Mass Effect 2 *spoilers around pg 29/30*

[LK]

Last time I recall a game using an import feature was Quest for FREAKING Glory. Though in my heart, it was always Hero's Quest.

The first two games in that series were something special.

[Sky]

The main reason I was surprised about the Shepard attachment, I wasn't real happy with the way he looked. He kind of ended up with a touch of downs syndrome in the eyes and weird prominent cheekbones...but it turns out I identified with the weirdo after all the time in ME1.

That was my Paragon, never finished my mustache-twirling playthrough with Lamont Shepard, my brother from another mother with his lambchops and bad ass attitude.

[Sky]

Hm. Apparently my ME2 Cerberus DLC went to one email address and my DA:O DLC (with the Blood Dragon ME2 code) went to another. Anyone *cough Storm cough* know if it's possible to fix that? Not a huge deal, I think I'll just start using the address associated with ME2's DLC going forward with ME3 and the next DA, if it doesn't screw with the DA series at all.

[Segoris]

I had the same issue and what eventually happened was a CSR moved my available dlc over to one of the email accounts, though it took some arguing. This happened after I had offered to email the receipts from Steam proving my purchase of the items, the Steam provided DLC codes, and had offered/asked to combine accounts into one single account and close the other. All this was sent from both email addresses. At first I was told it wasn't possible and they wouldn't transfer DLC between accounts, then one day without notification the account I wanted DLC access with had access to DA:O and ME2 DLC content while the other was left as it was.

[Fordel]

Finally got this, my only complaints so far are the Ammo, The Social Site and probably not being able to ever play ME1 again.


The Ammo just annoys me, the actual finite amount. I would be fine if they kept the limited clip/reload action, that can be fun, but the constant "better make sure I top off all my Ammo!" search after each battle is just dumb. It just totally breaks the flow for me in a lot of places and it isn't fun.


The rest of the game is just a massive improvement from ME1, the skills, the mini games, the inventory system (oh sweet Jesus thank you for the new item/inventory system in ME2), it's all better. It's going to make going back to ME1 really painful I think. Maybe I'll just use the save editor instead 



Now the social site, bio-points and EA master account shit. This can all go rot in hell. Just trying to find the right places to put my CD keys in to register my content and getting it downloaded took waaaaay to much effort, with a lot of "oh hey, you should totally buy this thing you already own but we won't show you where to download it".

I only ever found the actual download page because of a Steam Forum thread, I still don't know how I was supposed to find the page using the actual social/game site. (Page in Question : http://social.bioware.com/user_entitlements.php )

I also dislike the entire concept on a base level, how many fucking Facebooks does the world need? Does anyone here actually use all the group/blog/etc stuff on their site.

[Velorath]

I also dislike the entire concept on a base level, how many fucking Facebooks does the world need? Does anyone here actually use all the group/blog/etc stuff on their site.

No, and last time I checked, a lot of stuff still didn't work right, if at all anyway.

[Stormwaltz]

Hm. Apparently my ME2 Cerberus DLC went to one email address and my DA:O DLC (with the Blood Dragon ME2 code) went to another. Anyone *cough Storm cough* know if it's possible to fix that?

No idea, sorry.

[Segoris]

I also really liked the inventory, but I thought they went too far in streamlining it. I disliked how few items there were overall and think there could have easily been 3-4 more armor pieces per slot in mixed pieces to give some more variety and let them be more comparable to the complete suits. In 5 play throughs I used two sets of armor and one mixed piece set. The second suit of armor and the mixed piece set were due to just wanting to try something different. Sadly though it brings me to another complaint about the armor....switching it out had little to no impact on when things died or how long I lived. The tech/biotic powers are just too strong with and without the bonuses from armors to make armor matter at all.

As for ammo, I agree it was annoying but I figured it was an excellent trade off from ME1 - give up those dozens of ammo mods and unlimited ammo with no over heating possible (using the right weapon mods) in exchange for ammo skills and limited ammo capacity.

As for ME1, I am finally able to play that again because there are somethings in ME1 that allow it to maintain a high replayable factor. It took a while to be able to play it again though, admittedly, but it is still replayable if you give Mass Effect a break.

[LK]

I bet they could have made more armor pieces but their armor people were assigned to making pre-order and DLC armor pieces in the time they allotted.

Actually they probably saw how little equipment factored into the game and redirected resources midway through to other things.

[Stormwaltz]

I bet they could have made more armor pieces but their armor people were assigned to making pre-order and DLC armor pieces in the time they allotted.

The honest answer is twofold.

With armor, it was primarily that the lead artists were really hot to give each henchman an "iconic look." They wanted complete control over how they looked at all times, and the producer - a former artist - gave it to them. The result is weirdness like Jack being able to run around nearly naked in vacuum with no fully-enclosing helmet. /shrug What can ya do? With little reason to make a variety of armor (only Shepard can be customized now), why devote a ton of art time to it that could be more productively used elsewhere? Any post-release armor is, AFAIK, exactly that: post-release.

Secondly, the inventory in ME1 was sharply criticized. It wasn't merely the cumbersome UI, it was also the mind-numbing variety of largely equivalent items. Do I want 11 in this and 10 in that, or 10 in this and 11 in that?  There's no obvious difference in results between the two, so who the fuck cares? The rationale for dumping inventory altogether was that fewer choices meant each could be made far more meaningful, and we'd save weeks of UI time.

[Lantyssa]

ME1 the choice was easy.  You want Colossus X.  Always.  (I was so happy the game where I stumbled upon some for Tali.  It's tough finding her good armor at times.)

[Sky]

I'm not very far in, but mostly I like the changes. The new inventory system is definitely way better. The armor...one the one hand I like the iconic look of the characters, I get that. But one would think you could have an iconic look and still cover yourself up for hostile planets. Seeing my hench(wo)men with just a little dust mask on planet with almost no atmosphere breaks immersion a bit.

Also, right now the Cerberus armor is the best...but I can't customize it. I'm guessing that's what you mean by post-release? Although I played ME1 with no helmet, I do kind of like the effect applied to make Shep sound all stormtroopery. On the other hand, it does kill a bit of the connection to Shep not seeing his reactions.

On the ammo thing: is there a way to top off ammo on the Normandy? Or anywhere other than looting enemies? The last two missions I've started with almost empty guns and on the last one I did last night (Zaeed's splodey one), I don't think I was getting ammo drops until we got into the facility, and even then it was pretty sparse. Then I got the flamethrower, and being low on ammo tried to use it and promptly got kerpwned, despite having pretty high hp bonuses (Soldier with advanced soldier power unlocked). Bleh, back to missile launcher.

Forgive me if this stuff has been gone over, since I just started playing (Thanks, Gabe!) and don't want to read this thread with spoilers :)

[Arinon]

I really liked the new ammo system in that it forced the use of more then one weapon type.  I never felt in danger of literally running out of bullets but on my Infiltrator run I had to switch off of the insanely powerful Sniper Rifle regularly.

There seemed to be three types of ammo drops.  Static ones (sometimes respawning), ones that pop out of enemies as you kill them, and then ones that spawn after you finish a wave of baddies.  I'd sometimes backtrack after a fight and find ammo in very obvious places that I don't think I could have missed the first pass.  If that's the case you could be leaving a lot of ammo to rot behind you.  Maybe I'm crazy but I don't see how anyone could get into danger of completely drying up.

[LK]

I bet they could have made more armor pieces but their armor people were assigned to making pre-order and DLC armor pieces in the time they allotted.

The honest answer is twofold.

With armor, it was primarily that the lead artists were really hot to give each henchman an "iconic look." They wanted complete control over how they looked at all times, and the producer - a former artist - gave it to them. The result is weirdness like Jack being able to run around nearly naked in vacuum with no fully-enclosing helmet. /shrug What can ya do? With little reason to make a variety of armor (only Shepard can be customized now), why devote a ton of art time to it that could be more productively used elsewhere? Any post-release armor is, AFAIK, exactly that: post-release.

Secondly, the inventory in ME1 was sharply criticized. It wasn't merely the cumbersome UI, it was also the mind-numbing variety of largely equivalent items. Do I want 11 in this and 10 in that, or 10 in this and 11 in that?  There's no obvious difference in results between the two, so who the fuck cares? The rationale for dumping inventory altogether was that fewer choices meant each could be made far more meaningful, and we'd save weeks of UI time.

I may mock or theorycraft but I found it to be a vast improvement from the first. Mad props.

In the next one, armor should be customizable for looks and improvements are added through items like trinkets that integrate into the armor. That way people can look how they want to look and benefits are independent of look.

[Shrike]

I really liked the new ammo system in that it forced the use of more then one weapon type.  I never felt in danger of literally running out of bullets but on my Infiltrator run I had to switch off of the insanely powerful Sniper Rifle regularly.

There seemed to be three types of ammo drops.  Static ones (sometimes respawning), ones that pop out of enemies as you kill them, and then ones that spawn after you finish a wave of baddies.  I'd sometimes backtrack after a fight and find ammo in very obvious places that I don't think I could have missed the first pass.  If that's the case you could be leaving a lot of ammo to rot behind you.  Maybe I'm crazy but I don't see how anyone could get into danger of completely drying up.

A soldier Shepard with the Revenant on the upper difficulties can run into ammo issues pretty quickly if you end up going cyclic too often. Same thing with the GPR. I've seen it with a sentinal Shepard, too, but there you have biotics and tech to fall back on, so it's not a big deal. A soldier, though, yeah, you have to keep an eye on your ammo. Overall, I like the ME2 system.

[Sky]

I had both sniper characters with me, so it was basically bio/tech-free.

[Phildo]

Do I want 11 in this and 10 in that, or 10 in this and 11 in that?  There's no obvious difference in results between the two, so who the fuck cares?

And now in ME2 there's no way to tell which gun is actually better than another except for obvious things like rate of fire and ammo capacity.  For instance, are the new DLC SMGs better or worse than the upgraded one you get later in the game?

[Reg]

The characters end up so powerful just from their innate abilities that I don't feel like equipment even matters. It's nice not having to worry much about it but I think Bioware missed out on some gameplay by oversimplifying everything the way they did. Mass Effect 3 needs more loot and a hell of a lot less mining.

[Lantyssa]

I really liked the new ammo system in that it forced the use of more then one weapon type.  I never felt in danger of literally running out of bullets but on my Infiltrator run I had to switch off of the insanely powerful Sniper Rifle regularly.

I used all my ammo up regularly.  When you're forced to use an SMG (good vs biotics) to kill armored organics because you're out of ammo on everything else, you're in trouble.

If I want to switch guns I'll do so.

[Tannhauser]

One of my very few complaints about ME1 was the 'loot'.  All of those boring Mk IV items etc.  Everything was about the same.  Would have been great to have kinda-sorta Diablo style loot, but I understand that might not have been right for this system.
Come to think of it, I don't like Bioware's loot in any game except the old DND ones.  Great, now I'm worried about loot in SWTOR.

ME2 I don't worry about ammo.  I just shoot with what's in the gun, I got a techie and a biotic or two to make up the difference.  I got used to no loot in ME2, but the loot whore in me was frightened and confused at first.

If I had to choose, I'd pick the latter version though.

[Sky]

Got the upgrade for my assault rifle, the massive ammo boost is nice, but the higher rof and the reduction in accuracy still chews ammo pretty good. Haven't run out since I got it, though. The reduction in accuracy is really making me question the "upgrade", though. I feel like I went from special forces to special ed. Maybe I should have taken the sniper rifle upgrade even though I use it sparingly.

[Ingmar]

I like the extra strategy that the limited ammo adds, personally.

[Sky]

I was finally getting used to it. A few tense situations, and it was a little annoying having to constantly search for ammo drops after a fight.

*The party patiently waits while Shepard dusts the shelves and straightens the paperwork*

Also, as mentioned, I'm a soldier so I depend a lot on ammo. I did take Zaeed's fire grenades as my advanced power, which is cool for most stuff that isn't geth. Also I had my man Mordin with me, and our flame powers were pretty useless.

Anyway, like I said, I was getting used to it and now I have to deal with the awful bullet spread, it feels like Planetside all over again.  Still love the game, just griping about the few niggling things. It really is a great game and probably one of my favorite rpgs. Nothing's perfect.

[Koyasha]

If you mean the Revenant machine gun, yeah, I hated that thing.  Stuck with the Vindicator battle rifle all the way through, and picked the Widow instead.  Course I've always preferred hanging back and doing a little precision shooting whenever the opportunity presents itself.

[Shrike]

If you're playing on the upper difficulities, grabbing the GPR is a good idea. It has much of the ammo capacity and rate of fire of the Rev, but much, much better accuracy. It lacks the authority of the Rev, but it's still a very nasty weapon, especially with 4x incendiary ammo.

Once you get the assault rifle accuracy upgrade, the Rev does become much less frustrating to use. It hits so damned hard it hardly matters, but it isn't a precision weapon by any means regardless of setup.

[Morat20]

I'm rather fond of the SMG from.....whats-her-faces mission, the DLC chick. That plus warp ammo makes me a happy Vanguard.

[Ratman_tf]

Well, I was late to the party with ME1, and couldn't justify the DLC with ME2 coming out, so I think I might do another ME2 playthrough after downloading all the DLC.
It just doesn't feel right to do the DLC after completing the main game with an old character.

[kildorn]

I'm not very far in, but mostly I like the changes. The new inventory system is definitely way better. The armor...one the one hand I like the iconic look of the characters, I get that. But one would think you could have an iconic look and still cover yourself up for hostile planets. Seeing my hench(wo)men with just a little dust mask on planet with almost no atmosphere breaks immersion a bit.

Also, right now the Cerberus armor is the best...but I can't customize it. I'm guessing that's what you mean by post-release? Although I played ME1 with no helmet, I do kind of like the effect applied to make Shep sound all stormtroopery. On the other hand, it does kill a bit of the connection to Shep not seeing his reactions.

On the ammo thing: is there a way to top off ammo on the Normandy? Or anywhere other than looting enemies? The last two missions I've started with almost empty guns and on the last one I did last night (Zaeed's splodey one), I don't think I was getting ammo drops until we got into the facility, and even then it was pretty sparse. Then I got the flamethrower, and being low on ammo tried to use it and promptly got kerpwned, despite having pretty high hp bonuses (Soldier with advanced soldier power unlocked). Bleh, back to missile launcher.

Forgive me if this stuff has been gone over, since I just started playing (Thanks, Gabe!) and don't want to read this thread with spoilers :)

I'm pretty sure you always start at ~50-80% ammo when you begin a mission. The only ammo you don't auto fill is Heavy Weapon, which is carried over.

DLC weapon wise, the Locust SMG is complete bullshit. It's an assault rifle, plain and simple. There's no tradeoff or anything, it's just damned accurate and decent damage at any range.

Personally, I rarely have huge ammo issues with most guns (heavy pistol and shotgun are the primary causes of 'goddamnit someone drop an ammo clip', and the heavy shotgun is the worst. loosely two shots to kill anyone at point blank, and an ammo drop gives you one shot back)

Ammo does make me switch weapons, though. Armor/Shields/Barriers don't as much, but ammo makes me not just use the heavy hitting high accuracy guns all day for headshot sprees.

Probably my favorite thing about ME2 beyond the cover system working a bit more is the dynamic of Armor/Shields/Barrier and stripping defenses. Though let's all be honest, it's rock paper warp if you want to min max. At least I finally got my head around biotic charge. it's fun <3

[Lantyssa]

I like the different defenses.  That is a good reason to switch weapons.  Pathetic ammo counts is not.

[Kageru]

So now I own the title ( steam), but don't want to risk spoilers before I play it through, I want to check what is brought forward on character import. I'm assuming it is only "soft" elements like appearance, paragon/renegade orientation and some decision points. There's no value in level, bonus skill from a second play-through or whether you have the achievements right?

The "class ally" achievements give some very nice buffs but you really have to know about them in advance and play through quite a few times to get them. I didn't even find the achievement panel until I was almost done (seriously, in options? Why not some in game interface in the otherwise useless captains room?).

I want to make sure I'm well and truly done with ME1 before I experience ME2 and face the "can't go backwards" issue.

[Trippy]

Romances transfer over as well as some money I believe if you got a certain achievement.

[caladein]

Yes, if you got "Rich" you start off with some cash and extra resources (even though I'd just save edit your way to lots of them and just use scanning for anomalies).  Having Rich is also overridden by the bonus for re-importing an ME2 character for another playthrough, so it's not a huge deal.

[LK]

Probably my favorite thing about ME2 beyond the cover system working a bit more is the dynamic of Armor/Shields/Barrier and stripping defenses. Though let's all be honest, it's rock paper warp if you want to min max. At least I finally got my head around biotic charge. it's fun <3

It gets to be a bitch when you play on the highest difficulty settings. Shotguns are also useless on that level since you never want to take more than a couple hits from an enemy and each one takes a fuckton to down.

[Shrike]

The Locust is essentially a one handed version of the GPR. It doesn't have the onhand ammo capacity of the GPR (20 vs. 40), but in every other aspect it apes it pretty closely. The Tempest is superior in close quarters, but in every other area, it pretty much rocks.

[Morat20]

The Locust is essentially a one handed version of the GPR. It doesn't have the onhand ammo capacity of the GPR (20 vs. 40), but in every other aspect it apes it pretty closely. The Tempest is superior in close quarters, but in every other area, it pretty much rocks.

So, what do you think of the various ammo mods? I'm pretty much used to incendiary and warp (my Vanguard has squad versions of both). Didn't bother with cryo, haven't really tried armor piercing or any of the others...