Elmoth said:
I don't fully agree with this video.
How can you like ME2 and hate ME3? Mass Effect 2's main story was shite. The characters were good enough, like cliche sassy nerd girl tali and cliche battle bro garrus, but they all had their moments. But the main story has a villain you don't even see as a player, untill the end where he dies while Shepard isn't around. Shepard doesn't even ever talk about him at all! And the beginning rushes to the explosions and project lazarus is fucking stupid. And how is ME2's opening better? He assumes the player doesn't know anything in ME3 but then suddenly the ME2 characters are characters you 'know and love'. So choosing between "Okay", "I guess", and "grrr I hate it but ok" is the best roleplaying mechanic this generation?
I can still walk a line between holy saint and evil badass by choosing between them intermittently. My shepard is renegade against evil persons, and paragon against everyone else. And this fits with his past. He grew up well enough but his planet was attacked by slavers. And that's why he hates anyone even remotely criminal. So removing the neutral option wasn't the problem here. It's that the neutral option was mostly useless. It's just the same dialogue as the others but in a milder tone, basically. You're either angry shepard who saves people or not so angry shepard who saves people.
Whilst ME2's story didn't actually go anywhere, that's a problem with the third game and not the second itself.
People enjoyed it because at the time it felt like a great extension from the first game and a great sequal that appeared to be continuing and contributing to the story arc.
It was in no way as strong a story as Mass Effect 1 which had all the proper elements of a space opera, it did however offer a lot of player driven narrative and freedoms within the story itself.
Mass Effect 2 was a hook that got you emotionally invested in the characters, it wasn't so much about the story but about who you were surrounded by and the welfare of them. As a player I was very much concerned with getting my team out alive, for that expanse of time you
are Commander Shepard and the threat of losing your team is very real.
It is a fantastic game in that regard, yes the story is simple and in hindsight added nothing overall but that was it's draw.
