As mentioned earlier, a couple of weeks ago I started Mass Effect 2. Since I got some positive feedback about my Skyrim whine earlier, here come my thoughts about Mass Effect 2.
First a little something about how I played. I started the game as a Vanguard, because the rare few times I had tried the original Mass Effect, I used that class. The abilities were simple enough. For the most part I utilised Charge and Incendiary ammo, but enemies behind cover usually got a Shockwave treatment. Easy to use, not much to say about that. The problem emerged when I realised I had played a lot of Skyrim before starting Mass Effect 2, so the rate of fire took me by surprise and I really struggled as a Vanguard. Shotguns were out of the question at that point, which pretty much forced me to stick with SMGs. Tempest really saved me there.
My second try was with Engineer. Never finished the game, because it became relatively boring well before I reached the final stage. Combat drone distracted the tough guys, I usually had someone with an ammo effect that helped the entire squad and I was free to spam Incinerate. As my extra power I took Reave, which proved to be a fabulous choice. Add in Overload and I was the perfect support character for the rest of the team.
I just finished the last stage with a Soldier. This class lacked the utility of the Engineer, but I found it equally enjoyable. Adrenaline rush was extremely useful for someone with my aiming skills and the Revenant assault rifle proved a solid choice. My extra power was Warp ammo, because I found it to be the most useful if levelled quickly. This is because accessing Incendiary ammo required Distruptor ammo ranks and Cryo ammo again required Incendiary ammo ranks... I found it easier to concentrate on Warp ammo. Much like with my Vanguard character, I dealt heaps of damage, but relied on other team members for utility.
There were some issues that bugged me with all three characters though. Basically, I found it unnecessary to use any other characters than Garrus, Samara and Mordin. Usually either of the latter two teamed with Garrus. This was particularly true with Engineer and Soldier, because the former could keep the toughest guys distracted for Garrus and the latter was complemented by Reave and Concussive shot. Additionally, Garrus had Overload, so even maps that were crawling with synthetics I had little trouble. Luckily my Soldier eventually acquired Distruptor ammo, because that helped a lot against the geth... I did use the other characters frequently as well, but my observation was that they were more or less subpar compared to the aforementioned trio.
My second gripe is with the resources. I disliked going around random planets hoping to find a couple of rocks to turn into upgrades. It was boring. After the first playthrough the player gets a significant starting bonus though, so that offset most of the annoyance of mining. On the positive side, plenty of planets had side quests you could only find by scanning around and tossing probes, so even this problem wasn't too annoying.
On the upside, there was plenty to explore and interact with. Cities had a lot of small side quests that were fun enough even if the rewards were nonexistent, the squad members had unique comments about their environment, Bioware hid in jokes about their old games and whatnot. Thoroughly enjoyable, especially if you caught the jokes. Most of the people you can recruit were interesting and had plenty of interaction options going for them. That is something I always appreciate in a game like this, makes things feel more organic. Even the loyalty missions served a specific purpose and brought immediate benefits. "Go for the optics!"
Another pro was the was array of items in the game. Weapon, armour, biotic and tech upgrades, model ships for your cabin, a space hamster, different species of fish and everything. Especially the upgrades were almost a requirement at higher difficulty levels and that really gave me motivation to go out of my way to unlock doors and take detours. Even finding a Heavy pistol damage upgrade felt good once your made your first headshot with the newly improved gun.
Anyway, what I got out of the game... Well, it was pretty neat actually. The DLCs, while nice, disappointed me, because the two new characters could not be talked to onboard. You could listen to their stories, but there was no interaction, which was unfortunate. A couple of things I found frustrating, but YMMV. In any case, I enjoyed ME 2 and I loaned my friend's ME 3 despite the fact I probably won't have any time to play it before the summer. We shall see.
