Mass Effect 2 is a great film. The plot is weird, but it is overcome by the excellent writing and mostly-engaging characters. Insofar as it is a game, however, there's so much more that could have been done to make it more than a fairly fun, generic 'press A to take cover' shooter. I'm not here to argue that larger topic, though. Instead I'd like to focus on one particular aspect that I can't stop thinking about: I wish there were some sort of PvP multiplayer that took advantage of the richness of the combat powers.
There is a lot of unexplored potential in the class-power scheme of the game. While there is nothing aggressively wrong with the AI in ME2, it remains the case that in terms of unpredictability and challenge, nothing can replace a human opponent. The new classes in ME2 are a load of fun, so the absence of a way to pit your carefully configured team against that of another person is pretty painful.
This issue comes to my mind whenever I spam the shit out of my enemies with my engineer's combat drone. Gunfights-- while exciting-- are a joke. There are never any 'whoa, almost didn't make it out of that one' moments because nearly every fight is a one-sided blowout where my team plows through the opposition. When it isn't that, it is just the enemy rushing my team and sacking Shepherd as if there is no way for me to affect the match. Circumstances rarely require the use of medi-gels.
The AI ALWAYS turns to fight the combat drone, taking the heat off me and giving me the opportunity to shoot at their backs with impunity. In contrast, a human player might not do that, instead choosing to press into my fire and land a killing shot.
I did have one fight in-game that could plausibly be called tactical. Fighting the Collectors on the moving platforms inside the dormant ship was tough the first four tries. I forget what they are called, but they've got these bubbled wretch-type things that hang back and hit you with one shockwave after another, destroying your shields and health in two successive glancing hits. The solution for victory turned out to be a simple flanking maneuver where I ran to an unoccupied platform and sniped the shit out of the bubble dude from his left. It was briefly rewarding, and I wonder whether Bioware could have created more situations like that.
Then again, maybe they made it this way on purpose; having to sit through the restart/loading screens is aggravating when you're fired up about killing.
As it is now, not all of the powers/abilities are suited for multiplayer. Available to the Vanguard class is the shockwave power, the noob tube of any hypothetical ME2 PvP encounter. It is staggeringly powerful. It goes through cover at long range and has an unexpectedly wide area of effect. When hit, it drops one's shields immediately-- a second hit means death. For Mass Effect to go multiplayer, something would have to be done to weaken shockwave.
I must reiterate that Mass Effect 2 is in no way a bad game-- Bioware accomplished exactly what they set out to do with the middle part of the trilogy. Mass Effect has always been about providing an excellent and pure single-player experience. In addition to dividing the effort of the developers, having a multiplayer component in ME2 would have detracted from the canonical unity of the narrative. Nevertheless, I just can't stop thinking of how excellent it would be to go up against other humans' squads pokemon-style. Matching team composition strategy and rapid tactical decision making would be a lot of fun and is the only way for the excitement of the combat system to reach its potential.
Besides, what's the point of having your own customized Commander Sheperd if you're the only person who is going to look at it?
*Disclaimer: playing on Veteran difficulty
Posts
