Does anyone actually prefer ME1 to ME2?

[Zarniwoop]

Both were 3rd person shooters with some RPG-flavour, but the first one definitely had a better story, and the combat sucked less. What the hell is up with suddenly retconning ammo and fuel into the ME universe?

The second game had a completely retarded premise from the start, and the supposed "integration" with choices from the first game was broken as shit. In fact the whole continuity of the story is screwed up. In ME2 everyone acts like the whole epic struggle-to-save-all-life-ever thing never even happened, like Shepard's imagining it all.

I liked the Mako and the exploration missions. Yes they were samey and repetitive sometimes but a million times better than the crapass planet scanning in ME2. Not to mention in ME2 you get the feeling that the whole thing is built around the biofag romance encounters, like it's more a Japanese dating game, if I'm making sense. The loactions in ME1 were also much better, and seemed more "alive", although still pretty empty. Bu in ME2 you just walk through miles and miles of empty corridors or walkways to give the illusion of big maps going on.

ME1>ME2. Although ME2's opening sequence was pretty fun.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

Regarding the RPG elements, the "skill based FPS" thing that ME1 did just didn't work at all for me. I'm surprised that anyone likes this to be honest, but OK.

The thing is, the skill is supposed to model your character being specifically good at some weapon, but what happens if you max it out is only that now the weapon's usefulness is completely dependent on the player's skill, while before you STILL had to aim but weren't even rewarded for lining up a good shot because the random number generator just decided that your super-soldier can not hit a target 3 meters in front of him with an assault rifle. To me that's just frustrating and it made any weapon that I didn't have a substantial amount of skill points in completely worthless. Whatever the "correct" way is to introduce RPG mechanics into what is basically a shooter, the ME1 way wasn't it: it did not make much sense from a roleplaying perspective (because an ostensibly AWESOME professional special forces soldier somehow can't hit the broad side of a barn with a standard weapon) nor did it make the gameplay more fun (at BEST it simply didn't stand in the way).

I dunno lol, I'm completely flabberghasted that anyone honestly liked the GAMEPLAY better in ME1 than in ME2.

 

[SoupNazi]

But we're not discussing the gameplay here overall. I didn't like the gameplay in neither games (cover-based third person shooters don't cut it for me whether they're done well or bad), but overall ME1 was a better game. Whatever genre it's supposed to be. ME1, with me, left an impression while ME2 was simply forgettable and boring.

 

[sser]

They're both pretty lame, but at least ME1 has some interesting combat options. The best thing about ME2 was watching Kelly get mulched.

 

[circ]

That was pretty golden. I saved just to watch it because I wanted her to feed my fishies.

 

[markec]

So much decline in one thread since ME2>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>ME1

 

[Monkeyfinger]

sup drog

 

[torpid]

ME2 is neither an RPG nor a good game. Stripping out the RPG elements did not magically turn it into a good game: it's a crappy, linear corridor shooter. If people prefer the second game that's because it's a better soap opera, nothing more. Both games are shit anyway -- third option is where it's at.

 

[Karmapowered]

Regarding the RPG elements, the "skill based FPS" thing that ME1 did just didn't work at all for me. I'm surprised that anyone likes this to be honest, but OK.

The thing is, the skill is supposed to model your character being specifically good at some weapon, but what happens if you max it out is only that now the weapon's usefulness is completely dependent on the player's skill, while before you STILL had to aim but weren't even rewarded for lining up a good shot because the random number generator just decided that your super-soldier can not hit a target 3 meters in front of him with an assault rifle. To me that's just frustrating and it made any weapon that I didn't have a substantial amount of skill points in completely worthless. Whatever the "correct" way is to introduce RPG mechanics into what is basically a shooter, the ME1 way wasn't it: it did not make much sense from a roleplaying perspective (because an ostensibly AWESOME professional special forces soldier somehow can't hit the broad side of a barn with a standard weapon) nor did it make the gameplay more fun (at BEST it simply didn't stand in the way).

I dunno lol, I'm completely flabberghasted that anyone honestly liked the GAMEPLAY better in ME1 than in ME2.

Well, we can't have it all. I tend to rather agree with those holy principles : a game is either stats/skill based (RPG), or player skill based (FPS).

Game design is a fine chemistry, mixing what probably shouldn't be can lead to rather unsavory results, right ? Right!

And now that you mention it :

• since ME1's skills rise so fast (we basically only use 1 or 2 weapon styles per class), that we're fairly efficient even with 4 or 5 points in each (I can't recall ever missing a shot, if properly aiming beforehand)
• since ME1 offers way more variety with the "psy" powers (can't remember their names atm), opening a whole spectrum of tactical options, compared to lame ME2, which sticks to one or maybe two per class (if unlocked by buddy "quest")
• since ME2's basically drops the ball on the equipment, leaving us for each weapon basically with the shitty standard model and its "upgrade", compared to ME1, which featured more different models
• since ME1 and ME2 both boil down to an exercice of railroaded skirmishes ducked behind crates, which ME2 only marginally improves compared to its prequel

Combat (ME1) > Combat (ME2) !

Thank you for getting me back to the straight path!
I can finally see the light.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Mass Effect 1 was a boring dull shooter with that terrible inventory. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand was a dumb shooter that was fun a few times and actually had 2 interesting party members instead of just 1 compared to its predecessor.

 

[SoupNazi]

That inventory wasn't even big enough a deal to be mentioned twenty god damn times in a single topic. And it's not something that should ruin your experience. ME1 has plenty of other mistakes and stupid things that you can criticize. Shitty inventory makes you sound like either an OCD person or some faggot trying to rationalize their irrational hate of a game.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

In ME2 everyone acts like the whole epic struggle-to-save-all-life-ever thing never even happened, like Shepard's imagining it all.

Compare that to everyday politics, think about it, acknowledge that Shepard has been spewing shit about monster spaceships that come out every fifty thousand years to eat the entire universe without so much as any kind of proof other than ONE incident and a whole lot of DREAMS and maybe, just maybe, you too can understand why everyone is acting like, yeah, maybe that Commander Shepard was just a fucking dork.

I'd be happy if they could retcon Mass Effect 1 completely and make ME2 the beginning. Heck, I hear they have this DLC out now that can create a custom-made beginning so Bioware's practically made their own savegame editor. I think that speaks volumes.

edit: Jesus christ do we really have this many retards on the codex now? Can't you fuckers go back to your own shitty forums and leave my elitist magazine in peace?

 

[markec]

Seeing this topic I predict that in few years (if not already) codex will consider FO3 to be "good for what it is".

 

[Andyman Messiah]

If that happens then I will truly fuck this shit I'm going home on this place.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

That inventory wasn't even big enough a deal to be mentioned twenty god damn times in a single topic. And it's not something that should ruin your experience. ME1 has plenty of other mistakes and stupid things that you can criticize. Shitty inventory makes you sound like either an OCD person or some faggot trying to rationalize their irrational hate of a game.

Yeah it was, you have to use it all the time, you pick up shit all the time and have to turn 278 assault rifles into mono-gel or whatever, sell your list of
Heat-Seeking Ammo
Heat-Seeking Ammo
Heat-Seeking Ammo
Heat-Seeking Ammo
Heat-Seeking Ammo
+ 20x more Heat-Seeking Ammo which you can't see because widescreen monitors aren't designed to show that much shit apparently... It was a chore. And your item progression is the most boring possible, assault rifles I-VII, another assault rifle I-VII all having more numbers than the rest, no interesting choices only dumb shit to update all the time. Remember Baldur's Gate? For a long time you have normal weapons, then at some point you get some enchanted weapons, not 5% better sword every fucking 15 minutes.

Driving the Mako was like driving a... Well not driving anything I can think of actually, sort of like rubber ball with rocket engines. By nothing else did I die so much in ME1 as flying offscreen or into water or something with that damn deathtrap. Going in those worlds was atmospheric maybe the first two times but then you realize they're all the same, except some have more minigames, others have the same bunker and some have that stupid monster. On principle I'd have to say that replacing actual gameplay, no matter how shitty, with a silly minigame is a dumb decision.

ME1 has a bunch of lore I didn't bother to read as I wouldn't read some of those tech manuals for Star Wars. What's the point?

Gunplay in ME2 just feels stronger, by combination of better sound effects and some other factors I can't put my finger onto because I don't remember ME1 so well. Both are 3rd person cover shooters though, a genre I don't care all that much about.

Music in both is awesome, the best part of the ME games really and one of the few things from ME I can remember clearly.

But one thing nobody has yet mentioned is pacing, ME1 just lags like shit, while ME2 goes on at a steady pace, only really crapping up when you need to gather resources with shitty minigame, and because of that it's atmosphere works better. Also the bugs were scarier than the robots, robot enemies nowdays just remind me of SW Episode 1, just how cool those were...

ME2 is the more polished game of the two and better in most ways, most important ways anyway when you consider how a railroad corridor shooter plays.

 

[Relay]

People who call it a good shooter probably don't like actually good shooters. Even the mediocre Half Life 2 makes for a ten times better shooter than ME2. It's neither a good rpg, nor a good shooter. It's just a fucking movie, with an uninteresting setting and story.

The pace just isn't good for a shooter. Most of the time is spent behind walls, there is a huge lack of variety in weapons, the maps are crappily designed (keep on going forward, forward, and forward. Even HL2 which is a corridor shooter had its moments of backtracking and some stuff to do once in a while) and you can't fucking jump an obstacle, your character is glued to the ground. The fagdex criticized the use of "popamole" but both Mass Effect truly are the ones games that should be called such. You can't get more popamole than ME without making an actual whack-a-mole simulation.

Mass Effect is the biggest decline ever brought to the gaming industry. No game has gone that far in dumbing down, it's not just dumbing down RPGs, it's dumbing down shooters too. If people get used to playing such dumbed down shooters they'll never know what a real shooter can actually do. It's a motherfucking interactive movie where you pull the trigger and something awesum happens.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Real shooters like Doom? Those used to be cloned 20 times every year and then they declined massively. Mass Effect didn't contribute to that because it wasn't made yet when the great shooter decline happened.

It was Oblivion which was the biggest RPG decline, I mean why not make a game where you fight dogs and crabs and find brooms in caves full of rats.

 

[MicoSelva]

I liked ME1 much more than ME2. I don't really mind the gameplay changes - well, not all of them. I enjoyed ME1's vehicle parts, while ME2's planet scanning made me grin my teeth and turn off the speakers. 'Space Theme' or whetever that piece of music is called was written to be listened in the short amount of time You need to select next planet as a travel destination, not to constantly play in the background when you try to find Palladium or some other stupid shit, by wiggling the mouse like crazy.

'Probe launched'.

I liked the story of ME much more too. It really felt like saving the universe, or at least having a big part in saving it. ME2's plot was less epic and in fact really stupid. Why exactly would humans not block the one relay used by collectors with a fleet of battleships? No idea. Also, I felt railroaded all the way, not being able to screw Cerberus and go back to being a Spectre - even when I had a giant fucking proof of reapers' existence (the dead reaper, anyone?).

Also hated the retcons and the way they were handled, which made even less sense than the retcons themselves.

 

[Haba]

ME1 was shit. ME2 wasn't as shitty. End of the line.

 

[Trash]

Actually I do. ME2 was overall more polished but when I played it there was this nagging feeling that it lacked something I just couldn't put my finger on. So I replayed ME1 and realised that to me it just felt more creative. Not that it always worked out so well but it felt like more creativity, attention and even love was put into it.

ME2 was more polished and better in many regards but it also felt more formualic and rushed in some aspects.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I preferred ME2 over 1. 1 was more of a bad half-assed RPG, 2 was a decent CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE~~~ shooter.

 

[Volourn]

Both are about equal. They have their strengths and weaknesses. If I were forced to choose, i'd give the edge to ME2 largely thanks to probably the most epic ending sequence in a game ever.

 

[kris]

i preffered ME2 because it was a funny game, almost like a parody. Pressing the renegade button was sometimes instant laughter. Also I think they did some good things with some levels, especially on the artistic side.

Only thing I liked better about ME1 was the music. (which actually might have been very similar)

Story was forgetably in both. You fought some monsters. OK.

 

[kris]

I liked the story of ME much more too. It really felt like saving the universe,

Sorry, but you are part of the decline now. "Epic plot needed"!

 

[Topher]

I liked the story of ME much more too. It really felt like saving the universe,

Sorry, but you are part of the decline now. "Epic plot needed"!

It's a campy space opera for fucks sakes...