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[14] Master
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Scanning planets is no fun. Running around, playing squad commander and blasting aliens is, however. Combat clearly blows the doors off the original's system.
Scanning planets is a hell of a lot quicker than having to land on each individual sumbitch though lol. 2 minutes scanning a planet > 15 driving around bleak landscapes in your moonrover.
Speaking of characters, not having to level each one up individually is amazing. You can just use whoever you feel like using.
I was very dissapointed.
Call me a nerd... But my favorite thing about Bioware was their deep and detailed RPG elements. Combine that with the high level shooter gameplay and excellent story and you have probably one of my alltime favorite games in ME 1. But in 2 yeah the shooting is great, the story so far seems excellent, but the RPG elements have been all but completely removed. You cant change squad mates (cant remember if you could in ME 1 but you have been able to in all other Bioware games) weapons and armor have no stats so your improvement has no sense of tangibility. It could be completely absent considering that you know the enemies level to your level. The ability rankings have been cut in half literally and one category is just a pure stat boost so building characters is basically pointless. There is no looting, no mods, no customization nothing of depth.
I feel like they neutered and dumbed it down to appease more casual players, but they could have easily put in a auto leveling/auto equipping feature to appease both parties. Call me a nerd, but obsessing over minute details of shredder ammo mods and biotic implants is what gets my rocks of in RPGs if I wanted to play a simple dumb but adequate shooter I would play one of the other 100 XB360 shooters!
1. There are stats to different armor sets. Weapons you upgrade to add stats.
2. No, in ME you couldn't change squad on a mission. Nor could you do it in "every other BioWare game" Dragon age is an easy example here.
3. What? They removed useless skills? Oh no! Really- did you LIKE wasting points into pistols, just so that you could learn a second weapon skill and level that one up? Did you LIKE how there were two skill slots for renegade and paragon? They didn't dumb down skills in this game, they just took out the abilities that shouldn't have been there in the first place, ESPECIALLY when talking amps/bios. And once you unlock training, you can teach shepard all sorts of new skills. IE: Reave, Warp Ammo... Which puts your ability amount right back up there. Only this time, you're not burdened with all your weapon and armor training. Sure, it's streamlined, but I'm not opposed to that when it comes to ME1s skills.
4. I'm glad there's no looting in this game, too. When in ME1 every single enemy dropped something and the inventory was a pain in the ass to navigate. Besides, the variety of gear in ME1 was pretty streamlined anyway. You had around 5 different armor sets, all with levels. All you really wanted to do was wear the highest level of your armor set that you could find, and sell everything else, constantly picking up downgrades all the while. I don't see the entertainment in that.
5. There's plenty of depth in the research terminal. The problem is, you likely don't want to go out and search random planets for minerals in order to get them. That's fine, but don't complain about wanting customization when you're just too lazy to spend the time to do it.
Sorry, but I find it a baseless argument when people say the RPG elements have been removed simply because they don't pick up pieces upon pieces of duplicated equipment to navigate a frustrating inventory screen and "micromanage" gear.
Before I respond I just want to reiterate that I am enjoying the game, playing it as much as possible between tekken and life, I just found it dissapointing that the mutilated the RPG elements of the game
1. The weapons have no stats. Yes there are stats attatched characters and upgrades, but if you look at arbitrary assault rifle A you cant see anything that tells you how powerful it is. Thats just a stupid omission in game design. Fallout, Borderlands, and plenty of other actionesque rpgs managed to do it, i dont know how that isnt in the game.
2. I didnt mean change the squad mid battle, I mean change the character you use in battle. In KOTOR, Dragon Age, and even the crappy Jade empire, you could switch control between your party. I dont remember if it was in ME1, but I still miss it regardless. the AI is effective enough that it isnt awful, but what is my reason for building up other characters if i cant use them?
3. I didnt find the skills useless, I found it what RPG is supposed to be, building your character into what you want to playwith. Now there is little difference between characters except for basic levels. The extra "skill" you can learn is cool except you can only use 1, again limiting my motivation for investing in my teamates.
4. I dont mind the looting being gone, but I do wish there was a greater variety of equipment looting doesnt solve that but its just part of the evidence that the RPG part of this game is pretty much gone.
5. Its not that Im too lazy to do the customization, its that the customization doesnt seem to be any type of reward, its just there to exist as a RPG element, I dont see the point of customizing when the reward seems artificial and arbitrary. What is my my reward for adding equipment and collecting money if there is nothing useful to spend it on. Enemies level regardless, bosses are piss easy, and my weapons only seem to differ between sniper, shotgun and everything else. I hardly ever use any of my powers and I am 3 qaurters through the game and I just started buying upgrades and I have died maybe 3 times. The game is still fun, but as an RPG it is shallow and weak. I wanted an action RPG, not a shooter with RPG elements, its basically gears of war in shiny suits with lasers
I didn't say you didn't enjoy it, I was just marking that I find it silly when people say the RPG has been mutilated.
1. Instead of adding stats, they went with the better element for shooter fights. Each gun handles differently in some way. You have a shotgun, then the next shotgun you gets has rapid fire. While there's no stat boost, you certainly should be noticing a difference. With pistols, you get some that have less ammo, but higher power vs more ammo but less damage. Sure, there's no stats, but these do determine how you want to play.
2. In that case, no, ME didn't have it. And I wouldn't want it to, to be honest. A shooter is much different from something like DA, KotOR or Jade Empire. You're using cover, and positioning. Last thing I would want is to switch to a different teammate, then have shepard pop his head out and get blasted to hell.
3. I guess it's a matter of opinion, but honestly, I can't see how anyone found gun skills fun. Especially when the guns in ME1 all pretty much acted the same, and there were guns that were just clearly better. So rather than build up pistols, you'd put 3 in pistols then take the other gun up, because eventually pistols just didn't cut it.
4. I think you're just completely ignoring shops and research, which is evidenced by your #5. There's plenty of gear in this game to put shepard in, you just have to research it. They all have different stats, bonuses and looks. The difference is, they took out the ME1 idea of "hey, lets have about 10 armor sets, and just add a 'level X' modifier at the end to give the appearance of gear selection!" In this game, you have about the same amount of looks aesthetically. You just don't have that bullshit level modifier.
5. Enemies level with your level, not your upgrades. Eventually you'll need these, and you'll eventually come to find that research is where you'll find your customization.
And honestly, if you find a story as decent or any kind of party interaction like ME2s in "a simple dumb but adequate shooter" I'd be surprised. Let's not forget what an RPG is. You're supposed to take the role of a character you create. Maybe we're missing some arbitrary element some other developer added in later, but you still are making all the choices for your character, choosing his background, whether he's an asshole who happens to be in a spot to save humanity or not. You're still taking a role, and playing through it. Whether or not it has a bunch of elements that other "RPG" developers decided that the genre needed isn't really too important to me.