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Mass Effect 2 Impressions


True_Avery

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Ok, just to make this clear for those that have not already found out, Shepard is not dead. Bioware's goal, as they stated, is to make Shepard the main character in all 3 MS games.

 

This will be, as Bioware states, the first RPG to use the save game of a previous game as a direct starting point for the game, transferring your character, choices, moral alignment, and so on into the new game experience.

 

So, the basic gist of the story is that you, Shepard, are trying to recruit the big badasses of the galaxy to help you fight the Reapers. The amount of them you get, their attitude towards you, and so on all effect the current of the game.

 

So, the Demo starts us off talking to an Asari in a flying car in a city that looks a little like Coruscant. The inside of the car is full of lights passing by and gives a cinematic look to the conversation as you talk in a dialogue system similar to that of the first Mass Effect. The game transitions from this to pre-rendered footage flawlessly and is quite beautiful to watch.

 

Shepard was then dropped off into a skyscraper to find an Assassin/Bounty Hunter whom is considered the best is the galaxy. Your goal is to find his next victim before he does in order to get a chance to speak with him.

 

The first guy you meet is a guy in full yellow heavy armor. You speak with him and ask him questions. When he says he does not want to talk to you, he talks but you are given the option to interrupt his sentence with your own comment with a button that appears on screen. The Devs replied with a death response, kicking him out of the window and watching him plummet to his death. The kick, fall, interrupt, and so on all done in the context of the conversation.

 

Your two allies are new. A woman with black hair and white armor who resembles Ashley is next to you, but I am not entirely sure who she was. The other was an African-American man in full combat gear. Both seemed amused, if not pleased with your harsh attack of the man.

 

Next we saw actual combat. The abilities can now be accessed and used without the need of the abilities wheel, but it can still be pulled up. When pulled up, you can choose a favorite ability for your NPC's to use over their others. As usual, the cover system is back and working fine. The shooting itself is more precise and resembles a third-person shooter more, and is ultimately more satisfying to watch.

 

As was pointed out, you can now shoot limbs and other pieces off of your enemies. He demonstrated this by shooting the heads off of some robots, which exploded violently. We also saw some arms and legs fly off. This also depends on the ammunition you are using, of which more variety is being implemented.

 

We also got to see one of the 9 new weapon types being introduced: The rocket launcher. Shepard holds this similar to a large rifle, and it fires small rockets at enemies which does splash damage as well as heavy direct damage. In these explosions and the explosions of grenades, we noticed shell shock and other screen/audio effects take place on a more detailed level.

 

At the end of this, we find the Asari target and speak with her. Again, we noticed the interrupt option appear in one of her lines. The conversations had more movement in them, and this particular one ended with Thane, the Assassin/Hunter, coming through the ceiling and killing her and all her bodyguards mid sentence.

 

Spoilers for Thane's character. Unlike the other sites that are just throwing spoilers out there, you do not have to read this if you do not want to:

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He has a code he lives by, and mentions he is asking for forgiveness. Shepard asks if he thinks she deserved a prayer, and Thane responds with "Not for her. For myself." He then makes a few quick deductions on your character from what he can see, mocking you a little. He is quiet, however, despite the show he just put on and seems to be very humble in his actions. He is not human, his leathery face covered with a heavy mask, eyes sunken and black. His race appears to be new.

 

PLANETS

Guess what? Planets are now damn Planets.

 

We were given a small preview of the new planet screen, which allowed you to zoom in on a planet and then manually select the part of the planet you would like to land upon.

 

We were also given a few seconds to glimpse the new look of a rain forest planet, which was covered in bushes, trees, rivers, etc and it looked fantastic in the very little time we were allowed to see it.

 

This game also has a darker story, evident by a cinematic of one of the endings that was shown. Now, keep in mind this is one of the endings so I will put this in spoiler tags. You may read it if you like, as it gives information on the whole "Shepard dead" thing.

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The cinematic starts out with the inside of the Normandy on fire. You and Liara are rushing around trying to put fires out. Shepard then tells her and the crew to leave for the escape pods as you look for Joker. You eventually have to yell at her in order for her to leave.

 

The Normandy begins to explode as the pods eject. You run through the flaming ship, then arrive at the main bridge. Half of the hull is missing, and you can clearly see the planet below you. You walk across and find Joker in his space suit trying to save the ship. He then gasps as the computer shows a massive ship coming towards the Normandy. Shepard grabs joker as incoming fire rains upon the ship. You get caught in a corner as the front part of the ship appears on screen and fires a massive laser into the hull. You push Joker away to a pod, Shepard floating off as the ship splits, then explodes.

 

Shepard is then shown slowly floating off into space, the oxygen leaking out of his mask as you watch him die. The Bioware devs confirms that in this ending, Shepard legitimately 100% dies. It is a full fledged, fully worked ending to the Mass Effect series and one of the devs said it is one of his favorite when seen fully.

 

That is the end of Shepard. This ending happens if you do not collect the necessary amount of these "Special" people from around the galaxy, have bad attitudes with them, and so on. The details were vague, but basically if you play Mass Effect 2 and skim through it you will die at the end.

 

This is one of many endings, and if you manage to get a Shepard Lives ending your save file will be ready for Mass Effect 3.

 

Those long elevator waiting times and so on have been replaced with plot relevant and so on scenes to pass the time in order to cause as little annoying downtime as possible, says the Dev. The inventory system has also been completely redone as they claim.

 

Game is set for early next year, Xbox 360 and PC

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From the videos that I've seen thus far, I'm impressed from what I see. I quite enjoyed the first game and it looks like they are improving the right bits here and there to make it a better game, IMO. Definitely looking forward to hearing more about ME 2.

 

Looks like I'll have my hands full for winter this year. :)

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So pumped!

 

I'm a little concerned about my save games though. I finished Mass Effect and it didn't save the game or anything when I finished, so I don't know whether or not I'll need to go back and re-finish it again to be able to use a save-game.

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So pumped!

 

I'm a little concerned about my save games though. I finished Mass Effect and it didn't save the game or anything when I finished, so I don't know whether or not I'll need to go back and re-finish it again to be able to use a save-game.

It wouldn't be a big tragedy to have to play through Mass Effect Vanilla again though :p Anyway hopefully I'll have a new rig by the time this comes out, as well as actually finish the first... XD
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I kinda wish I could delete previous game saves (on the 360). I cheated on my first playthrough and saw all three endings (saved/reloaded, chose different ending each time). So I have 3 final saves from one character, and a couple more from other playthroughs. I've tried deleting the Mass Effect files from the 360, but that didn't do anything.

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PLANETS

Guess what? Planets are now damn Planets.

 

We were given a small preview of the new planet screen, which allowed you to zoom in on a planet and then manually select the part of the planet you would like to land upon.

 

We were also given a few seconds to glimpse the new look of a rain forest planet, which was covered in bushes, trees, rivers, etc and it looked fantastic in the very little time we were allowed to see it.

Ahhh. Now, almost there, almost... just place a colony or village on some of them now, nice and quiet....

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lol yeah, one thing I didn't like about the first Mass Effect were the sandbox planet areas... where they put them through random terrain generators and textured and lit them differently to try to make them look different XD It was so bad... never have I see mountains so huge on our very own moon.

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lol yeah, one thing I didn't like about the first Mass Effect were the sandbox planet areas... where they put them through random terrain generators and textured and lit them differently to try to make them look different XD It was so bad... never have I see mountains so huge on our very own moon.

 

...or lack of people on a moon that's supposed to be colonised :xp:

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