Summary
Kinda like Oceans Eleven Dirty Dozen Gears of War err... an RPG in space.
Gameplay 93/100
I was going to write about how people need to stop complaining about inventory screens. Changed my mind half way when I re-read what I had and realized how much venom was posted in that. I also realized these people are obviously deficient in some mental faculty and therefore I should "be nice". I'll just leave it at "If you can't read properly, don't make life worse for those who can" and call it a day.
That being said, I like what BioWare did to the inventory system :D ....almost. Part of the problem with ME1's inventory was people who needed more realism in their video games. You know, the ones that complain about monsters dropping loose change. So RPG developers have been coming up with all sorts of gimmicks to explain how you are getting your money. Body parts, gear, items you can later craft into more expensive doodads. The list goes on and on.
And it's working... Almost. ME1's system was born of this mindset. Get weapons, ammo and armor drops from mobs and sell them back for credits. Problems arose from the sheer number of drops you got. Often times this clogged up your inventory, not allowing you to pick up anything new. And Jumping Jesus on a Jackhammer was it a bitch and a half to clear out your inventory when this happened. Especially ammo... (Do I need this? Should I gel it? What the hell was I just looking at 3 items ago?) So instead of trying to fix the mess effect (OK feel dirty now -_-) of the old inventory system, they just 86 the whole thing and start from scratch.
Sounds good... And I'm sure some focus group was involved with the new system. (Question one, how do you feel about inventory systems in video games: "Durp Hurt brain make words do Durp"{Smash head into clipboard till it's pried out of their hands by Volunteers At EA headquarters.}) So ya, we get a handful of weapons now and we get to upgrade them. Which is perfectly fine.... BUT CAN I PLEASE SEE WHAT THE HELL I JUST UPGRADED BIOWARE? PLEASE? WITH A GODDAMN CHERRY ON TOP? Would the durpapods seriously complained if each weapon had a status screen?
Yes I know they have an upgrade tab on your private terminal but it's an unsortable mess after you get 15-20 upgrades. Besides, doesn't actually show the stats of the weapons now doe's it?
Oddly enough though, I really have very little problem with the other changes made by BioWare. The streamlining of the XP system, the removal of the "HillClimber: Get up that Goddamn hill" Mini game (Yes the Mako) or the way they present the story like chapters in a book.(nice mix of linear and free form story telling there) It's obvious they realized they had a much better action game than RPG there. (Stat based aiming in realtime = fail) and adding RPG elements to an action game works just fine. Hell you can add RPG elements to anything and it will work.
The gameplay itself is constantly compared to Gears of War. (Cover based shooter) And fans tend to take serious offense at this. Which is silly if you think about it. Not like GoW was a bad game. And it's not like every game is new and original. We wouldn't have Silent Hill, Saint's Row or Half Life if the industry had an aversion to improving on previous ideas. It's probably the decades long polarization of RPG and Shooter fans. And since the industry is constantly mixing the two genres. We, as fans, should probably knock that Super Silly Shat off.
So yes, I (mostly) love the changes to the gameplay from ME1. Love the cover based gameplay ripped from GoW. :p And love the absence of having to slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly climb hills in the mako. They did replace the latter with a probing minigame...... OK so it's not all good. I guess probing was added to make even "1xp per mob, 10k xp to next level" grinders bored out of there skulls. Is this a preamble for excuses for further removal of RPGness from ME3? (Remember probing ya biatches? This is why we took this other thing out.) Or a halfhearted attempt to please ME1 fans? Only time will tell.
