I'll be playing soon enough!

[JPetrillo]

Anyone playing this one yet? I know VA1N is! I'm waiting for GameFly to send me the first Mass Effect so I can play through that quick, and then I'm going to play this one. I already got a copy of it. What do you guys think? Is it good?!

[VA1N]

Is it good? Is it good???? It's amazing!!!

In all seriousness though, it really is amazing. They took everything about the first that people loved and made better. Everything that was broken (slow loading pixels, the driving sequences, etc.) and fixed it. There are a couple issues I have with the game though but they are trivial. Combat is different now because they introduced ammo into the game. Previously you had weapons with unlimited ammo (they just overheated), now you need to pick up ammo. A lot of people are dissapointed about this, with good reason since this is supposed to be an RPG with some FPS, not the flipside. But, that's a small complaint.

I'm going to have a full review up soon enough. It's a 30-60 hour game and I do EVERY side mission so when I'm close to the end I'll start writing it up.

If anyone is thinking about getting this game though, you can most defintiely play it without playing the first, but if you really want to get the full enjoyment out of it, play the first one.

Here's why...

In the first game, I met an organized crime leader who wanted me to take out her competition. I did it and when I went back to her, I told her that she should walk away from crime or I would turn her in. Since my persuasion skill was high, she did and said she would never do crime again. In Mass Effect 2, I'm walking through this space station and I hear "Shepard? Is that you?" I look over to my right and see her. I couldn't figure out who it was until she told me and I was shocked. I imported my save game from mass effect 1 and it remembered that I spared her. The other options was for me to kill her. If I had killed her, she wouldn't have been there.

I think that's awesome. It took everyone I saved and killed and made a unique game for me. The love interest I had in the first game was Liara T'Soni (blue chick). In Mass Effect 2, I have a picture on my desk of her. If I had gone with Ashley, her picture would be there and I'd be interacting with her. I have the option of either going with another woman (since Liara hasn't seen me in 2 years) or stick with her. Whoever I pick, will stick with me through part 3 also.

BioWare want to make a game that you create. So, by the time mass effect 3 comes out, everyone will have a different game. Someone I killed in the first game may be a big character in your game if you let them live. It's like they are putting out a game with interchangeable pieces and you decide where things go depending upon prior choices you have made. It's amazing.

[JPetrillo]

Oh wow! Good information to know about. Now I need to decide carefully who I kill and who I keep when I play through the first one. Maybe I will just keep everyone! haha

[VA1N]

Originally Posted by JPetrillo

Oh wow! Good information to know about. Now I need to decide carefully who I kill and who I keep when I play through the first one. Maybe I will just keep everyone! haha

You can't

There are some decisions that make you chose a teammate to die. You'll know when it's coming well ahead of time and when it does happen, it specifically says "save x or save y". It's an emotional scene. Mass Effect does that extremely well, it makes you care about the characters. When I play, I am Shepard. I live his life. I get really freaking into it. My first playthrough is always good since I'm a good person. My second playthrough though is evil as shit! But I will always carry over to the next game a good character.

Also forgot to tell you - when you import a character, you get money based on how much you had in the previous game. Plus, all the metal and ore you find in part 1 will carry over into part 2 (kinda...they give you extra to start out with vs. nothing if you didn't play the first one). If your character was good in the first game, he will begin with good points in the second. My guy was really good in the first game but I made a couple negative choices and when I started the second game I was good, but with some negative points like in the first.