Monday, July 12, 2010

What a tool he was

Joker that is.  This is probably my favorite quote from Mass Effect 2.  Raman being an Earth delicacy is a close second.  Since I finally finished up all the the content I had planned in ME2, I figured now is a good time to reflect on it.  Timely, I know.

I think it is safe to say that ME2 ranks as one of my favorite games of all time.  It is easily one of the top RPG's ever made.  What stands out to me is how much immersion Bioware packed into the game.  The codex system did a great job of feeding you information about the world around you.

Audio was another area where ME2 excelled.  Conversations felt very natural and were helped by the sheer amount of dialog.  I often felt that I was watching a movie since it all flowed so well.  Background audio (people chatting, news reports) had me stopping to listen all of the time.

I thought the story itself was top notch.  It managed to be compelling while supporting Paragon or Renegade play.  Bioware seems to close to mastering making the choices made feel like they have an impact (even if they really don't).  They still have some work to do though.  My choices from ME1 (having humans take over the council) really didn't seem to matter much.

One area that needs improvement is the challenge.  I tend to play games on their default difficulty setting and I had an easy time with ME2.  Biotic powers could be ignored for the most part as you only really needed cover and your gun.  I could have cranked up the difficulty level but replaying content is not top on my list.

I was also not a fan of the heat clip system.  Searching out ammo is not my idea of fun.  Luckily I could usually find enough to keep me going.  I also didn't like the lack of items in ME2.  Once of my fond memories of the original was when I finally got access to all of my Specter gear.

I hope ME2 is an indication of what we can expect from TOR.  If Bioware can deliver the same quality but on a MMO scale it should be an amazing game.  All reports show that they are trying to do just that.  Not only am I looking forward to that but there will be a Mass Effect 3 sometime too.  I probably should just give Bioware access to my bank account.  Alright, I need to get back to calculating Pi all day.