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Anthony
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 Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:29 am Post subject: Mass Effect 2: The Arrival Review |
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| Mass Effect 2: The Arrival Review by Anthony |  | | PALGN Feature: Was it worth the wait? | | [View Article] |
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Bev
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:32 am Post subject: |
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| Anthony wrote: | | the DLC shepherds you into making a decision with little moral deliberation |
I see what you did there.
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skrob73
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 2:20 pm Post subject: |
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Something very sad has happened at Bioware since EA has been at the helm
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moonhead
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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| skrob73 wrote: | | Something very sad has happened at Bioware since EA has been at the helm |
Truer words have not been spoken.
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Cerebral
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Benza
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:00 pm Post subject: |
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ME 2 was a better game mechanically in every way then ME1.
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The Genius
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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ME2 is a unique game in terms of the voice acting.
All the characters are interesting and convincing because of the story and the brilliant voice acting behind them....except for the protagonist Shepherd.
Shepherd voice acting is hilariously bad its like the original Assassin's Creed! Even in the romance scenes Shepherd is unemotional its comical!
Good character and classic game none the less!
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Benza
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| The Genius wrote: |
All the characters are interesting and convincing because of the story and the brilliant voice acting behind them....except for the protagonist Shepherd.
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Guess how I know your sheppard is a dude.
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alakazak
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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seriously, chick shepherd is a great actor. especially when renegade.
shes like a female clint eastwood, with the squinting and growling!
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OropherX
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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Mass Effect 1 was so much better than Mass Effect 2. Since it's an RPG I don't care about improved gameplay just don't dumb down the story from a linear epic into a structured mission approach.. the game just felt so fragmented and the characters disjointed >_<
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Cerebral
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Benza
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| Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 11:58 pm Post subject: |
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| OropherX wrote: | | Mass Effect 1 was so much better than Mass Effect 2. Since it's an RPG I don't care about improved gameplay just don't dumb down the story from a linear epic into a structured mission approach.. |
The story was honestly one of my biggest beefs with ME1, yeah it's a good story but it's told fucking horribly. The pacing in that game is just shocking. Just as you start to get into it... BAM! half an hour in the mako driving through snow. Or having to run around and do errends in the citadel.
There are more important things in a story then just what happens in it, how it's told is damm important too. And ME1 kind of failed pretty hard in that regard.
And if you don't care about the game play read a book. It's a game having a story is no excuse to play like shit and people that think it is are everything wrong with RPG's today.
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Cavedog
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 1:34 am Post subject: |
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| Benza wrote: | | OropherX wrote: | | Mass Effect 1 was so much better than Mass Effect 2. Since it's an RPG I don't care about improved gameplay just don't dumb down the story from a linear epic into a structured mission approach.. |
The story was honestly one of my biggest beefs with ME1, yeah it's a good story but it's told **** horribly. The pacing in that game is just shocking. Just as you start to get into it... BAM! half an hour in the mako driving through snow. Or having to run around and do errends in the citadel.
There are more important things in a story then just what happens in it, how it's told is damm important too. And ME1 kind of failed pretty hard in that regard.
And if you don't care about the game play read a book. It's a game having a story is no excuse to play like **** and people that think it is are everything wrong with RPG's today. |
Yeah but ME2 was pretty pathetic too, in a similar sense.
( ME2 was great fun for finding out your companions stories and stuff)
But pretty much this is the structure of ME2
> Rebirth
> Run from A to B for 1 hour
> Now either play end game, or go ****ing around with useless companion characters.
It was a joke to me, i wanted some substance and build to the story, but NOPE!, just saw a sweet video of shepards rebirth, then him escaping the ship and finding a friend, the rest is either back stories to companions or end mission. Its like if i wrote a story the same way
Once upon a time, lived a girl called red riding hood.
And the wolf died, grandma lived, all the rocks are gone.
:/ seemed pathetic to me.
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Nietzsche
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:06 am Post subject: |
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ME1 had a great story. 2 is probably one of the best told story this gen.
2 works because it's designed as a video game story not as a movie, book or anything else. Every mission takes a bit. Think of each mission like a tv show with the end point being a finale and I really think the story is one of the best told. However it isn't as strong a narrative as ME1's stop Saren.
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OropherX
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:16 am Post subject: |
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ME1 stopping Saren drove me to play and finish off the game late into the night. It just kept building then there's all this awesome exposition about the Protheans which linked back to the central story, it all had focus which made me want to play it more to reach the climax. Instead in ME2 all we got is what Cavedog mentioned. I understand what you're saying about the media genre Nietzsche but it just felt like a waste to me. If they did a Mass Effect 2 novel which was different to how the game played and more like ME1's narrative then I wouldn't complain though.
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Jarrod
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:17 am Post subject: |
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I could argue for days why I think ME2's core story is mostly total rubbish, and that BioWare dropped the ball significantly on numerous important aspects in developing a quality narrative. I thought the main story was exceptionally weak, very disappointing, and failed to match many narrative techniques that the first game pulled off.
That being said, the individual character writing in ME2 was muuuch better than ME1. Outside of a few characters, pretty much every character in ME1 was an information terminal. A one trick pony with a paper thin personality, serving little purpose other than to tell you whats going on. This includes majority of your squad mates. ME2 remedied this wonderfully by giving a ton of extra depth to characters. Tali and Garrus were particularly huge improvements.
But the cost of all those individual story improvements was a weaker main story.
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Nietzsche
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:59 am Post subject: |
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It was a weaker story. It tried so hard to go down the darker gritter side but by the end of two, things are just as bad as how they ended in 1. The reapers are still coming you just know more about the world and affected some decisions.
Just thinking about it and reading Wise Mans Fear which is also the 2nd of a trilogy, it just seems to me that with the 1st of something you have all this exposition and character building at the start but the 2nd is like a holding pattern where you are setting up the pieces for the 3rd of something. Makes me wish that after you went through the relay you had another mission where the Reapers came and invaded earth. Basically you end with the first mission of the 3rd game.
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drinniol
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 9:57 am Post subject: |
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I know all you nerds love Empire, right?
It tries to go down the darker grittier side but in the end, things are just as bad as how they ended in ANH.
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drinniol
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:03 am Post subject: |
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Just to elaborate a bit more - it's folly to criticize a story. Rather, critics should focus on -how- the story is told, and ME2 tells it very, very well. ME was at the time the most cutting-edge cinematic RPG and ME2 makes it look like a clumsy puppet show.
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Benza
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 10:29 am Post subject: |
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| drinniol wrote: | I know all you nerds love Empire, right?
It tries to go down the darker grittier side but in the end, things are just as bad as how they ended in ANH. |
Things are worse at the end of empire. (Luke minus one hand, Han in Carbonite etc)
Though you could also say that ME2 ends worse then 1, were as 1 ends kind of hopefully, the alliance/council see the reaper threat, you have your bad arse team ready to go fuck shit up now with the full backing of both the alliance millitary and the council (Depending on the ending) the end of ME 2 leaves you cut off from the alliance, the citadel council, possibly from Cereberus, the government is covering up the reaper invasion, and depending on how you did in the suicide mission half your crew could be dead.
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Jarrod
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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| drinniol wrote: | | Just to elaborate a bit more - it's folly to criticize a story. Rather, critics should focus on -how- the story is told, and ME2 tells it very, very well. ME was at the time the most cutting-edge cinematic RPG and ME2 makes it look like a clumsy puppet show. |
This is where I disagree. Its not the story I'm criticising, but how its told. There's a number of narrative factors ME2 completely screwed up for its main plot. A very basic one is that the narrative is ripe with unexplainable plot holes, and I'm not just talking about 'crazy sci-fi' stuff, but events that are never, ever explained.
And that's just the tip of ME2's crappy story iceberg.
EDIT: Unless by 'focus on how the story is told' you mean 'focus on the technical achievements', in which case that is an awful way to judge a story.
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JP2daMC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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Here I was thinking it was a good game, told well.
Sure the main story is a bit weak, but I've barely seen better in a game. And the individual characters and their internal struggles were a highlight for me.
I think the "how" of the storytelling is very important. Most stories can be quite simple when you reduce them (Star Wars, Matrix and others are pretty simple at the end of the day), but it's how compelling the game or movie makes you think it is, and for me this was achieved by the companion characters whi I always felt had a lot on the line.
Story is only part of what makes a game great. A pretty important part, I'll grant you, but only part of it.
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Jarrod
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 4:41 pm Post subject: |
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Keep in mind ME2 was one of my GOTYs, so its not like I haven't poured an embarrassing amount of time into the game and it's DLC. Just offering some critique of what I felt was a significantly weaker and poorly told main plot, of which was ripe with issues I hope BioWare can resolve in ME3.
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JP2daMC
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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So it's a case of the closer something is to perfection, the bigger the flaws seem?
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Jarrod
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| Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2011 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| JP2daMC wrote: | | So it's a case of the closer something is to perfection, the bigger the flaws seem? |
Not really. I enjoy the individual character writing much more in ME2, and probably enjoyed the experience as a whole more, but I really do feel ME2's main plot falters heavily compared to where the original game excelled. Simply put, I dont think BioWare's narrative and pacing for Mass Effect 2's main plot is really any good, and should have been significantly better.
But as said, I thought the individual character writing, particularly character exposition, was much better, largely due to to the extended amount of time spent on developing them (which is, ironically, part of my problem with the main plot).
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