each other, except with very slightly different effects (Flame vs Acid vs Lightning vs something else I can't remember). I wouldn't say it was all that different. Each version of that elemental gun is the same as the previous, except it does more damage, etc.
Yes, there's ammo, but it's certainly not everywhere. Not every enemy drops ammo, or I wouldn't be complaining about that aspect. I have certainly had times where I have 0 bullets in my sniper rifle, and it's not because I miss. Picking up each "ammo" gives you 1 or 2 bullets back? And there definitely was not a 1:2 kill:ammo drop ratio.
I didn't say that ME2 didn't have better graphics, I said it wasn't as great of an improvement over the previous as I thought it could be.
You're right, those missions were the heart of the game. But they felt so detached from each other. Perhaps it's my nostalgia goggles, but the ones in ME1 seems better since there seemed to be a much more overarching theme around them. Not to mention, well. You have almost twice the crew in ME2 than in ME1, so I guess that's why I felt it seemed redundant.
Anyhow, no need to get all defensive. I enjoyed the first ME greatly, and while I thought ME2 wasn't really that great, it entertained me enough to finish it. There are obviously many good things about ME2.
EDIT: To Bacon: I probably played the class wrong then.
If you had problems with sniper ammo, you should have used the Viper ... it had 12 shots in a clip and a total of around 60 shots? It did less damage, but the greatly increased ammo and vastly superior fire rate made it a damn good weapon. I liked it more than the anti material rifle.
On February 12 2010 13:18 DarkOptik wrote: Unfortunately, I didn't like ME2 nearly as much as I did ME1. A great feeling I had while playing the original was that there was the thrill of constantly finding better and better guns and weapons, while at the same time being able to customize them to suit myself depending on what I was fighting. However, such a thing is absent in this game, there are, what, basically three weapons for each type?
Constantly finding new and better weapons? You buy your spectre VII weapon shortly after leaving the citadel the first time and then you use it until you buy a spectre X weapon at 50.
There may as well be only three weapons per type in ME1. At least the different weapons of each type function differently in ME2.
I still don't know why they thought putting in scans and buying gas was a good idea. That and all the "hacking" and "bypassing" made the game more tedious.
On February 12 2010 15:24 Slow Motion wrote: I still don't know why they thought putting in scans and buying gas was a good idea. That and all the "hacking" and "bypassing" made the game more tedious.
I liked the hacking and bypassing. It is a far superior system to all of the other lock picking systems in games like Morrowind/Oblivion. And the hack/bypass were much more interesting than mass effect 1's little get the arrow to the center for every single thing. Gas seemed pretty pointless. I liked scanning more than the mako, but it could have definitely been improved upon. Fewer possible nodes worthwhile in each planet so you don't spend 10-20 probes on each planet and instead 5-10 big scores per planet would've definitely cut down on the boredom factor.
The drop-ship feature is definitely better than driving around in the mako over silly mountains to get to some mercenary camp. However, having the mako in more select spots and missions would've definitely been enjoyable.
On February 12 2010 15:24 Slow Motion wrote: I still don't know why they thought putting in scans and buying gas was a good idea. That and all the "hacking" and "bypassing" made the game more tedious.
I liked the hacking and bypassing. It is a far superior system to all of the other lock picking systems in games like Morrowind/Oblivion. And the hack/bypass were much more interesting than mass effect 1's little get the arrow to the center for every single thing. Gas seemed pretty pointless. I liked scanning more than the mako, but it could have definitely been improved upon. Fewer possible nodes worthwhile in each planet so you don't spend 10-20 probes on each planet and instead 5-10 big scores per planet would've definitely cut down on the boredom factor.
The drop-ship feature is definitely better than driving around in the mako over silly mountains to get to some mercenary camp. However, having the mako in more select spots and missions would've definitely been enjoyable.
Just finished ME2, was quite a disappointment for me. Would rate it 7/10, which really sucks for such a long-awaited game.
Liked: How the decisions from ME1 were carried forward, the Salarian professor, the hacking/bypassing mini-games, the slightly more robust combat system, + Show Spoiler +
Legion and his loyalty mission, the Collector ship boarding mission, Tali'Zorah's character and loyalty mission
Hated: The ubiquitous lack of depth: numerous but shallow characters; annoyingly repetitive mission design - fly in, shoot some guys running around copy-paste "cover", watch cutscene, fly out, repeat; primitive team "loyalty" system (they could've at least made it so that you cannot make everyone happy at the same time); lack of inventory/customization. Silly ammo mechanic and instantaneous health regeneration. Excruciatingly boring scanning mechanic. Almost no development of the main storyline. And last but not least + Show Spoiler +
the WTF was that o_Oa ending that absolutely killed any believability of the main storyline for me. Grinding humans (?) for "genetic material" (??) to build gigantic human-shaped cyborg spaceships (?!?!?!!) that can *reproduce* ?.. Yeah, right.
On February 10 2010 01:34 Jonoman92 wrote: I didn't import my save because I wanted to try a different class but all the pre-made decision suck. The douchbag politician guy is on the council instead of Anderson, you killed Wrex, and you chose to save Ashley instead of Kaiden...
Pretty sure that when you transfer your old save, you can reroll your class.
the WTF was that o_Oa ending that absolutely killed any believability of the main storyline for me. Grinding humans (?) for "genetic material" (??) to build gigantic human-shaped cyborg spaceships (?!?!?!!) that can *reproduce* ?.. Yeah, right.
I so agree. I mean why would that even make sense, why does a spaceship need to look exactly like a + Show Spoiler +
Just finished ME2 over the weekend. With fully suspended belief, I had a complete boner for the game the entire time. Scanning and hacking can get a bit dull but both are infinitely superior to the goddamn Mako.
Overall I liked the game. Some stuff was awesome, some stuff bugged me.
The ammo system was a strange change. I couldn't help but feel that we somehow slipped backwards in technology. Hey guys, we've invented guns that don't need any ammo! Awesome! Now let's revert to a clip-based ammo system, kk? I found that frustrating in certain situations where I really wanted to use my favorite gun, etc.
Also, seriously you can *only* find heavy weapon ammo/power on missions? Don't tell me the Normandy's reactor can't charge up my guns between levels -.-;;
I agree there were a few too many characters and not much in the way of development for them.
The renegade interrupts were hilarious. I jumped at probably every opportunity to do that.
I still can't decide if I liked the combat from ME1 or 2 more. I hated not being able to crouch unless behind cover, and I felt like I depended sooooo much more on cover this time around. I play a vanguard, so charging wildly into the enemy and blasting away with machine guns and shockwaves was less exciting when I had to hide immediately to recharge my shields ever 3-4 seconds. The lack of an inventory was also sort of a bummer. While I hated going through loads of trash items in ME1, it was still fun to be able to customize all my weapons.
I thought the ammo was a good balance choice. In ME1 it was too easy to snipe everyone or get close and obliterate them with the shotgun. In ME2 I actually had to carefully choose when to use certain weapons. I think the heavy weapon ammo rationing was a good balance choice also, as much as I wanted to use the nuke gun on everyone I saw. Definitely seems like a step back in the Mass Effect technology world though.
Also as a vanguard I found fortification to be immensely helpful for the charge, shotgun to face, shockwave routine.
"97c Widow Maker" sniper rifle makes me cry tears of happiness everytime I use it. Massive damage, beautiful deep sound and perfect aim. I don't regret getting it over the other weapon specializations (I'm an infiltrator this time around).
Oddly enough I got cloak to only lv 2. I mostly used Heavy incenerate and heavy reave to rape faces. Got lv 4 disruptor ammo also along with Assassin specialization O.o
I really liked the game. Was fun, I'm very proud everyone survived at the end. End game was a little suprising but also very interesting. Can't wait for the epic 3rd part of the trilogy!
In ME3 we need exploring planets back by ourselves. But this time in jetpacks, like in Giant: Citizen Kabuto with the Mecs!
Fixed video hitching and crashes related to single core machines. Single core users may experience short periods of black screen that may last up a few seconds between level loads, cinematic transitions or movies. In rare cases, some single core users may notice dialog lines in certain conversations may be delayed up to a few seconds. Fixed an issue where it appears ammunition can be picked up, but can't. Fixed an issue where all Codex entries were marked as 'viewed', even if the player chose not to view them. Fixed an issue where weapon icons are re-organized after downloadable content is used. Fixed an issue where pressing F9 after the mission completion screen reset Shepard to Level 1. Fixed an issue where remapping the right mouse button blocks camera control in the command HUD. Fixed an issue where remapping the 'use' command affects the decryption minigame. Fixed an issue where users were not prompted to restart when logging in to a different EA Online account. Fixed an issue where movies do not play in DLC. It is recommended that players reset their keyboard mapping to default values to ensure proper vehicle control. Added useful messaging during the ME1 save game import. Weapon icon for henchmen never changes from Collector Assault Rifle. Czech language - Issues with Czech localization (subtitles) were amended, all text was corrected and improved. Fixed an issue where the Mass Effect 2 launcher was being associated with files that have no extension. Fixed an issue where uninstalling the game under Windows Vista or Windows 7 might uninstall Mass Effect 1.
Still waiting for the Firewalker Pack, but it seems like a new heavy weapon has just been released on The Cerberus Network. Gonna try it out in a few minutes.
i have played through the game twice now. it was a fun ride. good thing it was possible to get tali in bed this time around. but its quite annoying you cant go gay, i don't like these kinds of limits in the gaming freedom. like when i played fallout, i just killed everybody and stole they're gear. but on the boat theres this doctor who's an important plot character who cant be killed. ok fair enough. but the guy was on his legs 5 sec later, after i'v gunned him down, running after me. what the heck? he could at least go down for a min or 2. anyway back to ME. i bought ME1 when it first came out, played it for like 10min and thought WTF? boooring. so i had it laying around for about lets say half a year, without touching it.but one day I was really bored. I had played through every other game i posses countless times, so I gave it a shot, once more. since that day i'v been a big fan... holy shit i'v been writing a whole book here. sorry guys, for wasting your time with my psycho babble. i'm off... cya!
I played through 4 times using 4 different classes, I still had fun every time. If you feel so inclined, try to play as vanguard, infilrator, and adept because those are the 3 classes which are radically different from the others due to their skill set (charge, cloak, full biotic). engineer and sentinel are pretty meh, and soldier is ok but not great
On March 20 2010 17:13 GTR wrote: i just finished the game, is it really worth another 20+ hours or so for another play through? =[
Not right away. I tried to do another playthough immediately after finishing the game and stopped after a few hours. Maybe wait a few months to play it again.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
The choices from ME1 don't change shit about the game. All that changes is maybe 1 different dialogue tree. There wasn't a single choice from ME1 that made a significant impact on ME2.
Personally I'd say no. ME1 is archaic compared to ME2. I played through ME1 right before I bought ME2, and I almost decided against buying it because the game aged so poorly.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
The choices from ME1 don't change shit about the game. All that changes is maybe 1 different dialogue tree. There wasn't a single choice from ME1 that made a significant impact on ME2.
Personally I'd say no. ME1 is archaic compared to ME2. I played through ME1 right before I bought ME2, and I almost decided against buying it because the game aged so poorly.
wat
You'll run into several people from ME1. You'll encounter pretty much every single character you had the choice of killing or keeping alive if you chose to let them live.
On March 21 2010 02:22 Danzepol wrote: should i save 30 bucks and play through ME1 first?
I played kotor a long time ago and loved it.
It is worth playing ME1 first, since the choices you make there influence what you will experience in ME2. Also it's a good game on its own, they both are. Worth the money.
The choices from ME1 don't change shit about the game. All that changes is maybe 1 different dialogue tree. There wasn't a single choice from ME1 that made a significant impact on ME2.
Personally I'd say no. ME1 is archaic compared to ME2. I played through ME1 right before I bought ME2, and I almost decided against buying it because the game aged so poorly.
wat
You'll run into several people from ME1. You'll encounter pretty much every single character you had the choice of killing or keeping alive if you chose to let them live.
Yeah, wtf is he talking about? There's dozens of things that differ if you import saves from ME1.
On March 22 2010 12:37 KOFgokuon wrote: i actually managed to flip over and get stuck in the mako usually the physics engine kept flipping to get me get upright but i got stuck once
lol, nice.
My personal top feats with the Mako is partially to manage to squeeze through the little gap on Therum so that I could use it in the final surface-battle against the geth before rescuing Liara, and also I managed to (with a huge amount of effort) get the mako to only drive on the right-side wheels, so that it just kept going in circles endlessly on half its wheels. Really funny...
Dr. Michio Kaku(The best physics professor ever) explains in theory how the science fiction gadgets and abilities in Mass Effect 2 can be created or manipulated.
edit: Its interesting stuff and he explains it in simple terms.
I'm really hoping for some DLC in the future where I can go on a Batarian murdering spree. I fucking hate those guys, and didn't get to kill anywhere near enough of them in this game.
I just picked the game back up for my 2nd run-through with my Vanguard. I read some guides and watched some videos and realized that I had played the Vanguard totally wrong, i.e. way too passive and not enough Charge. It's actually a lot more challenging, tactical and fun to charge, shotgun, melee, cover, and repeat all over the battlefield. I had tried playing an Infiltrator but I have to admit that sitting back and sniping doesn't hold the same appeal for me as being in the thick of things with a Vanguard. I also just learned about warp explosions. That second run-through can be pretty fun when you miss out on so much the first time
A dumb question: How do you pause the game and bring up the tactical screen and still be able to move the cursor around? I just realized this morning that I've seen videos and the in-game demonstration where the player can pause the game and go around targeting different enemies to set up different attacks for each enemy, but I'm unable to move my cursor around whenever I do the same thing. I suspect that I'm missing something REALLY basic which I could probably figure out while playing after I get off work, but am itching to know now.
On March 25 2010 02:11 XaI)CyRiC wrote: I just picked the game back up for my 2nd run-through with my Vanguard. I read some guides and watched some videos and realized that I had played the Vanguard totally wrong, i.e. way too passive and not enough Charge. It's actually a lot more challenging, tactical and fun to charge, shotgun, melee, cover, and repeat all over the battlefield. I had tried playing an Infiltrator but I have to admit that sitting back and sniping doesn't hold the same appeal for me as being in the thick of things with a Vanguard. I also just learned about warp explosions. That second run-through can be pretty fun when you miss out on so much the first time
Vanguard is my favorite class by far. Charge, shotty, shockwave, punch punch punch! Melee Krogan to death! That'll teach 'em!
Get barrier as your bonus skill though imho. You seriously need the shield boost if you're going to be charging into the fray constantly. (which you should be doing, cause it's awesome).
A dumb question: How do you pause the game and bring up the tactical screen and still be able to move the cursor around? I just realized this morning that I've seen videos and the in-game demonstration where the player can pause the game and go around targeting different enemies to set up different attacks for each enemy, but I'm unable to move my cursor around whenever I do the same thing. I suspect that I'm missing something REALLY basic which I could probably figure out while playing after I get off work, but am itching to know now.
You hold down the right mouse button and move around accordingly. You will automaticly pick the target closest to your cursor at that time (even if you might not see it) but you can always let go and check where it is. Also, the game puts small boxes around the characters currently targeted for spells / skills so it's not hard to get used to. Happy gaming!
The best way to play vanguard is just spam improved shockwave (or whatever the larger spread one is called). Easy win on any difficulty. However, charging can be more fun.
Shockwave loses a lot of its effectiveness once you hit hardcore and insanity difficulties because all enemies have some form of armor, shield and/or barrier. I think it'll still cause a bit of a stagger, but it's no longer the awesome CC/damage-dealer it is in the lower difficulties. Most guides advise maxing out incendiary ammo for the CC effect the burning gives you plus the improved DoT damage with armor, maxing out charge, maxing out the passive, and maxing out reave as a long-range damage dealer that also wipes out armor and heals you a bit. Your cooldown should be dedicated solely to charging and reave. For those reasons, abilities like fortification and barrier are not recommended because the boosts don't help that much in the higher difficulties, they cause your character to pause, and eat up a cooldown.
On March 25 2010 02:11 XaI)CyRiC wrote: I just picked the game back up for my 2nd run-through with my Vanguard. I read some guides and watched some videos and realized that I had played the Vanguard totally wrong, i.e. way too passive and not enough Charge. It's actually a lot more challenging, tactical and fun to charge, shotgun, melee, cover, and repeat all over the battlefield. I had tried playing an Infiltrator but I have to admit that sitting back and sniping doesn't hold the same appeal for me as being in the thick of things with a Vanguard. I also just learned about warp explosions. That second run-through can be pretty fun when you miss out on so much the first time
Vanguard is my favorite class by far. Charge, shotty, shockwave, punch punch punch! Melee Krogan to death! That'll teach 'em!
Get barrier as your bonus skill though imho. You seriously need the shield boost if you're going to be charging into the fray constantly. (which you should be doing, cause it's awesome).
You do not need barier and if you want extra shield Tali's energy transfer is better, it also has an offensive capability and is on half the cooldown. Shockwave also sucks on higher difficulties.
Since charging restores your shields you simply get Heavy Charge and charge the opponent that's furthest from the rest or close to cover. You charge, fire your shotgun, melee, take cover and repeat. Even on insanity in the smaller fights you don't even need to take cover. You can also reload faster by using a melee attack around 60% into the reload with the claymore shotgun.
The easy solution to use your teammates. You can use your SMG to break shields+barriers and have two teammates use abilities to break their armor (+shields if needed). Abilities are so spammable in ME2, especially if you're abusing cover.
You're right, it's a factor of the game being easy, but that's not really relevant in a discussion of different tactics to be used.
Edit: Obviously this is based on my personal playthrough of the second hardest difficulty (whatever it was called, hardcore?). The only challenging parts to the "cover system invincibility" are being swarmed. A quick recharge, splash damage attack completely destroys any flanking+swarming options.
On March 25 2010 07:22 XaI)CyRiC wrote: Most guides advise maxing out incendiary ammo for the CC effect the burning gives you plus the improved DoT damage with armor, maxing out charge, maxing out the passive, and maxing out reave as a long-range damage dealer that also wipes out armor and heals you a bit. Your cooldown should be dedicated solely to charging and reave. For those reasons, abilities like fortification and barrier are not recommended because the boosts don't help that much in the higher difficulties, they cause your character to pause, and eat up a cooldown.
Incendiary ammo doesn't do DoT against armor. In fact, nothing does. Only health can take DoT. Against armor, barrier, and shields any DoT powers will do all of their damage instantaneously.
But yeah, I agree. There are very few situations in the game where a vanguard would want to use barrier/fortification/geth shield boost. If a vanguard is caught in the open without shields, he's better off just charging again. And Reave will wtfpwn the places in the game where charging isn't awesome.
Hmmm... so I'm playing around with an adept on insane mode.
What bonus power do you think I should take? I'm torn between the energy drain skill, or reave. Both seem like they'd be useful in different situations o.o;
On March 25 2010 11:58 Durak wrote: The easy solution to use your teammates. You can use your SMG to break shields+barriers and have two teammates use abilities to break their armor (+shields if needed). Abilities are so spammable in ME2, especially if you're abusing cover.
You're right, it's a factor of the game being easy, but that's not really relevant in a discussion of different tactics to be used.
Edit: Obviously this is based on my personal playthrough of the second hardest difficulty (whatever it was called, hardcore?). The only challenging parts to the "cover system invincibility" are being swarmed. A quick recharge, splash damage attack completely destroys any flanking+swarming options.
so what're you supposed to do with your abilities while waiting for their shields to go down? Just spam something else more useful against shields/biotics/armor rather than wait for those all to go down and then use shockwave
On March 25 2010 11:58 Durak wrote: The easy solution to use your teammates. You can use your SMG to break shields+barriers and have two teammates use abilities to break their armor (+shields if needed). Abilities are so spammable in ME2, especially if you're abusing cover.
You're right, it's a factor of the game being easy, but that's not really relevant in a discussion of different tactics to be used.
Edit: Obviously this is based on my personal playthrough of the second hardest difficulty (whatever it was called, hardcore?). The only challenging parts to the "cover system invincibility" are being swarmed. A quick recharge, splash damage attack completely destroys any flanking+swarming options.
so what're you supposed to do with your abilities while waiting for their shields to go down? Just spam something else more useful against shields/biotics/armor rather than wait for those all to go down and then use shockwave
You don't have to do any waiting. You can shoot their shoots off fairly instantly with your SMG or if you're lazy, use Miranda to nuke it. Miranda+Mordin also strip off armor instantly with double nukes. The point is to use your teams abilities to complement your own.
On March 25 2010 13:34 Haemonculus wrote: Hmmm... so I'm playing around with an adept on insane mode.
What bonus power do you think I should take? I'm torn between the energy drain skill, or reave. Both seem like they'd be useful in different situations o.o;
Reave. It is great at taking down barriers and does massive dmg to health. A very very good ability which I now always put on my main.
I love Reave as well. It's an instant cast and does double damage against barriers and armor. Sometimes it'll even cause your target to double over for a nice CC effect.
(sorry, I just skimmed through the topic, but I was afraid of spoilers so I didn't want to read too closely just in case )
I just got the first Mass Effect last week :D I played through it twice (once paragon once renegade), and downloaded Mass Effect 2 through steam last night when I went to bed.
I've heard conflicting stories about whether it makes a big difference coming from ME1 or just starting a new game in ME2. If I want to play another character that I haven't played through ME1 yet, is it worthwhile going back to ME1 and playing through that first, or would it be fine to start directly in ME2 and I wouldn't miss too much? (I could probably play through ME1 in one day no problem, but it would leave me underlevelled probably... don't know if that would be bad in ME2?)
* Don't rely on this, not entirely sure * I think you can change class from your ME1 save at the start of ME2. The only things that have an effect are your plot choices.
If you want to get the maximum benefits from importing a game, you can download save files from masseffectsaves.com or something, you could download save files that makes all sorts of arrays (romance any of the cars, save council or not, kill wrex or not, etc.) and if you want you can also rename the characters using the editor.
If you don't import a character, then the computer automatically makes choices for you, and they kind of suck if I recall right (kill kaidan, kill wrex, save the council). You start out as lvl 5 and with a decent amount of money/resources in ME2 if you import a lvl 60 rich character, but you repick your class when you restart ME2 so that doesn't matter. Even importing a lvl 40 (I can't imagine you were less than than that after your first playthrough) will give you a decent amount of bonuses (couple of levels, some cash, and you got to make your own decisions)
On March 25 2010 22:48 KOFgokuon wrote: I think you should get warp ammo
On March 25 2010 11:58 Durak wrote: The easy solution to use your teammates. You can use your SMG to break shields+barriers and have two teammates use abilities to break their armor (+shields if needed). Abilities are so spammable in ME2, especially if you're abusing cover.
You're right, it's a factor of the game being easy, but that's not really relevant in a discussion of different tactics to be used.
Edit: Obviously this is based on my personal playthrough of the second hardest difficulty (whatever it was called, hardcore?). The only challenging parts to the "cover system invincibility" are being swarmed. A quick recharge, splash damage attack completely destroys any flanking+swarming options.
so what're you supposed to do with your abilities while waiting for their shields to go down? Just spam something else more useful against shields/biotics/armor rather than wait for those all to go down and then use shockwave
You don't have to do any waiting. You can shoot their shoots off fairly instantly with your SMG or if you're lazy, use Miranda to nuke it. Miranda+Mordin also strip off armor instantly with double nukes. The point is to use your teams abilities to complement your own.
whatever, everyone has a different way to play. i'd rather have an ability that i can use to do damage regardless of armor/biotic/shield level of my enemy that i can use in conjunction with my weapon and my teammates all of the time like reave/warp
On March 26 2010 00:13 Durak wrote:You don't have to do any waiting. You can shoot their shoots off fairly instantly with your SMG or if you're lazy, use Miranda to nuke it. Miranda+Mordin also strip off armor instantly with double nukes. The point is to use your teams abilities to complement your own.
If I understand you correctly, you're basically saying that Shockwave is still good in Hardcore/Insanity because the SMG/teammates' abilities can strip off their shield/barrier/armor pretty quickly. That's a perfectly fair assessment, but I think many players prefer to have an ability that works even when enemies have barriers/shields/armor still on so there can be constant usage. Reave is very popular for this reason, as it can be used to take down barriers and armor very quickly, which can supplement your teammates' abilities, or allow you to not have to depend on a teammate to do so, allowing for more flexibility in picking teammates.
Also, personally, I prefer Pull Field to Shockwave for enemies who have had their shields/barriers/armor stripped away. It's great CC, leaves enemies in a very vulnerable/easy-to-target state in which they take additional damage from attacks, and allows for synergy with warp for warp explosions. I love using Area Overload on clumps of enemies to first strip away their shields and overheat their weapons, using Pull Field to put them all in the air, and then using Unstable Warp to blow them all up. It's a beautiful thing I tell you
When discussing something like this, it should go without saying that people are talking about the most efficient style of play possible. Shockwave is really never the most efficient use of a cooldown, because with all the time you spent worrying about dropping them to health with your teammates, you might as well be charging and shooting them in the face. Saving cooldowns for charge helps you kill faster, as well as stay alive longer due to the shield boost you get. Even on insanity, the Vanguard is not meant to be hiding behind cover most of the battle.
As for the ammo powers, what seems to work best is Squad Cryo, and Inferno for yourself. Use Cryo for your squad (with SMGs it's very effective), and then override it for your own weapon. Inferno splashes the burning to other enemies (who sit there and try to put the fire out rather than shooting you), adding even more crowd control. With this setup (and maxed charge/passive) you don't even need to ever worry about a bonus power. Points in pull are useful for setting up warp explosions on enemies you can't reach, and also on husks once their armor is down.
On March 26 2010 02:46 Durak wrote: * Don't rely on this, not entirely sure * I think you can change class from your ME1 save at the start of ME2. The only things that have an effect are your plot choices.
I can confirm this. Details can be found at this link:
On March 26 2010 00:13 Durak wrote:You don't have to do any waiting. You can shoot their shoots off fairly instantly with your SMG or if you're lazy, use Miranda to nuke it. Miranda+Mordin also strip off armor instantly with double nukes. The point is to use your teams abilities to complement your own.
If I understand you correctly, you're basically saying that Shockwave is still good in Hardcore/Insanity because the SMG/teammates' abilities can strip off their shield/barrier/armor pretty quickly. That's a perfectly fair assessment, but I think many players prefer to have an ability that works even when enemies have barriers/shields/armor still on so there can be constant usage. Reave is very popular for this reason, as it can be used to take down barriers and armor very quickly, which can supplement your teammates' abilities, or allow you to not have to depend on a teammate to do so, allowing for more flexibility in picking teammates.
Also, personally, I prefer Pull Field to Shockwave for enemies who have had their shields/barriers/armor stripped away. It's great CC, leaves enemies in a very vulnerable/easy-to-target state in which they take additional damage from attacks, and allows for synergy with warp for warp explosions. I love using Area Overload on clumps of enemies to first strip away their shields and overheat their weapons, using Pull Field to put them all in the air, and then using Unstable Warp to blow them all up. It's a beautiful thing I tell you
There I was just replying that shockwave is still useful against enemies that have whatever defense. I don't think that it's optimal against them, as obviously it can't even hurt them on its own, but it's still useful.
My main point for saying that shockwave is a fine choice in harder difficulties is that the hardest parts are where you are swarmed.The core principle of the game is that you heal rapidly if you're behind cover for a short period of time and that you die quickly if out in the open. This makes it so flanking/swarming is the only real danger to your life if you want to play carefully.
My rational for shockwave being useful is that the units who swarm you at difficult parts in the game are without defense or have less of it. For example, the husks(haven't played for a while so don't remember name) in the main plot. There are tons of them and they have no defense, very suitable for shockwave ownage. Shockwave has a huge range, big spread, goes through cover, and knocks them into the air (instant kill since they normally spawn near edges), and quickly recharges. It's a super safe and easy way to play.
Edit:
On March 26 2010 03:38 QibingZero wrote:Even on insanity, the Vanguard is not meant to be hiding behind cover most of the battle.
I agree that this is true. Charge is obviously meant to force a certain playstyle. However, I think my method is just as viable. For the record, I found it to be more fun on Insanity to go krogon shotgun+charge.
You blast them once with Mordin's AoE fire or whatever and it's all instantly gone. :S I suppose my argument doesn't support my technique as better than other options, but the game was ridiculously easy for me. I don't even remember it that well
Hahahahahha this comic like perfectly describes my first shepard, ^.^;
"I, ah, didn't think you'd feel like sparring, Shepard." "What if we skipped right to the tiebreaker? We could test your reach…and my flexibility."
I laughed so much at this. Though I was disappointed at the lack of female options for female Shepard. I mean, Tali said she'd love to "link suits with me" if there was a way to do it, Samara is too busy being a Justicar, her daughter kills me, Miranda and Jack are straight... There's Kelly, but on my first playthrough, I didn't know you + Show Spoiler +
had to be ready to go through the Omega 4 relay after the Collectors raid your ship, otherwise she'd die
On March 26 2010 05:00 Durak wrote: You blast them once with Mordin's AoE fire or whatever and it's all instantly gone. :S I suppose my argument doesn't support my technique as better than other options, but the game was ridiculously easy for me. I don't even remember it that well
you really must not have been playing on hardcore because i'm 99.9999% sure one incinerate (definitely not the aoe version) will take away all armor
Hahahahahha this comic like perfectly describes my first shepard, ^.^;
"I, ah, didn't think you'd feel like sparring, Shepard." "What if we skipped right to the tiebreaker? We could test your reach…and my flexibility."
I laughed so much at this. Though I was disappointed at the lack of female options for female Shepard. I mean, Tali said she'd love to "link suits with me" if there was a way to do it, Samara is too busy being a Justicar, her daughter kills me, Miranda and Jack are straight... There's Kelly, but on my first playthrough, I didn't know you + Show Spoiler +
had to be ready to go through the Omega 4 relay after the Collectors raid your ship, otherwise she'd die
. That was kinda unfair.
Yeah, but to be fair there's still 3 female, (counting asari at least), romantic options for a female Shepard. I don't think you can have a gay male shep though. So you can still be a lesbian... lol.
On March 26 2010 05:00 Durak wrote: You blast them once with Mordin's AoE fire or whatever and it's all instantly gone. :S I suppose my argument doesn't support my technique as better than other options, but the game was ridiculously easy for me. I don't even remember it that well
you really must not have been playing on hardcore because i'm 99.9999% sure one incinerate (definitely not the aoe version) will take away all armor
I was playing on the second hardest difficulty, whatever it's called. It probably wasn't one incinerate, but a combination of both allies abilities. The idea is that in one volley of abilities you can clear out a close wave, and then in a few seconds, you can use them all again.
This is besides the point though. I'm not really concerned with convincing people that shockwave is the best move in the game. I played through the second hardest difficulty, the game was easy, and I primarily used shockwave+SMG. I just wanted to add that in my experience, shockwave definitely wasn't useless. If you want to check out my save, shoot me a PM.
Hahahahahha this comic like perfectly describes my first shepard, ^.^;
"I, ah, didn't think you'd feel like sparring, Shepard." "What if we skipped right to the tiebreaker? We could test your reach…and my flexibility."
I laughed so much at this. Though I was disappointed at the lack of female options for female Shepard. I mean, Tali said she'd love to "link suits with me" if there was a way to do it, Samara is too busy being a Justicar, her daughter kills me, Miranda and Jack are straight... There's Kelly, but on my first playthrough, I didn't know you + Show Spoiler +
had to be ready to go through the Omega 4 relay after the Collectors raid your ship, otherwise she'd die
. That was kinda unfair.
Yeah, but to be fair there's still 3 female, (counting asari at least), romantic options for a female Shepard. I don't think you can have a gay male shep though. So you can still be a lesbian... lol.
But yeah I <3 Garrus. He is awesome.
I think male Shepard can be paired up with Mordin. So it's the same as female Shepard when it comes to gay relationships, except there's no gay characters rejecting you for a reason of their own. I hope ME3 has some nicer options.
I tried the new hovercraft DLC.... although it was much more fun to drive than the mako for about 15 seconds, I quickly realized that the missions are pretty stale.
The thing is so flimsy (playing hardcore) that the easiest way to kill enemies is to just sit outside their range and pummel them with homing missiles. If you get too close you can have fun dodging their shots while shooting, but for some reason I keep taking damage even though sometimes I can't see myself getting hit. It gets really boring really fast, and after two missions I was back to doing the old missions because I missed all the mass effect abilities.
I'm playing through as an Adept after beating it as a vanguard, and it's much more fun for me now.
I didn't get vanguard. I had a really hard time with the charge+shotgun+melee+runforcover playstyle because it just kept getting me killed. I felt like I spent half of my playtime watching the loading screen. Maybe I'm just not good enough at FPS. I'm having more fun with pull+heavy throw
I haven't tried the arc projector yet, doing grunts mission next and saving my heavy weapon ammunition for the thresher maw. New character coming out in a few weeks.
On March 26 2010 22:42 Neverborn wrote: I haven't tried the arc projector yet, doing grunts mission next and saving my heavy weapon ammunition for the thresher maw. New character coming out in a few weeks.
I *love* the arc projector. It's not the best for taking down a single big baddie, but tears synthetic enemies apart, and seems to apply overload conditions to some objects. For example, shoot a flamethrower guy with the arc projector, and he'll detonate as if you used overload. Very fun.
Also great for nomming up those big mech shields. Those guys are jerks, and the lightning bolt seems to eat their shields up and even stun them for a half second.
On April 10 2010 16:22 SayaSP wrote: Anyone check out Stolen Memory yet
Want to, and trying to, but the fucking "Purchase Bioware Points" just screws up for me. I've paid and all, but it isn't giving me anything. Not gonna give up though.
Okay, I've played through it now. Overall, I'm not sure the playtime was worth the price given how short it was. (Took me about two and a half hours on Insanity) Nonetheless, Kasumi is a really well-designed character with a lot of emotions as well as attitude. I like her. Further more, her quest was one of, if not the best out of all the 12 loyalty quests. Something that was interesting about it was that it was only the two of you, no third squadmate. Moving on, Kasumi's actual usefulness in combat... is surprisingly extremly high. Her abilities are overload and the regular stats-bonus as well as two new abilities; her loyalty ability was simply a flashbang. Haven't really tried that one a lot yet, but certain enemies during the mission used it against us, so I knew how it feels, and it's about average, but I can imagine it being extremly potent when maxed out. Last but not least... or maybe first when you think about it, since that's her primary ability, is fucking amazing. Shadow Strike first cloaks her, and then she runs like the wind while invisible and comes up behind the targeted enemy and backstabs them, knocking them to the ground and dealing up to 550 dmg when maxed out. (550? I mean, really?) And she's in no danger either, because afterwards she just re-cloaks and comes back to where she was before. She also has a tendency of dodging bullets I feel, she just seems to not take a lot of damage even when she's out of cover. (Which she often is, she's most oftenly behind enemy lines)
As a bonus, you'll find a new weapon during the mission. It's kickass. + Show Spoiler +
It's called The Locust and is a new long-range SMG. Pretty weird idea, but it's pretty god-damn awesome. Doesn't have very large ammo-clips, but it has a lot of them. Good damage, insane accuracy, even better than assualt rifles I'd say. It even has a pretty funny backstory, but I'm not gonna spoil that, just as I'm not gonna spoil Bioware's predictions of what will happen in USA and The Statue of Liberty in the future... check the codex when you can, you'll be very o.0
As a final conclusion, I'd say that it is worth the cost after all. Unless your in extreme financial troubles, I'd recomend getting it for your copy of ME2. Have fun.
I have found Kasumi to be next to useless on insanity, though I imagine the lvl 4 upgrade on her ability to reduce it's CD if it killing blows would be absolutely killer on casual/normal.
I found insanity very fun and challenging on my first time through on it, when I was challenged by the newness of the difficulty. My second run through on insanity though was actually very easy, I only ended up dieing a few times through the whole game.
Here is my brief loadout details for my insanity run, warning many plot spoilers, you shouldn't be trying insanity if you havn't beaten the game once through anyways... + Show Spoiler +
Infiltrator: In this order of getting them: Assasin cloak the 100% paragon/renegade option untill you max out your bar, then respec it to the other more damage one Heavy incinerate Heavy disruptor ammo Heavy warp ammo lvl 1 ai hacking
the last 3 should be intermingled a bit in their order of getting them (getting lvl 3 in each before getting lvl 4, etc)
Guns: I got kasumi's DLC when I was half done the other loyalties, if I were to go back I would do hers near the beginning to get the SMG from it Viper sniper rifle, swapped to widowmaker for the thresher maw and the last boss Locust SMG Predator heavy pistol I only used my heavy weapon on 3 bosses, and it was the cain on the thresher maw, the reaper core and the reaper larva.
Armour: Terminus armour until you do the collector ship mission to unlock these armour pieces:
Kuwashii visor - +10% headshot damage (alternatively recon hood also is good, but additionally looks much less cool) capacitor chestpiece +10% faster shield regen less time wasted between assasin cloaks to wait for recharge N7 shoulderguards +3% weapon damage Stabilization guantlets +5% weapon damage Stimulator conduits +10% storm speed (move further while stealthed)
The key here is maxing your weapon damage, as every % bonus you get stacks amazingly well All of these are bought in Omega or are your basic gear, so drop by there after you finish the collector ship to get them all (they are only available then)
Here is some rediculous math to show how much all of these bonus's stack up. + Show Spoiler +
Total bonus damage on widowmaker to the head of an armoured target: (this is just to show all the different sources of increased damage possible) +18% gear +15% Operative skill +50% base weapon bonus of widowmaker vs armoured +50% base weapon upgrades +unknown% for base headshot bonus, possibly 100% +50% headshot upgrade +50% anti armour upgrade +50% warp ammo +75% assasin cloak
I don't know which or these are simply additive or which are multiplicative I think it is somewhere in the middle (for example, the anti armour upgrade and the base anti armour property are just added to make it 100% vs armour, but the assasin cloak is added on at the very end as an additional +75%
Allies:
Garrus, oh god garrus such an absolute powerhouse of a character to have with you at any point in the game. reasoning: Overload vs shields/synthetics impact shot vs biotics/biological Heavy armour piercing ammo, for armour/biological As you only get 12 pts to spend across his 3 abilities it's a toss-up whether to spend any on his 'special training' ability or not, as it prevents you from getting the above 3 as heavies always using the incisor sniper rifle He is the one to take with you when you have to carry another nearly useless character for their loyalty mission.
Zaeed (use until you get thane) Nothing special, get impact shot and his training, as he gets the same +50% damage thane gets Using the incisor sniper rifle of course
Thane his +50% damage from his training plus his heavy warp are just too juicy to pass up max his training and warp, then throw the rest into shredder ammo, not the best ammo type, but since we're not using squad ammo at all, it's bonus damage and as always, the incisor sniper rifle for the weapon.
general strat: max out your upgrades for the sniper first, then the SMG, then the pistol. always swap between your weapons so that you don't have one out of ammo and the others at full. Each ammo pickup fills each gun by their set amount if they are not full. This means being 80% on all 3 guns = 1 ammo pickup fills you up, instead of being 30% on one gun and needing 3 ammo pickup to fill up.
Use your ammo types and assasin cloak. 1 clip from a fully upged locust at lvl 30 from assasin cloak with the appropriate ammo for the enemy will almost exactly down any trooper level enemy(I was finding I had 2 shots left on the 20 shot clip vs collectors in the suicide mission. This is incredibly usefull when a trooper decides to charge down the side path at your cover Husks die in 2 heavy shots, ie heavy warp from thane + heavy incinerate from you. just back up continually spamming these abilities and shooting with SMG or pistol. I rarely find it worth the ammo to use the viper on them. Just remember to always tell your allies to run away if a scion appears. I generally take these out from outside their range with assasin cloaked viper clips, THEY are worth the ammo!
For harbingers: warp/impact from allies straight off, followed by an assasin cloaked full clip from the locust with warp ammo should get him into his armour, then incinerate + a few shots from garrus with his armour pierce ammo should finish it off. If not another warp from thane will help as well if it gets to that.
ymir 1 or 2 hide your allies somewhere these are actually rediculously easy to kill if you're an infitrator due to this tactic: if you know you're going to be fighting a ymir set your SMG to disruptor ammo and pistol to warp ammo assasin cloak, full round of SMG into it's shields repeat the above with a small delay between the CD of assasin cloak and when you go again, as you will take a few hits of damage you want to regen each time This will cause the ymir to spin up it's gun, begin firing right as you go into cover, lose you due to assasin cloak before it starts it's rocket, stutter step in place, moving towards you slightly. you pop back up, shoot it again, and repeat. just do this until it's dead. the key is to regen shields between each hop up as well as reloading to ensure a full clip of either SMG for it's shields/health or pistol fire for it's armour
boss tactics: I catually don't know if it makes a difference, but assasin cloak before firing the cain for extra damage, this will do about 25% of the thresher maw or reaper larva's hp in 1 shot and 1-shot the reaper core (making you only have to endure 1 opening of it's shields) the praetorians are really easy, just place your allies far enough away they won't trigger his slam, but close enough they can shoot, and kite him in circles around a LoS blocker. He will never go after your allies as they peg him down. take a few pot shots as you want. it will take a little while, but it is hard to die vs them when doing this. For the one in the collector ship, since it comes with husks and collectors, hardcore focus those down first (assasin cloak + opening up with viper) it will slam it's 3 times (75 50 and 25% armour) and regen it's barrier each time. the only way to prevent this is to cain it.
On the reaper larva or thresher maw, assasin cloak + heavy warp ammo'd fully upgraded widowmaker shot every time assasin cloak is off CD will tear both of these down so fast you won't even have a challenge. if you are running low on ammo both these fights have infinite ammo (reaper larva through the fact that every harbinger you kill drops a heavy weapon ammo box) on my second playthrough I only had 1 harbinger I had to worry about the entire last phase of the reaper larva fight it was over so quickly.
If you are having trouble with an area as an infiltrator, run through it in stealth, if you hit an auto-save checkpoint and then die, even with no enemies behind you dead, when you repop they'll all be gone and you can go back to loot any safes/tech they were guarding. This got me through my first insanity playthrough, though I tried not to use it on my second. the place I still used it was in tali's loyalty mission, I just booked it through to her dead father, which cutscenes, despawns everything behind you, and revives your allies with you.
On September 09 2010 02:07 snotboogie wrote: Bump for the release of Lair of the Shadow Broker
Thank you Bioware for making my faithfulness to Liara pay off.
Also, tip: at the end, go back and read the dossiers on everyone. They're HILARIOUS.
Good bump. I was just in the middle of reinstalling everything today. Had to use a lot of creativeness in clearing out my comp to make space. Hopefully this DLC is worth it.
woo, gotta go get lair of the shadow broker! I havn't been faithful to liara though cause of garrus. I hope that's not gonna make this DLC less awesome...
Anyone know if there will be a lot of dialogue from many of the characters? I remember in the other DLCs and probably in most DLCs in general, the dialogue is very limiting b/c of issues with hiring the voice actors. Anyways, I'm a huge ME series fan so I'm getting it anyway.
It's about 2-3 hours long and there is substantial dialogue, unlike Zaeed and Kasumi. Best DLC yet, IMO. It feels like it should have been part of the game proper. This is the first DLC that will affect ME3, too!
On September 09 2010 03:14 snotboogie wrote: It's about 2-3 hours long and there is substantial dialogue, unlike Zaeed and Kasumi. Best DLC yet, IMO. It feels like it should have been part of the game proper. This is the first DLC that will affect ME3, too!
awesome, good to hear it. it also means I gotta watch how I resolve this so that I'm perfectly setup to go into ME3 with my save...
I hear you man. The Mass Effect series is I think going to change video games with the importing of saves and insane quality (The Witcher is also going this route). I'd forgotten the intense cinematic quality of ME2 in the months since I've played it but this brought it all back.
ah man i bought mass effect 1 just so i could have the additional story lines for mass effect 2 x.x.. i don't think i will play it until mass effect 3 because i will get addicted again and i can't stop with sc2 xD... imho best rpg ever.
I'm gonna run through it once blind to enjoy it, going all renegade. I'll then check all the possible results from it and see if I need to go and replay it.
Anyone who's played it, can you comment on the difficulty on insanity? I don't expect it will be harder then anything else so far (2-3 deaths max) though it would be nice for bioware to put out a DLC that's actually a challenge for those already waltzing insanity. (this is in no way a brag, I'm not good at FPS at all, and I'm finding it easy)
to answer my previous difficulty question, if anyone is interested, there are definitely a couple of panic points and 'just god-damn survive' points possible in the first half (all I've done so far)
Remember to spend squad points on liara, the first fight you have her with you for is an endurance fight. I found out after I beat that section that she just had her default lvl 1 singularity and nothing else. Would have come in handy to have her actually using heavy warp and such...
the first boss has a tonne of HP (on insanity at lvl 30 at least) the most of any humanoid so far at the very least. The fight gets easy once you find the spot to bunker up though, as it gives you ammo pickups everywhere, so you can just unload everything you've got without worry.
Some very funny comments and RP as well, the 'Azure' dialog exchange had me laughing my ass off.
so far died 4 times, twice at the first fight you get liara for, because I was still just charging in like previous fights, and twice on the boss when the adds came because I was positioning myself poorly.
I'm just hoping for an interesting love-triangle now that I'm with Tali. Or maybe they'll save that for ME3?
Hey now! Yes I'm a bit, (incredibly) racist against Batarians... but they killed my parents, enslaved my entire colony, etc etc. Also look at them. Damn I hate those jerks.
I'm terrified that in ME3 there's going to be a Batarian crew-member and I'm going to have to be nice to them. I hope there's an option to just summarily execute him right in the Normandy conference room to set an example for the rest of the crew. (Just in case any of them had considered being a Batarian for day or for halloween or something)
Am I right in thinking there will be more DLC coming out for Mass Effect 2 in the future? I think I read somewhere that BioWare will fill in the story between 2 and 3 with more DLC that will affect 3.
On September 10 2010 10:53 Slow Motion wrote: Am I right in thinking there will be more DLC coming out for Mass Effect 2 in the future? I think I read somewhere that BioWare will fill in the story between 2 and 3 with more DLC that will affect 3.
Yes, you are right in thinking this, Layer of the Shadow Broker was apparently the first DLC to start the bridge between the two games
I just finished ME2 on xbox, and to be perfectly honest I was kind of disappointed :/
Don't get me wrong, it's a great game. The graphics are great, the abilities are a lot more fun and useful than in ME1. The story was good. But everything was dumbed down to such a ridiculous level when it came to the actual character building. I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse here, though.
On September 11 2010 05:03 Pobearo wrote: I just finished ME2 on xbox, and to be perfectly honest I was kind of disappointed :/
Don't get me wrong, it's a great game. The graphics are great, the abilities are a lot more fun and useful than in ME1. The story was good. But everything was dumbed down to such a ridiculous level when it came to the actual character building. I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse here, though.
At least there were no super slow elevators!
In what way was it dumbed down? I personally thought the development of the characters was at least equally amazing (if not better) as in the first game
On September 11 2010 05:03 Pobearo wrote: I just finished ME2 on xbox, and to be perfectly honest I was kind of disappointed :/
Don't get me wrong, it's a great game. The graphics are great, the abilities are a lot more fun and useful than in ME1. The story was good. But everything was dumbed down to such a ridiculous level when it came to the actual character building. I'm sure I'm beating a dead horse here, though.
At least there were no super slow elevators!
In what way was it dumbed down? I personally thought the development of the characters was at least equally amazing (if not better) as in the first game
Agreed. Although I play the PC version, the idea is the same.
hm i thought that it was very indepth and organized quite well... once you put it to teh harder difficulty levels it made it much more difficult to progress easily... i thought the planet-mining technique was pretty cool.. although i wanted to stop it consumed me for so long trying to get enough palladium for a certain upgrade, etc xD
In case there are still people who are still considering whether to purchase Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, I'd like to vouch for and highly recommend it. It's a very robust DLC that has good difficulty, an interesting story, and some interesting characters. I thought the levels were very well designed + Show Spoiler +
particularly the Shadow Broker's ship
and learning more about the Shadow Broker was fun. Significantly better than the Overlord DLC if you've tried that one already.
On September 13 2010 00:15 dranko wrote: In what way was it dumbed down? I personally thought the development of the characters was at least equally amazing (if not better) as in the first game
I think the whole fact that you must make your team "loyal" and u get this info in status is quite silly. The character developement is much better in, for example The Witcher.
ME2 is still much much better than ME1, even if ME1 is amazing.
I hate the minigames, there should be an option to skip them, scanning the planets is such a waste of time and intellect... And hate the fact that sometimes I must make a choice I dont agree with, just to get enough Paragon/Renegade points to resolve all the team conflicts before final mission.
Man. Just finished my 2nd playthrough with a Renegon FemShep Infiltrator (couldn't go full renegade, just couldn't do it sometimes, lol) on Veteran. Going to jump straight into Insanity with Vanguard ManShep and I'm gonna just go Renegade all the way.
This game is just so good, damn. GOTY, IMO. Starcraft who?
It wasn't that hard for me to go through insanity with a balanced renegade/paragon (more renegade than paragon) and still be able to get the special convo options for each situation. At first I felt that you had to go all one or the other, but the room appears to leave room to do whatever you want to some degree.
On September 23 2010 22:34 dranjam wrote: And hate the fact that sometimes I must make a choice I dont agree with, just to get enough Paragon/Renegade points to resolve all the team conflicts before final mission.
Eh, there are two party conflicts and you do not need everyone to be loyal in order for everyone to survive the final mission.
Last I heard, bioware's own people stated that it was possible to get everyone out alive with only four loyal party members.
On September 24 2010 07:21 Ferrose wrote: Has anyone tried Lair of the Shadow Broker on Insanity? I did all the other DLC on my Insanity file, so I'd like to do this one on it too.
Yeah, I did it with an engineer on insanity at around level 15. There was one battle (and it was not one of the boss battles) that caused me to reload a few times, but it wasn't difficult otherwise.
On September 24 2010 07:21 Ferrose wrote: Has anyone tried Lair of the Shadow Broker on Insanity? I did all the other DLC on my Insanity file, so I'd like to do this one on it too.
Yeah, I did it with an engineer on insanity at around level 15. There was one battle (and it was not one of the boss battles) that caused me to reload a few times, but it wasn't difficult otherwise.
All right, thanks for the info.. I just wanted to know because Overlord gave me a pretty difficult time on Insanity.
On September 24 2010 07:21 Ferrose wrote: Has anyone tried Lair of the Shadow Broker on Insanity? I did all the other DLC on my Insanity file, so I'd like to do this one on it too.
Did it on Insanity with a Vanguard as well. Not sure what level I was, but I wasn't anywhere near Level 30 at the time.
On September 24 2010 07:21 Ferrose wrote: Has anyone tried Lair of the Shadow Broker on Insanity? I did all the other DLC on my Insanity file, so I'd like to do this one on it too.
Did it on Insanity with a Vanguard as well. Not sure what level I was, but I wasn't anywhere near Level 30 at the time.
I actually carried over my character. I did all of Insanity with a level 30 Infiltrator. Perhaps not my best idea >.<
I was going to carry over my finished ME2 vanguard character and play through again as infiltrator on insanity, and I finally found how to change my class mid game on http://www.masseffect2faces.com/. Check out their instructions in the "Save Editor" link on the front page to do this. You can also download Mass Effect 1 or 2 saves with different choices if you want to try that.
On another note, damn insanity is hard. I usually play through RPG on normal cause I care more about story, but insanity is actually providing a fun, if sometimes frustrating, challenge. I do notice that I almost never use Unity in normal, but have to use it all the time in insanity.
^Seriously, Insanity is driving me crazy. I'm not sure if it's just insanely hard because I don't have anything yet, but I'm dying and burning through medi-gel like nuts.
Not playing ME2 on Insanity is just going through the game in easy-mode. The only point at which the combat became challenging was when I played on Insanity, at which point you actually have to start playing tactically and think your way through some battles.
Hey guys, decided to reinstall and do a 2nd playthrough. Anyway, I can freely import all my ME1 chars, but I seem to have a problem with my ME2 char. The game doesn't recognise that I completed it before. It only recognises to some point, and after that all my saves seem to have either not worked or disappeared all together. Previously, I had Zaleed DLed(and some other cerb card dlc - dont remember, this time I don't. Usually that would be a pretty clear sign that without the DLC the game doesn't recognise I did complete it. But my problem is here: I installed those DLCs before playing even a single minute of the game itself. I'm very confused it recognises say a save made 25h into the game, but not the 38h save. Why? Any help would be appreciated.
On September 26 2010 03:06 XaI)CyRiC wrote: Not playing ME2 on Insanity is just going through the game in easy-mode. The only point at which the combat became challenging was when I played on Insanity, at which point you actually have to start playing tactically and think your way through some battles.
QFT
It was a very nice challenge. One thing that helped a lot though, was the DLC. The DLC armor and weapons are way better than the box weapons (besides the Widow, that's still the best sniper).
Does anyone else love the Mass Effect novels? I listen to them as audiobooks. They are freaking awesome. Mass Effect: Retribution just came out and I'm devouring my iPod batteries.
Some of the fights on Insanity are truly... Doesn't help that your partners are oft-times dumb as bricks.
My first major problem was the fight on the colony planet, defending the gun vs the waves of Prothean, husks and the abominations. The husks and Abom waves were the hardest for sure. Waves upon waves of them, with the near instakill shockwaves to boot.
On September 28 2010 23:43 snotboogie wrote: Does anyone else love the Mass Effect novels? I listen to them as audiobooks. They are freaking awesome. Mass Effect: Retribution just came out and I'm devouring my iPod batteries.
Drew Karpyshyn is my hero.
I read the first two, and I'm reading Retribution right now. I can't put it down. I've been staying up wayyyyy too late reading it every night. Lol
On September 29 2010 00:09 Obsidian wrote: Some of the fights on Insanity are truly... Doesn't help that your partners are oft-times dumb as bricks.
My first major problem was the fight on the colony planet, defending the gun vs the waves of Prothean, husks and the abominations. The husks and Abom waves were the hardest for sure. Waves upon waves of them, with the near instakill shockwaves to boot.
You can actually skip right up to the Praetorian. If you just stand in the doorway, you can pick off the Scions without any Husks spawning. Then for the Praetorian, put your allies somewhere safe, and move around between his laser bursts. Since the allies have infinite ammo, they'll eventually take him down. I always ran out of ammo trying to take them out by myself.
Mass Effect 1+2 are prob one of the best games up there, better then SC2 in terms of a pure video game. Mass Effect 2 serious had me on my toes when playing throughout the story, i could play that game over and over and over and never get sick of it. Best Game Ever.
I just finished Retribution last night. And I have to say, that was my favorite ME book so far. I can't wait until the next one (if there is a next one).
On September 26 2010 03:06 XaI)CyRiC wrote: Not playing ME2 on Insanity is just going through the game in easy-mode. The only point at which the combat became challenging was when I played on Insanity, at which point you actually have to start playing tactically and think your way through some battles.
You dont play mass effect for its awe inspiring combat. <,<
Thats why i play on normal. Cba to have challenging combat in a bioware game. But i do agree that if you want it challenging you should do that.
On September 24 2010 07:21 Ferrose wrote: Has anyone tried Lair of the Shadow Broker on Insanity? I did all the other DLC on my Insanity file, so I'd like to do this one on it too.
Did it on Insanity with a Vanguard as well. Not sure what level I was, but I wasn't anywhere near Level 30 at the time.
I actually carried over my character. I did all of Insanity with a level 30 Infiltrator. Perhaps not my best idea >.<
infiltrator is actually one of the better classes.
Started my second play through as reave vanguard in insane and I gotta say, things die REALLY fast when played properly (not charging into pyros/fully shielded legionnaires, krogans) compared to an Infiltrator.
On October 03 2010 23:18 dinki0825 wrote: Started my second play through as reave vanguard in insane and I gotta say, things die REALLY fast when played properly (not charging into pyros/fully shielded legionnaires, krogans) compared to an Infiltrator.
On September 26 2010 03:06 XaI)CyRiC wrote: Not playing ME2 on Insanity is just going through the game in easy-mode. The only point at which the combat became challenging was when I played on Insanity, at which point you actually have to start playing tactically and think your way through some battles.
Never happened for me and I'm disappointed about it. I was playing on Insanity and expecting some hardcore turnaround and it just didn't come.
Insanity mode was imho much harder early-game. I played through on insanity as an Adept, and once I got leveled, the game got a *lot* easier. Early on I was dying and just not dealing any damage.... but it all went away and eventually I felt like I was just on hard mode or whatever.
Myself + Miranda + Garrus/Zaeed can wreck any army in seconds.
edit: Adept is sooo fun to play btw. You can almost launch baddies into orbit. Pick em up, then throw and angle it to hit them below and... WHEEEE!!! they fly off into the distance. Time it with another teammate who has throw and you can even launch krogans like 4 stories in the air.
I was glad that they decided to make him a new race. And I am absolutely loving the abundance of information to read after you beat it. I'm gonna have fun reading up on everyone in ME.
I just cleared the game on Insanity with a Soldier, and Assault Rifles are just too powerfull as a weapon. The beginning was obviously really hard, with nearly no spell which isn't about ammo, and when my allies went down, each weapon should be used properly.
But after the first attack of the Collector Ship, I choose the M-76 Revenant, and with its 600ish bullets (+120 nearly per clip), it was my main choice for the rest of the game : better than shotgun at short range, deal more damage than the sniper rifles at long range (especially with the accuracy upgrade), and with the Adrenaline Bullet Time, it's a total massacre.
Adept was more fun to play though, and Infiltrator always is my favorite class atm. Next time, I'll probably try Vanguard, due to the love given by teamliquid.
Lair of the Shadow Broker is also very nice ! Too short indeed, but a lot of good ideas, and epic battles.
On October 03 2010 01:44 Ferrose wrote: I just finished Retribution last night. And I have to say, that was my favorite ME book so far. I can't wait until the next one (if there is a next one).
Just finished it too, I agree it's a great book. But I like the first one better, if only for the memory of it opening such a big world in my mind.
This book also deviates from its predecessors as it has more of an effect on the wider world; I think in ME3 we'll be dealing with a lot of fallout from the events in Retribution. Can't wait!
On October 05 2010 13:46 rwrzr wrote: Has anyone else tried the fun that is triple Exploding Combat Drone?
I've chosen the other one in my game, because 40 x X damage seemed better than 100 damage when they die. Maybe I'll try the exploding in my next game, if I don't take Miranda (anti-shield skill + anti-barrier skill + anti-HP skill, she's a beast).
Combat Drone is very useful during fights against Scion ! Because they last so long.
And yeah, invisibility + bullet time with sniper feels like a Ghost, for the Infiltrator. :D
On October 03 2010 01:44 Ferrose wrote: I just finished Retribution last night. And I have to say, that was my favorite ME book so far. I can't wait until the next one (if there is a next one).
Just finished it too, I agree it's a great book. But I like the first one better, if only for the memory of it opening such a big world in my mind.
This book also deviates from its predecessors as it has more of an effect on the wider world; I think in ME3 we'll be dealing with a lot of fallout from the events in Retribution. Can't wait!
Yeah, I loved how the second game referenced Ascension a lot. ME3 will almost surely have references to Retribution especially since + Show Spoiler +
Cerberus is a lot weaker now.
And everyone needs to play Infiltrator. The Widow is just too awesome.
Im bumping this cause i just started playing this. I feel like the handguns are garbage not as powerful as ME1 im thinking about rerolling soldier or infiltrator
On January 15 2011 07:02 Coagulation wrote: Im bumping this cause i just started playing this. I feel like the handguns are garbage not as powerful as ME1 im thinking about rerolling soldier or infiltrator
The hand cannon isn't bad, but yeah unfortunately the best handgun is from the aptly named Firepower DLC pack.
:edit: Soldier and Infiltrator classes would certainly suit newcomers as they are very easy to play and are very strong, but as the initial poll shows at the beginning of the thread, Vanguard is where the fun is at.
On January 15 2011 07:02 Coagulation wrote: Im bumping this cause i just started playing this. I feel like the handguns are garbage not as powerful as ME1 im thinking about rerolling soldier or infiltrator
The hand cannon isn't bad, but yeah unfortunately the best handgun is from the aptly named Firepower DLC pack.
:edit: Soldier and Infiltrator classes would certainly suit newcomers as they are very easy to play and are very strong, but as the initial poll shows at the beginning of the thread, Vanguard is where the fun is at.
The firepower pack is imba as hell. There's almost no reason to use any other weapon except those in that pack once you've gotten them.
No, it isn't. The bigger ones with new missions and stuff are 800 ($10) or 1200 points ($15). And the armor and weapon packs are usually like 160 points ($2).
Haha so the ME3 thread got me in the mood to play through ME2 again. I've been chipping away at it for a few days, and finally broke down and bought some of the new DLC.
The lair of the shadow broker was fucking AWESOME. I loved every minute of it!
Also me, (sentinel) + Miranda/Liara = OP AS BALLS EVEN ON INSANE.
Area overload -> singularity -> unstable warp = everything dies horribly.
Goddamn if only I had picked another class. I don't really like the sentinel playstyle, so I more or less just play like a vanguard, charging people, blasting away at close range, punching *everyone* in the face a few times, and hitting tech-armor as a panic button. It's amazing how durable you are when you can recharge your own (insanely boosted) shields every 6 seconds or so.
I also enjoyed Lair of the Shadow Broker mainly in that I was actually changing the reins of power in the known galaxy. The Shadow Broker's lair had really cool art design, though the interior felt a bit underwhelming compared to the epic exterior. The final boss fight was also not terribly exciting, but the mid-boss fight was amazingly fun.
And yeah, Sentinels are so fucking durable. Their core skill, Tech Armor, also looks really spiffy in a way incomparable to any other player skill in my opinion. I always wanted the blue visual shield that some NPCs sport, but Tech Armor is the closest equivalent and it's damn good.
On January 15 2011 10:12 Haemonculus wrote: Goddamn if only I had picked another class. I don't really like the sentinel playstyle, so I more or less just play like a vanguard, charging people, blasting away at close range, punching *everyone* in the face a few times, and hitting tech-armor as a panic button. It's amazing how durable you are when you can recharge your own (insanely boosted) shields every 6 seconds or so.
Funny I played a Vanguard in ME1 and thought the playstyle was completely different in ME2. I was thinking (for the first half of the game) "If I only didnt play that stupid class". My style would've fit a sentinel / biotic more (which was fine in ME 1 with singularity & stuff).
Overall it's still a great game and I think I do have to make a "renegade male" runthrough before ME3 hits the shelfs.
On January 15 2011 07:02 Coagulation wrote: Im bumping this cause i just started playing this. I feel like the handguns are garbage not as powerful as ME1 im thinking about rerolling soldier or infiltrator
You should play Vanguard IMO. It's the only class that let's you play aggressively. Frankly I can't believe people actually find playing popamole crap with the other classes tolerable (let alone fun).
On January 15 2011 07:02 Coagulation wrote: Im bumping this cause i just started playing this. I feel like the handguns are garbage not as powerful as ME1 im thinking about rerolling soldier or infiltrator
You should play Vanguard IMO. It's the only class that let's you play aggressively. Frankly I can't believe people actually find playing popamole crap with the other classes tolerable (let alone fun).
What's that assault rifle in the Firepower Pack? The semi-auto one. Use that to break the game. And if you play Vanguard, Geth Shotty all the way.
On January 15 2011 11:26 Coagulation wrote: i dont like the no inventory and lack of customization for weapon load outs early game.
Early game I totally agree. My first reaction to the no-inventory system was really negative.
But late game in ME1 it got tedious every time I found a new piece of equipment that looked like it might be better than something one of my teammates might be wearing. Then to go through my inventory, (99% of which I'd just end up selling), browse all the junk, find a new upgrade, etc.
But I do wish we had more options. I loved being able to fit my gun with very specific upgrades, ammo types... and I REALLY miss having grenades to chuck around walls.
Perhaps ME3 can do a hybrid system. I couldn't fathom trying to juggle the best equipment for a team the size of the ME2 cast. I'd probably just end up taking the same 2 characters with me every time if that were the case. I think the next game needs to find a happy medium in between streamlined choices and customization.
I was reasonably pleased with the ME2 system (relative to ME1 that is, ME2 is hardly TOEE or whatever). Much better having several weapons with at least a modicum character and not made completely obsolete by Spectre weapons -_-.
IMO much more whining should be focused on ME's choices and e-mails system.
This game is so fun, I love the music and emerging victorious after a huge gunbattle as a vanguard on insanity makes you feel like a boss since any other class is complete ez mode by comparison. I seriously can't wait for ME3, I hope they continue to heap on the awesomeness.
On January 29 2011 13:01 SolidusR wrote: This game is so fun, I love the music and emerging victorious after a huge gunbattle as a vanguard on insanity makes you feel like a boss since any other class is complete ez mode by comparison. I seriously can't wait for ME3, I hope they continue to heap on the awesomeness.
Adept is real easy mode, that's what I 're-rolled' my ME1 soldier shepard as. You can literally just spam lift all game long (and ocasionally warp, on stronger enemies) for the win. Haven't tried that on Insanity though, so maybe it's not like that.
I just started my second playthrough with a Female Shepard and made a Vanguard. Soo much fun. I love just choosing the most ridiculous group enemies to charge into and then try and fight my way out of them alive. Adds to the challenge.
I actually turned the game music off in favour of my own, for most of the game (after I'd heard all of the main themes), but forgot to turn it back on for the end sequence. So there was a distinct lack of epicness as my playlist came to an end and I had to watch the whole end cinematic in silence.
Recently bought this game and completed it a few times, including the insanity difficulty. Was a shame I didn't have my old mass effect characters, but I guess the changes are somewhat minor.
Story and gameplay is top notch, really liked it. As for replayability it is too linear imo and very tedious to scan/mine.
Played soldier for the most part, but played a little around with the adept class also. Adept didn't seem very good on insanity because everyone has shields and armor. Compared to a heightened adrenaline rush headshot with a good sniper rifle.. nothing really seems to die fast enough
Adept is wicked hard early game. Late game on insanity though is *really* fun because you actually need to position your teammates well, use all their abilities in addition to most of your own, etc. Also, singularity is awesome. And shockwave... hehehe.
Adept + Garrus + Miranda is a solid team. Double overload to take out any enemy shields, double warp to wreck armor, and lol ur an adept so once they are down to health they are screwed. Then concussive shot and armor-pierce ammo from Garrus is great for picking off heavy weapons jerks.
On January 31 2011 01:46 Haemonculus wrote: Adept + Garrus + Miranda is a solid team. Double overload to take out any enemy shields, double warp to wreck armor, and lol ur an adept so once they are down to health they are screwed. Then concussive shot and armor-pierce ammo from Garrus is great for picking off heavy weapons jerks.
Yea, I ran my adept-shep mostly with Miranda and Legion for the end game and Miranda/Tali and Garrus/Grunt for the early game. Not quite sure why, but it felt like we just breezed through all the battles.
Anyone else pumped for the new DLC 'Arrival' that was leaked? ME2 has a number of things that make me keep wanting to go back and play it more, so any new DLC leading up to ME3 is awesome in my eyes.
Recently finished my 6th playthrough, on insanity (4th time on insanity) because I wanted to try and have 1 surviving team-mate at the end, so they'd pull me into the ship, and I'd have a minimalist save ready for ME3. Being that I play femsheps every time (MUCH better voice acting + better to look at for the hours of gameplay...) I figured I'd grab garrus for romance option, since I know he'll survive if I choose correctly in the final missions. Everything was going perfect, Garrus was my only loyal companion, and I botched up every choice in the final missions, so it's just garrus and I running for the ship, he jumps on, and disappears... joker then has the heartfelt scene with shep and then shep falls and dies. WTF garrus! So I go back and make mordin loyal and do these choices laughing the entire way through the final mission: I don't have Zaeed, legion, or kasumi going into it Jack Tali and Thane all die due to no ship upgrades Fire squad 1: Grunt (he lives, but that's ok) Tech expert: Jacob (hey he volunteered!) Firesquad 2: Grunt (finally offed this hard to kill bastard) Biotic expert: Miranda (what's with cerberus and volunteering for things they suck at?) *squad here needs to be mordin and samara so samara dies Leave miranda to solo the hold the line, the big speech to 1 person was pretty hilarious... end off with garrus and mordin jumping onto the ship and mordin saving me, so everybody but garrus, mordin, joker, and shepard die.
I had less then a bar each on paragon/ruthless, I just didn't care and spacebarred my way through everything, also vanguard is the best for speed runs! I wasn't trying to go super fast and this run only took a few hours.
Any combination of party members that allows for lift and push to be used in quick succession is my favorite way to go. Lift some Eclipse thug 40 feet into the air, then push them away, and watch them sail into the distance.
With something called "The Arrival" I guess I was actually expecting the arrival of the Reapers. Instead there was a 2 minute speech from Harbinger and a short conversation with Hackett. I guess we know that it could take years for them to get anywhere now, and I guess that war with the Batarians might loom, but it still seems lacking in my opinion. They could have showed them arriving after jumping and after the Relay was destroyed.
But nothing. And it was just generic enemy after generic enemy. The absolute toughest enemy was a YMIR Mech. One at a time when I've already fought 2 or 3 at a time.
Overall, meh. Not a waste, but Lair of the Shadow Broker is vastly superior in terms of gameplay, story, and reward. Apparently the same guy that was really responsible for that didn't have any part of Arrival. It kind of shows too.
The reason you can't bring your squad is bullshit since all you get for stealthing is an achievement. Also, when you try to save the civilians you can't, and then you get shit for it. It's an RPG, give me choice and some damn conversations. I'm pissed off that my Shepard has to be a sacrificial lamb for something that happened in a cutscene. If they're going to put me on trial then do it for the messed up things I chose to do, like killing the council.
Solo combat sucks, this is a squad based game and the whole thing was poorly written. There are lots of plot holes, for example, why was the whole place preserved if all the crew was indoctrinated? And it didn't even advance the plot or exlpain how the Reapers got here. They are in the Milky Way now, but so what? They wrote it so that it makes no difference whatsoever.
The DLC wasn't made by the ME2 team though, since they're busy making ME3.
On April 01 2011 18:32 Sceptor87 wrote: The absolute toughest enemy was a YMIR Mech. One at a time when I've already fought 2 or 3 at a time.
I'm pretty sure the health of that single YMIR Mech in insanity mode is way higher than previous YMIR Mechs in the game (I shot it with maxed out nuke and it only took out its shield and half the armor)
The DLC was way too short imo and only interesting part was+ Show Spoiler +
which most people won't get to see on the first play through.
I initially thought about posting in the ME3 thread, but everyone there's oogling Ashley and Miranda and busy discussing the demo, and we do have a ME2 thread ... so I'm going to bump this.
Having lived in in the usual Blizzard cave of gaming isolation, I hadn't played the ME series until very recently, actually only having finished ME2 a couple of days ago. Great game, wonderful story, really cool. My first playthrough was with a soldier on Normal difficulty and the fights weren't really challenging.
I decided to start a second run because I liked the game so much and foolishly decided to pick an Adept and Hardcore difficulty. And the fights went from challenging to utter frustration.
The squad AI is a nightmare. Instead of doing what I tell them or moving with some common sense, my squad will usually find the quickest way to get themselves killed. On normal difficulty this didn't matter as enemies didn't live long enough but on hardcore it's very apparent.
To top things off, I picked the wrong class. Adepts suck. Especially compared to soldiers. Biotic powers apparently only work well when there's no shielding or armor, but hey, EVERYTHING has barriers, shields or armor, even freaking husks! Which means my oh-so-awesome Singularity will rarely actually pick up stuff and I'm busy trying to kill things with Warp and my puny guns (limiting the Adept to pistols and SMG is pretty cruel, too).
Is there a decent Adept build? I have the passive skill and Singularity maxed currently and am working on Warp. Thanks to the bonus skill from the first playthrough (I picked Warp ammo), my guns actually do damage, but they have little to no range and suck badly compared to the assault or sniper rifles that made the soldier playthrough a walk in the park. I thought about picking up Reave ... but not sure whether that'd help.
Is there hope for Adepts? Or for the squad AI? Or is there a mod to change my class mid-game to something which can actually beat stuff without spending ages on non-boss enemies?
I haven't played ME2 in a long time, but I've finished hardcore with an adept. It is pretty frustrating early on, just remember to bring someone with overload at all times, and try to have at least one character capable to dealing long-range death. Garrus is a good companion for adepts, and I suggest you tech singularity and warp (the warp-bomb is beast late game). Also have a few points in a defensive skill (barrier or shield).
On February 17 2012 06:33 Praetorial wrote: Adept+Miranda+Garrus with Heavy Warps+Heavy Overloads is by far the easiest way to win Insanity.
I have been running with Miranda and Garrus most of the time now, both for Overload and Garrus' sniper support. The squad AI ruins most of that potential, though. The final Harbinger/Praetorian fight on Horizon just made me quit the game after a series of frustrating deaths due to stupid squad + lacking damage + running out of medkits.
And I know that's not even optimal; considering how I used stasis, I would've been better off leaving it at one point and maxing throw. And I'm sure that a good case could be made for the heavy warp/singularity evolutions too. I took Jack with me on just about every mission too and, aside from her quick pull, she's pretty bad.
My approach to basically every encounter was: shoot enemy in the head, use Jack's pull, then my own warp. Against tougher enemies like Krogan and YMIR mechs, I abused the shit out of stasis.
And I know that's not even optimal; considering how I used stasis, I would've been better off leaving it at one point and maxing throw. And I'm sure that a good case could be made for the heavy warp/singularity evolutions too. I took Jack with me on just about every mission too and, aside from her quick pull, she's pretty bad.
My approach to basically every encounter was: shoot enemy in the head, use Jack's pull, then my own warp. Against tougher enemies like Krogan and YMIR mechs, I abused the shit out of stasis.
Sorry, am I missing something here? How did you get FIVE skills maxed out? I finished the first playthrough at level 20-something on my soldier with 2 or 3 skills maxed, and my Adept is now 11 or 12 and has two maxed. Please remember that I'm not re-using an identical character for this, but instead started from scratch.
I initially thought about posting in the ME3 thread, but everyone there's oogling Ashley and Miranda and busy discussing the demo, and we do have a ME2 thread ... so I'm going to bump this.
Having lived in in the usual Blizzard cave of gaming isolation, I hadn't played the ME series until very recently, actually only having finished ME2 a couple of days ago. Great game, wonderful story, really cool. My first playthrough was with a soldier on Normal difficulty and the fights weren't really challenging.
I decided to start a second run because I liked the game so much and foolishly decided to pick an Adept and Hardcore difficulty. And the fights went from challenging to utter frustration.
The squad AI is a nightmare. Instead of doing what I tell them or moving with some common sense, my squad will usually find the quickest way to get themselves killed. On normal difficulty this didn't matter as enemies didn't live long enough but on hardcore it's very apparent.
To top things off, I picked the wrong class. Adepts suck. Especially compared to soldiers. Biotic powers apparently only work well when there's no shielding or armor, but hey, EVERYTHING has barriers, shields or armor, even freaking husks! Which means my oh-so-awesome Singularity will rarely actually pick up stuff and I'm busy trying to kill things with Warp and my puny guns (limiting the Adept to pistols and SMG is pretty cruel, too).
Is there a decent Adept build? I have the passive skill and Singularity maxed currently and am working on Warp. Thanks to the bonus skill from the first playthrough (I picked Warp ammo), my guns actually do damage, but they have little to no range and suck badly compared to the assault or sniper rifles that made the soldier playthrough a walk in the park. I thought about picking up Reave ... but not sure whether that'd help.
Is there hope for Adepts? Or for the squad AI? Or is there a mod to change my class mid-game to something which can actually beat stuff without spending ages on non-boss enemies?
1. Pick your team wisely when playing Adept. It is the most powerfull class once enemy defences are down, but striping defences are a bitch and you have to rely on your teamates. 2. Keep your teamates alive. Their AI is bad, but you can order them to stay in 1 place and they tend to live that away alot longer. While two guys with Incisor do decent amounts of damage, the most important thing the squadmates give you are powers. 3. Like you keep money low in Starcraft, you have to keep squadmates and yours powers always on cooldown. Always use them! They don't cost mana or something. 4. Basic gameplan for Adept: Strip defences with weapons and/or squadmates-> Setup for Warp Explosion-> Warp Explosion. Choose your powers to minimize cooldown, maximize warp explosion and also maximize Singularity because it is a very good CC and combo setup.
Can't wait to start playing ME2. I bought ME1 when it was released on Xbox 360, but even though I had read the prequel book and was really pumped, I just didn't get the feeling that I had to play more, I was in fact quite disappointed with how boring exploration was and how messy the fighting system felt.
Just a few days ago, I suddenly got the urge to try ME2 though so I started playing ME1 again and it's actually quite fun now. The problems I had with the game are still there, but knowing that most of that is fixed in ME2 makes it easier to play on, and the games story sure is compelling. Playing Adept with Garrus and Ashley, I found it ridiculously frustrating in the start, you literally couldn't peek out from cover without instantly dying since adepts have horrible armor and health in the start... now when I'm on my way to Ilos, I feel broken, maxed singularity literally pwns whole rooms of enemies, barrier makes you unkillable for a while, and the improved armor sure makes a huge difference, with the amounts of shields you have later on, it doesn't really matter that your actual armor is crap. From the discussion here, I get the feeling this won't be the case in ME2, which is a bit sad since it's pretty cool how the class starts weak and becomes OP later on, so I wonder if I will stick to adept in ME2... no way I'll go soldier though, sounds really boring.
ME2 was great, I didn't play through ME1 (started it but it was after ME2 and I couldn't get in to it) but I had a blast with 2. I just played the demo for ME3 today and I can't wait even if its the same demo they showed off at the last E3. Hope you enjoy it Tobberoth!
On February 17 2012 06:01 Shockk wrote: I initially thought about posting in the ME3 thread, but everyone there's oogling Ashley and Miranda and busy discussing the demo, and we do have a ME2 thread ... so I'm going to bump this.
Having lived in in the usual Blizzard cave of gaming isolation, I hadn't played the ME series until very recently, actually only having finished ME2 a couple of days ago. Great game, wonderful story, really cool. My first playthrough was with a soldier on Normal difficulty and the fights weren't really challenging.
I decided to start a second run because I liked the game so much and foolishly decided to pick an Adept and Hardcore difficulty. And the fights went from challenging to utter frustration.
The squad AI is a nightmare. Instead of doing what I tell them or moving with some common sense, my squad will usually find the quickest way to get themselves killed. On normal difficulty this didn't matter as enemies didn't live long enough but on hardcore it's very apparent.
To top things off, I picked the wrong class. Adepts suck. Especially compared to soldiers. Biotic powers apparently only work well when there's no shielding or armor, but hey, EVERYTHING has barriers, shields or armor, even freaking husks! Which means my oh-so-awesome Singularity will rarely actually pick up stuff and I'm busy trying to kill things with Warp and my puny guns (limiting the Adept to pistols and SMG is pretty cruel, too).
Is there a decent Adept build? I have the passive skill and Singularity maxed currently and am working on Warp. Thanks to the bonus skill from the first playthrough (I picked Warp ammo), my guns actually do damage, but they have little to no range and suck badly compared to the assault or sniper rifles that made the soldier playthrough a walk in the park. I thought about picking up Reave ... but not sure whether that'd help.
Is there hope for Adepts? Or for the squad AI? Or is there a mod to change my class mid-game to something which can actually beat stuff without spending ages on non-boss enemies?
Transitioning from normal difficulty to Hardcore or even Insanity is quite a big difference. Normal difficulty is just way too easy. I don't know what to tell you that you don't already know but here goes:
- Strip enemy protection with powers of squadmates or by shooting and then use pull/singularity+warp for warp explosion and double damage on the target + full damage even on protected enemies surrounding the target.
- max out warp and passive first + singularity to trigger explosions and then go from there.
- I took reave as bonus skill for further protection removal, stasis and barrier as defensive options seem decent as well. Haven't tried warp ammo.
- I didn't experience any problems with squad AI in my playthroughs. They pretty much did what was expected. If they are out of position order them to cover otherwise just manually spam the shit out of all powers (no auto-powers)
- I would not recommend changing the class midgame. A lot of people made it through insanity with adepts, so it is very possible to go through hardcore with an adept. If you are dead set on changing the class there is a savegame editor out there, just google it.
- Roll with miranda and garrus or miranda and grunt
On February 17 2012 19:09 Tobberoth wrote: Just a few days ago, I suddenly got the urge to try ME2 though so I started playing ME1 again and it's actually quite fun now. The problems I had with the game are still there, but knowing that most of that is fixed in ME2 makes it easier to play on, and the games story sure is compelling. Playing Adept with Garrus and Ashley, I found it ridiculously frustrating in the start, you literally couldn't peek out from cover without instantly dying since adepts have horrible armor and health in the start... now when I'm on my way to Ilos, I feel broken, maxed singularity literally pwns whole rooms of enemies, barrier makes you unkillable for a while, and the improved armor sure makes a huge difference, with the amounts of shields you have later on, it doesn't really matter that your actual armor is crap. From the discussion here, I get the feeling this won't be the case in ME2, which is a bit sad since it's pretty cool how the class starts weak and becomes OP later on, so I wonder if I will stick to adept in ME2... no way I'll go soldier though, sounds really boring.
Adept was broken in ME1, even on higher difficulties. In ME2 adepts are still broken on lower difficulties but considerably harder to play on higher ones. The combat system in the first one just wasn't that exciting. The combat and shooting in ME2 is a lot more fun than it was in ME1. Therefore having a wide arsenal of weapons and ammo powers is pretty cool and playing a soldier is not as boring as it might seem.
Most fun for me was Vanguard tho. The playstyle is very different from other classes. Charging in (and dying) like a madman 24/7.
Biotics are the best if you know how to use them, essentially because their crowd controlling. The damage output and health of the character aren't as good, but if you've got the right squadmates and the right skill trees, than you should be able to blow your enemies all over the place, preventing them from even getting the chance to fight back. It was even more ridiculous in Mass Effect 1. I had a combo as a Sentinel/Bastion/Singularity with Kaidan & Liara as squadmates, and at level 60. Essentially I had 2 singularities, 3 throws, 3 lifts, 3 warp, etc etc => on Insanity, it takes a while to kill people, but you never ever get shot back
On February 18 2012 00:21 HaXXspetten wrote: Biotics are the best if you know how to use them, essentially because their crowd controlling. The damage output and health of the character aren't as good, but if you've got the right squadmates and the right skill trees, than you should be able to blow your enemies all over the place, preventing them from even getting the chance to fight back
Biotics were OP in ME1. Doesn't work that way in ME2 though.
On February 18 2012 00:46 ZeaL. wrote: If adept is too frustrating on hardcore, I recommend trying adept/vanguard on insanity. It'll be a lot more fun.
Yeah ... right.
I've gained a few more levels on my adept and it's become a bit better; Heavy Warp really does help combined with Nemesis. But it's so incredibly boring playing the crowd controller and waiting for cooldowns to finish. And any fight where I can't abuse the terrain to the max usually spells out my doom.
The extra weapon spec gained on the Collector vessel is what really keeps me in the game right now; having picked the sniper rifle, I now actually have an option besides shooting Warp around corners and trying to kill things with my puny SMG (which still sucks, even at 5/5 upgrades). The class would have been much more fun to play had I had more than two weapons from the start, and if it weren't so focussed on CC but more on combat efficiency.
And I know that's not even optimal; considering how I used stasis, I would've been better off leaving it at one point and maxing throw. And I'm sure that a good case could be made for the heavy warp/singularity evolutions too. I took Jack with me on just about every mission too and, aside from her quick pull, she's pretty bad.
My approach to basically every encounter was: shoot enemy in the head, use Jack's pull, then my own warp. Against tougher enemies like Krogan and YMIR mechs, I abused the shit out of stasis.
Sorry, am I missing something here? How did you get FIVE skills maxed out? I finished the first playthrough at level 20-something on my soldier with 2 or 3 skills maxed, and my Adept is now 11 or 12 and has two maxed. Please remember that I'm not re-using an identical character for this, but instead started from scratch.
At level 30, you'll have 51 squad points to distribute. That's 5 maxed skills + 1 left over. That was a character imported from ME1 and started at, IIRC, level 3.
On February 17 2012 06:01 Shockk wrote: I initially thought about posting in the ME3 thread, but everyone there's oogling Ashley and Miranda and busy discussing the demo, and we do have a ME2 thread ... so I'm going to bump this.
Having lived in in the usual Blizzard cave of gaming isolation, I hadn't played the ME series until very recently, actually only having finished ME2 a couple of days ago. Great game, wonderful story, really cool. My first playthrough was with a soldier on Normal difficulty and the fights weren't really challenging.
I decided to start a second run because I liked the game so much and foolishly decided to pick an Adept and Hardcore difficulty. And the fights went from challenging to utter frustration.
The squad AI is a nightmare. Instead of doing what I tell them or moving with some common sense, my squad will usually find the quickest way to get themselves killed. On normal difficulty this didn't matter as enemies didn't live long enough but on hardcore it's very apparent.
To top things off, I picked the wrong class. Adepts suck. Especially compared to soldiers. Biotic powers apparently only work well when there's no shielding or armor, but hey, EVERYTHING has barriers, shields or armor, even freaking husks! Which means my oh-so-awesome Singularity will rarely actually pick up stuff and I'm busy trying to kill things with Warp and my puny guns (limiting the Adept to pistols and SMG is pretty cruel, too).
Is there a decent Adept build? I have the passive skill and Singularity maxed currently and am working on Warp. Thanks to the bonus skill from the first playthrough (I picked Warp ammo), my guns actually do damage, but they have little to no range and suck badly compared to the assault or sniper rifles that made the soldier playthrough a walk in the park. I thought about picking up Reave ... but not sure whether that'd help.
Is there hope for Adepts? Or for the squad AI? Or is there a mod to change my class mid-game to something which can actually beat stuff without spending ages on non-boss enemies?
I didn't have too much of an issue on insanity with my adept. I brought Garrus and Miranda with me everywhere since both have Overload (and Miranda has warp for extra beatings against armor and big damage, I think you can swap either one with Kasumi or maybe Thane and do fine too), picked a Snipe Rifle for my extra weapon, and Reave for my extra power. You need to be very slow and methodical in combat, and you need to be careful to delegate your squad's power usage properly (set squad power use to off so you have complete control over when they use them and what they use them on... you'll spend a lot of time in the power wheel but its necessary. Designate what they shoot at and what they use powers on each step of the way). Adepts can control space really well with Throw/Pull/Shockwave/Singularity while your followers strip shields/barriers/armor away. If you push too far forward too quickly in a combat situation the AI will tend to try and get right on top of you, and then you're dead. Don't be afraid to give a little ground sometimes and try to section off enemies. I tried to focus down the biggest threats first whenever possible (Krogans, Heavy Mechs, etc). The only times I really found myself in really difficult situations were when there was a heavy mech + a lot of normal guys. The big mechs are so resilient on Insanity. In fact the hardest fight in the entire game for me was the Heavy Mech when trying to free Jack. Even the big floating armored Collector things weren't as tough for me to deal with for some reason.
Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
On February 18 2012 20:12 Shockk wrote: Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
ME2 is like a lot of BioWare games, it starts off somewhat difficult then becomes easier as time goes on. But it's still not that difficult a game even on the harder two difficulties. If you're dying a lot it's most likely not due to the controls or the AI.
I wanted to finish one of my saves to transfer into ME3, so I've been using a trainer and machine gunning everything with the Cain heavy weapon. It's a blast
On February 18 2012 20:41 Telcontar wrote: I wanted to finish one of my saves to transfer into ME3, so I've been using a trainer and machine gunning everything with the Cain heavy weapon. It's a blast
I just use the Gibbeds ME2 Save Editor and change my shephard's class every mission. One I play as Soldier, the next as Sentinel and another as Infiltrator. It's actually pretty fun.
On February 18 2012 20:41 Telcontar wrote: I wanted to finish one of my saves to transfer into ME3, so I've been using a trainer and machine gunning everything with the Cain heavy weapon. It's a blast
I just use the Gibbeds ME2 Save Editor and change my shephard's class every mission. One I play as Soldier, the next as Sentinel and another as Infiltrator. It's actually pretty fun.
Careful with how much you edit with the program though. It might corrupt your save file, unless you don't intend to transfer it over to ME3, then it's fine I guess.
On February 18 2012 20:12 Shockk wrote: Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
ME2 is like a lot of BioWare games, it starts off somewhat difficult then becomes easier as time goes on. But it's still not that difficult a game even on the harder two difficulties. If you're dying a lot it's most likely not due to the controls or the AI.
Try to post without thinly veiled insults, thanks.
On February 18 2012 20:12 Shockk wrote: Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
ME2 is like a lot of BioWare games, it starts off somewhat difficult then becomes easier as time goes on. But it's still not that difficult a game even on the harder two difficulties. If you're dying a lot it's most likely not due to the controls or the AI.
Try to post without thinly veiled insults, thanks.
I didn't mean it as an insult, I apologize if you take it as such. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of the issues you're blaming the game for aren't necessarily the game's fault. As an FPS player with only average aim I had no trouble beating the game on the higher difficulties.
If you want tips, always aim for the head since it does bonus damage. Also, don't lead your shots. Although the bullets look like they take time to travel they're actually all hitscan. Hopefully that helps.
On February 18 2012 20:12 Shockk wrote: Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
ME2 is like a lot of BioWare games, it starts off somewhat difficult then becomes easier as time goes on. But it's still not that difficult a game even on the harder two difficulties. If you're dying a lot it's most likely not due to the controls or the AI.
Try to post without thinly veiled insults, thanks.
I didn't mean it as an insult, I apologize if you take it as such. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of the issues you're blaming the game for aren't necessarily the game's fault. As an FPS player with only average aim I had no trouble beating the game on the higher difficulties.
If you want tips, always aim for the head since it does bonus damage. Also, don't lead your shots. Although the bullets look like they take time to travel they're actually all hitscan. Hopefully that helps.
Oh, really? Thanks for the hint to aim for the head! I always thought shooting them in the thumb caused the most damage.
The game isn't difficult per se, it's just horribly frustrating to properly execute everything on the higher difficulties. Unless I manually order my squad mates to stay behind every time I move a few meters, they'll get themselves killed instantly. A single button (Space) controlling most actions means a single wrong click can lead to repeating a five minute fight because I didn't take cover for no apparant reason. And annoying things like 3-second long animations after some attacks preventing me from moving or taking cover doesn't help either.
True difficulty stems from actually requiring aiming or cooldown management, using terrain advantages and squad interaction. A good part of ME2's difficulty comes from having to deal with sub-par game mechanics.
The bottom line of my first playthrough on Normal with a Soldier was that ME2 was probably one of the best games I've ever played; flashy graphics, neat combat, amazing story. Had I started with the Adept on Hardcore as I'm doing right now, I'd probably summed it up with less kind words. It's still a wonderful game, but the combat part of it all is much less fun the harder you tune it.
Playing through insanity with Vanguard right now. I die a lot cuz of my reckless playstyle but its so much fun. I like the tactical battles on higher difficulties. The challenge has made it a lot more fun than it was when i played on veteran dificulty. Just needs some time to adjust. After a while most enemies can be dealt with.
Heavy mechs and bosses can be dealt with by staying in cover and moving at the right time. Mechs always shoot their machine gun salve, then short pause and then 2 rockets. Wait out those two attacks end then either move to a different cover to gain distance or shoot untill the mech starts with his machine gun again. You can also get a few shots off between the machine gun and the rockets if you are feeling safe. For his shields use disruptor ammo and overload and shoot with SMGs. For his Armor use warp and incendiary ammo and shoot with heavy pistols.
Most bosses are the same. Get rid of the minions when u see a break in the fire, don't let anyone get close and then just deal with the boss alone.
I need to find a decent way to deal with husks + Scions though. They are a huge pain in the ass in combination. Most weapons seem inefficient. Need to test all those different heavy weapons i guess.
On February 18 2012 21:40 AntiGrav1ty wrote: I need to find a decent way to deal with husks + Scions though. They are a huge pain in the ass in combination. Most weapons seem inefficient. Need to test all those different heavy weapons i guess.
The trick for husks is to instagib them once you bring down your defences. This can be done by shooting at the legs, Using biotic power that send them flying (Singularity and Mass Pull of Mass Throw comes to mind, Shockwave also works). Also Cyroblast and Incendiary Blast works well. The later is also extremely useful in stripping the husk defenses, so bring Mordin along. I don't have much experience with Grunt vs husks, but when he charges he also seem to instagib them. Scions are a pain in the ass, so you will have to kite them and keep distance from them. When possible, reserve a Cain shot for them. There is a feature/bug that scions cant hit you if you duck in some corner. As for weapons and powers, the best results come from sniper rifles (especially the Widow), Incendiary Blast and Warp. FYI there is a bug with stasis that allows you to do insane amounts of damage once the stasis runs out, so get close to the enemy in stasis and blast his ass once he's out. EDIT: Saw that you playing as a Vanguard. If you got Claymore, just charge str8 into the Scions with Incendiary Ammo and use Claymore's reload trick (Hold the fire bottom, and while the Claymore reloads press the Melee bottom. Cuts the reload time in about half once done right). There is a close range attack that the Scions do, but they kinda charge it so you will have to see it and back off. Once they did attack and do no damage, charge again into them. If you don't have Claymore, rely on squadmate powers and kite it from distance and shoot it with Heavy Pistol.
Yeah, i was kinda removing armor with whatever i can and then either pull or shoot the legs so they get severed. Still takes too long tho. Might try cryo blast and cryo ammo. Scions on their own are pretty weak. Just running from those husks while several scions are firing their shockwave is kinda annoying.
On February 18 2012 22:39 AntiGrav1ty wrote: Yeah, i was kinda removing armor with whatever i can and then either pull or shoot the legs so they get severed. Still takes too long tho. Might try cryo blast and cryo ammo. Scions on their own are pretty weak. Just running from those husks while several scions are firing their shockwave is kinda annoying.
Most of the Scion+Husk encounters you can isolate the husks from the Scions. There are only two encounters you can't: At the end of Horizon with the 2 Scions in the center and in Suicide Mission in the biotic bubble section. Both of those encounters I just Cain them because they are extremely tough. Without Cain, in Horizon run in circles as far away as possible from the Scions, focus fire them individually while avoiding the husks. In Suicide Mission just focus fire the Scion while avoiding abominations and husks and hope he doesn't kill you before you kill him.
On February 18 2012 20:12 Shockk wrote: Alright. My Adept is lvl 18 now, and fights have become a bit more doable with Heavy Warp and Heavy Singularity. But the controls and the squad AI still piss me off big time; I usually decrease the difficulty outright when I see Heavy Mechs or bosses since I'm in no mood to repeat long fights just because my squad mates suicided again or because I died thanks to pressing Space once too often.
I really hope that the controls won't be as console-inspired in ME3 as they're in ME2. It really shows what platform this game was developed for.
ME2 is like a lot of BioWare games, it starts off somewhat difficult then becomes easier as time goes on. But it's still not that difficult a game even on the harder two difficulties. If you're dying a lot it's most likely not due to the controls or the AI.
Try to post without thinly veiled insults, thanks.
I didn't mean it as an insult, I apologize if you take it as such. I'm merely pointing out that a lot of the issues you're blaming the game for aren't necessarily the game's fault. As an FPS player with only average aim I had no trouble beating the game on the higher difficulties.
If you want tips, always aim for the head since it does bonus damage. Also, don't lead your shots. Although the bullets look like they take time to travel they're actually all hitscan. Hopefully that helps.
There's a giant difference between every other class and adept on Insanity. While the former truly are easy, adept is really tough, especially in the beginning. Using healthy henchmen like Zaeed and the Krogan should help a bunch though.
I wish the game had it so that your squadmates need a clear line of sight of their targets in order for their powers hit true. The instantaneous effect that only requires your vision of the target is quite overpowered. It makes ordering your squadmates around the battlefield less crucial and pretty trivial. It certainly would've made the game more challenging. ME3 seems to have the same mechanics which is a slight disappointment.
Just wanted to say, I beat the freaking N7 smuggling bonus side quest at lvl 8 sentinel on insanity (the one where you've got 3 heavy mechs with minimal to moderate cover). Took me 2 hours, and I didn't use any exploits nor did I use the shuttle for cover (which in retrospect would've made things a LOT easier). I feel like I just beat the game.
Open up on first mech immediately with 4x overloads + 3-4 clips of smg. You should have its shields down with this by the time it reaches the second rock cover or you won't be able to kill it before it reaches your cover. Then immediately use 6 shots of your grenade launcher to its head + warp to take out its armor, then concussive to stun and finish it. Repeat for the second mech which should already be firing on your teammates. (Repeatedly order them to stay under cover or they will just stand around without cover and die to the mechs). Again, time is of the essence, because you need to kill this second mech before the third mech gets within the range where its rockets are nearly undodgeable. Once you kill off the second mech, suicide rush leapfrog to the overturned rover a little to your left. You should be able to kite/flank it.
The hardest part of executing all of this is putting out enough dps on each mech before each mech reaches you, which is insanely hard. If you get hit by a rocket at any point, you lose because of the time lost. If you miss any grenade shot or take too much damage too quickly and have to wait for shield recovery, you lose.
EPT
, but even then it might compete with them I think)
but doesn't really apply as much when playing on normal-hardcore. Looking forward for ME2 tho looks like they are working on their weakness.. fucken elevators
. Bioware puts out such good quality games (especially comparatively), and the atmosphere/plot/in depth nature of the first was so good. I just hope I'm not disappointed. 
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