Mass Effect 2: The Demo
By Hailinel 61 Comments
In between all of the comically overblown reactions to my previous blog post, in which I chided the use of a generic template for serving as the cover star of a game with character customization, I got a couple of recommendations to give the PS3 Mass Effect 2 demo a try. So I downloaded it, and I just finished playing through it. And as my first taste of playing either Mass Effect, I came away from it with mix feelings:
(And now that I've read what I've wrote, this is probably going to end up pissing people off. Again. Oh, dear.)
Previously, On Mass Effect
The demo starts off with a recap of the major events of the first game and, despite my selection of a female Shepard, it was the generic male Shepard, the milquetoast galactic savior, that appeared in the video clips. God damn it, Bioware.Character Creation
Demo Part 1: Shit Goes Down
The first part of the demo is essentially the rest of the game's introduction, up until Shepard meets with Miranda and they escape the ship with Jacob. Can't say I'm fond of the command wheel interface to command my partners or use abilities. The demo would prompt me to use it, but for the most part, I just forgot it was there. The whole section was more or less brain-dead simple. So long as I had cover to hide behind, I was pretty much set. Can't say I'm fond of Miranda, though. If I were to play the full game, I'd probably just look for ways to toss her out an air lock. That attitude and that smirk only made more Dreamworks-like by the size of her face does her no favors. Jacob's pretty cool, though.Demo Part 2: Shit Goes Downer
The second part of the demo is the section of the game where you blast through enemies and eventually recruit Mordin. I really didn't like this part. There were a lot of times where I couldn't get a sense if my shots should hit or not. I absolutely hate the effect of slathering strawberry jam (or in this case, weird tentacle...things?) on the screen's edge to indicate I'm about to die. I'm even less thrilled with the constant hiding behind conveniently placed items in the environment so that I can get my health back by magical means. I never got a sense of how well I was shooting. Using the automatic rifle was particularly bad. I very rarely if ever could hit anything with it, even when it seemed like I was aiming square at them. It just felt off. I died on more than one occasion from an enemy managing to walk in close and blow me away even though I could have sworn I emptied a clip into him.This is an RPG?
This demo? I can shoot dudes, and I can talk to dudes. Oh, and I could hack stuff, though that was generally done in what were essentially matching and memory minigames. Woo?
Shit, I'm not asking for a level of RPG complexity on the same level of Dungeons & Dragons here, but as far as RPGs go, this is about as simplified as Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. The demo wouldn't even let me access the map. Why did they disable the map, of all things?