This record snowmygawd blizzard gave me plenty of time to play games, and I used pretty much all of that time on Mass Effect 2. I think it's a great game, but I have a lingering thought that frightens me the more that I think about it...
How did this game get a 96 out of 100?
Metacritic currently shows an average rating of 96. For all its cinematic and story polish, this game sure has boring, exploitable, and degenerate game mechanics.
- The AI has a fascination with hiding "behind" (that's a liberal use of the word) cover in the most awkward and inappropriate times. Difficulty is achieved by giving enemies ridiculous amounts of armor, shields, or barriers, which in the end just drags the badly played battles on longer - especially considering that your abilities for taking them down all use a cooldown timer. The only interesting enemies I fought were husks, and that's because they at least put pressure on me and my squad.
- 60% of the weapons are useless. Only the sniper rifles and hand cannons are worth shooting with.
- Controls are buggy. "Beading in" or scoping with the left trigger repeatedly fails if another action interrupts it. I often found myself holding the left trigger, but having to release it and hold it again in order to properly zoom in.
- No grenades! In a cover based shooter, you need tools to flush the enemy out. I had a drone, but why would Bioware remove this feature from ME1?
- And scanning planets? Presented well, but man that's a boring way to get upgrades. I'd expect a mechanic like that in a subscription game where spending more time in game equals more profits. Dear Bioware, I already gave you my money. Don't make me sit through this sorry excuse for a mini game to improve my ship.
So if the game is so blah, why are journalists giving this game such a high score?
- Choices matter. Mass Effect 2 is the most advanced incarnation of a Choose Your Own Adventure I have ever witnessed. There is a mountain of story content within this game, and each dialog choice really seems to make a difference to how the story is told. I found myself laboring over which dialog choice to make in the most insignificant areas.
- Dialog is second to none. The acting, camera work, and animation are better than any other game out there. The resulting experience reinforces the illusion that each character is real, living, and has a direct influence on the unfolding story.
But I believe there is something else going on here. The good points about this game don't overshadow the mediocre shooter mechanics enough to warrant 4 points from a perfect game. Call me cynical, but I think that because journalists are naturally biased toward writing, they give a game that is so focused on their craft a perfect score and are blinded to the poor parts of design. Likewise, I'm probably reacting to the worse parts of the game because of my designer nature.
At the end of the day, I still loved this game. I'm baffled at how they will make the third installment and keep the same level of choice-dense quality.
It's the RPG bonus plus the Bioware mystique. Scoring less than 90 would be impossible.
Posted by: Ike | February 15, 2010 at 05:15 AM