Inklings: a tumblelog

This is an excerpt from a comment I posted on EuroGamer. It summarises my main problems with the changes Bioware made between ME1 and ME2. I worry they’ll do more of the same.

The real problem with the mechanics wasn’t that they were inconsequential, but that they were half-implemented.

Take inventory, for example. The problem wasn’t the number of possible items you could carry but that:

1. they weren’t sorted by level and name, and

2. those of the same type but different classes weren’t stacked, with

3. stacking order being from highest to lowest when changing character loadouts to aid in equipping with the best kit and from lowest to highest in stores so you could ditch low-level crap you neither needed nor wanted.

Those three simple change would’ve improved inventory management no end.

Instead, Bioware just threw everything into an unsorted pile for the player to have to sift through every bloody time.

Thus with inventory, the problem was management, or rather the game’s lack of basic management automation. In ME1, the ability to finetune loadouts was essential and added to the game. ME2 didn’t need to scrap it, just fix it similarly to the way I outlined above.

I think the problem that a lot of a lot of RGP gamers have with the series’ progression is actually primarily one of frustration with Bioware being lazy about ditching flawed mechanics rather than putting in the thought to fix them.