5 Things I want in Mass Effect 2

[Karak]

The recent (Fake?) news article about Mass Effect 2 got me to remembering a conversation I had with a tester at Act. Things we wanted in Mass Effect 2.

1 More speeches or large scale interaction. I found that the small part where you gave the speech was awesome. I do not know why it just felt all kinds of cool. And interaction does not always have to be 1 on 1.

2 Gas Giants. Jezuz they are like the main planet type lets get to it. Battles in their atmosphere. Stations high above their hydrogen cores and such...good times.

3 Visible damage. It's time. Weapon marks, scars and such. Damn I mean look at Rex and that scar. Put in a Fable like scaring system and beat up the armor a bit.

4 MUCH more ship interaction. Come on. The interior of that ship didn't have crap. One of the things I wanted. Why can't you sit in the Captain's quarters and listen to some MP3's on a built in stereo. Imagine listening to a William Shatner audio book while playing Mass Effect 2. Why can't you sit in a room and just look out at the star's. Little things.

5 Let us land almost anywhere gravity shows it possible and damn it make more original locations.

Ok we had about 400 of these but that's all I wanted to fit.
What would you guys like to see. Assuming the technical things were fixed and such.

[Deadend]

I want more "main quest" quality planets for side missions. I like to think of Mass Effect as a season of a TV series, but one where only a few of the episodes had effort put into them.

I also want to see some different cultural tech. As it was odd in that so many of the buildings had the same design style, I want a more focused looked to items so that I can tell what race it came from, and which ones are designed as a collaboration between different races.

[Superman's Dead]

Yeah, somehow cities in KOTOR managed to feel bigger. Which is just silly.

I agree, giving speeches was super cool. A morale aspect based on their confidence in you would be awesome...KOTOR II's influence is stuck in my head.

...I love Bioware.

More class branch options! If this is gonna be an epic level game I want to see the classes look and feel even more different.

[DeathtollWRX]

I want the weapons and armor to look different. And be customizable by look as well as each armor having it's own look. True customization.

[pomeroy]

More optimization/quality control.

That's what I would want. I couldn't finish ME1.

[Blue]

Honestly I liked most everything about ME save for the cut and paste planets and menu system. So if they changed those, the game would be gravy.

[Vyzov]

Better Inventory Management.

[Codicier]

I have a lot of points:

First Deadend must have read my mind or listened in to my conversations with friends because that's about exactly how I feel. The side missions were so bland it's ridiculous. It's was like getting the first 4 or 5 episodes of Star Trek when you hit the main planets/citadel and then it was just barren wasteland and repeated interiors for anything off the beaten path.

The vehicle just needs to be scrapped in my opinion. Very bland and poorly implemented. Drive down a tube and shoot things constituted the majority of plot based driving sections. Struggling over differently textured peaks and valleys on the side planets is not fun.

Combat needs a revamp as well. Not as drastically as the driving does, but stuff like party AI, the variety and function of the commands to the party, and a lot more could be improved. Cover also needs to be useful rather than a hamperment.

Speaking of the party, the recruits are fleshed out ok, could be deeper. But as for the human crew ( other than Ashley and Kaiden ) it was lame to have them always act as if they just met you, always stand in the same place on the ship and basically do nothing. I would have liked a bigger ship as well.

Could we get something else to wear on civilized planets so that I'm not always wearing sculpted armor and armed to the teeth? More suits, more weapons, and a currency/item system that isn't so broken that I can be the wealthiest fucker in the galaxy and have Spectre level weapons for my entire crew all before the end of the game. Managing that level of items was also a nightmare; lists are not always the answer! And salvage was only useful to be able to clear out the mounds of gear you would pick up that spilled out of every locker or chest you came across.

Could we get civilized planets? (Other than the plot planets)

Also, is there a way we could get some sort of physical interaction with the world? We have Euphoria, DMM, and Havok available to developers and yet everything is still stuck in place.

Yeah that's more than 5, so what? Wanna fight about it? :p

It's hard to tell that I like Mass Effect, isn't it? It is far from a perfect game in my mind. But as both a shameless Bioware whore, and as an RPG enthusiast starved for deep, quality, rpgs I'll take what I can get. I enjoyed playing it, mostly for the dialog system ( which was very fun to use ) but they really need to improve basically everything surrounding that system for the next iteration.

That was more that I intended to write.

[JediSanf]

I'd like to see a truly populated universe with procedural underpinnings that use plot points but otherwise allow an enormous variety on how to proceed.

Also, I'd like a Star Wars game where a lightsaber was actually a lightsaber.

[KingGorilla]

Orson Scott Card in the credits, man wrote half of what made it into that game.

But seriously. Bioware needs to bring back co-op parties. BG2 featured LAN Parties. Why can't I and 3 friends form a Mass Effect party?

[Whunpo]

Orson Scott Card in the credits, man wrote half of what made it into that game.

But seriously. Bioware needs to bring back co-op parties. BG2 featured LAN Parties. Why can't I and 3 friends form a Mass Effect party?

Co-op would be the sex in Mass Effect.
Frankly the game is incredible, but it has fatal flaws that keep it from being what it should be. The Maco, the planets, the environmental interaction, the bugs and the menu system. Fix that, shuffle the story a bit, and update the graphics and Bioware has another $60 from me.

[inmostlight]

I want them to expand the culture of the universe in non-essential ways. The environments in Mass Effect just felt so sterile. I'm thinking more like GTA: I want NPCs I can't interact with still going about having conversations. I want fake shows and movies, and ads for them. Signs for shops. Basically, I want it to feel like there's an existing culture; this was what was really missing to me in the first game. They got the history of the universe down pat, in a way rarely seen, now they need to work on the present.

[Rock Bandit]

Wrex/Sheppard love scene. That is all.

[appel]

No more copy-paste wasteland planets. They didn't add anything and made the whole game feel empty and boring. If I am to drive around on a planet for hours I want to find something interesting, not just yet another button press sequence. And it'd be nice to be able to explore space as well and actually find something worthwhile.

Better inventory, and more interesting things to have in the inventory. Skip the copy-paste equipment.

It seems like I just don't like copy-paste parts of games. :)

[Virtual Machine]

I don't really have any kind of a litany of complaints against the first one... so this is kinda tough for me really:

- Better inventory management is a must. And drastically lessen the amount of crap that can be picked up. I had similar problems with KOTOR and KOTOR - there are consumable items in those, and in Mass Effect that i never touched through the whole game.

- More story! The story in ME was pretty awesome, but i found that the whole thing didn't really get rocking until the final act, which was kind of "blink and it's over". And please, don't make me any kind of "chosen one" or amnesiac.

- Dump the formula. Same deal as both KOTOR titles, go to four or five places on your map, then play the endgame - congratufreakinlations. At least you can tackle them in any order i guess. I'd like to see a more flexible way of playing - instead of handing you the keys - maybe have you discover these places through storyline or based on decisions you make.

- more diversity on planets - rock worlds with color filters are cool and all - but why did nothing have any kind of flora or fauna?

- Earth motherfuckers!

[Goronmon]

The vehicle just needs to be scrapped in my opinion. Very bland and poorly implemented. Drive down a tube and shoot things constituted the majority of plot based driving sections. Struggling over differently textured peaks and valleys on the side planets is not fun.Boo that, I've put like 60-70 hours easy into the game and I still enjoy bombing around planet-side with the Mako.

[Cit Phil Cit]

Gratuitous alien sex scenes?

http://rydia.net/shaz/stuff/journal/dnyarri.gif

[itchyeyes]

I'd settle for more robust side missions (more locations, characters, less cookie cutter, etc...), even at the expense of the number of side missions in the game. Everything else I can live with. Not saying I wouldn't want them to update any of the other stuff people have mentioned, but given the likely scenario that Bioware only has so many resources to commit to dealing with people's problems with the first game, I'd rather they put the vast majority of effort into the side missions.

[Codicier]

Boo that, I've put like 60-70 hours easy into the game and I still enjoy bombing around planet-side with the Mako.

Ok, well how about my replacement suggestion: A shuttle craft instead of the Mako. Makes life easier for people and would probably be more fun. Of course they could have the missions where the craft won't work ( try reversing the polarity ) and you have to hoof it. Some sort of light ground vehicle might be good for that. I guess the problem I have with the Mako is that either it's unwieldy, or that it really isn't suited to the terrain. They either need easier terrain or a more mobile vehicle.

Speaking of terrain, we need forests, jungles and water ( or some alien liquid equivalent ) on these planets, everything is either so flat or so jagged. Aren't there ways to procedurally generate ecosystems?

[Iron Past]

Damn, not that I really disagree, but some of you guys are asking a lot from a video game. Some different interiors and more customization would make me happy (and of course beefier side missions).

[Karak]

Damn, not that I really disagree, but some of you guys are asking a lot from a video game. Some different interiors and more customization would make me happy (and of course beefier side missions).

Hey that's 3:)
You only have 2 more!

[Vandabo]

I just want them to turn the "pointiness" knob on their world builder down from 11 to about 4. Seriously, it was just ludicrous how sharp the landscape was.

Also, we have FTL travel and stealth spacecraft and all this, but nothing more than an big wheel to roll around on a planet in? We need aircraft of some sort.

[Drayven]

Mostly I want the dialog option I pick to match what I say. I hated spending time picking out just the right negative response from the list that wouldn't be too forceful but would get my point across only to have my character say "No"

[Wilkz07]

More Character customization
LiveVision 'put yourself in the game' - c'mon you know that'd be sweet.

Improved character interactions when using bully tactics that affect future interactions with the same character or the next ones you need to speak to (the way Bladerunner on PC was setup)