Yeah incoming wall of text if you don't want my properly explained response you are of course welcome to scroll down.
ME2 is more challenging that ME1 hands down, insanity mode was a walk in the park since you brought your busted specter gear with you to each new game in ME1. As far as the puzzles go ME1 had a few KoToR style real puzzles, but past that it was a bunch of quick time events, no matter what you were cracking open, seriously just playing insta simon says. Bypass and Hack were elegant, and less bland looking, they had a bit of roleplay sense to them. Pull your rose tinted glasses off, I loved ME1 but ME2 is what happens when hard working professionals update thier formula. Lets itemize the differences.
Gear: In ME1 the "lore" behind the items differences is theyre from different manufacturers. Some manufactures are weaker or stronger in different stats. In reality most of it was garbage, there were hundreds of items but only about 2 from each tier/catagory were worth using. Once you got the First set of spectre guns, you spent the time until you got the second set throwing everything away. Finding a decent piece of Quarian armor was a pain in the padded ass. Now I like designing my character, fine tuning gear and stats, but that wasn't going down on the gear end in ME1 I was just rifling through armors and weapons to find the one that was superior on all 3 stats. The best stuff wasnt even arguable, one item having 5 more shield points but 0 biotic defense. ME2 took alot of the irritating, fuss with your inventory cause its full out of it. Instead lending gear improvements to steady mostly linear Improvements. The choices mainly came down to, what do i wanna blow the resources on now. I don't see that this is really easier from a thought and planning perspective, Its more clean and less annoying. I want to battle enemies and enjoy the story/dialogue, not play cleanup on my inventory, go back and play ME1 remind yourself what it was like. I do miss the individual Upgrade slots for ammo and stabalizers but in the combat system of ME2 they dont really have a place.
Stats:Yes no arguing that ME2 has a much thinner batch of skills, but again lets look at ME1 with our rose tinted glasses removed. Alot of those stats played out like filler, mere point sinks you were obligated to in order to hold your weapon steady for more than 1 shot. They didnt offer some creative depth for rounding out your tactics, they were simply "choose the weapons you want to actually be able to use." Besides, shepard is some badass in the alliance military, I'm gonna assume some proficiency with all weapon types. They took all the electronic skills out of the game in ME2, meaning you could always open container X or hack turret Y even if you didn't bring Tali. Now this is a legitamate step away from more pure pen/pad style RPGing. I understand if some feal something missing here moreso when it changed a situation, not so much when in just opened a crate of more crappy weapons. Just about every Skill in ME2 translates to a pivotal turn in the battle used properly, minus Barrier and Geth Shield boost(good skills but more defense isnt really a big tactical question). Weapons choice itself had almost no tactical depth in ME1, if your character was proficient with Assualt Rifles that would pretty much clean up any problem they threw at you. The enemies always know where you are so sniper rifles were a bit lackluster, they worked but most of the time so did the assault rifle, or pistol for that matter. The shotgun seemed to be the only weapon that had a time and place for it, everything else was pretty much good to go, point and shoot, target range/type really don't mean much. The 4 or 5 class related skills that you got in ME1 got wrapped into a single slot named after your class in ME2, usually increases in the shield and weapon damage department or tech, biotics, where applicable, I don't really see that this is anything but a streamline, less fussy, provides same effect to enjoy the game. Further more skills in ME2 often gain new porperities as they increase in rank, instead of just adding 2 more percent to whatever bonus, most of those 12 levels of a skill were devoid of any real point other than to spend your way to the next tier of the ability on that list ME2 just took the filler out instead of splitting one real upgrade into 5 pieces.
Skills: Global Cooldown in ME2 yes, but cooldowns in ME2 are 3-12seconds there are a couple slower ones if i recall but for the most part theyre pretty quick to come back. Yeah you could hammer out 5 skills in a row in ME1 on seperate cooldown timers then blow your adrenaline burst and do it once more.... then you hid behind cover for 1-2min depending on skills til you could do it again. ME2's system makes more roleplay sense usually anyway. Oh you can throw a warp a throw a lift and a barrier up, but a couple throws in a row is too much for your brain huh? In ME2 you can play it on the pause wheel but I had alot more fun belting out my skills in concert with my gunplay in real time for the most part since I got 3 hotkeys for skills instead of one. From a tactical standpoint there are far more on the fly choices, due to the global cooldown, and that weapons actually do diffrent stuff well. Slow shooters pop the armor rapid fire pops the shields and barrier, on the fly ammo switching, and seperating the defense characteristics of barrier and shield, and then adding armor made for alot more on the battlefield decision making. Skills and Weapon Type choice have far more tactical depth in ME2 than in 1 and each weapon is nescessary on the higher difficulties, though Assualt rifles are still quite boss. Yeah you can just hide behind cover and belt away rounds and usually win in either game, but failing to keep a good survey of the battle and letting a close range get in on you in ME2 is a death sentence, in ME1 all mistakes can be fixed with Push, or if you were not a biotic, they could be fixed with hp and assault rifle to the face.
The storytelling is stellar in both games, the animations in ME2 have gotten a bit more natural and characters gestures are usually a bit less exagerated but this is where ME2 properly inherits daddy's genes. There are some genuine Opinion based enjoyment differences here but fussing with gear, the wonky grenades button and all, no dedicated melee button, half a wall of shallow stats and the 30 extra levels to feed them are not real depth. They've increased the apeal of the game but refining some of its components, its not dumbing it down. Your not "smarter" that people who don't want to spend 20minuts looking at menus to find the obvious gear choice. I'm not addressing those of you that miss the more traditional elements that didn't make the cut like the mentioned hacking skill trees. I'm addressing the pretentious whiners who are gonna bash what is a Gold Star, Game of the Year, mirror sheen finished product cause they think the game got dilluted, when it actually got distilled, there is far more pure story/character development, combat, and system to this game, with less filler, in the gear and stat department. The explorable areas are more unique instead of a 50 bumpy fields with the same damn base on em. There were a few good mako planets but mostly they were pretty repetative reruns. On the counter, scanning for resources not so hot. Tip for anyone playing, don't bother with planets that don't read rich, theres plenty of them for your resource needs and its faster to stick to those, do that and it doesnt even take that long to get what you need, oh and get the scanner upgrade for the ship.
But like I said I love both games, and I'm happy that the devs have the imagination and work ethic to belt out a more refined product and make changes that fit the theme of the setting. Future gun combat doesnt feal right backed by the stat system of a Jedi from our magical past future.
ME2 is more challenging that ME1 hands down, insanity mode was a walk in the park since you brought your busted specter gear with you to each new game in ME1. As far as the puzzles go ME1 had a few KoToR style real puzzles, but past that it was a bunch of quick time events, no matter what you were cracking open, seriously just playing insta simon says. Bypass and Hack were elegant, and less bland looking, they had a bit of roleplay sense to them. Pull your rose tinted glasses off, I loved ME1 but ME2 is what happens when hard working professionals update thier formula. Lets itemize the differences.
Gear: In ME1 the "lore" behind the items differences is theyre from different manufacturers. Some manufactures are weaker or stronger in different stats. In reality most of it was garbage, there were hundreds of items but only about 2 from each tier/catagory were worth using. Once you got the First set of spectre guns, you spent the time until you got the second set throwing everything away. Finding a decent piece of Quarian armor was a pain in the padded ass. Now I like designing my character, fine tuning gear and stats, but that wasn't going down on the gear end in ME1 I was just rifling through armors and weapons to find the one that was superior on all 3 stats. The best stuff wasnt even arguable, one item having 5 more shield points but 0 biotic defense. ME2 took alot of the irritating, fuss with your inventory cause its full out of it. Instead lending gear improvements to steady mostly linear Improvements. The choices mainly came down to, what do i wanna blow the resources on now. I don't see that this is really easier from a thought and planning perspective, Its more clean and less annoying. I want to battle enemies and enjoy the story/dialogue, not play cleanup on my inventory, go back and play ME1 remind yourself what it was like. I do miss the individual Upgrade slots for ammo and stabalizers but in the combat system of ME2 they dont really have a place.
Stats:Yes no arguing that ME2 has a much thinner batch of skills, but again lets look at ME1 with our rose tinted glasses removed. Alot of those stats played out like filler, mere point sinks you were obligated to in order to hold your weapon steady for more than 1 shot. They didnt offer some creative depth for rounding out your tactics, they were simply "choose the weapons you want to actually be able to use." Besides, shepard is some badass in the alliance military, I'm gonna assume some proficiency with all weapon types. They took all the electronic skills out of the game in ME2, meaning you could always open container X or hack turret Y even if you didn't bring Tali. Now this is a legitamate step away from more pure pen/pad style RPGing. I understand if some feal something missing here moreso when it changed a situation, not so much when in just opened a crate of more crappy weapons. Just about every Skill in ME2 translates to a pivotal turn in the battle used properly, minus Barrier and Geth Shield boost(good skills but more defense isnt really a big tactical question). Weapons choice itself had almost no tactical depth in ME1, if your character was proficient with Assualt Rifles that would pretty much clean up any problem they threw at you. The enemies always know where you are so sniper rifles were a bit lackluster, they worked but most of the time so did the assault rifle, or pistol for that matter. The shotgun seemed to be the only weapon that had a time and place for it, everything else was pretty much good to go, point and shoot, target range/type really don't mean much. The 4 or 5 class related skills that you got in ME1 got wrapped into a single slot named after your class in ME2, usually increases in the shield and weapon damage department or tech, biotics, where applicable, I don't really see that this is anything but a streamline, less fussy, provides same effect to enjoy the game. Further more skills in ME2 often gain new porperities as they increase in rank, instead of just adding 2 more percent to whatever bonus, most of those 12 levels of a skill were devoid of any real point other than to spend your way to the next tier of the ability on that list ME2 just took the filler out instead of splitting one real upgrade into 5 pieces.
Skills: Global Cooldown in ME2 yes, but cooldowns in ME2 are 3-12seconds there are a couple slower ones if i recall but for the most part theyre pretty quick to come back. Yeah you could hammer out 5 skills in a row in ME1 on seperate cooldown timers then blow your adrenaline burst and do it once more.... then you hid behind cover for 1-2min depending on skills til you could do it again. ME2's system makes more roleplay sense usually anyway. Oh you can throw a warp a throw a lift and a barrier up, but a couple throws in a row is too much for your brain huh? In ME2 you can play it on the pause wheel but I had alot more fun belting out my skills in concert with my gunplay in real time for the most part since I got 3 hotkeys for skills instead of one. From a tactical standpoint there are far more on the fly choices, due to the global cooldown, and that weapons actually do diffrent stuff well. Slow shooters pop the armor rapid fire pops the shields and barrier, on the fly ammo switching, and seperating the defense characteristics of barrier and shield, and then adding armor made for alot more on the battlefield decision making. Skills and Weapon Type choice have far more tactical depth in ME2 than in 1 and each weapon is nescessary on the higher difficulties, though Assualt rifles are still quite boss. Yeah you can just hide behind cover and belt away rounds and usually win in either game, but failing to keep a good survey of the battle and letting a close range get in on you in ME2 is a death sentence, in ME1 all mistakes can be fixed with Push, or if you were not a biotic, they could be fixed with hp and assault rifle to the face.
The storytelling is stellar in both games, the animations in ME2 have gotten a bit more natural and characters gestures are usually a bit less exagerated but this is where ME2 properly inherits daddy's genes. There are some genuine Opinion based enjoyment differences here but fussing with gear, the wonky grenades button and all, no dedicated melee button, half a wall of shallow stats and the 30 extra levels to feed them are not real depth. They've increased the apeal of the game but refining some of its components, its not dumbing it down. Your not "smarter" that people who don't want to spend 20minuts looking at menus to find the obvious gear choice. I'm not addressing those of you that miss the more traditional elements that didn't make the cut like the mentioned hacking skill trees. I'm addressing the pretentious whiners who are gonna bash what is a Gold Star, Game of the Year, mirror sheen finished product cause they think the game got dilluted, when it actually got distilled, there is far more pure story/character development, combat, and system to this game, with less filler, in the gear and stat department. The explorable areas are more unique instead of a 50 bumpy fields with the same damn base on em. There were a few good mako planets but mostly they were pretty repetative reruns. On the counter, scanning for resources not so hot. Tip for anyone playing, don't bother with planets that don't read rich, theres plenty of them for your resource needs and its faster to stick to those, do that and it doesnt even take that long to get what you need, oh and get the scanner upgrade for the ship.
But like I said I love both games, and I'm happy that the devs have the imagination and work ethic to belt out a more refined product and make changes that fit the theme of the setting. Future gun combat doesnt feal right backed by the stat system of a Jedi from our magical past future.
