Warning: There's spoiler in here. It's also very long 
.
Not so much a versus thread, I actually enjoyed both game a lot and think that combined, that are shaping up to be one of the most impressive Sci-Fi storytelling epic published across any medium. Even if the 3rd on blows, the ground of the first 2 is just magnificient.
That being said, as I played through the second one, I couldn't help but compare what made the two game different and what made them 'tick'.
This isn't so much about which one did it 'better', because while it's easy to point out the difference, what is good for someone can be bad for another... that being said, I'll list which one I liked better on each aspect as a fodder for discussion.
I'm going to break this up in two small section with their own subsections,
Gameplay
Much has been said about the gameplay, in fact most review you'll read will point out the significant gameplay change between the two games. So I'm not going to spend to much time here. I have to say thought, that to me, the change in gameplay wasn't something that jump at me right away, it took me a good 10 hours of playing to realise the game has an entire new vibe... so yeah, I'm a bit confused to people who have such extreme reaction.
I'm not going to spend to much time on these points,
Mechanism
The biggest change from a mechanic point of view of course (ME vs ME2) :
- Overheating vs Termal Clip
- Single Power Cooldown vs 'Global' Cooldown
- Unity to 'rez' party member and Omni-gel to heal you/squad vs Unity raise party member, no way to directly heal yourself.
To me, this is a strange situation where limiting options actually resulted in an overall better experience.
It wasn't that hard in ME to trick out a gun so that it would never overheat, essentially mowing down everything in your path. By the same token, unloading all your and your party member's power in a 'nuke' would make many encounter totally trivial. In effect, this slowed down gameplay and made it more tactical. Your choice matters a lot more. The fact that you can't just spam medi gel when you're in trouble also means that you taking damage is a much bigger deal than it used to be.
So you've got to play smarter. That's a + for me.
Winner: ME2
Mini Games
The button sequence mini game to open 'chests' in ME was pretty uninspired... the one in ME2 have at least a little bit more effort put into them, but let's be honest, they're really more annoying than anything else. I'd give a small edge to ME2 on this one (Because the Mini Game aren't QTE!!!), but I'd actually rather they flat out get rid of 'locked chest' in the 3rd one.
I mean, they already removed the need for Shepard to need a certain tech level in order to open chest in ME2, having to play a silly mini-game to open it is feeling somewhat pointless.
Winner: ME2
Balance
This is a big one. In ME, Biotic reigned supreme. Having Liara in your party or being an Adept or hell - both - would make many encounter trivial. Singularity was disgustingly overpowered. ME2 greatly reduce the power of those effects, by making them only deal damage on enemy who still have shield/warp/armor.
This has two key effect:
- It makes power like Warp, Overload, Incendiary (Also special power like Reave, Energy Absortion, Incediary Grenade, etc) that directly destroy defense much more useful than they used to be.
- It makes some of the fancier/cooler power feels kinda useless and wasted. I mean, yeah, you can lift/throw someone once their shield is down. You can AI control a mech after his armor melted... but you can also just finish it off with bullets... once enemies are down to Health, they're usually pretty much gone for.
As a result, this make classes that rely on fire power (like the Soldier or Infiltrator) much more powerful than they used to be. After all, you only need an ally to take down defense and than the soldier can easily clear stuff up. Having a Soldier Shepard and Miranda (Overloard/Warp) and Mordin (Incinerate) means you're ready to tackle pretty much anything. Doesn't make for the most interesting team, but it's disgustingly effective.
Another big change that further helps the Soldier/Infiltrator class is the fact that 'battle area' can be way bigger than they used to be. The Sniper Rifle was a good weapon in ME, but it's many time better in ME2 where it'll often be the only useful weapon unless you're willing to jump between cover to get closer to a target.
I'm of two mind on this one... I like the fact that the balance of power is now better between the 'Warrior' (Soldier) and the 'Mage' (Adept). But at the same time, it now seems that many 'cool power' are only there for you to show off... that's not to say they aren't useful (Melting a Krogan's armor only to have him charge you and throw/pull him so to prevent impact as saved Shepard's life very often in my game), but they are much more limited in use.
Winner: ME2 - because it is more balanced. I'm just not sure if this balance is actually more fun.
Accessability
They dumbed down ME2, no other way around it. No more inventory. A skill system that is way smaller. No more more weapon mod.
But I don't think it's a bad thing to be honest. The Inventory was a pain in the ass (see below) and the leveling system is a lot more streamlined... I mean putting 4 points in a skill to get minimal upgrade and than get a new power/upgrade vs putting 1 point in a power for a massive upgrade is really a wash and comes down to the same thing... it's just less of a pain to figure out what level you'll be maxed.
I pretty much embrace this 'dumbed down' effect.
Winner: ME2
The Boring Stuff
And here we go. ME had two big boring stuff effect in it... The inventory (already mentionned) and the Mako. ME2 has planet exploration.
And you know, I didn't like the Mako, but I liked it a lot more than the stupid planetary exploration >_>. Yeah... didn't think anything would make me miss the Mako. ME is the winner here.
Winner: ME
Storytelling
Ah, the big one. I find it a bit annoying that aside from saying the game has a 'compelling' story, very few review of ME2 actually bother to bring up difference in storytelling between the two games. They are many to be honest.
'Cleverness' of the Story
ME2 feels a lot more contrived than ME to be honest.
Once you analyze it, you realised that Bioware really just wanted Shepard to drop his old team, cut tie with the Alliance and work with Cerberus... so that's why they killed him. While it makes for a shocking intro and some quirky one liner as well as a hell of a promo campaign... in all honesty, I can't help but feel it's just put in there for the shock value and for the promo campaign. Doubly so since Shepard ultimately gives Cerberus the finger anyway. So the whole story could pretty much have been told with the original Normandy and crew... and have the human ambassador (Udina or Anderson) actually not be a pussy and tell you to stop the collectors. They just wanted a new cast. Hell, have Shepard be pissed at the Alliance because they won't do anything and have Cerberus approach him... similar result, no death. The whole thing, while cool, wasn't needed.
Oh... and don't get me started on the whole 'Take a shuttle to go do a mission and bring the whole team!' bit and as soon as he's gone the entire crew gets captured by collector. Yes, the part where you get to play Joker is pretty cool, but again, this is another case of 'Yeah... this doesn't make much sense, but it'll be cool, so let's do it!'
While people keep repeating it's a suicide mission... they never really tell you why. So no ship has ever came back from the Omega 4 relay... okay... but why? I don't know, it turns out the only reason is because the Collector blow people up when they come out of it... so why not send an entire fleet? The Normandy isn't the most powerful battle ship out there and a few upgrade made it destroy the collector ship. Instead of spending billion on Shepard... just send like 10 cruisers in, no?
They never really tell you why you need so many people. I mean sure, gather a team... but ultimately, you can't really bring more than 2 out at a time. Yes, they kinda lampshade this by making your crew member do something during the last mission, but still, it's never really explained why you need 10 people with you and why it has to be those specific 10 (aside from them being bad ass). In ME, the team you get is pretty much people you need for specific tasks or who just happen to join you for their own reason... in ME2, the story itself is driven by you recruiting people, and you're never really given a real 'why' for it.
And I'm still a bit confused about the whole 'let's build a Reaper out of human DNA!' bit... but maybe I'm just slow on that one. But they kinda throw that at you in between 2 gun fights when this is the kind of major 'I am your father!' revelation.
Winner: ME
Style
ME follows the now classic Bioware pattern of Intro Story/Choice of 3-4 places to go/Conclusion. In many way, the intro and each of the planet, as well as the conclusion can be seen as a book/movie... with its own narrative arc.
ME2 however, follow a much more episodic formula. Last time, on Mass Effect 2.... The story are much smaller, but more varied. Where ME was a book/movie, ME2 is much closer to a comic book/TV show.
I can't really say one is better than the other. ME2 is nicer in the sense that if you only have 30minute to play, you can probably go complete a recruitment/loyalty mission, while in ME, you'll barely get out of the elevator on the Citadel on your way to meeting Wrex... but at the same time, if you're playing for a long time (say 3+ hours), the ME2 experience gets diluded...
Can't really make my mind on this one, really depended on what mood I was in when I played
Winner: Draw.
Supporting Cast
This is a tough one.
It's really a matter of quality versus quantity here. Yes, the original ME character are simply deeper and more interesting. They also had a lot more spoken test, I'm convinced.
I don't think you'll find it surprising that most people will list Tali/Garrus in their favorited/hated list [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.173726-Mass-Effect-2-Favourite-and-most-hated-team-members] in there - because are building up on the previous experience and most people will react strongly (with love or hate) to a well developped character. The fact that they get a second chance to shine in the spotlight is cheating I suppose, because they now eclipse all ME and ME2 character and are most likely to be the character people are the most interested about finding out in ME3... they're the 'main character' just as much as Shepard is, in many way. Mabye even more so, since they are the same in every game while Shepard isn't.
Now, keep in mind that while I don't think the characters in ME2 are has well developped as their ME counterpart... a 'poorly' developped Bioware character is still mile above pretty much any other character in the videogame industry.
I'll have my fanboy moment thought and say that Mordin is easily the most interesting of the new crew, actually having many dimension and a lot of humor going on as well. The fact that he isn't a total psycho like 75% of the crew is also a plus.
Winner: ME (More Mordin-like character and less Jack/Jacob next time, please?)
Romance
Once again, I can swear there's more to the romance aspect of the game in ME than in ME2... again, it's quantity versus quality. You only have 2 possible paramour, so the seduction aspect comes into play more. I remember the talk being Kaiden and my female Shep in the Normandy when they were grounded in the citadel and felt that was pretty 'real'...
Meanwhile, most of the romance in ME2 seems to be about sex. All you gotta do to get any of the girls in bed is be nice to you and even shy and demure Tali is much more interested about 'letting you see her face and feeling her skin against her'.
As for the 'sex scene'... well, can you really compare? ME's was kinda sensual, the kind of stuff you'd see in a relatively tame PG13 movie. ME2 was much shorter and... well... we didn't get to see any butt/sideboob. There, I said it.
Also terribly disapointed you don't get to see what Tali (and by extension, the Quarians) look like under that helm.
Winner: ME
So... that's my take on it.
I suppose this is a really long way to say 'I think ME2 is a better game, but ME tells a better story', but I was bored and I made the mistake of landing ME2 to a friend and I got nothing else to do >_>. Here's hoping this spark some discussion
. Not so much a versus thread, I actually enjoyed both game a lot and think that combined, that are shaping up to be one of the most impressive Sci-Fi storytelling epic published across any medium. Even if the 3rd on blows, the ground of the first 2 is just magnificient.
That being said, as I played through the second one, I couldn't help but compare what made the two game different and what made them 'tick'.
This isn't so much about which one did it 'better', because while it's easy to point out the difference, what is good for someone can be bad for another... that being said, I'll list which one I liked better on each aspect as a fodder for discussion.
I'm going to break this up in two small section with their own subsections,
Gameplay
Much has been said about the gameplay, in fact most review you'll read will point out the significant gameplay change between the two games. So I'm not going to spend to much time here. I have to say thought, that to me, the change in gameplay wasn't something that jump at me right away, it took me a good 10 hours of playing to realise the game has an entire new vibe... so yeah, I'm a bit confused to people who have such extreme reaction.
I'm not going to spend to much time on these points,
Mechanism
The biggest change from a mechanic point of view of course (ME vs ME2) :
- Overheating vs Termal Clip
- Single Power Cooldown vs 'Global' Cooldown
- Unity to 'rez' party member and Omni-gel to heal you/squad vs Unity raise party member, no way to directly heal yourself.
To me, this is a strange situation where limiting options actually resulted in an overall better experience.
It wasn't that hard in ME to trick out a gun so that it would never overheat, essentially mowing down everything in your path. By the same token, unloading all your and your party member's power in a 'nuke' would make many encounter totally trivial. In effect, this slowed down gameplay and made it more tactical. Your choice matters a lot more. The fact that you can't just spam medi gel when you're in trouble also means that you taking damage is a much bigger deal than it used to be.
So you've got to play smarter. That's a + for me.
Winner: ME2
Mini Games
The button sequence mini game to open 'chests' in ME was pretty uninspired... the one in ME2 have at least a little bit more effort put into them, but let's be honest, they're really more annoying than anything else. I'd give a small edge to ME2 on this one (Because the Mini Game aren't QTE!!!), but I'd actually rather they flat out get rid of 'locked chest' in the 3rd one.
I mean, they already removed the need for Shepard to need a certain tech level in order to open chest in ME2, having to play a silly mini-game to open it is feeling somewhat pointless.
Winner: ME2
Balance
This is a big one. In ME, Biotic reigned supreme. Having Liara in your party or being an Adept or hell - both - would make many encounter trivial. Singularity was disgustingly overpowered. ME2 greatly reduce the power of those effects, by making them only deal damage on enemy who still have shield/warp/armor.
This has two key effect:
- It makes power like Warp, Overload, Incendiary (Also special power like Reave, Energy Absortion, Incediary Grenade, etc) that directly destroy defense much more useful than they used to be.
- It makes some of the fancier/cooler power feels kinda useless and wasted. I mean, yeah, you can lift/throw someone once their shield is down. You can AI control a mech after his armor melted... but you can also just finish it off with bullets... once enemies are down to Health, they're usually pretty much gone for.
As a result, this make classes that rely on fire power (like the Soldier or Infiltrator) much more powerful than they used to be. After all, you only need an ally to take down defense and than the soldier can easily clear stuff up. Having a Soldier Shepard and Miranda (Overloard/Warp) and Mordin (Incinerate) means you're ready to tackle pretty much anything. Doesn't make for the most interesting team, but it's disgustingly effective.
Another big change that further helps the Soldier/Infiltrator class is the fact that 'battle area' can be way bigger than they used to be. The Sniper Rifle was a good weapon in ME, but it's many time better in ME2 where it'll often be the only useful weapon unless you're willing to jump between cover to get closer to a target.
I'm of two mind on this one... I like the fact that the balance of power is now better between the 'Warrior' (Soldier) and the 'Mage' (Adept). But at the same time, it now seems that many 'cool power' are only there for you to show off... that's not to say they aren't useful (Melting a Krogan's armor only to have him charge you and throw/pull him so to prevent impact as saved Shepard's life very often in my game), but they are much more limited in use.
Winner: ME2 - because it is more balanced. I'm just not sure if this balance is actually more fun.
Accessability
They dumbed down ME2, no other way around it. No more inventory. A skill system that is way smaller. No more more weapon mod.
But I don't think it's a bad thing to be honest. The Inventory was a pain in the ass (see below) and the leveling system is a lot more streamlined... I mean putting 4 points in a skill to get minimal upgrade and than get a new power/upgrade vs putting 1 point in a power for a massive upgrade is really a wash and comes down to the same thing... it's just less of a pain to figure out what level you'll be maxed.
I pretty much embrace this 'dumbed down' effect.
Winner: ME2
The Boring Stuff
And here we go. ME had two big boring stuff effect in it... The inventory (already mentionned) and the Mako. ME2 has planet exploration.
And you know, I didn't like the Mako, but I liked it a lot more than the stupid planetary exploration >_>. Yeah... didn't think anything would make me miss the Mako. ME is the winner here.
Winner: ME
Storytelling
Ah, the big one. I find it a bit annoying that aside from saying the game has a 'compelling' story, very few review of ME2 actually bother to bring up difference in storytelling between the two games. They are many to be honest.
'Cleverness' of the Story
ME2 feels a lot more contrived than ME to be honest.
Once you analyze it, you realised that Bioware really just wanted Shepard to drop his old team, cut tie with the Alliance and work with Cerberus... so that's why they killed him. While it makes for a shocking intro and some quirky one liner as well as a hell of a promo campaign... in all honesty, I can't help but feel it's just put in there for the shock value and for the promo campaign. Doubly so since Shepard ultimately gives Cerberus the finger anyway. So the whole story could pretty much have been told with the original Normandy and crew... and have the human ambassador (Udina or Anderson) actually not be a pussy and tell you to stop the collectors. They just wanted a new cast. Hell, have Shepard be pissed at the Alliance because they won't do anything and have Cerberus approach him... similar result, no death. The whole thing, while cool, wasn't needed.
Oh... and don't get me started on the whole 'Take a shuttle to go do a mission and bring the whole team!' bit and as soon as he's gone the entire crew gets captured by collector. Yes, the part where you get to play Joker is pretty cool, but again, this is another case of 'Yeah... this doesn't make much sense, but it'll be cool, so let's do it!'
While people keep repeating it's a suicide mission... they never really tell you why. So no ship has ever came back from the Omega 4 relay... okay... but why? I don't know, it turns out the only reason is because the Collector blow people up when they come out of it... so why not send an entire fleet? The Normandy isn't the most powerful battle ship out there and a few upgrade made it destroy the collector ship. Instead of spending billion on Shepard... just send like 10 cruisers in, no?
They never really tell you why you need so many people. I mean sure, gather a team... but ultimately, you can't really bring more than 2 out at a time. Yes, they kinda lampshade this by making your crew member do something during the last mission, but still, it's never really explained why you need 10 people with you and why it has to be those specific 10 (aside from them being bad ass). In ME, the team you get is pretty much people you need for specific tasks or who just happen to join you for their own reason... in ME2, the story itself is driven by you recruiting people, and you're never really given a real 'why' for it.
And I'm still a bit confused about the whole 'let's build a Reaper out of human DNA!' bit... but maybe I'm just slow on that one. But they kinda throw that at you in between 2 gun fights when this is the kind of major 'I am your father!' revelation.
Winner: ME
Style
ME follows the now classic Bioware pattern of Intro Story/Choice of 3-4 places to go/Conclusion. In many way, the intro and each of the planet, as well as the conclusion can be seen as a book/movie... with its own narrative arc.
ME2 however, follow a much more episodic formula. Last time, on Mass Effect 2.... The story are much smaller, but more varied. Where ME was a book/movie, ME2 is much closer to a comic book/TV show.
I can't really say one is better than the other. ME2 is nicer in the sense that if you only have 30minute to play, you can probably go complete a recruitment/loyalty mission, while in ME, you'll barely get out of the elevator on the Citadel on your way to meeting Wrex... but at the same time, if you're playing for a long time (say 3+ hours), the ME2 experience gets diluded...
Can't really make my mind on this one, really depended on what mood I was in when I played
Winner: Draw.
Supporting Cast
This is a tough one.
It's really a matter of quality versus quantity here. Yes, the original ME character are simply deeper and more interesting. They also had a lot more spoken test, I'm convinced.
I don't think you'll find it surprising that most people will list Tali/Garrus in their favorited/hated list [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.173726-Mass-Effect-2-Favourite-and-most-hated-team-members] in there - because are building up on the previous experience and most people will react strongly (with love or hate) to a well developped character. The fact that they get a second chance to shine in the spotlight is cheating I suppose, because they now eclipse all ME and ME2 character and are most likely to be the character people are the most interested about finding out in ME3... they're the 'main character' just as much as Shepard is, in many way. Mabye even more so, since they are the same in every game while Shepard isn't.
Now, keep in mind that while I don't think the characters in ME2 are has well developped as their ME counterpart... a 'poorly' developped Bioware character is still mile above pretty much any other character in the videogame industry.
I'll have my fanboy moment thought and say that Mordin is easily the most interesting of the new crew, actually having many dimension and a lot of humor going on as well. The fact that he isn't a total psycho like 75% of the crew is also a plus.
Winner: ME (More Mordin-like character and less Jack/Jacob next time, please?)
Romance
Once again, I can swear there's more to the romance aspect of the game in ME than in ME2... again, it's quantity versus quality. You only have 2 possible paramour, so the seduction aspect comes into play more. I remember the talk being Kaiden and my female Shep in the Normandy when they were grounded in the citadel and felt that was pretty 'real'...
Meanwhile, most of the romance in ME2 seems to be about sex. All you gotta do to get any of the girls in bed is be nice to you and even shy and demure Tali is much more interested about 'letting you see her face and feeling her skin against her'.
As for the 'sex scene'... well, can you really compare? ME's was kinda sensual, the kind of stuff you'd see in a relatively tame PG13 movie. ME2 was much shorter and... well... we didn't get to see any butt/sideboob. There, I said it
.Also terribly disapointed you don't get to see what Tali (and by extension, the Quarians
) look like under that helm.Winner: ME
So... that's my take on it.
I suppose this is a really long way to say 'I think ME2 is a better game, but ME tells a better story', but I was bored and I made the mistake of landing ME2 to a friend and I got nothing else to do >_>. Here's hoping this spark some discussion
