Mass Effect 2 Gameplay

[General Zod]

So. Character transferability. How does that work if you have only a partial save file for the original ME? Did they actually manage to make the menu usable this time around? I'm toying with the idea of picking this up tonight but I'm really on the fence.

[Ford Prefect]

You can only transfer a character if you have a completed game file.

[Agent Fisher]

Ok, so I'm checking my ingame messages, and guess what? Even in the future, Nigerian Royalty Scams exist. Had me laughing for a good minute.

[Andrew_Fireborn]

So. Character transferability. How does that work if you have only a partial save file for the original ME? Did they actually manage to make the menu usable this time around? I'm toying with the idea of picking this up tonight but I'm really on the fence.

The menus are 99% the same, only we have no personal inventory.

Also, we have no maps of combat zones... (At least so far... But I doubt that'll change.)

[Aaron]

Have they made the side-missions more interesting than "A slightly minor change in the environment and layout of the last mission in this template series" at least? Because really, all the side quests were boring as fuck.

Yes, most of them relate to the pasts of your party members or Cerberus in general. The "drive around and scan rocks" is gone as is "random commune in bumfuck nowhere" quests.

Some of the areas have maps Andrew. Played through a few areas so far with them.

[Stark]

[*]Even installing onto an G SKILL 128gb FALCON ssd w/ a q6600 and a hd4870x2, load times are still in the plus 10-25 second timeframe. On worse hardware they appear to be over +45 seconds to almost a minute.

Is this the startup load, or every location-change? That's totally absurd.

[General Zod]

The menus are 99% the same, only we have no personal inventory.

Looks like I won't be touching it then. The menus in the first game were convoluted enough.

[Aaron]

Oh gawd, there no where nears as bad. With the personal inventory gone, most of the headaches with the menus are eliminated. The dialogue system is the same, with the addition of "paragon" or "renegade" interrupts (save someone from sniper/through out window etc). The only really convoluted ones are the Codex and the research menus. Even the later only involves selecting a page to open up further options.

[Xon]

Is this the startup load, or every location-change? That's totally absurd.

Location change is generally 10-15 seconds depending on the zone on my PC, but IMO it's loading a save game in the same map segment which is actually worse. This is very noticable in some of the major boss fights on the harder difficulties, it appears to load the entire map zone instead of the tiny area you are locked into and also reloads the the entire game-state.

It is no where nearly as bad as say Deus Ex Invisible war, but that is mostly because the various zones aren't utterly tiny.

[Vympel]

Xon, did you preorder the CE? If so, what extras did you get? All I got was the Collector stuff, according to the ME wiki, I should've also gotten Terminus armor and the Blackstorm Projector, since I preordered.

EDIT: never mind, just rang EB, the chick who was working this morning forgot to hand them out. Have to go get it tomorrow.

[Sephirius]

Have they made the side-missions more interesting than "A slightly minor change in the environment and layout of the last mission in this template series" at least? Because really, all the side quests were boring as fuck.

Yes, most of them relate to the pasts of your party members or Cerberus in general. The "drive around and scan rocks" is gone as is "random commune in bumfuck nowhere" quests.

Some of the areas have maps Andrew. Played through a few areas so far with them.

This actually bothered me, as the whole game now falls into 'all planets are earth' trope. At least the landable ones anyway.

And no pressure suits for the characters? What the hell!

One of the more 'exotic' locations in the game (sidequest) is a planet that has chlorine gas as part of its atmosphere.
I took Miranda and Jacob along for it, and Miranda comes over the mic in the lower areas where the gas is thicker, and says 'be careful Shepard, that gas is poisonous" or something. Bitch, I'm wearing a full pressure suit with shields, and you have just a little airplane oxygen mask thing along with your space slut outfit, and you're warning ME?! This was compounded moments later when I found out it slowly reduces your shields/health and not that of your allies. FFFFF

[Xon]

There is one planet which is plot-critical where the sun is dieing (hint; Expect it to be resolved sometime in Mass Effect 3 or maybe 4) and the sunlight is so strong it overloads your shields. Your allies shields last roughly twice to three times as long as yours in direct sunlight, even with the ability to create a heavy biotic barrier on demand. Aka press button recieve hield, the single most powerful biotic power you can learn from your allies.

I also hate how your enemies and your allies never run out of "thermal clips" aka ammo. But you do.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I also hate how your enemies and your allies never run out of "thermal clips" aka ammo. But you do.

It's no different from Gears (which ME2 is trying even harder to emulate) in that respect. You're Marcus Fenix and your dudes are just your dudes.

[Vympel]

Well so far I haven't experienced inordinate loading times (they're the same as the original game on PC), the graphics are superb, haven't encountered a crash in 2 hours, and the gameplay (and shooter mechanics) are pretty awesome. And even though I hate the discontinuity, its explained in the codex and it actually makes combat more fun. So thumbs up!

(Just finished exploring SR2 Normandy before leaving)

[Xon]

The SR2 Normandy is fairly good as far as level loading goes but when you need to zone half a dozen times to fetch sidequests it does get anoying. And the fast transfer zones are actually very fast in loading. I guess the loading times are noticable the most when you skip the docking cut scene and get dumped into the normal loading screen for the bigger zones.

It is just inconsistant. I've only got a q6600 so it may be CPU related instead of harddrive bound. Honestly I have nfi why my friend @ uni was experiancing such insane load times.

[Gramzamber]

Interesting, I got ME2 in the mail a day early. Take that, Aussies! Er.. yeah.

Edit: Oh hey, do the American and Aussie discs come in a case with those extra special snap your goddamn disc if you pull too hard holders too?

[open_sketchbook]

Just beat it, quick playthrough with default FemShep, just story and loyalty stuff. Miss the Mako more than I thought, new combat great, cutscenes amazing, graphics excellent, all questionable in-universe elements I could remember were touched satisfactorily. Tons of good exploring and solid universe-building. Played a vanguard, biotic charge very fun but of limited use in certain combats, shockwave devastating against basic baddies. Characters much better than expected; swearing is not overdone, actually adds to suspension of disbelief, darker and edgier apparently means "more realistic" overall, not lame and pandering. Mordin best character, speech patterns infectious.

[Twigler]

The SR2 Normandy is fairly good as far as level loading goes but when you need to zone half a dozen times to fetch sidequests it does get anoying.

One question: is that poxy slow lift still there? I hate that thing so much I started ignoring the characters parked in the cargo bay.

[Aaron]

This actually bothered me, as the whole game now falls into 'all planets are earth' trope. At least the landable ones anyway.

And no pressure suits for the characters? What the hell!

One of the more 'exotic' locations in the game (sidequest) is a planet that has chlorine gas as part of its atmosphere.
I took Miranda and Jacob along for it, and Miranda comes over the mic in the lower areas where the gas is thicker, and says 'be careful Shepard, that gas is poisonous" or something. Bitch, I'm wearing a full pressure suit with shields, and you have just a little airplane oxygen mask thing along with your space slut outfit, and you're warning ME?! This was compounded moments later when I found out it slowly reduces your shields/health and not that of your allies. FFFFF

Yeah, that was pretty dumb. I had it happen on a boarding action. Was pretty ridiculous to see her in skin tight latex (in the alternate outfit, it's tight enough to make out her belly button), heels and a tiny mask.

Whoever said Mordin was the best character is spot on, he shows suprising depth of character for a sidekick.

[SylasGaunt]

So did anyone else notice Claudia Black's voice? I've been marathoning through Farscape after getting the complete series box so now it seems so odd hearing her as anything but Aeryn.

Currently working my way through the loyalty missions now that I'v recruited everyone I have a dossier for at the moment. Mordin's next up because I love his gerbil on meth energy levels.

So far Illium has been the most interesting planet by far if only for the 'non-stripper/biotic killing machine' look it gives you at the Asari culture. I love the bartender you run into.. and had a handy when I saw a Krogran trying to woo his blue girlfriend.

[Gramzamber]

Load times are about 10 seconds for me when reloading or transitioning to a brand new area.
Transitioning within hubs doesn't take more than 2-3 seconds, but I have a fairly decent PC.

[General Zod]

So did anyone else notice Claudia Black's voice? I've been marathoning through Farscape after getting the complete series box so now it seems so odd hearing her as anything but Aeryn.

Not surprising, Claudia Black's been popping up in a lot of games lately (Like Uncharted 2), and ME1 had a lot of former Star Trek actresses.

[Ford Prefect]

I haven't played much so far, I only just completed the Archangel mission on Omega, but I have to say that my expectation of it being much better than ME were pretty much correct. While there are certain things about ME that I miss, they don't really detract from the experience. If anything, its 'feel' has improved even though it it is pretty familiar. Direction and design is noticeably better; some sequences are really quite stunning (the walk up the Normandy in the prologue, for example). Also, character writing and interaction is great. Pretty much every exchange between Shepard and Garrus is maximum bro ('No one will give me a mirror, how bad is it?' 'Hell Garrus, you were always ugly.' 'Maybe it's for the best. People were always hitting on me; now you might get a chance at the action.'), and the conversations generally feel more natural. I also much prefer combat in ME2; it's trying really hard to be Gears in Space with Magic and while it isn't Gears of War 2, the combat is tight, detailed and quite challenging at times.

As for the ongoing discussion of loadtimes, they're certainly no worse than they were in ME, and for the most part they feel kind of faster. Getting around the Normandy is about as quick as it was in the first game, which is quite impressive given that it's much bigger.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

So did anyone else notice Claudia Black's voice? I've been marathoning through Farscape after getting the complete series box so now it seems so odd hearing her as anything but Aeryn.

I haven't, but then I haven't gotten all the way through the game yet. Are you sure? She was in Dragon Age.

So far I've spotted Adam Baldwin ( ), Michael Hogan, the chick from Chuck, and apparently EDI is done by Tricia Helfer. Plus the ubiquitous Jennifer Hale of course, and Seth Green.

[Vympel]

Edit: Oh hey, do the American and Aussie discs come in a case with those extra special snap your goddamn disc if you pull too hard holders too?

Whichever dipshit designed these cases should be fucking killed. They suck. Blu-Ray and DVD cases are fucking simple, you push the middle, the fucking thing pops out. These things do indeed seem purposefully designed to make removing the disc a fucking major operaration.