I’m well into Mass Effect 2 now, clocking in a good number of hours into the game over the weekend. Coming from the first Mass Effect, I was happy to find out how polished the combat had gotten, and just how much more satisfying it was to engage in combat, whether with guns or biotic abilities like throw and warp, the game just felt instantly better to play.

I was, however, a little let down when I realized the inventory system was pretty much completely gone. While it was a little overwhelming at times, I liked picking up all these different weapons throughout my adventures in space and selling them all later, while keeping some for myself and keeping my crew’s weaponry as good as it could get. I get that BioWare was trying to streamline the game down and put more emphasis on the combat and story instead. It especially makes sense when you look at the jump from ME1 to ME2 – they realized the combat in Mass 1 wasnt great, and that it was held down even further by the smaller things like the cover system never quite working all the time, and of course, the cumbersome inventory system. I say cumbersome because a lot of people didn’t like having to sell and sort through everything, so like I said, it makes sense that they took it all away in the sequel.

When I watch trailers and gameplay videos of the game, I get a little worried about how this game is going to play. As much as I love Mass Effect 2 right now, it’s about as light of an RPG as you can get. Sure you can pick up items, equip upgrades, and build upon your powers, but it’s all been very, very streamlined. I don’t want ME3 to really take this further, instead I want BioWare to actually take a step back and build upon the RPG side of Mass Effect 1. I’m not looking forward to playing a straight 3rd-person shooter, there are enough of those out that already. What I want – and I know I’m not alone here – is a game that combines the best of the first two, that doesn’t sacrifice those RPG elements, and that keeps up with the great combat of ME2.

Those up there are ME3‘s three modes of play. They work something like this:

1. Action mode will auto-select replies during dialogue, basically making conversations into cutscenes. Normal difficulty will be set for combat itself.
2. Story mode will still allow for manual conversations, but sets the game at a “minimal difficulty.” Ideal for people really playing for the story, and little else.
3. RPG mode will allow for manual conversations and a normal difficulty mode, basically setting up the game to play like the first two.

This is a nice little addition since it doesn’t do anything to dumb down the ME experience most are looking forward to, but instead gives other players some different ways to experience the game. I can’t really say I’d want to play the game these ways, but hey, at least the option is there.

As nice as a new feature as that is, I bring it up because it doesn’t do much to ease my fear that ME3 will be even more geared (heh) towards being a more scripted 3rd-person shooter, but at the same time, I don’t want to immediately dismiss the game as one. I’ve heard and read things across the interwebs claiming otherwise, stating space-exploration will be preserved (but to what extent is the question), a weapon modification system will be present, and larger skill trees will be put to use. These are all great changes, and I’m happy they’ve all been added in. I just really hope that ME3 doesn’t just go the way of the scripted shooter. As great as that genre is, that’s just not how I see Mass Effect, especially when I know the overall experience has that potential to be something so much bigger.

At this point, the game is pretty much done development and there’s tons of coverage on the gameplay on YouTube, so I have little hope in the game returning to its RPG roots. Still, I won’t be disappointed if this is the case, come March. I’m still excited to play the game, and my pre-order is good to go. There’s always room for more Shepardy goodness in my books.

-rav4ge