Mass Effect 2: An RPG going back to what an RPG should be?
This was something interesting I thought of. It seems like over the years people have forgotten what "RPG" stands for. Many think it means a game that has a leveling up system, a strange battle system, lots of stats, and a huge inventory and micro-management of it. All that stuff has been staples of an RPG, but not what makes games an RPG. RPG stands for Role-Playing Game. Mass Effect 2 has done that particularly well. I really felt like I was Commander Shepard throughout the game. I felt a lot of the same emotions he felt throughout the game. I laughed, I cried (Tali's loyalty quest, you'll see exactly what I mean), I was like "Holy crud that was amazing!!!" at some points. While this game dropped a lot of stuff from the first game, some of this stuff was classic RPG staples, such as the long drawn out inventory system, the number of stats has been reduced, powers reworked. Many have cried foul and said this stuff doesn't make it a RPG anymore, it's a Third-Person Shooter. I disagree. I think it's even more of an RPG now, just because of how immersed in the game, like you are PLAYING THE ROLE of Commander Shepard. Sure, one of two of those things I miss, such as the old stats style, but those changes are welcome, and BioWare has made everything else just an incredibly immersive experience.
What does EGA think? Is Mass Effect 2 even more of an RPG than it was before, or has it gone into shooter-land?
Edit: Forgot to mention, soon I'll be writing a review on the game and posting it in the Creative board, watch for that.
