Mass Effect 2‘s biggest problem is its plot. I’ve been through that a million times and it gives me no pleasure (except perhaps in the reinforcement of my own belief that I’ll be Doing It RightTM when it’s my turn).
So let’s harp on about combat and mechanics again.
I have played, and spoken of the Mass Effect series many times before… But not for a while. I’ve only ever played Mass Effect 3 once (when the extended ending DLC came out, I only replayed the ending), but I can’t exactly dive straight into the final part of a trilogy, no sirree.
So, let’s go back to the beginning…
(Might be spoilers.)
Mass Effect 3 feels like an expansion pack for Mass Effect 2. In some ways, it’s a very good expansion pack. In others, it’s… Well, pretty shameless.
The game is also a huge pile of Hollywood films squashed together. Shamelessly.
Shameless in a good way, though. Mostly.
After listening to Faunts’ EP M4 on Spotify a few times too many, I reinstalled Mass Effect.
The game’s cute little tank, the Mako, has always been a controversial subject. Some people love it, some people hate it… Actually, from my experience, most people hate it.
But is their hate justified? Does it really add anything to the game? Could Mass Effect have been better without it, or did it just need a little more spit and polish?
Mass Effect 2 is a conflicted soul; the game made so many advances in so many ways, and yet took astounding backward leaps in others. More like it took a jump to the left instead. It went diagonally, in the best case.
With the release of patch 1.02 (finally I can play offline and have all my DLC active — thanks lads, I thought that was a horrible DRM trick rather than a bug), I am finally returning to this game to try out bonus free DLC such as the Firewalker pack. No, I am not buying Kasumi (five minutes long, from all I’ve heard) nor Overlord (which just sounds a bit floppy — come back Pinnacle Station, all is forgiven).
Just how well does the game stand up to a second play? (And is the lateness of this second play indicative of the game’s ultimate mediocrity?)
Spoilers may ensue. Continue reading “Blog 402: The Greatest Miner in the Galaxy”
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