The more I play this game the more I get sucked in, but I do have some nagging problems with it.
The stripping away of the larger RPG elements are really starting to get to me. You get no XP for kills at all, you can't outfit your teammates with better armor b/c it doesn't exist and the whole game feels slightly less grand in some ways.
Every new world you go to, even the open ones, seem small in comparison to the original. Omega 3 was decently sized, but once you've done a loop around the area you really don't have a reason to do it again. The maps are laid out almost too well leaving no exploration needed. It seems like all "major quest locations" have a spot where you land and then 2 hub points and that's about it. I think the world is deceptively smaller than they'd like to admit. In the original you explore and explore 1 large area and pick up quests and talk to people and get lost in the world. Here there's too much hand holding and point A to point B.
In this game you're tasked with assembling "the best and most deadly team ever," but every time I go to pick up a new teammate it feels more like a fetch quest. Go to said location, talk to person that knows something, kill a ton of people to find said person or find said person and kill a ton of people to get out....it's pretty much the same quest over and over and IMHO it shows. While you're on these quests the path through it is very linear and there's nothing to explore. Now they're all wanting special favors so that I can then earn their loyalty.
I LOVE THIS GAME, but to say it is w/o some large flaws is a huge misstep (is it fair to call it a flaw if they excluded something from the first game or made it more basic???). I guess the flaws boil down to making the game more accessible to the general gaming audience and I get that, but they didn't have to do it with my favorite game. I went back to The Citadel to talk to Captain Anderson and it's a neutered version of the old Citadel. Two levels to "explore" and one talky part. In the original The Citadel was a huge area with many levels and citizens and many side quests.
One of my favorite things of the original was building relationships with my squad and even that feels simplistic. In the original no matter how many times you talked to a squadmate they always had something to say and you could even TALK TO THEM DURING QUESTS and get their thoughts. Again...not here. You can talk to them on the ship, but after you've explored the dialogue tree after you recruit them it's pretty much done until they call you in for a favor mission....oh well. I feel almost no bond with any character...even my blessed Garrus.
This game deserves high praise and I'm having a super awesome time with it, but I'd be lying if I said my feelings weren't a little hurt. The game just feels like twice the game it was action wise and only half the game it was story and content wise. I wish gaming journalists were as honest and thorough as I am with their assessments of games like this....and HALO.
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No XP for kills? Then how is even called an RPG? How do you leve up? Taking XP away from an RPG is like taking a lightsaber away from a Jedi! :P
ReplyDeleteYou get XP from finishing missions, but it only totals in the "End Mission" page that summarizes what you did.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to come off as overly harsh on the game, esp cause I haven't finished it yet, but the streamlining from the first game is a letdown to me.
Let it be noted that the game is still one of the best I've ever played and that the 2nd night I had it I played it from 11PM to 5AM then I went to work....so it's still awesomeness.
Haha, nice. I can't pull those all nighters anymore like I did in my 20s.
ReplyDeleteI bought the game on Tuesday, was able to play a few hours after work but besides an hour of play on Friday, I just haven't had the time... that is, until today. I spent two days celebrating my anniversary with my wife and as a thanks (and present?), she gave me the freedom to play all day. And all day is what I played. After my 11hr marathon, I am finally calling it quits as I know that I will probably not be able to sleep as my mind will conduct one amazing non-stop movie preventing me from REM. But, after about 14hrs in, I find that I agree and disagree with a lot of what 3N3MY is saying. Here it goes:
ReplyDeleteAfter my first couple hours, the game left me feeling a bit, well, wanting more depth. I found that I was missing the ability to customize on the fly and build my guy into the character I wanted. As I kept playing, I began to actually appreciate the change in pace. I found that I was less distracted by the complexity of the upgrade system. Throughout ME1, it became a nuisance as you were never satisfied with your combinations and spent way too much time messing with them. It was sort of a distraction. This time around, you get to simply just focus on the gameplay and story. I feel more drawn into it.
But, like 3N3MY, I do feel that the worlds are smaller, the exploration is lacking, and the interactivity of your companions could be better. One thing I miss is the radar of ME1. It was always on and it constantly showed you different people and points of interest. But, since the worlds are smaller, and the game is a bit more linear it makes sense they took it out.
Lastly.... WTF IS WITH THE "AMMO"????? And what's the point of 800 team members when you can only take 2 at a time?
So far I give it a 9.3/10