Mass Effect 2 Scales Back The Role-Playing

Mass Effect has had an overhaul to bring us ME2, but I'm not sure it's been done for the greater good. Now, I've barely started the game, but I've played enough to see the changes and gauge the overall feel of the latest incarnation. On first impressions, it's still as brilliant as ME was, but the changes haven't made it better. Surely changes should be there to improve, otherwise they fail.

Where Mass Effect was an action-RPG that made more than a nod towards the FPS, ME2 is a third person shooter/action adventure that makes a brief nod towards the RPG. Yup, as feared, the RPG element has been scaled back to spoon feed the FPS crowd. The original game served up the perfect balance between anal RPG skills and points management, with FPS action and set pieces. Added to the fantastic gameplay was a great story that made sense, and a rich, exciting world to explore.

Okay, so we've still got the story and the world, but the RPG side of things has been simplified to the point of neutering. Part of the joy of an RPG is getting to grips with the upgrades and figuring out what the hell are the best combinations. It took me a good chunk of the original ME to feel comfortable with the upgrades and really get the best out of it, but that's part of the learning curve and that's okay. Having completed the last game, I was ready to pick up where I left off, using my familiarity with the game to hit the ground running, but no – it wasn't to be.

Alarm bells rang when I went to assign my first set of points to myself and my squad. "My, how few upgrade options you have!" I cried. "All the better to simplify the game with my dear," was the imaginary answer I received from Bioware. Not only is the upgrade system a shadow of its former self, limiting you to a list of maybe five or six places to assign points, but the weapons and armour upgrades are practically non-existent too.

No more tinkering with armour and weapon upgrades for your squad. Now, only the player character gets upgrades. Players choose a weapon at the beginning of a mission and use it all the way through. Find an upgrade mid mission? Tough luck, because you have to be back on your ship to apply it, and will have to come across a weapon locker to change guns. In addition, all classes seem to be able to use all guns, which is another erosion of the RPG side of things.

All of a sudden I'm less in control. I don't feel the emotional investment in my squad that I had in ME. It's a bit like a corporate merger has happened to my favourite game. It's been streamlined. Systems and processes have been scaled back so that we can all get back to business ie. shooting stuff.

Even the missions have been given a business-like quality. Now we get an end of mission screen with an account of achievements, so that we can tick it off our work list. All this does is break the action. Whereas transitions in ME were seamless, in ME2 they're dished up in bite-size portions, which all adds to the sense of ruthless efficiency.

Thankfully, the dialogue trees are just as successful as they were in the original. The writing is some of the best in the industry, as is the acting and the characterisation of different races. I still feel like my decisions make a difference to how my game will play out and that was one of the best parts of ME2, but the RPG cuts have still left a gaping hole in my enjoyment of the game.

I'm worried that ME2 is the beginning of the end for the RPG. Will it go the way of the point and click game? It seems that games that are too time-demanding and don't give the quick satisfaction hit of twitch gaming are falling by the wayside. The launch of Mass Effect was one of the best things to happen to the RPG, but now I'm thinking that maybe Mass Effect 2 could be the final nail in its coffin.

Why Bioware, did you turn your back on the one thing that made you stand out from the tidal wave of sci-fantasy shooters?

Most played: Mass Effect 2

Most wanted: Heavy Rain