By John Walker on December 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm.
They keep making new Mass Effect 2 trailers, and I keep posting them. I’d be less of a schmuck about it, maybe bank them up and post a few at once, if I hadn’t just restarted the original game this morning. Earth-born Vanguard Engineer since you ask. And as if the Sky Fairies were watching, so it is that BioWare releases details on the new abilities of the Engineer for the sequel. (Yes, yes, I’m only specialising, not actually an Engineer this time – look, you’ll make the Sky Fairies angry.) And crikey, they’ve got some nice abilities. The freeze looks a lot of fun, as does having a personal upgradeable robo-orb buddy.
07/12/2009 at 15:49 DXN says:
I love how your opponents don’t just freeze — they gently topple over like they’ve had a little too much christmas eggnog. :D
Damn, this is shaping up to be a fun game!
07/12/2009 at 20:27 Arca says:
Easily the best part of the video! Just watching it stop and then start to keel over…
08/12/2009 at 10:57 Kester says:
I quite liked the understated nature of the powers in the first game; biotic powers were all effects of altering mass, tech powers effects of disrupting technology. What’s the justification for this one, remotely altering the thermostat on their armour? :D
Still, it looks a lot of fun to play with. They seem to have erred more towards fun factor than thematic justification this time around.
07/12/2009 at 15:55 sigma83 says:
Curse your shameless plugging, John Walker! (I guessed the name and upon scrolling up discovered that I was correct) Curse youuuuuu
07/12/2009 at 15:57 Devildog says:
Does Want.
Seriously. Does want. It’s time to go back through the first one. I CAN’T WAIT. Wish I didn’t have to. Like someone great once said on these forums, “where the fuck am I gonna put all of this happy?”.
I think I’ll have to put some angry out in the garage, too. Time to make some room…
07/12/2009 at 15:57 Wednesday says:
How do you get to be a “Vanguard Engineer”
Aren’t those two separate classes, or have I just been hit with a case of the stupid?
07/12/2009 at 15:59 Wednesday says:
Oh, wait, I see, you’re only specializing.
07/12/2009 at 16:11 jsutcliffe says:
Too much trailer, not enough game being out. Maybe if they put some of their trailer-making resources into finishing the game …
Are you being a good or a bad Shepard, Mr. Walker? On my most recent playthrough I was determined to be mean, but couldn’t face it and ended up some kind of heavenly angelshepard, again. I think a “Bastard of the Crucible” (Bastard Effect?) dealie could be fun.
07/12/2009 at 18:04 John Walker says:
I’ve decided to be HARDCORE. I’m going to play super-tough but fair.
07/12/2009 at 16:43 Tei says:
This exactly, like a level on COD4.
07/12/2009 at 18:01 Orange Required says:
Cryptic!
07/12/2009 at 16:56 Lilliput King says:
“I’d be less of a schmuck about it, maybe bank them up and post a few at once, if I hadn’t just restarted the original game this morning”
Me too oh my goodness. And as engineer!
It’s more fun than I remembered, perversely. Being a crap engineer playing on maximum difficulty means I can’t progress while ignoring the presence of my squad, so I’m pushed into using the sometimes-not-too-bad squad command system, and actually enjoying it.
07/12/2009 at 18:03 Serenegoose says:
The freeze power seems a little off. I know Christina popped up in the comments thread the last time a video was posted, so in the hope of a return visit… – how is the power triggered? It looked like the incinerate power was through a bullet – was the freeze power from a grenade or some other item? There was an item flung at the Geth in the trailer just before it ended. I mean if that’s the case, then that’s cool (if you see what I did there.)
The engineer seems a lot of fun though, especially the little drone. Reminds me of Bao-durs remote! I wanted one of them so badly. I started playing again a while ago. Also as an engineer! I’m sensing Bioware conspiracy. Something in the water to make us all feel an urge to go back and play as the engineer just before the funky looking engineer trailer is released? I smell a conspiracy.
What’s the ETA on this game? Woah, this is a ramblesome chain of questions. I’ll end on a statement.
07/12/2009 at 18:28 jsutcliffe says:
ETA is 26 January in the States, not sure about Euroland.
07/12/2009 at 18:41 Steve the Imperial Guardsmen says:
26th in North America, 29th in Euro Disney
07/12/2009 at 18:09 Scorpi says:
I’ve just started again, too – going to play as an Adept (with a bonus talent of sniper rifle), and being a full-on Space Asshole.
07/12/2009 at 18:26 Steve the Imperial Guardsmen says:
I can tell ME2 is going to be a great game because the managed to turn the most boring class in the original into one I actually wouldn’t mind playing.
PS: Anyone notice that it seems to be an un-written requirement in video games, that if you have an engineer class, it must have a turret of some sort? I certainly do not mind that trend at all.
07/12/2009 at 19:04 Dominic White says:
Can’t say I’ve heard anything I’ve disliked about ME2, other than their initial bunch of EA-produced promotional material that just made me roll my eyes.
Dragon Age has definitely improved my outlook. I remember their ‘character’ trailers were pretty horrible there, too. Zevran seemed to be some kind of awkwardly stereotyped ‘edgy’ evil character in them, but in the game he was charming, witty, and gut-wrenchingly funny at times.
If they’ve got that quality of writing on all ten of the ME2 party members, I will be very, very happy. They also seem to have moved the game slightly more towards classic shooter style. There’s reloading now, cover apparently works more efficiently, there aren’t weapon-specialization skills anymore to waste points on (you’re already a badass – you can pick up and use ANY gun, so you can carry one of each class now), and more interesting skills to use.
There was also a recent developer interview where the gameplay designer said he was heavily inspired by Demon’s Souls on the PS3 as an example of how to do difficulty. In that case, it’s an action-RPG where you will die, and often, and it’ll be simply because you got overconfident, didn’t prepare, didn’t think, didn’t look what you were doing. A good player will win, a bad player will lose, and the only way to get better is to look at yourself and figure out what you’re doing wrong.
Apparently there’s none of that traditional RPG ‘I’ll come back in a couple of hours when I’m a god and do this without thinking’ malarkey. Hopefully they’ve got the level scaling right, too, so that the start of the game is easy and the end is hard, rather than what ME1 did – on the higher settings, the tiny little floaty drones at the start of the first mission could kill you almost instantly, but by the end, the Geth heavy soldiers could barely put a dent in your shields. It wasn’t fun. It was embarrasing.
Boo to inverse difficulty curves!
07/12/2009 at 20:12 Funky Badger says:
Also known as Teh Dead Rising Effect.
07/12/2009 at 20:03 yabonn_fr says:
I’m a left handed numpadian, and I played a cast intensive class : the impossibility to remap correctly ruined the fights (and the game, more than a little bit) for me.
ME2 people, think of all the left handed numpadians, next time!
07/12/2009 at 20:06 Dominic White says:
It’s really not so hard to adapt. Left-handed here, too, and it took me maybe half an hour to get used to playing with WSAD and the surrounding keys instead.
07/12/2009 at 20:21 Serenegoose says:
Yabonn: Devs not keeping an eye out for simple light things like ‘somewhat hard of hearing, better subtitles please’ or ‘I’m colour blind, please don’t give me a green/orange colour challenge’ or ‘I’m left handed, please make sure I can actually use your controls’ is a real bugbear of mine. They’re not difficult to implement, surely?
07/12/2009 at 20:39 jsutcliffe says:
Not sure if lefties are part of their intended audience, but Able Gamers are doing a decent job of raising awareness of accessibility concerns in games. Their reviews make interesting reading, because they’re more about how playable a game is for a disabled person than the actual quality of the game.
08/12/2009 at 00:34 Trithemius says:
Engineers solve problems… with grenades!
And also a bunch of other neat stuff in the new one. Can’t wait! Foxy Ruthless Spacer Engineer Shepherd here I come!
08/12/2009 at 05:06 Theoban says:
Ah, so the Geth guy *will* be joining my party. Excellent.
08/12/2009 at 07:58 Simon Jones says:
Were those two characters at the end of the video firing guns at each other, at point blank range? That’s what it looked like, and it looked rather silly. :)
Otherwise, this is looking spiffy.
08/12/2009 at 08:01 Dante says:
Man, this looks so much more fun than the tech classes in ME1.
It’s almost a shame I’ll have to stick as a soldier if I follow my savegame.
08/12/2009 at 08:17 Rhade says:
Love it. I always preffered the Engineer class in ME1, and from the look of things, that won’t change in ME2.
08/12/2009 at 09:54 Danzeru says:
iirc you don’t have to continue on into the second game with the same character. Only the major decisions you made in ME’s campaign matter for ME2, not your character build…
Call me out if I’m wrong anybody?
08/12/2009 at 11:30 Qjuad says:
Yep, you can change your class at the beginning of the game.
08/12/2009 at 14:39 JKjoker says:
how does ME2 handle the ME1 choices if you are playing a new character ?, looking at how pointless the “big choices” were in DAO i dont expect them to make much difference tho
08/12/2009 at 15:39 Joseph says:
Looks gimicky and cheap tbh.
Not enough depth and soul to it. Not enough feelings.
It’s just kill ‘enemy type 1C’ with ‘generic effect 2B’.
I want the combat to be more visceral, more real, more unique, more something… I think I want the aliens / enemies to have feelings instead of being robot soldiers … Is that sick? Incidentally, you don’t fight many non-crazy/non-soldier humans in games, do you – because they are too unpredictable? ME2 using robots on the other side because they are allowed to look programmed? Maybe I’m just waking up to this stuff and everyone else is aware of it and just plays for the shallow fun of pressing buttons and seeing flashy lights? Or maybe others do see something I don’t in this… This game just doesn’t convince me it’s real enough to immerse myself in. It’s too generic, too robotic, and too pretty.
08/12/2009 at 16:19 Serenegoose says:
Bigot. The Geth are full aware, fully alive. Just because they’re made of metal doesn’t give you the right to say they don’t have feelings!
08/12/2009 at 22:19 Shadram says:
Maybe they look robotic because they’re robots?
You do fight other enemies in the game, but the ones in this video are all Geth, a sentient AI species. I’m sure the aliens/humans you fight express more emotion. Maybe they’ll cry a little before dying.