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Post by Cali on Jan 28, 2010 3:20:29 GMT 1
The Story, or how the sequel let it all hang out... Provided you have all your Mass Effect saves intact, you'll be like a teenager stumbling over his own childhood artwork and getting a warm fuzzy feeling. And yes, the story is pretty dark... Won't spoil anymore for you guys.
The Visuals and Locations, or why we can't take our eyes off the Galaxy... Far better. Each room and area is detailed tenfold, the framerate is better, and the motion blur is gone. You won't be dissapointed.
The Music and Sound, or the best eargasm you'll ever have since Houses of the Holy was released... Jack Wall totally jacked what he did. The orchestral tracks are pretty limp at best, but when J.W. gets behind a synthisizer he's God's older brother. The music almost makes the game for me, it's that good. The illusive man's theme, along with several other tracks send microscopic angels and butterflies up and down my Vagus nerve. I'm going to buy the soundtrack, and I'm going the buy the hell out of it.
The sound effects are also just as awesome, especially the ambience and atmospheric sounds. When you're walking in a space station hearing the intercom while hearing the groans and pestering of vagrants in the gutters. You're there. If you're jogging around Deck 2 of the Normandy and are hearing the bleeps of computers and the engine humming, you're there. If you're planetside on a world where two mercenary factions are duking it out, hearing distant explosions, flares, and commanders barking orders on a loudspeaker, you're there. Mass Effect 2 helps you get immersed into the experience more than its predecessor could ever hope to do, and it has it's sound to thank.
Please Note:
-UPGRADE YOUR SHIP SCANNERS AS SOON AS YOU GET THE CHANCE. Really, scanning a planet with the default vanilla equipment is a pain in the ass.
-If you have any questions when you do get in the game, PM me and I'll hook you up with some advice, free of charge.
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Post by Zarsthor on Jan 28, 2010 4:19:58 GMT 1
It normally costs? lol
Thanks for the review. I'm currently having hyper anxiety or something. I just keep checking the post. Want game now!
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Post by Knightfall on Jan 28, 2010 4:41:51 GMT 1
Agreed on all accounts.
I thought I should also bring up that if anyone here is thinking about starting a new file on ME2, Bioware has made a lot of the decisions for you.
I started up a male Shepard (starting to regret it, lol), and these are the decisions they made for me so far:
-You let Kaidan die and saved Ashley (I assume this is reversed, depending on your gender) -You let the Council die and you promoted Representative Udina to the Council (which was extremely lame, for me) -You killed Wrex
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Post by Cali on Jan 28, 2010 5:39:13 GMT 1
As opposed to the Shadow Broker.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Jan 28, 2010 7:58:00 GMT 1
I like this, it means only people who played the first and imported a saved game will get access to Wrexy goodness.
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Post by Knightfall on Jan 28, 2010 8:22:36 GMT 1
We'll see. This game has sideswiped me so many times, I'm not sure what to believe anymore.
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Post by Cali on Jan 30, 2010 23:40:25 GMT 1
A few updates:
-I got to play as Joker near the end of the game. No, I didn't say you got to fly the ship, you controlled Joker briefly during a mission. Let's just say the fact that Lt. Monroe can't move very fast adds quite a bit of tension to that mission...
-I am now on the final mission. Once you go on the suicide mission you really feel like you're all alone.
-(TO BE UPDATED)
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Post by Zarsthor on Jan 31, 2010 3:26:06 GMT 1
It's here! Well its been here all day but I haven't been allowed to play it properly. I put it in imported my character, Daniel then started flustering and kept taking the control and trying to re-create the face even though I protested I wanted my old characters face but meh. Then I played the first 2 missions, saw Tali and Daniel was having some sort of weird male dramaticism in the kitchen so I decided to come off and let him play for a bit... he hasn't come off. He's still playing! Its 2:20am and he's been playing since 11am...
ANyway my first impression was to be amazed. The graphics and the rooms are greatly improved. I lvoed the little touches like walking up to someing and a keyboard pops out. The gears of war movements annoyed me for a bit because that first mission the rooms are to cramped to do a gears of war movement. I did find myself screaming at Shepard a couple fo tiems to get her ass off the wall to, but I'm liking the new combat. Wish I had more biotic attacks though.
I am certainly looking forward to being allowed to play the game. Daniel promised he was coming off 2 hours ago but I've got the feeling he's going to be up all night... He keeps saying "Its so amazing. Its my favourite game! I don't want to come off and I don't want it to end."
Oh and I walked in on an odd moment. Jacob was flirting with daniel's male shepard... lol
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Post by Cali on Jan 31, 2010 5:42:31 GMT 1
I beat the game.
...
.....
I'm keeping my mouth zipped about the opinions, since I still want to be generous to you all.
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Post by Knightfall on Jan 31, 2010 8:18:48 GMT 1
Yeah, I beat the game a couple days ago myself. Without giving anything away, how did you like how the ending played out?
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Post by Tillian Panthesis on Jan 31, 2010 14:38:58 GMT 1
I've just beat the game today. Normally I don't like certain endings which I will not disclose what type it is, but let just say it made me feel like big damn hero(ine) with Shepard being a magnificent bitch. Not going to say what happened but holy shit, I've did expected to see her pulled a fast one...
Also the part where you played Joker briefly, yes it's tense and it kinda shakey.
Another thing, ME2 is one of those few games that managed to keep me saying "oh shit" a lot of times. I have to say I'm quite impressed with this game. In the long run I might able to stumble into flaws but then again, no game is perfect.
Bottomline: If you want to create a good game with nice intergrated action gameplay and a really good storytelling a decent ending, ME2 is a good place to take notes... especially with you Denis Dyack.
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Post by Cali on Jan 31, 2010 16:09:13 GMT 1
The ending was pretty good. The boss fight was really stupid, I thought, but I thought there was no better way to end it.
Since the possibility that your crew can die in Mass Effect 2 is no secret, I'll just spit this one out.
They did so much to build up the possibility that Shepard and his crew could die. I upgraded my ship's weapons, armor, and shields with relative ease. But here's what pissed me off the most. I sent Legion through the pipeline in the final mission since he was a good tech expert and didn't have any emotions. As soon as he disables the security, everyone gets to the bulkheads and meets up. So after trying to shut the doors, Legion gets a round to the head and dies. SHEPARD IS PISSED OFF. WHY?! He's a Geth, no emotions, no regrets, and Shepard has killed tons of his kind and now he's feeling regret? Disgraceful.
Legion ended up as the only casualty, and at the end of the game Shepard caresses his coffin in the ship's docking bay like Nancy Reagan. A GETH IN A COFFIN. What the fuck? So I didn't get to get the No One Left Behind achievement, because my synthetic Geth squad mate died.
Not to say Legion wasn't a cool character, it just pissed me off to no end.
That aside, it's a damn good game. There were some things I enjoyed more in Mass Effect 1, but maybe it's just nostalgia. Still Mass Effect 2 improved on a lot of things. A damn good game and a worthy successor.
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Post by Cali on Jan 31, 2010 16:19:15 GMT 1
Also, after beating the game, I felt the effects of PGM/GD (Post Good Movie/Game Disorder), the kind of game where it hurt when I beat it. Literally. I haven't felt like that since beating the Ocarina of Time.
So I expect you all, and I MEAN ALL of you to write some fan fiction after all this is over. I know I will.
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Post by Knightfall on Feb 1, 2010 0:17:42 GMT 1
Also, after beating the game, I felt the effects of PGM/GD (Post Good Movie/Game Disorder), the kind of game where it hurt when I beat it. Literally. I haven't felt like that since beating the Ocarina of Time. So I expect you all, and I MEAN ALL of you to write some fan fiction after all this is over. I know I will. I know exactly how you feel. I had similar feelings at the end of Mass Effect 2...too, as well as KotOR and especially Dragon Age. I know that the ability to replay it is right there, but it's never the same. *sniff* Never the same. KIND OF A SPOILER! I didn't really care for the ending all that much. Mostly because losing party-members wasn't part of the actual story, it was the consequence of not having all your bases covered. For instance, Legion died the first time as well, but then I read that if you send anyone other than Miranda or Garrus to lead the second team, then whoever went into the shaft will always die. And if you remember, what they asked was, "Who has the most experience?" So, obviously, I sent the assassin who's been trained to kill things with precision since he was six. It even says in his profile, "really, really, really experienced." But what ultimately ended up happening was that because of that fight that Miranda and Jack had, and the fact that I sided with Jack, Miranda lost her loyalty to me even after I did that quest. I wasn't aware of this until she was randomly dead after the boss fight. I don't mind main characters dying, but I really, really don't want to feel like it was my fault. I would have rather preferred the Ashley/Kaidan decision. >< But, honestly, I thought the boss fight was pretty good. Kind of a weird revelation but it worked...still weird. Wondering how that's going to turn out in the third game.
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Post by Mr. Glow on Feb 1, 2010 0:31:52 GMT 1
I sent Luigion into the pipe and had Jacob head the second team, Legion survived. I got him a specially upgraded sniper rifle and a shield boost so maybe that has something to do with it. I also lost Miranda to a petty argument as well, stupid cow should have known not to question me.
Just ran into a pretty funny typo as well, if you read the prototypes section of the tech lab, it says Normandy has one of the best labs in the world. What world?
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