Mass Effects
Jun. 21st, 2011 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So I'm playing my way through Mass Effect 2. I'm not quite sure how far along I am. I'm mostly just playing to get through the main plot and I'm brushing off all the side stuff where possible, but I'm noticing a bunch of stuff.
1.) I wish I could turn off the transition cut-scenes or skip cut scenes. Especially the "we're landing on a planet/docking at a station" bits.
2.) I continue to opt for the "good" choices, especially during interviews/interrogations. It's only bitten me in the ass once (where I let a bad guy go), but it does result in some very odd behavior where I seem to be all for giving people second chances except when I don't. Oh and while the position on the response wheel indicates generally what kind of tone you'll use, sometimes it's maddeningly vague. Given the response, you think you're advocating for one course of action when really you do something else.
3.) In that vein, all the crew members I pick up to be on my team have a special "loyalty mission" where I help them resolve some problem and then they're super loyal to me and get benefits. Pretty much all of them involve family in one way or another. It's a parent or a child and they're in danger or need help or whatever. It's like I'm not so much a super-soldier as I am a family counselor with an assault rifle.
4.) They let you bring your character along from Mass Effect 1, but then they go out of their way to close off access to everyone and everything from the first game. Despite saving the galaxy, the galactic council brushes you off like a panhandler. There are supposed in-game reasons for this, but it's all pretty weak. There's also the old "starting at the bottom" issue that all RPGs have, but it's especially irritating in this game since you used to be Captain McBadAss and now you're stuck building up again (and you have to rebuild your team). Just sloppy.
5.) Finally, this game is weirdly sexual. I'm playing a male protagonist and women are just flinging themselves at me -- especially the personal assistant on-board my ship. She doesn't actually go on any missions, she just cues me in on unread emails and actual team members who need me to fix something for them. She's really a psychologist there to help me gauge the ship's mood, but she is relentless in hitting on me...when she's not thinking about making out with the most recent alien I've recruited. Just creepy. And there's a fair amount of side dialog you hear when moving through starports where people/aliens are discussing sex or hitting on each other. I'm not even talking about the blue-skinned female sex aliens, it's pretty much everyone.
Mercifully, there's only been one mission where rape has played any factor and anyone with childhood abuse has been of the "dubious medical experiments" type so...yay?
This game just doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. While I like the idea that my character could fall in love with someone and have a romance, the limitations of a game mean I can't actively pursue anyone I choose (especially not a same-sex partner), but the game tries to make it seem like I have options and....don't I have a larger mission on my mind? Y'know, saving the galaxy, again? It's just kind of a mess.
Despite all this, I think I've gotten everyone's personal problems sorted out and they're all super-loyal to me so now I'm going to drill down and see if I can't just get through the rest of the main mission. Oh, and at some point if I don't get the chance to stick it to the human-supremacy group I'm working for (they brought me back from the dead and it's one reason why no one wants to deal with me and I've got clear evidence that they've lied to me and done terrible things), I'm going to be really ticked.
later
Tom
So I'm playing my way through Mass Effect 2. I'm not quite sure how far along I am. I'm mostly just playing to get through the main plot and I'm brushing off all the side stuff where possible, but I'm noticing a bunch of stuff.
1.) I wish I could turn off the transition cut-scenes or skip cut scenes. Especially the "we're landing on a planet/docking at a station" bits.
2.) I continue to opt for the "good" choices, especially during interviews/interrogations. It's only bitten me in the ass once (where I let a bad guy go), but it does result in some very odd behavior where I seem to be all for giving people second chances except when I don't. Oh and while the position on the response wheel indicates generally what kind of tone you'll use, sometimes it's maddeningly vague. Given the response, you think you're advocating for one course of action when really you do something else.
3.) In that vein, all the crew members I pick up to be on my team have a special "loyalty mission" where I help them resolve some problem and then they're super loyal to me and get benefits. Pretty much all of them involve family in one way or another. It's a parent or a child and they're in danger or need help or whatever. It's like I'm not so much a super-soldier as I am a family counselor with an assault rifle.
4.) They let you bring your character along from Mass Effect 1, but then they go out of their way to close off access to everyone and everything from the first game. Despite saving the galaxy, the galactic council brushes you off like a panhandler. There are supposed in-game reasons for this, but it's all pretty weak. There's also the old "starting at the bottom" issue that all RPGs have, but it's especially irritating in this game since you used to be Captain McBadAss and now you're stuck building up again (and you have to rebuild your team). Just sloppy.
5.) Finally, this game is weirdly sexual. I'm playing a male protagonist and women are just flinging themselves at me -- especially the personal assistant on-board my ship. She doesn't actually go on any missions, she just cues me in on unread emails and actual team members who need me to fix something for them. She's really a psychologist there to help me gauge the ship's mood, but she is relentless in hitting on me...when she's not thinking about making out with the most recent alien I've recruited. Just creepy. And there's a fair amount of side dialog you hear when moving through starports where people/aliens are discussing sex or hitting on each other. I'm not even talking about the blue-skinned female sex aliens, it's pretty much everyone.
Mercifully, there's only been one mission where rape has played any factor and anyone with childhood abuse has been of the "dubious medical experiments" type so...yay?
This game just doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. While I like the idea that my character could fall in love with someone and have a romance, the limitations of a game mean I can't actively pursue anyone I choose (especially not a same-sex partner), but the game tries to make it seem like I have options and....don't I have a larger mission on my mind? Y'know, saving the galaxy, again? It's just kind of a mess.
Despite all this, I think I've gotten everyone's personal problems sorted out and they're all super-loyal to me so now I'm going to drill down and see if I can't just get through the rest of the main mission. Oh, and at some point if I don't get the chance to stick it to the human-supremacy group I'm working for (they brought me back from the dead and it's one reason why no one wants to deal with me and I've got clear evidence that they've lied to me and done terrible things), I'm going to be really ticked.
later
Tom
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Date: 2011-06-21 07:54 pm (UTC)1. Hit the spacebar during cutscenes; usually works
2. Keep in mind that Shepard has a spoken response for every bit of dialog; look back not very far (Dragon Age: Origins) to see RPGs where the protagonist never speaks. That said, yeah--they definitely use the same recordings for more than one response.
3. True, but play your cards right and you get to shag the yeoman, which is like shacking up with your psychologist. (See #5)
4. Dude--Shepard re-entered an atmosphere dressed like one of Daft Punk's backup dancers. I think the re-training explanation is justified :-)
5. I...don't have a problem with that. If anything, I think they took a step backwards in that ME1 allowed a female-female relationship and ME2 doesn't allow any same-sex relationship. Bioware opened it up completely in Dragon Age 2, so things will probably follow this trend in Mass Effect 3.
All the way back to Baldur's Gate, RPGs had this funny juxtaposition between the main quest and the side quests. The main quest was always portrayed as OMGSUPERFUCKINGIMPORTANT but if you saw a cave along the way that looked interesting, somehow the evil overlord would wait while you checked it out. ME2 follows a more recent trend (which I think started with TES: Oblivion) where you can take care of the super-important mission and then keep playing to mop up the side quests.
Anyhow, without giving anything away, your Paragon Shepard will have an opportunity to turn the Illusive Man's red sun to blue.
UPPER LEFT BLUE > *
Date: 2011-06-22 04:24 pm (UTC)4. if you don't import a character, the "canonical Shepard" was MAX RENEGADE and all kinds of HUMANS FUCK YEAH for plot purposes - there are some pretty significant setting changes as a result. (who the Council is, for one.) there's also all the characters that will recognize you and / or reference previous events. (ofc, some of those are bugged out & unpatched.)
5. all the recent biowares have been waifu simulators in disguise, from what i hear. i haven't bothered with the DA franchise yet.
FWIH, the publisher only grudgingly allowed the Liara thing in ME1 with a "but it's an ALIEN" argument. The relevant dialogs were apparently written for MM or FF relationships but implementation was halted for ME2. (or so goes the rumor mill. people have been trying to give it the old Kotor2 unlock treatment for a while now. so far it's looking like the VA work was never done for it.)
Apparently ME3 might get similar treatment.
--
the one thing that really bugs me is that ME1 was a KOTOR style RPG, and ME2 was most definitely a COVER & AMMO shootan game with dialog choices. they've been pretty open about making the next entry "more approachable" which is a pretty scary thought.
also also 5. if you play as femshep, the male characters are all "OMG you're talking to me you must like me." the whole fucking time.
thankfully, I set Carth 2 to extra crispy on Virmire.