Mass Effect

[Al B. Sure!]

I played the demo for Mass Effect 2. I really liked the interactions and the dialogue choices (although the ones in the demo didn't seem to make much difference what you picked, I imagine in the real game, it has more of an effect on what happens).

What I didn't like about it was all the combat. It was exactly like Gears of War but without the polish and good control in Gears of War. I can't explain it but there's certain games where the controls just feel right (Call of Duty, Gears of War, Assassin's Creed) and where they feel awkward and not smooth to me and I feel like I'm controlling a puppet (GTA before IV but IV to an extent, Battlefield, Mass Effect). Is there a lot of Gears of War-style combat in Mass Effect? I was hoping for more peaceful exploration and missions. If I wanted to play a third person cover shooter, Gears and Ghost Recon do it a lot better, but I am intrigued if Mass Effect has a lot of parts where you don't fight.

Also, I played with a Jane Shepard and I picked what I figured were the ******* dialogue options... oh man, is there something wrong with me because I found bad Jane sexy as hell

[Guynemer]

I have an evil female Shepard, and she is sexy as hell.

I've never played GOW, so I can't speculate to your question.

[Al B. Sure!]

Well, is it all fighting?

[Guynemer]

Um, no.

[Al B. Sure!]

The demo was all fighting. I don't want to play it if the whole game is me hiding behind unrealistically placed and common boxes sniping at things and using the occasional magical power. Oh yeah, and very small interiors everywhere with no different paths to get somewhere.

[Hauldren Collider]

Am I the only person who didn't hate the Mako? Yes driving over the mountains was a ***** but I found the Mako missions fun...it would have been much better if combat hadn't consisted entirely of jumping over rockets though.

Fun trick with Mako: They ONLY ever aim for the nose of the Mako. Park that behind a rock, leaving the turret exposed and fire away. Works every ****ing time.

[DrSpike]

The demo was all fighting. I don't want to play it if the whole game is me hiding behind unrealistically placed and common boxes sniping at things and using the occasional magical power. Oh yeah, and very small interiors everywhere with no different paths to get somewhere.

Well much of the story wouldn't make sense out of context, so yeah they put some action scenes in the demo.

The bottom line is that the combat is not as good as Gears of War as you suggest. But then nothing is: Gears of War is a game based around its cover based combat, whereas ME is a much broader experience. I think the combat works pretty well in ME2 though, and you definitely have more variety in squad command and the options available to you compared to a standard shooter. As well as a cracking story and great characters.

[DrSpike]

Am I the only person who didn't hate the Mako?

Yes - yours is the only known case of this particular ailment. I hope you get better soon.

[Snotty]

I enjoyed ME2 but didnt leave with the same kind of religious experience others seem to have had.

The cutscenes, dialogue and plot gripped me allowing me to get emotionally attached as only good storytelling will allow. I cant overstate enough how these factors built towards a memorable tale, and provide an extremely high target for other games to aspire to.

However I found combat uninspired, some limp lettuce in an otherwise mouthwatering bacon sandwich. While the combat was by no means bad, I would struggle to describe it as good. Unfortunately the combat sequences make up a not insignificant part of the game. I appreciate how combat is neccesary to drive the story but I left feeling it was something to be endured rather than enjoyed. The combat was still a vast improvement over ME1

Maybe I missed the memo but I failed to understand the fascination with the romance sub plots. I particularly did not understand the internets collective hard on for Miranda. The square jawed aussie ***** just annoyed me. Maybe i misunderstood the conversation but she said she was genetically engineered from her fathers DNA. So, logically, she used to be a man. I mean, whatever makes you happy, but thats not really my cup of tea.

[onodera]

Maybe I missed the memo but I failed to understand the fascination with the romance sub plots. I particularly did not understand the internets collective hard on for Miranda. The square jawed aussie ***** just annoyed me. Maybe i misunderstood the conversation but she said she was genetically engineered from her fathers DNA. So, logically, she used to be a man. I mean, whatever makes you happy, but thats not really my cup of tea.

That's because you get to see her boobs. In my parts of the intrawebs, Tali is the collective wet dream for some reason.

[DrSpike]

Come on - it was Miranda or that crazy chick! Or complete abstinence for a very long mission. My Shepard stepped up and did the right thing.

[Hauldren Collider]

The romance stuff is unbelievably retarded and lame.

[Guynemer]

That's because you get to see her boobs. In my parts of the intrawebs, Tali is the collective wet dream for some reason.

Some people just like nice, noncrazy chicks.

[Hauldren Collider]

I'm honestly getting bored of all the GOW clones, and hope mass effect 3 moves a bit away from the hunker down and take potshots mechanics.

I also didn't really like the shields/barriers/armor/health rock-paper-scissors stuff. I did like how they fixed biotics and other powers. But the missions were too short. And levelling up was too dumbed down for my tastes. Also Jacob is a little *****.

However, the inventory management in Mass Effect 1 was absolutely maddening. I couldn't stand it. It was just ****ing awful. Why the hell can I only carry 100 things or whatever? And can't you make equipping the squad less singularly awful? Mass Effect 2 fixed this perfectly. You STILL cannot level up your squad from within your ship though and that's a huge flaw.

[Nostromo]

Overall, ME2 is the better game, expect for the ending (which was incredibly lame IMO), the uber small levels (the Citadel never felt so small) and the mining mini-game.