Mass Effect 2: The Lost Numbers
Mass Effect 2: The Lost Numbers
Editorial - posted by VentilatorOfDoom on Wed 24 February 2010, 19:41:08
Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect 21UP explains Mass Effect 2.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">In the meantime, I think Mass Effect 2 is a much purer realization of BioWare's original vision for the series. This is where the "Mac" part of the equation starts to come into play. The stats are still there, but they've been well-hidden. Glance at the information window, and you might notice that various weapons have better armor penetration, or work well against shields. Armor accessories will add damage to headshots, or change the shield recharge rate.
In a normal RPG, these would be rendered as individual statistics. In Mass Effect 2, they are rendered as nice, friendly percentage points. As with a Mac, a player can remain blissfully unaware of everything that's going on under the hood while using a system that still has a fair amount of utility.
Percentage points are still numbers, silly. I have an idea how to improve on this system. Just scrap the numbers altogether and make it colors. Green for very good weapon, yellow for meh weapons, red for the poor weapons you start with at lvl1.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Beyond that, I actually don't mind having a weapons locker rather than a straight-up inventory. It's not like the original game had consumables or anything, you just sort of collected guns and ammo to equip to your character. The changes in Mass Effect 2 have kind of forced me to think more carefully about which guns I want to bring with me for a mission, even if I'm only really thinking about which heavy weapon I want.
I've been a bit overwhelmed too with all that choices regarding weaponry. Do I take the sniper-rifle with 10 shots, or rather the sniper-rifle with 70 shots? Do I take a shitty heavy weapon with me, or rather the best one aka Collector laser? That's really a lot to consider.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">That said, it's not "deep" in the traditional sense, but it was never really meant to be. It was always meant to be an accessible, entertaining shooter that was still an RPG. And make no mistake, dear readers, Mass Effect 2 is definitely an RPG. The team building, customization, and general "roleplaying" are all right there. It's just not a game where you ever have to fiddle with command line, as it were.
Team building, customization (armor colors etc) and *general roleplaying*.
I'd like to add that you can <a href="">upgrade your ship and grab weapons off the rack.[/url]
RPG = Romance Planning Game
Spotted at: GB
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">In the meantime, I think Mass Effect 2 is a much purer realization of BioWare's original vision for the series. This is where the "Mac" part of the equation starts to come into play. The stats are still there, but they've been well-hidden. Glance at the information window, and you might notice that various weapons have better armor penetration, or work well against shields. Armor accessories will add damage to headshots, or change the shield recharge rate.
In a normal RPG, these would be rendered as individual statistics. In Mass Effect 2, they are rendered as nice, friendly percentage points. As with a Mac, a player can remain blissfully unaware of everything that's going on under the hood while using a system that still has a fair amount of utility.
Percentage points are still numbers, silly. I have an idea how to improve on this system. Just scrap the numbers altogether and make it colors. Green for very good weapon, yellow for meh weapons, red for the poor weapons you start with at lvl1.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">Beyond that, I actually don't mind having a weapons locker rather than a straight-up inventory. It's not like the original game had consumables or anything, you just sort of collected guns and ammo to equip to your character. The changes in Mass Effect 2 have kind of forced me to think more carefully about which guns I want to bring with me for a mission, even if I'm only really thinking about which heavy weapon I want.
I've been a bit overwhelmed too with all that choices regarding weaponry. Do I take the sniper-rifle with 10 shots, or rather the sniper-rifle with 70 shots? Do I take a shitty heavy weapon with me, or rather the best one aka Collector laser? That's really a lot to consider.
<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">That said, it's not "deep" in the traditional sense, but it was never really meant to be. It was always meant to be an accessible, entertaining shooter that was still an RPG. And make no mistake, dear readers, Mass Effect 2 is definitely an RPG. The team building, customization, and general "roleplaying" are all right there. It's just not a game where you ever have to fiddle with command line, as it were.
Team building, customization (armor colors etc) and *general roleplaying*.
I'd like to add that you can <a href="">upgrade your ship and grab weapons off the rack.[/url]
RPG = Romance Planning Game
Spotted at: GB
