Bioware are getting really lazy as of late. (Possible Mass Effect 2 spoilers)

[Daedalus1942]

The worst part of ME2 were it's fan boys...

Must... gloss... over.... flaws...must... use word..... masterpiece... again....

Leave, troll. You're not welcome here. Try actually providing some decent discussion and you might not get a warning for that post.

 

[Snotnarok]

They took out the mako exploring because it sucked. All the planets were bumpmaps which is LITERALLY 2 images, one gray scale that changes elevation and such and the other with the textures on it. There were no trees, no mountains, no lakes, no civilization, copy-pasted buildings. The idea was sound, but the execution was mostly bad. I mean look at the moon mission, the moon doesn't have hills, it has CRATERS. Rather, not hills like in Mass Effect, there wasn't a single crater. How can you mess that up in a game THAT detailed!

I love ME and ME2 all the same, they fixed a lot and lost a few things. One thing I miss is the party banter that usually happened. Most of the talking is done by Shepard now, I guess that's fine but I do certainly miss it.

 

[Spiner909]

The only real problem with ME2 was that scanning sucked, and the game didn't feel quite as open as ME1. Still was a better game than the original.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Epic SNIP

I agree with alot of what you said and in response to me leveling to level 60. I didn't really specify. Ok obviously I didn't expect them to let me be level 60 (unless they completely changed the level cap) but it would have been nice to retain some of my previous strength (like start at level 10 or 5 and maybe have my stats (that i gained from achievements in the first game) carry over to give me a little bit of an edge rather than just completely change everything about my character apart from what he/she looked like.
As for raving about ME2, this is the first post in which I have, and I will not start another one. You have my word. I've said my piece.

I can agree with you on the level thing. They should at least give you some advantages to playing though ME1. Maybe even some unique gear for actually saving the Citadel.

And pardon the stuff about so many ME2 threads but today alone had something like 15 separate threads about the game and the whole time since ME2 came out has been a landslide of the bleeding things so I kinda snapped.

Lets just hope Bioware listens to these posts and makes ME3 a gem. Knock on wood

Actually, an imported level 60 does let you start as level 5. It also gives you 10,000 of every element and some amount of money I forgot (because you get a much bigger monetary bonus for importing a rich character).

And BTW the mineral thing also happens after you've beaten ME2 once. And it's 50,000 of each resource and 200,000 credits

It would be nice if they did read posts like this, but I doubt they do.
My one wish is that they'd gotten playtesters who played the first game to test the second, because you can't honestly tell me if they had, the game would have been as flawed as it is.

 

[The Heik]

My one wish is that they'd gotten playtesters who played the first game to test the second, because you can't honestly tell me if they had, the game would have been as flawed as it is.

Even if they would, they might not change it if it's to close to release date. Marketing is cheaper than rewriting.

 

[Jandau]

What say you, Escapists? Are Bioware getting lazy as of late (provide examples) or am I just nitpicking on little things?

You are just nitpicking on a lot of little things. Also, a few of your points are outright not true. For instance:

They took out the inventory system and micromanaging of mods and upgrades completely, gave you 3 shotguns (one of which only Grunt can use, 2 sniper rifles, 2 smg's, 2 pistols and 2 assault rifles ( 3 IF you bought the Collector's edition).

It's 4 Snipers, 4 Shotguns (and the player can use Grunt's shotgun as well), 2 SMGs, 2 Pistols, 5 Assault Rifles and you left out Heavy Weapons. This is in contrast to the FOUR weapons total that ME1 had. But yeah, it would be nice to have mods back.

Beyond that, the rest of your post is either nitpicking about minor things (spelling in a few subtitles, really? Let's ignore the excellent voicework and focus on a few spelling errors...) or simply your personal prefference.

For instance, the Recruitment and Loyalty missions that you discount so easily are in my opinion awesome. There's plenty of variety in them and they serve to make the characters deeper and get you to care about them more. Mordin's Loyalty mission is especially thought-provoking IMO. These missions are as much a part of the game as the "main" story is.

Overall, I'm sorry you didn't like the game, but I also think you're watching the first one through rose-colored goggles and ignoring its glaring flaws, many of which the second game fixes. Yes, there is still room for improvement, but overall ME2 is a superior game to ME1. You have every right to disagree, but I have every right to think you're wrong.

 

[bladeofdarkness]

i don't get it
removing elemets that pretty much everyone WANTED for them to remove now makes them lazy ?

 

[Looking For Alaska]

No, they aren't lazy, I'm just certain that Bioware doesn't remember how to make a game that has both good gameplay and a stellar story. But, My favorite Bioware games have always been the sub-par game play and high-quality story ones.

Unfortunately they really missed the mark on their last two games, in my opinion.

 

[Trotgar]

2nd off: The inventory was a pain in the ass, so was the mako, the majority didn't like them, so unfortunatly(Or fortunatly, in this case.) you, the minority, have to deal with it.

I think they should have improved them, not just say "fuck it", and make the game more generic-like.

 

[misfit119]

Your facts are wrong, first off: 3 sniper rifles no matter what, buddy.

Er, no. There's three Sniper Rifles if you pick to use it at one point in your first playthrough. Otherwise Legion is the only one that can use that rifle. So there's only two for your party members to use. And the inventory system was terrible, but typically that's not a reason to totally excise it. Clean it up maybe, but getting rid of it was rather extreme.

Now you actually have to go around it from orbit, as would actually be done, and find things from space. You're scanning an ENTIRE PLANET. Call it tedious, I call it an ENTIRE PLANET. The fact that you can scan the whole thing in a couple minutes is quite remarkable.

I call bull on this. Sure it's remarkable but if we're being realistic I highly doubt the Commander would have been the one doing the scanning, he has a shipful of people to do stuff for him. Otherwise hey why not let him pilot the thing too. The least they could have done was made the cursor larger or something. Then again if you play on the PC it's not a huge issue - it just means Bioware didn't pay enough attention to the console version.

Everything she's done for the past 2 years have been for you, and you think she's a cold hearted ***** for it. YOU are a cold-hearted *****.

Except for the fact that this feels incredibly out of character from within Mass Effect 2. Unlike Jacob in his Mass Effect Galaxy appearance you NEED to read the comic to understand Liara's change. It's especially jarring if you had a romance with her where her quiet mostly non-violent nature and now she's putting out hits on people. Uh huh.

As for the Human Reaper, you obviously have no interest in the plot you complain about so much here either.

While I can't speak for most I felt this fight was intensely lame for one reason - even on Insanity it's easy as hell! Oh sure Harbinger or the Collectors can be a threat but he's infinitely easier than Saren was in the first game. You see this gigantic monster in front of you and then take it down by shooting it in the eye a whole bunch. Oh sure it takes awhile but c'mon! It's a Reaper! Even a Reaper embryo should be a bigger threat than that.

I subscribe to the whole theory that the embryo is probably meant to be the core of the beast, not even the entire body, but I'd still expect more than just some easy to dodge attack from the thing.

Were you pissed at J.K. Rowling for having a happy ending to Harry Potter? Was it too generic for you?

That was a terrible ending to the series anywho.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Well I played n completed with an imported character, and have just started a new character. With the new, I never got to pick if [spoiler/] I'd saved the council, saved Wrex, picked a love interest, if i'd saved the Rachni, if i sacrificed Kaiden or Ashley [/spoiler]

Also i think Liara came off as a cold b*tch as [spoiler/] she has a mission to hunt down the Shadow Broker and has to toughen up to do it [/spoiler]

Oh and i lost 2 people on my suicide mission, and i don't feel I could have been better prepared.

EDIT:
I wouldn't like the Mako back personally.
I didn't like the planet scanning either. Something that would have improved it for me would have been to have an upgrade that significantly speed up the process

 

[Heathrow]

[...]

Actually if you'd played on a man's difficulty setting you would have found there are three AR in the default game not including the Revenant.

I really don't want to counter every single point, suffice to say, you're nitpicking and Mass Effect 2 is the best game out this year by miles.

 

[Angry pirate]

Looks like someone didn't get the Geth Rifle

Hard too difficult?

And you can get Grunts shotgun, or ANOTHER assault rifle, or another sniper.

 

[Amnestic]

*snip*

Going to have to agree with most of this. Some of the points are really, really miniscule, especially when you take a step back and look at the game. Even basic things like conversation direction were vastly improved upon in ME2 ("Don't fuck with Aria." for example).

As for the weapons: Seriously? You had four weapons in ME1. A sniper rifle, an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. There were maybe two (possibly three?) models for each weapon and the rest were colour swaps with various levels of damage, heat and accuracy depending on which Roman numeral was plonked at the end, and even then once you got your Spectre stuff you never swapped out, only trading up from Specter VII to Spectre X.

In ME2, at least, weapons you get can be sidegrades depending on your playstyle. The Revenant is just as decent as the Vindicator but are used in a completely different way. Ditto for the Mantis and the Viper (and to a lesser extent, the Viper and the Widow). This is especially true for heavy weapons, where all of them are debatable sidegrades except (for me at least) the missile launcher which I feel doesn't have the power it could and doesn't have an ammo store large enough to justify using it over the Grenade Launcher. You can't really look at the Avalanche, the Cain and the Flame Thrower and say "Oh, those are basically the same weapons."

In contrast, what was the real difference between Spectre VII and Spectre X? Did it play any differently or were the numbers just bigger?

ME2 is not without its problems, but lets not go crazy with our nostalgia glasses.

For a fun comparison, load up Chora's Den in ME1, then switch over to Afterlife in ME2.

Yeah. They're really lazy.

 

[T3h Merc]

ME2 was a failed renaissance of gameplay elements. This is not new.

Thank you for providing absolutely no interesting discussion to my post whatsoever. I wasn't whingeing about them "dumbing" things down and completely changing the game (like other people)
My viewpoint (if you had bothered to read) was whether or not you think Bioware are just getting lazy of late, and just riding their success of an already successful IP).

Sorry, I only skimmed your text and I gave a general answer. No I do not think Bioware are lazy by any means.

Care to elaborate and give your two cents on Biowares seemingly poor effort towards Mass Effect 2?

I think they have just reached the level where everyone wants more and Bioware cannot feasibly live up to.

That's a fair comment. Where could they really go from Mass Effect?
But they could have at least taken time to improve things rather than just replace things that didn't work in the first game with things that didn't work in the second either.
Who honestly in Bioware thought scanning would be a good idea? I never thought I'd actually be bored playing a Mass Effect game, but I was.
The least they could have done was get playtesters who finished the first game. I'm sure then they'd have said "Scanning's kind of awful, sorry guys".

Scanning was a pile of Bullshit but I really enjoyed my expierience. Looking back though forcing Cerberus down our throats sucked.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I understand that but it doesn't really explain the significance of why they were building what they built. The thing was massive. It would have made more sense for the final boss to be about the same size as Shepherd and possibly even look similar (or Identical?) Now that would have been GREAT Storytelling!.

Maybe, but it would have been a pretty anti-climactic boss fight...

'Not just any Reaper, a human reaper....' Cue musical crescendo... DEN DEN DEEEEN...

Shepard and crew burst out laughing at the tiny terminator with no legs.