Mass Effect 2 is out?

[Fat Dragon]

It's pretty silly the way you learn to use a new weapon type in ME2. My Shepard was untrained in sniper rifles. Then he spots one laying next to a bunch of corpses, picks it up and BAM, he's headshotting bitches like a pro.

That's how it actually happens, he just picks a weapon off of the ground and instantly becomes an expert. And the game calls it "Advanced Weapon Training."

 

[Kaanyrvhok]

Nonsense. Biotics boost? They're neigh useless compared to ME1. Barrier is still useful but no way near ME1 Barrier.

Really? I dont have the game. I just heard that Biotics was improved to balance the fact that the gunslingers didnt have to spend points on weapon skills and to make realtime Biotics more Bioshockish.

WTF are you talking about? There are no weapon skills in ME2. The weapons you can use depend on your class. During the game you get to choose an additional weapon if that's what you mean.

Thats what I mean. Thats my only issue with removing weapon skills. I'm also sick of Action RPGs and really RPGs in general focusing so much on damage instead of accuracy, precision, and the ability to avoid or evade. I bet you can develop damage in ME 2 and it doesn't matter because of level scaling.

 

[HanoverF]

It's pretty silly the way you learn to use a new weapon type in ME2. My Shepard was untrained in sniper rifles. Then he spots one laying next to a bunch of corpses, picks it up and BAM, he's headshotting bitches like a pro.

That's how it actually happens, he just picks a weapon off of the ground and instantly becomes an expert. And the game calls it "Advanced Weapon Training."

If you already can use sniper rifles you can choose to be able to use Legions tech upgrade sniper rifle. Choices and consequences derp derp!

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Really?

Yes. As Volourn already mentioned almost all abilities only work if the target doesn't have shield or armor. So you have to shoot until their shield/armor is used up, by that time you might as well just keep on shooting instead of using biotics. However I found use for it, mostly Warp, Barrier and a bit Throw. Still it's disappointing compared to ME1.

'm also sick of Action RPGs and really RPGs in general focusing so much on damage instead of accuracy, precision, and the ability to avoid or evade. I bet you can develop damage in ME 2 and it doesn't matter because of level scaling

Unfortunately that's exactly the case.

 

[Fat Dragon]

It's pretty silly the way you learn to use a new weapon type in ME2. My Shepard was untrained in sniper rifles. Then he spots one laying next to a bunch of corpses, picks it up and BAM, he's headshotting bitches like a pro.

That's how it actually happens, he just picks a weapon off of the ground and instantly becomes an expert. And the game calls it "Advanced Weapon Training."

If you already can use sniper rifles you can choose to be able to use Legions tech upgrade sniper rifle. Choices and consequences derp derp!

Perhaps you should reread my post, this time much more slowly.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

I found biotics and tech overpowered in ME. Mostly because that the best weapon throughout most of the game were pistols, the only advantage the soldier had was survivability. But you could just pump the heal items or hide behind cover for 10 seconds to live, so who cared? In fights with less then 3 enemies I literally used a biotic to knock em down, bum rushed them then smacked them in the face constantly while they tried to get up. Tech wasn't as ridiculous but you got better buffs yourself to compensate.

Having not played ME2 though, it sounds bad if they require you to take down enemy shields and armor first. The point of biotics and tech abilities is to use them at the beginning of combat when the enemy is strongest to make them weaker. Who the hell uses debuffs when the enemy is about to die?

Also, 4 skills on companions? They were useless sacks of shit in the first game, did bioware just decide to fuck it and make them all equally useless so that the player could just take the two they wanted to bone without caring about party composition?

 

[BlitzKitchen]

I found biotics and tech overpowered in ME. Mostly because that the best weapon throughout most of the game were pistols, the only advantage the soldier had was survivability. But you could just pump the heal items or hide behind cover for 10 seconds to live, so who cared? In fights with less then 3 enemies I literally used a biotic to knock em down, bum rushed them then smacked them in the face constantly while they tried to get up. Tech wasn't as ridiculous but you got better buffs yourself to compensate.

Having not played ME2 though, it sounds bad if they require you to take down enemy shields and armor first. The point of biotics and tech abilities is to use them at the beginning of combat when the enemy is strongest to make them weaker. Who the hell uses debuffs when the enemy is about to die?

It's not as simple as that. Different powers work on different things. Warp for example is extremely useful against armor and biotic barriers and cannot be used against shields AFAIK. Overload against shields and synthetics but nothing more( unless you upgrade it to affect weapons). The more overpowered abilities like singularity, throw, etc require the enemy to have no armor, shields or biotic barriers, but trust me it's useful being able to kill an enemy the instant you bring down his protection rather than to spend extra time bringing down his health conventionally. Especially playing on Insanity (which is the only way to play anyway). And keep in mind that its not the same formula for power usage every time and you'll be encountering different things like an enemy with just an armor bar, or an armor and health bar, or shield and health, shieldarmorhealth, bioticarmor, biotichealth, or bioticarmourhealth.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Do they actually let you play insanity from the get go (without mods) instead of putting you on pussy console mode 2x first?

And keep in mind that its not the same formula for power usage every time and you'll be encountering different things like an enemy with just an armor bar, or an armor and health bar, or shield and health, shieldarmorhealth, bioticarmor, biotichealth, or bioticarmourhealth.

That sounds at least a bit hopeful. Different enemies with different tactics? Pretty much all there was in ME1 were invincible krogan you often had to kill twice, and everything else.

 

[SerratedBiz]

I beg to differ, as explained in my previous post. Abilities like Warp, Overload and whatevumz are extremely -ineffective- at taking down enemy protection, since they are not spammable (due to recharge times) and not actually damaging (in Insanity every enemy will have a shield or barrier or armor, so whatever ability you have will be useful against one of those, and will be rather ineffective at that).

Instead, the armor piercing upgrade you can get for every weapon (+50% or something against barriers AND armor AND shields) combined with the usual +damage research makes shooting much more effective than using powers in the endgame, where there are many more enemies and all of them have protection, and you can't spare 6-12 seconds waiting for Warp to recharge every time.

 

[Volourn]

"but trust me it's useful being able to kill an enemy the instant you bring down his protection rather than to spend extra time bringing down his health conventionally."

Bullshit. That 'extra' time is 2-3 second asmax. Enemies do NOT last long when they only have health.

Bionic powers are boring banal bad in ME2. All characters play the same.

In ME1, there was a difference in playstyle between soldier, biotic, and techie.

FFS Codex loving dumbed down shit over the original awesomeness. FFS

 

[BlitzKitchen]

"but trust me it's useful being able to kill an enemy the instant you bring down his protection rather than to spend extra time bringing down his health conventionally."

Bullshit. That 'extra' time is 2-3 second asmax. Enemies do NOT last long when they only have health.

Bullshit. Not when they are behind cover and there are other enemies that you want to start focusing on as soon as possible.... just give them a biotic power and forget about them.

 

[BlitzKitchen]

I beg to differ, as explained in my previous post. Abilities like Warp, Overload and whatevumz are extremely -ineffective- at taking down enemy protection, since they are not spammable (due to recharge times) and not actually damaging (in Insanity every enemy will have a shield or barrier or armor, so whatever ability you have will be useful against one of those, and will be rather ineffective at that).

Instead, the armor piercing upgrade you can get for every weapon (+50% or something against barriers AND armor AND shields) combined with the usual +damage research makes shooting much more effective than using powers in the endgame, where there are many more enemies and all of them have protection, and you can't spare 6-12 seconds waiting for Warp to recharge every time.

In the endgame I died too much trying to kill Harbingers with just shooting. I either got hit by one of their powers or counter shot by the minions around. So using powers was far more useful as you're only out of cover for a smidgen of time. I shot whenever there was a downtime in enemy fire and my shields were maxed. My warp wasn't that upgraded but still dented his biotic barrier far better than my geth assault rifle.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Warp is the single most useful biotic. If maxed (Nemesis) it does help bringing down biotic barriers & armor. Barrier(Bastion) is also good but you have to learn it from Jacob.
Doesn't change the fact that biotics got nerfed you will still spend most of your time shooting like everyone else. Which is kinda lame.

 

[Mangoose]

I beg to differ, as explained in my previous post. Abilities like Warp, Overload and whatevumz are extremely -ineffective- at taking down enemy protection, since they are not spammable (due to recharge times) and not actually damaging (in Insanity every enemy will have a shield or barrier or armor, so whatever ability you have will be useful against one of those, and will be rather ineffective at that).

Instead, the armor piercing upgrade you can get for every weapon (+50% or something against barriers AND armor AND shields) combined with the usual +damage research makes shooting much more effective than using powers in the endgame, where there are many more enemies and all of them have protection, and you can't spare 6-12 seconds waiting for Warp to recharge every time.

Yeah and the global cooldown causes it so that once you use a power, you're stuck shooting for the next 6-12 seconds.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Yes, that's what I... posted?

 

[Volourn]

So... basically you admit youa re shooting no matter your class 95% of the time? FUCKIN' LAME. Is that what you call defending a lame 'feature'?

Face it, ME2 combat is dumbed down ME1 combat. It's passable but loses avriety, intelligence, and lots of fun factor.

Seriously, ME2 combat = hide behind walls and shoot while eltting your teams stand in front. R00fles!

 

[Overweight Manatee]

So... basically you admit youa re shooting no matter your class 95% of the time? FUCKIN' LAME. Is that what you call defending a lame 'feature'?

Face it, ME2 combat is dumbed down ME1 combat. It's passable but loses avriety, intelligence, and lots of fun factor.

Seriously, ME2 combat = hide behind walls and shoot while eltting your teams stand in front. R00fles!

Thats... pretty much all you did in ME1. The only difference is some classes had abilities that disabled opponents for 5 seconds or so. Throwing people into lava or whatever worked, but it was situational and thus not reliable damage. Nothing did reasonable damage except shooting.

 

[Mangoose]

Yes, that's what I... posted?

I don't think you or anybody made it clear that there was a global cooldown. I actually forgot that the cooldowns in ME1 were NOT global until I looked it up last night. I was wondering what felt different.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Yeah, I assumed people would be familiar with the game and it didn't occur to me it played differently from ME1. Separate cooldowns would indeed change the viability of purely power-based builds, since it would allow you to spam them.

 

[Grifthin]

Biotics where toned down because in the first ME you could lock even the last boss down indefinately without him ever firing a single shot the entire battle and kill him. That's broken.

Now biotics require a bit more finesse. Besides some enemies are a pain the arse to kill even with only a health bar. I'm looking at you Vorcha, Krogan, Husks. As a adept you will have a machine pistol/Hand cannon. or even a submachinegun. Problem is that these weapons are all short ranged or have tine clips (hand cannon) - so having the reach with biotics to take down enemies is great. And if you fight lots of armor foes then your hand cannon will run out of bullets after 24 shots. So I disagree - having biotics is crazy good. With all the cooldowns researched and with the class skills reducing recharge you can toss out a ability every 3-4 seconds. So you could Warp someone's barriers then send em flying. Lift + Push. Singularity + Warp for a wide area dot.

I'm playing on insanity at the moment and it's all down to play style. Besides you can curve powers around corners now. That's great compared to the first where you needed LOS or AOE to drag their sorry asses out.

 

[Lesifoere]

Are you kidding? AOE Pull will take care of anything with a health bar only, husks or no husks. Once they're floating in the air, they're as good as dead.

 

[made]

I guess this is the soon-to-be-70-pages thread to post in so here's my 2ct:

The Gameplay gets old fast. Fighting the ever same enemies with the ever same tactics interspersed with tedious minigames. At least scanning planets is just boring as opposed to downright torture that was the Mako in ME1.

Writing is decent, however. Very few cringeworthy moments (unlike in DA), bearable characters, some even interesting like the doctor with his genophage. The mission where you find his apprentice was particularly well done. I'm 15 hours in and still not annoyed which is quite a feat for a Bio game.

Conclusion: apparently smaller amounts of text make for higher quality overall / Bio is better at making fantasy games in space rather than classic fantasy.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

The Gameplay gets old fast. Fighting the ever same enemies with the ever same tactics interspersed with tedious minigames. At least scanning planets is just boring as opposed to downright torture that was the Mako in ME1.

It's the other way around. Scan the planet causes physical pain ffs.

 

[made]

Adjusting mouse scan resolution speeds up the process.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Adjusting mouse scan resolution speeds up the process.

You can adjust that?