Mass Effect 2 [Xbox 360/PC/PS3]

[Riskbreaker]

and why was all the fuss about importing your character from Mass Effect? i got some lousy credits and that's all. pathetic.

There's plenty of bits and pieces that tie into your decisions from the first game that you won't see immediately after importing your character. The starting creds and XP are surely meant to be a bonus compared to the opportunity to carry your own character and their choices into the sequel.

I'm on my second and third playthrough's now. My femshep is about halfway through a renegade, hardcore playthrough as a Vanguard. And I just started an Insanity run as an Infiltrator. Really can't enough of this at the moment, I've got other games to play but enjoy the ME universe to much to pull myself away

[PeteJ]

Quick question about a side quest I can't seem to close:
Got to find a package for Ish, have found the first but the second is apparently in Eternity on Illium. I've looked everywhere with no joy

I think I'm probably the last person in the world to finish this, still enjoying every moment though

[C']

No, I'm about 50 hours in and still not done. Admittedly I spend many hous scanning every planet to Depleted status but I just can't help myself.

NEED MOAR RESOURCES!!!!!!

I have the seem issue with the Ish package quest. I got the first one from Illum and returned it to him but then I used the Paragon conversation option to convince him that what he was doing wasn't a good idea. He agreed and the quest description says the packages have been returned but it won't actually go grey and I tried to go and get the second package from the Citadel but it's not there.

Must be a little glitch (and it is a little annoying) but the game is so incredible I'll let it off.

[mekanor]

yep, its broken. if you choose the charm option the quest doesn't close

[EvilBoris]

I finished this yesterday and it was loads better in the last few hours. For a big part of the game I felt like I was on some giant side quest to get optional people to join me but nearer the end when I discovered just how much my team had to say when I went and spoke to them it suddenly all came together.

[Welrain]

I can't see how people are spending 50 or so hours on this, are you scanning every single planet?

[PeteJ]

Yeah, scanning everything. Wouldn't want to miss a quest!

[Jebus]

I must admit, I finished it and clocked round about 30 hours and felt I'd done everything I needed to.

Keeping it purely for future DLC.

[Concrete donkey]

My First playthrough clocked in at a little over 58 hours. I like taking my time in my games especially RPGs. Scanned more planets for resources than I needed to but not every one. Read quite a lot of the codex but not all of them. I did visit every planet I could, done every sidequest and talked to my crew and team quite a lot and spent more time than necessary

->Open Spoiler<-

among old crew mates like Liara T'Soni

.

Knowing as little as I could on this game really paid off for me with so much of the plot a surprise to me. With the exception of Shepards reported death from teaser trailer and Cerberus's involvement somehow (thanks to Eurogamers retrospective on the original) I knew next to nothing on the sequel. I was somehow expecting Cerberus to be the big bad of the middle game and was pleasently surprised with their role in the game.

I like the changes they've made since the first, which was quite pronounced as I had just come from completing the first game again, on the PC this time. Even the stuff that concerned me to begin with like the lack of an inventory screen I quickly found to be beneficial to the game.

I did miss the Mako a little and the lack of a helmet toggle has rendered most of the DLC useless to me as I wanted to see my Shepard. I also found it annoying that you can't go back to some of the mission locations, particularly on Omega. Even during a mission the game would seal the exits behind you at certain points and I can understand the reasons why but it was still annoying.

These are small complaints though to a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Looking forward to playing it through again at some point. Already restarted several games but think I'm going to play through from the first game again as a Renegade Shepard.

[C']

I can't see how people are spending 50 or so hours on this, are you scanning every single planet?

Pretty much. I've probably got more resources than I could possibly need right now but I've become OCD about making sure each planet is 'Depleted'.

[Uli]

i wont judge the game until i am finished, but so far the game seems a little overrated for my liking. don't get me wrong, i am still at it and enjoying it - mostly for the story - but i thought much more of the first game - as a game actually. Bioware made some really poor design decisions here, or didn't at all. luckily, as the game is neither meant to be a 3d person shooter nor a RPG, these issues are not game breaking and, as always, most people wont care or even notice them.

most troubling for me in the moment: i have 5 heavy weapons but can't buy or find any ammo for them. why i don't get a full load-out at the start of a new mission or why there's no ammo to buy in this game is beyond me and serves well as an example for what i stated above. any tips how to acquire ammo?

[Brats]

You find loads just lieing around. Any crate marked Power Cells is ammo for the heavy weapons. I never ran out of heavy weapon ammo for the entire game.

[Eight Rooks]

Plus doesn't visiting the weapons locker on the Normandy refill your ammo anyway? Or was I imagining that?

The only possible reasons anyone could prefer the first game's mechanics are pointless stats-related, basically. You don't need to worry about ammo, health bars, weapons overheating or anything else, but I guess some people just like the busywork. It's far from perfect but it's still a better shooter, it's got far less extraneous clutter, it's more efficiently laid out ('Shepard, shouldn't we get back to the Normandy and go over what just happened?' 'No, I feel like hitting the market again, picking up some souvenirs.') and it's just wildly better written and scripted in every conceivable way. Dragon Age by contrast practically feels like it was made by a different developer altogether.

[rmoxon]

Ive read people complaining that the gameplay isnt as deep as in the first game, but thats a load of rubbish. Often in RPG's the buying and selling of weapons is a pain. For example while playing titles in the genre you will often have loads of weapons on offer to you yet besides the odd ocasion when somthing might grab you becuase of its elemental stats you generaly just want the best and most powerful weapon there is avaliable at that current time.

By streamlining things like that Mass Effect 2 saves you alot of time and needless effort and instead lets you just play the game and focus on what the gameplay is actualy about, and thats a good thing IMO.

[Brats]

Many people confuse detail with depth. It's fair to say that Mass Effect 1 had a more detailed inventory system, but there wasn't any depth to it. You simply equipped the best possible weapons and either sold the rest or converted it to Omnigel.

Aside from the music and the superb twists in the plot of the first game, the sequel is substantially better in every conceivable way.