Ah, wrapped up the game two days ago (And replayed the ending last night to get the best ending) and its certainly my GoTY for now.

Its certainly very nice and refreshing for Bioware to finally deviate from one of their primary forms of RPG design which was:
1) Stick player in OMG I HAZ TO SAV TEH WORLDZ situation
2) Give player FREEDOM to choose which 4 locations to travel to in order to find pieces of puzzle/gather allies/find out more about doomsday weapon. Each of these locations will be littered with sidequests to distract you
3) Sometime after completing maybe 2-3 locations, give the player some new found location or threat to encounter. This may or may not include a twist
4) Travel to big bad's hideout and have final fight

Even Dragon Age, despite breaking away from a lot of Bioware's early RPG norms (Like having a cookie cutter intro sequence and their extremely rubbish morality system) was still at its core very identifiable as a Bioware game (Basically, both the good and the bad... moreso the bad)

Mass Effect 2 seems to have finally broken the mold and now Bioware can proudly proclaim that "Hey, we don't just rehash our old RPG systems to make new ones". Where other big companies are still tussling about to barely even try to advance themselves over the years (I'm looking at you Blizzard and Bethesda) its really good to see the big daddy of CRPGs actually doing something so drastic and dramatic to shake up the genre.

And with Alpha Protocol hoping to do the same (When it finally comes out of course), I expect 2010 to be another good year for RPGs.

Anyway, my spoiler riddled thoughts on the game:


So guys, now that I've finished the game, I can happily spot spoilers and warnings will be dished out accordingly from this point forth

Also, just started a 2nd playthrough as an Infiltrator in Insane... Pretty fun.

Also, beards

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 17 2010, 01:46 PM

How would you like it if you created a toaster, then have the toaster rebel on you, and then kick you out of your own home?

And to add insult to injury, your home happens to be like the worlds' only freezer and you're actually a snowman and you have to roam the world in a portable icebox looking for a new freezer to live in.

It does seem a bit petty (Actually I even asked them to find a new place) but their justifications made sense.

Based on conversations with Tali in ME1, she describes the Geth as a unified neural network based off each individual Geth robot. Originally this was meant to make them more efficient as they grouped together in larger numbers, but unfortunately, they also developed the ability to become sentient when enough of them came together. They're kinda like a collective, but individual at the same time.

I like how Legion described it when comparing the Geth to the Reapers:
"Reapers are comprised of many subsystems but each Reaper is a nation that stands alone. Geth are comprised of many subsystems but are all united as one instead"

So, the Reapers are like one huge alliance while the Geth are like... Communists.

I think it just makes them more bitter rather than mellowing out. But I suppose a compromise could be made. It seems that the Reapers are behind most of the major conflicts in the galaxy (They were also behind the Rachni)

War can always be justified from both sides.

The Quarians mistakenly developed some AI technology (Though legal by council standards) to produce robots
Said robots become sentient
Quarians panic and try to destroy them
Robots go WTF and kick Quarians out
Quarians are all pissy and continue trying to kill robots
Reapers get a hold of some Geth later on and tell them about the awesomeness of robots and attack everyone else

Also, I said hub station as it was the central station for all heretic geth. The central "station" for all Geth would be the Quarian homeworld.

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Added on February 17, 2010, 3:59 pmYeah they were. You'll find out depending on what you did in ME1

You also have to remember that the Council are against AIs and thus are automatically at war with the Geth without even having to say anything.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 17 2010, 03:59 PM

The geth becoming sentient wasn't as clear cut as that. The Quarians feared being banished by the Council for dabbling in AI and thus attempted to kill of the threat quick. The machines obviously reacted in self defence and once that had begun (The Geth weren't just robots that were used in some places, but rather as their main labour force in everythin), it was very hard to turn around.

Also, to the Geth, the Quarian homeworld is also theirs, so why should they be the ones to vacate?

Space opera politics isn't as clear cut as it seems to be.

The Quarians are considered part of the Citadel systems or whatever its called, but they're not a member of the Council.

I should read the Codex a bit more... Think of it as what happened to the Batarians; Batarians like slavery, Council does not. Thus, Council bans Batarians. Only for the Quarians it would've been "played with AI".

We send nukes into space yo!

You guys liked Ash? The xenophobic soldier? I'll admit that she was a far more interesting character than Kaidan was, but she had little redeeming features other than her "deathwish".

That being said, I expect her/Kaidan to pull a Carth and come back with a promotion or admiral in ME3

She stated many times that she hated and distrusted them. The first time you talk to her in the Normandy, she questioned your orders to allow them free reign around the ship. That's xenophobia man.

The issue with her grandpa was over the fact that he was the only human admiral to ever surrender and what has her sister (Shanxi right?) got to do with anything?

Throughout the entire game, she constantly makes you 2nd guess any attempt to give aliens any power (Especially those scenes after missions where Liara offers to help)

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Added on February 18, 2010, 12:33 amWhat I meant with that Carth remark was, that Carth came back in the sequel as an admiral. So, by ME3, I'm guessing Kaiden/Ashley won't just be a lieutenant/Gunnery Sergeant anymore.

I don't remember being able to change Ash (Or any other character for the matter) in ME1. You *can* convince her that her thinking is bad or whatever, but in the next cutscene, she still exhibits the same xenophobic behaviour.

No Bioware game to date has allowed you to shape how an NPC grows. In most cases, you're just a catalyst for a change that happens out of your control.

Only Obsidian did with KOTOR2.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 18 2010, 12:33 AM

That's hardly influencing. In Dragon Age its more of the characters are either normal or they like you. ME1's example is also pretty typical of what Bioware have done in the past. Basically, the character's growth is always the same... just a matter of whether you are willing to "activate" it.

In KotOR 2, you could turn almost all your companions into super evil muthas or paragons of justice and virtue (And into jedis or sith if you were persistent enough)... It wasn't some static veiled static "level up" mechanic. You literally could influence whether they were evil or good. Now, THAT is character influencing.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 18 2010, 01:10 AM

When you activate any Team Ammo ability, its as though each of your party members has activated that ammo ability like they have it. So, after you activate a Team Ammo ability, your teammates still retain even though you switch to something else. Alas, this also means that your teammates can switch to their own ammo abilities and remove it.

Having Team Cryo made it so easy when facing hordes of husks, since I'd activate it, then use incinerate for myself. Team freezes enemies, I finish them off.

Like all the other guns in the game, the the burst fire and small clip of the Vindicator ARE features of the gun as its meant to be a variant.
Same like how the Viper sniper rifle has a larger clip, faster fire rate but shitty damage, the Vindicator doesn't fire as fast as the Avenger and has smaller clips but does more damage per shot.
This rule applies to the shotguns
And the heavy pistols.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Feb 18 2010, 03:29 PM