I’m Back! Diary #1: Well, I Guess Not…
February 22nd, 2010 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: Play, Xbox 360
Back in the beginning of this month I said I would be returning to the site on a more regular basis. That goal stayed alive for about a week, when I realized cutting one job from my daily activities simply allowed the opportunity for the other to consume those newly freed hours.
I have returned to gaming since that day, though. I purchased Mass Effect 2 and sunk about 6 hours in. I like it, mostly, but also have a lot of bones to pick with it and BioWare. I’ll get to those in a minute, however, as there’s more important business to get to.
The first is that my return has been thwarted by Microsoft hardware. It’s not the dreaded Red Rings of Death, but rather the “Open Tray” failure (aka “Why won’t my damn 360 SPIN THE DISC! COME ON!”). At the moment the Xbox 360 is the only console I own, not necessarily out of preference, but because I just can’t afford to drop scarce cash on another console. So when it craps out, my gaming options dwindle to reverting back to my PS2 – and I have plenty of unfinished PS2 games – or my iPhone. So while I wait to get my 360 fixed, I’ll rant for a bit about Mass Effect 2.
So far, I’m enjoying the game very much. The “back from the dead” premise is still a bit creepy to me and seems like cheap plot trick in order to throw Shephard into Cerberus, but whatever, I can live it. What’s most annoying to me is that the immersion experienced in the first game has been slaughtered in the sequel.
The things I’m going to complain about are seemingly small issues and I’m sure there will be people in the comments section saying I’m nitpicking, but I’m going to bring it up anyway. I tried to let these issues go, but even after a few hours they still bug the hell out of me.
Ammo clips, loading screens, and “Mission Complete” reports? Really, BioWare? I know it sounds absurd, but these two things piss me off mostly because they’re so unnecessary. The first game had a nice streamlined experience in which everything contributed to a belief that the game wasn’t a game. Many people weren’t fans of the long elevator rides that allowed for loading to occur in the background, but I sure as hell like it more than loading screens with game-related tips and information. I would rather stay immersed in the world with my characters than removed from it, even if momentarily, just for the sake of pleasing a handful annoyed elevator haters. Hell, even half of the elevator rides in the first game feature witty banter from side characters, making them all the more tolerable.
Then there are the damn ammo clips, which I ranted about in the comments section of our review. I’m sure they added clips because they felt the infinite ammo system made the first game “too easy.” But I don’t agree. First, it fit in perfectly with the universe they created and the explanation for it – advanced technology which shaved appropriate portions from a large, regenerating metal block inside the gun – was logical. Second, the guns in the first game still overheated, which forced you to conserve your ammunition just as effectively as the clips without the added frustration of searching for more ammo.
The clip hunting isn’t all that bad, but that’s not the point. The point is that reverting back to clips completely removes us from the universe BioWare created. You’re telling me that the universe, in two years, decided to reverse ammunition technology it had decided on decades earlier in favor of a system they purposely replaced? The point of the infinite ammo system from the first game was that the regenerating, unlimited ammunition was created in order to replace the need for clips. Overheating was an understood and accepted downside. Suddenly, we’re back to clips. Really? The original system fit in with the Mass Effect mythos. It was different. It was futuristic. It was unique.
Lastly, there are now Mission Complete screens, another immersion-snuffing formality with no rhyme or reason. In the first game, you tracked your missions in your journal and when they finished they were noted as such. Now a static screen appears breaking down useless information about how many levels characters gained and how much platinum a player found. Who cares? I don’t. Stop showing me this arbitrary BS that once again interrupted the experience.
To reiterate what I said in that comment, by throwing clips and loading screens back into the mix, BioWare made Mass Effect 2 feel more “everyday.” More standard. Hell, it makes it feel more like a videogame when the first game felt more like an out of body, Avatar-esque exploration of an unknown universe.
Not only that, but BioWare betrayed its own design philosophy, even it it weren’t publicly stated. BioWare was always dedicated to throwing players into organic worlds they could believe. They were known for taking “gamey” parts out of their games. The original Mass Effect was perhaps their most telling example of that design principle. My question is, why did they so unnecessarily regress?
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Comment by Andrew_G on the February 22nd, 2010 at 11:41 pm
I loved the elevator rides in the first game, and you're right about the banter.
I'm still torn on the ammo clips, though. I don't agree with Developers changing canon between games, although they certainly reserve that right, but if it is convenient to change canon to accompany plot holes and/or design decisions, then I'm all for it. I'm still trying to decide whether or not ammo clips could fall in the 'acceptable' category. It's sort of like they simplified the combat with ammo clips (and the accompanying menu changes), although perhaps at a loss of some complexity. Tradeoffs between design for hardcore and casual gamers are many and often, perhaps this was an effort to increase Mass Effect 2's allure to a more general audience while not completely alienating the hardcore gamers?
Comment by TonyP on the February 23rd, 2010 at 3:38 am
How did it simplify combat when compared to the original? I notice that I don't really need to level up individual weapon types, but couldn't they have kept that without clips? It's been a while since I touched the first game.