Sol.. said:
loot systems are a game in itself. It's more about the rush of getting cool shit and developing strategy from it. I agree that the equipment menus sucked. It was horrible. But it's not like they couldn't have easily streamlined it. The way it is now I'm kinda just playin' the game. I don't feel like my people are getting powerful. I actually could care less about their development which is just sad for a RPG. There aren't really many interesting weapons or armor either. The diversity is just down and out. Thats why I want my loot back.
While ME2's equipment diversity isn't quite what it could/should be, I think it's a
lot better than ME1's. Every gun in the first game handled
exactly like every other gun in its category, and the only improvements that ever happened amounted to generic damage boosts, which were tied directly to your character's level, so there was no surprise, and were doled out according to random probability, giving the player no choice or involvement with the entire process - and even then, it only lasted until about halfway through the game when you got the Rich achievement, at which point you more or less stop advancing altogether, aside from a different set of slightly stronger Spectre gear. Mods gave you, at
best, a gimmick weapon equivalent to ME2's Heavy Weapons (ie: High Explosive Sniper Rifle), a flat bonus to damage that outclassed every other option available, or some silly little effect that was so minor as to be pretty much negligible.
In contrast, ME2 starts right off the bat by giving every class one completely new weapon type, plus half a dozen or so Heavy Weapons that are all completely unique (save the Particle Beam which is just an amped up AR). But more importantly, they didn't make each weapon in a particular category a linear upgrade over the previous one. The Pistol you begin the game with is a viable alternative to the Hand Cannon. The starting Sniper Rifle is a good deal more powerful per-shot than the semi-automatic one. The Geth Assault Rifle is stronger on Shields and Barriers, and Weaker on Armour compared to the Battle Rifle that it replaces. They didn't pull it off perfectly (I can't see a reason to go back to the original Machine Pistol after getting the Tempest, or the original Assault Rifle compared to the Battle Rifle, and the upgraded AR/SR/SG you can get are pretty definitively better than at least one of the weapons in their class), but it creates a whole hell of a lot more equipment diversity than the first game had, in my opinion. Plus it's supplemented by upgrades that are largely player-driven, so you advance mostly at your own pace, along upgrade paths that you choose, rather than relying entirely on your character level and a random number generator to do the work for you.
It's not where it could be, but the core idea is a lot stronger than ME1's. Even if it's not quite got the diversity and depth that I'd want it to, a basic-but-thoughtfully-designed system is infinitely preferable to me over the alternative, which would be taking the cumbersome, slapdash system from the first game and trying to retrofit depth onto a fundamentally flawed idea.
