Mass Effect 2 Articles and Screenshots
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The first preview is up at IGN...
There are quite a few changes to the ebb and flow of the action sequences that Mass Effect fans will quickly notice. Medi-gel is now only used to bring back fallen comrades with an auto-regenerating health system introduced. Heavy weapons add a new punch to the gunplay. New skills have been added to every class -- which you'll have to begin from scratch with once more. Weapon and armor management (There's a new set of civilian outfits for non-combat moments too!) is done through lockers instead of the pause screen, which means you can't just switch load-outs on the fly at any time. Everything is familiar, but tweaked to be a bit better.
...while the other is at Game Revolution:
The radial interface for dialogue options and menus have thankfully been kept, though everything from the skills trees to the equipment screen have been greatly simplified. Skill lists and ranks no longer go on forever, focusing instead on about six skills, each with four tiers that cost more squad points as the skill tree progresses (1 point for Level 1, 2 points for Level 2, and so on). When you master a skill by reaching its final fourth level, you have a choice between different special enhancements for that skill like a lower recharge time or stronger effect bonuses. The only gripe I have so far with the new skills is that the now projectile-based Singularity can get stuck behind walls (are you reading this, BioWare?!).
Interview #1 is online over at RPGamer:
Each class in Mass Effect 2 is said to be more of a representation of the fantasy fulfillment of that class. Are abilities specific to each, are they shared, or will each class play completely differently?
Casey Hudson: There's some sharing of powers, but they do have their special powers like the Vanguard that can do Charge, shooting across the level to body-check someone at high speed. We thought about each class and figured out where it's supposed to get to.
If you're a Soldier, you should be able to get every weapon, all of the mods, armor stuff, and if you have powers they should be about your weapons and mods. All the classes should fit that.
The Adept is another one where you used to need to use your sidearm quite a bit, and you still can, but as an Adept now you can throw powers in different directions controlling where people are being pulled and thrown and whatnot and recharge times are faster. You might use the sidearm to take down their shields, but then start throwing guys around repeatedly with the new shorter recharge times, so you feel more like Superman.
The Vanguard is high-risk high-reward: you charge up to enemies with the shotgun, slow down time and blast them out of the air, and can later upgrade to better equipment like a Krogan shotgun, and you embrace that playstyle. Each class gets into something a bit deeper and it's amazing combat.
Interview #2 is at Destructoid:
"The fall of the JRPG in large part is due to a lack of evolution, a lack of progression," Zeschuk said. "They kept delivering the same thing over and over. They make the dressing better, they look prettier, but it's still the same experience.
"My favorite thing, it's funny when you still see it, but the joke of some of the dialogue systems where it asks, 'do you wanna do this or this,' and you say no. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. Lemme think -- you want me to say 'yes.' And that, unfortunately, really characterized the JRPG."
Zeschuk admits that there are definitely exceptions coming from the East (Demon's Souls is currently one of his favorite games), but North American definitions of role-playing have simply evolved beyond those of their counterparts on the other side of the world. "We have big debates on whether GTA is an RPG, for example. It's got all the elements, it just doesn't have the numbers. And what gamers here want is that higher depth, that higher integration of features...Mass Effect 2 is in some ways a continuation of that evolution."
And then we stop by IGN for a third interview (in video format) before hitting an "eight things that would make Mass Effect 2 better than its predecessor" editorial on Hooked Gamers:
Mass Effect's inventory management is nothing short of confusing. While I thoroughly love the ability to customize weapons and armor in the game, I was hesitant to do so. It is just too much of a chore trying to sort out what is what. From the inventory screens, the player is only able to see textual differences between each item. To make matters worse, most items have the same name with only a Roman numeral to distinguish between two items from the same type or manufacturer. While this is bad enough when you are assigning weapons and armor to your squad, it is even worse when you visit a merchant. It is not uncommon to be dragging along 100+ items (which is good, don't limit this!) at which point the list becomes something of a blur to one's eyes. Pictures or icons with the items will help the player to quickly find what he needs and a simple filter on the item types will solve most of the issues when dealing with merchants.
