Mass Effect 2 - E3 Previews @ GameSpot, IGN

Dhruin

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Mass Effect 2 is next along in coverage of BioWare's titles at E3. Here's GameSpot:
Mass Effect 2 will not only feature new dialogue options, but new combat options as well. For example, you will now be able to issue separate move and attack orders to squadmates individually. The power wheel remains, so you can still pause the action and issue orders. However, BioWare aims to make real-time action a more viable alternative than ever. To this end, we watched an extended sequence as Shepard fought his way across the space station. BioWare showed off multiple physics-based attacks that sent Shepard's vanguard enemies flying, as well as shooting and cover mechanics that resembled those of the first game. There are nine new classes of weapons, including heavy weapons, such as a missile launcher that we saw in action. That particular weapon wreaked havoc on multiple turrets and looked appropriately powerful.
...and IGN:
The coolest change to the combat is that enemies now have individual hit boxes on all of their body parts. Shoot a robot in the arms or legs and you can watch them slowly tear to bits as they're ripped limb from limb. Shoot one in the head and watch the machine brains go flying. The same location sensitive damage also applies to human and other living beings. Head shots here we come.
More information.
 
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New combat options...
Excuse me?!
Are we talking about some FPS game? Unbelievable.
 
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I would have preferred if they said; "Mass Effect 2 will not only feature new combat options, but new dialogue options as well." and then clarified what they done to fix that awful ME system.
 
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hehehe wah wah wah.
 
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Just read the latest IGN preview, and discovered that levels/skills will NOT get carried over to ME2.

Apparently, it has become impossible for designers to think of solutions to even the most basic balance challenges.

So, there goes my incentive to replay ME...

What a pathetic decision, but I'm not shocked that one of their coolest features is as half-hearted as whatever else Bioware put their hands on these days.

When I initially heard of this consistency feature, I was reminded of how great it was handled in BG/BG2 and NWN. I was a fool to trust Bioware to do this right, and now I've wasted quite a few hours playing through endlessly tedious side-missions in Mass Effect. Oh well, I only have myself to blame.
 
My biggest question is: Will it contain the same thing of limited activations ?
 
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My biggest question is: Will it contain the same thing of limited activations ?

Very likely it will ... though they have wavered on this stuff recently.

Yeah, more action, less RPG seems the direction.
 
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Just read the latest IGN preview, and discovered that levels/skills will NOT get carried over to ME2.

I've said many times I consider it impossible for there to be a properly balanced way to bring Commander Shepard in at level 60. At level 60 (takes two playthroughs with the same character to reach this level), a biotic will have so much crowd control, enemies will never get to fire a single shot. They're floating around from the start of the fight untill they're dead. Of course, they could make enemies immune to such effects, but then there's not much point in copying the character from ME1 - he/she would feel entirely different when playing.

To me, it's all about how the decisions turn out. If the decisions have a great impact on the game, it's a huge step forward, as I've never seen that done in any game (the decisions you make in BG1 does not carry over to BG2, only the character does).

Would be pretty amazing if decisions made in ME1 would carry on through ME 2 and 3, changing the outcome of ME3.

Now, *that* is hoping for too much!
 
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I've said many times I consider it impossible for there to be a properly balanced way to bring Commander Shepard in at level 60. At level 60 (takes two playthroughs with the same character to reach this level), a biotic will have so much crowd control, enemies will never get to fire a single shot. They're floating around from the start of the fight untill they're dead. Of course, they could make enemies immune to such effects, but then there's not much point in copying the character from ME1 - he/she would feel entirely different when playing.

It really doesn't matter if you're level 40, 50, or 60. By then, you'll have maxed out the major powers anyway. I'm not even 30 in my current game - and Liara already maxed out the most potent power - and she's half-way there for the other decent ones. This is in addition to non-biotic abilties having decent points.

This is all about what kind of enemies they introduce in ME2 - and it would be EXTREMELY simple to just follow their utterly pathetic scaling system that they used in ME. Everything in ME scaled in the most predictable and linear fashion imaginable. There's only one reason they're not allowing you to start at 50+ - and I'll get to that later.

Obviously, you'd just encounter enemies scaled to your own level - regardless of what it was - and if certain powers represent too big a balance issue (which they would then already have done in the last half of the first game) - then you can introduce protection or immunities for certain encounters.

Arguably the most powerful biotic power in ME - Singularity - only affected a certain area for a limited period of time.

No powers in ME were that overwhelming - and the game remained reasonably balanced all the way towards the end.

Any competent game designer willing to sit down and think about this for 10 minutes would be able to come up with multiple solutions to this minor issue, believe me.

No, they're just unwilling to focus on anything but the "cinematic" aspects which is really what Mass Effect is - an interactive movie.

I'll tell you precisely why they don't want to carry your level over - and it's not because of balance issues. It's because they'd have to create a similar amount of new abilities to keep the leveling experience fresh - and they don't want to bother doing that. My guess is they'll introduce a handful of new powers/abilities - spread over the various classes, and instead focus on doing more pyrotechnics in true Hollywood fashion - with rocket launchers and whatever else the Unreal engine more or less serves up for them.
 
Another problem with importing the level of a character is that they have to ensure that new players start with a similar level. So one has to offer some pre-levelled characters for newbies, which is usually not so much fun.

So importing some choices-and-consequences things but starting with a low level might in fact be the easier way.

You could even simulate the choices and consequences decisions for non-imported characters by asking new players some appropriate questions in the beginning.

But let us wait and see. Reacting to wishes of fans is anyway one of the things a developer better avoids.
 
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Another problem with importing the level of a character is that they have to ensure that new players start with a similar level. So one has to offer some pre-levelled characters for newbies, which is usually not so much fun.

The obvious thing to do is to simply give them the appropriate amount of skill points at character generation.

It worked in so many games before - so I fail to see why this is any different today.

Just have pre-made characters or an auto-distribute button for the lazy ones.

Their linear scaling system seems practically designed for "problems" of this kind.
 
The obvious thing to do is to simply give them the appropriate amount of skill points at character generation.

It worked in so many games before - so I fail to see why this is any different today.

Just have pre-made characters or an auto-distribute button for the lazy ones.

Their linear scaling system seems practically designed for "problems" of this kind.
I meant not so much the technical problem for the developer but the psychological problem for the new players who have to live either with prefabricated characters or with many skill points to distribute without having experience with the game.

But I agree that this dicussion is not so important because you could simply skip all character development in this shooter anyway.

Edit: In cRPGs I also prefer if sequels start at level 1 instead of playing on "epic" levels, starting to fight with level 20 goblins.
 
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I meant not so much the technical problem for the developer but the psychological problem for the new players who have to live either with prefabricated characters or with many skill points to distribute without having experience with the game.

But I agree that this dicussion is not so important because you could simply skip all character development in this shooter anyway.

Well, the psychological problem of not having played the first game in terms of experiencing the story would be there anyway.

I'd say assigning skill points or pressing "auto-assign" would be a lesser problem, but we're all different.

But you're right, it's a shooter with extremely bland RPG mechanics - so it won't matter all that much anyway. Still would have enjoyed the illusion of my character build mattering in my replay - but no such luck.
 
And yet, when Fallout 1 did targeted shots, no one complained...apparently.
I like this feature; I like it is in ME2.

The combat can be FPS-style, it can also be more tactical, if you it to be.

And that's the problem. Why have all those numbers if in the end they don't really matter? Just point the crosshair and click.
 
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@DArtagnan
The problem is not Liara or maxing Singularity. The problem is maxing Singularity, Lift and either the Nemesis (increased biotic duration) or Bastion (reduced biotic cooldown) class for an Adept (or Vanguard, tho they can't take Bastion). Only the main character can do this. At that point you get virtually spammable crowdcontrol that affects huge areas. You can keep entire armies swirling around in the air for hours without ever giving them any time on the ground.

Also, you *can* start the game at level 50. Just replay it with a character you have previously played through the game with. This is the only way to reach the highest level, and get all the best items, at which point you and your followers are significantly more powerful than below 50.

If you don't believe me, play through the game with an Adept turned into either a Nemesis or Bastion, and then restart the game with it. The enemies now scale, but even on the highest difficulty they'll be redicilously easy to kill (unlike with other classes, where the highest difficulty is actually quite challenging).

I really do not see any way to balance a maxed out Bastion/Nemesis without nerfing their abilities into the ground. Somewhat like balancing high level wizards/sorcerers in Throne of Bhaal - the only way to do it is to either render enemies immune to Time Stop or remove the spell from the game (the Ravager on higher difficulties is one such example: He is immune to most spells, even Time Stop, which prevents high level spell casters from slaughtering him before he can move).
 
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@DArtagnan
The problem is not Liara or maxing Singularity. The problem is maxing Singularity, Lift and either the Nemesis (increased biotic duration) or Bastion (reduced biotic cooldown) class for an Adept (or Vanguard, tho they can't take Bastion). Only the main character can do this. At that point you get virtually spammable crowdcontrol that affects huge areas. You can keep entire armies swirling around in the air for hours without ever giving them any time on the ground.

Also, you *can* start the game at level 50. Just replay it with a character you have previously played through the game with. This is the only way to reach the highest level, and get all the best items, at which point you and your followers are significantly more powerful than below 50.

If you don't believe me, play through the game with an Adept turned into either a Nemesis or Bastion, and then restart the game with it. The enemies now scale, but even on the highest difficulty they'll be redicilously easy to kill (unlike with other classes, where the highest difficulty is actually quite challenging).

I really do not see any way to balance a maxed out Bastion/Nemesis without nerfing their abilities into the ground. Somewhat like balancing high level wizards/sorcerers in Throne of Bhaal - the only way to do it is to either render enemies immune to Time Stop or remove the spell from the game (the Ravager on higher difficulties is one such example: He is immune to most spells, even Time Stop, which prevents high level spell casters from slaughtering him before he can move).

Ok, I see your point.

Not having played an Adept as my own character - I assumed difficulty was similar to other characters, and I'm surprised that such power is attainable with a linear scaling system such as the one they use. But I apologize for my wrongful assumption. That said, it really doesn't change my original point - that such a thing can very easily be overcome.

What you talk about is a question of basic gross imbalance oversights - and as such, would probably need to be rectified for the 2nd game either way. They could introduce caps to duration or similar "reasonable" balance measures. Again - trivial design "challenges".

Certainly, you would agree there's something off if what you say is true - and that, in any case, it would make sense to "adjust" these powers if they make the game so trivial - even if it's just late-game. I would think that the reason they use a linear scaling system - is to ensure a reasonable challenge level throughout - for ALL classes. You could always increase the cap fluidly, if you want players to get a sensation of power.

Wouldn't you agree?
 
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