I‘ve always been a big screenshoter, so I go back and compare my 1st playthrough all those years ago and it’s amazing. It’s fantastic just to see all the ways it’s been visually improved. I also love that you can go back to the docked Normandy and quick swap Squad members and weapon loadouts.Īnyway, 1.5 games in and I’m loving this revisit. I find the ME2 improvements to each piece not a big deal, so I’m less inclined to care about a few percentages here and there. I don’t like being shut out of big improvements because I find an armor ugly. I much prefer the modular armor where I can customize the aesthetic. Happy I‘m not wasting my time with that in 2. It’s a big pacing killer for me in 1 as I have to look at everything new we pick up, and that’s mostly checking numbers and marking everything as junk. There may be more points to push in 1, but it‘s hard for me to really feel that difference. I always wind up auto-leveling my squad in ME1. I do appreciate the simplified nature of everything outside of it. It matters, for sure, but it’s not something that I care to take a deep dive into.
I point at the enemy and do something to hurt them depending on the type. But the idea that we need to prepare by building a team and strengthening our defenses, gives me more agency, leading to a more stirring tale.Īs for the combat, it feels better than 1 but I can’t say I ever cared that much. These are save the galaxy games, and there is no doubt we will do that, so I don’t feel the heaviness of that situation too much.
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The stakes are personal and that’s a big plus for me. The focus on the squad, their stories, and how they add up towards the finale of taking down the Collectors, makes for a more dynamic experience than the first. Also the more cohesive character designs between games now makes it easier to remember past faces.Īnd the story, while nothing impressive (just like the first game), is told in such a better way.
I felt emotions more strongly, and was better able to follow and connect the story beats. It makes engaging with any story scenes more effortless than the first. There is still some awkwardness, of course, but it’s such an obvious improvement. The flow of dialogue, the animations (facial and body), the editing, and framing go a long way into making a more impactful narrative. The cinematics, including basic conversations, are better directed. So much about 2 is simply refined over 1. And I thought ME1 was mostly better than I remembered it, too. It was always my favorite, and this playthrough looks to keep it that way. And the game is mostly better than I remembered. On Samara’s recruitment mission, to be precise. There's just zero urgency to do anything. And they're probably working with the Reapers, but I thought the Reapers were stuck in 'dark space' after the last game? How are they communicating with the species? What could the Collectors possibly be getting out of the relationship? Hopefully some of these questions will be answered, but it's a little weird that I've been playing for like 10 hours and have no idea. Destroying them? Studying them? I don't really know. We're doing something with the Collectors. I don't even get what's going on with the main plot. It feels like you need to spend time reading all the journal entries to have any idea of what's happening. Then at the end it's revealed it's some guy she was in a relationship with and presumably worked with? whoever that guy was? Throughout that whole mission I had no clue what we were doing and who the person Kasumi kept referring to was. Kasumi couldn't have waited until after we saved the universe to get closure on her relationship with. I know you can criticize nearly every RPG ever made for having side missions that really shouldn't take priority over saving the world, but it feels especially contrived in ME2. It doesn't feel like any of them have any stakes. Almost all of the missions are like that though.