truly101 said:
What I'd really want to know from people that liked ME1 more strictly based on potential, is what did you honestly expect this series to be? I don't mean this as an insult or troll attempt, I mean a serious answer. What did you think this game would become other than what it is? Anything to compare it to?...But I think it would help if I knew better what people hoped they were getting, instead of what they got.
I can't speak for others, but I expected ME2 to be a more refined version of ME1.
This will probably go way off on tangents instead of making effective points, and I apologize for that.
Story
Story I didn't really have an preconceptions about because, like you said, it was left rather open ended. The story was horribly mishandled, though, because there are so many things that just flat out don't make sense. ME1 had many issues as well, but not to the severity 2 did.
Combat
Combat I figured would be just a more finely tuned experience, and I think ME2 did a good job in some regards. We got more exciting battles, some fun new weapons/powers, and the squadmates felt much more responsive. However, I didn't like the introduction of thermal clips because 1. retcon was sloppy 2. I don't like how every battle ended with me running around looking for ammo clips. I hadn't followed ME2 closely before release because I wanted to go into it rather fresh, but it immediately had me scrunching my brow trying to figure out why anyone would go from an infinitely firing weapon type to such a cumbersome system.
Menus and Loot
Looting and menus were a HUGE problem in the first game. I really expected Bioware to do something to fix it, but I didn't think they would strip it down to beyond bare-bones. I have virtually no menus anymore regarding loot, and weapons have been pushed to just two available times of examination. It doesn't really do you much good, though, since they will give you the ability to upgrade your "stats," but you can't visibly see what is changing. Being told I'm getting a 40% boost of something is all well and good, but it means nothing if I don't ever see how much that really means.
Mako/Exploration
The mako stuff was one of the highlights of the first game for me, and I loved just driving around. I knew tons of people hated it. I didn't get around to playing ME until the december before ME2 released, but I had heard so many people complain about it that I knew it was bound to get an overhaul. Wasn't expecting it to be flat out discarded. The hammerhead seems to be a step in a better direction, regarding controls, but the thing that made the mako great was the exploration. That was completely forgotten when they built the missions for the hammerhead, and it was disappointing to no longer have the only real part of the game that let you stretch your legs a little bit.
Sidequests
I really expected a huge improvement here, and it did deliver in some regards. To say the quests in ME1 were bland would be an understatement. There were either two or three total locations the quests took place on, and the voices of the enemies were enough to drive one mad. I thought we would get more variety, and we did. There were even missions in 2, regardless of how short, that had us taking part in no combat at all.
That said... ME2's missions felt so empty. ME1 had missions that actually were relevant to the lore, issues, and Shepherd's past. As repetitive as they could be, they felt much more substantial to my interests. I wasn't just killing another group of mercs, I was learning about the universe of ME.
Characters
Just like in ME1, I had many characters I liked and disliked in ME2. I didn't really have much in mind for what would be next. I mostly assumed it would be the same team or maybe some minor changes. For the most part, it was the case. However, I hate how large the crew got. It was obviously for the ending sequence they had planned out for the end game, but there was just far too many secondary character missions and not enough focus on creating a narrative for the game.
Romancing
I never really had any idea of what kind of overbearing monster this would become. The characters you would pick up to join you on your suicide run only had around 30 seconds of interaction with Shepherd before climbing aboard. Okay, so one could assume that conversation would lead to more development. It does, but it also leads to so many clumsily handled flirty lines, or requests to have intercourse that it became annoying. I wanted to know the crew I was enlisting, but instead all I got were frequent advances to sleep with my character, in spite of me never even wishing to follow those paths with that character.
Presentation
I didn't really have any desire for what it would look like, assuming it would follow much of the original. For the most part, it absolutely does. There were just some odd things that they changed from 1 to 2. I didn't really notice what felt off to me at first, but the more I played the more I noticed what was bugging me.
Most of this will probably be me just being nitpicky so feel free to skip past this to the next paragraph-
-The changes to human armor were odd to me. It became far more chunky, and it looked like my character shouldn't be able to get around in what they were wearing anymore.
-Lens flares were gone. I felt it was a nice signature in the game, and a loving throwback to older media. I believe it did show up a small number of times, but it was missed.
-Conference room. It felt almost bizarre being in this room. The wooden table, everyone standing around with only three side characters ever really getting dialogue. Just felt off.
-Sense of scale feels like it was struck down in comparison.
-The lore feels like an after thought more, now. It was interesting to see many of the themes and issues carried over into the sidequests, and I would have loved to seen that in ME2 more than "kill these mercs. That's it."
-Jack was a standout for me, but not in a good way. I understand, she's supposed to be the punk that doesn't fit in. Lashing out as a defense, and all that good stuff. I just don't feel she ever managed to fit into the game for me. She feels extremely unresolved, and I avoided her whenever possible.
Mass Effect 2 really didn't break my heart because my dear, beloved ME1 was lost.
I'm not one of those bitter, hateful fans when it comes to ME2. There's just so many decisions that the team made that seems so misguided that I have trouble understanding how it could be for anything other than larger market appeal. Yet, the game they produced isn't even up to par with some of the mechanics of other games they appear to be emulating. I can't help but wonder if ME2 would have become a more commonly enjoyed game had it stuck to its guns and refined the original in favor of abandoning the things that just needed some TLC. Story aside.
I still think that a successful combination of ME1 and ME2 would make for a much better ME3, but all of the media for ME3 just appears to be taking another step in the direction ME2 started down. I'm sure the game will still be enjoyable to play, and I'll probably find many things to like/hate in it. I've done it for the previous two titles.
