On a recent episode of Talking About Gamers I voiced some of my strong opinions on Mass Effect 2 and proclaimed that I still hold Mass Effect 1 to be the superior game. In this series of blog posts I'm going to go into even more detail and hopefully get more thoughts out than I was able to on the show.

In this particular post I'm going to look at the direction Mass Effect 2 took with the powers system.

For better or worse, hit the jump.

The Change

The powers in ME2 have been changed considerably from the first game. Some powers have evolved in their use, some powers have stayed true, and some have completely fallen off the map. Also a vast array of new powers have been added to the mix.

The other change is that the main player went from having 7-8 powers in ME1 to having only 5 powers in ME2. This is further hurt by some of these "powers" being ammo changes.

Why Change is Good

The largest benefit I see from having fewer powers for each character is that each squad member feels unique. In ME1 you had six squad members and each essentially filled the role of one class. Kaiden was a sentinel, Ashley was a soldier, and so on. In ME2 each character has only a few powers drawn from a large pool of powers. Therefore each of the characters feel unique. Characters like Thane (biotic sniper) simply don't exist in the basic class descriptions. It also helps to set aside the player character from the squad members. In ME1 there was essentially an exact copy of you in your party. No such comparisons can be made in ME2.

Another thing is the loss and addition of some powers. Now the loss of powers is understandable and it seems that, for the most part, the least useful powers have been stripped away. Stuff like Stasis and Damping never really stuck out as great powers. However the powers that have been added are almost all very useful. Each class has gotten an extra power that wasn't in the original game. (Shockwave, Cloak, Charge, Tactical Armor, Drone, and Adrenaline Rush) Couple these with some cool new "loyalty" powers that your character can eventually learn like Reave, Slam, and Dominate and a few random new powers and you have power system that feels familiar yet new at the same time.

Why Change is Bad

In Mass Effect one of the main focuses was the emphasis on having it be "your" story. That this is going to be an epic trilogy where you take your character all the way through. Herein lies the main problem with the drastic changes they've made to the powers. Your character in ME2 may not feel like the same character he did in ME1. Take the infiltrator class for example. The main purpose of the infiltrator class remains the same. He's still a sniper specialist who also has tech powers. However the powers that changed have made him a different character. In ME1 the infiltrator, like all tech characters, was great at killing Geth. His three primary powers were Overload, Sabotage, and Damping, all electronic powers. He also had the Assassination power, which was very strong and perfect for fighting bosses. All of those are gone from the ME2 infiltrator. Now the powers that he has are still very good, but he doesn't quite feel like the same character.

The other change is that each character now has less powers. While it is a benefit to the complexity of the squad as a whole, I think it's detrimental to the main character. Having fewer powers just makes it seem like the character is weaker. Let me give you the example of the Soldier. In ME1, the Soldier had four different weapons powers (Marksman, Carnage, Assassination, and Overkill) to go along with Immunity, Adrenaline Burst, and Shield Boost. In ME2 he has only two real powers: Concussive Shot and Adrenaline Rush. I say real powers because I don't feel that the ammo "powers" are real powers. With those taken out of the picture the soldier just feels like a significantly weaker character. The lack of Immunity, the strongest power in ME1, is especially saddening. Immunity basically made you untouchable in ME1, even on Insanity. Now you have nothing to boost your strength in ME2.

Verdict:

Change is Bad

I really like how they changed the squad members to make each feel more unique. It helps to not only give them more character but also helps them feel different in battle. It really makes you think about who you want to bring into battle.

That being said I think that this is something that could have been implemented without making everyone have almost half as many powers. I think Bioware could have expanded and evolved the powers from ME1 just like they did in ME2 but still have had each character have a lot of powers. Since they added so many powers in ME2 I think if you had integrated those you into the original setup of powers in ME1 you would still have a great opportunity for characters to each feel unique.

I also feel that the changes the main character went through will affect the continuity of the series for a lot of people. While some classes, like the adept, still feel the same I can see how others will feel very different than they did in ME1.