Mass Effect needs Mecha - Space Combat!
By essaregee 68 Comments
Okay, so most of you know me as an otaku or someone really obsessed with anime, both of which are true, however I have had a revolutionary new idea that should make Mass Effect 2 even cooler (and perhaps carry over into ME3); Mecha!
Now, coming form someone who has seen every Gundam series as well as pretty much every other series with mecha in it (Code Geass, Evangalion), and played mecha inspired games such as my all time favorite - Shogo and Xenosaga (EP 1, 2, 3), this might sound like a biased statement, well I will try to make it as unbiased as possible.
The Mass Effect Universe seems like a sprawling intergalactic community, complete with many armed nations ready to fight with another. With all the innovative technology, such as the Normandy, and other Capital Ships (such as the Asari Ascension)m but why no mechs - or MCA (Mobile Combat Armor)? It would make perfect scene to have sections where a heavy mech would be required to get past a certain level, such as the MAKO sections in ME1.
You have to assult a heavily armored base, and you need extra firepower, as well as mobility, you could use one of these.
There are a lot to chose from, and just like the MAKO you don't have to stick a choice of 20 for the player to pilot, but I bet it would add a lot of interesting aspects to the gameplay. The mecha also fit into perfect context and would not break the gameplay at all.
"Whoa, hold on there! ME2 already has mecha!" is what some of you are saying; well yes, that is completely true, but the mecha aren't pilotable, and are more like a robot. However even one of that size would do - think of it as not a giant 20 meter mech, but rather mobile combat armor, which is exactly what it would be. It would not be too hard to implement into the game, just change a few models, and add some new player animations, the ones where they are getting into the mechs - now that annimation can be left out all together, but why not have it?
The picture on the left is the Loki mech I have mentioned prior to this.
Now, that's my take on mechs in this game, they should be there, and it would make a great addition to the ME universe, I doubt we will see them, but you never know, perhaps we will see some DLC about that in the future.
My next topic of interest is space combat. I remember the good 'ol days of KOTOR and KOTOR 2, when flying from planet to planet, you were confronted with a turret scene where you were forced to use a turret (woa! I know) to defend the Ebon Hawk (the starship that was used in both the games).
Now turret defense is bland, and very old, so I think there should be some sort of space combat (aha! With the mechs!) that has you defending the Normandy SR2 from baddies. Now giving it some further thought, it might not be the best idea to do gameplay wise. Since space is more of a 3D environment, how would the player control a spaceship or what ever they were using to fight of enemies (also QTE are not helping). If fighters were implemented, it would mean having a totally new game play mechanic on controlling fighter craft, but is prone to some negative feedback, as users would have to learn how to fly. Now I am all for the Freelancer style of space combat (Freelancer is a space combat sin from the 2000s, not sure what year, but it was pretty good)., however people would argue that it can break the gameplay. Sure, they say the Normandy can't be attacked, but they are missing a few critical points. a) Normandy SR1 was destroyed b) the stealth systems are incapable of being run 100% of the time, and lastly c) the Normandy SR1 was blown to bits.
Well that's all that I have to say right now. At the current time I am trying to finish up ME1 (again, for the too many-ith time to count) so I have a desired character going into mass effect 2.
Cheers and enjoy reading!