I didn't mention this with the last one but you get rewarded the more quests you do, giving you more context and foreshadowing as well as connective tissue between the games. Reach all the planets you can.
By this point, Uncharted 1 and 2 were already released so you can imagine the inspiration they took to craft a more cinematic intro and setpiece. It's just too bad that was the only part. But I don't really care so much that they had to revive Shep, the only way I think I'd like it is if we actually got to perform surgery on him, like screw in the bolts and stuff. But I will say that even after just playing the first one, getting the band back together and getting a new ship that looks like the old one gets me pumped.
There's different gameplay too, so if you want to crouch behind something, no L3, just X. No combinations while bypassing either, instead it's one of two timed matching games (I prefer the combinations). There's ammo now and new layouts for everything so that it seems a bit more organized, even mission complete reports. But with that ammo is an assortment of guns. Rather than just switching them out for a better one, you can trade your load out at the start of each mission when you choose the characters, same with the upgrading tree if you want. I didn't even buy any weapons in the first game, but this one gives you more initiative to, it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank actually, it fits to your playstyle. My saved money carried over and so did my intimidation and charm factors so I was pretty well off. You can also mix and match armor. My one complaint with the shop system is that it can make the screen a little…cluttered.
Look at all those notifications, they don't disappear right away either. Also screw whoever came up with the idea to hide then vault in order to hurdle over a ledge, how stupid is that? It can be like an obstacle course sometimes, if you didn't want a jump button, don't make things you HAVE to climb. Then it gets really annoying when there are husks surrounding you and you can't move and when you do, you stick to the wall to hide. Smh.
Maps are updated to have objectives displayed under the planets which is a huge help. I didn't mind so much surveying the planets in the last game but I'll admit that I don't exactly miss it…Ok, you can survey planets but this time you actually use scanning stuff and mine for minerals to use to upgrade your ship, weapons, and etc. It comes off kind of tedious but I like the reward. There's no longer an in game mini map but instead you get a full one mapped to the R3 button. They really could've just done the same thing again but with a new story, characters and better graphics like they did KOTOR 2 but they went above and beyond to make this feel like a new game.
It makes you feel important. Everybody just seems so honored around you. You had people on the ship in the first game but they were just there. While they're here now, you have a cook (though I don't agree that he should be in Kaidan's spot) you have a secretary, you have a crew and sometimes they'll have idle conversations like "Yeah, my daughter's one year old." And stuff to kind of get them more active with the community, see what everyone thinks about it and how events are affecting their lives.
In fact, Chakwas is the one that says it "They just don't have the same enthusiasm" but I think rather the opposite. Instead of a band of misfits, it's all these people at their 9-5 office job (they even have a freaking water dispenser in the ship now), making it seem cool in the beginning but speculative in the long run because you're asking what Cerberus' true motives are and if they actually have good intentions. Yeah, they brought you back but can you trust them? Why do they have an AI system in every room? Why is everyone so suspicious of them? I mean we heard about them in the first game but we didn't really "know" about them and 2 years has passed since then so have they changed?
Anyway, there are gangs now but you don't join any of them, in fact, they're all against you. I would've liked to see a little Stormcloaks vs Imperials vs A middle road action but that's not a choice, I mean maybe it was planned, they each have characters but I'm saying maybe it was dropped partway through development.
And hubba hubba, there's a lot more romancables than I realized. One of which being your secretary so I updated my characters list with all the new stuff. The one thing I'll add to that is that there's only one of each species (other than human) to recruit so not every character from the last game will be a party member. With that said, try to recruit and get the loyalty missions done before the IFF because after that, it launches you into the final mission so be cautious and plan out everything you want before it. The credits also made me realize that each character had their own credits. They spent so much time on their characters that they had their own teams dedicated to each individual one, that's crazy but I guess the final product speaks for itself.
I did more or less every quest, there were some trivial fetch quests like finding the Volus' chit but I did all the anomalies, loyalties and 100% discovered all the systems taking me to around 32 hours of playtime, near double that of ME1. I'll give it a 3.5/5
By this point, Uncharted 1 and 2 were already released so you can imagine the inspiration they took to craft a more cinematic intro and setpiece. It's just too bad that was the only part. But I don't really care so much that they had to revive Shep, the only way I think I'd like it is if we actually got to perform surgery on him, like screw in the bolts and stuff. But I will say that even after just playing the first one, getting the band back together and getting a new ship that looks like the old one gets me pumped.
There's different gameplay too, so if you want to crouch behind something, no L3, just X. No combinations while bypassing either, instead it's one of two timed matching games (I prefer the combinations). There's ammo now and new layouts for everything so that it seems a bit more organized, even mission complete reports. But with that ammo is an assortment of guns. Rather than just switching them out for a better one, you can trade your load out at the start of each mission when you choose the characters, same with the upgrading tree if you want. I didn't even buy any weapons in the first game, but this one gives you more initiative to, it reminds me of Ratchet and Clank actually, it fits to your playstyle. My saved money carried over and so did my intimidation and charm factors so I was pretty well off. You can also mix and match armor. My one complaint with the shop system is that it can make the screen a little…cluttered.
Look at all those notifications, they don't disappear right away either. Also screw whoever came up with the idea to hide then vault in order to hurdle over a ledge, how stupid is that? It can be like an obstacle course sometimes, if you didn't want a jump button, don't make things you HAVE to climb. Then it gets really annoying when there are husks surrounding you and you can't move and when you do, you stick to the wall to hide. Smh.
Maps are updated to have objectives displayed under the planets which is a huge help. I didn't mind so much surveying the planets in the last game but I'll admit that I don't exactly miss it…Ok, you can survey planets but this time you actually use scanning stuff and mine for minerals to use to upgrade your ship, weapons, and etc. It comes off kind of tedious but I like the reward. There's no longer an in game mini map but instead you get a full one mapped to the R3 button. They really could've just done the same thing again but with a new story, characters and better graphics like they did KOTOR 2 but they went above and beyond to make this feel like a new game.
It makes you feel important. Everybody just seems so honored around you. You had people on the ship in the first game but they were just there. While they're here now, you have a cook (though I don't agree that he should be in Kaidan's spot) you have a secretary, you have a crew and sometimes they'll have idle conversations like "Yeah, my daughter's one year old." And stuff to kind of get them more active with the community, see what everyone thinks about it and how events are affecting their lives.
In fact, Chakwas is the one that says it "They just don't have the same enthusiasm" but I think rather the opposite. Instead of a band of misfits, it's all these people at their 9-5 office job (they even have a freaking water dispenser in the ship now), making it seem cool in the beginning but speculative in the long run because you're asking what Cerberus' true motives are and if they actually have good intentions. Yeah, they brought you back but can you trust them? Why do they have an AI system in every room? Why is everyone so suspicious of them? I mean we heard about them in the first game but we didn't really "know" about them and 2 years has passed since then so have they changed?
Anyway, there are gangs now but you don't join any of them, in fact, they're all against you. I would've liked to see a little Stormcloaks vs Imperials vs A middle road action but that's not a choice, I mean maybe it was planned, they each have characters but I'm saying maybe it was dropped partway through development.
And hubba hubba, there's a lot more romancables than I realized. One of which being your secretary so I updated my characters list with all the new stuff. The one thing I'll add to that is that there's only one of each species (other than human) to recruit so not every character from the last game will be a party member. With that said, try to recruit and get the loyalty missions done before the IFF because after that, it launches you into the final mission so be cautious and plan out everything you want before it. The credits also made me realize that each character had their own credits. They spent so much time on their characters that they had their own teams dedicated to each individual one, that's crazy but I guess the final product speaks for itself.
I did more or less every quest, there were some trivial fetch quests like finding the Volus' chit but I did all the anomalies, loyalties and 100% discovered all the systems taking me to around 32 hours of playtime, near double that of ME1. I'll give it a 3.5/5