(02-15-2012, 10:39 PM)Wyrm Wrote: You also had a lot of stat options, so it was more of an RPG than a shooter. I could play my vanguard version of Shepard different ways each time, as opposed to the ME2 version where you had 1 option of play-style.
I never found myself running out of options in ME2. Just play a different class, or pick a different specialization. There was plenty of variety, unless you want to play through the game more than six times, which is a lot even by my standards.
The extra variety in ME1 was mostly an illusion anyway. Every Shepard I ever played finished the game with at least 15 spare points, having gotten literally every skill I cared to waste the points on. At least in ME2 I had to give up *something*, an ammo power, a 4th level skill, whatever.
Quote:Why even bother having multiple weapons at all when every single item acted exactly the same?
That's what ME1 was to me. The number of times you had to actually choose between any two relevant stats was basically never. The practical implications of the ammo mods were very small, except for novelty stuff like the High Explosive Rounds. Once you gained access to Spectre tech VII, there was no reason to ever use any other type of gun again - they were simply better than any of the alternatives across the board. Unlike ME2, the guns don't even perform differently except in trivial ways, like giving you tiny quantities of accuracy, or slightly better heat sinking. The rifle/pistol/sniper/shotgun always has the same clip, the same rate of fire, and so on - not interestingly different.
Quote:Also, the inventory from ME2 was laughable at best.
In ME2, if I wanted to pick a sniper rifle, I had the choice between the slow, powerful, "head-shot" Widow, or the 8-clip Viper. If I wanted to pick an assault rifle, I could use the spray-'n-pray shield buster Geth Pulse Rifle, or the 3-burst Vindicator, or the sniper-lite Mattock, or the gatling-style Revenant. Hell, I even remember their names. Those played entirely differently. What does ME1 have like that? Nothing.
The value of an inventory system is in the options it gives you, not in the sheer volume of crap it has.
Quote:The resource collecting on the planets was a joke, I wound up with more than enough of each resource to fully upgrade everything without doing much.
I agree. And yet, so much better than the Mako, that I don't even mind. ME1 was completely wretched for the "accumulate stuff by exploring space" content.
Quote:Look at Biowares recent games before being taken over by EA: Dragon Age 1, ME1, KotOR. The games give you a lot of customization options so you can play each character the way you want, even within their pre-determined roles. In one playthrough of KotOR I made Bastila use all the Stasis powers. On another I made her a speed demon. In DA I could give my characters nothing but passives or max out their weapon abilities. It was all about choice. In ME2, you have almost no customization options. Is that all EA's doing? I don't know; maybe, maybe not.
DA1 was developed, at least in part, on EA's watch. You're also leaving out the turkey - Jade Empire - where customization options were terrible. You could pick between the good weapon and the bad weapon, between being sucky and being good. That was it. KotOR, it doesn't even matter how you develop your character. The game is easy enough that auto-attack suffices to win. The rest is just a fancy light show. I enjoyed the plot, but you could fill a warehouse with the number of ways to break that game.
Quote:Also, please don't assume to know what I do and do not see
The "you" in that sentence was a substitute for "one" - I am not referring to your subjective observations, but rather, what the pattern is in the evidence at hand.
-Jester