Mass Effect 2 took the foundations of Mass Effect 1 and built on them. BioWare appeared to listen to what was being said regarding certain parts and they responded by axing them completely.
I would like the Mako to return. After a while, I managed to make it go where I wanted it to and actually had a lot of fun with it. Ramping it off a bloody great cliff and using the jump thrusters to cushion the landing was pretty sweet, as was using them to leap over enemy missiles or pop up from cover to shoot a few off myself.
Whilst I liked the new aesthetics / architechture, I was a bit disappointed that the Presidium on the Citadel was so inaccessible in ME2. I would have liked to see Shiala again (and not just for the nookie!) and the after effects of the Reaper attack. Holding the council meeting in Anderson's office was a bit of a cop-out as well.
I'm glad the inventory system was dumped as constantly having to offload ten tonnes of assorted bangpipes, ammo and other crap became tedious. Mass Effect 2's system worked much better for me although I never really used it to it's fullest; mostly I just changed which heavy-weapon I took with me on a mission and just stuck with the newest version of the rest. That said, I always stuck with the Vindicator assault rifle, the one that fires a 5 round burst, although I wanna know what berk decided to give it a themral clip capacity that wasn't a miltiple of 5!
That said, I would like to be able to barter with merchants to a degree so maybe some meeting halfway needs to be done. Seeing as Shepard and co are somewhat well informed, maybe a little information can be bartered for supplies when you're low on credits? Just a thought...
What I would like to see is more of the epic cut scenes that Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 gave us. The battle of the Citadel scenes were staggeringly awesome and the opening scene to Mass Effect 2 was ball-tighteningly epic! Also, I would like better romance scenes although I can't imagine that there would be much room for nookie what with the invasion and all. The scene in Mass Effect 1 was tame but still had a sense of allure and a flash of flesh wheras the ones in Mass Effect 2 were just fade to blacks. Im not asking for hardcore porn levels but some tasteful nudity wouldn't go amiss - the sex scene in the original Highlander would be a good example. Whilst most of the gratuity was covered up by the lack of light, flashes of flesh were seen here and there and it was romantic rather than lurid. They should aim for that...
I agree that other gameplay / combat mechanics need to be explored as the cover-based shooting does become tedious with repeated playthroughs. Alternative ways to complete missions / assignments and a little less linearity wouldn't go amiss. Maybe various classes have different ways of accomplishing them. Soldiers wouldn't be much cop at hacking / non-violent resolutions but could have "gift of the gab", which they pretty much did in ME2. Conversely, an engineer would be able to follow a less direct / agressive method to complete the mission. To fully expand on this would take ages, however.
Things like the concussive shot (my personal favourite) and ither such poweres / talents do add some spice to combat but I also agree that biotics need to be worked on still. They seem more like magical flashbang grenades most of the time. Slam is always fun though...
I think that the volcabulary still needs a little work. For the most part, it's pretty good but sometimes it feels "forced" or "un-natural". The amount of times Sheperd says "stop them" tweaks my bellend something fierce. He could at least say it more naturally and say it as "stop 'em" if not mix it up a bit. "The Collectors are abducting human colonists, but we're ging to stop them!" could become "The Collectors are abducting human colonists, but we're gonna put an end to that!" - you get the idea. That said, the one-liners, side-comments, jokes and so on added a hell of a lot of substance to the characters in ME2 and I'd like them to stay.
With regard to characters, it would be hard to leave out Garrus and Tali. I can't begin to think of the backlash from the fans if BioWare even thought of it. Garrus is my personal favourite out of the companions. I love his attitude and his sense of humour is keen too. As such, I pick him for missions the most and see him as my de facto lieutennant. Tali is now Tali'Zorah vas Normandy as well as very close to Shepard so it would make sense for her to stick with him too.
Jack and Zaeed would most likely have cut loose. Despite everything they all went through, they don't seem like the sort to consider that a reason to stay. Maybe Zaeed retired after his paycheque from Cerberus came through and Jack buggered off to do her own thing. Thane, sadly, would proably have succumbed to his illness or be in no shape to fight anymore and so would rather be with Kolyat in his final hours. I would imagine that Mordin would want to stick with Shepard and would be useful in researching Reaper tech for weaknesses or better weapons with which to bring them down.
Grunt is a tricky one to predict. Shepard is his battlemaster and it is clear that the Krogan respects Shepard but he cold also feel compelled to join the Krogan army in order to face the Reaper threat that way. Personally I would like to use Grunt's ties to clan Urdnot, as well as Shepard's own friendship with Wrex (assuming he survived), to gettting the Krogan onside in the upcoming battle. I'm also not sure about Kasumi either. She seems to be a people person and also very smart so it would make sense for her to stick with Shepard because if anyone can protect her from the Reapers, it's he / she and there seems little point in thieving when there are slightly more pressing matters at hand!
For some reason, I always imagine that Legion would return to the Geth after ME2, having served his purpose. Jacob seems more loyal to Shepard than he does Cerberus so maybe he would stick with him but Miranda is another matter. Despite what she says at the end of ME2, she has always been very loyal to Cerberus and so quitting / going rogue would result in some serious emotional conflicts. While I would imagine that The Illusive Man / Cerberus would be somewhat chargrined at Shepard dumping them at the end of ME2 (assuming thats how you played it) they wouldn't do too much to hinder him as he still intends to bring down the Reapers, which is in everyone's best interests, really! I like the idea of going freelance, personally but there is always the possibolity of returning to the Alliance too. Maybe you could choose your path / allegiences like you do in Fallout: New Vegas?
Woah, big wall of text there and I still have more to say but I am going to call a close to this post and see what happens!
Wardy
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