Possibly greater than bacon. No really.

Played about 5 hours tonight. Just a few quick thoughts before I head to bed. Story, as expected, is superb; never any doubt about that. 5 hours though, and I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface. Probably will take another 2 months playing off and on. 

Graphics are much, much nicer. I thought the first Mass Effect on the PC was a spectacle, despite some glitchy shading reminiscent of being an Xbox port. Everything, like Dragon Age was, is smooth and clean on the max settings. Characters more fluid in movements, talking, expressions, etc. Loading is snappy; no more elevator delays. Previous Mass Effect 1 save imported fine; only had to tell the Configuration Dialog where the previous game save folder was. Aside from the main story, I’ve encountered many quirky, little things on Omega related to the previous game. Humorous, interesting and shady characters, bits of audio overlaid in the station and ship, just playing around in the dialog trees and much more. All the things I enjoyed the most in Mass Effect 1 are abundant in Mass Effect 2.

Some differences I’ve noticed from Mass Effect 1.
- UI is simpler. (At least for the PC I’ve noticed there are less unnecessary keyboard commands). More neatly accessible squad abilities. They grouped some control mechanics to make combat better. Combat has a little more emphasis here, which is alot nicer than it was in Mass Effect 1.
- Leveling upgrade system seems less complex at first glance. Might branch out further later on?
- I don’t see anymore grenades. No biggie, I never really used them all that much.
- Weapons have finite ammo and require reloading. It’s been awhile but I’m positive I remember Mass Effect 1 had infinite ammo weapons. However with increased heat generation proportional to varying rates of fire. I haven’t noticed any of my guns overheating, at least not yet anyway? Although I do prefer games with finite ammo over infinite.
- You physically drive your ship around each system near planets and mass relays, instead of just panning and zooming in and out. A nice touch I guess. Instead you pan and probe planets for resources that help you upgrade your stuff and fuel your ship.
- Hacking security is sort of cute. Find matching color-coded (programming) code segments.
- No more universal inventory. Still on the fence about this one. Probably a game design decision to make it less micro-managing. Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age have similar inventory management. You’re out someplace, you loot something, box pops up, you take some or all of it. Then I’d press another key to open my inventory and see my loot. Mass Effect 2 seems to have done away with that. You pick up items and anything you buy from vendors is kept with you, but from my time spent so far there doesn’t seem to be any way of using it or equipping it on-the-go. Can only do so on the Normandy or I suppose any other place they may have available for that purpose. You can equip your squad members when prompted to select them, which is fine I suppose. I spent about 5 minutes reading the manual and sifting through menus trying to find where my inventory key went, only to conclude that there simply isn’t one.
- More detailed pop-up alerts. Not just for achievements, but I seem to notice the big square pop-up on the right side of the screen informing me of everything I do, receive, or should care about, message after message after… sometimes I can’t read them quickly enough. Probably the one and only most annoying addition.
- No more level outline maps, at least none I’ve seen so far. Pressing M only briefly displays the mini-map that points to objectives. Can’t make it stay on the HUD permanently. Oh well.

Other than some interface tweaks and game mechanics I’m still adjusting to, it’s still insanely enjoyable and hard to put down. I maybe wrong or have overlooked some things in what I’ve mentioned above or just haven’t played far enough. Feel free to correct me on anything or share thoughts.

The european version was about to be released today… but the collector’s edition (which in this case would be worth it just to avoid the ugly box art of the regular edition) got delayed to next week…. so I can’t say anything about it yet.

I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2 on my 360 for the past few days and yes, it is very gorgeous compared to the first game. I love using this Blackstorm Projector weapon that you get if you pre-ordered the game from GameStop. It’s fun to see all enemies fly around when you fire it.

I just wish my “replacement” 360 would read and let me load my game saves… so I’m stuck trying to get my older 360 to start up and stop Red Ringing. Oh well. One xbox sees my profile as being corrupted as the other does not. I just need to see if someone else’s 360 sees my profile as being corrupted as well. We’ll see.

So we got ME2 on friday, finally. I’ve played 14 hours, enough to get to disc 2 on the 360, which doesn’t say I’m halfway, since the more linear beginning and end is (supposed to be) on disc one and the more “free choice” middle part is on disc 2. So far I like it, but it feels a lot less like an RPG than the first one. I’m actually doubtful about the action/shooter focus on the combat since it feels a lot less strategic than the first, even if you can map individual movement commands to your squad members this time around. Something I completely adore is all the connections to what you did in ME1, no matter how small. Also the streamlined interface almost got too streamlined… I would prefer somewhat clearer indication on squad members than it currently has.

I originally thought that once I had played ME2 I could never touch the first game ever again…. having gotten my hands on it I’ve realized that it’s so much different that this won’t be an issue.

Mass Effect 2 definitely leans more towards “RPG lite” than its predecessor, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. A few days after the game launched, I was reading some of the responses on the Bioware forums. Most of the threads were nothing but partisan mud-slinging of course. On one side you got the flamboyant RPG-ers that believe Bioware has forsaken them. On the other, the shooter crowd that probably never finished Mass Effect 1 out of boredom, but praise ME2 as their new epitome of a single player Halo with Gears of War gameplay. And then you have the small group of rational individuals who wade through the forum swamp. I understood the flaws in ME1, appreciate the measures they’ve added, reminisce a little about the “way it was”, but ultimately enjoy ME2 despite all of that because the little things and the narrative (or the feeling of directing a movie) which I admired so much about ME1 were improved in ME2. It’s not perfect, but it is.

I’ve put close to 25 hours in so far. Taking my time, exploring every system, reading every nook and detail. Only recently recruited Thane. Any complaints I initially had after I installed it have since gone by the wayside.

I mean I could complain that PC ME2 suffers from “console-itis” in the UI. The ME1 port was better re-tooled for the PC, whereas ME2 lacks keybindings to switch weapons or to open Squad, Journal or Codex frames. In all honesty though, it’s a non-issue in regards to the overall ME2 changes. It stands far from Dragon Age, which was homage to hardcore RPG fans. I still shudder to think how or why a person would play Dragon Age on anything less than a keyboard and mouse.

I said before I was on the fence about a lack of personal inventory, but I recall ME1 had you looting tons of useless crap. Most of it was converted into omni-gel. Occasionally you would find the one thing which was an upgrade. Other times you had to return to Normandy and sift through individual squad lockers to compare items and sell off the extra for credits. I honestly don’t miss any of that one bit. Planet scanning/probing occasionally feels like mining or gathering in WoW, as in necessary to make the most of the gameplay experience but not required. (Probing Uranus easter egg anyone?)

In regards to squad members indicators:
I agree with you Johan. Really half the time I’m not even paying attention to my squad members’ indicators because it doesn’t appear to matter much. Health management took a backseat, favoring the Halo-esque “take cover to recharge shield.” ME1 had you on constant awareness of your medi-gel count and cooldowns, not to mention clear emphasis of squad health and shields. I still suffer my fair share of deaths in ME2, but losing one of your squadmates in ME1 felt jeopardizing. Not so much so in ME2. Perhaps because of heavy weapons, but I do love my singularity gun.

I’m still loving it despite a few things. Dialog is still top-notch. Although holy F-bombs, Batman, there is 500% more cursing. Side missions are definitely much better, more interesting, and better planned. Still dislike Cerberus, but that’s just me.

I agree that ME2 is vastly superior to ME1 in a lot of ways… but ME1 still has the edge at others… so I can’t decide which one I love the most… they’re both awesome. ME1 has more parts that are cumbersome and annoying, but ME2 has less of the depth in leveling and gearing up… and less RPGish combat which to me is a downer

ME1 had more RPGish stuff sure, but all that rpgish stuff was horribly implemented, not to mention that inventory limits are stupid to put in games that have terrible inventory management. ME2 may have less stat heavy rpg goodness, but it has more actual role playing in my opinion, and is by far a better game.