Part of me seriously wishes that I could go back and forget that conversation, just to live through it again for the first time. Talk about shock combined with a sort of impending dread.
Mass Effect 2
- Thread starter TheBrew
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Part of me seriously wishes that I could go back and forget that conversation, just to live through it again for the first time. Talk about shock combined with a sort of impending dread.
I felt the opposite - there was no pressure for the first 75% of the game, until your crew gets captured, contrary to what the cutscenes keep telling you.
Exactly therein lies the difference: One is (perceived) urgency in terms of the narrative, the other is urgency in terms of underlying gameplay mechanics.
Really? What did you want? A ticking clock?
The series being such as it is regarding Shepard -- every decision, every 'thought' inside Shepard's head comes down to the player -- it was quite simple for me to get inside the fictional brain of the character and find that ticking clock.
^Indeed. All through the game you're given reminders that make you feel like you're on the clock. Overhearing the crew talking about more colonies going missing, families being evacuated, loved ones lost to the Collectors. It's all there and it screams that events are proceeding outside of your control and with every mission you complete, a few thousand more colonists are going missing.
By contrast in ME1 you're free to doodle off as you please chasing after mercs, rogue AIs, Cerberus, dissident biotics and a whole swath of stuff that has NOTHING to do with Saren or finding the conduit. You have your missions laid out and can choose to complete them in any order you feel like. At no point in the interim do you have events thrust upon you like with Horizon, the Collector Ship or the crew being taken and there are no consequences to doing some more side-missions before going to Ilos, where as in ME2, you can and will loose people if you take too long.
By contrast in ME1 you're free to doodle off as you please chasing after mercs, rogue AIs, Cerberus, dissident biotics and a whole swath of stuff that has NOTHING to do with Saren or finding the conduit. You have your missions laid out and can choose to complete them in any order you feel like. At no point in the interim do you have events thrust upon you like with Horizon, the Collector Ship or the crew being taken and there are no consequences to doing some more side-missions before going to Ilos, where as in ME2, you can and will loose people if you take too long.
No, I wanted some negative consequences to spending time on side missions like improving my crew's psychological health. Instead, you're penalized for acting quickly, and rewarded for dicking around.
That's because ME2 is primarily a defensive action. You cannot go on the offensive because you have little to no intelligence on the Collectors. Merely rushing through the Omega 4 relay would accomplish nothing aside from getting part of your crew killed on way in and having a crew who still has lingering issues in the back of their minds means they might screw up and get themselves and others killed. This is a situation where patience and foresight take precedence over getting things done quickly (dealing with Saren and his geth).
^Yeah, this.
I didn't feel any sense of urgency when I was taking my team around to galaxy to help them settle their personal issues. I would have liked it more if all or most of them had some sort of tie to the Collectors to give me more of a reason to want them with me other than because the Illusive Man said I should recruit them.
Also, I would have preferred if they hadn't given us so many characters and used those extra resources to add more depth to the various missions. Why am I fighting random mercenary groups? They should have been working for the Collectors, maybe scouting out worlds with human populations for potential harvesting.
Also, I would have preferred if they hadn't given us so many characters and used those extra resources to add more depth to the various missions. Why am I fighting random mercenary groups? They should have been working for the Collectors, maybe scouting out worlds with human populations for potential harvesting.
I'm just anxious to see what the viewpoints on pacing and story will be once the trilogy is complete. We're still missing one part...
btw, Femshep all the way imho
btw, Femshep all the way imho
The best part of the midsection of many great trilogies (and four-parters, too, I guess) is how much time is devoted to fleshing-out the universe and dealing with lesser but interesting issues. I fought 'random mercenary groups' excitedly for this.
Then Bioware presented it poorly, since ME1 felt like a situation where patience and foresight took precedence over getting things done quickly, while the Collector threat didn't.
You can flesh out the universe while also contributing to the overall storyline, too. Like I said, if the Blue Suns, Eclipse, and Blood Pack had been working for the Collectors, that would have given me more of a reason to care about them. In addition, it also would have extended the Collectors' presence in the story, which in its current state is close to negligible.
I definitely prefer the mercenary bands not being interconnected. I'm inclined to agree that the Collectors' presence in the story is underutilized but I enjoy the diversity of the galaxy. I enjoy doing combat and saving damsels and being saved by heroes and kicking asses and taking names and getting my ass kicked and all those other great things in a diverse setting with all kinds of factions. As it stands, after a time the 'diversity' of the mercenary bands even wears thin, but I'll still take it over fighting almost nothing but geth in ME1, personally.
I think a lot of the perceived lack of story is from actual lack of story. But not necessarily in the main thread.
In ME1, nearly every planet with a mission on it had at least one conversation tree that told you what was going on and gave greater background on the state of the universe. And a few of the ones that didn't still usually had some story present (in the form of personal logs, etc). There were even extra little tidbits here and there like how the Geth would listen to Quarian iTunes. ME2 rarely bothered to give much of a story beyond "excuse plot".
While the maps looked significantly worse overall in ME1, they simultaneously looked more lived in, whereas the ME2 maps just look like action game maps full of chest-high walls. (And wow is it difficult to not derail on that bit of gamplay mechanics.)
I think more than 50% of all planets, habitable or not had some sort of interesting background described. I lost track of how many "extrasolar captures" ME2 had.
Semi-related, there's also the doubling of the crew's size. ME2 actually develops the crew more than ME1 did in the recruitment and loyalty missions. But going from six to twelve crew members passed a line somewhere where that's too many characters to really bother caring about (beyond an immediate concern). The private ship conversations being shorter and largely less meaningful don't really help this. The relationship to the crew feels less personal, and this is built up from the word go by making Shepard the showrunner (different from just being captain).
Ultimately, while they claimed to have recorded twice as many voice acting lines, it still has half the story. In the final assessment, there is just flat more story per cubic centimeter in ME1 than ME2.
In ME1, nearly every planet with a mission on it had at least one conversation tree that told you what was going on and gave greater background on the state of the universe. And a few of the ones that didn't still usually had some story present (in the form of personal logs, etc). There were even extra little tidbits here and there like how the Geth would listen to Quarian iTunes. ME2 rarely bothered to give much of a story beyond "excuse plot".
While the maps looked significantly worse overall in ME1, they simultaneously looked more lived in, whereas the ME2 maps just look like action game maps full of chest-high walls. (And wow is it difficult to not derail on that bit of gamplay mechanics.)
I think more than 50% of all planets, habitable or not had some sort of interesting background described. I lost track of how many "extrasolar captures" ME2 had.
Semi-related, there's also the doubling of the crew's size. ME2 actually develops the crew more than ME1 did in the recruitment and loyalty missions. But going from six to twelve crew members passed a line somewhere where that's too many characters to really bother caring about (beyond an immediate concern). The private ship conversations being shorter and largely less meaningful don't really help this. The relationship to the crew feels less personal, and this is built up from the word go by making Shepard the showrunner (different from just being captain).
Ultimately, while they claimed to have recorded twice as many voice acting lines, it still has half the story. In the final assessment, there is just flat more story per cubic centimeter in ME1 than ME2.
^Really? I felt the crew in ME2 far surpassed the crew from the first game. Seriously, who was more boring than Kaiden or Ashley? I spoke to them more out of habit than actually caring about anything they had to say. The characters from the first game that actually were fun to talk to just happen to be the ones they brought back.
Let me put it this way, when you had to choose which crew member had to bite it in the first game, I couldn't have cared less. I would be damned though, if I let a single one of my crew members die in the second game. Well, maybe Jacob. He was boring, I'll admit.
Let me put it this way, when you had to choose which crew member had to bite it in the first game, I couldn't have cared less. I would be damned though, if I let a single one of my crew members die in the second game. Well, maybe Jacob. He was boring, I'll admit.
Ashley? Boring? 
I'm not arguing that the characters in ME2 were flat (though a couple of them were), only that there were way too many of them. The only reason we had so many was so BioWare could make an arbitrary "Dirty Dozen" reference. The game would have been better served if they'd cut out maybe four characters. Keep Garrus, Tali, Jack, Grunt, Legion, Mordin, and Miranda. Drop Samara, Kasumi, and Zaeed, and merge Jacob and Thane together, thereby getting rid of two very bland characters to potentially create one that's actually interesting.
I'm not arguing that the characters in ME2 were flat (though a couple of them were), only that there were way too many of them. The only reason we had so many was so BioWare could make an arbitrary "Dirty Dozen" reference. The game would have been better served if they'd cut out maybe four characters. Keep Garrus, Tali, Jack, Grunt, Legion, Mordin, and Miranda. Drop Samara, Kasumi, and Zaeed, and merge Jacob and Thane together, thereby getting rid of two very bland characters to potentially create one that's actually interesting.
^To be fair, Kasumi and Zaeed are both DLC.
Also, I guess I have to give you a if you think Thane is bland. To each his own, I guess.
Also, I guess I have to give you a
if you think Thane is bland. To each his own, I guess.Similar threads
