games in anticipation of the third ones release. Well that's gone to hell as this is going to be a multi-part (how many? Good question) retrospective with this one coming out the day after 'Mass Effect 3'
. Oh well. That said I think it will still be of interest to people as unlike a few other similar such concepts I've seen on other sites (and quite frankly the things that reminded me that I should do this) I have no desire to rehash 'Mass Effects' storyline. That's what Wikipedia and/or the 'Mass Effect' Wiki is for. No, the goal here is to isolate and analyze specific elements of the games that changed from the first to the second installment. Today we'll be looking at the...inventory system...really?!? A multi-part retrospective comparing two ~40 hour games and we're starting with the inventory system? OK, then let's do it.Soooo starting off I think that it's fair to say that 'Mass Effect' ('Mass Effect' = the first one) had one of the worst inventory systems I've ever seen in a game. This system managed to be not only cumbersome but also of questionable use. In general if a system is trying to store and itemize over two-hundred different elements I'm expecting that they'll be some way to easily access those elements, perhaps sort them in a way that is intuitive to me but no. No such luck here. What we get is a passable system for managing your squads weapons and armor and an absolute nightmare of a system to try and manage the upgrades to the weapons and armor. See once you get past the most craptastically basic weapons and armor you'll be dealing with equipment that can have between one and three upgrade slots (thankfully three slotted equipment is fairly rare). What this means is going into the sub-menu that houses all your upgrades and picking out the ones you want on your weapon. Do you want +15% damage with -10% firing speed paired with Toxic Rounds or did you want -5% damage with +25% firing speed and Freeze Rounds? Then when you find the upgraded version of the upgrade (most upgrades have 7 tiers) you get to go through all of this again as you wouldn't want to go out to save the galaxy with substandard upgrades in place. Kitting out your armor is pretty much the same song and dance. Ugh.
('Mass Effect' = the first one) had one of the worst inventory systems I've ever seen in a game. This system managed to be not only cumbersome but also of questionable use. In general if a system is trying to store and itemize over two-hundred different elements I'm expecting that they'll be some way to easily access those elements, perhaps sort them in a way that is intuitive to me but no. No such luck here. What we get is a passable system for managing your squads weapons and armor and an absolute nightmare of a system to try and manage the upgrades to the weapons and armor. See once you get past the most craptastically basic weapons and armor you'll be dealing with equipment that can have between one and three upgrade slots (thankfully three slotted equipment is fairly rare). What this means is going into the sub-menu that houses all your upgrades and picking out the ones you want on your weapon. Do you want +15% damage with -10% firing speed paired with Toxic Rounds or did you want -5% damage with +25% firing speed and Freeze Rounds? Then when you find the upgraded version of the upgrade (most upgrades have 7 tiers) you get to go through all of this again as you wouldn't want to go out to save the galaxy with substandard upgrades in place. Kitting out your armor is pretty much the same song and dance. Ugh.The above nightmare was further complicated by your inventory capacity. Which is to say you couldn't carry more than a specific amount of junk. Now this shouldn't be an issue. You've got no more than 15 weapons (yes, I know that that's still somewhat excessive) between you and your squad and maybe a few extras. You've got your armor and maybe a backup set or two in case you run into enemies (unlikely) that necessitate a change in strategy. So what does that leave you? Well, in theory it leaves you around 200 empty inventory slots. In practice not so much. See in addition to being difficult to manage the game exacerbates this by spoon feeding the player new weapons, armor and upgrades like its afraid you're going to starve. It is not uncommon to find a locker in a “dungeon” that contains six or more items that are worse than what you're already using (i.e. useless). So upon opening that portal to hell you've got the choice to reduce the item(s) to omni-gel (a substance that you can get almost anywhere and that can be used to fix your vehicle) or you can add that crap to your inventory and sell it later. In my playthroughs of 'Mass Effect' I usually went with the latter option and found it wholly unsurprising that I maxed out the games money system less than halfway through the game.
I usually went with the latter option and found it wholly unsurprising that I maxed out the games money system less than halfway through the game.Let it not be said that Bioware ('Mass Effect's developers) doesn't listen to the fans. Let it also be said that they sometimes overreact a bit. How much they overreacted should be apparent once you see how much shorter the inventory discussion on 'Mass Effect 2'
is compared to 'Mass Effect'. See Bioware heard all the complaints about the first games inventory system and scrapped it. I mean gone. There is virtually no inventory management in the second game. Every time you land on a planet, start a mission, etc. you'll be prompted to chose which squad members you'd like to bring with you and after that you'll be asked what weapons you'd like for them to be carrying. That's it. You purchase upgrades at the various stores you encounter and they're applied automatically to all weapons of the applicable type. Sometimes you can mine resources to “craft” upgrades too.
s developers) doesn't listen to the fans. Let it also be said that they sometimes overreact a bit. How much they overreacted should be apparent once you see how much shorter the inventory discussion on 'Mass Effect 2' is compared to 'Mass Effect'. See Bioware heard all the complaints about the first games inventory system and scrapped it. I mean gone. There is virtually no inventory management in the second game. Every time you land on a planet, start a mission, etc. you'll be prompted to chose which squad members you'd like to bring with you and after that you'll be asked what weapons you'd like for them to be carrying. That's it. You purchase upgrades at the various stores you encounter and they're applied automatically to all weapons of the applicable type. Sometimes you can mine resources to “craft” upgrades too.So with the word “Overkill” now likely ringing in your ears we'll be wrapping this up. Was 'Mass Effect's inventory system bad? Yes, it was awful. Was 'Mass Effect 2's system an improvement? Yes, but only if you consider a total absence of customization an improvement. Ideally, and I have yet to see evidence one way or another 'Mass Effect 3' will take something resembling the middle of the road on this issue and allow for some degree of customization without burdening the player with a million little things to micromanage. Hey, a man can dream. See you all next week.
s inventory system bad? Yes, it was awful. Was 'Mass Effect 2's system an improvement? Yes, but only if you consider a total absence of customization an improvement. Ideally, and I have yet to see evidence one way or another 'Mass Effect 3' will take something resembling the middle of the road on this issue and allow for some degree of customization without burdening the player with a million little things to micromanage. Hey, a man can dream. See you all next week.
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