After pondering the possibility of Mother Theresa eating babies, it got me thinking about my least favorite aspect of Mass Effect 2: the paragon and renegade options. For those unfamiliar, in any given conversation you are at some point presented with three options of dialog, the paragon, the neutral and the renegade. Using paragon responses gain you (wait for it...) paragon points. The higher your paragon score, the more agreeable people find you and therefore the more willing they are to take your word. On the adverse, using renegade options increases your renegade score which makes you more intimidating and therefore people are more willing to back down and accept your word for it. Neutral responses do exactly dick for you, so even having a neutral response option seems silly. So here are the two big problems with this system:
1) First, and foremost, once you choose a path, you'd better stick with it. If you try to spice up your life and bounce between paragon and renegade scores, you'll end up in that master-of-none zone where both scores are low until you do a billion side quests in which case you'll still only be 1/2 & 1/2. The problem with this is that you need a certain score to open certain responses. In some conversations I found myself with the paragon response open, but the renegade response closed to me. Or in the play-through where I experimented with going 1/2 & 1/2, I found myself in a sticky situation. *** Spoiler warning *** After completing Miranda's and Jack's loyalty missions, you return to the ship to find the two ladies fighting. You walk in to break it up. If you have a high enough paragon skill you remind them of the bigger battle, if you have a high enough renegade you tell them to shut up and deal. Both ladies part ways, angry, but still loyal to you. However if neither score is high enough, your option is to tell Miranda to back down, or tell Jack to back down. Whichever lady you side with will remain loyal, and you lose the loyalty of the other. *** Spoiler end *** So this kinda breaks the illusion of freedom of choice in dialog which is occasionally a problem as illustrated in point two.
2) The conversation options generally suck. As an RPGer I tend to approach dialog choices from the "What would I say in this situation?" standpoint. Mass Effect 2 I find myself thinking "Okay, well I need to paragon/renegade points so I guess I'm goin' with this!" That's not much of a choice, is it? And in some instances the options are so grossly black and white it's laughable. I can't tell you how many choices I made and cringed while they were spoken. I much preferred the like/dislike system of Dragon Age where there was the warm fuzzy option, two neutral-ish options and the asshole option. You could, on occasion, use the neutral option and still gain approval of a certain character. That is, the neutral options served a purpose. I have yet to find a situation in Mass Effect 2 where the neutral option was of any use to me. Again, you're either polishing your halo or wiping blood off your pitchfork.
I'm not sure if my point is that the dialog writing for Mass Effect 2 was weak, or if the whole good/bad system is too simplistic for my tastes. Or maybe it's a whole lotta both.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Mother Theresa eating babies...
At the risk of sounding a little too much like Yahtzee's review of the first Bioshock, I have to express disappointment in the ending of Bioshock 2. Once again the endings boil down into two camps: good good good and evil evil evil; as Yahtzee said, you're either Mother Theresa or Hitler eating babies. Occasionally it would be nice to have a grey area.
And the Mother Theresa ending has me at odds. On one hand the hippie-flower-child ending of the first game seemed a little out of place with the game itself, but it had a nice sense of satisfaction. Truly, having shot, flamed & shocked my way through Rapture, it seemed a little strange; touch of the deus ex machina, if you will. However there's a lot to be said for that hunky dory feeling it instilled in the player.
BioShock 2's good ending gave me a brief sense of satisfaction but it seemed like it was trying too hard. Completely opposite of Bioshock, the ending seemed very much in tune with the rest of the game. Without giving too much away, it's one of the few endings where my character dies and it makes sense. It doesn't feel cheap. However the openness of the ending leaves much to be desired, and a whole host of unanswered questions. Meh.
Bioshock 2's evil ending is almost the exact same as Bioshock's evil ending. **(Not) Spoiler Warning ** You become a giant evil madman who takes over the world in a reign of bloodshed. **End ** Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
Of course I will take a quick moment to defend the crappiness of the evil ending: it's obvious the game does not want you to get the evil ending. The evil ending is obtained by killing Little Sisters, an act that never sits well with me for obvious reasons. The reward for doing evil should be a crappy ending.
On the adverse, doing good should reward you with something with a little more meat.
Bioshock 2's evil ending is almost the exact same as Bioshock's evil ending. **(Not) Spoiler Warning ** You become a giant evil madman who takes over the world in a reign of bloodshed. **End ** Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.
Of course I will take a quick moment to defend the crappiness of the evil ending: it's obvious the game does not want you to get the evil ending. The evil ending is obtained by killing Little Sisters, an act that never sits well with me for obvious reasons. The reward for doing evil should be a crappy ending.
On the adverse, doing good should reward you with something with a little more meat.
Hi ho hi ho, it's off to scan we go...
So while I still try to formulate my opinion of the Bioshock 2 ending (summary: eh?), I'd like to rant about the scan/probe system of Mass Effect 2, as I begin my second play through.
Harvesting resources has long been a staple of RPGs. That I have to gather resources is of little surprise and I'm okay with it. What I'm not okay with is when farming becomes a chore. Nothing is worse than feeling like you have to do something in a game; feeling like part of it is work. I'm playing a game! I shouldn't feel like ripping my hair out over something as static and necessary as farming.
Oblivion had one of my favorite harvesting systems because at its heart it was simple: run around and pick flowers. It was the video game equivalent of busy work, but that is why it worked. Sure I have to get flowers to get my potions skill up, but I'm also exploring the world and meeting strange new people and creatures which I then kill for exp. It killed three birds with one stone.
Mass Effect 2's system is annoying on a few levels. The system is very simple: come across a planet, scan and launch probes. However the scanning system takes for-bloody-ever to do correctly. Since I'm fairly OCD when it comes to stuff like this, I'm not satisfied until the "Rich" planet becomes "Depleted." (Somewhere the Avatar cat people are crying) So this means sloooooooooowly moving your scanner back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, around the entire rotation of the planet in hopes of finding elements. Then launching probes and collecting them.
I'm going to digress here for one second. Launching a probe to collect a mineral? Yet there are mining colonies across the entire galaxy because they've been mentioned and I've visited a couple. If ships can launch probes from space to gather the entirety of the planet's resources, I have two questions: 1) why the %$#@ would there still be mining colonies, and 2) why the %$#@ hasn't every ship this side of Illium ravaged every world in the sector WITH THEIR PROBES? Apparently Shepherd is the only cool cat with this technology. Right.
Anyway, this is expected to be done on every planet in the game so that you can both acquire enough resources to upgrade your ship, and in the vain hopes of discovering an "anomaly." Which is generally a wrecked ship or the case of the most boring mission ever, a planet where a shield of some type is down and you gotta repair it for them. Huh? But I've digressed again. The point is that this is quite possibly my least favorite mining system in the history of gaming. Nothing puts me to sleep quicker than scanning and probing.
I would, in all honesty, prefer to drop onto a planet and run around with a goddamn pick, or even the stupid probes that magically place the minerals in my ship, than scan. At least running around gives the player a sense of DOING something. And wasn't that what was great about Mass Effect? Dropping down and exploring planets? Sure sometimes you explored a 5'-square patch of grass, but you were exploring! And doing something! Hell, maybe you'll even find some interesting people to kill. This is what makes RPGs fun.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Random Musing on Movie Quotes
Everyone I know quotes movies in some manner or another. Be it the incessant "one time, at band camp," or the cringe-inducing faux-Borat "very nice," everyone quotes for some reason or another. As the husband and I fired up Borderlands for shits and giggles, it occurred to me that we never quote movies in the same way most people do. That is, we never use movie quotes for comedic value. We use quotes as our personal language. A language that totally makes sense to us, but to an outsider it would sound downright strange. And we never use the popular quotes (e.g. the band camp line, anything from Borat, etc.), we always use the obscure ones that you might not pick up on at first. In a way, we have our own cockney-esque system going, and oddly enough it's a very important part of us playing together. Here's a brief primer, should you ever find yourself trapped in a game with us:
Quote: "Psychos? Do they look like psychos, Ray?"
Movie: From Dusk 'Til Dawn
Situation: Any time you happen into a room or area and a horde of angry mobs attacks you. It helps for them to be human, and gains extra points if they're zombies.
Quote: "I didn't want to. I felt I owed it to them."
Movie: Caddyshack
Situation: Any brutal kill; headshot, death from above, flame thrower, etc.
Quote: "Twenty-metre spread. No sound."
Movie: Predator
Situation: One of us needs to go right, the other needs to go left to fully cover the area.
Quote: "It shoots through schools."
Movie: Johnny Dangerously
Situation: Finding any awesome new weapon. Doesn't matter if it's melee or aimed, it's gonna shoot through schools.
Quote: "I'm chasing this guy. No, he's chasing me."
Movie: Memento
Situation: You don't have the upperhand you quite thought you had and need help.
Quote: "They're coming out of the goddamn walls!" or "How could they cut the power?"
Movie: Aliens
Situation: Any time you have lost the upperhand and are quickly being surrounded by mobs.
Quote: "If Matrix were here, he'd laugh, too."
Movie: Commando
Situation: That ginormous boss that looked really tough? He wasn't so tough.
Quote: "Don't do that, that'll just make him angry."
Movie: Blazing Saddles
Situation: The boss is HUGE!
Quote: "Follow me, Tinkerbell."
Movie: Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Situation: Annoying-ass flying mobs.
Quote: "I like money."
Movie: Idiocracy
Situation: When your partner tries to NOT pick up money that falls from a chest. Sure you're at the point in the game where you could wallpaper your house with money but c'mon. You can never have enough.
Quote: "It could be filled with chocolate, okay?"
Movie: Muppets From Space
Situation: Your partner doesn't want to bother opening a chest/box/safe or exploring a seemingly dead end room.
There are a dozen or so more, I'll add as they come back to me. I'm drawing a blank right now, but you get the idea. :)
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Would you kindly...
Tell me I'm over-analyzing the game, 2K. Please, please, please. Thus far I really enjoy Bioshock 2 and want to continue to enjoy it. Let me back up by explaining my feelings on this matter. I'd warn you that Bioshock spoilers are contained below, but the game is over 2 years old at this point so I don't feel guilty.
Video games are always trying throw twists and turns into their plots ala Hollywood. Sometimes they fall woefully short of the mark (see: Infamous for the video game equivalent of a Dallas-twist), and sometimes they are sublime. Bioshock had what was, easily, one of my most favorite plot twists ever. Having spent the entirety of our exploration of Rapture listening to a eerily polite, proper gentleman named Atlas asking us "would you kindly," the entire experience is turned up on end when it is revealed that "would you kindly" is really a post-hypnotic suggestion programmed for our obedience. Ah! Much like with The Sixth Sense or Fight Club, you then pause the game to mentally go over every move made in the game, looking for holes in the twist only to find there are none. Would you kindly accept the award for sheer brilliance, 2K?
Having said that, I am beginning to worry about Bioshock 2. Every little trinket and tidbit left behind by "Eleanor" (at this point I'm not convinced that Eleanor is even real, or that she isn't the Big Sister, but that is another post entirely) has the sweet, thoughtful remark of "Hope this helps." Maybe I'm paranoid or over-analyzing the situation, but after seeing this phrase at numerous key points, I'm starting to smell another control phrase. Which would, needless to say, fall woefully short of the Bioshock mark. As a wise man once said, you don't run the same gag, you run the next one. Just because something worked once does NOT mean it will work a second time. In fact all a second go-around will do is cheapen the first go-around.
HOWEVER, I'm totally willing to admit that this could just be a sign of brilliance on 2K's part: my experience from the first game, coupled with the unease and tension I feel from knowing Big Sister is out there hunting me, may have completely fried my sense of ease. I find myself completely untrusting of anyone or anything. Sinclair? Too smooth! Tennenbaum? Not so noble! I don't trust any of your people! And sweet, cutesy little girl leaving me gifts with a mysterious worded, repeated phrase? I don't think so!
If it turns out that this is all a ploy by 2K and everything really is on the level, then bravo. Well played, sirs (and madams). But if my suspicions are, unfortunately, grounded and come to life... well then I shall feel grave disappointment. And because I have a strong feeling it will be the latter rather than the former, I cannot seem to shake the sense of disenchantment shadowing my every move through Rapture.
Video games are always trying throw twists and turns into their plots ala Hollywood. Sometimes they fall woefully short of the mark (see: Infamous for the video game equivalent of a Dallas-twist), and sometimes they are sublime. Bioshock had what was, easily, one of my most favorite plot twists ever. Having spent the entirety of our exploration of Rapture listening to a eerily polite, proper gentleman named Atlas asking us "would you kindly," the entire experience is turned up on end when it is revealed that "would you kindly" is really a post-hypnotic suggestion programmed for our obedience. Ah! Much like with The Sixth Sense or Fight Club, you then pause the game to mentally go over every move made in the game, looking for holes in the twist only to find there are none. Would you kindly accept the award for sheer brilliance, 2K?
Having said that, I am beginning to worry about Bioshock 2. Every little trinket and tidbit left behind by "Eleanor" (at this point I'm not convinced that Eleanor is even real, or that she isn't the Big Sister, but that is another post entirely) has the sweet, thoughtful remark of "Hope this helps." Maybe I'm paranoid or over-analyzing the situation, but after seeing this phrase at numerous key points, I'm starting to smell another control phrase. Which would, needless to say, fall woefully short of the Bioshock mark. As a wise man once said, you don't run the same gag, you run the next one. Just because something worked once does NOT mean it will work a second time. In fact all a second go-around will do is cheapen the first go-around.
HOWEVER, I'm totally willing to admit that this could just be a sign of brilliance on 2K's part: my experience from the first game, coupled with the unease and tension I feel from knowing Big Sister is out there hunting me, may have completely fried my sense of ease. I find myself completely untrusting of anyone or anything. Sinclair? Too smooth! Tennenbaum? Not so noble! I don't trust any of your people! And sweet, cutesy little girl leaving me gifts with a mysterious worded, repeated phrase? I don't think so!
If it turns out that this is all a ploy by 2K and everything really is on the level, then bravo. Well played, sirs (and madams). But if my suspicions are, unfortunately, grounded and come to life... well then I shall feel grave disappointment. And because I have a strong feeling it will be the latter rather than the former, I cannot seem to shake the sense of disenchantment shadowing my every move through Rapture.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Setting the mood...
I have always attested that one of my favorite horror games, as far as mood is concerned, was Resident Evil: Nemesis. True, RE4 was a much better game, and Fatal Frame II was far scarier, but Nemesis was the only game that had me in a constant state of paranoia. The main villain, Nemesis, had a knack for following me around and jumping out when I least expected it. In fact, towards the end of the game I had Jill Valentine (complete with tube top and go-go boots) slowly edging down alleyways thinking "It's about time for Mr. Man to show up..." Coupled with hearing him walk and breathe behind walls... the whole experience was a nice nerve-wracking experiment with paranoia. No other game has quite instilled this dogged feeling in me since. Until now.
Enter Bioshock 2. General opinions of the game aside (yes it is absolutely stunningly detailed and gorgeous, and it is all too easy to get lost in the scenery), it has got to be one of the best mood-driven games I've played since, well, RE:N (and naturally Bioshock 1). Within 5 minutes of your re-entry to Rapture, you encounter the much-anticipated and speculated Big Sister, and is she ever wicked. Springing around the room like a mechanical spider, she threatens you and packs a punch that can take you to near death if you make the mistake of letting her box you in. She is annoyingly unkillable and an all around formidable foe.
But that's not what makes her so badass. Upon your initial encounter, you are able to knock off about 1/4 of her health at which point she runs away. You give chase only to see her acrobatic-flipping out of the room. There is seemingly no sign of her until a few rooms later when she floods your room in attempt to kill you. Fortunately Big Daddy's diving suit isn't just for show and you're able to explore the ocean in a spectacular visual treat. And then you see Big Sister lurking around a corner. And another. And another. Subtlety is key here as in some instances if you blink you'll miss her, but it only takes a few glimpses to instill that sense of predator and prey. The unmistakable sense that not only is she hunting you, but she's toying with you too. When is she going to jump out? I find myself going into rooms, edging around corners and trying to defeat Splicers as fast as possible so as to avoid a possible Splicer + Big Sister rumble of death.
Popping up every now and then to beat you senseless and then retreating, Big Sister is that dogging foe that so many games seem to miss. That sense of imminent and real danger. Not just the "There's probably something around this corner" feeling that every game delivers, but that sense that you are truly not alone in Rapture, and unlike last game, you are not the biggest fish in the sea.
Well played 2k, well played. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Big Sister to go tangle with.
Enter Bioshock 2. General opinions of the game aside (yes it is absolutely stunningly detailed and gorgeous, and it is all too easy to get lost in the scenery), it has got to be one of the best mood-driven games I've played since, well, RE:N (and naturally Bioshock 1). Within 5 minutes of your re-entry to Rapture, you encounter the much-anticipated and speculated Big Sister, and is she ever wicked. Springing around the room like a mechanical spider, she threatens you and packs a punch that can take you to near death if you make the mistake of letting her box you in. She is annoyingly unkillable and an all around formidable foe.
But that's not what makes her so badass. Upon your initial encounter, you are able to knock off about 1/4 of her health at which point she runs away. You give chase only to see her acrobatic-flipping out of the room. There is seemingly no sign of her until a few rooms later when she floods your room in attempt to kill you. Fortunately Big Daddy's diving suit isn't just for show and you're able to explore the ocean in a spectacular visual treat. And then you see Big Sister lurking around a corner. And another. And another. Subtlety is key here as in some instances if you blink you'll miss her, but it only takes a few glimpses to instill that sense of predator and prey. The unmistakable sense that not only is she hunting you, but she's toying with you too. When is she going to jump out? I find myself going into rooms, edging around corners and trying to defeat Splicers as fast as possible so as to avoid a possible Splicer + Big Sister rumble of death.
Popping up every now and then to beat you senseless and then retreating, Big Sister is that dogging foe that so many games seem to miss. That sense of imminent and real danger. Not just the "There's probably something around this corner" feeling that every game delivers, but that sense that you are truly not alone in Rapture, and unlike last game, you are not the biggest fish in the sea.
Well played 2k, well played. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Big Sister to go tangle with.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Returning to Ostagar, not such a great idea actually.
So after waiting and waiting and waiting for BioWare to iron out the glitches of the DA:O DLC "Return to Ostagar," I patiently waited for it to download and my daughter to go to sleep so I could get on and relive the excitement that is Ostagar with all five of my characters that have beaten the game. And let me tell you ... disappointing! Ugh.
I knew it wasn't going to be quite as involved as "The Stone Prisoner," but I didn't think it would be somehow less involved than freaking "Warden's Keep." You get armor, two words and a dagger. PERIOD. And you fight 20 some-odd darkspawn, which considering that all five of my characters have already killed the archdemon, that leaves some questions in this RPer's head.
It was mildly sad to see Cailin's body crucified and used as a pin cushion by the darkspawn, but in the cutscene (which they are all too happy to replay for you), it clearly shows Cailin being crushed by an ogre, and blood spurting everywhere. How the hell is he perfectly intact to hang like a trophy? And why is his armor on three different creatures? And as Sten wonders, what the hell kind of man leaves a sword like that in a trunk. AND FURTHERMORE, why can I get Duncan's sword and knife, but Duncan's body is nowhere to be found?!
*sigh* I suppose the major issue with this DLC is that feels like too little, too late. Cailin's shield is nowhere near as good as Duncan's, which I got from the original game, and his armor was a side-grade at best for the Warden's armor. It was more a matter of whether or not you want your character to look dignified in all black or shine like the top of the Chrysler building. With promises of a newer, bigger, shinier DLC on the horizon, this just didn't do anything for me. It's like getting ready for 4th of July and finding out the only fireworks your parents bought were snakes and pops. And much like snakes and pops the joy of the DLC can be played up and forgotten in 20 minutes.
Also, the DLC is still buggy. On initial startup it told me Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep were corrupted and needed to be redownloaded. It also "had no record" of me having bought them and wanted to charge me again to download them. On a hunch I restarted and then those were okay, but Blood Dragon Armor was corrupt. On the THIRD restart everything was okay. Not cool.
I knew it wasn't going to be quite as involved as "The Stone Prisoner," but I didn't think it would be somehow less involved than freaking "Warden's Keep." You get armor, two words and a dagger. PERIOD. And you fight 20 some-odd darkspawn, which considering that all five of my characters have already killed the archdemon, that leaves some questions in this RPer's head.
It was mildly sad to see Cailin's body crucified and used as a pin cushion by the darkspawn, but in the cutscene (which they are all too happy to replay for you), it clearly shows Cailin being crushed by an ogre, and blood spurting everywhere. How the hell is he perfectly intact to hang like a trophy? And why is his armor on three different creatures? And as Sten wonders, what the hell kind of man leaves a sword like that in a trunk. AND FURTHERMORE, why can I get Duncan's sword and knife, but Duncan's body is nowhere to be found?!
*sigh* I suppose the major issue with this DLC is that feels like too little, too late. Cailin's shield is nowhere near as good as Duncan's, which I got from the original game, and his armor was a side-grade at best for the Warden's armor. It was more a matter of whether or not you want your character to look dignified in all black or shine like the top of the Chrysler building. With promises of a newer, bigger, shinier DLC on the horizon, this just didn't do anything for me. It's like getting ready for 4th of July and finding out the only fireworks your parents bought were snakes and pops. And much like snakes and pops the joy of the DLC can be played up and forgotten in 20 minutes.
Also, the DLC is still buggy. On initial startup it told me Stone Prisoner and Warden's Keep were corrupted and needed to be redownloaded. It also "had no record" of me having bought them and wanted to charge me again to download them. On a hunch I restarted and then those were okay, but Blood Dragon Armor was corrupt. On the THIRD restart everything was okay. Not cool.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Musing on the Mass Effect 2 team.
** Warning: Spoilers Below **
So as I've finished ME2 for the second time, I have to take a moment to muse about the team selection. Granted part of the fun is finding new teammates and doing their subsequent loyalty quests, but for every really cool, in-depth character offered, there is a half-ass carbon copy added moments later. The redundancy in the game is mind boggling. Honestly I would have preferred half the team and a better fleshed-out story. And when you consider you can only take TWO team members with you at any given time (even on the freaking suicide missions!) it begs the question of why in the hell we needed so many damn characters. Lemme break it down for you:
Miranda & Jacob: Okay I get why these two are the exact same character. They are your token human love interests and there had to be one for men and one for women. Also they are opposite poles on the moral compass; Miranda is a cold, calculating "whatever it takes" sort of person where as Jacob is the "this doesn't feel right..." warm, fuzzy end of the compass. However if you look beyond their sex and race, they're the same damn character. Moderate shooting abilities, mild biotics, flat, boring personalities and stories... meh. Both of them stayed on board my ship except for when I dusted them off for their loyalty missions.
Grunt & Zaeed: Easily my two favorite characters of the entire game, and my escorts on ANY missions that allowed me to freely choose. However I gotta admit they're the same character in every way except race. Both are violent, battle-hungry and callous individuals who offer the "kill them all!" responses to any situation. Zaeed is a little more morally ambiguous, but is definitely the hooker with the heart of gold character. Almost every line out of Grunt's mouth is gold, and his loyalty mission is super fun. Both prefer shotguns and are great for close-quarters combat. Personal love of both characters aside, you could have done with one or the other, and I'm going to have to go with Grunt on this because what is an ME game without a blood-lusting Krogan? (and I'm bitter that Zaeed wasn't a romance option)
Samara & Subject Zero (aka Jack): Ugggggggh. I don't know which of these characters annoys me the MOST. I'm going to have to go with Subject Zero/Jack simply because she's the angry girl stereotype. Hot and showing lots of skin, but spouting off ridiculous "tough girl" statements, I spent her entire loyalty mission wanting to strangle her. Not to mention her loyalty mission felt like the equivalent of an Oscar vehicle movie (Revolutionary Road, anyone?). The developers wanted me to feel sorry for her, but I just couldn't. I didn't try so hard to breeze through any other mission in the game as I did hers. She's a powerful biotic but so is her carbon copy, Samara, and she's a heck of a lot more interesting. Though Samara definitely irked the hell out of my inner-feminist with her ridiculous DD boob job. Ugh. Shephard needed an option to ask her to zip up her damn jacket. That aside, her story was far more developed and her loyalty mission was actually kind of fun. Keep her, throw Jack in the trash.
Thane, Legion & Garrus: I totally admit to squeeing when I saw Archangel revealed as Garrus. Joy! I always had a thing for the annoyingly straight-laced Garrus in ME, and was overjoyed at the prospect of him being a romance option in ME2, though his romance scene is unarguably one of the least, *ahem* fulfilling. But I digress. Garrus is a sniper and a helluva good shot. He's also an alien. To me the part of "alien sniper" had been filled. But then in walks Thane. Finding Thane was definitely a fun trip, and his intro scene is nothing short of cinematic. HOWEVER, why the hell do I have this person on my team?! He reveals he's dying which tells me he won't be in ME3, and he's an alien sniper, a role that has already been filled. What is he doing here?! I was so wildly unimpressed with Thane that I didn't even bother to do his loyalty mission the first go-around which resulted in his death in the suicide mission. *sigh* Waste of time. Last in the carbon copy world we have Legion, who I also genuinely liked. He was the only copy (oh look, another alien sniper!) that I enjoyed and understood because it looks like the geth will be playing a major role in ME3. But sadly he, too, sat on the ship save his loyalty mission because I already had an alien sniper.
Mordin & Tali: While not copies in abilities, these two both fell into the "Huh. Okay..." category. I'm not really sure why they bothered to bring Tali back, other than her buddy is Jayne Cobb (holy cameo, Batman!). Her loyalty mission was easily the most emotional of all as I felt genuine sadness for the outcome, but why is she on my team? She spends the entirety of her conversations telling me that Cerberus did a good job rebuilding the Normandy and everything looks good. What are you here? Oh, that's right, the male Shepard needs a female alien love interest. Gotcha. Mordin is definitely an interesting character, and the fact that he sings Guilbert and Sullivan is definitely worth his being on my ship (along with his warning against chaffing), and his loyalty mission is also very emotional and interesting. But other than offering me a few useful upgrades, I never quite understood why I have him on my team. Like Tali he could have shown up to help and then disappeared.
I get the impression the designers had a bunch of great ideas and just weren't sure where to cut. Or they wanted to offer lots of options. Don't want Garrus as your alien sniper? Try the frogman! No frogman? Try the geth! Ehhhhh... I guess my complaints wouldn't be so irksome if I were allowed more than TWO team members. Seriously? TWO?! Give me Grunt, Garrus, Miranda, Samara, & Mordin and call it a day.
But then that's just my opinion on the matter.
So as I've finished ME2 for the second time, I have to take a moment to muse about the team selection. Granted part of the fun is finding new teammates and doing their subsequent loyalty quests, but for every really cool, in-depth character offered, there is a half-ass carbon copy added moments later. The redundancy in the game is mind boggling. Honestly I would have preferred half the team and a better fleshed-out story. And when you consider you can only take TWO team members with you at any given time (even on the freaking suicide missions!) it begs the question of why in the hell we needed so many damn characters. Lemme break it down for you:
Miranda & Jacob: Okay I get why these two are the exact same character. They are your token human love interests and there had to be one for men and one for women. Also they are opposite poles on the moral compass; Miranda is a cold, calculating "whatever it takes" sort of person where as Jacob is the "this doesn't feel right..." warm, fuzzy end of the compass. However if you look beyond their sex and race, they're the same damn character. Moderate shooting abilities, mild biotics, flat, boring personalities and stories... meh. Both of them stayed on board my ship except for when I dusted them off for their loyalty missions.
Grunt & Zaeed: Easily my two favorite characters of the entire game, and my escorts on ANY missions that allowed me to freely choose. However I gotta admit they're the same character in every way except race. Both are violent, battle-hungry and callous individuals who offer the "kill them all!" responses to any situation. Zaeed is a little more morally ambiguous, but is definitely the hooker with the heart of gold character. Almost every line out of Grunt's mouth is gold, and his loyalty mission is super fun. Both prefer shotguns and are great for close-quarters combat. Personal love of both characters aside, you could have done with one or the other, and I'm going to have to go with Grunt on this because what is an ME game without a blood-lusting Krogan? (and I'm bitter that Zaeed wasn't a romance option)
Samara & Subject Zero (aka Jack): Ugggggggh. I don't know which of these characters annoys me the MOST. I'm going to have to go with Subject Zero/Jack simply because she's the angry girl stereotype. Hot and showing lots of skin, but spouting off ridiculous "tough girl" statements, I spent her entire loyalty mission wanting to strangle her. Not to mention her loyalty mission felt like the equivalent of an Oscar vehicle movie (Revolutionary Road, anyone?). The developers wanted me to feel sorry for her, but I just couldn't. I didn't try so hard to breeze through any other mission in the game as I did hers. She's a powerful biotic but so is her carbon copy, Samara, and she's a heck of a lot more interesting. Though Samara definitely irked the hell out of my inner-feminist with her ridiculous DD boob job. Ugh. Shephard needed an option to ask her to zip up her damn jacket. That aside, her story was far more developed and her loyalty mission was actually kind of fun. Keep her, throw Jack in the trash.
Thane, Legion & Garrus: I totally admit to squeeing when I saw Archangel revealed as Garrus. Joy! I always had a thing for the annoyingly straight-laced Garrus in ME, and was overjoyed at the prospect of him being a romance option in ME2, though his romance scene is unarguably one of the least, *ahem* fulfilling. But I digress. Garrus is a sniper and a helluva good shot. He's also an alien. To me the part of "alien sniper" had been filled. But then in walks Thane. Finding Thane was definitely a fun trip, and his intro scene is nothing short of cinematic. HOWEVER, why the hell do I have this person on my team?! He reveals he's dying which tells me he won't be in ME3, and he's an alien sniper, a role that has already been filled. What is he doing here?! I was so wildly unimpressed with Thane that I didn't even bother to do his loyalty mission the first go-around which resulted in his death in the suicide mission. *sigh* Waste of time. Last in the carbon copy world we have Legion, who I also genuinely liked. He was the only copy (oh look, another alien sniper!) that I enjoyed and understood because it looks like the geth will be playing a major role in ME3. But sadly he, too, sat on the ship save his loyalty mission because I already had an alien sniper.
Mordin & Tali: While not copies in abilities, these two both fell into the "Huh. Okay..." category. I'm not really sure why they bothered to bring Tali back, other than her buddy is Jayne Cobb (holy cameo, Batman!). Her loyalty mission was easily the most emotional of all as I felt genuine sadness for the outcome, but why is she on my team? She spends the entirety of her conversations telling me that Cerberus did a good job rebuilding the Normandy and everything looks good. What are you here? Oh, that's right, the male Shepard needs a female alien love interest. Gotcha. Mordin is definitely an interesting character, and the fact that he sings Guilbert and Sullivan is definitely worth his being on my ship (along with his warning against chaffing), and his loyalty mission is also very emotional and interesting. But other than offering me a few useful upgrades, I never quite understood why I have him on my team. Like Tali he could have shown up to help and then disappeared.
I get the impression the designers had a bunch of great ideas and just weren't sure where to cut. Or they wanted to offer lots of options. Don't want Garrus as your alien sniper? Try the frogman! No frogman? Try the geth! Ehhhhh... I guess my complaints wouldn't be so irksome if I were allowed more than TWO team members. Seriously? TWO?! Give me Grunt, Garrus, Miranda, Samara, & Mordin and call it a day.
But then that's just my opinion on the matter.
Army of Two: The 40th Day
First let me say that this game is not going to win any awards for originality, character design, script or story. In fact every one of those elements is trite and simplistic at best. Rios and Salem (insert any gay jokes here) are visiting Shanghai when a terrorist group begins to destroy the city on a comic scale. They seriously try to raze the city and the rest of the world (including CHINA) just kind of sit and watch... oooooookay. And that's about the extent of the plot. Our boys are two overgrown frat boys who exchange mediocre banter about "boning" endangered species (I wish I was kidding), and reminiscing about the good ol' days where they were outnumbered and killed everything. *yawn* All of these elements would give the game a 'D' at best.
HOWEVER, having beaten every aspect of Borderlands with DH, we decided we needed another co-op splitscreen shooter and seeing as they are still a rare breed, we rented AoT on a whim. And I have to say -- while not as much fun as Borderlands -- it was a damn fun time. I can see how the game would be infuriating if having to wait on the AI, but if playing with another person, it's a freaking blast. DH and I knew we had chosen wisely when one scenario had us running down the side of a turned-over building, taking cover behind the myriad of chest-high walls (yeah, yeah, yeah), and bouncing aggro off one another.
Which brings me to the aggro system. This is one of the rare unique gems of the franchise and I gotta say, I wish more games had it. For those unfamiliar the aggro system is quite simple: Player 1 shoots a person and gains aggro (as indicated by the convenient red bar on the side of the screen). Player 2 is then "invisible" and can sneak around the map and descend from the rafters like a bat to kill, say, a mounted gunner who is impeding progress. Player 2 then has aggro, and Player 1 can run around and sneak up behind folks. It's an awesome system that allows you to simultaneously hone your sneaky-ninja skills and your brawler devil-may-care skills. Loved it. Though this is another item that I think would necessitate 2-player action. I can't imagine waiting around for the damned AI to figure out what you want it to do.
Another aspect of the game that we enjoyed, and some reviewers have complained about, was the "morality" system. On one hand, this is nothing new; games have been making us make decisions for awhile now, and the decisions are almost always the difference between Mother Theresa and Stalin. The morality system here is not much different, and the choices are almost always "kill" or "let live." However unlike most games, AoT delivers a quick comic book style glimpse into the repercussions of your decision making. Granted they have more twists and turns than a Hideo Kajima game (insert Robot Chicken's M. Night Shyamalan's "What a twist!"), but it's still a sort of dog biscuit for making a decision. **Mild Spoiler** For instance the first decision is to either kill or spare a fellow mercenary in the beginning of the game. If you choose to kill him, Rios proves to be the worst executioner in the entire world by planting a bullet in the back of the merc's head, only to have him turn around and attack Rios. Oye. They knock him off the building and gripe about it. If you spare him, you are rewarded with a scene depicting him shedding his arms and armor, finding a huge stash of cash and going to retire on a tropical beach somewhere. Aaaaaaaaand then a commando jumps out of the water and kills him. Which definitely begs the question of whether or not they just wanted you to kill him initially. **End Spoiler**
The action is intense, the weapon modification borders between cool and chintzy, and overall it provided hours of good fun for us as a couple. Overall I give it a 'C,' because while it's great fun to play co-op, I'm not sure it would offer much for single-player.
HOWEVER, having beaten every aspect of Borderlands with DH, we decided we needed another co-op splitscreen shooter and seeing as they are still a rare breed, we rented AoT on a whim. And I have to say -- while not as much fun as Borderlands -- it was a damn fun time. I can see how the game would be infuriating if having to wait on the AI, but if playing with another person, it's a freaking blast. DH and I knew we had chosen wisely when one scenario had us running down the side of a turned-over building, taking cover behind the myriad of chest-high walls (yeah, yeah, yeah), and bouncing aggro off one another.
Which brings me to the aggro system. This is one of the rare unique gems of the franchise and I gotta say, I wish more games had it. For those unfamiliar the aggro system is quite simple: Player 1 shoots a person and gains aggro (as indicated by the convenient red bar on the side of the screen). Player 2 is then "invisible" and can sneak around the map and descend from the rafters like a bat to kill, say, a mounted gunner who is impeding progress. Player 2 then has aggro, and Player 1 can run around and sneak up behind folks. It's an awesome system that allows you to simultaneously hone your sneaky-ninja skills and your brawler devil-may-care skills. Loved it. Though this is another item that I think would necessitate 2-player action. I can't imagine waiting around for the damned AI to figure out what you want it to do.
Another aspect of the game that we enjoyed, and some reviewers have complained about, was the "morality" system. On one hand, this is nothing new; games have been making us make decisions for awhile now, and the decisions are almost always the difference between Mother Theresa and Stalin. The morality system here is not much different, and the choices are almost always "kill" or "let live." However unlike most games, AoT delivers a quick comic book style glimpse into the repercussions of your decision making. Granted they have more twists and turns than a Hideo Kajima game (insert Robot Chicken's M. Night Shyamalan's "What a twist!"), but it's still a sort of dog biscuit for making a decision. **Mild Spoiler** For instance the first decision is to either kill or spare a fellow mercenary in the beginning of the game. If you choose to kill him, Rios proves to be the worst executioner in the entire world by planting a bullet in the back of the merc's head, only to have him turn around and attack Rios. Oye. They knock him off the building and gripe about it. If you spare him, you are rewarded with a scene depicting him shedding his arms and armor, finding a huge stash of cash and going to retire on a tropical beach somewhere. Aaaaaaaaand then a commando jumps out of the water and kills him. Which definitely begs the question of whether or not they just wanted you to kill him initially. **End Spoiler**
The action is intense, the weapon modification borders between cool and chintzy, and overall it provided hours of good fun for us as a couple. Overall I give it a 'C,' because while it's great fun to play co-op, I'm not sure it would offer much for single-player.
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