Turning it into a shooter when it used to be an RPG. I love RPGs. In the ME1, for example, you had to role play whatever character you designed or attained. If they were bad at combat you had to play that out. No way around it. In ME2, if you are good at shooters, you can basically breeze through the entire game ignoring the veneer of RPG like choices in character progression. Fantastic if you are a fan of shooters, absolutely mind-blowingly crappy if you are a fan of RPGs.
Mass Effect 1 was also a cover-based third person shooter, just not a very good one. Remember ME1 launched a year after Gears and a few weeks after the original Uncharted. You may have forgotten how much shooting the main campaign missions have, not to mention most of the side missions which are almost entirely shooting with minimal (or no) dialogue. Moonbase AI? Shooting. Cerberus missions? Shooting. Miscellaneous geth incursions? Shooting. Character-based side missions? Shooting. Crimelord mission? Shooting. A few missions did let you diffuse a final encounter but only after a lot of shooting. Talking down Major Kyle, the former alliance officer who became a cult leader, is one of few examples where you can complete the whole mission without killing anybody.
I played the first half of ME1 as a pistol shooter with combat orientated companions because tech and bionics were so poorly explained. It was only when I enough people to experiment with tech and bionics that I saw that these were crazy powerful. Kinda
too powerful because a fully levelled Liara is borderline unstoppable. I felt I was just steamrolling the game when teamed up with Liara and Kaiden.
Being able to actually shoot out of the gate isn't bad. Go roll a new character in ME1 and pick Infiltrator class and try to use that sniper rifle. You can't because the reticule weaves around like drunken prom date. You have to sink a ton of level ups into that skill and it's dumb. I'm an elite Alliance Commander who is skilled at ranged combat and yet I can't hold my rifle steady?
Conversations with NPCs are meaningless. You can crap all over your teammates making them hate you. But as long as you do 1 NPC specific mission for them, they'll love you as if you were the living embodiment of Jesus/Buddha/Mohammad/etc. come to bless them and only them. In other words, no matter what dialog choices you make, or how you treat your teammates, just do 1 mission and it gets you onto the developer approved story arc. Basically yet another way to crap on the concept of a meaningful RPG.
Wasn't
this also the case in ME1? Was it possible for companions to leave of their own volition or refuse to work for you?
Except the story which makes no sense whatsoever,
a lone survivor Shepar who got her squad killed by Cerberus would never ally with it, period. And that's without all the story issues, too many things don't make sense in ME2 compared to ME, it looks like a rushed TV quality serie
I've only played ME1 once, is
that a possible outcome of ME1? How do you get it?
I'm not that far into ME2 having just completed the mission where you first encounter the collectors, so I don't know how things are going to pan out in ME2 let alone ME3. But on the point about Shepherd working with Cerberus. What other choice is there? The Alliance fleet is rebuilding and the Council are sticking their head in the sand over the existence of Reapers. Shephard can either do nothing or use Cerberus - and this is how I'm reading it.
I said in an earlier post that when I first boarded the Normandy SR2 I spent about an hour checking out the ship and talking to the crew, particularly exploring the dialogue options for "What do you think or Cerberus" and "Why did you join Cerberus". The vast majority of the crew are aware of Cerberus's reputation (which make then suck as a covert organisation, lol) but they are disillusioned with the Council and/or the Alliance. Thus far in ME2, every time you encounter judgemental dialogue reading working for Cerberus, which I just had from Kaidan (btw
grow up, Kaiden, you are not a fucking emo!), you can respond with "I don't work for Cerberus" or "we need their resources" or words akin to those. To make your position and thoughts on the situation clear.
And that's my position as of where I am in ME2. I don't trust Cerberus after the experiments, killings and assassination of a Rear Admiral in ME1. But I do believe the people on the Lazarus Team share my goal of stopping the immediate threat; the Collectors. I will use Cerberus' resources for my own ends. I know Cerberus don't trust me. They don't trust their AI (probable wise, lol) which clearly has information or directives it can't yet access which makes it potentially very dangerous. There are still bits of the ship I can't access. It wouldn't surprise me to find out the Illusive Man is sending me messages from one of those locked rooms on my own ship!
The story is making sense to me
at this point. Shephard is somebody who will do what it takes to save the universe and right now that means allying himself with Cerberus.
Inimicus inimici mei amicus mess est.
What I am
really liking about ME2 is the different perspective on the same universe. In ME1 you're kind of indoctrinated into believing the Council are great and it's really important for the Alliance to join the Council. The Council are insistent that everybody outside Citadel systems, like the Terminus Systems, are pirates, terrorists or psychos. As you play the game you realise that the Council races have all the same human psychological flaws as humans - there is actually some dialogue to this effect. The Council are deeply flawed and just want to maintain equilibrium so that the races with power - the Asari, Turians and Salarians - stay in control.
The original three Council races have reservations about humans that goes beyond relations just being relatively short (20-30 years) or the Alliance Turian war. The three Council races fear the drive of humanity. Humanity brings a bit of chaos but also change. There is also that running theme on "lesser races" not being allowed to join the council, particularly the Volus and Elcor. There are clear divides - the Presidium and the Wards. Then there are the Krogan.
In ME2 you spend time in the Terminus Systems and what do you find? It's really no different to Citadel/Council controlled-space; it's certainly just as lawless with just as many people out to line their pockets. What is missing is bunch of self-serving preachy arseholes in charge. Arguably it's a more honest place to live.
Maybe the story will really go off the rails but right now I'm really digging it. It's just like life - things are rarely as they appear on the surface and many things depend upon your point of view.
I feel I'm drawing close to the end of the main campaign now and my biggest dilemma is do I replay ME1 as a renegade female adept or progress to ME2. Decisions, decisions..
