Was Mass Effect 2 really that Much Better than MEA?

What screenshot program are you using?


ME2 I liked the contrast and the effects a lot.

MEA's auto bright/dim I get it, but it doesn't always work.  Some areas just stay dark.  And that's with my brightness turned all the way up.  Example:

I'm there somewhere

Eh, it's your opinion. Just as valid as any others. I played the heck out of ME2. Completed it at least 5 times, started maybe 20 other PTs just to check certain things or try out mods. I probably have 200GB of movies, screenshots, mods, textures, objects and more.

ME2 is good but it's overrated, IMO. I really liked the recruitment and loyalty quests. However, the fact that only two of your Ragtag Bunch of Misfits return as squad mates for ME3 makes it seem like ME2 was a waste of time.

But that's not ME2's fault.  That's because of the bad writing and handling of ME3.

I agree they went a little overboard with the mood lighting: dark mode in MEA to the point where it's difficult to see in some places, especially the remnant vaults.

The difference is that I also feel that way about the entirety of ME2, with the very high contrast lighting they chose.

Oh it did one thing well, it fucked up the series. And I wouldn't be surprised if it killed it and Bioware.

So the forum should be just constant bashing of MEA and constant praising of the old games in a MEA subforum? As the OP, I am all for praising and bashing both as you please. That's kind of what the forums are for, right? This thread was supposed to more satirical because we have a constant influx of negativity yet people usually make the same claims with most fleshing them out.

If someone dislikes the game for the writing, it would be nice to have specific examples cited besides "my face is tired" over and over again. People even just claim, Liam sucks. Ok why was he unappealing to you? Open world blows, boring fetch quests. Ok, what made them boring? How would you improve the existing features with just cutting them and say just make it like ME2 or ME3.

Just going back to the old style of gameplay and darker tone doesn't scream innovation or change so how would you make a game similar to what you enjoyed to ME2 but in a way that the game could stand out in 2017 - 2020? I enjoy MEA, and I'm all for listening to creative criticisms and ideas. But the internet, just seems to love baseless negativity. So I was making fun it. It seems the community is pretty split.

I can respect that you love ME2 or whatever games, but I can also speak freely and say despite how much enjoyed them, they are overrated in my opinion. I also don't think MEA is the greatest game ever but it is certainly underrrated for polarizing features that are completely understandable. All in my opinion, but thanks for contributing

and OT purists need to realize that different does not mean worse and not everyone views the ME series with the same lense.

The largest cast of awesome characters yet hardly enough gameplay to actually use them and really get to know them during combat. Again I really like ME2 in terms of loyalty missions, characters, music and presentation, but the gameplay is damn limited that it kills the enjoyment. I kept thinking, why can I have large maps to explore, multiple planets to revisit so it felt like characters lived and existed there, and actually level up my squad. ME1 I could revisit planets with different characters and listen to various dialogues. ME2 I was restricted to HUB areas and loyalty missions to become acquainted with characters. MEA, I get to know my squad very well during combat, exploration, hub worlds, and loyalty missions. They don't just feel like passengers on my ship, they feel like a close crew from early on and still develop and expand later on. And yeah I did get tired of hearing about Vetra's sister or Asari commandos. That was a big flaw where those characters needed more personality diversity. Jaal was the biggest surprise. So was Liam at times with his interactions with Jaal, talking about his Car, chasing down pirates, devotion to the colonies.

I do wish the Nexus was more epic and alive, and I do wish Kadara felt more fleshed out like Omega, but this is a different situation that is dire and just beginning. I kept complaining about scale of the HiB areas and realized, everything is just starting or has been destroyed. It's nothing like the MW where everything has existed for centuries

Yes, for me Mass Effect 2 was much better than MEA (that doesn't mean that I think Mass Effect 2 was perfect, though, or hate MEA). I haven't finished MEA yet, and I bought it at launch (although I do plan on finishing it at some point). That is the first time this has happened to me for a Bioware game.

Some of the reasons I like ME2 better:

• ME2: Shepard--I love Shepard's character. My favorite in any video game.
  MEA: Ryder--I am not that invested in Ryder because I find her to be too immature (personality not age).  I don't like the "relatable" personality they gave her.
  
• ME2: Main story and side quests felt interesting and not like filler (with the exception of planet scanning). This is one of ME2's biggest strengths: pacing and that everything felt fun to do.
  MEA: I am not fond of the nomad, and there is lots of driving about large empty spaces and fighting or running over random trash mobs, which I find boring. The side quests, while much better than DAI's, are mostly not even close to being as good as ME2's. For me MEA focused too much on open world and not enough on pacing, making an integrated story, and interesting side quests.
• ME2: You can save whenever you want.
  MEA: Limited saving.